Des Wilson says...

Des' WSOP Report 2008 (24)

July 11th

The headlines:

• 666 players in the money
• Three have million chips as 474 remain
• Jaffacake wins biggest pot so far to join leaders

Jeff ‘Jaffacake’ Kimber, Ladbrokes professional and world heads-up champion, yesterday afternoon (Thursday) won what was - at least at the time - the biggest pot of this year’s World Series when he hit three Queens in a confrontation with overnight chip leader Brian Schaedlich. There were 681,000 chips in the pot and for a while Jeff was the overall chip leader. (Schaedlich was down to 22,000 by day’s end.)

By the end of the 3rd day Jeff was still well-placed in 19th position with 690,000.

A big cheer went up at 23.30 pm when it was announced that the remaining 666 players had cashed.

A former New Hampshire pastor who now works for an on-line company, Jeremiah Smith, was the first to hit a million chips and he and two other relative unknowns Jeremy Joseph and Owen Crowe led at the end of the day with over a million each.

Close by and definite contenders for the top prizes were two who performed well last year and clearly have a penchant for top level competition – Alexander Kostritzyn (920,000) and Dag Martin Mikkelsen (930,000).

Two former world champions are left: Phil Hellmuth, lurking threateningly down the field with 490,000 chips and the evergreen Johnny Chan.

35 members of Team Ladbrokes began the day. Details of those who cashed and chip counts can be found by clicking here.

One of Ladbrokes hopefuls who went out yesterday was Paul ‘Action Jack’ Jackson who had a pair and a flush draw on a flop with Mark Golser, but the latter won the hand when the flush did not materialise and he got an Ace on the Turn to add to one in the pocket.

Big names out on the 3rd day included Jennifer Harman, Patrick Antonious, Noah Boaken, Chris Moneymaker, and Phil Gordon.

Also out, cricketer Shane Warne who did well in his first World Series.

And let’s hear it for Steve Chung – he went out on the bubble!

UK players who were still battling it out late in the day were John Duthie, Iwan Jones, Dave Colcough and Ben Roberts. And from Ireland the amazing veteran George McKeever and the popular Paul Leckie.

From the Ladbrokes Lounge

While there were a few disappointed players about, the Ladbrokes lounge was in good spirits last night (Thursday), thanks to a karaoke evening featuring the likes of Norman Pace and Jon Kalmer as well as anyone else who fancied themselves as a singer.

While there I chatted to Louise ‘emotivator’ Duffy who began playing full-time this year and told me she was up $80,000 after six months. Louise put up a terrific show in the main event. Having made a good start, she suffered a setback and fell to 8,000. She fought all the way back and well into the third day before she fell.

Today (Friday) is the last main day of Ladbrokes non-poker activity and will conclude with a tenpin bowling tournament.

The bulk of the party will then return home, leaving behind a small force still fighting to make the final table.

Des’s Diary

Began well in the Venetian daily deep stack event with an Ace-high flush and a couple of winning two-pair hands, then did not have a winning hand for nearly three hours. Gritted my teeth and held on and slowly fought back to about 20,000 before, with the blinds and antes reducing me to about 6 times the big blind, my all-in 10-10 was beaten by my opponent’s AK becoming Ace’s and King’s.

One more Venetian event left (today, Friday) and my Las Vegas adventure is over. You better believe I am going into it in a determined mood.