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Congratulations to Brett Angell, winner of UKIPT4 Grand Final (£115,083)

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That's that for Season 4 on the UKIPT then! Ludovic Geilich, Alan Gold, Robbie Bull, Duncan McLellan (twice), Ben Mayhew, Dean Hutchison, Kevin Killeen, Rodrigo Espinosa, Joshua Hart and now Brett Angell have all been worthy champions and helped make the United Kingdom and Ireland's biggest and most fun tour what it is.

Angell narrowly missed out on a maiden UKIPT title in Nottingham in Season 2 but he made sure of the victory the next time he made it to the final two. He defeated Fabrizio Fuchs after a heads up duel that lasted an hour and forty-five minutes and got his hands on that Grand Final trophy and £115,083.

UKIPT4_London2_Brett Angell.jpg

Brett Angell - champion!

ukipt4_london 2_day4_fabrizio_fuchs.jpg

Fabrizio Fuchs - 2nd place

The final hand saw two big aces in the middle of the table, one dominating the other. Fuchs took his time to reveal the nine that went with his ace after he saw Angell's ace-king. All the chips went in pre flop. The board ran blank and Angell shook Fuchs' hand and celebrated with his rail, which included his delighted girlfriend Claire.

After his winner's ceremony, Angell had the following to say:

"I still work in IT and I'm going to carry on working in IT. I really enjoy playing but poker's too unpredictable. I've had the mickey taken out of me by my mates for the past two and a half years [about his runner-up finish at UKIPT2 Nottingham] so it's a good feeling to win one.

"It was great having all my pals from the Teeside area cheering me on, they were fantastic."

UKIPT4_London2_Brett Angell.jpg

Angell collecting his trophy

At the start of play it seemed that no one wanted to win at all today. Of course that's not true but it took more than three hours of action before we lost out first player and then the floodgates opened. Angell tried his best to eliminate players but he lost back-to-back flips to double up Fuchs and Sandro Mescola. There were also three split pots with jacks versus jacks and two sets of big-slicks matching up twice.

Rasmus Agerskov was one of the favourites for the title coming into today but he four-bet folded to Angell early on and had little room for manoeuvre after that. His final had saw him three-bet all in with king-ten from the big blind after a Mark James button open. James called with sixes, fell behind on a king high flop, but turned a set to seal the Dane's fate.

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Rasmus Agerskov - 8th place

ukipt4_london 2_day4_caicai_huang.jpg

Caicai Huang - 7th place

The very next hand the final table was down to six. Caicai Huang three-bet all in with ace-queen and a rejuvenated Fuchs called with pocket sixes and held. Fuchs was at it again moments later. He made set on the river in hand against the formidable Vladimir Troyanovskiy that left the Russian short and the very next hand after that he called with aces after Troyanovskiy moved all in for 14 big blinds all in with ace-eight. The board bricked and the long-time tournament chip leader left with £23,800 and thoughts of what might've been.

ukipt4_london 2_day4_vladimir_troyanovskiy.jpg

Vladimir Troyanovskiy - 6th place

Everyone involved barely had time to catch his or her breath before another big pot saw the end of Nickolas Davies. The solid American, who has a very British sense of humour, four-bet all in with ace-queen only for Angell to be sat there with a dominating ace-king. A king high board later and the final eight had been cut in half in just 25 minutes.

ukipt4_london 2_day4_nickolas_davies.jpg

Nickolas Davies - 5th place

It took another half an hour of play before the fifth player of the day fell and it was to be the well-supported Mark James. He and Fuchs took to a queen-high flop containing two hearts. James over-bet the pot when he moved all in and his Swiss opponent correctly worked out he had done it with a flush draw, called with a weak top pair and held.

ukipt4_london 2_day4_mark_james.jpg

Mark James - 4th place

While all the fireworks had being going off around him, Sandro Mescola had quietly been going about his business, winning enough chips to stay alive and letting others go to war. He came into the final in last place and had laddered all the way to third place and that's as far as he would go. He raised from the small blind and then bet, called all in with bottom pair on the flop. Angell had top pair and took the chip lead heading into his heads up battle after his hand held.

ukipt4_london 2_day4_sandro_mescola.jpg

Sandro Mescola - 3rd place

UKIPT4 London2 Final Table results:

1st. Brett Angell, United Kingdom, £115,083*

2nd. Fabrizio Fuchs, Switzerland, PokerStars Qualifier, £98,717*
3rd. Sandro Mescola, Italy, £56,500
4th. Mark James, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £42,500
5th. Nickolas Davies, United States, PokerStars Player, £32,500
6th. Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Russian Federation, PokerStars Player, £23,800
7th. Caicai Huang, United Kingdom, £17,800
8th. Rasmus Agerskov, Denmark, PokerStars Qualifier, £12,800

*Denotes heads up deal.

That's not quite it for Season 4 on the UKIPT though. As you may remember from past seasons, it's tradition for the season's entire winner's roster to play a Champion of Champions freeroll for ultimate bragging rights and the small matter of entry and hotel to every stop on the Season 5 schedule! That'll be taking place at 10am BST tomorrow and will be updated live right here on the PokerStars Blog.

It'll take the format of a two-table sit and go featuring the players below and the Season 4 Online Qualifier of the Year, Dara O'Kearney.

UKIPT Series 1: Jake Cody
UKIPT Marbella: Ludovic Geilich
UKIPT Series 2: Gabriel Dragomir
UKIPT Galway: Alan Gold
UKIPT Series 3: Dinh Tuan Nguyen
UKIPT London: Robbie Bull
UKIPT Isle of Man: Duncan McLellan
UKIPT Nottingham 6-max: Ben Mayhew
UKIPT Edinburgh: Dean Hutchison
UKIPT Dublin: Kevin Killeen
UKIPT Series 4: Thomas Postlethwaite
UKIPT Nottingham: Duncan McLellan
UKIPT Series 5: Martins Adeniya
UKIPT Marbella 2: Rodrigo Espinosa
UKIPT Series 6: Paul Findlay
UKIPT Isle of Man 2: Josh Hart
UKIPT London 2: Brett Angell


A word from the winner...



UKIPT4_London1_ Brett Angell.jpg

Hopefully Angell will be fresh in the morning!

Photos of this event are copyright of Danny Maxwell.


UKIPT4 Champion of Champions

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12:45pm: Dean Hucthison has been crowned Champion of Champions!
Dean Hutchison is officially the "Best of the Best" after he beat all other champions from Season 4 on the UKIPT. The Edinburgh winner has won entry to all season 5 events (including hotel costs) which is due to kick off at the beginning of 2015.

UKIPT4_CoC_Dean Hutchison.jpg

Hutchison with Kirsty Thompson & Toby Stone

The final hand of the tournament saw Hutchison raise to 5,000 and call Ben Mayhew's all in.

Hutchison: [kc][jd]
Mayhew: [ac][8d]

The board ran [4c][2d][9c][7h][jh] to see Hutchison make the winning hand on the river.

Mayhew was gracious in defeat and he congratulated his victor.

UKIPT4_CoC_Ben Mayhew.jpg

Runner up, Ben Mayhew

Dean Hutchison and the whole of the UKIPT team will see you in 2015 for Season 5 of the UKIPT!

12:40pm: Mayhew back in the game
Dean Hutchison was one card away from being crowned Champion of Champions but Ben Mayhew hit a flush on the river to double to 47,000.

Mayhew shoved and and Hutchison called.

Mayhew [kc][6c]
Hutchison: [4c][4s]

The board ran [ac][jc][3h][7s][7c].

Game on!

12:35pm: Killeen busts third
From hero to zero for Kevin Killeen as Dean Hutchison came back to finish off the job.

The Irishman shoved from the button and Hutchison called from the big blind.

Killeen: [kh][7h]
Hutchison: [qd]td]

The board ran [4s][7d][3h][ac][qh] to see Hutchison hit the river and take a commanding lead into his heads up battle with Ben Mayhew.

UKIPT4_CoC_Kevin Killeen.jpg

From pole to out in third

12:30pm: Hutchison doubles to take the lead
Dean Hutchison has doubled through Kevin Killeen to take the chip lead.

The Scot had previously limp folded from the small blind but was waiting with a big hand this time. Killleen shoved on the limp and Hutchison snapped him off.

Killeen: [kc][td]
Hutchison: [as][qs]

The board ran [8c][9d][8d][9c][5d].

Hutchison doubled tom more than 70,000 and Killeen dropped to 27,000.

