When Richard Evans was down to 1.2 big blinds yesterday nobody, least of all himself, would have thought that he would be lifting the trophy. A miraculous Mickey Petersen-esque comeback ensued resulting in a berth at the final table for the Welshman, fourth in chips, no less. Today Evans, wearing a bright red t-shirt emblazoned with the words 'welsh boy', was never short stacked. He started well, built a dominating chip lead and held on to take the trophy and €75,500.

When he finally knocked out Stephen McGrath heads-up Evans was overcome with emotion, not quite sure what to do with himself. Covering his mouth with both hands he walked first towards the fire exit before checking his run and turning towards the bar where he disappeared from view. A loud 'Yes! Yes!' bellowed back into the tournament room shortly after. It was followed by Evans, a Guinness in one hand and a whiskey in the other, now ready to pose for the winner's photo.

Evans, who'd played with a stony face and hood up for days, finally let his guard down, a bright beaming smile showing just how much the win meant: "It's a sailing effect, it's pressure off. In times like these...," said Evans, a self-described micro-stakes player and cashier at the Portmeirion village.

It was clear that the money meant a lot, a genuine life changing score. The €75,000 - €60,000 from a three-way chop and €15,500 for the win - will go a long way in the Evans household. Plans to do up the house and pay off a chunk of the mortgage have already been put in place, which is pretty incredible considering qualification cost just €15.

A humble Evans seems to possess a skill many do not, the ability to assess other player's ability in relation to their own. He avoided the tough spots and tried to exploit the others. He was glad to see the early eliminations of "Padraig (O'Neill), Lee (Atherton) and Graeme (Crozier)" because they "were clearly the better players". It's an admission many wouldn't be able to make but one that certainly helped Evans to the win. He opened up against the others and nut-peddled against those aforementioned tough players; both Atherton and O'Neill lost chunky pots to Evans' flopped set of kings; O'Neill yesterday, Atherton today.

Atherton was the first to go this afternoon after horrible back-to-back coolers. Somehow he managed to get away from the first, refusing to get his queens in pre-flop and then folding to Evans' flopped set of kings. The second was inescapable. O'Neill flopped top set on a [jh][9h][3s] board, Atherton held pocket nines for middle set. Atherton looked gutted but knew that he'd done nothing wrong. It was another solid performance from Atherton following his 15th place finish at UKIPT Nottingham last month. The man from Timberley is racking up cashes and leader board points.

Keith Swain started the final table short and Atherton's bust out must have been welcome news, locking up an unexpected €3,000 for the man from Birmingham. At that time Swain and Vincent Buis were the shortest stacks by some way and when the pair clashed it all but guaranteed who would go in 7th. Swain was happy to take a flip with pocket threes against Buis. Unfortunately for him the Dutchman held pocket fives and Swain was sent to the rail. Buis was still short but that wouldn't stop him.

Overnight chip leader Graeme Crozier bust next but probably deserved to finish higher than his 6th place finish. Crozier was game, active and out there trying to win pots but the key hands didn't go his way, notably a large flip against McGrath whose ace-king rivered a bullet to crack his queens. It was McGrath again that delivered the coup d'état when both players spiked an ace with an ace in their hand; Crozier's jack kicker not strong enough to top McGrath's king kicker.

Padraig O'Neill must have fancied his chances with five players remaining. Crozier had been a thorn in his left side and with him out of the way he stood a chance of steamrolling the table. The young Irishman had been the chip leader for some length yesterday and his aggressive pre-flop game could get him back into the driving seat. As it happened, it just led to a car crash instead. Evans limped his small blind with [ah][8s] and Evans checked with [6s][3s]. Evans bet 80,000 into the [as][js][3h] flop and O'Neill raised to 210,000. Evans called and checked the [4d] turn. O'Neill bet around 460,000 with 200,000 back and called when Evans shoved. O'Neill didn't catch the spade, three or six that he needed.

It took more than an hour for Vincent Buis to bust in fourth. The Dutchman tried everything short stacked; limping, shoving, raise-folding, and several times made strong movements towards catching the pack. That game wasn't sustainable, despite doubling up through Seamus Birt when he found aces in the big blind. He finally bust to Stephen McGrath's [9h][9c] with [ah][kd], ironically in the pot that would finally have got him to average for the first time.

A deal was struck three-handed which seemed to free Evans, the huge money jumps no longer a problem. McGrath, whose elimination of Buis had put him into the lead, had a live leak which Evans picked up on and allowed him to get away from a hand pre-flop. McGrath squeezed and then stood up. Evans passed.

"What's this standing up thing?" said Evans.

The only other time McGrath had stood up was when he had aces. This time it was a tabled ace-king. Evans was let off the hook, he would be let off the hook again.

Shortly after Birt opened the button with [kc][qc], Evans moved in with [ah][5s] and McGrath made a pained fold, later claiming to have ace-king. Birt called and the ace held up. Had McGrath made the call - and had the ace-king he claimed to have - then he would have won the title and additional €15,500 then and there.

As it was Evans went into the heads up with a 5,000,000 to 3,580,000 chip lead. McGrath never picked up any real momentum and half-an-hour later Evans called McGrath's shove with a three-and-a-half-to-one chip lead on a [5s][6c][4h][9h] board with [9d][3c] holding against [6h][2h]. An ace on the river sealing the title for Evans.

To read through the day's action click on the links below. And to see who got paid what, just click through to the payouts page.

Levels 23-26
Levels 27-30

Photo copyright and credit goes to Mickey May.

4.35pm: Break time
Unfortunately for them, these players will not be returning for level 4: Andreas Liljenberg, Sean Davey, D. Hutchinson, Jeff Burke, Robert Finlay, Saiful Choudhury, David Taylor, Jeff Smith, Tariq Ahmed, James Ball, Eamonn Blake.

Level 5 updates will appear in a new post shortly. -- MC

4.25pm: Young left out in the cold, Lyall hovering
Richard Young thought that the [jh][jc][qh] flop was ideal for his holding of king-jack. The problem was that a player was sat two seats along with ace-jack. The chips went in and it was bye-bye to Mr. Young.

As this hand was playing out, Dean Lyall was extracting chips from a neighbour on an adjacent table. His mid position raise was only called by the player in the hijack. Both players checked the [9c][ad][4s] flop before Lyall went on to bet 525 and 2,025 on the [3d][qc] turn and river. His opponent called both times and mucked when Lyall opened [ac][6c]. -- MC

4.15pm: McTaggart gets a double up
There's a large group of talented players who've made more than one deep run in a UKIPT without quite having that big bink. One of those is Paul McTaggert, the Scottish player has finished 16th and 19th respectively at UKIPT Edinburgh in the past two seasons.

He's had a good start here in Newcastle tweeting (@BobaFettdozer11): Doubled to 34.5k, shoved river with KT on QJ896 and got a call. -- NW

4.05pm: Chips
Still in and grinding/prospering are: Tim Bettingen (11,800), Alan Vinnicombe (14,200), Dean Lyall (16,500), Sam Holden (23,000) and Scott Shelley (19,000). You can feast your eyes on more chip counts here. -- NW

3.57pm: Oops
"I won a seat by accident," said Dean Lyall to me as I eyed up his chip stack (16,500). Sensing a story I stuck around. "I won a satellite to another satellite whilst playing at home. The next satellite clashed with a night out, so I played it on my phone whilst we were at a mates house having a few drinks before we went out."

We suspect a few players might be doing similarly during the tournament as WCOOP is running right now. If you want to get involved you can get the relevant software here. -- NW

3.48pm: Haile the chief
Richard Haile is enjoying life. Why wouldn't you when you turn the nuts and get maximum value from your hand?

Adam Matues raised from under the gun and was called by Haile on the button, and Thomas Dunwoodie in the in the big blind. Matues continued on the [td][8s][qs] flop and was called by both players.

From that point on Haile took over the hand and bet the [ac][6h] turn and river when Matues checked to him. Dunwoodie bailed out on the turn but Matues stayed to the bitter end. He took a long time to call on the river, but mucked very quickly when shown [kh][jh] by Haile, who is up to 31,000. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.35pm: More Fallers
There comes a point in a tournament where the rate of eliminations accelerates. We've reached that point!

Those to have hit the rail include: Wayne Fletcher, Nadeem Riaz, Petros Malactos, John Mann, William Champion, Richard Sinclair, Mark Hawks, Alan Mason, Chris Greensmith, Peter Brackley, and Lee Mulligan. We can also confirm that Joeri Zandvliet is out. -- MC

3.25pm: Numbers
The tournament board is now showing that 246 players have entered the tournament today. Thus far around 20 players have been eliminated. Tournament staff are breaking tables in the upstairs area, just four tables remain in use upstairs. -- NW

3.12pm: Table of doom
There are certain areas of the tournament floor that were very difficult to get to, but that issue was been eased during the break. We are now able to get all the way to table one in the far corner. Good job we can get to that table too as it's got some great players sat around it's rail.

Paul "Action-Jack" Jackson's son, Ben Jackson, is sat with 13,800 chips. He's seen as a real talent and is already starting to make waves on the UK poker scene.

Two to his left is Ben Jenkins. He is part of the up and coming group of British players and finished 13th at EPT London last season for £27,000. He has 16,200 chips.

Another one of that group is Sam Grafton. He has a formidable reputation online playing under the handle, "samsquid". It will not belong before he has a big score live, and he's doing well on 28,500. -- MC

3pm: Sinclair struggling
The defence of his title is not going to plan so far for Richard Sinclair. The Scotsman also took down the UKIPT Champion of Champions event, giving him free entry into all Season 3 stops (bar EPT London), but he's down to 7,500 here in Newcastle. He's often spotted wearing a brightly coloured hoody, but today is dressed in a white t-shirt and purple hat, meaning this reporter walked past him several times before realising it was him. -- NW

2.50pm: Chip counts
Here's a few chip counts I collected on my last lap of the room: Martin Mulsow (17,000), Devron Hasslenook (6,300), Keith Hawkins (24,000), Sinem Melin (23,000), Jon Lundy (17,000) and Jamie Dale (20,500). -- NW

2.45pm: Dutchman not flying
The field just got a bit softer as Joeri Zandvliet is out. No details but he was down to 5,000 and is no longer in his seat. -- NW

2.40pm: Word from Twitter on break
Jeff "@jeffkimberpoker" Kimber: "27k from 15 first break. Just seen @SquidPoker trying to order a drink, gna step in as translator after another 10 mins #UKIPTNewcastle."

Sam "@Sam_Holden888" Holden: "30850 after 2 levels in Newcastle. Started with 15k 75/150 next. 1 hour levels."

Gareth "@GazWalker" Walker: "21k at the first break... most of that from 1 hand before will post that in a sec.... #UKIPTNewcastle." -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2.13pm: Break time
Two levels have passed and the players are on their first break of the day.

2.05pm: A curious hand
Three players including Eamonn Blake saw a flop of [6c][8h][Ad], it checked to an in-position Blake who fired out a bet of 300 into the pot of 775. From the small blind, Peter McGlen made the call, only for Pete Wrigglesworth to check-raise to 1,050 total. Blake folded, but McGlen made the call.

Both players checked the [8d] turn card to see the [2d] complete the board, check from McGlen, and Wrigglesworth then threw out a really small bet of just 500 into a pot of over 3,000. Regardless, it was enough for McGlen to release his hand and the spoils went to Wrigglesworth.

2.03pm: The early departed
Ashley Locker has the unfortunate title of being the first player out at this year's UKIPT Newcastle Main Event. He was soon joined by David Scothern and Anthony Rafter. Not what any of them would've hoped for this morning. -- MC

1.55pm: Heinzelmann Up, Zandvliet Down
Maximilian Heinzelmann has played a few UKIPTs before but is best known for his EPT prowess. He achieved incredible back-to-back runner-up finishes at EPT San Remo and Berlin in Season 7.

He's up to 18,000 chips today and seems to be mixing it up in a lot of pots. He took his neighbour off a pot on a [4d][6h][3h][9c] board. The German had check-called a bet on the flop before he led the turn. His opponent took surprisingly little time to fold to the turn bet.

Joeri Zandvliet, on the other hand, is all UKIPT. A formidable force, he is only one of two players with two titles to his name (Nick Abou Risk being the other). He has a lot of work to do to add a third though. We bumped into him on he way to the toilet and he informed us he's already down to 5,000 chips. -- MC

1.40pm: More match ups
As late registrants, or just late arrivals take their seats, a few more tables of note are taking shape. Jon Lundy and Jamie Dale (third UKIPT2 Edinburgh) are facing off on the felt as are Jeff Kimber and Joeri Zandvliett. The Dutchman obviously finding an hour at the felt a tough ordeal as he's currently getting a massage.The former is off to a good start but it could've been better, Kimber tweeted: "1st time I played hold em in ages n it shows. Shoulda doubled up wi 99 v fairly obv AK on AQ9K but ck call 2 streets n blocked dangerous riv." -- NW

1.25pm: Old School, New Style
Keith Hawkins has been around poker since the early days of the scene here in the UK, and is one of the players who haven't been left behind as the game's evolved.

He's made it to PokerStars SuperNova Elite status in the past due to his prowess on the head up tables on PokerStars, and is still a SuperNova and a force to be reckoned with today.

He's off to a positive start here, a lot thanks to flopping a full house versus Devron Hasselnook. We didn't catch any of the action until the river where Hawkin's pocket nines beat his Dutch opponent's pocket queens on a [a][a][9][x][k] board.

Martin Mulsow, third in Cork in Season 2, just took his seat across from Hawkins, making table 12 the official table of death.
-- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

1.10pm: Don't I know you?
I'm kind of a big deal around here...

Some of the names and notables we've spotted so far include: Dean Lyall, Jack Elwood, Jeff Kimber, Jamie Dale, Martin Mulsow and Nick Newport.

1.05pm: Table mates
Plenty of familiar faces and big names in the field today, some of them getting up close and personal from the start, Scott Shelley and UKIPT champion Gareth Walker sharing a table as are Sinem Meilin, Keith Hawkins and Devron Hasslenook.

Lots of tables player six or seven handed right now. -- NW

1.00pm: Holden in the house
Sam Holden is best known for making the November Nine at the 2011 World Series of Poker, and following that up with a 55th place finish at this year's event. That is an incredible achievement, but around these parts he's known for taking down the 6-Max tournament here at last year's UKIPT Newcastle.

He's off to a great start in the main event today after taking a chunk of chips off Stephen Flannigan.

When we approached the table the two players were heads up to the turn of a [qd][7s][8d][9h] board. Around 2,500 had made it into the middle and Flannigan checked from under the gun, and called when Holden bet 2,500 from mid position. The river fell [qc] and Flannigan led for 3,000. Holden took his time and shoved for approximately 10,500. Flannigan took little time and mucked his holding. -- MC

12.45pm: No value in poker, everyone's Grafton
I bumped into Sam Grafton as he was making his way up the stairs to the upper tournament room. A fixture on the UKIPT circuit since season one, Grafton is one we've heavily tipped on the blog to make a deep run at one of these soon (14th is his best finish to date).

But, it could be another Grafton that beats him to it as his brother Ben is also playing today: "He taught me to play," Sam told me. "He's actually pretty good." And Ben's twin brother Tom completes a triumvirate of Grafton's. "Tom doesn't play though," says Sam. "We tried to convince him to put the £770 in drawing dead from the start but he wimped out."

Play is split into two areas, there are around eight tables in use upstairs with the rest downstairs. As well as Grafton, Tim Bettingen and Alan Vinnicombe are in the upstairs area.-- NW

12.35pm: The plan for today
The UKIPTs have an extra day (five days total) to play out each stop this season, meaning the schedule of play is more relaxed. This is the most sociable poker tour in the UK so the shorter days allow players to enjoy the local cultural sites of each stop. Who are we kidding? It gives them more times to hit the local bars, something that's not in short supply in Newcastle!

Today we are scheduled to play eight one-hour levels, and there will be no dinner break. Play should finish before 9.30pm then. -- MC

12.20pm: Play Underway
The reasons for the delays have been resolved, and play is underway at UKIPT Newcastle. -- MC

12.15pm: Slight delay
Although play was set to start at noon, cards are not yet in the air here in Newcastle. During this brief delay why not catch up with what's been going on in the WCOOP.

12.00pm: Talk of the Toon

After a summer hiatus, filled mostly with sport, the UKIPT is back and it's appropriate that it's in Newcastle, a city known for it's feverish support of the Toon. We're hunkered down here at Aspers Casino just a Alan Shearer bicycle kick away from St James Park and even closer to the bar named after the star striker turned fence-sitting football pundit.

Last year's gold medal winner - Richard Sinclair - is here to defend his title and is playing today. Others who'll be looking for a podium finish and start their quest today include: two-time EPT runner-up Max Heinzelmann, local lad Jack Ellwood, bracelet winner Scott Shelley and two-time UKIPT champion Joeri Zandvliet.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and their 'Olympic' event of choice Marc Convey (busting tournaments before the first break) and Nick Wright (running for buses). Photos by Mickey May (caesar salad eating).

It was mentioned earlier in the day that the UKIPT is the most sociable poker tour in the United Kingdom. One can delve further and say that the Newcastle leg is the most sociable of all the stops on the British Isles (The Irish stops play by different rules). This helped attract a very friendly bunch to this, the fourth stop of season of Season 3. The festival kicked off in traditional style last night with the popular 6-max event, which attracted nearly 150 players that sunk just as many pints.

Today was the real deal though, the £770 Main Event. A total of 246 players packed into two rooms of Aspers Newcastle Casino. After eight one-hour levels of play Timotheos Timotheou rose to the summit with an impressive 134,000 chips. He's closely followed by Kevin Killeen (126,600), then a little further back are Francis Laken (92,000), Khadir Khoshawy (86,300) and Steven Warburton (84,800).

There were no Team PokerStars Pros in attendance today but many big-name players showed off their skills. Sam Grafton (39,600), Ben Jenkins (24,600), and Ben Jackson (69,600) all played at the same table for the entire day, seeing off all comers looking to take their chips and reputation. WSOP bracelet winner Scott Shelley (28,600) saw the funny side of being moved to their table for the last couple of levels, and held his own. Safe enough a distance away were Jeff Kimber (55,400), Jack Ellwood (20,600), Dean Lyall (44,900), Sam Holden (30,300) and Keith Hawkins (13,300); all of whom safely navigated their paths through to Day 2.

Not so lucky were the likes of: defending champion Richard Sinclair, Maximilian Heinzelmann, former UKIPT Nottingham winner Gareth Walker, Jeffrey Burke, and double UKIPT winner Joeri Zandvliet. Luckily the schedule has many side events to keep them busy, if the Newcastle nightlife isn't their thing.

That's all for today's poker action. The Team PokerStars blog will naturally be weaving its way through town centre streets, avoiding all temptation, and heading back to the hotel to be well rested to do the same all over again tomorrow.

We will welcome Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree, Vicky Coren, and Jude Ainworth tomorrow but they won't be alone. Already qualified, paid in, or expected are: former champions Jamie Burland, Max Silver, and Nick Abourisk, David Docherty, our very own Nick Wealthall, and Sam Razavi who's flown in from Melbourne where he took down the APPT event just last week. It'll be a bumper field with more than 300 players expected.

Join us back here from 12pm local time where eight fun-filled levels of poker action await. If you'd like to catch up on today's action, please click the links below:

Level 1 - 4 updates.
Level 5 - 8 updates.

All photos are copyright of Mickey May. She's got deep heat spray and is not afraid to use it.

4.27pm: Break time
That's the end of level four, players are now on a 20 minute break. You'll find level five updates in a new post. -- NW

4.25pm: Jarvis gets thin value
I joined the action to see a complete board of [6d][6h][10s][8c][2h] on the felt. The action was on Alex Ferguson, he checked to Ross Jarvis who fired out a bet of 1,400 into a pot of 2,800. After five seconds thought Ferguson made the call, Jarvis showed [10c][7c] and Ferguson intimated it was good before mucking his hand. -- NW

4.20pm: Racks in the dungeon
There's still a few tables in use in the 'dungeon' (the nickname we've given to the tables on the lower ground floor). One table down there is tougher than the rest. Perched round one corner of table 33 are: Dara O'Kearney (seat one: 21,800), David Docherty (seat three: 13,000) and Brett Angell (seat four: 17,000). -- NW

4.10pm: Coren and Perrins
Vicky Coren and Matt Perrins are at tables next to each other and both played out hands at the same time.

Coren opened to 425 whilst saying she felt she had some new found luck, only to be called by George Dixon in the small blind. The [4h][kc][7d] flop came out and Dixon check-called the Team PokerStars Pro's 600 c-bet.

Both players checked the [ts] turn before Coren folded when faced with an 800 bet on the [qc] river.

Perrins, meanwhile, was having much more luck. His stack had dropped in the hour or so he'd been playing so far, but he rectified that by eliminating Chris Howden.

