There may only have been 36 players to update on, but with blondeites such as James ‘Royal Flush’ Dempsey, Jim Reid, Keith ‘The Camel’ Hawkins, Luke Smith, Irish Denis (left), and most notably, Chris ‘noflopshomer’ Hall (the latter playing in his first Main Event), we weren’t going to take our eye off the ball for one second.Whilst Flushy fell at the first hurdle (in dramatic circumstances when his set was outflushed), Jim Reid and The Camel were both flying high, with noflops not too far behind.
This event could have been considered by many to be lacking in excitement or action, and, to an extent, it was. However, no poker comp is without a spot of drama, however small, and this came in the form of the bad beat from hell.
With Anthony Hughes dominating with pocket aces on an ace high flop, things looked exceedingly grim for Iain Abraham’s pocket jacks and, most of all, A Miles’ two snowmen. However, the turn and river drew a cruel blow for Hughes allowing Miles (right) to hit running eights to make quads. Thereby completing a rather astonishing outdraw which was to keep him in the competition. But alas, none of these three competitors made it to the final table, instead leaving it to the likes of Ronny Briggs lookalikey Stuart Nash, early chip leader Mukesh Morjaria, online qualifier Nick Jenkins, and the most welcome faces of Camel and noflops.
With Morjaria, Camel, Ian Cox, Nash and Paul Traynor taking 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th respectively, we were down to our final four and Chris Hall, who had begun the final second lowest, was slowly climbing the ladder, adding a crucial few bucks to his payday as each rung was mounted.
However, with the top-heavy structure, of which 14.4k was allocated to first, noflopshomer wasn’t prepared to hang around and let his stack dwindle. After seeing 3 all-ins from 4 hands go through uncontested, he eventually found Jenkins sitting in the big blind with pocket kings, and his J-8 steal stood little chance. However, cracking performance and, after qualifying online, no complaints can be made about the £2,900 he finally cashed in.After Jenkins finally fell foul to the now dominating Sid Harris, the two remaining players decided upon a deal (of which seemed overly generous to poker rookie Adrian Royle). However, with Harris taking £11,600, and Royle scooping a rounded 10k, we were done and dusted, with just the trophy being played for.
Inevitably, it was Harris (right) who added the trophy to his larger cheque, eventually turning a set to Royle’s two pair. Royle was drawing dead, and the somewhat reserved figure of Harris was a worthy winner, becoming the South of England Poker Champion for 2006.A big well done to that man and a massive thank you to Southampton’s Grosvenor casino who made what could have been a rather unenjoyable experience that much more fun-filled. Good service, friendly atmosphere, free buffet… nice job!
Watch this space for an upcoming tourney report.