12:22pm: 60 bigs in play, Killeen with half the chips
Blinds have moved up to 1,000/2,000, 300 and the stacks have altered since three-handed play began.

Kevin Killeen has been the most dominant and has half the chips in play. Ben Mayhew has made some progress at the cost of Dean Hutchison, both have around 30,000 chips for a quarter of chips in play.

12:10pm: Geillich and O'Kearney bust to Hutchison
A pure Celtic battle saw anther three-way all in and a double elimination.

Geilich moved all in from early position before Dean Hutchison three-bet all in for more than 20,000 and Dara O'Kearney call all in for 19,200.

Geilich: [js][9c]
Hutchison: [ad][kc]
O'Kearney: [as][qs]

The board ran [9d][jd][qc][6d][td]

Hutchison was looking like losing to both players but made a straight on the river to win the huge pot.

Play three handed with Mayhew the shortest stack.

UKIPT4_CoC_Dara O'Kearney.jpg

O'Kearney joined Geilich on the rail

12pm: Hart broken, Geilich short
A three-way all in has seen Josh Hart go out, Ludovich Geilich drop to 5,000 and Kevin Killeen take a commanding lead with more than 55,000.

Killeen limped on the button before Geilich raised to 2,000 from the small blind and Hart jammed for 10,000 from the big blind. Killeen re-shoved for 22,500 and Geilich called.

Killeen: [ah][tc]
Geilich: [ks][qs]
Hart: [as][7s]

The board ran [ad][qh][8c][9c][4h] and Killeen scooped.

UKIPT4_CoC_Josh Hart.jpg

Hart can't win two titles in a month

11:55am: Doke sends Findlay broke
Dara O'Kearney has taken out Paul Findlay whilst holding pocket aces but had a real sweat as he had to fade a straight flush draw.

He raised from early position and called after Findlay shoved for 4,600 from the next seat.

O'Keaney: [ad][as]
Findlay: [kc][qc]

The board ran [8h][jc][tc][8d][ts].

Then there were six.

UKIPT4_CoC_Paul Findlay.jpg

Findlay faltered

11:50am: Cody busts despite fancying it
Jake Cody has busted in 8th place after getting his chips in a dominated situation.

The Team PokerStars Pro shoved for 6,200 from early position and Kevin Killeen did the same behind.

Cody: [ks][js]
Killeen: [kd][qs]

"I still fancy this!" said a hopeful Cody before his hopes were dashed on the [4c][ad][ac][qd][3c] board.

He's off for a PokerStars office visit before coming back for the media tournament later.

UKIPT4_CoC_Jake Cody.jpg

Cody had fun despite defeat

11:40am: Level 8 under way and counts
The players are back in their seats for level 8 where the blinds are 400/800,100.

Full counts:

1. Kevin Killeen - 9,500
2. Martins Adeniya 9th
3. Ludo Geilich- 28,400
4. Josh Hart - 17,800
5. Ben Mayhew - 16,100
6. Dean Hutchison - 15,100
7. Jake Cody - 6,600
8. Dara O'Kearney- 18,500
9. Paul Findlay - 5,600

10:27am: Break time
The players are on a short break. Full counts coming up.

10:25am: Adeniya first out of the final table
Martins Adeniya turned up late, barely played a hand and doesn't know what to do with the rest of his day after he busted.

He moved all in for 6,950 from early position and Ludovic Geilich followed him in from the nest seat. Jake Cody almost joined the party but thought better of it.

Adeniya: [qh][jh]
Geilich: [td][tc]

The board ran [kc][2h][9s][8c][3c] to hand the pot to the UKIPT Marbella1 champion.

UKIPT4_CoC_Martins Adeniya.jpg

Short day for the Full Tilt Poker Ambassador

11:20am: Hutchison on the double
Dean Hutchison fancied staying a little while longer (at least) after he found a great spot to get his short stack in.

Josh Hart raised to 1,200 from the button and called when his Scottish opponent moved all in for 5,925 from the big blind.

Hart: [kh][jh]
Hutchison: [ac][9s]

The board ran [7s][as][3s][7c][qc], hardly a sweat for the UKIPT Edinburgh champion.

11:05am: Final table seat draw
The final nine players have been drawn onto one table, here's how they line up (with rough counts:

1. Kevin Killeen - 10,500
2. Martins Adeniya - 9,600
3. Ludo Geilich- 19,000
4. Josh Hart - 23,000
5. Ben Mayhew - 14,000
6. Dean Hutchison - 5,800
7. Jake Cody - 7,500
8. Dara O'Kearney- 21,000
9. Paul Findlay - 7,000

11am; McLellan hits set, busts to quads
Duncan McLellan's comeback was short lived after Kevin Killeen got his revenge.

McLellan moved all in with pocket fours and was called by Killeen, holding kings.

The board ran [7s][qs][4c][kd][kh]. McLellan was offered massive hope only for it to be crushed through the turn and river.

UKIPT4_CoC_Duncan McLellan.jpg

No third title this season for Duncan

10:55am: Angell and Bull bust in same hand
A three-way all in saw the first eliminations of the day and two of them in the same hand!

Robbie Bull, Ludovic Geilich and Brett Angell all went to war pre flop and the cards were on their backs.

Bull: [ad][jd]
Geilich: [as][kc]
Angell: [jc][9c]

The board ran [8h][8c][jd][ah][tc] and Geilich moved up to 21,000 after taking two scalps.

UKIPT4_Three Way All In.jpg

Three-way all in sees off Bull and Angell

10:50am: McLellan triples and Adeniya arrives
Martins Adeniya arrived at table 2 just in time to see Duncan McLellan triple up.

McLellan moved all in for 450 and Dean Hutchison tried to isolate by raising to 1,000 but folded after Kevin Killeen moved all in behind.

McLellan: [kd][ts]
Killeen: [ah][js]

The board ran [qd][9s][9h][jh][8h] to make McLellan a straight.

10:45am: Cooler cripples McLellan
Duncan McLellan faces a tough task after a house over house scenario with Ben Mayhew saw him fall to just 475 chips.

Most of the chips went in on the river of a [4h][5s][7c][4c][qd] board with McLellan's [5c][5d] losing out to Mayhew's [7h][7d]. Mayhew leapt to 14,500.

10:43am: Three-way action on table 2
Josh Hart has moved up to 15,500 in chips after a three-way, three-bet pot.

In level 3 (75/150), the most recent Isle of Man champion raised to 400 before Dean Hutchison three-bet to 1,150 from the small blind. Kevin Killeen called from the big blind, as did Hart.

All three checked the [jh][6c][ad] flop before Hutchison led for 1,700 on the [kc] turn. Only Hart called to the [qh] river where his 4,000 bet was enough to get Hutchison to fold. Hart up to 15,500, Hutchison dropped to 7,500.

10:36am: O'Kearney doubles in classic race
It's official, the PokerStars Blog suffers from commentator's curse. Just after we publish a post about Brett Angell's continued form, he dropped down to 4,000 after a big flip with Dara O'Kearney.

All the chips went in pre flop and the cards were flipped up.

Angell: [qh][qd]
O'Kearney: [ad][ks]

The board ran [7d][4s][2h][ac][8h] to pair the Online Qualifier of the Year's ace. He moved up to 19.400.

10:25pm: Angell continues form
Brett Angell, looking surprisingly fresh faced, has drawn the first blood on table 1.

He raised from second position and Robbie Bull called from the big blind to see a [6c][2d][5d] flop. Angell continued for 375 and Bull called to the [9c] turn where he check-raised Angell's 625 bet up to 2,100. Angell called before both checked the [tc] river.

Bull opened [7d][3d] for a missed flush draw and lost out to Angell's [8h][8d].

10:22am: Here comes Ludo
The title normally describes the action when Ludovic Geilich enters a pot with a four or five-bet. Now though, it's just to describe his late entry. He's a bit dazed after a late online session meant he only got three hours sleep. He's been drawn in between Robbie Bull and Brett Angell on table 1.

He sat down just in time for the beginning of level 2, blinds up to 50/100.

10:15am: Shuffle up and Deal
Ten players are sat for the start of play, here's how they have been drawn:

Table 1:
1. Dara O'Kearney
2. Paul Findlay
3. Robbie Bull
4. Brett Angell
5. Jake Cody

Table 2.
1. Kevin Killeeen
2. Josh Hart
3. Bem Mayhew
4. Duncan McLellan
5. Dean Hutchison

UKIPT4_Champions of Champions.jpg

The Champion of Champions players

10am: Delayed started
Let's be honest, 10am is a very early call time for poker players, cards were never going to be in the air on time. When play does get underway, each player will have 10,000 chips and the levels will be ten minutes long.