Howden opened to 600 and Perrins called to see a [qc][td][8h] flop where the chips went in. Howden opened [as][qh], in big trouble versus Perrins' [ac][ah]. The board ran out [4d][6h]. -- MC

4pm: Boeree busts
It's not been a pleasant day for Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, a slow dwindle until her exit. "I missed a gazillion draws," she told me. "Then ran A-Q into aces for my last four thousand." -- NW

3.55pm: News in brief
Small snippets from around the room:

• Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren is down to 9,500, she's currently working on building her stack and a crossword
• Eureka Poker Tour Prague winner Keith Johnson is up 13,800 he'd been as low as 2,000 apparently
• Matt Perrins has taken the 10 seat at Johnson's table

3.48pm: A couple of relevant Tweets
Alex "@AlexFergielive" Ferguson: "Back up to just over 30k. Flopped a set v AK turn&river AA"

Liv "Liv_Boeree" Boeree: "Down to 4k after a failed bluff and a bunch of missed draws. Run up time pls." -- MC

3.40pm: Wealthall not as wealthy as before
One way or another Nick Wealthall will be at the final table this Monday. He's the host of the UKIPT, but is also playing in this event. However, it looks like it'll be purely MC duties he has to perform come Monday as he's down to 10,500 at the moment.

I just saw him three-bet to 2,100, but fold to four-bet of 4,600 from Oleksandr Sharappv, no tanking though, just a fast fold. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.35pm: Gavin it back
Fintan Gavin's great start has been clipped back by Rene Xie. He opened to 325 from under the gun and was only called by Xie in the next seat en route to a [jh][jc][7c] flop.

Gavin continued for 600 and called when raised up to 1,600. He also called a 2,100 bet on the [5h] turn after he checked to Xie. The river came down [qs] and Xie bet 4,000 (with 4,125 behind) when she was checked to again. Gavin took his time before making the call.

Xie opened [ks][kc] and took the pot as Gavin mucked whilst saying, "Well played, you got the maximum there. I had pocket nines." -- MC

3.20pm: Cutting it fine
British poker stars Jake Cody, Matt Perrins and James Mitchell have turned up with seconds to spare before registration closed. Pretty standard behaviour for those high rollers. -- MC

3.10pm: Irish update
This update is sponsored by the Emerald Isle: Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is grinding away on 16,000, David Lappin is off to a good start, he's up to 27,000. Chris 'Had plenty of deep runs in UKIPTs' Dowling is on 11,700 and Fergal 'wins a bunch of seats to every UKIPT' Nealon has dropped to 10,000. -- NW

3pm: Abou Risk and Williams out
Two high profile bust outs to tell you about as Nick Abou Risk and Kevin Williams are both out.

Abou Risk told me about his exit: "I was down to 3,500. There was an open from early position to 375 and three callers in front of me. I look down at [6h][5h] and decide to call. The flop was [A][Q][4] with two hearts, it checks to the guy who's last to act and he bets 850. I moved all-in for 3,200, he called with [A][4] and I didn't hit."

Williams (@Kevish47) tweeted his exit: "Ran pretty bad to bust #UKIPTNewcastle early. A boring AK

2.48pm: Dungeon News
It's a long way down to the bunch of tables on the bottom floor, but the walk is good for the heart.

Dan Edler took his seat later than most (luckily to make time for a +EV shower), and is in the black after going for some thin value in a hand versus Martin Stausholm. Both players checked the turn to leave a [kc][6c][3h][9d][2d] board by the river.

Edler bet 1,375 in a pot of around 3,000 and was called. He opened [td][6d] for a pair of sixes and took the pot as Stausholm mucked.

Priyan de Mel has joined Liv Boree's table and has 14,900 to her lowly 6,000. David Docherty is sat one table along, smiling a lot, and on 13,000. -- MC

2.35pm: Five-betting for fun
I've seen my first five-bet of the day... from under-the-gun+1 Daniel Haw min-raised to 300, next to act Andrew Grayson bumped it to 725 before the button cold four-bet to 1,525. Back on Haw he thought it out for a while, before five-betting to 4,000 total. Some tank time was needed by Grayson, but he folded and the button followed suit. -- NW

2.28pm: Back we go
Players are filtering back to their seats. Level three is about to start. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2.08pm: Break it up in there
We're 25% of the way through the day, time for a break. Patrick Clarke and David Wilkes are 100% through their day as they've already busted. -- MC

1.55pm: Chipping Norton
With a complete board of [7s][9h][Jc][4c][8d] on the felt, Ray Norton led for 1,800 into a pot of 2,550. His opponent* bumped it to 3,600 and Norton wasted little time in moving all-in for 9,650 total.

His, grimaced, looked back at his cards and then went into the tank. He stayed there for a not inconsiderable amount of time - I felt sure someone was going to call the clock - eventually he emerged and said to Norton: "Will you show if I fold or what?" Norton remained silent, eventually his opponent folded, showing the [10s] as he did so, Norton quietly slid his cards towards the muck as he claimed the pot.

*We've got a paper copy of a player list but it doesn't include all the players, as it covers just seats 1-6 at each table. We're hoping to get a complete player list with seat order once late registration closes. -- NW

1.45pm: Coren holds class
We're having similar problems as yesterday getting over to the far corner of the main tournament room, but it was worth squeezing through the tables as we found out that Nick Wealthall and Vicky Coren have each other for company.

There is a one player gap between them, and the player who's the filling to their sandwich, was having a rules of poker lesson from the Team PokerStars Pro.

He had intended to raise to 500 but threw out one 500 chip, deeming it a call only. Coren explained the rule to him, and play continued with three players calling. The flop came down king high and the action checked to our friend who threw out another 500 chips whilst saying, "Raise."

Lesson number two was quick in coming from Coren. All his opponents folded and he opened pocket kings for top set! -- MC

1.30pm: Chip counts
A samttering of chip counts from across the floors: Phil Baker (17,000), Emmett Mullin (24,000), Nick Wealthall (17,900), Vicky Coren (16,600), Jesse May (17,600), Fintan Gavin (23,000), Max Silver (9,500), Raj Verma (13,300), Dara O'Kearney (18,300), Brett Angell (18,000), David Docherty (15,875) and Sam Razavi (14,600). -- NW

1.20pm: Keeping up with the Joneses
James Keys and Rhys Jones have found themselves sat together and were busy chatting until silence fell while they played out a hand.

Jones raised from under the gun and Keys defended his big blind to see a [9d][6h][2d] flop fall down. Jones continued for 500 and called when Keys check-raised up 1,100. Keys stayed aggressive on the [5s] turn by betting 2,025, and took the pot as his bet had too much heat for Jones to handle.

Keys moved up to 16,100, whilst Jones dropped to 14,750. -- MC

1.10pm: Chip counts
Ok so we're only a level in but there's been some chip movement: Nick Abou Risk (7,000), Lee Atherton (15,600), Rupinder Bedi (14,900), Ross Jarvis (16,500) and Richard Evans (16,300). -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

1.04pm: Propping up the rest
There's upwards of ten tables set up on the bottom floor of the casino. Some of the tables are normally used for cash games, and some are in an adjacent room that has a red-coloured Asian theme.

We cast our eyes upon Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, David Docherty, Corey Desmond and David Rawnsley - all on separate tables. These tables will be the first to break. -- MC

12.55pm: Every level he's doubling
Alex Ferguson - who often leads the dancing to Everyday I'm Shuffling when the levels go up - has been busy doubling. He tweeted (@AlexFergielive): "UKIPT Newcastle. Played 1 hand in level & doubled. AJhh v QQ on xhhxh board. Let the run good continue!! #TeamGo0oT"

12.50pm: Some queuing, some wishing they still were
The players continue to form a queue at the registration desk as the stream of late entrants shows no sign of abating, 14 deep by my last count. Meanwhile I spotted Fintan Gavin taking his seat at Table 17 to be greeted by UKIPT winner Jamie Burland.

Gavin had stopped off on his way to his seat to chat to his friend James Walsh who's sat to the right of Sam Razavi, those three love a natter. As they were conversing poker journalist Alun Bowden turned to me and said: "I've done well with this draw haven't I!" He's not wrong. James Tomlin adds to the shark coefficient of that table. -- NW

12.41pm: Bad start for the double champ
Nick Abou Risk always comes into a UKIPT with confidence, and why wouldn't he? That confidence must have been knocked after a hand he tweeted about:

"Started #UKIPTGeordieShore w @chihaotsang at the table. Lost half my stack on 873ssTK w 33 v J9o already." -- MC

12.35pm: High Rollers
Not in that sense, more in the sense that the following people are in the upper tournament room and are therefore rolling, placing or throwing their chips over the betting line from a greater height: UKIPT3 Dublin winner Richard Evans is playing, he's hoping to go back to back and join the exclusive club of double UKIPT winners. One of only two men in that club - Nick Abou Risk - is also in the upper room as are: Ross Jarvis, Eb Razavi, George Clyde-Smith, Dave Maudlin, James Morris, David Lappin and Lee Atherton. -- NW

12.25pm: Step workout for us today!
The size of today's field means we're spreading to all corners of the casino. Tables have been set up over three floors, so no need for us to hit the gym this week (not like we do that anyway!).

There is still a queue at the registration desk meaning that many tables are playing short-handed for now. -- MC

12.15pm: Who's here
Ok so we haven't necessarily spotted these people yet - it's a bit of a throng down there - but there's talent from both sides of the pond here today. Players who are assumed playing today due to the player list include: Rupinder Bedi, Fintan Gavin, Kevin Williams, Fergal Nealon, Lee Atherton, Fergal Nealon, last year's runner-up Raj Verma, Dara O'Kearney and the legendary voice of poker Jesse May. Shut up and deal. -- NW

12.05pm: Cards are in the air
There is a still a queue of players waiting to get in the tournament, but this hasn't stopped our efficient Tournament Director starting today's proceedings. -- MC

11.40am: Tyne to go again
Welcome back for Day 1B of the UKIPT Newcastle leg, brought to you from Aspers casino. Yesterday 246 players got us warmed up for the busy day ahead of us today. We're expecting anywhere up to 450 players to turn up to begin a poker journey that they hope will end in individual glory come Monday.

Team PokerStars Pro are in the house today! Liv Boeree, Vicky Coren, and Jude Ainsworth will join former champions Sam Razavi, Max Silver, Jamie Burland, and Nick Abou Risk in a field that promises to be packed with talent.

The plan is the same as yesterday; eight one-hour levels, no dinner break, and in the pub by nine (if you like that sort of thing). Join us back here at 12pm when the cards will be in the air.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and their panic levels this morning Marc Convey (Huge panic - laptop issues, now resolved) and Nick Wright (chilled- slept in). Photos by Mickey May (mild anxiety - Jesse is playing the Main Event).

9.15pm: Done for the day
Players have bagged and tagged. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way. -- NW

9pm: Last three hands
The clock has been paused with 12 minutes remaining, each table will play three more hands before play concludes for the night. -- MC

8.55pm: Twitch saves Trigg some chips
David Trigg is cruising on around 55,000 chips and just had to fold in a hand he was grateful he didn't lose more.

As he went to open he noticed Paulius Anilionis make a little move to his right. Suspecting something was up Trigg changed his raise to a min raise, and sure enough, Anilionis moved all in behind him. The action was over there though as Darren Sweeney four-bet all in from one more seat along. Trigg was animated but ultimately folded.

Anilionis' pocket fives held against the ace-king of his opponent on the [7d][js][th][8d][4s] board. -- MC

8.40pm: One room
All the players are now on the same floor, with 30 minutes to go 198 players remain and the average stack is 27,600. -- NW

8.35pm: Fintan fails to fade it
And another UKIPT champion has been sent to the rail. Lovable Irishman Fintan Gavin the man to feel the icy breath of tournament death on his neck. He filled me in on his exit hand: "Me and another player (Ben Price) had been battling for a while - he's a good player - he was in the big blind so I've raised from a stack of 18,000 with [7c][5c], another player (Guido Braye) flat calls and Price then calls from the big blind.

'The flop comes down [K][6][3] with two clubs, Price leads out, I raise with my gutshot and flush draw then the other fella (Braye) goes all-in for 13,000, Price got out the way and I called. He's got pocket sixes, I made my flush on the turn, but he filled up on the river.'

That hand left Gavin with just 3,000 and he was out soon afterwards. -- NW

8.30pm: Late fallers
David Docherty, James Keys, Phil Toogood, Richard George, Kevin Frame, Raymond Slater, Daniel Kind, Kristian Linnell, Stanley Kock, Paul Williams, Adebayo Odetoyinbo, Paul Ruddy, Dale Gerrard. -- MC

8.20pm: Flip-flop
Anastasios Mastroudis and Jack McKenna got it all-in on a [6h][5h][4h] flop, with Mastroudis all-in for his final 8,050. When the cards were turned over it was a virtual flip:

Mastroudis: [Jh][10h] - 48.08% equity
McKenna: [7d][7h] - 51.91% equity

The [Kd] turn changed nothing but the [Jd] river gave the pot to Mastroudis and kept him in the tournament. -- NW

8.15pm: Cody busted; Walsh dents Razavi
Former UKIPT High-Roller champion Jake Cody is out. We caught up with him as he was heading out of the tournament floor and he said he re-shipped pocket three's into an opponent's pocket tens.

Sam Razavi is down to 21,000 after getting unlucky versus James Walsh. The former told us that he got it in with pocket queens to the Irishman's ace-queen and a ace hit the board. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600, 75

8pm: Blog by Twitter
Dan "@danielelder" Elder: "Bounced around upto 22k then down to 10k and now just busted a guy to clean double back to 20k. #yoyo #UKIPTNewcastle."

Alex "@AlexFergielive" Ferguson: "Moved table. Up to 49k-ish after bluff raising river on a 4d board." -- MC

7.55pm: Wealthall wamboozled
"You're in the wrong room," quipped a member of staff as Nick Wealthall wandered into the media room, this could only mean one thing - he was out. "An active player made it 800 to go, the button flat called from the button and I'm in the big blind with [A][K] and from a stack of 16,000 decide to three-bet to 2,300," he explained to me. "The original raiser then makes it 6,000 total, the button folds and I move all-in, he calls it off with pocket eights and holds. -- NW

7.50pm: Walsh didn't pull the trigger
James Walsh is in the danger zone after a hand versus Lee Atherton.

The flop was out and read [qh][5d][jh] and Walsh bet 3,000 from mid position, check-called by Atherton in the small blind. Atherton took up the reigns on the [th] turn when he led for 6,000. Walsh seemed not to like the situation he was in and stood out of his chair to survey the situation. Sam Razavi is sat in the next chair to Walsh and he had the chance to run two errands before Walsh decided to call.

The river fell [4h] and Walsh grabbed his stack in readiness to push it forward, all the time with a big smirk on his face. Atherton checked and Walsh opened [as][qd] for top pair, no good against the straight of Atherton with [ac][kd].

Atherton, who's up to 70,000 chips added, "Good job you checked, I'm folding to a shove." -- MC

7.35pm: It's a struggle
Those were the words from Jesse May's lips when I asked him how he was faring. The poker personality is slightly below average with a stack of 21,500, it's better than Dan Edler, who two seats to May's left, is nursing a stack of 15,000, back where he started some six and a bit levels ago.

Table one was the source of much entertainment yesterday, situated there right now are UKIPT Nottingham runner-up Brett Angell (70,000) and Dara O'Kearney (38,000). Last year's runner-up Raj Verma is going well he's up to 41,000 and Emmett Mullin, winner of UKIPT3 Galway has a similar stack size.

Sandwiched either side of those two - chip wise - are Fintan Gavin (18,000) and David Lappin (60,000) whilst UKIPT3 Dublin winner Ricahrd Evans has 30,275. -- NW

7.25pm: Who's got the Keys to the door of frustration?
The answer to that would be Jarl Wetteland, and the man frustrated was James Keys.

The two were heads up to the turn of a [3d][8c][5d][5h] board. Wetteland led for 2,100 and was called by Keys. The river brought the [qc] and Wetteland fired again, for 3,600. Keys flicked in the call and was shown [qd][7d].

Keys mucked and sort of laugh/grunted, either at his opponent or the way his day has gone. Even if it was the former he can't be too happy at the latter as he's down to around 5,000 chips. -- MC

7.10pm: Last two levels of the day
Play is back underway, players have to navigate two more levels to make it to Day 2. Currently 243 players are in with a shot of doing just that, the average stack is 22,500. -- NW

6.48pm: Break down
The last break of the day is upon us. See you back here soon.

6.47pm: Chung chipping up
I just saw Timothy Chung get four streets of value with one pair. The action was started by Daniel Tully who made it 600 to go, Chung three-bet to 1,700 and Tully made the call.

The flop fell [10c][Kd][2s] and Tully check-called a bet of 1,600. The [6s] hit the turn, check-call again, this time for 2,700. The [7s] completed the board and the pattern repeated itself, as Tully check-called a bet of 5,700 from Chung, the latter showed [Qh][Qd] and Tully mucked his hand. After that hand Chung is up to 45,000. --NW

6.45pm: Hope you didn't have money on these to win
The recently departed included: Trond Nordeo, Filip Hanusek, Pawel Boruta, Donald Elliot, Matti Hautanen, David Gallagher, Kevin Finnie, Ebrahim Razavi, Luke Josephs, Alex Evans, Steven Hamlani. -- MC

6.40pm: Tough times for Docherty
David Docherty is happy with the standard of play around him, just not the way he's running.

He opened to 700 and called when Stanley Kock three-bet to 1,350 from the small blind. The flop came down [4s][9h][qs] and Docherty snap folded when faced with a c-bet to drop to 6,000 in chips.

Kevin Monroe is sat at the same table and is loving life. He has a beer in his hand and a 75,000-chip stack. -- MC

6.30pm: Bedi buckarooing
A few stops ago the PokerStars blog bestowed the moniker 'buckaroo' on Rupinder Bedi such is the propensity for his chip stack to fluctuate up and down. Bedi, who has more cashes in UKIPT main events than anyone else, is at it again here in Newcastle. He was seen grinding a stack of 11,000 a short time ago but is now up to 28,000.

"I won the minimum with aces versus kings," me. "I opened, my opponent three-bet and he'd been doing it a lot so I just flatted. The flop came ace-high and I check-called the flop. He had 12,000 to start the hand and I think I got like three of it."

Despite that 'set back' he's back in the black. -- NW

6.20pm: Lovatt loving it
Sorry David Lappin (see 5.55pm post) we wrote too soon, the chip leader is actually Stephen Lovatt, he has a stack of 93,000. To put that into context that would've been good for third place overall at the end of Day 1A. He's still got two and a bit levels to spin it higher. -- NW

6.10pm: Coren canned
Vicki Coren has hit the rail but found it hard to leave the tournament room as she was stuck in the corner where many never return from.

The Team PokerStars Pro told us that she saw a [kh][9c][3c] with her [kc][8c]. It was almost a perfect flop except for the fact that her opponent had [kh][3c] for two pair. The board bricked out and that was that.

Jude Ainsworth is the only Team PokerStars Pro remaining now, on 27,000 chips. -MC

5.55pm: Chip leaders
The PokerStars blog received a tweet from David Lappin informing us that he had 55,000 and wondering if he was chip leader.

Well Mr Lappin I can tell you that as it stands yes you're. Other big stacks include: David Knight (52,000), Jussi Hakkanen (48,000) and Jonathan Gray (45,000). -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, 25

5.45pm: Short and not so sweet for Perrins
I was starting to think that Matt Perrins was in for a good day when I approached the table to see him open [ks][kc] in a pre flop showdown versus Dara O'Kearney and his [ah][qd]. Then the board ran [ac][3d][3s][th][7h] to bust him.

As he was leaving he told me he ran pocket queens in to an opponent's ace-queen less than ten minutes before. An ace appeared on the river that time! -- MC

5.30pm: More ins and outs
And we're one more UKIPT champion down, Max Silver the latest to fall: "Busto got up to 18k then flipped out JJ < AK." Meanwhile Fintan Gavin has dropped to 18,000, whilst Ross Jarvis is on 26,000 and Dan Edler has 13,000.

And David Lappin is potentially the chip leader as he has climbed to the dizzy heights of 55,000. -- NW

5.25pm: Chipped up and chipped out
Jake Cody's stack (9,000) is sliding down, Max Silver is chatting away not worrying too much about his stack (17,000), and Sam Razavi tried to trick us his stack (28,000) was in fact at the 100,000 level.

All are doing better that these poor fellows: Lars Torngren, Daniel Nutt, Cory Desmond, Fred Payne, Anthony Long, Denis Modic, Thomas High, Xia Ke, Dahe Liu, Adam Bilcock, Patrick Mcluskey, Kevin Asquith, Martin Stausholm, Daniel Hardy, Chris Murtagh, Simon Deadman, Chris Howden, Uros Krivec, Wayne Eustace, Karel Kratochvil, Mykhaylo Rashkovskiy, Fergal Nealon, Hamid reza rajabi Montazeri, Colette Murpy, William Quinonez and Christopher Whitnall. -- MC

5.10pm: Another UKIPT champion bites the dust
I noticed UKIPT Brighton winner Jamie Burland standing near the registration desk perusing a leaflet detailing the UKIPT Online schedule. He gave me the look that suggested he was out. "Fintan Gavin opened, he opens a lot," he told me. "The small blind (David Nuth) flat called and I look down at [10s][9s]. I've got 21 big blinds and move all-in. Fintan got out the way and I'm like 'great I'm wining this hand.

