Despite the fifth Freeroll in the Betfair Grand Prix scheduled for the exact midway point of the football World Cup, there were still well over 400 runners in last night’s tournament.

With five freerolls down and five to go the action is hotting up, with places up for grabs at the live final to be held later this year.

With that mind, competition was fierce, with most of the diehards fronting up (while keeping one eye on Spain v Tunisa, obviously).

It was interesting week for the PokerPlayers, with the usual performances seemingly turned on their heads.

Our recent point man, ‘Shafty78’ was suprisingly out first in 381st – maybe the RSI is slowing him down. Next was ‘Dicey’ in 228th, followed by ‘Tallulah’ in 197th. These three are still the only PokerPlayers to crack into the points.

‘HillyFish’s’ form seems to be peaking (sort of) with Las Veags and the WSOP beckoning, as he narrowly missed the top one hundred in 104th.

To be completely honest ‘darklord5’ began brilliantly, and it was all down to the cards. Dealt Q-Q first up followed by K-K twice and J-J, he was up to 5,550 chips, and the chip lead within the space of 10 minutes, knocking-out three or four victims in quick succession.

The feeling of overwhelming power was intoxicating and the wins kept coming, A-Ks, A-Qs, A-Js everywhere. ‘darklord5’ got to the first hour break with 8,722 in chips and eigth place on the leaderboard – fantatsic, see you at the final table.

Despite tightening up and playing the percentages, the first big loss came with ‘darklord5’s’ K-Q suited being shot down by J-8 offsuit, as both lesser cards paired the board.

That loss, while ahead pre-flop, brought greater resolve, but the chips started evapouraing and an aggressive move while still in the top 20 in terms of chips, brought about elimination in 88th place.

Holding K-J and looking at a J and rags on the flop, a big raise was called by ‘OneSandal’. With turn and river supplying nothing scarier than a 9, it was time for a bullying all-in. ‘OneSandal’ had pocket nines, and the lights were turned out on ‘darklord5’ – with no complaints.

The three remaining PokerPlayers were doing OK up until ‘darklord5’s’ debacle and ‘Dudek’ was out minutes later in 86th.

That left the sheriff ‘K_Unknown’ with the possibilty of going deep. But it wasn’t to be, K.O.-ed by ‘thehiggin’, who was “fucking lucky” apparently. ‘thehiggin’, if you’re out there, please let us know how you saw the hand.

As usual the final table kicked off about 10.15pm, with good bon homie and banter all round. ‘spacewolf’ and ‘TopTopGun’ had a big share of the chips and capably bossed the smaller stacks, but ‘nowareman’ refused to be intimidated and fought his way to the heads-up, with a big chip lead.

‘nowareman’ had 474,897 in chips versus ‘TopTopGun’s’ 121,832, but ‘TopTopGun’ fought his way back and a fair old ding-dong ensued.

They were still pretty even on chips when it came down to ‘nowareman’s’ Q-J against his opponent’s Q-7, and the higher ranking hand was enough with only an Ace showing on the board.

Congrats to ‘nowareman’ for a fine perfomance, and please check back soon for the latest leaderboard.

Top 10:

1. nowareman 2. 2. TopTopGun
3. thehiggin
4. spacewolf
5. anfield18
6. Mike_Hunt
7. ChrisJ82
8. fredwardo
9. AndyAces
10. OneSandal