9:50am: UKIPT to decide the best of the best
Welcome back to Grand Connaught Rooms, London for the UKIPT Season 4 Champion of Champions Event.

Most of the the Main Event and Series winners, plus Online Qualifier of the Year, Dara O'Kearney, have been gathered together for a two table freeroll with one prize on offer but what a prize: Entry and hotel to every stop on the UKIPT Season 5 schedule!

UKIPT4_London2_Brett Angell.jpg

Brett Angell celebrating with friends after his victory yesterday

Cards will be in the air at 10am and will be a turbo structure so expect the action to be fast and furious; fun and very competitive. All the below participants are winners, click the links to see how they qualified for this special event.

UKIPT Series 1: Jake Cody
UKIPT Marbella: Ludovic Geilich
UKIPT Series 2: Gabriel Dragomir
UKIPT Galway: Alan Gold
UKIPT Series 3: Dinh Tuan Nguyen
UKIPT London: Robbie Bull
UKIPT Isle of Man: Duncan McLellan
UKIPT Nottingham 6-max: Ben Mayhew
UKIPT Edinburgh: Dean Hutchison
UKIPT Dublin: Kevin Killeen
UKIPT Series 4: Thomas Postlethwaite
UKIPT Nottingham: Duncan McLellan
UKIPT Series 5: Martins Adeniya
UKIPT Marbella 2: Rodrigo Espinosa
UKIPT Series 6: Paul Findlay
UKIPT Isle of Man 2: Josh Hart
UKIPT London 2: Brett Angell


Brett Angell snuck into today's tournament at the last possible moment by being crowned the UKIPT Grand Final champion last night. Let's here from him:




PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT CoC: Marc Convey. Photos by Danny Maxwell.

EPT11 London: A chin-wag with the Firm

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PokerStars Blog talked to members of "The Firm" - David Lappin, Daragh Davey and Dara O'Kearney -- on the morning of Day 1B at EPT London, as O'Kearney and Kevin Killeen, one of their staked players, were involved in the UKIPT Champion of Champions tournament.

CLICK THROUGH FOR FULL FEATURE HERE.

O'Kearney was knocked out in fourth, freeing him up to join the conversation, and Killeen in third. Killeen played the EPT Main Event in which, at time of writing, he is still involved.

O'Kearney had won the UKIPT Online Qualifier of the Year leader board. Daragh Davey had just taken over from Max Silver at the top of the Live Player of the Year leader board.

ukipt4_iom_dara_okearney.jpg

Discussions between David Lappin and Dara O'Kearney

Here's how the conversation progressed, in between both Lappin and Davey leaping up to rail whenever either of their friends and colleagues were involved in a pot.

PokerStars Blog (PS): DO YOU SIT DOWN AND STUDY A FESTIVAL SCHEDULE A LONG TIME IN ADVANCE?

David Lappin (DL): Yeah. We think how do we tactically go about this. Even living not at home for a three week stint - Isle of Man running straight into this one - it's actually kind of miserable. You miss people. Dara's wife came to the Isle of Man but isn't here; my girlfriend is going to come over for a couple of days but that's all. So you're hoping to create some kind of normality for yourselves, so we got an apartment, rather than doing the hotel thing. It's better value but it gives you a kind of living space. It's very strategic. The main focus was getting Daragh (Davey) to win the leader board, because he was our best shot at catching Max. Then to a lesser degree, one of us maybe catching third place. Then Dara and Kev having this shot in the tournament of champions is brilliant. And then Dara having the online qualifier locked up maybe 11 months ago. So that wasn't too close.

But I did try to run down the guy who came third. I was well behind him going into Marbella and I think I won 23 satellites between July and now, so that kind of helped me get into that race as well. It's all fun, though. Over these 16-17 months, it's a huge slog.

PS: DO YOU NEED TO CALCULATE EXPECTATION SO YOU DON'T WASTE TIME?

Dara O'Kearney (DO): The satellites have been kind of good to us. We do have a high ROI. But they have got tougher this year because there are a lot more regs playing them. At particular times they tend to be really tough. As the event nears they tend to get softer because there are more recreational players taking one or two shots to get in. But when you're three months away from the next UKIPT, it tends to be just regs. This year was the first year I looked at some lobbies and thought, no I'm not going to reg for that.

PS: WHEN DID YOU GENUINELY FIGURE THAT YOU HAD IT IN THE BAG?

DL: The third event?
DO: Well, I guess, yeah. There's always a mathematical chance that somebody is going to go on a run. But realistically I guess I probably had it locked up about six months ago. Six months ago I stopped thinking I should play them all because of the leader board. I was thinking whether this is a good tournament to play or not. [Before that] every night I'd been playing I'd regged all the satellites.

PS: YOU PLAYED A LOT OF SATELLITES ANYWAY, RIGHT?

DO: That's exactly it. Historically, the tournaments I played the most on PokerStars are satellites. They're something I think I have at least an edge in. I would have been playing them anyway, but I had an added incentive just to grind them and make sure I showed up every night.

PS: YOU'VE HAD A GOOD WEEK

Daragh Davey (DD): I've had a stupidly good week. I've been running good. I've been playing quite well, but I've been running ridiculous. I viewed that [Isle of Man] as part of this week. It's nearly a seven-day block. I was doing terrible before that. I went 20-something without a cash. And then I cashed everything in a row.

DL: Coming into the Isle of Man, you were no cashes in 23/24 and then didn't cash anything until the very last day. We both played the PLO, which was actually a really good tournament for points because it's a smaller field so you're more likely to get points. We ended, the two us us [Lappin and Davey] three handed. Daragh knocked me out. And then that kind of started the streak, because the minute we arrived here you've cashed three out of five or six tournaments.

PS: WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP A COLLEAGUE IN THE LEADER BOARD RACE?

DL: We all support one another. From maybe six or eight months ago, it was clear that Daragh was going to be in the running, top three at least. Even just the day to day slog of being a poker player can be quite volatile. We live together so it's unusual for you both to be running well at the same time. You have periods where one of you is running quite well and the other guy is feeling like, well I'm bricking every night. There are a lot of chats over coffee the next morning, pep talks back and forth to each other. The camaraderie that we get from having this kind of collective is massively valuable because inevitably twice or three times a year you're going to go on a bad run. And when that happens it's a really lonely game, and you do feel very much on your own when you're down-swinging. And to have that kind of collective...And also we have 10 per cent of each other, and we do stake the other guys. It does even out that variance, that we have that sharing policy. It's morale as much as it's anything else. But it's also a bit of tactics too, a bit of strategy, a bit of talking out hands.

DD: There's a lot of that to be honest. There's a huge database of minds, if you like, and I can just go on to a Skype box and I've got five, in my opinion, of the best players in Ireland to immediately give me an opinion. It's pretty useful to have. Again, it doesn't really work unless everybody checks in. So the collective is really useful to have.

PS: WHEN YOU SAY THE COLLECTIVE, YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT 'THE FIRM'?

DL: I guess that's kind of an umbrella term for what has been a different group of people at different times but has always included the two Daras and myself, and different guys we've staked, different guys we've co-staked between us. And guys who have come through, made enough money to go out on their own then. We wouldn't claim too much responsibility for that but we'd still be very much affiliated with them.

PS: DO YOU HAVE ANALYTICS, GRAPHS, ETC?

DD: Oh yeah. We're all pretty nerdily meticulous about results and graphs and particularly in regards to staking people. We'd have spreadsheets and statistical data online and stuff like that.

DL: We might conduct a coaching session with the guys we stake once every fortnight or stuff like that, or every three weeks. If the guy's running well you might leave him go. He can make the money and he's happy with his game. But if he struggling, or the odd time you want to check in or do a hand-history review. We look through these different analytical tools and see what his game selection is like, see if he is making more money in this kind of game, that kind of game. Even that paints a picture of whether certain networks are getting easier or getting tougher. The thing we always pride ourselves on is that as often as our players have got in the limelight and had the big scores, it's the workaday grinding mentality, it's the 'this is our job, and this is what we are doing professionally'.

DD: It's hard work. Somebody can be a far better player than you and you can make more money than them if you work harder.

DL: The amount of guys I've seen come and go over the eight years I'm playing, who were much better poker players than I am, much more creative minds.

DD: I don't think any of the three of us claim to be the best. We're not even anywhere close to it.