'The small blind thought for a while and then called with pocket tens, I was open-ended after the turn, but missed the river." -- NW

5pm: The voice of poker says he's all in
Jesse May was all in for his tournament life versus Daniel Tully, the latter couldn't find a call though.

Tully opened to 650 from mid position and called when May three-bet to 1,500 from the small bind. The flop fanned [ac][5c][8s] and May continued for 1,700. Tully tried his luck with a raise to 3,500 before admitting defeat when May shoved for 12,000. May up to around 19,000. -- MC

4.45pm: Let the second half begin
These are some of the players who will not be returning to play: Anthony Mcguckin, Dan Morgan, Robert Parkin, Fearghal Keane, Kostas Kallinitou, Suzanne Pyefinch, Nathan Horsley, Michael Hawkins, Chris Dowling, Craig Bennett, John Mitchell, Robert Csire, Ronnie Ballantyne, Alexander Goulding. -- MC

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and the Nandos heat level of choice Marc Convey (Extra hot, with regret) and Nick Wright (Mango-lime). Photos by Mickey May (Medium heat).

On a day when no one seemed to break away from the pack it's perhaps appropriate that the identity of the overnight chip leader wasn't decided until the clock had been paused and the final four hands announced.

When the leader did emerge though it was a familiar face, Brett Angell, runner-up at UKIPT2 Nottingham in February 2011, he bagged up 103,900 to lead a chasing pack that includes: Jussi Haakanen (91,400) Kevin Monroe (84,200) and Andreas Hansson (80,000).

That Angell, Monroe and Hansson are in their respective positions owes a lot to two big hands that happened right at the death. Angell got his boost when he flopped a full house with pocket nines on a [9d][2c][2s] board, his opponent held jacks and stacked off.

Meanwhile, Monroe, who had held the lead, was losing a third of his stack to Hansson. The latter flopped a set of eights on the [6h][Jd][8c] board, Monroe went to war with [J][2] a veritable knife at a gun fight.

Team PokerStars Pro were out in force today but it was a mixed day for those proudly patched up. Jude Ainsworth made it through the day with 47,100, he was never in trouble and appeared to coast through proceedings. "Yeah it was a pretty smooth day," he told me. "I was never below starting stack and was between 20 and 40 thousand all day. Luckily I hit my chip peak at the end." He'll be back for day two, but unfortunately the same can't be said of Liv Boeree and Vicky Coren.

For Boeree, the first of the fair maidens to bust, it was a slow dwindle until she was put out of her misery during level four: "I missed a gazillion draws," she said. "Then ran A-Q into aces for my last four thousand." Her frustrating day at the felt was echoed by Vicky Coren. Holding [Kc][8c] she flopped top pair and a flush draw on a [Kh][9c][3c] flop her opponent had top and bottom pair and Coren missed all her outs.

It was also a mixed day for the former UKIPT Champions in the field. Whilst Richard Evans (29,200) and Emmett Mullin (43,100) made it through to fight another day, Nick Abou Risk, Max Silver, Jamie Burland, Fintan Gavin and Sam Razavi all busted, with Razavi busting on the penultimate hand of the day.

The variance stick was kind to some: Lee Atherton (70,500), Rupinder Bedi (40,400) both built stacks, whilst others like Jesse May (13,500) live on but have work to do. At least they'll be back unlike such luminaries as Jake Cody, James Keys and Matt Perrins. All three busted, but their time on the UKIPT will surely come.

When play resumes tomorrow 273 players will be be back at the felt as the players from Day 1A and Day 1B combine. We expect to get somewhere close to the money and will bring you the payout structure when we have it. But for now we must bid you adieu. Play resumes at noon, we'll see you then.

Click the links below to catch up on the the day's poker:

Level 1 - 4 updates
Level 5 - 8 updates

All photos are copyright of Mickey May. She's learned a new word today and is positively "orgasmic" about it. Best steer clear.

4.20pm: News in brief
• Last year's WSOP November niner Sam Holden is still in, he's short though having just 20,000. He's on the same table as Andrew Robson who has 155,000
• With Emmett Mullin's elimination it means Ricahrd Evans is the only former winner still in. The man from Portmeirion is trundling along on 33,100, about half the average.
• Steven Warburton is on 110,000

The players are now on a 15 minute break you'll find level 13 updates in a new post. -- NW

4.15pm: Falling like flies
We're down to 144 players already, mainly because these players were eliminated:
William Elliot (aces cracked by sixes), Garis Alexandrou, Dara O'Kearney, Emett Mullin, Shifaaz Taus, David Kilmartin, Dean Raymond Wnder, David Neil Rawnsley, Jason Williams, Ian Modder, David Nuth, Seamus Devlin, Keith Summers, Timothy O'Neill, John Mcauley, Iftikhar Ali, Domonic Cugudda, Chris Wood, Renee Yuchen Xie, Ian Russell Burdon, Jonathan Beck, Vikram Vankayalapati, Barry Foley, John Bousfield, Joseph Maitz, Andrew Dwyer, Thomas Getgood, Vilius Urbaitis and Gary Roberts. -- MC

4.05pm: Grafton bluffs, busts
Sam Grafton would prefer to go out bluffing than to blind away, and that's exactly how he busted.

His brother, Ben, informed us that he bluffed into the new chip leader, Saulius Tumosa (210k now), on the turn in a three-way pot; the latter called with top pair.

Sam explained himself on Twitter: "Pittsed it off pretty bad in a spewey/slash annoying spot. Great town tho, won't miss this leg again. #UKIPT." -- MC

3.50pm: Chip counts
Some chip counts from around the room: Jamie Ellwood (27,000), Neil Rawnsley (40,000), Ben Grafton (35,000), Anders Hansson (80,000), Oliver Prior (100,000), Francis Lacken (62,000), Jussi Hakkanen (70,000), Khadir Khoshawy (60,000), Lee Atherton (90,000), Alan Tinlin (120,000), Brett Angell (200,000), Dara O'Kearney (17,000), Saulius Tumosa (1200,000), Willian Cheung (130,000) and Ross Jarvis (27,000). -- NW

3.40pm: Your time's up, you got to go
Jeff Kimber, Robert Mercer, Oliver Bibby, John Rigolli, Oliver Justin Prior, David Maudlin, Ben Jackson, Jonathan David Rees, Luke Haward, Paul Housam, Marc Grand, Jarl Sigve Wetteland, Martin Foord, Mark Wagstaff, Daniel Tully, Jonathan Osborne, Jack Mckenna, Alan Brown, Gregory Laurence Chambers, Michael Jones, Ronald Patrick Lawton, Adam MacGuinness and Bart Besselink. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600 ante 200

3.25pm: Results orientated comedy gold from Asif Warris
Asif Warris was involved in a hand that he ultimately folded in, but his following commentary had me and some of his table mates in hysterics.

Warris opened to 2,600 from mid position and saw a player move all-in behind for 26,000 from the cut-off, and another player snap cold-call for 60% of his stack from the small blind. Warris procrastinated for a while but admitted he gave so much away about his hand that he had to fold. He threw his ace-queen down on the table and saw his opponent's open [as][jc] and [ah][9s] respectively.

"Oh, f##k-off, will you?" he semi-vented in his broad Midlands accent.

The board then ran out [td][8h][js][jh][6s] to make trips for the all in player.

Warris, who had and was still stood out of his seat, piped up again with, "Oh, how clever am I? What a great fold by me!" He sat back down, smiling, as if he had won the hand himself. -- MC

3.15pm: Frustration for Lappin
One poker skill that you can't teach is winning flips, and unfortunately for David Lappin, he doesn't seem to be winning his fair share today. "This is getting dumb. AQ<99 versus another <20bb stack. 38k. 0/4 in 145k worth of flips today," he tweeted. -- NW

3.05pm: Atherton on the slide
Things aren't going so great for Lee Atherton this level. The Mancunian is having a great UKIPT season though having finished 15th in Nottingham and 8th in Dublin. Two tweets tell the tale: "Down to 90k, missed a big draw...Make that 80k. One of tourney leaders, being a thorn in the side."

Despite those couple of hiccups Atherton is still above the average which is 49,400, 189 players remain. -- NW

2.55pm: Squid loses some ink
I just saw Sam 'The Squid' Grafton lose a chunk of chips to Gary Phillips. There was an open to 2,600, Grafton three-bet to 5,800 and Phillips then moved all-in for 23,000. The initial raiser got out the way, but after getting a count Grafton made the call.

Phillips: [As][Qc]
Grafton: [Ad][Jc]

The board ran [10c][2s][Qs][4d][8d] to give Phillips a double up, whilst Grafton slipped to 60,000. -- NW

2.45pm: The tournament's six-figure stacks
Brett Angell, 174,000
Rajesh Verma, 155,000
David Reed, 142,000
Kevin Killeen, 130,000
Willian Cheung, 130,000
Stephen Odysseas, 1250,00
Kevin Monroe, 1200,00
Steven Warburton, 120,000
David Knight, 115,000
Neil Walker, 105,000

2.40pm: The demise of Timotheou
I figured the demise of overnight chip leader Timotheos Timotheou and Raj Verma's ascent to second in the chip counts were linked, given that Verma was sat to the left of Timotheou today. The UKIPT2 Newcastle runner-up told me: "I took him out, but he was down to 25,000 by that point. He shoved with [5][4] and I called with [A][8] and held.

Dan Edler is also out, he only had 4,000 coming back from the break though so his demise is not as unexpected. -- NW

2.35pm: These players failed to make it to level 11:
Overnight chip leader Timotheos Timotheou along with Dean Lyall, Sean Eden, Kerry Taylor, Richard Haile, Dwayne Stacey Arron W, Dariusz Ciemała, Hafpor Sigmundsson, Andrew Hall, Kevin Wibberley, Russell Skivington, Paul Hempseed, Alex Zeligman, Sunil Mistri, Anthony Fox, John Littewood, Erik Sturkenboom, Rupinder Bedi, Robert Bull, Dave Penman, Stephen Lacey and Michael Ainsworth. -- MC

2.30pm: Mullin takes a hit
Just before the break I saw Emmett Mullin take a hit. He fired out a bet of 6,500 on the river of a [Ad][Kh][9d][Jh][6h] board holding [Ah][10d], his opponent Benjamin Senior, made the call with [As][Js]. After that hand Mullin is down to 23,000. -- NW

2.20pm: Chip leaders
The current chip leader is Brett Angell who has 174,000, his closest challenger is Raj Verma who has 155,000. Both Angell and Verma have finished runner-up in a UKIPT main event but are going the right way about going one better. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 100

2.05pm: Fancy a breather?
We all do, let's take 15 minutes.

2pm: Walsh wastes away
The tournament is a sadder place after the elimination on the ever-smiley, James Walsh.

He three-bet all in for his last 8,600 after Paul McTaggart opened to 2,000. Call.

Walsh: [as][8c]
McTaggart: [qc][jh]

The board ran [2s][qs][4s][4d][kd] to pair the Scotsman's queen. McTaggart up to 51,000 or thereabouts. -- MC

1.45pm: Ainsworth gets paid
I joined the action at Table 15 to see Team PokerStars pro Jude Ainsworth involved in a big pot. He informed me after the hand that he had raised pre-flop from middle position, his opponent Andrew Hall had called and both players had checked the flop. I caught the action live from the turn - the board was [9d][6s][Qh][Jc], Hall led for 3,100 into a pot of 6,100 and Ainsworth smooth called.

The [Qs] completed the board, Hall fired again, this time for 5,400, after getting confirmation of the bet Ainsworth made it 13,000, Hall then moved all-in for around 35,000 total and Ainsworth made the call and showed [Jh][Jd] for jacks full. A couple of seconds later Hall turned his hand over to reveal [9s][9c] for a smaller full house and a pretty brutal cooler to end his tournament.

Afte that hand Ainsworth has climbed to around 100,000. -- NW

1.35pm: So long, farewell
Day 2 dreams over for: Stephen Dunnett, James Kerrane, Ian Keltie, J Fenwick, Dave Penman, Robert Charlton, Stephen Dunnett, Daniel Robertson, Daniel Charlton, Magyar István, Neil Raine, Richard Dalberg, Andrew Wilson, Jonathan Lundy, Niels Meibom-Larsen, Chris Hawking, Colin Eric Lovelock, Daniel Blake, Jarmo Muru, KK Verma, Lukas Zimakoff, Gary Thompson, Ben Jenkins, Owen Fenwick, Spyros Mouzoura, Robert Malvasi, Darren Sweeney, Stuart Schabram, Lukasz Robert Roczniak, Graeme Crozier, Nicholas Weaver, Sebastian Saffari, Mike Panteli, Luke Grant, Owen Shiels, Joe Hindry, Barrie Aspinall, Martin Mulsow, Terry Plummer, Oluwashola Bolawole Akindele, Jack Ellwood, Ryan Tadhg, Rik Kamminga, Gregory Cooke, Dominic Mahoney, Sajevics Peter, David O'Meara, Don Visser, Dave Hulmes, Paul Conway, Lee Cockroft and Michael Taylor. -- MC

1.20pm: One Ellwood down
Everyone's EV just went up a bit as Jack Ellwood has just busted out from UKIPT Newcastle, he tweeted: "Dream is over, 66 could not get there v JJ. Gl to all the heroes still in."

225 players still in though, average stack is 41,600.-- NW

1.15pm: News from upstairs
There's four make that three tables still in use upstairs. Brett Angell - who's had a small uptick to 125,000 - was busy racking his chips as Rupinder Bedi was involved in a hand one table along.

On a flop of [10c][5d][Qh] Bedi had checked to Neil Walker, he fired out a bet of 3,000, Bedi check-raised to 6,500, Walker made it 15,000, Bedi moved all-in and after stacking up his chips Walker called all-in for 40,600 total.

Bedi: [Kc][Jc]
Walker: [Ks][Qs]

Turn: [Qd]
River: [5s]

Walker's hand held and Bedi is down to around 13,000. -- NW

1.10pm: Twitter News
Alex "@AlexFergieLive" Ferguson: "Busto! Lost massive flip. C/o v BB for 110bb pot aipf! AQs v TT. The Ts held! Sigh!"

Dara "@daraokearney" O'Kearney: "Slow first level. Got moved to new table featuring @keiththecamel. Just under 30k/30 bigs #UKIPTGeordieShore." -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1000, 100

1.02pm: Edler Slipping
Dan Edler has the size of stack that needs to be played with care and attention, and that is even more true after he lost a pot to Gavin Kan.

Edler opened to 1,800 and bet 1,800 on the flop, 2,800 on the turn before both checked the river. The final board read [8h][3h][2c][7s][td] and Elder opened [6s][6c]. It was no good though as Kan bettered him with [9h][7h] for a turned pair. Edler is down to 14,000. -- MC

12.55pm: McTaggart at the double
An early double up for Paul McTaggart here in Newcastle, he tweeted: "Doubled to 32k JJ v 42hh, 4 in the window for sweats." -- NW

12.45pm: Grafton gets one through
As if table 10 wasn't already tough enough, UKIPT2 Newcastle runner-up Raj Verma has been plonked to the left of chip leader Timotheos Timotheou. The two of them wasted no time in getting involved in a hand. From under-the-gun Timotheou raised to 1,700, Verma three-bet to 3,800 and action passed to Sam Grafton.

After a brief dwell Grafton moved all-in for 21,100, Timotheou fast folded, Verma took his time but he too eventually pitched his hand into the muck. -- NW

12.40pm: Bowden Busts
Poker journalist Alun Bowden popped by the press room to inform us of his demise.

Steven Warburton just joined his table with around 80,000 chips and the two of them took a [2][3][5] flop where all the chips went in. Bowden had 36,000 at the start of the hand so the pot had swelled to more than 70,000. Bowden opened pocket fours for a pair and opened ended straight draw. He was in trouble though as Warburton had pocket fives for a set and improved to a full house as the board paired. Warburton is up with the chip leaders now. -- MC

12.27pm: Tough tables
Here's some of the choice line-ups that the random table draw has created:

Table 4 - Lee Atherton, Dean Lyall and Kevin Monroe
Table 10 - Jon Lundy, Sam Grafton, Ben Grafton and Timotheos Timotheou
Table 12 - Emmett Mullin, Dan Edler and Devron Hasslenook
Table 27 - Scott Shelley, Richard Evans, Paul McTaggart and Alun Bowden

We suggest the other players at table 10 might want to stick their headphones in! -- NW

12.23pm: May's lost his tournament voice
Jesse May didn't last too long today. He came back with 13,500 and he opened shoved most of that amount with pocket sevens. Scott Shelley was in the next seat and re-shoved with pocket nines, which held. -- MC

12.15pm: Money money money
Want to know how much the winner of UKIPT3 Newcastle will be getting his or her mitts on? Of course you do, the winner is going to pocket a wallet busting £105,900. In total 72 players will get paid with a min-cash good for £1,100. To see the entire payout structure click here. -- NW

12.05pm: Cards are in the air
Most of the players are in their seats and action is under way. -- MC

11.40pm: All remaining players gather for UKIPT Newcastle, Day 2
For many the tournament starts here. The remaining 273 players have navigated the equivalent of getting through the tricky first round of major tennis championship, are more settled, and focused on the task ahead.

For the first time all the players are under the same roof, but again they'll be spread over two or three different floors until we lose enough players to all be in the main room. Timotheos Timotheou finished Day 1A as chips leader and he saw off all Day 1B pretenders to come into today as the man to catch still. Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth had a rock-solid first day and comes back with 47,100.

Play is due to start at 12pm local time and the plan, for now, is to play eight one-hour levels with no dinner break.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.

9.10pm: Play is over for the day
Players have bagged and tagged their chips and have made the arduous* journey to Tiger Tiger for the players party. The chip leader overnight is David Reed who has 363,500, he more than doubled up on the very last hand. Details on that and the rest of today's play coming right up. During the last 14 minutes 10 players busted in frenzied end to the day, you can see the payouts here.

* the party is being held next door so this may not be true. -- NW

8.50pm: Last four hands
The clock has been stopped and each table will play four more hands before bagging up and heading to the party. -- MC

8.40pm: Paul McTaggart bubbles UKIPT Newcastle
The unlucky bubble boy here in Newcastle is Paul McTaggart, he was eliminated by Sam Holden. From the cut-off Holden made it 8,000 to go, McTaggart moved all-in for 45,500 from the big blind and Holden made the call.

There was then a wait whilst the rest of the tables finished their hands, Holden looked very relaxed, lent back in his chair, legs resting on the empty seat next to him. His sanguine demeanor, became apparent when the cards were turned over, Holden had [Ad][Ah], whilst McTaggart held [6d][6s]. The [4c][5c][Kh] flop gave McTaggart a back door draw or two, the [8s] turn gave him a guthshot to go with his pair outs, but the [9c] completed the board.

Everyone left in is now guaranteed £1,100, there's 14 minutes left in this level, when it finishes play will be done for the day. -- NW

8.25pm: The bubbles goes on and on
Apologies for the radio silence, we've been down on the tournament floor watching hand-for-hand play and we dare not miss the bubble hand.

There have been a few all in showdowns but none have been resulted in an elimination. The most notable name at risk was Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth; his pocket queens held against the pocket sevens of an opponent.

More details to follow. -- MC

8pm: Eliminations, huge pots and the bubble

Mohammed Latif was very unlucky to be eliminated in 76th place by Christopher McNicholls. A cooler of a hand saw the former's kings get cracked by the latter's ace-king.

As that was happening Andrew Booth was eliminated in 75th place.

Cathal Shine took down what was probably the biggest pot of the tournament so far when his pocket aces helped him to double his 150,400 stack up through his neighbour Christopher McNicholls, who held pocket kings. The latter had just finished stacking the chips he won off Latif. Easy come, easy go.

Ben Price was the soft bubble boy after he called all-in for his last 25,000 with [as][6h] from the big blind after Ugnius Simelionis had set him from the small blind. The latter held pocket three that safely navigated the [qh][9h][qs][2h][7s] board. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 2,000-4,000, 400

7.45pm: 74 left...
With 72 get paid, with one more elimination we'll be on the bubble. Squeaky bum time. -- NW

7.40pm: McTaggart doubles up
A timely double up for Paul McTaggart, he shoved all-in from the small blind for 42,100 over the top of a 8,000 button raise from Willian Cheung, after getting a count of the all-in Cheung called the extra to put McTaggart at risk.

McTaggart: [As][Kc]
Cheung: [9h][9c]

The [2s][Ks][6c] flop gave McTaggart the lead and he stayed in front on the [10d] turn and [Qh] river, Cheung slips to 150,000.

