London's Calling: Erik Cajelais Wins First WSOPE Bracelet, Grand Hellmuth Entrance Planned

Erik Cajelais wins £2500 Pot Limit Omaha/Hold'em Bracelet
Erik Cajelais of Canada captured his first bracelet last night when he defeated Mats Gavatin heads up in the £2500 Pot Limit Omaha/Hold'em event. He overcame a table that included Richard Gryko, Robin Keston and Men 'The Master' Nguyen on his way to the £104,677 first prize.

Cajelais, a body builder and no doubt a very intimidating presence at the table, has come close to victory before and came 2nd in the $5000 PLO Rebuy event at the WSOP in 2007. He said of that near miss "It was extra motivation. I felt like I really, really, really

wanted to win it. I had to do everything I could to win and today I played well and the cards came out my way."

This was 3rd place finishers Robin Kestons 4th WSOP final table in 2 years, he has come 9th, 7th, 4th and now 3rd in that order, which is a very good omen for the UK PLO specialist.

This win now matches Canada with the United Kingdom for bracelets won this year, both with 4, which is second behind overall leaders the USA.

Day 1 of £5000 PLO
Always one of the more hotly contested events of the year, the £5000 Pot Limit Omaha once again read like a who's who of world poker. 154 runners have been reduced to 36, but it is as our blogger Snoopy commented, this is going to be one of the most star studded final tables ever seen.

Amongst the survivors are young online stars Ashton Griffin, Shaun Deeb, Tom Dwan and Sorel Mizzi. Big international names like Barry Greenstein, Howard Lederer and David Williams. Finally there is a whole host of big UK and Ireland names including Jeff Kimber, Joe Beevers, John Kabbaj, Dave Callagahan and Tony Bloom. Its going to be big, just like this particular final always is.

Top Ten Chip Counts
Vilmunen, Jani 304100
Griffin, Ashton 184100
Mizzi, Sorel 153700
Lederer, Howard 151800
Zaichenko, Andrey 151300
Kimber, Jeffrey 134900
Chalton, Niall 122200
Bloom, Anthony 114500
Kiveilo, Aarno 114500
Boeken, Noah 112600

Check out our Live Updates today to find out who makes it to the final table.

Another Big Hellmuth Entrance Planned

The main event is just around the corner and Phil Hellmuth has planned a typically Hellmuth-ian entrance on Saturday. At approximately 1.00pm he will be outside the Empire and a crowd is expected to form to welcome him into the event. So what can we expect? Well last time he dressed like Julius Caesar in Vegas so he has really raised the bar for himself for future entrances. We are guessing something suitably British so our guessing is something like a Beefeater or an old English Policeman, perhaps riding in a limo shaped like a cup of tea. No doubt it will be entertaining, no doubt he will bring along a bevy of beautiful women and no doubt he will look a complete eye sore at the table for the rest of day 1. As long as he doesn't come dressed like the Queen, we look forward to it.

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