DL: It's kind of that almost paranoic, 'Oh my God, everybody's getting better, the game's getting tougher, we have to at least compete.' Hopefully, we'll compete well and be up there. But that's what motivates you every year, because the game continues to get tougher. I think the next two years are going to be the toughest yet and if we can grind out that living wage - maybe have an outlier that will give you a nice cherry on top, that will give you a deposit on a house or whatever that happens to be - but our whole attitude towards a whole year of poker is we're working to make our €70-€80K. If you have a result, then it might be a bigger year, but it's about grinding out that type of wage.

PS: DO YOU PAY YOURSELF A SALARY?

DL: Well you [Daragh Davey] bought yourself a nice pair of shoes recently, when you had a €50K month.
DD: They're very nice...No, to be blunt.
DL: You get a nice pair of shoes and a sushi lunch the next morning, might be as extreme as it gets after a big Sunday.
DD: No, I wouldn't lavish it up. I might downplay it more. When you have a big result you don't go too mad. You never known when the next downswing is. I'm a bit younger, obviously, but we've been doing this for a long time and you know about the swings and roundabouts.

PS: WHAT DO NON-POKER PLAYING FRIENDS THINK ABOUT IT?

DL: I think time is the test on that one. When I got into it, and I think almost every poker player shares this kind of origin story, which is that you did it against the advice of everyone around you when you started doing it. And that probably wasn't bad advice, whether it was your parents or your friends or whatever. That was probably pretty good advice because it does gobble up most people. Through whatever it is - maybe a bit of good fortune at the start, maybe having that mindset of this is going to be my newsagents or my coffee shop and I'm going to work really hard at my little business and trying to make it a bigger business - having that outlook on it, a year goes by, you made a living. Another year goes by. Your friends come round and say, 'OK, that's clearly what you do now and I believe you now.' Some of them didn't even believe you at the start. 'Oh sure, you're only telling us the wins.'

DD: You hear daft stories all the time of people making absurd livings in casino games and stuff like that. You laugh and think, 'That's going to end in tears.' People were judging me, David and Dara in the same way.

DL: My family still don't really understand it. They now go, 'That's what Dave does', but they don't get the ins and outs of it at all.

DD: I think it's very difficult. I have a couple of friends that do, but the majority don't. When you get into the game they think you're mental, but after five years they see you're still doing this and doing OK, I guess it is your job. They still don't understand it.

DL: It is funny because in your working context, you're not on top of the tree but you're doing well for yourself. You're respected amongst your peers. Guys have a lot of time for your opinion on poker. But every poker player is the black sheep at Christmas dinner. Even if they've made a million bucks that year, it's, "Oh, you're the poker player." The auntie is looking at you going, "Oh, this is the scumbag of the family." And we all have that, even though actually if you look at the types of people who do well in poker, it's a lot of nerdy maths guys, young people who are students. But they're still treated as if, 'Oh God, what's your life?' I think it's a moral judgment, how, arguably, right or wrong gambling is.

DD: You're a professional gambler.

DL: I think it's also a judgment on the lifestyle, the night-time stuff. 'Oh, he just travels around and he plays these games and he's online and he's on his computer too much.'

DD: Maybe the vulture element of the game, that you're picking on weaker people. And again, I don't think that online MTTs is like that at all. The majority of people playing tournaments are playing for fun, so I don't think there's a big negative to them. There's this big, 'Oh, you're living off these guys who should be in Gambler's Anonymous' but I don't really think it's like that. That's just a perception.

PS: WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE POKER?

DD: I was a student studying architectural technology. In short, my story is a very typical origin story. I was playing in poker games for, like, £5 and I think I came third in my first tournament without having any real notion of what I was doing. And kind of was hooked. I started playing very low online and probably lost for my first year and then started playing live cash games.

When I turned 18 I started playing live, and went on a slow trajectory of losing a little bit, to breaking even, to very gradually winning, getting a little bit better. But it was a very slow process. And when I finished, the crash had happened in Ireland and I had no job prospects, and I was like, well, what do I have to lose?

I had a couple of thousand in the bank maybe and it's like, let's use this as a bankroll over the summer and see what happens. I ran absurd at the beginning. I think every professional over the course of their career has to have a period where they run over EV, particularly at the beginning. Otherwise you wouldn't be a professional. If you ran bad at the start, you would have failed and there'd be nothing you could do about it. So we're quite privileged to be sitting here.

So I kept going and going and then it was just a €1-€2 live cash game player and just tried to make my wage. The games were very good back then. It was 1/2 but they were actually pretty big, bigger than some 5/10 you might see now.

DL: When I left school, I went and did an arts degree. I was working in a very busy restaurant in town and I did three masters degrees and an MLitt over the course of maybe seven or eight years in college. And then the objective was to become a screenwriter. There's the film world in my family background, so that was kind of what I wanted to do, it was what I was really interested in. I'd worked in films and things like that. And I got a job with the national broadcaster in Ireland, RTE, to write a TV show, which, exactly when the crash happened, 2007, they had their budget slashed.

DD: I think the crash might feature in all three of our stories.

DL: And my show was axed immediately. So I lost my job. I was playing poker recreationally, maybe making beer money at that point. I wasn't a donkey, but I was still very new to it. And I just kind of took a chance. I thought, I'm going to have to go back to that restaurant that I worked in for six years through college. I was really depressed at the idea of that. I gave it a go and it kind of snowballed. The first year I just about survived on what I made. The second year built up a little bit of a bankroll. Then I moved to the States. I had a big result in Spain, had a couple of good online years, and then I was much more stable. I had this big buffer and it was my job. I'm never feeling like I've got to struggle to pay the rent anymore. I broke up with my girlfriend, who I lived with in Connecticut, and I came back in 2011. I didn't know anyone in the Irish poker community.

DD: It was quite funny because there was a bunch of people, myself included (I played sporadically online at the time), who knew the screen-name 'Lappin' but we had no idea who he was.

DL: At that time I was probably at the peak of my rankings. I was probably playing the best I've ever played compared to everyone else. I don't think it's been quite as good since. So I got introduced by Jono Crute, GAWA6 online, really really nice, Belfast-based, English guy, Irish guy, who now lives in Canada. Jono introduced me to Dara at the first UKIPT festival I went to, must have been in Cork maybe, three years ago. We made a man date to go have dinner one day because we got on that night. And we've been really good friends ever since. We've been close with him and his wife and my girlfriend. We all kind of socialise a lot together, go to each other's houses and have meals.

PS: YOU'RE MATES BUT ALSO YOU'RE BUSINESS PARTNERS

DD: And we're all completely ruthless against each other as well.

DL: It is a huge strength to have that loyalty, at the kind of friendship level, with people you make business decisions with. The reason this trio has been the constant within the group is that we're all really similarly thinking about the game, whether that's bankroll management, game selection. Or whether that's how to run poker as a business, whether for yourself or your staking company. And even though we've had other people involved at different time, I think it's the shared ethos that means we're probably stuck together for the foreseeable future as well.

DD: It's very boring. We're being very sensible.

PS: HAVE YOU EVER ALLOWED YOURSELF TO THINK WHAT YOU'D DO WITH THE BIG SCORE?

DL: Maybe retire? Maybe not play any more.
DD: I'd keep playing. I mean, I probably won't be doing this forever. The game might dictate that, to be honest. I'd say there'll be significantly less professionals in five years time. We'll see. Only time will tell. But probably something normal, buy a house, stuff like that.

DL: That's the thing I love actually, when you hear a lot of the English guys, guys like Jake Cody and Jon Spinks, it's family now. It's, 'I've been with my girlfriend for a good few years now. We want to have kids. It's time to get married. We want to buy a house.' It's hard to buy a house. They won't give you credit because you're a poker player. Maybe you'll get a mortgage because the girlfriend has a steady job and I have a deposit.

That's what I think is brilliant, when you see poker players having ostensibly normal lives, that's actually the stories that should be championed. If a few hundred people in Ireland and Great Britain can make a living from it, and apply it to making the lives of people around them better, and having a steady life, I think that should be the objective, from my point of view. I'm not taking away from guys who have big scores and live balla lifestyles, going off to Vegas and whatever, but I would feel like that would play into all the trappings and all the dangerous stuff in poker.

PS: DO PEOPLE APPLY TO JOIN THE FIRM?

DL: Oh, every few weeks to be honest.

DD: I've lost count of the people who have applied to us. It's a lot.