Meanwhile, Severin Schleser and Sean Robertson got short stack three-bet shoves through and are on 95,000 and 48,000 respectively. -- NW

7.30pm: Stalling for the money?
We just witnessed Kevin Monroe take 15 minutes to make a decision pre-flop. Just a few places off the money, are we going to see stalling tactics come into play?

There was an early position raise to 8,000 before Monroe three-bet to 19,500 from the small blind. His opponent then moved all in for 121,000.

The decision was back on the Irishman and he was in no hurry. He stood, he talked, he talked and he thought. There were no really big stacks at the table so no one was going to call the clock on him. After more than 15 minutes he finally released his hand.

As this hand was going on Mitchell Johnson was very unlucky to bust from the adjacent table. His jacks were cracked by Barry McMahon's pocket sixes that made a straight to the six. The latter is up to 320,000 now.

Just 76 players remain, meaning four more players will leave empty-handed. -- MC

7.20pm: Chips
With less than 10 players needed to be eliminated to burst the bubble, Tom Ward (56,000), Paul McTaggart (49,000) and Steven Warburton (42,000) look like they're going to be hugging the bubble. Whilst Kevin Monroe (130,000) and Gary Oakes (120,000) have a bit more breathing space. -- NW

7.10pm: Set over set sickener for Reed
There was already around 50,000 in the pot by the time I got to the table. The hand was at the turn, with a [7s][9d][4h][Kc] board on the felt. A flurry of bets and raises from Alan Reed and Mark Buckley saw Buckley all-in for 85,400.

Reed: [4s][4c]
Buckley: [9c][9h]

The [5h] river was not the one out that Reed needed and he was left with just 13,000, whilst Buckley climbs to around 225,000. -- NW

7pm: Close but no cigar for....
David Cooke, Noel Jayapaul, Jun Lau, Kristian Svendsen, Gundars Mangulis, Anastasios Mastroudis, Jonny Swan, Ricky Vedhara, Ralph Thompson, Stephen Liu, Darren Fuller, Benjamin Senior, Adrian Ko, Devron Hasselnook, Yigit Isilsoy and Tim Davie. -- MC

6.50pm: Chip leaders
Tournament staff did chip counts of the big stacks during the break, here's the chip leaders as we get towards the bubble:

Saulius Tumosa - 300,000
Alexander Jobling - 275,000
Kevin Killeen - 270,000
Barry McMahon - 270,000
Brett Angell - 250,000
Timothy Chung - 250,000

Also Sam Holden - who had less than 20,000 two levels ago - now has 201,500. That's some spin up. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,500-3,000 ante 300

6.35pm: Break time
That's six of the eight allotted levels done and dusted. The 84 remaining players are now on their third 15 minute break of the day. -- NW

6.30pm: Killeen-ing up
Kevin Killeen is up to around 280,000 after seemingly out-playing Francis Lacken whilst out of position.

He opened to 4,800 from under the gun and was only called by Lacken two seats along. The flop fanned [qc][9d][qd] and Killeen continued for 5,400. Call.

The turn brought a dangerous looking [kd] and Killeen checked to face a relatively large 18,000 bet from Lacken. Killeen looked at his opponent's remaining stack (44,000) and moved all in. Lacken didn't have the goods and folded. -- MC

6.20pm: Eight is great
All tables are now playing, at most, eight handed. Should speed the action up a touch. Although things are moving reasonably swiftly as it is, just 94 remain (72 get paid) and the average stack is 99,400. -- NW

6.10pm: Power shortage
The latest player to fall is Conor Power, he moved all-in for around 25,000 with [Ac][10d], Dan Hemingway - who had raised to 6,000 - called off the extra with pocket fives.

The [9c][2s][Ks][6d][8h] board gave the pot to Hemmingway, he's at the same table as chip leader Saulius Tumosa (297,000) and Kevin Killeen (230,000). -- NW

6.05pm: Double elimination
Nicholas Weaver and Jonny Swan both fell in the same hand to Chris Ferguson (not that one!), who's moved up to around 120,000 chips.

Weaver was under the gun and very short-stacked so moved all in. The action folded around to Ferguson who called off the button, and he called once more when the, also, short-stacked Swan moved in from the small blind.

Weaver: [kd][5c]
Ferguson: [9s][9c]
Swan: [3c][3h]

The board ran [9h][jd][6c][ac][kh] to settle it. -- MC

5.50pm: All the single ladies
There's just one lady remaining in the tournament out of the final 100 or so players. Emma Jones is that lady, she's got around 50,000 so could do with a double up. -- NW

5.40pm: Old school grinder
Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins is perhaps the most notable name left in the field. He's been playing poker since before many in the field were born, the man has Hendon Mob database results from the 20th century for god sakes.

He's also doing a passable impression of another old school grinder - Mickey Wernick - in this tournament. I don't think I've seen Hawkins above average the entire tournament, in fact he came back today with 13,300, less than he started Day 1B with. He's currently on 80,000, which is just below the average of 86,500. -- NW

5.35pm: No longer with us
Level 14 may have started, but it has started without these poor souls: George B Dickson, Saulius Slavinskas, Rajesh Verma, Thore Nordbo, Ross Jarvis, Mateusz Matla, Mateusz Matla, Darren Ward, Aryan Virabi, Guido Braye, Gary Copeland, Gunnar Forus, Ben Grafton, Kane Thomason, Adam Churcher, Paul Skipper, Steven Henderson, Graeme Morl, Alan Vinnicombe, Patrick Thompson, Richard Evans, Khadir Khoshawy, James Cummings, Tim Hickling, David Trigg, Nils Petter Kalberg, Jamie Ellwood, Adam Matues, Peter Murphy and Paul Adams. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,200-2,400, 300

5.25pm: Quads elementary, dear Watson
It's always nice to flop quads so one can relax through the turn and river. Kevin Monroe opened to 5,700 and slammed in a stack of blues (like he had aces) after Nathan Watson moved all in for 32,200 from the big blind.

Watson opened [qs][qh] and Monroe commented, "Oh, you're ahead!" As he flipped up [6c][6s].

The flop came [qd][7h][qc] and Monroe added, "I think you're in front!" The board ran out [5d][3h] and Monroe is down to 105,000 chips. -- MC

5.15pm: State of play
There are currently 118 players left and the average stack is 79,200. Tournament director Toby Stone told me that players will play a minimum of eight levels today (this is the fifth) and if, at the end of eight levels, the bubble is close to bursting then play will continue until it has. -- NW

5.10pm: Last champion down
There will be a new name added to the list of UKIPT champions as Richard Evans, the last remaining champion in the field has been eliminated. "I cocked up he told me," drink in hand on the rail. "It's folded to me in the small blind and I've got [Ah][2h] I've said call, but I haven't seen there's been a raise in front of me, so instead of just calling the big blind I've got to put another 3,000 in.

'Had I seen the raise I'd have just mucked, but the flop comes down with two hearts on it. I check shoved, my opponent (Anthony Shields) had queens and they held." -- NW

5pm: Top Ten Counts
Brett Angell, 230,000
Tom Ward, 210,000
Timothy Chung, 200,000
Kevin Monroe, 190,000
Barry McMahon, 180,000
Gary Oakes, 150,000
Ashfaaq Taus, 145,000
Willian Cheung, 143,000
Andrew Robson, 140,000
Michael Huber , 130,000
--MC

4.45pm: Angell still flying high
The chip leader is still Brett Angell, the 'Boro boy has a stack of 230,000. He's at the same table as Jude Ainsworth and Graeme Morl (60,000). -- NW

4.35pm: Hey Jude
Shortly before the break the table that Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth was sat at was broke, as he racked up his stack of 130,000 I took the opportunity to quiz him on how he got from 100,000 to 130,000 (see post at 1.45pm for how he got to 100,000)"No major pots, the biggest one I won was when I opened with [K][J] a fella shoved for eight big blinds with [A][2] and I called and hit a jack."

Ainsworth is yet to cash in a main event on the UKIPT tour but he's looking good to break that duck. -- NW

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and their enthusiasm for tonight's player party Marc Convey (tigerish) and Nick Wright (minimal). Photos by Mickey May (once out drank an entire Kibbutz but is apparently only going to take photos)

Today UKIPT Newcastle had it all: a mass of eliminations, huge coolers, and a long bubble period to finish the day off with pure tension. Play resumed at midday with 273 players, and from the off players were flying out of the door. Day 2 is often seen as moving day as players try to build a stack and move up through the counts. The player who moved most successfully to end the day as chip leader was David Reed, who more than doubled up on the last hand of the night. Reed had [A][K] and got involved in a three-way all-in. His opponents held pocket jacks and [K][6] respectively, a king on the flop saw him eliminate both players and scoop a pot that propelled him to the top of the standings with 363,500.

Chasing his tail tomorrow will be the likes of Barry McMahon (348,500), Brett Angell (336,000), Jude Ainsworth (237,500), Sam Holden (207,000), Keith Hawkins (119,500), Alex Jobling (320,000), Miles McKenzie (313,000) and Cathal Shine (310,500).

For these players to get the chips they have, players have to bust. Jesse May, Alun Bowden, Alex Ferguson, Jack Ellwood and Dara O'Kearney were early causalities while other players like Holden and Hawkins reversed their fortunes of Day 1 and started to make comebacks.

By the time we got to the last level of the day we had reached the bubble. It was an extremely tense period as all players at risk, for a while, managed to hang around - much to the disappointment of all the remaining short stacks. Ainsworth had two different flights booked to go home tonight, just in case he didn't make it through the day. The Team PokerStars Pro was 1/5 shot to make the second flight after he found himself all in with [qd][qs] versus an Stephen Lovatt's [7d][7c]. The board ran out [2h][jc][3s][ks][9c] meaning he'll have to book a third flight now!

The last level of the day was nearing its end and the tournament was at risk of playing on through another level to ensure the bubble burst. Unfortunately for Paul McTaggart, he became the bubble boy and no extra level was needed. He three-bet all in with [6d][6s] over an opening raise from Holden, who made an easy call with [ah][ad]. The board didn't come to his rescue and the other 72 players in the room were happy at being guaranteed an £1,100 payday.

There was still time for a few more bust outs before play ended for today (see where they finished here). The remaining 62 players will return at 12pm local time tomorrow where play will resume, and continue, until out final table of eight is reached. The Day 3 seat draw can be viewed by clicking here. It's time for us to hit the official PokerStars party and make sure a certain Mr. McTaggart has a pint in his hand.

Missed today's play? Click below to see what happened:

Level 9 - 12 updates
Level 13 - 16 updates

Photos are copyright of Mickey May. She'll have her camera on her all night tonight and is not afraid to use it as a weapon.

4.30pm: Recent Exits

Players are now on a 20 minute break, here's the most recent exits. You'll find level 21 updates in a new post.

21st. Willian Chung, United Kingdom, £3,050
22nd. David Reed, United Kingdom, £2,400
23rd. Gary McCoy, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,400
24th. Jude Ainsworth, Ireland, Team PokerStars pro, £2,400
25th. Gavin Kan, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,400
26th. Timothy Chung, United Kingdom, £2,400
27th. Steffen Gjelseth, Norway, £2,400

4.25pm: Jussi Häkkänen doubles through Alex Jobling
Jussi Häkkänen three-bet all-in for 202,000 with [Ks][10d] and Alex Jobling made the call with [Ad][Qh]. A [2h][Jc][Kd][6s]Qh] board kept the Finn in. -- NW

4.22pm: Reed bust; more chips for Sambrook
Jack Sambrook.is up to around 850,000 after eliminating over night chip leader David Reed in a 600,000 pot. It all went in pre-flop with Reed holding [A][K] to Sambrook's [A][J], however a jack on the river sent the pot Sambrook's way and Reed is out in 22nd.

Willian Chung has been eliminated in 21st place, [A][Q] into the pocket kings of Alex Jobling. -- NW

4.20pm: Not the real McCoy
All Gary McCoy could do to survive at the end was get his chips in good. He managed to do that but was still eliminated by Jack Sambrook.

The aggressive Sambrook opened to 22,000 from the button and called when McCoy moved all in for 88,000 from the small blind.

McCoy: [ad][5d]
Sambrook: [qd][th]

The board ran [js][qh][8h][3s][6d] to pair Sambrook's queen. McCoy took his defeat like a sportsman and wished everyone luck before departing. -- MC

4.15pm: Final three tables

Below is the seat draw for the final three tables.

Table One:

Seat One: David Reed
Seat Two: Barry McMahon
Seat Three: Dan Hemingway
Seat Four: Saulius Tumosa
Seat Five: Ben Senior
Seat Six: Akshay Reddy
Seat Seven: Jack Sambrook
Seat Eight: Gary McCoy

Table Two:

Seat One: Anthony Shields
Seat Two: Matthias Mordhorst
Seat Three: Chris Ferguson
Seat Four: Sam Holden
Seat Five: Ewan Brown
Seat Six: Kevin Killeen
Seat Seven: Ashfaaq Taus
Seat Eight: Brett Angell

Table three:

Seat One: Willian Cheung
Seat Two: Alex Jobling
Seat Three: Jason Cockburn
Seat Four: David Knight
Seat Five: Empty
Seat Six: Jussi Häkkänen
Seat Seven: Kevin Monroe
Seat Eight: Ian Burdon

4.10pm: Knight turns into day for David
David Knight thought he was out of the door after he three-bet all in with [ad][8s] over the top of Alex Jobling's raise was called. The latter tabled [qh][qs] but couldn't stay ahead of his opponent on a [tc][7s][9h][6d][ah] board.

Knight is up to 115,000 chips after making a straight. -- MC

4pm: Jude Ainsworth eliminated in 24th place (£2,400)
No sooner had they re-drawn to three tables then the last remaining Team PokerStars Pro - Jude Ainsworth - was eliminated.

The Irishman told me: "There had been a raise and a call before the button (Jason Cockburn) re-raised. I'm in the big blind and find [Ad][Kd], so move all-in for 16 big blinds and he called with queens and that was the end of my Newcastle UKIPT.

Seat draw of the final three tables is on its way. -- NW

3.55pm: Another huge pot from table one busts Chung
Most of the biggest pots today have come from table one, and another just occurred. We wrote a hand earlier that involved Timothy Chung and Chris Ferguson, which might go along way to explain the former's exit.

We missed the action but were informed that Chung raised and called when Ferguson three-bet from the small blind. The flop came queen high and there was a c-bet and call before the rest of the chips went in on a blank turn.

Chung opened pocket jacks but was behind to Ferguson's ace-queen. Ferguson is up to 1,150,000 chips as a result.

The tournament is down to 24 players remaining and a full redraw is in progress. We'll post that draw shortly. -- MC

3.45pm: Re-draw at 24
We've been informed that they'll be a complete re-draw at 24 players, this is a new rule in all live PokerStars tournaments. According to Tournament Director Toby Stone this is to 'mix up the luck,' late in tournaments. 27 players remain right now, these are the players to bust in the last hour:

28th. Anders Sanchez, £1,960
29th. Lee Dixon, United Kingdom, £1,960
30th. Lee Atherton, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,960
31st. Giannis Drousiotis, Cyprus, £1,960
32nd. Jakub Kyrian, Czech Republic, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,960
33rd. Michael Huber, Austria, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,960

3.35pm: Ainsworth eliminates a man
Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is back up to around 160,000. He eliminated a shortstacked Steffen Gjelseth to get back in it. Ainsworth had pocket fives, Gjelseth [K][J] and Ainsworth flopped a set of fives to eliminate the Norwegian.

And soon after he open shoved and got no callers to pick up more valuable chips. - NW

3.30pm: Ainsworth crippled
Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth dropped down to 63,000 chips after his [kc][kh] was beaten by Timothy Chung's [as][ts].

There was a lot of raises pre flop that saw them both all in. The board ran out [jc][jh][ad][5c][3d] to make Chung a full house. Chung up to 450,000 chips. -- MC

3.20pm: Holden flushed with chips
It's an ominous sign for the rest of the field that Sam Holden is working his way up through the chip counts (around 500k).

He opened from the cut-off and Barry McMahon defended his big blind and went on to check-call 18,000, 40,000 and 90,000. The final board read [qs][qc][9s][5s][7d] and Holden opened [js][2s] for a flush. McMahon mucked and dropped own to 136,000. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 5,000-10,000 ante 1,000

3.10pm: Real McCoy
Gary McCoy just won a flip with [10s][10c] against Andres Sanchez who held [Qd][Jh], a eight high board reduced Sanchez to less than one big blind, which went in blind from the big blind next hand.

Sam Holden three-bet pre to 36,000 with pocket kings, which were way ahead of Sanchez's [Qs][2h]. The board ran out [Jh][Ah][Js][3h][4s] to send Sanchez crashing out. -- NW

3pm: Ainsworth chugging along
Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is still chugging along, he has 320,000 which is right about average. He's not got the kindest of table draws though. To his direct right is Timothy Chung (300,000) a player Jesse May described as an, 'absolute animal' after playing with him on Day 1.

To Ainsworth's direct left is David Reed (400,000) and one seat further to the left is Chris Ferguson, who sits second in chips on 920,000. -- NW

2.55pm: Wide range for Ferguson
Chris Ferguson is up to 920,000 chips after taking a big pot off Timothy Chung with a weak holding that hit big.

Around 90,000 had made it into the middle before both players checked the [4d][2c][5h] flop. The turn and river came [2s][js] and Chung check-called both streets, the last bet being 80,000.

Before Chung called on the river he asked Ferguson if he had king-two suited or aces. He wasn't far off as Ferguson opened [ks][2d] for trips and the pot as Chung mucked. -- MC

2.45pm: Today's exits
The first two levels saw 28 players bust out, here's whose finished where so far today:

34th. Neil Walker, United Kingdom , PokerStars Qualifier, £1,960
35th. Miles McKenzie, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £1,960
36th. Andrew Robson, United Kingdom,PokerStars Player, £1,960

37th. Keith Hawkins, Untied Kingdom, £1,740
38th. Shane Gregory, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,740
39th. Stuart Atkinson, United Kingdom, £1,740
40th. Gary Oakes, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £1,740
41st. Cathal Shine, Ireland, PokerStars Player, £1,740
42nd. Cormac O'Dea, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,740
43rd.Viktor Leonov, Lithuania, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,740
44th.Roland Wilkinson, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £1,740
45th.Andrew Grayson, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £1,740

46th. Mark Buckley, Ireland, PokerStars Player, £1,520
47th. Vassilis Korkas, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,520
48th. Paul Jenkinson, United Kingdom, £1,520
49th. Stephen Odysseas, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,520
50th. Nathan Watson, United Kingdom, £1,520
51st. Steve Warburton, United Kingdom, £1,520
52nd. Matthew Dougal, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,520
53rd. Alan Tinlin, United Kingdom, £1,520
54th. Emma Jones, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,520

55th. Sharapov Oleksandr, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,300
56th. Chris Mcnicholls, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,300
57th. Thomas Ward, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £1,300
58th. Dylan Roberts, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,300
59th. Paul Delaney, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier
60th. Guido Braye, Netherlands, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,300
61st. Alfie Adam, United Kingdom, £1,300
62nd. Paulius Anilionis, Lithuania, PokerStars Player, £,1300

To see the full payouts page click here. -- NW

2.35pm: Kyrian busts in battle of the short stacks
Jakub Kyrian was down to 37,000 chips and shoved into the big blind of the second shortest stack at his table - Akshay Reddy.

The play seemed a good one, especially as he held [ac][5c]. What he didn't probably count on was Reddy calling off a large chunk of his stack with [jd][9d]. The board ran a Reddy friendly [qd][qc][jh][4h][qh] to eliminate Kyrian in 33rd place. Redd up to 145,000 chips. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 4,000-8,000, 1,000

2.05pm: Break
That's two levels of absolute carnage in the book, we'll be getting chip counts and an update on who's finished where so far during the 20 minute break. -- NW

2.03pm: Cockburn doubles through Monroe
Kevin Monroe's rollercoaster of a day continues and this times he's a bit unfortunate to have lost his latest all-in.

He had [Kd][9d] whilst Jason Cockburn held [Ad][Qd], the [6h][Kc][Js][6h][Ah] board giving, then taking away from Monroe in a pot worth around 175,000. -- NW

2pm: A bad beat story worth hearing
Honestly it is! Lee Dixon is absolutely raging and to be fair with good reason. On the [5c][7s][Qh] flop Giannis Drousiotis donk-led for 12,000, Dixon made it 40,000, Neil Walker was then all-in (this could've happened pre-flop but regardless he was all-in).

