Sheils Leads the Final Nine of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK Open
Brandon Sheils will return as the final table chip leader when the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK ￡1,100 Open resumes action at noon on Wednesday, October 3.
After ten 50-minute levels of poker was played, the 46 returning Day 3 players were reduced to the final nine on a day that featured a royal flush, two brothers battling and a 175,000,000 chip pot won with just ace-high.
Sheils bagged an impressive 253,500,000 and will have a significant advantage over his nearest challengers Rory Liffey (162,000,000) and Artur Gjoka (140,500,000). Daniel Rezaei, who earlier in the day witnessed his brother Armin Rezaei depart in 31st place, bagged 130,000,000.
The final table line-up is completed by Iaron Lightbourne (93,500,000), Dean Hutchison (80,000,000), Anthony Wickert (56,500,000), Tom Smith (54,000,000) and partypoker pro Anatoly Filatov (36,500,000).
Action of the day
Filatov will return as the final table short stack, but he will be happy just to be there after he was all set to be eliminated within the first 90 minutes of play today. The Russian was all-in with king-jack and ran into not only Paul McTaggart's ace-king but also the aces of Sheils. The flop came jack-high to give Filatov some hope, and by some miracle, the river hit his king for two pair, and he won the main pot to survive, with Sheils taking a big side pot against McTaggart.
Unlike Filatov, Jack Sinclair and partypoker pro Natalia Breviglieri had no luck and departed earlier during the day.
Then there was a hand that is very rarely seen as Paul Michaelis hit a full house with ace-queen only to see the pot go to Jurgen Brenner who had achieved a remarkable royal flush holding jack-ten of clubs. The board was down ace-eight-queen-king-queen when Michaelis moved all in from the big blind on the river only to see Brenner snap-call. The table was in shock when the two hands were revealed and Brenner moved up to 50,000,000. However, the German was unable to continue in the same vein and departed in 24th place.
Another shock happened as start-of-day chip leader Andrew Haygarth exited in 21st place after doing battle with fellow big stack Gjoka. Haygarth had hit a flush but found out it was no good when the two players got all their chips into the middle on the river and Gjoka revealed he had hit a full house on the last card.
Gjoka continued to rise up in the chip counts but also had a 100,000,000 chip swing at one point. However, the Albanian pulled it back in one of the most memorable hands of the day. Up against Joe Parsons on a six-seven-ten-jack-six board, Gjoka decided to check-raise a bet of 20,000,000 to 68,000,000, enough to put Parsons all-in. The latter had to use a time bank card to think but ultimately made the call with his tournament life on the line. Gjoka said "good call" to his opponent and was all set to muck before he tabled ace-queen for just ace-high. But Parsons delayed showing his hand, and Gjoka was amazed when his opponent mucked and told the table he held ace-nine also for ace-high with a lower kicker. Gjoka celebrated his unconventional victory and was once again among the big stacks.
Adam Daniel, John Haigh, Chris Da-Silva, and Mark Dyson all departed after Parsons' exit, and the remaining nine played out the final 50-minute level with little action.
Play will resume at noon with all the action being streamed on mypartypokerlive.com. PokerNews will be providing updates in keeping with the delayed stream, and more information will be posted before the start of play tomorrow.
Check back in then as the final nine battle for the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK Open title and the ￡180,000 first-place prize.