DL: They'll send an email. They might even send a hand history. And you always sound elitist when you talk about this stuff, but when someone sends you an application you probably already know the answer. Sometimes the answer is very much yes. You think, 'Brilliant. We were hoping this guy might come to us at some point.' And a lot of the times they're kind of recreational guys who are maybe wanting to be staked because they don't want to use their own bankrolls, their wives would be giving out to them if they were risking their own money. They'd probably be treating it like a bit of a free-roll to make a few bob.

DD: They aren't really the type of people we want. If someone is treating your backing as a free-roll, that's a very dangerous situation.

DL: When people come to you with that kind of mindset, or you just know them by reputation - they might be decent players - but you already know the answer. But I think it's really important that, at some level, our collective has developed into a brand, identifiable in Ireland as one of two or three groups, you have to be really respectful of it. I would always do a hand history for free for those guys. I'd say, 'Look, we're not going to take you on, but I went through your hand history and here's a few tips.' That kind of thing.

First and foremost, that's just a nice way to treat someone and it only costs you an hour of your life and they took the time to apply. And I guess on the second level, you do end up being surprised once in a while. You looked at the hands and you think, 'OK, that's not actually bad.' So you look at a second one....

PS: DO YOU EACH HAVE ROLES WITHIN THE COLLECTIVE -- SOMEONE LOOKS AT THE HAND HISTORIES, SOMEONE ELSE SENDS THE EMAILS, ETC.?

DD: We do, but the roles change all the time. Maybe one day, Dave does the hand history and I do it next week. And Dara does the transfer and some accounting work, stuff like that. I chat to the lads on Skype, see how they're all getting on. Stuff like that. It's all little bits. All three of us will do all three jobs. Dave would be the main coach.

DL: Doke would do more of the transfers on a day to day basis, because he's more of an online presence.

DD: I still play live a fair bit. I'm not online seven days a week. Dara pretty much is, six or seven days a week, I'd say Dara pretty much always is.

DL: But then on the hand histories and stuff, it probably was more me a year ago I think. But it's more equal now. We both do the hand histories. And then what we might do is tag the relevant hands. You might get 300 hands in a hand history and you start tagging 12 of them. And then Dara O'Kearney will join us for that. So we've essentially streamlined it. So all people - the the guy that we stake and the three of us - will talk. It's important as well because you sometimes also have another guy we stake there so you won't feel that you're being ganged up on just because it was a bad hand history. You're kind of going, look, we actually do have a few problems and maybe we have to fix a few leaks. You always feel as though, maybe, emotionally, that might not be easy for a guy to be told, 'Look, this really sucks, you need to do better.'

PS: A LOT OF THIS SOUNDS LIKE ADMIN

DL: Oh, it is. That's all it is.

PS: HOW MUCH DO YOU PLAY COMPARED WITH THE ADMIN?

DD: Oh, way more. Admin each might be an hour or two each a week. I still play my own 30-40 hour week. And again is it obviously very poker related but it is an external thing to poker. It's heavily rooted in poker, but it's another thing to focus attention on. It's pretty easy to get sucked into poker, constantly playing and that's all you think about.

[Dara O'Kearney arrives after being eliminated from the Champion of Champions event.]

PS: DID YOU EVER ENVISAGE IT WOULD GET THIS SOPHISTICATED?

DL: I think we did. That first chat we had about it over dinner in your house one night, that's exactly what we were saying, 'Imagine we got to this point, and how do we get there?' The two options for getting there were looking for external funding to help us promote the whole thing, and the other was to grow it slowly and organically, with one or two guys that we stake, then another guy and then another guy and we build. And we thought the second one was better. There was kind of a goal in mind. It was viewed as something that would be really nice. It wouldn't just be a nice bit of income, it would actually be the back-up, the spine of your support network as a poker player, dealing with the travails.

DO: I was the first to get involved in staking, within the context of the current group, when I staked Daragh. It was more curiosity than anything else, to see how it would go. Daragh did really well and so that was a good first encouragement.

A lot of the motivation too was just to try and help develop players. I kind of feel, particularly given the economic situation in Ireland at the time, it was really bad, and as a poker player you don't really contribute anything to society. So I had a long chat with my son, my son is a very conscientious eco-warrior type guy, so I had lunch with him out in Vegas and I said, 'Basically I'm contributing nothing to the world.' And he said, 'Maybe there's something you can do with the money, which might compensate.' Part of the motivation is just to try and develop more online players in Ireland. Because there weren't really that many good online players in Ireland at the time.

DD: There was nothing like this existed like this back then. There might be one or two other groups like this now.

DO: Yeah, there are.

DD: Staking was very frowned up in Ireland for a long time. It was strange. I don't think so much in England but in Ireland it was viewed as cowardice, which was so silly.

PS: POKER IS NOT FOR EVERYONE, SO HOW DO YOU STEER PEOPLE AWAY WHO AREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT?

DL: We have actually directly had a couple of those, even within the context of staking. We've had some disappointing outcomes with guys you've staked. And that's the conversation you've been putting off and dreading for a long time because you want to see them all do well because they're good guys and they work really hard. But maybe they just don't quite cut the mustard.

DD: It's not up to us to say, 'You're never going to make money.' We just have to end our agreement and then maybe they can make the decision as to what they'll do for the rest of their lives.

DO: Probably at some point most of us have advised, maybe not someone we staked but a friend, that it's time for you to quit. You're not going to make it. The longer the gap you have on your CV, the harder it is for you to get back into the real world. And that's tough. It's a really high turnover business, and if we think back to the players who would have been seen as the top players in Ireland five years ago, as opposed to now, there's very little overlap.

PS: IT'S A RISKY OCCUPATION FOR SOME PEOPLE, EVEN WITH STAKING

DO: It is a risky occupation. The reason why I selected Daragh specifically as the first person I wanted to stake is that...Dara was obviously a very good player at the time, but he wouldn't have been seen as one of the top young players by most people, because when I said, "I'm staking Daragh, they said, 'Why?'"

DD: I was viewed as some live cash game nit.

DO: But my reason for picking Daragh was that I thought that he had the right temperament, that he would handle the swings, the lifestyle in general, and learn really quickly, not get upset if he had a long bad run. Basically it was just stability of temperament, which a lot of the other guys who would have been seen as really talented players at the time didn't have. And they're gone from the game now because long term that's more important than how good you happen to be at poker at that precise moment.

PS: DO YOU SEE YOUR YOUNGER SELF IN ANY OF THE PLAYERS?

DO: Yeah, yeah, totally. And personality wise Daragh is almost the same as I was at his age.
DD: That's a scary thought.

PS: DID YOU MAKE A FEW MISTAKES WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?

DO: I guess I'm unusual in that even though I'm closing in on 50 now, I only actually started playing seven or eight years ago. So I came to the game very late anyhow. When I was Dara's age, I wasn't playing poker. I was doing other things. The different things that I've done, I've tended to be successful in them and you do follow the same approach because it's all about discipline, learning to be good, recognising your own shortcomings, which I think stands you in good stead in any walk of life.

PS: AND YOU ALSO FLAG UP ONE ANOTHER'S SHORTCOMINGS?

DO: Brutally. We take great pleasure in it.
DD: I played a hand against Dara last night [in the £300 hyper] and he openly said it to me. Poker is completely unsolvable and there are so many different answers and it's so good to get different opinions. And of course everyone messes up all the time. Anyone who says they don't mess up in poker is a liar. It's just impossible to play perfect.

PS: WHAT DOES WINNING THE LEADER BOARD MEAN TO PRO

DD: There's huge financial relief because straight away I have my buy-ins for the main tournaments I play every year. And my hotels. And again, these two guys grind the satellites for these tournaments relentlessly, but even though I play them, I would have nowhere near the edge these two have in those tournaments. They frustrate me a lot because they have quite big buy ins. I usually pay somewhere in the region of a $50 average buy in and these are £200 satellites. That can sometimes be the biggest buy in on my screen. Knowing that I don't have to buy into those is a pretty big relief. In terms of winning it, and the notoriety, it's pretty cool. It's...good.

DL: What I think is the greatest achievement of it is that it's not the measure of one bit of luck in one tournament. The person who wins a poker tournament is probably the person who ran best that day. The person who wins a 16-month leader board over 80 or 90 live events, he probably ran decently during that whole period but that's still a bit more of an iron man. It's a bit more of a test.