Now this is where it got interesting, before Drousiotis took action the dealer burned and revealed the turn card - the [5s] - this is important for later in the hand. But because action hadn't been completed this turn card wouldn't stand and would have to be shuffled back into the deck along with the burn cards. After this issue had been resolved, Drousiotis folded [Qc][Jh] face-up. The other two players now revealed their cards:

Dixon: [Qd][5d] - two pair and he would have had a full house
Walker: [As][Qs] - top pair

Turn: [3d] - so far so good for Dixon
River: [Ac] - ouch a brutal out draw and one that Dixon rightly felt aggrieved over. He got up left the table and when he returned he was still shaking his head and banging a stack of chips into the felt, to help ease the frustration. -- NW

1.55pm: Jobling rockets clear after monster pot
By far the biggest pot of the tournament just played out between Alex Jobling and Mark Buckley resulting in the former rocketing clear at the top.

Jobling opened to 14,000 and Buckley called to see the [tc][8d][7d] flop where he raised a 14,000 c-bet up to 54,000. Call.

The turn came [as] and Jobling checked to face a 60,000 bet. He treated it to a check-raise to 150,000. Buckley called leaving himself 208,000 behind as the action headed to the [js] river. Jobling set Buckley all in for the last of his chips and he called whilst saying, "I have to call, I have a set of eights" and opened [8c][8s].

It was no good though as Jobling rivered a straight with [ts][9s]. He raked in the huge amount of chips and now has a massive 950,000. -- MC

1.45pm: Camel curtailed
We've just lost Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins in 37th place. It folded to him on the button and he moved all-in for 83,000 with [Jc][10c], from the small blind Willian Cheung tank called and showed [Ad][6d].

The [7s][8d][Kh] flop gave Hawkins more outs, but he missed them all on the [3d] turn and [Kd] river. -- NW

1.32pm: Good Job
Alex Jobling is now one of the chip leaders after making a good river call to boost his stack to around 500,000.

I only saw the river action but with approximately 185,000 in the pot Shane Gregory (under-the-gun) fired out a bet of 83,000 and Jobling (mid-position) went into the tank. He had roughly 240,000 back and he cut out the requisite calling chips to see what he'd have left after the call.

After a couple of minutes thinking over his decision he announced call and slid his chips over the line. It was Gregory who was first to show, opening [6s][5s], Jobling then revealed [Ac][Qs] to claim the pot. -- NW

1.25pm: Cry me a river
Kevin Monroe causing more river -card pain for Andrew Robson. The board read [qc][qd][3c][8d][ac] and Monroe bet 28,500 from under the gun. Robson released his hand once more.

Brett Angell's lead has disappeared after he made a hero-looking call on the river of a [7d][8h][5s][kc][3d] board. He was battling in the blinds with Alex Jobling and checked to face a 70,000 bet. He called and mucked upon seeing Jobling's [ks][tc]. He's down to 385,000 as Jobling rose to 335,000.

En route back to the press room we saw Monroe not get his own way for once today. He three-bet folded to Sam Holden's four-bet to drop back to 405,000. Holden is back up to 215,000. -- MC

1.10pm: Three more bite the dust
Three more exits to tell you about...

• Miles Mckenzie took out Andrew Grayson, pocket jacks against [Ah][Qs]. The latter was all-in for 90,000, a [Jd][6d][3c] flop pretty decisive, the [Kc] turn opened up the possibility of a unlikely outdraw, but the [4h] river was a blank.

• Overnight chip leader David Reed found aces at the same time as Ronald Wilkinson picked up [Ah][Kd]. These two premium hands created a 280,000 chip pot that went to Reed on a [8h][2d][8s][3c][2h] board. He's up to 470,000.

• Viktor Leonov was all-in on the turn of a [Jd][6c][7s][Ac] board with [9s][7h] and was up against Anthony Shileds who had [As][6d]. The [Qd] completed the board to send Leonov out in 43rd place. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 3,000-6,000, 500

1pm: Monroe causing all sorts of problems
There's no doubt who the table captain at table number five is. Keith Hawkins, Sam Holden and Jude Ainsworth all started there, but it's Kevin Monroe ruling the roost.

The Team PokerStars pro has position on the hyper-aggressive Monroe, it's not helping one bit at the moment though.

We caught up with a hand between the two on the turn of a [5d][2c][kh][3s] board. Ainsworth led for 55,000 from the small blind but had to admit defeat when Monroe shoved on him.

A couple of hands later Ainsworth was the only caller when Monroe raised pre flop. Monroe continued on a [5c][3d][qd] flop and Ainsworth folded. It seems as if Ainsworth is smelling the blood of his prey but doesn't quite have the right tools to slay the aggro-beast right now.

Monroe - 405,000
Ainsworth - 125,000
--MC

12.45pm: Semi-calm restored
After the crazy opening spell, calm has been restored somewhat. There are still 51 players remaining but we don't that figure to last very long.

8.35pm: Holden busts Mordhorst to set final table
Our final table of eight is set after Sam Holden eliminated Matthias Mordhorst. Holden raised to 48,000 from mid position and called when the German three-bet all in for around 160,000 from the small blind. Call.

Holden: [jc][jh]
Mordhorst: [ad][9h]

The board ran [th][kc][js][ts][7c]. It was all over by the turn as Holden made a full house.

A full wrap of the day's play and all the end of day counts will be up shortly. -- MC

8.25pm: Final table re-draw
Here's how the final nine are arranged round the one table that remains.

Seat one. Anthony Shields
Seat two.Jack Sambrook
Seat three. Sam Holden
Seat four. Dan Hemingway
Seat five. Ewan Brown
Seat six. David Knight
Seat seven. Matthias Mordhorst
Seat eight. Alexander Jobling
Seat nine. Chris Ferguson

8.15pm: Ian Burdon eliminated in tenth place (£5,020)
And we're down to the final table of nine (which is the unofficial final table) as Ian Burdon has just been eliminated in tenth place.

The action was started by Jack Sambrook who min-raised to 48,000, it passed to Burdon who three-bet to 112,000, Sambrook moved all-in and Burdon called all-in for an effective 470,000.

Sambrook: [Js][Jd]
Burdon: [Ad][Kd]

It was all over by the turn as the board came [2d][9d][2h][5d][8d] to boost Sambrook to 2,300,000 and further extend his chip lead.

The final nine are re-drawing for seats so they'll be a short interlude before they start playing again. With one more elimination the official final table will be set. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 12,000-24,000 ante 3,000

8.10pm: Jason Cockburn eliminated in 11th place (£5,020)
Jason Cockburn was visibility disappointed when he was eliminated by the unstoppable force that it Chris Ferguson. It's understandable too as he was betrayed by his two ladies.

Cockburn squeezed all in for 278,000 after a raise and a call in front of his. Anthony Shields, who was the initial raiser, folded but Ferguson made the call.

Cockburn: [qc][qs]
Ferguson: [ah][9c]

The board ran [8d][ac][2s][6s][7d] to pair Ferguson's ace and put him up to 1,900,000.

One player more to lose and UKIPT becomes a sit and go. -- MC

8pm: Jack Sambrook takes the chip lead
Two very different poker tournaments taking place within the same tournament right now. On table one we're seeing all the shoves and calls, due mostly to every stack on there being <20 big blinds apart from Chris Ferguson.

Meanwhile on table two they've got a bit more wiggle room down the streets. And Jack Sambrook just took a big pot off Alex Jobling to move into the chip lead. I only saw the river action but with a complete board of [2s][Ks][6s][2h][7s] on the felt, Sambrook bet 250,000 into a pot of 400,000. After taking his time Jobling made the call but mucked when Sambrook showed [Qs][Qh].

Sambrook climbs to 1,775,000 whilst Jobling slips to 775,000. -- NW

7.55pm: Anthony Shields doubles through Matthias Modhorst
Easy come easy go for Matthias Modhorst, he opened the button to 40,000, Anthony Shields moved all-in for 232,000 and after getting a count Modhorst made the call.

Shields: [Ac][9h]
Modhorst: [5s][5c]

The [4d][3h][6s] flop kept Modhorst in front and also gave him a straight draw. The [9s] turn propelled Shields into the lead and the [4s] completed the board.

Shields up to 500,000, Modhorst back down to 310,000. -- NW

7.50pm: Ben Senior eliminated in 12th place (£4,360)
Down to just 150,000 Ben Senior moved all-in from the small blind with [As][9c] and Matthias Mordhorst made the call from the big blind with [Ad][Ks]. The board ran [2s][3s][8h][5d][Qc] and Senior's loss of back to back pots has ended his tournament. -- NW

7.45pm: Mordhorst representing
Matthias Mordhorst just did for Germany what Jussi Häkkänen couldn't do for Finalnd: double-up and carrying on representing. He moved all in from the small blind after Benjamin Senior shoved from the button.

Senior: [kd][td]
Mordhorst: [ad][8c]

The board ran [ac][8s][2c][jh][2d] to double up Mordhorst up to 350,000. Senior's stack dropped to 206,000. -- MC

7.25pm: Jussi Häkkänen Eliminated in 12th Place (£4,360)
Finland's last representative in the tournament has been eliminated. Jussi Häkkänen was down to 211,000 when he moved all in from the hijack. Alexander Jobling was in the big blind and called after getting a count.

Jobling: [ac][7h]
Häkkänen: [th][9h]

The board ran [6c][4s][5s][3d][qh] offering no help to the Finn, it Jobling a straight by the turn though. -- MC

7.10pm: Back from the break
The players are now back from the break, here's the current chip counts

Table 1
Seat one. Jason Cockburn, 370,000
Seat two. Benjamin Senior, 280,000
Seat five. Matthias Mordhorst, 270,000
Seat six. Anthony Shields, 256,000
Seat seven. Chris Ferguson, 1,728,000
Seat eight. Dan Hemingway, 270,000

Chris Ferguson is crushing his table, he as four and a half times the amount of the second biggest stack on Table 1.

Table 2
Seat one. Jussi Häkkänen, 257,000
Seat two. Ian Burdon, 578,000
Seat three. David Knight, 625,000
Seat four. Alexander Jobling, 1,111,000
Seat five.Jack Sambrook, 1,107,000
Seat seven. Ewan Brown, 1,246,000
Seat eight. Sam Holden, 1,042,000

Table two has a much evener spread of chips with four stacks over a million. -- NW

6.55pm: Break
The players are now on a 15 minute break. -- NW

6.53pm: Matthias Mordhorst doubles through Ben Senior
Ben Senior got the action started, making a min-raise to 32,000, it folded to Matthias Mordhorst who jammed for 150,000, call from Senior.

Senior: [10h][10d]
Modhorst: [Ad][Kd]

The [5h][4h][7d] flop was safe for Senior, but the [Kc] gave the German the lead. The [5c] completed the board, Modhorst up to 300,000, Senior down to 180,000. -- NW

6.50pm: Kevin Monroe eliminated in 14th place (£3,700)
And then there were 13...

Chris Ferguson raised with [K][Q], Kevin Monroe moved all-in for 300,000 with pocket sixes and Ferguson called it off. A king on the flop gave him the pot and boosted his stack to 1,700,000. He's the chip leader of the tournament and is on a table of short stacks, the next biggest stack on his table is around 370,000. -- NW

6.45pm: Shove, shove, shove
If things were getting a little sleepy, then everyone is surely wide-awake now after a three-way all in saw two players eliminated.

Brett Angell was first to move all in from second position for 222,000. Kevin Killeen was in the next seat and moved all in as well for around 450,000. Ewan Brown was one more seat along and paused causing everyone to stare at him. He didn't want to be left out of the party and moved all in also, and had both players covered. Every other player folded quicker than this press room devours a Nandos.

Angell: [ks][th]
Killeen: [ts][td]
Brown: [jd][jh]

The board ran [5c][qh][8d][9d][qd] to see Brown's hand held. There was a little bit of a stunned silence as both players left. Thanks to Sam Holden for suggesting we use this title. He wanted a fee (he's changed) but we're hoping this will suffice as payment.

Brown has around 1,300,000 chips now. -- MC

6.25pm: Geordie snore
Due to the turbo charged nature of the first four levels we knew the action would slow at some point. Well, this is that point, little to no action has occurred in the past 15 minutes here's a precis of what's happened.

• Brett Angell shoved all-in twice, once as an open shove, once over the top of Sam Holden open. Both remained uncalled though and he's up to 250,000.
• David Knight won a three-way pot with a set of jacks. However the [9c][10d][Jc][6c][Ah] board meant the pot stayed small. In fact both he and Ewan Brown checked the river. -- NW

6.10pm: The millionaires club
Sam Holden has broken the million-chip mark and joins two other players with the same bragging rights.

Here's the top three:

1. Chris Ferguson, 1,400,000
2. Alexander Jobling, 1,310,000
3. Sam Holden, 1,100,000
--MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 8,000-16,000 ante 2,000

5.50pm: Table draw
Here's how the final two tables shape up

Table 1
Seat one. Jason Cockburn
Seat two. Benjamin Senior
Seat three. Jack Sambrook
Seat four. Kevin Monroe
Seat five. Matthias Mordhorst
Seat six. Anthony Shields
Seat seven. Chris Ferguson
Seat eight. Dan Hemingway

Table 2
Seat one. Jussi Häkkänen
Seat two. Ian Burdon
Seat three. David Knight
Seat four. Alexander Jobling
Seat five. Brett Angell
Seat six. Kevin Killeen
Seat seven. Ewan Brown
Seat eight. Sam Holden

5.45pm: Chip counts of the final 16
There's been a re-draw to two tables (coming soon) here's the chip counts of those left in.

Alexander Jobling , United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 1,500,000
Christopher Ferguson, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 1,175,000
Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, 950,000
Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 900,000
David Knight, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 650,000
Ewan Brown, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 600,000
Ian Burdon, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 580,000
Benjamin Senior, United Kingdom PokerStars Player, 460,000
Anthony Shields, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier , 400,000
Jason Cockburn, United Kingdom, 400,000
Dan Hemingway, United Kingdom, 300,000
Matthias Mordhorst, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 290,000
Brett Angell, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 280,000
Kevin Killeen, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier, 250,000
Jussi Hakkanen, Finland, PokerStars Qualifier, 200,000
Kevin Monroe, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier, 140,000

5.40pm: Barry McMahon out in 17th (£3,050)
It was another deep run by Barry McMahon in a UKIPT but he couldn't quite repeat the trick of making the final table, as he did in Nottingham this season.

He was all-in with pocket eights for his last 250,000, Sam Holden the caller with [Ac][Qh]. The board ran out [Jd][Ah][9s][7c][Ad] and Holden now has 950,000. -- NW

5.30pm: A tale of kings
Anthony Shields was involved in two hands that involved at least one player holding kings in each hand.

In the first hand he and Brett Angell made it all the way to the river of a [jc][qc][as][5d][tc] board. The pot was small until the river where all the chips went in. Shields opened [kh][qh] and Angell opened [ks][kd].

Both players had a straight but it was Angell who felt like he lost the pot event though it was chopped.

The very next hand the action folded around to Ashfaaq Taus on the button and he moved all in for 111,000 with [qs][js]. Shields was in the big blind and woke up with [ks][kc] and called out of his 118,000 stack. The board ran [3d][6d][qh][4h][3h] to bust in 18th place. -- MC

5.15pm: Ian Burdon doubles through Kevin Monroe
Bit of a cooler this...

Jussi Häkkänen opened to 24,000, Kevin Monroe three-bet to 68,000 and Ian Burdon then four-bet all-in for 273,000 total. Back on Häkkänen he folded and Monroe made the call:

Monroe: [Qs][Qd]
Burdon: [Ks][Kh]

An [As][Js][9s][Ad][9d] board doubled Burdon to 600,000 whilst Monroe slipped to 145,000. -- NW

5.05pm: Akshay Reddy eliminated in 19th (£3,050)
Akshay Reddy has just exited in 19th place. He moved all-in for 101,000 with [Qc][Jd] and Barry McMahon gave him a spin with [As][5s]. The [5c][jh][2s] flop left McMahon shaking his head, the [9d] river was a blank, but the [Ad] river gave McMahon two pair and the pot. -- NW

5pm: Ferguson on top as play continues
As play entered level 21 Chris Ferguson is still dominating with 1,300,000 chips.

He has to be wary of Jack Sambrook directly to his right though, as he eliminated Saulius Tumosa seconds after play restarted, and is up to 890,000 chips. -- MC

4.50pm: Back we go
So just 20 players remain from the 62 who started today. That's 12 more exits needed before the final table of eight is set. They include Sam Holden who finished ninth in the 2011 WSOP Main Event, he's lurking ominously with an above average 650.000.

During the break tournament staff did chip counts, we'll post them here as soon as we get them. -- NW

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and their Pro Wrestler name Marc Convey (Fusion Blade) and Nick Wright (Silver Monk ). Photos by Mickey May (Falcon Mysterio)

When play started today the 62 remaining players were guaranteed a Geordie score of at least £1,300 but eyes were already looking skywards at the £105,900 up top and the minimum payout of £10,250 for making the final table.

It took more than seven levels for 62 to become eight and the man currently looking most likely to claim the six-figure payday is Jack Sambrook. He bagged up 2,413,000 to take the chip lead into the final table. It was a late surge that took him to the top. He won a 900,000 chip pot from Alex Jobling and then eliminated Ian Burdon in 10th when his [Ad][Kd] made the nut flush to bust Burdon's pocket jacks. He leads an all UK final table.

For much of the day Chris Ferguson (no not that one, although many internet warriors thought it was) looked destined to have the overnight chip lead. He won two huge pots from Timothy Chung to become the first man to climb over the million-chip mark.

From that point on he positively crushed his table. With 13 left Ferguson had over 1,700,000 whilst the nearest challenger on his table had just 370,000. It was only Sambrook's late surge that denied him top dog status. He's the only other player with more than two million, he bagged up 2,045,000.

Two other players will go to tomorrow's final with a seven figure stack. In third place is Alex Jobling (1,198,000). A friend of UKIPT champion Gareth Walker he described Jobling as a student and MTT grinder. Jobling has in fact just finished University, he's already beaten his best UKIPT performance to date a 27th place finish at UKIPT2 Edinburgh.

The other million-chip man is well known to poker fans, Sam Holden will take 1,122,000 to the final. The forensic science graduate shot to prominence when he final tabled the 2011 WSOP Main Event, where he finished ninth for $782,115. He proved he's no one trick pony by finishing 55th this year. He too has recorded his best UKIPT finish here in Newcastle, a 12th place at UKIPT Edinburgh his previous personal best.

The remaining half of the final table is made up of Ewan Brown (832,000), David Knight (683,000), Dan Hemmingway (446,000) and Anthony Shields (402,000), though with blinds only 12,000 - 24,000 ante 3,000 no one is in short stack territory.

Of course with 54 players who came back today busting out it's no surprise that we lost a few big names along the way. On the UKIPT they don't come much bigger than Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth. This was his first UKIPT main event cash and he eventually busted in 24th place when he lost that most classic of races ace-king versus Jason Cockburn's pocket queens.

There were quite a few players in today's field who could have made their second UKIPT final table but ultimately none of them could quite manage to get there. Brett Angell (16th), Barry McMahon (17th) and Lee Atherton (30th) all went deep but not deep enough, still it's another solid showing by them on the UKIPT. Atherton has now cashed in three of the four main events this season.

The final table starts at noon tomorrow, this is how the players will line-up

Final table:

Seat 1: Anthony Shields, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 402,000
Seat 2: Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, 2,413,000
Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 1,122,000
Seat 4. Dan Hemingway, United Kingdom, 446,000
Seat 5. Ewan Brown, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 832,000
Seat 6. David Knight, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 683,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 1,198,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 2,045,000

To catch up with all today's play click on the links below:

Level 17-20 updates
Level 21-24 updates

To see who's finished where so far click here.

We'll be back tomorrow from noon to bring you all the action from the final table.

All photos are copyright of Mickey May. There's Chuck Norris, then her, then everyone else. You've been warned.

5.17pm: Break
Players are now on 15 minute break, we'll get 100% accurate chip counts during the break. You'll find level 28 updates in a new post shortly. -- NW

5.12pm: Two more short stacks double
We've seen so many double-ups, many as set-ups with big hands matching up against each other.

Chris Ferguson has lost most of the small pots he's played but won most the big ones. He called an Alexander Jobling small blind raise whilst sat in the big blind to see a [kh][4c][kc] flop. It was an action flop as both players quickly committed their chips.

Jobling opened [ks][jd] for trips, ahead of Ferguson's drawing [qc][tc]. The latter got instant service as the board ran out [8c][2s].

He didn't hold on those new-found chips long though. The next time he was in the big blind he faced a button raise from David Knight. Ferguson three-bet called his opponent's shove and the cards were on their backs.

Ferguson: [qd][qc]
Knight: [kc][kd]

The board ran [jc][5d][5s][5c][9s].

It was a cooler of a pot, and Ferguson was in disbelief. He and Knight have had to rely on the deck helping them out a lot today.

We're almost at the break and will post official chip counts then. For now Ferguson has about 1,250,000 to Knight's 2,100,000.-- MC

4.51pm: Good job, good job
Two big pots in a row for Alex Jobling has helped cement his status as chip leader.

