Just a Friendly Home Game
PokerStars have billed this as their first home game and Day 1a has a friendly atmosphere and camaraderie that is perhaps engendered by the sun shining outside and the prospect of a full eight hours of poker stretching ahead of the field of mostly online qualifiers in this glorious old building. Originally opened in 1931, the prestigious Villa Marina complex has undergone a complete transformation but has retained most of its charm, with the players playing in the high ceilinged auditorium.
Players are getting to know each other, asking where they have come from and, for now at least, leaving off the headphones and i-pads. Scotland’s David Docherty is perhaps surprised to be sitting to the left of British Olympic Snowboarder Zoe Gillings, and has struck up a conversation with her after sympathising with her losing a pot when she called a river bet with 
on an ace high board, losing to her opponents 
. It looks like we’re set for a great day.
What do you mean it’s not like your home game?
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop, [Removed:17] checked and Team PokerStars Online's Mickey Petersen slid out a bet of 700. Tim Michels made the call behind him and Henrik Berglund folded on the button.
board, Mark Warnock bet 2,850 and Miikka Anttonen tanked for a couple of minutes before making the call. The river was the 
. Anttonen mucked.
and found a caller in Christopher Moltisanti. When the river fell 
they both checked and Warnock turned over 
for trips and took the pot when his opponent mucked. He then wondered aloud if he had missed a bet on the river but feared he wasn’t getting called by worse. “I wasn’t folding.” said a convincing Moltisanti to a surprised Warnock.
flop with Robert Schulz doing the check-calling. The turn was the 
and Schulz checked a second time, Yan now bet 2,200 which was about double the size of the pot. Schulz tanked for a minute, recounting his remaining stack before he made the call.
and Schulz quickly checked again. Yan gave up and instantly checked behind. The German turned over 
and Yan mucked. The latter still has over 40,000 though.
. The flush was out there again but seemed unlikely. “Go on then.” Said Hicklin and made the call. His opponent, like before, was Kilpatrick but this time he was bluffing with queen high and Hicklin’s 
won the pot.