Live Updates from Party Poker Premier League

NickyOD

I'm in Maidstone all week for the Party Poker Premier League. Andrew Black is here and in good form. He came 3rd in his first heat yesterday which was pretty good considering what the dealer was throwing him. He's also playing today.

The tournament features some top names. Hellmuth is sitting beside me and doing his brains against Roland De Wolfe in heads up PLO. Juha Helppi was the big winner in the Chinese poker at the dinner break yesterday. What a sick game that was.

You can check out all the action here.

There are 12 players in the event who all play in 6 player heats. Hellmuth plays against Tony G 5 times!! The structure is very different to what we're used to, with the blinds going up every 21 hands rather than based on time, which has created a lot of play on the early levels.

If there's anything you want me to ask the players, particularly andy let me know.

redzerdrog

how is kenna james getting on i have him backed at 10/1

gilmour

any word when this is going to be aired?

plenty of characters by the look of the lineup, definitely a table to wear the headphones/ear muffs.

phantom_lord

these 3 guys are pros???

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/hands-in-depth/jack-saves-black-33.htm

gilmour

haha thats the very first thing i thought of when i saw the hand played out like that. 4000 - cr 104,000 - call and the hands are QJ and KJ. Pretty awful.

phantom_lord

ok, this makes alot more sense.


Black gets very lucky.

Black limped on the button with qj, as did De Wolfe from the small blind with kj Tony G checked his option with a10

The flop came j96

Terrbile flop for Black. De Wolfe check raised all in and Black was getting 2:1 He calls hoping De Wolfe is drawing only to find he's drawing very thin.

The turn was giving him some split pot outs. The river was the giving both players Jacks full and Andy is lucky not to exit his second heat with no points.

NickyOD

redzerdrog wrote:

how is kenna james getting on i have him backed at 10/1

He is playing very well indeed. I think you got good value there. He's also by far the most entertaining character here. I offered to give him a hug after his horrible beat from Helppi yesterday but he didn't take me up on it.

gilmour

Andy v Hellmuth heads up

NickyOD

gilmour wrote:

Andy v Hellmuth heads up

It didn't last very long.

NickyOD

No joy for Andy in this morning's heat. He got married to Queens and was first out walking into Kenna James' Aces. He was overly hard on himself yesterday but today he's really unhappy with how he's playing. Apparrently he needs to get less sleep for tomorrow.

Some really sick cash action at the hotel last night. Hellmuth did his brains in the 50-100 Omaha featuring Helppi, De Wolfe, Mad Marty and tony G. Roland De Wolfe is the worst P/L Omaha player I have ever seen.

gilmour

what was Andys choice of music that had your ears bleeding btw?

NickyOD

gilmour wrote:

what was Andys choice of music that had your ears bleeding btw?

Mostly the Michael Jackson songs.

NickyOD

Andy seems really focussed for todays heat. He promised no brain-farts today. I really think he will win this one. Also, his mum is on the couch beside me in the green room so he has an added incentive to perform.

We are testing out our hand for hand feature today, so you may be able to see every hand played just moments after it happens on pokernews.

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/

gilmour

great reporting nicky

lets hope he takes the full points today

NickyOD

gilmour wrote:

great reporting nicky

lets hope he takes the full points today

This is going to be the best poker TV show ever.

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/

Before each of his heats so far Hellmuth has gone through a ritual of doing laps around the TV table. Before todays heat the players opened a book on how many laps he would do before the tournament.

So to put him on tilt Devilfish started doing laps in the opposite direction. Then Tony G joined in and started jogging round the table. Tony Challenged Hellmuth to a race, 4 laps round the TV table and even gave Hellmuth a one meter head start. Hellmuth took an illegal shortcut through the seating area and Andrew Black who was the judge for the race disqualified him, despite the fact that Tony G decided to run in the wrong direction.

Hellmuth is now out of breath before this heat and feels badly cheated

"It's ok. Every time they cheat me I win another million!!!".

Hitman Actual

Good reporting. But it's really obvious that you've got it in for Hellmuth!

gilmour

Andy v Hellmuth heads up once again

last time i checked Hellmuth was down to 30k and now has a 3-1 chip lead over Andy going into heads up :eek:

ianmc38

Agree with Lenny, reporting is good but I dont like the way the reports have been written regarding Hellmuths play. Very biased and uncalled for IMO.

NickyOD

ianmc38 wrote:

Agree with Lenny, reporting is good but I dont like the way the reports have been written regarding Hellmuths play. Very biased and uncalled for IMO.