Hand One: He raised to 130,000 and called after Sam Holden three-bet to 390,000 from the small blind. On the [6s][2c][10s] flop he called Holden's 300,000 c-bet and both players then checked the [Jh] turn. The [Qs] completed the board, Holden checked it over to Jobling who bet 250,000. Holden grimaced, re-checked his cards and with some reluctance mucked them.

Hand Two: From the small blind Jobling made it 130,000 to play and Chris Ferguson defended from the big. The flop fell [6c][3d][Qc] 150,000 from Jobling, call from Ferguson. The [8s] turn checked through before the [3s] completed the board. Jobling checked once more, Ferguson bet 350,000 and Jobling called. Upon seeing the call Ferguson mucked his hand and Jobling showed [Qd][Jd] to claim the pot.

After those two uptick's Jobling's stack is around 5,000,000, over half the chips in play. -- NW

4.47pm: Holden can't catch a break
Sam Holden is having a nightmare period, but it hasn't derailed him from playing aggressive poker.

After he lost that latest showdown he went on to win the next two pots with three-bets. Then came another all in showdown, and guess what? He didn't win it. It wasn't all bad news though as the pot ended in a chop.

David Knight opened to 125,00 from under the gun and was called by Alexander Jobling before Holden three-bet up to 450,000. Very quickly, Knight moved all in for a little less than 900,000 chips. Jobling folded and Holden said he had to call, but didn't seem to like it.

Knight: [ad][5d]
Holden: [ah][9s]

The board ran [9c][tc][7d][jd][8s] putting a straight on the board.

Holden must've been surprised he was ahead as Knight had no fold equity when he moved all in. How will this level or so of hell affect Holden moving forward? Time will tell. -- MC

4.35pm: Chip counts
Well after all that excitement here's the current chip counts:

Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 2,550,000
Seat 6. David Knight, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 970,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 3,945,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 1,880,000

4.30pm: David Knight doubles through Sam Holden
Sam Holden has now lost three all-ins on the bounce and this is probably the one that's hurt the most so far.

He opened to 120,000 in the cut-off with pocket kings, David Knight moved all-in for 510,000 with pocket queens and Holden naturally called the extra. The [td][5s][4c] changed nothing. The [Qc] turn though gave Knight a set and the [Qs] river was, as one of Knight's boisterous rail said, overkill. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 30,000-60,000 ante 5,000

4.18pm: Chris Ferguson doubles through Alex Jobling
The short stacks are winning all the all-in confrontations right now.

From the button Alex Jobling opened to 110,000, next to act Chris Ferguson moved all-in from the small blind for 1,060,000. After getting a count Jobling cut out the calling chips, swivelled round in his chair to take a look at how long was left in the level (58 seconds) and then slid out the requisite calling chips.

Ferguson: [6c][6s]
Jobling: [As][Jd]

Fliop: [Kh][Kd][7h] - now an seven, ace or jack would do for Jobling
Turn: [Qs] - add queens and tens to the above
River: [3d]

Ferguson's pair held up and he doubled to 2,150,000. -- NW

4.15pm: Holden gets some back
Sam Holden has stopped the rot by taking a chunky pot from Chris Ferguson in a blind on blind battle.

Ferguson raised to 100,000 pre-flop and Holden defended. On the [Ks][Qs][8c] flop Ferguson fired 130,000, call from Holden. The [Qh] hit the turn, bet of 220,000 from Ferguson, call from Holden. Both players checked the [6c] river, Holden showed a flushing but ultimately one pair [6s][4s] which bested the up and down but ultimately missed [Jc][10d] of Ferguson.

Holden climbs to 2,800,000 whilst Ferguson drops to 1,075,000. -- NW

4.10pm: The bank of Holden
If you need chips this level, just ask Sam Holden for them. He's just doubled up another player, the very grateful Chris Ferguson.

The latter open shoved 735,000 from under the gun and was called Holden on the button to create the showdown.

Ferguson: [jc][tc]
Holden: [ac][qd]

The board ran [9h][ah][7c][5d][8h] to make Ferguson a straight on the river. Holden looked visibly disappointed, the opposite to Ferguson and his large contingent on the rail.

"You're free-rolling now!" Commented Alexander Jobling to the victor.

That put him up to more that 1.5 million. Holden dropped further to 2,280,000. --MC

4pm: Ewan Brown eliminated in fifth place (£22,240)
Ewan found a bit of a cooler spot to bust in fifth place. He three-bet all-in for 650,000 after finding [ac][js] in the small blind. Alexander Jobling had opened - as he had been a lot with his big stack - to 110,000 from under the gun. He snap called with the dominating [ad][kd] and safely navigated the [7d][8h][5s][ts][2h] board.

Brown was all smiles as he left, Jobling is up to 4,350,000. -- MC

3.45pm:David Knight doubles through Sam Holden
Sam Holden raised to 100,000 under-the-gun with [2d][2h], David Knight move all-in with [Qd][9d] for 455,000 total and Holden called the extra. A [4c][Qs][Th][As][Kc] board doubled Kinight to 1,00,000 whisst Holden slips to 3,075,000. -- NW

3.35pm: A dozen hands: No flops no drops
Yep in the first 12 hands after the break not one flop was seen here's what happened:

• Two raise and takes for Sam Holden
• Five raise and takes for Alex Jobling
• Two walks for Alex Jobling - he showed [Ah][Js] and pocket queens on those occasions
• One walk and one uncontested shove for Chris Ferguson
• One uncontested shove by Ewan Brown -- NW

3.20pm: Official chip counts
Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 3,660,000
Seat 5. Ewan Brown, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 745,000
Seat 6. David Knight, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 645,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 3,095,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 945,000

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 25,000 - 50,000, 5,000

3pm: Break
The players are on a 15 minute break whilst tournament staff race off/colour up the T1,000 chips. -- NW

2.55pm: Play it again Sam; Holden takes the chip lead
The two chip leaders - Alex Jobling and Sam Holden - just clashed in a pot worth over two million chips.

The action was started by Jobling who raised to 80,000 from the cut-off, Holden three-bet to 255,000 from the small blind and Jobling made the call. On the [3d][10c][4d] flop Holden c-bet 190,000, call from Jobling.

The [2d] fell on the turn, Holden checked it over to Jobling who bet 280,000, call from Holden. The [8c] completed the board, once more Holden checked to Jobling and again he fired out a bet, this time 350,000. After about 10 seconds thinking time Holden announced call, Jobling rolled over [Kh][10h] but was outkicked by Holden's [Ah][10s]. After that hand Holden is up to roughly 3,700,000 whilst Jobling slips to around 3,000,000. -- NW

2.50pm: Dark times for Brown
Ewan Brown's stack is right in the danger zone at 695,000 after he lost two pots on the trot.

First up he raised to 120,000 from the small blind and David Knight defended his big blind to see a [3c][8d][8s] flop. Brown check-folded to a 140,000 bet from Knight who showed a bluff with [4h][2h].

The next Brown raised off the button and Alexander Jobling called from the big blind. Both checked the flop before Jobling led for 120,000 and 475,000 on the turn and river. The final board read [5d][4c][7h][8d][ks] and Jobling opened [kd][6d] for a straight. Brown mucked. -- MC

2.35pm: Holden rivers the nuts
Sam Holden just won a 1,700,000 chip pot to climb to second place. He opened from the small blind to 120,000 and Ewan Brown made the call.

Holden then fired 95,000, 180,000 and 450,000 on the respective streets on a [10s][Kd][6c][6s][Jh] board. Brown called all the way, but saw the bad news when Holden flipped [Ad][Qd] for the rivered straight, Brown showed [Jc][10h]. After that hand Holden is up to 2,600,000 whilst Brown slips to 1,500,000. -- NW

2.30pm: Anthony Shields eliminated in sixth place (£17,880)
There goes the other short stack. Anthony Shields pushed all in twice in-a-row, the second time for 430,000. Man of the moment, Alexander Jobling, made the call from the small blind.

Shields: [3d][3h]
Jobling: [ah][jc]

The board ran out [ac][7h][9c][4c][3c].

Jobling flopped an ace and went on to four-flush. Many of the spectators, and Shields' supporters, thought their made had won the pot when he hit a set on the river but they were left disappointed.

Shields will be upset but also happy at laddering for more than £4,000 more that he would've been expecting to get before Jack Sambrook's capitulation. -- MC

2.15pm: Jack Sambrook eliminated in seventh place (£13,520)
"Nice man busts," said a railer as Ewan Brown stacked the chips that meant he'd just eliminated Jack Sambrook.

The overnight chip leader was left perilously short when his aces were cracked and couldn't recover. He moved all-in for around 300,000 with [10d][7h] and Brown called from the big blind with [Ad][3h]. The board ran [Ac][Kd][8c][Js][4h] and we're down to six. -- NW

2.05pm: Official chip counts
Seat 1: Anthony Shields, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 447,000
Seat 2: Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, 311,000
Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 1,826,000
Seat 5. Ewan Brown, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 1,739,000
Seat 6. David Knight, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 1,075,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 2,865,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 875,000

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 20,000-40,000, 4,000

1.48pm: Alex Jobling doubles through Jack Sambrook
We've just witnessed the biggest pot of the tournament so far and it's one that's propelled Alex Jobling to the chip lead and reduced Jack Sambrook to the short stack of the remaining seven.

From under-the-gun+1 Sambrook opened to 60,000, David Knight flat called on the button before Jobling three-bet to 180,000 out of the small blind. Back on Sambrook he re-raised, making it 375,000 total. Facing this action Knight got out the way, Jobling thought for a bit before moving all-in for 1,377,000, Sambrook took a quick glance at his cards and announced call.

Jobling: [Jh][Jd]
Sambrook: [Ah][Ad]

The board ran [Js][5s][10d][9h][10h] Jobling flopped a set and rivered a full house to crack aces and take the chip lead. We'll get official chip counts on the break but Jobling up to circa 2,850,000 whilst Sambrook is down to roughly 290,000. -- NW

1.46pm: Break time
The players are on a 15-minute break. A big hand played out on the last hand of the level. Details to follow....

1.40pm: Lull in action
There has been a flop drought the last 15-minutes or so. We're seeing a lot of raising, three-betting and a squeeze from Sam Holden but no one was willing to play back. -- MC

1.30pm: Three pots that made it to the river
No massive pots in the last 20 minutes, but three pots have made it to the river, two of those went to showdown.

Hand One: Alex Jobling, who's been pretty quiet in the opening 90 minutes, opened to 65,000 from under-the-gun and David Knight gave him a spin from the big blind. On the [2c][8h][Qc] flop, Jobling c-bet 55,000 and called when Knight check-raised to 125,000. Both players checked the [6s] turn, before Knight check-called a bet of 125,000 on the river. Both players had [A][Q] and they chopped the pot.

Hand Two: Chris Ferguson made it 60,000 from the cut-off and both Jack Sambrook (small blind) and Sam Holden (big blind) gave him action. On the [2h][4d][8h] flop Sambrook led for 80,000, Ferguson was the only caller. Both players then checked the [Ac] turn and [6h] river, with Sambrook showing pocket sevens to win the pot.

Hand Three: Sam Holden raised to 90,000 from the small blind and Ewan Brown made the call. Holden fired bullets of 70,000 and 145,000 respectively on the [9s][Jh][4c][Qh] board, before check-folding to a bet of 195,000 on the [4h] river. -- NW

1.20pm: Chips ahoy!
Seat 1: Anthony Shields, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 540,000
Seat 2: Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, 1,600,000
Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 1,875,000
Seat 5. Ewan Brown, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 1,700,000
Seat 6. David Knight, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 1,200,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 1,175,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 900,000

1.10pm: Much needed chips for Knight
David Knight was the short stack but he just won a multi-way pot to ease his worries.

His 65,000 open from early position was called in three spots en route to a [4h][td][5c] flop. He continued for 90,000 and was called by Alex Jobling and Anthony Shields.

Knight didn't want to commit any more chips from there on in and checked the [2s][7s] turn and river down. Both his opponents were happy to follow suit and both mucked when Knight opened [qd][qh] at the conclusion. He's up to 1,100,000 chips now and has a little more breathing room. -- MC

12.52pm: Final table profiles
Want to know a bit more about the eight seven players left in? Of course you do. It contains juicy gossip. I mean who knew Alex Jobling wants to buy a tractor should he win. Click here for more nuggets of gold like that one. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 15,000-30,000 ante 3,000

12.47pm: Ewan Brown doubles through Jack Sambrook
Easy come, easy go for Jack Sambrook, who's just doubled up Ewan Brown.

From under-the-gun+1 Sambrook opened to 50,000 and called after Brown three-bet to 110,000 from the cut-off. On the flop of [2s][Kh][6c] Sambrook check-called a c-bet of 100,000. The [7c] fell on the turn, check to Brown, who bet 225,000 a quick all-in from Sambrook and an equally quick call from Brown, who was all-in for 667,000.

Sambrook: [Ks][8s]
Brown: [Kc][Jc]

The [Ac] completed the board, Brown is up to 1,800,000 whilst Sambrook slips to 1,825,000. Just one big blind separates the two top stacks. -- NW

12.42pm: Sambrook extends lead
Jack Sambrook has wrestled firm control of the early stages of this final table after winning a big pot off Chris Ferguson.

Ferguson opened to 48,000 from the hijack and called when Samrook three-bet to 100,000 from the button. Sambrook went on to fire bullets of 120,000, 220,000 and 375,000 on each street of the [3s][9d][js][5d][kc] board. Ferguson called the first two bets very quickly but tank-folded the river to drop to 1,150,000 chips. Sambrook is up to 2,725,000.

After the hand David Knight returned to the table after his penalty. -- MC

12.28pm: Anthony Shields doubles through Chris Ferguson
During the first orbit, Chris Ferguson had opened the button, Anthony Shields had jammed from the small blind and Ferguson folded.

In orbit number two this pattern repeated itself only this time Ferguson made the call. Shields was all-in for 445,000.

Shields: [Ad][9c]
Ferguson: [Ac][Kc]

The [9d][5d][As] flop, gave Shields the lead and he stayed there on the [2s] turn and [10c] river. He's up to 938,000 whilst Ferguson slips to 1,600,000. -- NW

12.22pm: One round penalty for David Knight
David Knight is currently serving a one round penalty after exposing his hand with action pending. He held [A][J] in a pot against Jack Sambrook who had [K][7]. The flop came down with both a king and a jack on it. It was at this point that Knight mistakenly exposed his hand, he bet, Sambrook raised and Knight called. The turn was another jack! Knight bet and Sambrook folded saying, "I think you might have it," cue laughter all round.

There's a great atmosphere at this final table, although Knight's penalty meant he's just missed another big pot. News on that coming right up. -- NW

12.17pm: Dan Hemmingway eliminated in eighth place (£10,250)
The first significant action saw the first elimination of the final table.

The action was started by Chris Ferguson, he opened to 48,000 from under-the-gun, Sam Holden then three-bet to 115,000 from mid-position, only for Dan Hemmingway to move all-in for around 425,000. It was a fast fold from Ferguson and an equally swift call from Holden.

Holden: [Ac][Kc]
Hemmingway: [Ad][Qd]

The board of [As][3d][9h][5s][Js] mean we lost the first player from the final table, Holden meanwhile now has roughly 1,575,000. -- NW

12.10pm: First three hands
The first two pots were simple raise and takes. One each for Sam Holden and Ewan Brown.

The third hand saw the first all-in of the final table, it folded to Chris Ferguson on the button, he raised to 48,000 but folded when Anthony Shields moved all-in for roughly 380,000 from the small blind. -- NW

12.05pm: Shuffle up and peel
Play is underway, stacks are still pretty deep so we should get to see some post-flop play. -- NW

11.55am: Final table set to start
Over four days of play a field of 623 runners has been whittled down to just eight. As always with poker tournaments there's some players who you'd expect to be there and others who've seemingly come from nowhere to somewhere. They of course could just be internet sickos with no live record to speak of.

The chip leader falls into the latter category...for now. Jack Sambrook, who takes 2,413,000, to the final table, has just one live result to his name a second place finish in a tournament in Nottingham for $10,000. That happened less than a month ago and he's carried his form into this tournament. He'll be hoping to go one better, wherever he ultimately finishes it'll be his biggest live cash.

One of the players lurking in the pack definitely falls into the category of players you'd expect to reach a final table or two. Sam Holden, a 23-year-old professional poker player from East Sussex is making his first UKIPT final table appearance.

However, he's already made the biggest final table of them all, finishing ninth in the 2011 World Series of Poker main event. The money jumps and pressure are therefore unlikely to phase this affable young man. "On the final table of UKIPT Newcastle today. I have 1.122m in chips which puts me 4th/8. We still have some time left in the 12k/24k level so there is still plenty of play," he tweeted this morning. He's one to watch for sure and many people's tip to take it down. He's also got position on Sambrook.

Of course six players will have other ideas about who's going to be UKIPT Newcastle champion. The final is set to start at noon, although it's possible as with most final tables they'll be a bit of a delay. There's 37 minutes left in the current level of 12,000 - 24,000 ante 3,000. The full final table line-up is below, we believe this is the first all UK, UKIPT final table.

Final table:

Seat 1: Anthony Shields, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 402,000
Seat 2: Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, 2,413,000
Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 1,122,000
Seat 4. Dan Hemingway, United Kingdom, 446,000
Seat 5. Ewan Brown, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 832,000
Seat 6. David Knight, PokerStars qualifier, United Kingdom, 683,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 1,198,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 2,045,000

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and their favourite Holden Marc Convey (Amanda Holden) and Nick Wright (Holden Caulfield). Photos by Mickey May (Edith Holden - she loves The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady)

7.45pm: Chris Ferguson wins UKIPT Newcastle (£87,640); Alex Jobling eliminated in second place (£82,120)
And we have a winner here in Newcastle.

In the final hand Chris Ferguson opened to 200,000 on the button, Alex Jobling then three-bet to 475,000, Ferguson moved all-in and Jobling called all-in for and effective 2,300,000.

Jobling: [Ah][Qh]
Ferguson: [8s][8h]

The board ran [10s][7d][2s][7c][3d] and Ferguson's pair held up and he's the latest UKIPT champion. Jobling played a fantastic game but just couldn't win the big all-in pots when it mattered.

A wrap of the final table is on it's way, the next UKIPT stop is actually online between October 14-15th, but the next live event takes place in Bristol November 8-12th.-- NW

7.30pm: Chris Ferguson doubles through Alex Jobling
The chip lead has changed hands for the first time since heads-up began.

Chris Ferguson min-raised to 200,000 from the button and called when Alex Jobling made it 450,000 to go. The flop was a monotone [9h][8h][3h], Jobling fired out a bet of 325,000, Ferguson made it 700,000, Jobling moved all-in and Ferguson called all-in for an effective 2,910,000.

Ferguson: [7h][4h]
Jobling: [7d][7c]

The [3d] turn gave Jobling full house outs, but none arrived on the [10c] river. Chip counts after that hand are Ferguson 6,720,000 plays Jobling's 2,360,000. -- NW

7.30pm: Ferguson gets some back
Alex Jobling raised to 225,000 and Chris Ferguson made the call. On the [Ah][8c][Ks] flop Ferguson check-called a bet of 250,000. Both players checked the [9c] turn, before Ferguson fired out a bet of 400,000 on the [4d] river. After a bit of tank time Jobling made the call but mucked when Ferguson showed [Kh][4s] for a rivered two pair. -- NW

7.25pm: Unusual line works for Jobling
Alex Jobling has wrestled control back of this heads up match in a three-bet, multi-street pot.

Chris Ferguson opened to 200,000 and called when three-bet to 450,000 by Jobling. The dealer gave them a [4d][7h][qc] flop and Jobling continued for 400,000. Call.

The turn fell [9d] and Jobling checked to face a 550,000 bet. He called before leading for 2,000,000 on the [9d] river. Ferguson tapped the table and mucked to drop back to 2,480,000. -- MC

7.15pm: Ironing out the variance
Tournament director Toby Stone just handed me a sheet which details the deal. Here's what went down.

Alex Jobling: £82,120
Christopher Ferguson: £77,640
Left to play for: £10,000 (and the trophy!)

Original payouts:

1st. £105,900
2nd. £63,860

The players are still playing for basically the equivalent of eighth place money. -- NW

7.10pm: Done deal
A deal has been negotiated and play is back underway, we'll bring you the exact numbers when we have them. Current chip stacks are:

Alex Jobling, 5,030,000
Chris Ferguson, 4,060,000

7.05pm: Chris Ferguson doubles through Alex Jobling
"It was a flip," shrugged Alex Jobling, but it was a flip he was favourite in and one that had he won would've given him the title.

Chris Ferguson raised to 200,000 on the button, Jobling made it 450,000 from the big blind, Ferguson moved all-in for 2,030,000 and Jobling snap called.

