Event #2: £5,250 Pot-Limit Omaha

Jeff Madsen has the signs of a stack in the top three now, after a big boost in the form of Toby Lewis' entire collection of chips. The hand which did the damage started fairly slowly, but showed signs of picking up when Lewis check-called Madsen's 8,600 bet on their heads up       flop. Now on the   river, Lewis checked again, and Madsen bet again: 16,300. Back to Lewis, who took his time, staring at the chips or the middle distance or Madsen while considering, blinking slowly. He finally made a decision - to push all-in - but the fact he was instacalled probably didn't give him great satisfaction as he tabled         vs. Madsen's        .

Yes, this was not the timing he was looking for, as Madsen with the dominating flush draw and made straight watched the harmless   hit the river and his opponent hit the road. Madsen up over 150k.

Rory Mathews just now tried it on with the chip leader, betting 11,000 from the hijack on the turn of an      board. Chris Bjorin made the call from the big blind, though, and they saw the river.

The river came down the   (that's a lot of hearts, isn't it?) and Bjorin paused only very briefly before betting out what looked like 22,000. The exact amount of the bet turned out to be irrelevant, though, as Mathews had folded before the chips were even across the line.

Mathews - now struggling a little with 35,000

Bjorin - still in charge on around 200,000

Supremely short-stacked for most of the day, Tim Flanders has manoeuvred his way thus far but will be ducking and dodging no more after being eliminated by Toby Lewis. It wasn't as if he got his final grain of rice (3,700 total) in in bad shape, even after the flop - he held         and the flop (threeway with Lewis and Justin Smith) was      . Out bet Lewis - 7,500 - and Smith made the call. The turn was the   and was greeted with an instant statement of, "Pot," by the recent young EPT winner. This amounted to 27,300 and got rid of Smith, leaving Lewis' flopped nuts         to dodge the pairing of the board and send Flanders to the rail.

Michel Abecassis is out. We saw him heading off and Danny Wong stacking some new chips so we're assuming he was the assassin.

We only caught the very tail end of this one, but here is the information that was apparent at that late stage:

Paul Gardner:     

Jeff Kimber:     

Board:      

As we said, we didn't see when the chips went in, but the tantalizing snippets we caught coming out of Kimber's mouth ("F***ing kills me," and "Gutshot,") gave us a hint that it might have been some time around about the turn. Gardner shrugged apologetically and was up to 55,000. Kimber was left with around 50,000.

Down and then slightly up for Javed Abrahams.

The down first:

The board read       rainbow when we arrived, and Abrahams had bet out around 10,000. To his left, Jeff Madsen raised what looked like the pot - and after a little while Abrahams folded, leaving himself with 25,000.

Then the up:

The very next hand, Abrahams limped under the gun only for Toby Lewis to raise to 3,600 in mid position. Everyone else got out of the way but Abrahams called and they proceeded heads up to the flop.

Flop:    

Abrahams checked and Lewis fired 4,800. Abrahams tanked up for a little while and then flat called, leaving himself around 16,000 behind.

Turn:  

Both players checked.

River: Abrahams checked for a third time, and eventually (bear in mind that in real life, all of this took an incredibly long time) Lewis checked behind for a second time.

Abrahams turned over      for a sneakily checked-on-the-river nut flush, and Lewis mucked with a look of vague amusement on his face.

Lewis - still over 60,000

Abrahams - 32,000

Table 2

Seat 1: Joe Serock - 78200

Seat 2: Andrew Miles - 60600

Seat 3: Sean Dempsey - 22800

Seat 4: Felipe Ramos - 16800

Seat 5: John Kabbaj - 71000

Seat 6: Paul Gardner - 39000

Seat 7: Paul Zimbler - 8000

Seat 8: Stuart Rutter - 29900

Seat 9: Jeff Kimber - 84100

Table 3

Seat 1: Tim Flanders - 5400

Seat 2: Steve Jelinek - 42800

Seat 3: Danny Wong - 16500

Seat 4: Michel Abecassis - 46000

Seat 5: Javed Abrahams - 45000

Seat 6: Jeff Madsen - 52000

Seat 7: Justin Smith - 43500

Seat 8: Toby Lewis - 70000

Seat 9: Jeff Lisandro - 55100

Two levels and almost a third of the field down, players are heading out into Leiecester Square to smoke cigarettes. Probably.

Back in 20 minutes.

Christopher Chau has doubled through Robin Keston giving him over 35k and a little breathing room. Keston's been a bit of a high-gear operative on his table recently, picking up quite a few small pots (such as the five way limped one he immediately announced, "Pot" on preflop and got instafolds all round) but a dent was made as Chau called a 4k bet on a       flop and then shoved first to act on the   turn. Keston thought about it but eventually pushed in the 11k - Chau showed down         for the turned set and although Keston instantly mucked his hand as the bricky   river came down he made a frustrated sort of face which said it all.

Chip leader Sam Stein has doubled-up the dangerous Rory Mathews to around 60,000. Stein called an 8,500 Mathews' bet on a     flop before betting enough to cover the Scot on the   turn. Mathews did a Hellmuth style call prompting Stein to ask "Do you have a full-house?"

Mathews nodded and tabled      to Stein's     . The river came   and Mathews raked in the pot. Stein still going very strong on 115,000.