DD: I just ran stupid this week, but I still had complete bricks in Marbella and a couple of other stops. I didn't get anything. I think I've cashed 13 or 14 tournaments and finalled eight or nine. So that's pretty good consistency I feel like, which that leader board does reward. Then again, you can argue the merits. I think a lot of people would agree that maybe Duncan McLennan maybe should have won the leader board because he did win two main events, when I won none.

PS: DO YOU BECOME A SLAVE TO THE LEADER BOARD?

DL: There were four months particularly.

DD: Particularly when the end game started happening and we knew we were in a fight. In Marbella there was a particularly nasty experience for me, where I had a really big stack in the Main Event -- well, not really big, but I think I had three starting stacks -- and I lose two huge hands. I get it in with aces against ace-king and lose and ace-king against ace-queen and lose. I'm left with an ante on the last hand of the day. While this is all happening, and the countdown [to the end of the day] I registered the pot limit Omaha tournament downstairs. It was a turbo and I'm being blinded out of that. So the last thing I wanted to do was go and play more poker, but I had to bag up my chip -- literally, I think it was two chips; I think it was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done -- then run downstairs. A bit of my stack has gone in the pot limit Omaha, but I needed to go play this as well. So yes, there was a lot of trying to plan out the most amount of tournaments you can play and the best tournaments that had an opportunity for points. But again, it did kind of factor into some play.

DO: When I started playing, when I would go to a festival like this I would play everything I could because that's the way you would maximise your return and cover your travel expenses and things. Then about two years ago, I was feeling a bit burned out from playing live, I was playing so many live tournaments, so I was talking to Jason Tompkins and Jason has always taken the opposite approach. He only plays main events, and doesn't play side events. He feels that that's the best way to bring the A game in the main event. So I had made a decision that that was what I was going to do, that I was only going to play main events. So for the first, I guess half of the season I would play almost no side events. But then, suddenly I was in the top ten of the leader board because I'd cashed in some main events, and I actually started thinking about the leader board. So for the last three stops, I guess, I played pretty much everything I could.

DD: It does factor into your equity, because you're now playing €100 turbos or something like that. And particularly on some of the final tables I was playing for a lot more money than everyone else at the table. Each ladder is worth points, so you'd factor all that in.

DL: Coming into this last stop I just had this image of David Curtis (UKIPT Events Manager) just sitting at his desk deciding that there's going to be five extra UKIPT side events in London, thinking, 'Ha, ha, ha. I'm going to make them play.'

DO: ...I'm going to make them play deuces wild. I'm going to make them play pot limit Omaha high lo split.

DL: And just doing his evil devil laugh. 'I'm going to ruin their lives.'

PS: WOULD OTHER PLAYERS PICK UP ON YOUR STRATEGIES IN THESE SPOTS?

DL: That's interesting because we've a really good duo of friends, two brothers from Scotland, Willy and Dode Elliot, and aside from being good poker players themselves and really big supporters of the game, supporters of the UKIPT and whatnot, they love a rail. They love coming to watch you and coming to support you and we've become really good friends over the years and particularly this season of the UKIPT. So it got down to three tables left, and probably two tables got paid, and he was just hovering around. And I went up to him and said, 'You didn't do it, and I don't want to seem like I'm cross or anything, because I'm not, because I love your support, but please don't mention the leader board here.' Because then your opponents at the table know you're on a satellite bubble effectively, when you're on something else that's much more important. They can use it to put pressure on. You might be sitting at a table and some guys know.

DD: I think it was the first or the second side event here, we had worked out the points and I think it was ninth was a huge bubble for me. If I got that, Max Silver would now need two results to catch me, not one. That would give me a more than 40 points lead and 40 points is the maximum you can get for any one side event. So tenth to ninth is this monstrous bubble to me despite there being no money jump. So I'm just sitting there really tightly, patiently, and eventually it just bust and everybody was just, 'OK, final table. Nothing's changed.'

DL:...but Daragh's there fist-pumping in the corner.

DD: For me it was huge.

DL: It's a completely irrelevant ladder jump to nothing, but we were like, 'It's huge!'

PS: THERE ARE ALL THESE OTHER CONSIDERATIONS TO TOURNAMENT POKER

DL: Absolutely. And there are all these ambassadorial roles that guys who are very good get to play from time to time. Daragh over the years has had two pro deals with two Irish sites, and aside from that being extra income, extra profile and extra other things, if you can parlay that kind of stuff into, well, it's not free money because you earn it in another way, but if you can turn that into additional income, that's huge for a poker player. That's the Mecca. If you can get one of those deals, even if it's a modest enough deal, that's not money you have to risk to win.

PS: IS THERE EVER ANY HOSTILITY TOWARDS YOU? ARE PEOPLE JEALOUS, PERHAPS IF YOU'VE TURNED DOWN AN APPLICATION?

DL: We try to handle those situations as well as we can.

DO: I'm usually the one who people apply to so I'm usually the one who has to go back to them and I do it very tactfully. But no, I don't think I've ever had a hostile experience. You leave it open ended. You say, 'This is our current decision, but keep grinding away. Certainly if you prove yourself over a future period, maybe we can review.' Maybe that assuages one or two. We don't want to give them the two fingers. I think most people are really understanding. They realise that at the end of the day it's a business decision and you have to make it. At the end of the day, you're not doing anyone any favours by taking them on if they're not going to make it, because you're just going to waste their time.

PS: SO THE FIRM IS WELL LIKED?

DO: I think generally we're well liked. Obviously we all have people that we don't get along with when we run into. It's a high pressure conflict situation, where it's a very unusual working milieu, if you want to call it that, because the people that you work with are also your direct competitors. Even these two guys are my direct competitors a lot of the time. Because of that, you're always going to have disagreements that arise. When we come to this generally, people are really positive. When we sit down at a table there are people that I wouldn't realise know who we are are very, very friendly. This tour in particular is a very friendly tour. And then I think Ireland is a very friendly place to play poker too, which is where most of us play live poker.

DL: I think our blogs...Dara and I write almost weekly, or every couple of weeks. And I think that helps people kind of know you without having met you or talked to you very much. You're kind of doing a diary, you're talking about your life. It can be very personal. It can be very boring, strategic and only there for poker people. It's not done as a tactical thing. Dara doesn't sit down and think, Oh right, I'll do this blog today because that thing is coming up and we might get more profile out of it. But you're generally writing what comes to mind. Sometimes it's hard to come up with new stuff, but once you look back and go, Oh God, I've been writing this blog for years and years and years. I've got hundreds of entries. You do realise that people who have followed it have gotten to know you in a way. And that hopefully helps. I'd like to think that we don't ever...we might embellish once in a while, but we don't tell any lies about how we operate our business or how it works. It's good to be straight about that.

It's the shared ethos, and when Dara talked about seeing loads of potential in Daragh, and similarly how Daragh saw potential in other guys, it's about instilling that ethos. We're not really rich. We do well, but we're not really rich. We have the attitude, let's teach this guy how to be his own player.

PS: HOW LONG WILL THIS CARRY ON?

DD: Hopefully things just keep going as they've been going. The firm in its current incarnation is actually probably one of the smallest in terms of number of people because a bunch of guys have been quite successful and left. We didn't really want to slim it down, it's just the way it worked.

PS: WHO IS IN THE FIRM AT THE MOMENT?

DO: Myself, David and Jason Tompkins, who lives in Australia now, would be the three founding members, I guess. Daragh was the first person that I staked and that worked out very well for me. Also Daragh made a lot of money, so he no longer needed to be staked, but rather than sever the relationship, the logical thing was to get Daragh up, to kick him upstairs as it were. And that's worked out really well. That's the current incarnation.

DD: We're currently staking two or three guys.

DL: There's a few in limbo because they're based in America and trying to travel.

DD: I'd say actively two.

DO: We stake Kevin Killeen and Kevin plays really, really high which exposes us to a lot of variance.

DD: Kevin will make or break all of us.

DL: He'll be either the golden calf or the person who puts us all in the poorhouse.

DO: Kevin is so good that given the choice between staking, let's say, 10 low to mid-stakes grinders or staking Kevin, it's better for us to stake Kevin, even though he plays higher than any of us do.

PS: HOW MANY PLAYERS HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED WITH AT SOME POINT?

DO: The way we've operated throughout our history is that the different players we've staked have had different people involved. So, Daragh would be involved in some players and not others; David would be involved in some and not others.

DD: Dara and David had the idea to start the firm, but there were other people staking other people at the time. They kind of got brought in under the umbrella, even if it wasn't the three or four founders doing the staking.