Ferguson: [9s][5s] (38.58%)
Jobling: [Ah][Kc] (61.4%)

The [5h][9h][2s][5c][8h] board meant it was all over by the turn. With the stacks now closer together the two players have stepped away from the table to discuss a deal. Play, for now, is paused. -- NW

7pm: Ferguson gives it back again
Chris Ferguson didn't hold on to those chips too long after Alex Jobling found aces on the button.

Jobling raised to 225,000 then bet 250,000 and 500,000 on the flop and turn before checking back the river. The final board read [7h][jd][3s][qd][td] and Jobling opened [as][ah]. The board must've ran out too wet for a third bullet. Ferguson, who is back down to around two million said he had a jack. -- MC

6.50pm: Ferguson gets it back
Over the last half-dozen hands Chris Ferguson has essentially got back the million he lost on the first hand.

Almost half of that came from one hand, he opened to 200,000, Alex Jobling three-bet to 450,000 and Ferguson moved all-in. It seemed that Jobling was strongly considering a call, he got the dealer to count down Ferguson's chips, but the all-in bet of 2,280,000 was too much and he mucked his hand. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50,000-100,000

6.40pm: Ferguson loses a third of his stack
Chris Ferguson lost a third of his stack on the very first hand of heads up play.

He opened to 160,000 and called when Alex Jobling three-bet to 500,000. The flop fanned [6d][5c][5c] and Jobling continued for 500,000. Call. Jobling upped the pressure on the [kc] turn as he bet 1,200,000. Ferguson only really had the option of shoving or folding at that point and he chose the latter. -- MC

6.35pm: Heads up play commences
Here's how the chips stand:

Alex Jobling, 6,095,000
Chris Ferguson, 2,975,000

6.30pm: Sam Holden eliminated in third place (£39,030)
Down to around 950,000 Sam Holden moved all-in from the button with [Ah][5h], Chris Ferguson made the call from the big blind with [Ad][Qd].

The [2c][4c][7c] flop gave Holden some back door equirty, the [5d] turn was one of his outs, but the [Qs] river gave the lead in the hand back to Ferguson and with that Holden was eliminated in fourth place. Holden's hands have not held up or hit in the all-in situations today. -- NW

6.25pm: Sam's luck out again
Sam Holden has lost yet another pre flop all in showdown, and is now the short stack.

Chris Ferguson open shoved for 1,010,000 from the small blind and Holden called from the big blind.

Holden: [as][4h]
Ferguson: [8s][6d]

The board ran [4c][qd][5h][8c][td] to pair Ferguson's eight on the turn. What does Holden need to do to win one of these today? -- MC

6.15pm: The last eight hands
Here's what's happened in the last eight hands...

• Chris Ferguson has won three pots: he three-bet all-in once, got a walk and min-raised and met no resistance

• Alex Jobling has won the other five, he moved all-in once into Ferguson's big blind, moved all-in over the top of a Ferguson open and won one with a simple raise and take. The other two he took down post-flop one was a limped pot where a small turn bet did the job, the other was more interesting

He three-bet to 300,000 from the big blind after Chris Ferguson made it 160,000 from the button, Ferguson called the extra. The two of them saw a [8h][5c][Jh] flop, c-bet of 205,000 from Jobling call from Ferguson. On the [4s] turn Jobling fired a second barrel, 400,000 this time and it was enough to get the job done. -- NW

6.10pm: Three-handed chip counts
Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 2,700,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 4,900,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 1,600,000

6pm: David Knight eliminated in fourth place (£28,780)
Another cooler in four-handed play and this time the all in player departed.

The action folded to David Knight in the small blind and he opened to 200,000. Chip leader, Alex Jobling, was in the big blind and three-bet to 450,000. Knight was having none of that behaviour though and jammed for a little more than 1.5 million. Snap call.

Knight: [ad][ts]
Jobling: [as][ks]

The board ran [2c][4c][qc][6d][kh] to hand the pot, and the scalp, to Jobling. -- MC

5.45pm: Everyone's folding on the flop
So far this level the hands that have made it as far as the flop have ended there. So no major skirmishes as of yet. Chris Ferguson has three-bet all-in on three occasions but got no callers.

Alex Jobling has open limped a couple of times, which we haven't seen from him thus, of course we don't know for sure but that's likely due to Ferguson's propensity for shoving all-in and/or stack size considerations of the other players. -- NW

5.30pm: Official chip counts as play resumes
We expecting more all in action this level. Here's how they stand:

Seat 3. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, 1,845,000
Seat 7. Alexander Jobling, PokerStars player United Kingdom, 3,220,000
Seat 8. Chris Ferguson, PokerStars player, United Kingdom, 1,290,000
--MC

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and their drink Marc Convey (A good British ale) and Nick Wright (Amaretto and coke (with a sparkler). Photos by Mickey May (Pinot Grigio)

For the second year in a row a Scotsman has won UKIPT Newcastle, but Chris Ferguson was far from the Scottish reputation of tight, for the most part shoving his way to a £87,640 victory.

Sometimes tournament winners steamroll final tables, sometimes they get lucky and sometimes they just have their hands hold up when it matters. When he looks back on his victory today UKIPT Newcastle champion Chris Ferguson will probably admit that his victory owes more to the second and third categories than the first but I doubt he cares one jot.

The 23-year-old from Edinburgh came to the final table second in chips, after playing superbly on Day 3. However, he lost half his stack early on to overnight chip leader Jack Sambrook and never threatened to take the chip lead until well into his heads-up battle with Alex Jobling. "I doubted myself at quite a few stages," said Ferguson. "But when I got to heads-up I was more confident about winning."

That's some moxie as going into heads-up play Jobling held a 2:1 chip lead. And the latter had the first shot at winning the title, getting it in with [Ah][Kc] against Ferguson's [9s][5s]. By the turn Ferguson had a full-house and near chip parity. A deal was soon struck.

Soon after Ferguson took the chip lead for the first time, flopping a flush on a [9h][8h][3h] flop and finding Jobling willing to go to war with [7d][7s]. Just 15 minutes later it was all over, Ferguson's pair of eights dodging the overcards of Jobling's [Ah][Qh] to send the title to Scotland. "The tournament has been fantastic, well run, great atmosphere and winning feels incredible at the moment," said Ferguson on his win.

Jobling's path to heads-up hand been much smoother, he was either first or second in chips from the moment he all but ended overnight chip leader Jack Sambrook's tournament. But, like Ferguson he needed his slice of luck to make it that far. In an all-in pre-flop encounter Jobling held pocket jacks, Sambrook pocket aces. A jack on the flop sent a 2,750,000 pot to Jobling and Sambrook soon exited in seventh.

To be fair to Jobling once he got his break he never looked back and played an excellent game. He eliminated Anthony Shields in sixth, Ewan Brown in fifth and David Knight in fourth to have almost two-thirds of the chips in play with three left.

But, there was one man Jobling couldn't budge. His path to heads-up was, for most of the final table, blocked by a formidable foe in the shape of Sam Holden. With five players left Holden had the chip lead but he just couldn't hold when it mattered. Prior to his exit hand he was involved in five all-in showdowns, losing four and chopping one (in which he as a 63% favourite). He was between a 82% and 56% favourite in the other three where he got it in good and a 48%-52% underdog in the one where he got it in behind.

His exit hand summed up his day, three-handed and with 12 big blinds he moved all-in with [Ah][5h] and ran into Ferguson's [Ad][Qd]. The [2c][4c][7c][5d] board put Holden in front, but the [Qs] river gave the pot to Ferguson. There's no doubt Ferguson has talent but in contrast to Holden he won eight of his nine all-ins. On such vagaries are tournaments won and lost.

Tonight belongs to Ferguson and it sounds like he's going to have a good time. The first thing I'm going to buy is a deluxe holiday. But I will celebrate with a few drinks tonight," looking to the future he said. "I really want to play full-time, it felt incredible to win."

Final table results:

1st. Christopher Ferguson, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, *£87,640
2nd. Alexander Jobling, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, *£82,120
3rd. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, £39,030
4th. David Knight, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, £28,780
5th. Ewan Brown, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, £22,240
6th. Anthony Shields, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, , £17,880
7th. Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, £13,520
8th. Dan Hemingway, United Kingdom, £10,250

*Denotes that a deal was done heads-up

To catch up on all today's action click the links below. To find out the names of the 72 players who cashes in UKIPT Newcastle click here. To find out a bit more about Chris Ferguson and the other seven finalists all you have to do is click here.

Level 24 - 28 update
Level 29 - 30 updates

All photos are copyright of Mickey May. Your face won't need pixelating if you don't credit her photos.

The UK & Ireland Poker Tour revolutionized live tournament poker in the region. Now, for the first time in its three-season history, the UKIPT will take its action online and open it up to millions of people around the world.

But there's a catch. This tournament will test both your online skills and your live chops. If you play through the two days of the online event and make the final table, you'll need to make it to Bristol in November to fight for the championship. Here's how it works.

This Sunday at 16:00 UK Time (09:00 ET) , the UKIPT will host a £250,000 guaranteed event online. The £700+£35 buy-in event will get you 10,000 in starting chips and 20 minute online levels at 8-max tables. Day 1 will last 22 levels, and then play will resume on Monday at 19:00 UK Time (14:00 ET) to play to the eight-handed final table.

If you make it that far, you'll be headed to Bristol for a chance at two championships. Your final table appearance in the UKIPT online will earn you a full UKIPT Bristol prize package. So, when you go to Bristol to play the UKIPT Online final table, you will get to play UKIPT Bristol, too!

For more information on the event and a UKIPT side event schedule, visit the UKIPT Online information page.

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

The inaugural UKIPT online main event final table is set. After two days of online combat we have eight players remaining who will have to jet into Bristol, United Kingdom from as far away as Uruguay and Russia. Although the chip leader zugzwang16 is a phenomenal player in his own right having finished third to Faraz Jaka in a €2,100 SCOOP-H event earlier this year for $94,940, most eyes will be online legend Chris 'Moorman1' Moorman, a former online number one with $8,356,760.37 recorded online tournaments winnings.

Although Moorman has $2,700,162 in live tournament winnings he's yet to score a title with just one live win on his CV: a €2,000 side event at EPT8 Madrid for €21,050. Will this November be where Moorman finally binks some silverware?

All eight players who made the final eight also receive a UKIPT Bristol package (this includes £770 tournament entry, hotel accommodation and £130 spending money) and an additional £300 for travel costs to play the final table at UKIPT Bristol which will play out live on the evening of 7 November.

UKIPT online
Buy-in: £735
Game: NLHE
Players: 587
Prize pool: £410,900

The final table (seat draw to take place on 7 November)
1. zugzwang16, Uruguay, 1,530,528
2. piper_kl88, Germany, 1,524,837
3. Chris 'Moorman1' Moorman, United Kingdom, 562,818
4. Joep 'Pappe_Ruk' van den Bijgaart, Netherlands, 545,565
5. Seradja, Russia, 490,798
6. Daniel 'danloulou' Smyth, Ireland, 485,659
7. komisch99, Germany, 369,562
8. Ben 'gs08bjohnson' Jenkins, United Kingdom, 360,233

Andrew 'FDSaussure' Ferguson was the unlucky player to bounce out in ninth to bubble the final table when his kings were carcked all-in pre-flop for a million chip pot against piper_kl88. Somewhat brutally the ace caught the turn of a [4s][4d][7d][ah][7c] board. It didn't even have the decency to be give Ferguson a diamond re-draw to the nut flush. Ferguson, who collected £4,930.80 for ninth, lasted marginally longer than European Players Council member Dominik Nitsche who bust in 10th and Jon 'apestyles' Van Fleet who was the first to go in Day 2 busting in 24th.

Join us for that live final table in November.

Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

4.28pm: End of the level
That brings us to the end of the first four levels of the day. Once again it's time for the players to take a short breather but we'll be back in 2 shakes of a lamb's tail (assuming the temporaral exchange rate to be around 10 minutes/lamb's tail shake.)

That's level 4 in the bag. Level 5 updates and beyond will be continued in a separate post.

See you soon. -- RS

4.22pm: Woodhead Severed
Stephen Woodhead has failed to conquer level 4, eliminated with just minutes remaining in the level. We joined the hand with Stephen Woodhead picking up his coat and leaving - [As][8s] in front of him - his vanquisher Henrik Lyngmark showing down a dominating [Ac][Kh].

We had little details other than this, although two aces on the board the dealer was sweeping up suggested there may have been some justifiable post-flop action.

The upshot however means Woodhead departs and Lyngmark's stack is an impressive 25k. -- RS

4.20pm: Chip leaders
With almost four levels gone these players have more than or almost doubled their starting stack: Joe Grech (37,000), James Mitchell (33,000), Mark McCluskey (33,000), Thomas Ward (28,000) and Rich Trigg (28,000). -- NW

4.10pm: Owston out
It's not been a good level for the Welshman in this field as Dan Owston has also fallen prey to the tournament variance stick.

"I started the hand with 9,000," he told me. "There's been a raise under-the-gun to 350, a call and I make it 1,025 with [8c][7c] from the hi-jack, the original raiser folded but the other player (Martin Hogarty) called. The flop was J-9-3 rainbow," he continued. "He check-called a bet of 1,450. The turn was the [2c] - putting two clubs on board - and I moved in for about 6,500 and he called with [A][Q] which held." -- NW

4pm: Runner, runner....runner?
What we think* are Edward Ash and Kestutis Gecevicius just went to war preflop - the short-stacked Gecevicius calling a raise from Ash, which was then squeezed from the blinds.

Ash was going nowhere with pocket queens, moving all-in and Gecevicius felt there was enough value to make the call with [Td][Jd]

A flop of [Ad][5s] left little room for Gecevicius to escape, though a [7c] left a tiny chink in Ash's armour. That chink rapidly became a realistic possibility as the [9c] turned to give him an inside straight draw.

It seemed almost inevitable that the poker gods would finish off the outdraw and they duly delivered with the [8d] on the river.

"Runner, runner, runner," Ash observed glumly, down to 12k, whilst a fist-pumping Gecevicius swept up his newly promoted 8k stack.

*the seat order on the table may not be as we have it on our list. -- RS

3.50pm: Hawes saddled with regret
Richard Hawes' day has failed to pick up momentum as of yet - his rolling eyes speaking volumes as we approached his table.

"I'm playing rubbish," he revealed to us - although with 7k, this Hawes is not quite off to the glue factory just yet. -- RS

3.42pm: Dunwoodie done good-y
Recipient of most contrived pun of the day thusfar, Thomas Dunwoodie's stock has taken a sharp upturn courtesy of a hand contested with Richard Haile.

Dunwoodie limped in behind an early position limp from Victor Nosko, only for Haile to pop it up to 525 from the small blind.

Both players called, and they went 3 way to a flop of [Ks][4s][3d].

Haile led out for 850 and was called by Dunwoodie once Nosko had thrown his hand in the muck.

The turn [Td] saw Haile check and Dunwoodie make a bet of 1850. Haile made the call.

Come the [Js] river, Haile now led out for 3,000, only for Dunwoodie to make a relatively quick and dramatic raise to 14,000, sending the chips down from on high like a Greek god raining fire upon humanity.

He had Haile covered but the decision took only a few moments to resolve, Haile calling for his tournament life, only to get the bad news that Dunwoodie had the nuts [Ad][2d].

Sadly we didn't get to see Haile's cards, but that hand sees Dunwoodie raking in a very useful pot, propelling him to the lofty heights of 25,750 whilst Haile joined the growing rail on the sidelines. -- RS

3.35pm: The ramblings of Romanello
Roberto Romanello was kind enough to tell me about his exit hand and the hand before it as that was also key.

In the first of the two hands that led to his demise after a raise and a call, Romanello made it 1,450 with pocket kings, both players called the raise. They all checked an eight high flop and a nine came on the turn. It checked to Romanello who bet 1,600 and again both players looked the EPT champion up.

Another eight came on the river and when it checked to him Romanello bet 4,500, one player folded and then the other player moved all-in for 5,600 more. The Welshman folded face up and his opponent showed an eight.

So down to 9,300 on the next hand Romanello was dealt [Jh][9h] and with two calls in front of him he made the call on the button. The flop came [9][7][5] with two hearts, the original raiser bet, Romanello raised to 2,400 and his opponent made the call.

An off-suit queen hit the turn, Romanello moved all-in and his opponent snap called with pocket queens to send him out of the tournament. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.30pm: Smyth gaining a reputation
Niall Smyth has been attracting the attention of several of his tablemates, having shown a propensity to make a bluff or two in the early levels.

"Watch this guy," Richard Harris warned us. "Write down every hand he plays, he's at it all the time!"

"Couldn't bluff me though, I was too good for him," piped in Dave Oldacre, proudly showing off his 22k stack, having earlier picked off a Smyth bluff.

Smyth's tactics are paying dividends at this time, as he has risen to 24k... -- RS

3.25pm: One EPT champion down
Roberto Romanello is out of UKIPT Bristol, we missed his exit but he was seen walking out of the tournament room and down the stairs in search of a cash game. -- NW

3.20pm: Numbers
The tournament board is showing that 220 of 233 entrants are left in this tournament. Late registration is still open for a few more minutes however. -- NW

3.10pm: Chip counts
A smattering of chip counts for you: David Lenz (14,200), Ben Jenkins (12,000), Kevin Williams (17,600), Martin Mulsow (18,500) and Paul McTaggart (19,000). -- NW

3pm: Raj Verma doubles up
From under-the-gun+1 Raj Verma raised to 350, he picked up two callers and the big blind then 'squeezed' making it 1,650 total. Back on Verma he wasn't done and re-raised to 2,900. The callers scarpered, but the big blind was going nowhere, he raised to 5,025.

This pot was now getting very serious, Verma decided to move all-in, it was 13,900 total and the action was back on the big blind. He now went into the tank, so much so that a couple of other players contemplated calling the clock. Eventually though he made the call, leaving himself about 5,000 back.

Verma: [Ad][Kd]
Big blind: [Ah][Jd]

"Oh my god," "Wow," and "What," were just three of the reactions upon seeing the big blinds hand. The [2h][9h][6h] flop though gave the big blind a boat load of outs, but he missed them al on the [9d] turn and [7d] river.

"You dodged half the deck," said Matt Dale to Verma. "Would you have taken a chop on the flop?" asked Jon Spinks of Verma, who is now up to almost 30,000. - NW

2.45pm: Trigger Firing Bullets
Rick Trigg was bemoaning his fortune earlier, but he has put his woes behind him, rising imperiously to 22,500, well above his initial starting stack.

He has done so despite the close attentions of the inimitable Viktor Nosko, seated to his direct left.

"This guy won't let me play my game. Can't put a chip in a pot without him jumping in!" Trigg told us.

"It's nothing personal. I like you," Nosko(13,750) added.

"I like you too," Trigg agreed.

An amiable but competitive relationship breaking out between these two... -- RS

2.30pm: Play back underway
Cards are back in the air here in Bristol. A quick trawl of twitter during the break informs me that Jamie Dale is on 19,600, Matt Crocker has 16,150 and Sam Holden has slipped to 6,500. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2.20pm: The curious incident of the pot in the daytime
I just saw one of oddest pots I've ever seen on the UKIPT, it involved a lot of table talk, a guest appearance from Roberto Romanello the masseuse and, sadly no showdown.

The action was started by Niall Smyth who made it 275 to go from under-the-gun, he was flat called by Martin Mulsow one seat along, only for a player known only as 'Richie', who was getting a massage at the time, to bump it to 675 from the cut-off. Both Smyth and Mulsow made the call.

The three of them saw a [7s][6d][5s] flop, it was checked to Richie and he bet 1,525. Before either other player acted the table talk began. "If I get called I might check it down, it's a very scary board." Unperturbed by this speech wizardry Smyth made the call and Mulsow passed.

The [10c] came on the turn, Smyth checked to Richie who in 'poker player tells lie shocker' didn't check it down, but instead bet 3,525 and then went back into table talk mode. "I'm committed now, it's a big pressure bet. You've got to think if you call this bet, how much am I going to have to call on the river?"

Whilst Smyth was thinking it over another player said. "Do not let him get into your head." Eventually Smyth did indeed make the call. The pot was now fairly chunky and the [Qs] completed the board. Now Smyth changed tack leading out for 6,000, leaving just 4,000 back.

"Why so much?" asked Richie. At this point Roberto Romanello crept up behind Richie (a friend of his obviously) and decided to play a little prank on him by replacing the masseuse who was at the time massaging Richie's back. Now whilst Romanello may have 'sick poker tekkers' he's obviously not much cop as a masseuse as Richie soon twigged on the old switcharoo.

Perhaps because of this, or perhaps because of the gravity of the situation he then stood up and said: "Sorry guys," due to the time he was taking over his decision. Eventually though he passed his hand and Smyth raked the pot. -- NW

2.02pm: Break it down
Well, with two levels in the can, the players are getting their first 20 minute break of the day to swap stories, brag about success, smoke, and stretch their legs before knuckling down for another hard face-off across the felt.

