ISPT Wembley Main Event Day 5: Pete Linton Leads the Final Six

Matthew Pitt

Level 28 : 50,000/100,000, 10,000 ante

The penultimate day in the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) Wembley Main Event started with 20 players vying for the €1,000,000 first place prize. Of those 20 hopefuls, just six are still in with a chance of a seven-figure score.

The eliminations came in thick and fast from the very moment tournament director Simon Trumper started the day. Within minutes, James Sullivan, Neil Benardout and Giuseppe Stagno had each busted out and the remaining players had to redraw for new seats.

Despite the potential seven-figure first place prize on offer the aggression shown by the players never wavered and that resulted in elimination after elimination throughout proceedings. Leon Louis, Leigh Wiltshire and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Praz Bansi were the next players to lose their stacks, and they were followed to the sidelines by the legendary Dave “Deviilfish” Ulliott Freddy Deeb and Florian Hoeller.

Next to head for the exits was Bassam Elia who informed PokerNews that he has never played in a casino setting before, preferring to play cash games at his and his friends’ houses instead. Something tells us, maybe the €19,000 he won for his 11th place finish in this tournament that his preferences may change in the near future.

Just four hours after play began the final table was set. Jean Miguel Lacerda had recently doubled through Pete Linton when he shoved with pocket aces from the big blind when faced with a button raise from Linton (who had raise-called with ace-queen) when his tournament ended abruptly. Ferhad Seyadi opened in the cutoff and then called when Lacerda moved all in from the button Lacerda showed and Seyadi the . Neither player improved by the river, Lacerda exited in 10th place and the final table was set.

The nine finalists were sent on a 60 minute dinner break, during which a deal was discussed that would have seen the remaining prize pool split between each player based on chip count with €200,000 left for the eventual champion. After much deliberation between themselves, the players decided to keep the payouts as they were intended to be and continue the tournament.

Half-an-hour into the finale the first player busted – and in unfortunate circumstances. The action passed around to Linton in the small blind and he min-raised to 240,000. Julian Gardner called from the big blind and the duo shared a flop. Linton continued with a 240,000 bet only to see Gardner raise to 550,000. Linton went into the tank before emerging with an all in bet! Gardner instantly called and showed for trip tens, a much stronger hand than the of Linton. The turn was the and it was followed by the river, improving Linton to the nut flush and leaving a stunned Gardner to exit in ninth place.

Eight became seven when the short-stacked Jerome Brion open-shoved from early position with and Gwendoline Jadot, who is the last standing female player in the ISPT Wembley Main Event, called from the big blind with . A board reading condemned Brion to an eighth place finish and pushed Jadot towards the five million chip mark.

Day 5 came to an end 40 minutes later when Seyadi chose to move all in from the small blind for 11 big blinds. Nick Hicks made the call with and when the board ran out Seyadi was eliminated and the tournament paused for the last time.

Play resumes at 12:00 UK time and continues until one man, or woman, has won all of the 40,450,000 chips in play. At the moment it is Linton who leads the way with 11,070,000 chips, followed by Alban Juen with 7,615,000 and Hicks with 6,230,000. Each player is guaranteed a prize of at least €73,000 although PokerNews expects a deal to be made in the early stages of play judging from the talk between the players earlier in the day.

ISPT Wembley Final Six Seat Draw