DO: I'm the only person who's been involved in staking all the players that we've staked.
DD: He's the Godfather.

DO: I think it's probably 15, in the various incarnations, who have left because they've been very successful. Overall it's been a very successful operation.

DD: Hopefully it will continue. You never know. It's very difficult to predict the future. Poker, you can argue, is receding right now.

PS: DID YOUR RUNNING HAVE ANY HELP IN YOUR POKER?

DO: It does actually. Because I did the really long stuff, the 24-hour stuff, I developed an ability to do something really boring for a very long time, which is what poker really becomes beyond a certain point, when you've learned the game. Poker is much more exciting when you're learning the game and you have to think about more situations. But when you reach a certain level, a lot of the situations are automatic and you're doing the same things over and over again, particularly when you're grinding online. Just having the mindset that you're actually able to do that without losing your mind, that's one thing. Stamina helps as well in a live situation. I definitely feel, when there's a really long day, I play better than the rest of the field towards the end because I'm able to take the whole mental stamina side. I think it also helps just to be generally fit in poker. It's something that I've actually let slip in the last few years because I was running less and playing poker more. At the moment I'm trying to get the balance the other way, run a bit more.

I think the main thing is just having the mindset that I'm doing this, in the case of the running 24 hours, to get through it. If you're playing a tournament like this, and you're playing it for the next 10, 11, 12 hours, and you're coming back tomorrow and doing the same thing, and then the next day and so on. You need the mindset to do it. The things which make you successful as a runner, like discipline, taking the long-term view, mental stability, not reacting too emotionally to setbacks. That helps in poker. Injuries are the hardest thing to deal with as a runner. You still have all the energy. You actually can't get out running. Everything tended to play up, like if I got an ankle injury, suddenly my knee starts feeling sore. You know there's nothing you can actually do but rest, and that's something that's very, very difficult to do if you're a runner.

I guess the poker equivalent is when you're having a long downswing and you literally get up every day and you end the day with less money than you had, which is different from most professions. In most professions, when you go to work you get the immediate reward, which you don't get in poker.

DD: Having said that, in poker if you put in the work in the long run -- and the long run is very long term -- you should get the rewards. Variance can only go so long. If you're not getting your rewards, you probably should start questioning after a very long time, why.

DO: It's interesting how many sports people do take up poker and end up getting pretty good at it. It's the same thing, once you have that mindset, there's a lot of stuff that is universal to all sports. Poker, as a mind sport, is the same: dealing with adversity, taking the long-term view, dealing with defeat, dealing with victory.

PS: WHEN YOU BUSTED THE CHAMP OF CHAMPS, WERE YOU GUTTED?

DO: I was gutted, yeah. In terms of equity, this is the biggest tournament that I've played in the last couple of weeks. Apart from the money, I would have loved to have won it just to have that on my CV. So yeah, I was totally gutted. My brain kind of shuts down [after I've busted]. It's just the way I process it. I go off and then come back and I'm fine. In the moment, it's terrible. It's the worst feeling. Early in my career, I developed this ritual when I bust I immediately walk out the room. I don't want to interact with anybody because I know from personal experience that if I do interact with somebody, I might not be the nicest person. So you just get all that rage and annoyance out of your system.

DL: It is the hardest thing. And even as an online guy, it mightn't be one huge knockout punch, like the biggest tournament of the week that you've invested a lot of emotions into, but you're doing it online you're just being jabbed at all day. Daragh and I grind together and Daragh is very zen. He doesn't get too bothered and I'm on the couch and my policy is just to scream stream of consciousness of expletives, and then it's over.

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Follow our coverage of the EPT London festival via the main EPT London page, where there are hand-by-hand updates and chip counts in the panel at the top and feature pieces below. And, of course, you can follow it all live at EPT Live.

EPT11 London: On Firm foundations, the future of poker in Ireland

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Poker players pride themselves on their powers of observation, but one of the most significant moments at the UKIPT/EPT London festival this week went unnoticed by all but a very select few.

Up in one of the tertiary tournament areas in the Grand Connaught Rooms, during the late stages of a small buy-in UKIPT side event, a final table of nine was set when a short-stack went broke in a totally standard spot.

There was almost no money jump between tenth and ninth, and almost no discernible reaction from eight of the remaining competitors. However while the tournament organisers began the redraw for the final table, a 25-year-old Irishman named Daragh Davey took himself into the corner of the room to pump his fists in jubilation.

Nobody else in the tournament even saw him, much less would have understood what the fuss was all about. But for Davey that was the moment when he could feel confident that approximately 16 months of obsessive calculating, focus and application would finally bear fruit.

"Everybody was just, 'OK, final table, nothing's changed.'" Davey said. "But for me, it was huge."

At the end of the festival in London this week, Davey will almost certainly be crowned as the Player of the Year for Season 4 of the United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). A ninth-place finish or better in that small tournament meant Max Silver, Davey's closest rival in the leader board, would need two sizeable results from only a handful of remaining tournaments to hunt him down. That was difficult even for someone of Silver's abilities.

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Daragh Davey running up a stack in the Isle of Man

CLICK THROUGH FOR FULL INTERVIEW WITH THE FIRM HERE

Davey knew he had taken an almost unassailable lead in a race that started in London in April 2013 and visited Marbella, the Isle of Man, Galway, Dublin, Edinburgh and Nottingham, among other destinations, during a 13-stop marathon.

It tested players' abilities through all poker variants and across about 90 tournaments. It awarded a prize of buy ins and hotel accommodation for every stop of Season 5 on the UKIPT - potentially invaluable for a professional poker player in these volatile times.

"What I think is the greatest achievement of it is that it's not the measure of one bit of luck in one tournament," David Lappin, a friend and colleague of Davey, said. "The person who wins a poker tournament is probably the person who ran best that day. The person who wins a 16-month leader board over 80 or 90 live events, he probably ran decently during that whole period but that's still a bit more of an iron man. It's a bit more of a test."

Davey confirmed the importance of the stability the leader board triumph would offer. "There's huge financial relief because straight away I have my buy-ins for the main tournaments I play every year," he said. "Knowing that I don't have to buy into [the satellites] is a pretty big relief. In terms of winning the leader board, and the notoriety, it's pretty cool."

Arguably the most impressive factor in Davey's run is that in many ways it was only to be expected. Davey is a member of a collective of Irish players known colloquially as "The Firm", along with the aforementioned Lappin and Dara O'Kearney. Despite involvement in a pastime that is by its nature filled with variance, the members of the Firm have spent many years figuring out ways to reduce luck's influence to a bare minimum.

They are involved in coaching promising players, then staking them into tournaments and cash games, both live and online. They spend many hours discussing not only hand strategy but also the most profitable approach to the business of poker as a whole, examining the fine print of leader board promotions, for instance, and honing game selection.

They operate as a small business, analysing applications for new recruits, plugging leaks to optimise returns of existing colleagues, and offering what amounts to a support network for people involved in what can often be one of the most solitary and soul-destroying pursuits.

"Even just the day to day slog of being a poker player can be quite volatile," Lappin said. "There are a lot of chats over coffee, pep talks back and forth to each other. The camaraderie that we get from having this kind of collective is massively valuable because inevitably twice or three times a year you're going to go on a bad run. And when that happens it's a really lonely game, and you do feel very much on your own when you're down-swinging. And to have that kind of collective...it does even out that variance, that we have that sharing policy. It's morale as much as it's anything else."

And here's the thing: it works.

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David Lappin: Firm foundations

Lappin and O'Kearney both also had a decent run in the UKIPT Leader Board this year, heading to the season finale in London in sixth and fourth place, respectively. One of the Firm's current horses, Kevin Killeen, won UKIPT Dublin in February and is making a deep run in the EPT Main Event. Jason Tompkins, a former Firm member who now lives in Australia, has also made final tables at both the EPT and WSOP.

And that's just in the live tournament environment. Despite recorded winnings of about $400,000 in bricks and mortar games, O'Kearney is best known in poker as "SlowDoke", the moniker with which he has become an online satellite monster on PokerStars.

Such is his dominance in these particular games that O'Kearney had essentially locked up the UKIPT "Online Qualifier of the Year" prize about six months ago, and had won 87 packages even before UKIPT London, pushing beyond 100 in the past month or so. (His closest challenger, uWannaLoan?, had 53.)

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Dara O'Kearney: In less familiar, live, environs

The prize for topping that leader board was an additional package, plus a seat in a special Champion of Champions tournament hosted here in London. Although O'Kearney (and Killeen) both swung and missed in that event, losing out on the chance to lock up a Season 5 passport to Dean Hutchison, their very participation offered further proof of the Firm's merits - and further evidence of their fierce competitive spirit.