We'll be back in 20 minutes... -- RS

1.57pm: Another one bites the dust
Table 24 has seen an early departure, seat 8 blasting his way out of the tournament Doyle Brunson style - though his move with [Ts][2c] on a [3c][4s][5c] board was somewhat less successful than the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner as the board bricked out over turn and river,

"Thank you, good game," he commented as he left with one or two open-gaped mouths bidding him farewell.

An update on his identity should be with us shortly. -- RS

1.52pm: Uphill battle For Moorman
Chris Moorman is still searching for that spark of inspiration to ignite his tournament here.

His stack has been reduced further to a paltry 7,500.

"It's like the old days!" Chris joked, referring back to those troubled times when he couldn't get a live result for love nor money, despite winning accolade after accolade online.

At least with only seven chips or so, Chris is not having any problems stacking his chips - sometimes his achilles heel.

A silver lining perhaps? -- RS

1.40pm: Another table of death
I stumbled across another table of death on my last round. At this particular table lurked Jon Spinks (9,700), he finished fifth at UKIPT Brighton in Season 1, won the High Roller at UKIPT Edinburgh in Season 2 and has two WSOP final tables to his name. To his immediate left is Raj Verma (11,500), runner-up to Richard Sinclair at UKIPT Newcastle in Season 2. A couple of seats further along you'll find Matt Dale (16,900), doyen of the Bristol poker scene and a dangerous and unpredictable customer.

Lastly two seats to his left sits Chris O'Donnell (19,000), UKIPT Brighton champion from Season 2. That's a tough table. -- NW

1.33pm: Straight from the Hawes' mouth
Richard Hawes gave us a quick chip count of 13,500.

"I was doing better but had a little accident ahem!" he revealed mysteriously... -- RS

1.28pm: Trigg's house crumbles
Rick Trigg has already seen his starting stack plummit to 8,500, unable to avoid losing half his stack with J-Q on a J-Q-5 board.

His opponent held K-J and over the course of a K turn and J river, Trigg managed to escape complete oblivion, but was dealt some early damage... -- RS

1.18pm Feasting on the action
All of the following chip counts are garnered from the tables situated in the restaurant area: Dan Owston (16,000), Fergal Nealon (17,000), Sam Holden (14,650), Joe Grech (15,600), Jack Ellwood (18,000), Thomas Ward (16,500) and Sam Grafton (17,000).

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

1.12pm: Carter bad beats the devil
Dan Carter is a positive young man and he'll be feeling even more upbeat after his combo draw of [7d][9d] on a [Qd][5d][6s] board got there on the [8c] turn versus his opponent's pocket queens to secure a juicy chip stack of 28,000.

"Glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that!" tweeted a jubilant Carter, who is now well-placed as one of the chip leaders... -- RS

1.02pm: Cooler weather predicted
Even with 15,000 stacks, it's pretty hard to avoid trouble when you are dealt pocket kings in the small blind and the big blind has the bad grace and good timing to find pocket aces.

That was exactly the situation at table 24, seats 2 and 3 tangling in this unfortunate face-off. We'll have details of the combatants involved as soon as we get a full seating list, or possibly sooner - suffice to say one player is now up to close to 30k and one player is on the cusp of elimination... -- RS

12.55pm: Plan for the day
Tournament director Toby Stone has just informed me that the plan for the day is to play eight levels, with a 15 minute break every two levels and no dinner break, meaning play should be done around 9.15pm.

He also told me tables are breaking high to low, which means that the table of death (see 12.35pm post) will be among the first table to break. -- NW

12.50pm: Looking for the repeat
There are two UKIPT champions playing today, both Richard Sinclair and Chris O'Donnell are looking for their second UKIPT title. Sinclair is on a complete freeroll this season, as he won the UKIPT Champion of Champions event in December to give him entry to all regular stops of Season 3 of the UKIPT. - NW

12.41pm: Less is Moor
We're only a few levels in, but already the man, the myth the legend Chris Moorman is...struggling.

We joined the table with Moorman having just lost a pot, grumbling good-naturedly "I folded the best hand there."

This didn't stop him raising it up and receiving one caller before leading for 225 on the [9d] [5d] [9c] flop, getting called and firing for 500 on the [2c] turn.

His opponent now raised it up to 1225, leaving Moorman hovering for a while before quietly mucking his cards.

"I feel a bit sorry for you, you're getting bullied a bit here!" commented one of his table-mates - Moorman laughing with his chip stack down to 13.9k.- RS

12.30pm: Three rooms
The players are spread across three areas here in Bristol.

In the main card room there are 14 tables, sharing one are Rich Trigg, Richard Haile and local legend Victor Nosko. The latter has been playing cards for longer than many of these players have been alive and has a cash from 1993 on his Hendon Mob database.

In the supplementary room - where the UKIPT Online final table was played - there are seven tables in use. Among the players situated in this area are Jamie Dale and Ben Jenkins.

Finally, on the other side of the casino in what is usually the restaurant, we find poker players seated at six tables - with another two empty ones should they be needed. It's here that I found an early contender for table of death: Sam Holden, Jack Ellwood, Joe Grech and Fergal Nealon are all on the same table. Yikes!

Interested or otherwise, Chris Moorman and Dan Owston will have a good view of any action at that table as they're playing on adjacent tables. -- NW

12.15pm: Star watch
The seasonal air outside may be cool and crisp, but it hasn't dissuaded a number of sizzling UK names from piling into Bristol for their shot at a UKIPT title.

Nikhil Persaud, Rick Trigg, Dan Carter, Dan Owston, Marc Wright, Sam Grafton, Chris Moorman and Wayne Bentley are just some of the names guaranteed to cause a few ripples in the tournament as the day proceeds. - RS

12.10pm: Cards are in the air
Play is underway here in Bristol. -- NW

12pm: Welcome to UKIPT Bristol
It's the fifth leg of UKIPT season three and for the last UKIPT of 2012 the tour has touched down at a new venue, the Gala Harbourside casino in Bristol no less. Players have been clamoring for a stop in the South West of England and they've finally got one.

Whilst the venue may be new to the tour, you can expect the same superb structure, 15,000 chips, one-hour clock, all the levels and a big field as we're expecting around 500 players across the two days.

Now we all know poker players like to moan, usually about non poker things like the buffet. But they've got no excuses this time round as the casino is located just a stones throw from the biggest restaurant in the UK, Za Za Bazaar and it's a buffet restaurant. Feast on that poker players.

The tournament is about to start there are at least 225 players registered so far, although Wojtek Barzantny, who won the UKIPT Online event yesterday will be playing Day 1B as will Team PokerStars pros Liv Boeree and Vicky Coren. If you missed it this is how Barazntny won UKIPT Online yesterday.

Let's shuffle up and deal.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (and their favourite Bristolian phrase) :Rod Stirzaker (alright my lover) and Nick Wright (gert lush). Photos by Mickey May (Ow bist me babber).

8.51pm: The day is done!
Eight levels of fast, frantic and serious poker played out here in Bristol and we saw some dramatic pots, moments, risers and fallers as a big group took to the felt bidding to be crowned the UKIPT Bristol champion.

The final analysis showed Jonathon Prested had "best"-ed (but not busted) the field with well over 120,000.

You can read the details below or you can wait for the more condensed recap - coming shortly...

Thanks for following and make sure you are with us tomorrow where a new slew of warriors will take to the felt including Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree and Vicky Coren, homegrown talent James Dempsey and many other players hopeful of throwing their hat into the ring of potential UKIPT champions.

We'll see you back at the felt at 12.00pm sharp. -- RS

8.47pm: Barr set too high for Williams

Jonathan Barr made a move late in the day, shoving over a Kevin Williams open with [7c][8c] in a bid to boost his stack.

WIlliams made the call with [Ac][Ks] and looked in good shape to further enhance his chip stack - however Barr did hold potentially dangerous live cards.

This potential was realised in dramatic form, a flop of [7h][7s][6d] spelling disaster for Williams.

The [Ah] turn brought just a sliver of hope, but Williams' desperate calls for an ace river came to nothing as the [5d] appeared to give Barr a big double through.

Williams meanwhile takes a hit but is still well-placed with 43k, having 4-bet shoved the very next hand, increasing his stack effectively. -- RS

8.44pm: Last four hands before the end of play!

Just four hands remain in level 8, before the players bag and tag 'em for the evening.

8.34pm: The role-call of the damned

We've been collecting players who have busted recently.

Here they are. Bad luck all.

Nicholas Romanello, Ralph Silva, Alan Vinnicombe, Ian Cole, Borui Xu, James Rann, Jonas Stromsten, Richard Collis, Matthew Kerry, Richard Trigg, Kevin Allen, Ivan Sampson, Maz Bowers, Marc Hunter, Darren Corbett, Michael Doverklint, Connor Ross, Carwyn Jenkins, Morgan Sorfleet, Nigel Baker, William Bennet, Isaac Downes, Ben Newman. -- RS

8.22pm: Trigger shoots final bullet
Rick Trigg's stack has been up and down like a yoyo today but finally the fat lady has sung and she's singing his name.

The big set back to his stack saw him go to war with ace-king, only to lose the resultant 35k flip, meaning he now had a mere 6,500 in play.

When someone aggressive opened, he drew his line in the sand, 3-betting with [Ad][8c], only to get called by A-T.

"I'm in trouble. I need an eight!" he told friend Chris Moorman on the neighbouring table.

The flop came [Qh][Js][9h] causing Trigg to revise his request.

"Now I need a ten!"

The turn however fulfilled his now redundant original request, peeling the [8c] and when the river bricked the [4d], Trigg's hopes of an unlikely comeback were dashed. -- RS

8.12pm: Chips and fish
As the last level of the day gets underway Adam Forsyth (60,000) and Kieran Plater (58,000) are both well placed.

However, Malcolm Dagger, Jonathan Spinks, Joel Beverley and Simon Brooks will not be winning UKIPT Bristol. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75

8.05pm: Tweet Tweet
Some information gleaned from twitter: Matt Crocker has doubled his short stack up to a below average stack Aces against Ace-King boosting him to 11,350.

Meanwhile Raj Verma has lost a big pot and is back down to 40,000. -- NW

7.55pm: It's a race
As the blinds get bigger in comparison to the stacks, its not surprising that we're seeing players take more flips for their stacks.

In one such race Isaac Downes opened to 1,050, Sam Grafton flat-called and Andrew Laurie then re-raised to 3,700. Back on Downes he moved all-in for around 22,000, Grafton folded but Laurie made the call.

Downes: [10d][10h]
Laurie: [Ac][Kc]

The board ran [5h][Ad][6s][5c][2h] and Laurie spiked his overcard on the flop to eliminate Downes. -- NW

7.43pm Williams fires up the leaderboard
Kevin Williams has just won a big coup to boost him up the chip rankings. Holding K-Q he went to war with a table-mate who had K-7 on a K-Q-7-7-K board.

A pretty harsh cooler, Williams will no doubt not be bothered at all as he is now on 50k, which will be amongst the leaders at this stage. -- RS

7.36pm Roberts flying flag for the ladies
There are several women from the opening Day 1a roster still holding their own, but it is Deborah Roberts who is heading them at the moment.

Most recently, her pocket sixes connected sweetly with a [6s][5c][3d] flop and she squeezed several chunky bets out of her opponent before breaking the bad news that they were way behind.

She is now up to 42k... -- RS

7.28pm Moorman stares oblivion in the face
Chris Moorman just saw most of his stack evaporate. The hand saw him open the pot preflop with [7c][8c], picking up one caller who check-called Moorman's c-bet of 1,200 on a 7-3-2 rainbow board. The turn was the [Tc] and when Moorman led for 2,300, he was raised to 5,200.

He called and then faced a 3,600 bet - his opponent with 10,000 back - on the [3s] river.

Again he called only to be shown pocket eights.

"I should have shoved the river," he said regretfully.

Moorman was left with just under 9,000. "I won't be coming back tomorrow with 9k," he said indicating he might be making a move sooner rather than later... -- RS

7.25pm: Three into one does go
When play started today the players were scattered across three different areas. With the field of 235 now down to 144, almost all the players are now condensed into the main tournament room, with only two tables still in the secondary area.

Amongst the players on those two tables are Ben Jenkins (36,000), Bruce Atkinson (34,000) and Kevin Killeen (12,000).

Meanwhile, in other news Chris Moorman is down to 8,500, Raj Verma is up to 70,000 and Jack Sambrook has slipped to 28,000. -- NW

7.10pm: Back from the break
Players are back in their seats now and cards are in the air. This is level seven of the eight scheduled for today. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400 ante 50

6.50pm: Break it down!
The end of the sixth level of the day means it's time for another of those breaks. The smoking balcony is filling up faster than a gas hoarder's can during a zombie apocalypse and we too are taking a short twenty minute break.

Back soon for level 7... -- RS

6.47pm: Crocker the unsung crooner
Matt Crocker was pretty short and decided to go for a double-through with [Kc][8c], besting his opponent's [Ah][Js] when an 8 spiked on the flop.

Up to 5,750, Crocker seemed a little upset we witnessed this minor suckout.

"Oh you turn up now to get all these details but you missed it when I was singing songs!" -- RS

6.42pm: Taking the count
A couple of quick chip counts for those of you following these two young UK high fliers.

James Mitchell - 23,000
Kevin Williams - 24,000

6.36pm: Persaud pushes for the chip lead
Nik Persaud has ascended to a proud stack of 45,000, which places him near the chip lead at this stage.

When first pushed as to where he got his chips from he was less than forthcoming at first - "I've just been pinching blinds!"

Like bloodhounds on the scent though, we weren't to be put off by this and eventually Nik cracked and revealed all.

"The biggest pot I played, I limped under the gun with [7d][5d] and saw a four-way flop of 3-4-6.

I bet out half pot and the button and big blind called.

The turn was the [Ks] - I lead out for 1,800, button calls and now the big blind check-raises another 4,000. I made the call and when the river fell the [Th] he moved all-in. Turned out he had K-4 and had made 2 pair on the turn..." -- RS

6.30pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but if you were following the progress of: Shaun Conning, Martin Mulsow, Jamie Dale, Katie Lindsay or Thomas Piccirilli then you can go ahead and close this window as they're all out. -- NW

6.22pm: Chip counts
Still in and going strong (or otherwise) are: Kevin Williams (26,500), Thomas Hall (36,300), Joe Grech (45,000), Sam Grafton (23,000 - an uptick from his low of 6,000), Matt Crocker (2,300), Thomas Ward (37,000), Dan Carter (26,000), Marc MacDonnell (24,000), Nicky Romanello (19,000) and Nik Persaud (42,000). -- NW

6.15pm: Mitchell gets a rub down
From Sam Grafton, although we should say it was all good natured.

James Mitchell opened from the hi-jack, Grafton passed his small blind and Alan Yau then moved all-in for less than 2,000 and Mitchell made the obligatory call.

Mitchell: [Ad][Qh]
Yau: [As][6s]

The [10s][Ks][8s] flop killed the hand dead and the board ran out [Kh][4h]. The dent to Mitchell's stack was minimal and Grafton went to town at the expense of his friend. "Unlucky Mitchell," he said. "Once I saw the [8s] I knew you weren't winning that hand." He then turned to Yau and said: "That'll teach him to raise our blinds with that off-suit broadway trash!"

6.05pm: Hawes unseated*
Richard Hawes has battled gamely today, looking to lift his stack into contention following some early damage.

Unfortunately though, it proved a hurdle he was unable to jump.

*Nick Wright takes the blame credit for that pun. -- RS

5.53pm: Trigg's star rising
Rick Trigg may have started the day on a downward spiral but he's picking up pace as we move through the day, most recently flopping a set of threes on a [9d][6d][3s] and getting his opponent to pay him off on all three streets (finally for the remainder of his stack) with A-9.

That hand moves Trigg up to 27,000.

"Now I've just got to get past 30,000, I'm making a habit of reaching that then donking them all off..."

Let's hope Trigg can reverse this pattern today... -- RS

5.50pm: Exits and chip counts
There's no easy way to say this but Richard Haile, Chris O'Donnell, Wayne Bentley and Sam Holden will not be winning UKIPT Bristol as they are all out.

However the following are all in with a shot: Raj Verma (34,000), Ben Jenkins (27,000), David Lenz (29,200), Jon Spinks (10,700), Paul McTaggart (35,000) and Ben Martin (48,000). -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25

5.40pm: Moorman at the double
Chris Moorman just doubled up and for the first time this tournament his stack is in the black as it's now 20,500.

He was kind enough to recount the hand to me, "I opened on the button to 700 with [8d][5d] and the small blind (Fergal Nealon) called. The flop was 4-4-6 with two diamonds and he check-called 850," continued Moorman.

"The turn was an off-suit three, he checked to me again, I bet 1,900, he moved all-in and I called all-in for my last five thousand. He had pocket fives, the river was seven to give me a straight."

That river card was very bad news for all the other players in the field. -- NW

5.30pm: Richard Hawes is not a horse
Richard Hawes grabbed our arm as we passed to comment on the sheer number of horse references in his updates.

"I always get referred to as a horse!" he complained jovially.

We can only apologise Richard but we do have to write these updates on the hoof.

Richard Hawes holding steady at 8,000.... -- RS

5.20pm: Chip leader
During the break Jack Sambrook - who finished seventh at UKIPT Newcastle - tweeted. "Steady 45k at 2nd break. 150/300 when we return."

By my reckoning that makes Sambrook the current chip leader. -- NW

5.06pm: Always look on the bright side
Lee Michael Mulligan recently fired the last of his chips into a pot, and was pessimistic about his chances.

The board read [Ks][Td][6s][7h], and having bet 1,000 on the flop, called by Witold Nosko, he pushed his remaining 4,500 into the middle on the turn.

Nosko uhmmed and ahhhed before saying "good luck," and calling.

"Good luck? That's me done then," said Mulligan before finding out he was actually in great shape - his [Ac][Kc] well ahead of Nosko's crucially out-kicked [Kd][Qh].

A blank [8s] on the river secured Mulligan's double-through to 10,500.

"I was sure he would have aces," he revealed as Nosko counted the damage to his stack, now reduced to 13,400. -- RS

4.57pm: Latest eliminations
It's a brave man who takes on the sea of turbulence and bests its dangerous waves.

The latest mariners to be swept away in a seaspray of misfortune are Simon Coles and Rickard Pantzare, whose journeys have ended at the bottom of Davey's locker. -- RS

4.45pm: The many faces of Sam Grafton
If you've ever encountered Sam Grafton at a poker table you'll know that he's one of the more talkative players on the circuit and he's also someone who will show his emotions at the table through a range of expressions. Behind all that bluster is, of course, a sharp tournament mind.

Grafton's yet to have a really big score on the UKIPT, 14th in Coventry during Season one his deepest run so far. And he's struggling here in Bristol, he had 17,000 at one point but has slipped to 6,300. For now though enjoy this excellent series of photos our snapper caught earlier. -- NW

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (and their favourite Sam) : Rod Stirzaker (Sam Fox) and Nick Wright (Sam Spade). Photos by Mickey May (Yosemite Sam)

The fifth leg of Season 3 and the last leg of 2012 saw the UKIPT touch down in a city it hadn't visited before. And 235 players clearly liked the fact that the Gala Harbourside in Bristol was hosting a leg of the UKIPT as they turned out in their droves on Day 1A. No one was more happy than Jonathon Prested, after eight levels of play the Englishman bagged up 121,300 chips to claim the Day 1A chip lead.

He wasn't the only player who had a good day at the felt. Kevin Killeen (67,800) and Michael Danko (69,600) both turned their 15,000 starting stack into significantly more by the end of play. They'll all be back for Day 2 on Saturday at noon.

Whilst no Team Pros or Team Online members were in attendance today (Liv Boeree, Vicky Coren, Christophe De Meulder and Mickey Petersen play tomorrow) there were plenty of big names packed in amongst the tables today. Some like Dan Carter (61,900) and Sam Grafton (56,800) prospered, whilst others with big reputations tumbled. Sam Holden, Jon Spinks and Roberto Romanello were just three of the players who failed to advance to Day 2.

For some it was their second day of UKIPT tournament poker in a row here in Bristol. Chris Moorman, David Lenz, Ben Jenkins and Daniel Smyth all took part in the UKIPT Online final table yesterday. Of the four only Smyth failed to advance and then only because he was eliminated on the last hand of the day when his [As][10d] couldn't get there against Thomas Ward's pocket sevens. Both Moorman (9,600) and Lenz (16,200) have work to do whilst Jenkins takes an above average 36,400 into Day 2.

Of the 235 players who sat down,109 made it through to Day 2, but for now they've been released out into the bars and restaurants of Bristol. There are plenty of those surrounding this casino down on the harbourside to keep the players entertained.

We'll be back from noon tomorrow when a fresh batch of players will take to the tables and try and take their first steps to winning UKIPT Bristol, we're expecting a sell out.

To catch up with all today's action click on the links below, but for now it's good night from Bristol.

Levels 1-4
Levels 5-8

All photos are copyright of Mickey May, she's got some pretty slick knife skills so don't mess.