Point taken.

I think Hellmuth makes himself an easy target to be honest. I had to listen to him do an hour long interview today where he once compared himself to the Pope. I just can't take him seriously when the most common words in his vocabulary are "I" and "Me".

I've spent a lot of time around Phil Hellmuth in the last few days and as much as I respect him as a professional poker player I just can't bare his egotism. He has been VERY lucky this week. Getting dealt Aces and Kings and flopping sets/flushes and straights more than any other player. That's the main reason why he is top of the league. I'm not saying he hasn't played quite well, because he has (but he's made big mistakes too), I'm just saying I can't bare someone who loves himself THAT much. He is so cartoonish!! You really can't believe how bad he is until you spend time with him. Deep down I think he has a heart of Gold but he is definitely a few fries short of a happy meal.

gilmour

how is he with the rest of the players away from the table? - is it all good banter or is he pissing anyone off?

NickyOD

gilmour wrote:

how is he with the rest of the players away from the table? - is it all good banter or is he pissing anyone off?

It's all good banter. He's generally very respectful of everyone away from the table, but its rare that he talks about anyone but himself. This line was a classic. "People are comparing me to Ali, Woods and Jordan".

I mean WTF?

NickyOD

If anyone is interested in a free $200 in their account on Party Poker, you could check out the caption competition for the premier league here.

All you have to do is come up with a caption for this photo. You can't use this classic from Andy Black though

"Sure DevilFish. You can borrow my sister's room key"

phantom_lord

lmfao!

gilmour

heh why am i not surprised that Roland and Tony G are gone within the first level? Or is that just pure pessimistic thinking on my part?


Andy must be fuming

NickyOD

gilmour wrote:

heh why am i not surprised that Roland and Tony G are gone within the first level? Or is that just pure pessimistic thinking on my part?


Andy must be fuming

The results are not going Andy's way today. He will absolutely have to make top 3 in his heat this evening to make the playoffs. A lot of players are visibly under pressure. It's very interesting viewing.

When this show comes out in May its going to do very well.

NickyOD

Final heat will be starting in about a half hour. Andy is the player under the most pressure now. He can actually finish anywhere between 4th and 10th. he has to finish at least 8th to go through to the Heads up play-offs. The DevilFish can only qualify with a win.


Leaderboard Update with 1 Heat left.

Phil Hellmuth 35 Pts (Played 6)
Ian Frazer 24 Pts. (Played 5)
Eddie Sharff 23 Pts. (Played 5)
Liz Lieu 23 Pts. (Played 6)

---

Juha Helppi 20 Pts (Played 5)
Vicky Coren 20 Pts. (Played 6)
Kenna James 17 Pts. (Played 5)
Kiril Gerasimov 17 Pts. (Played 6)

---

Andrew Black 16 Pts. (Played 5)
David Ulliot 11 Pts. (Played 5)
Tony G 7 Pts. (Played 6)
Roland De Wolfe 7 Pts (Played 6)

gilmour

lets hope he gets off to a good start unlike yesterday where he seemed under pressure after the first 5 hands or so

gilmour

i thought he went out last night when he came in 4th, nice to see he's in the playoffs.

So he's up against Vicky Coren heads up - anybody know what Andys heads up game is like? The only hu's i remember that involved him where all over in a few hands - v Ram Vaswani, Hellmuth x2. Lets hope he doesnt just push A8s or something because that seems to be the way he likes to play HU.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

great reporting Nicky, which tv channel will this be coming out on in May?

gilmour

i think its Channel 4

NickyOD

Andy's heads up match with Vicky Coren is about to start. Andy's sister is on the couch beside me in the green room.

I have no idea how this match will go. normally, you would expect Andy to smash through Vicky because she's a bit of a tell-box but Andy has looked out of sorts all week and Vicky has been a really tricky customer.

I would have loved to have seen both of them in the final though.

gilmour

oh well Vicky won 3-1

seemed like a good old bingo poker session.

(why exactly did Andy fold the AJ again? - has he backed Vicky to win the whole thing or something )

NickyOD

gilmour wrote:

oh well Vicky won 3-1

seemed like a good old bingo poker session.

(why exactly did Andy fold the AJ again? - has he backed Vicky to win the whole thing or something )

Vicky's image has been very conservative all week. Andy always seemed to give her too much respect. In the Heads up match she used that against him and got him to fold the best hand in several key pots.