"I was gutted," O'Kearney said afterwards. "In terms of equity, this is the biggest tournament that I've played in the last couple of weeks. Apart from the money, I would have loved to have won it just to have that on my CV."

O'Kearney, who is now 49, came to poker relatively late, taking up the game in his early 40s at the end of an somewhat unconventional athletics career. He graduated from running "regular" marathons to races over 50 or 60 kilometres and then to six-hour and eventually 24-hour races. The stamina he built up, both mentally and physically, is now put to use at the poker tables in what can often be formulaic situations.

"I developed an ability to do something really boring for a very long time, which is what poker really becomes beyond a certain point," O'Kearney said. "Poker is much more exciting when you're learning the game and you have to think about more situations, but when you reach a certain level, a lot of the situations are automatic and you're doing the same things over and over again, particularly when you're grinding online. [It's beneficial] just having the mindset that you're actually able to do that without losing your mind."

O'Kearney and Lappin founded the Firm three years ago in Dublin after they were introduced by a friend and fellow poker player Jono Crute. They immediately discovered a shared outlook on the game, content to treat poker as career in which they could hope to make a decent living doing something they enjoyed, rather than chasing the bright lights and unrealistic dreams that have cost many others their livelihood in poker.

Davey, who was a low-to-mid stakes live cash-game grinder -- a "live nit" in his own words -- became the first player O'Kearney staked - and for reasons beyond his raw ability.

"I thought that he had the right temperament, that he would handle the swings, the lifestyle in general, and learn really quickly, not get upset if he had a long bad run," O'Kearney said. "Basically it was just stability of temperament, which a lot of the other guys who would have been seen as really talented players at the time didn't have. And they're gone from the game now because long term that's more important than how good you happen to be at poker at that precise moment."

Lappin agreed. "The amount of guys I've seen come and go over the eight years I'm playing, who were much better poker players than I am, much more creative minds," he said.

Davey added: "It's hard work. Somebody can be a far better player than you and you can make more money than them if you work harder. I don't think any of the three of us claim to be the best. We're not even anywhere close to it."

Yet within their own parameters, the Firm are indeed doing something exceptional. They have managed to develop a safeguard against being chewed up and spat out by an industry that can often be as ruthless as it can be exhilarating.

"That's what I think is brilliant, when you see poker players having ostensibly normal lives," Lappin said. "That's actually the stories that should be championed. If a few hundred people in Ireland and Great Britain can make a living from it, and apply it to making the lives of people around them better, and having a steady life, I think that should be the objective, from my point of view."

Follow our coverage of the EPT London festival via the main EPT London page, where there are hand-by-hand updates and chip counts in the panel at the top and feature pieces below. And, of course, you can follow it all live at EPT Live.

UKIPT to open Season 5 in London

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Following the success of the 2014 EPT London Poker Festival -The European Poker Tour (EPT) and United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour took over the capital - the PokerStars UKIPT will return to London on January 20th. The first stop will see the nation's biggest poker tour kick started at the The Hippodrome Casino, London

In 2014, the fourth Season of the UKIPT hosted over 7,700 Main Event entries, and with registration for the 2015 Season now open, along with satellites games live to qualify online at PokerStars.com, prospective players are being offered the opportunity to make their mark on poker history.

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Lining up for London last season

Last year, the UKIPT awarded £7 million in prizes and 2015's six-day event looks set to take over the capital once again, as some of the UK's top home-grown talent take their place at the felt. The Grand Final witnessed Brett Angell, a Teesside IT consultant, take the top prize of £115,083 from the £762,300 prize pool, seeing off over 1,000 entrants in a battle of skill and endurance. This year's tournament will see Team PokerStars Pro, Jake Cody, looking to build on his previous two final table places.

The first stop of the UKIPT will run in London from January 20th to January 25th, and with a £700 + £70 buy-in for the Main Event, competition will be fierce. Cash games will feature around the clock 24/7. There will be a selection of side events to choose from including a £3,000 + £300 High Roller event taking place on January 20th and January 21st.

The tour will be hitting the top poker destinations across the UK and Ireland, including Edinburgh, Nottingham, Bristol and Dublin, as well as a stop-off in Marbella. This season, the tournament will feature High Roller events at every stop, in addition to a full side event schedule and a £1million prize pool guarantee on UKIPT Nottingham Main Event.

To register your seat, or play in a satellite game, log on to www.pokerstars.com
For further information on the tournament and its full schedule, please visit www.ukipt.com/tournaments/london

UKIPT5 London: Best of British (and beyond) congregate for High Roller

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Break time in a poker tournament can look very much like break time at a secondary school does. Cliques form and stories are exchanged as players get to drink in a mental break to give them a rest before battle - of the mental kind - commences again.

But at a poker tournament you won't find distinct groups of jocks, nerds and goths. If anything, because poker is one of the most democratic pursuits going, you'll find those who've long since left those tags behind mixing in the same group. Whilst the UKIPT might not be as international in flavour as the EPT - the clue's in the name of the tour after all - when it comes to this High Roller there's a distinctly European flavour to it. So the divide in groups here is usually one of geography as players from different nations share congress over a coffee.

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Cody - happy to be in London

So on the first break it was no surprise to see players who've perhaps not seen each other since the last big tournament sharing a joke and a laugh. Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody was having a joke with Rhys Jones and Chris Brammer. The latter of course won the UKIPT leader board in Season 1. Since then Brammer's had eighth and eleventh place finishes in UKIPT Main Events but whilst he's not since scaled the heights of his sixth place finish at UKIPT Manchester, he's had plenty of success elsewhere. Since he first cashed in a UKIPT event in December 2009 he's racked up over a $1,000,000 in live tournament cashes and countless more online.

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Chris Brammer

Whilst Cody, who won the first two tournaments he ever played at The Hippodrome Casino needs little introduction, Jones is probably the least well known of the three. Calling 2014 a break out year for Jones would be unkind on a player who's been used to success for far longer than 12 months. But, in 2014 he took down a MiniFTOPS event for over $50,000 to boost his online tournament earnings over the $2.5 million mark and had his best ever year, in terms of cashes, playing live. He took down his first major live title, winning £42,000 at an event in Manchester and finished third in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em ante-up event at the WSOP.

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Rhys Jones

But the Brits, who's numbers are augmented by the likes of Oliver Price, Jon Wong, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Charlie Combes won't have it all their own way in this High Roller. There's, as expected, a strong Spanish contingent in the field today, with many Spanish players now calling London home. One of those is UKIPT3 London champion Sergio Aido. Whilst the UKIPT title was Aido's second major title, he too has used success on the UKIPT as a springboard to further success.

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UKIPT champion Sergio Aido

The UKIPT4 Nottingham six-max sixth place finisher is joined by many compatriots in the field as: Sergio Aguilar, Raul Mestre and Alberto Gomez, who finished second in a $100,000 Super High Roller in July, are all playing today.

Throw in a couple of Danes in the shape of Team Pro Online's Mickey Petersen and Morten Mortensen, Italian EPT3 Dortmund runner-up Cristiano Blanco, EPT6 Copenhagen third place finisher Morten Klein and recent WPT champion Matas Cimbolas and you've got all the ingredients needed for a tasty tournament.

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Team Pro Online's Mickey Petersen

Tournament Update:
The tournament is now into level five and blinds are at 150/300 ante 25, each player started with 20,000 and the average stack is currently a shade over 23,000. There are now 45 entrants in the tournament including one re-buy, with Vasile Stancu the first man to fire his second bullet. Those who elected for the one and done route include: Charlie Combes, Nicholas Markou and Robin Fisher who was the first player out.

Late registration is open until roughly 9.15pm and the early pacesetters appear to be:

Rhys Jones - 47,000
Billy Chattaway - 37,000
Morten Mortensen - 31,000

Whilst this is how some of the other names and notables stack up at the moment:

Elior Diun - 29,000
Sergio Aguilar - 28,000
Mickey Petersen - 26,500
Sergio Aido - 18,800
Jake Cody - 12,500
Oliver Price - 12,000
Victoria Coren Mitchell - 8,800
Chris Brammer - 8,500

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May (welcome back Mickey!).

UKIPT5 London: Mickey Petersen, homeless but at home back in London

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A funny thing happened on the way to Edinburgh...

When the PokerStars Blog last caught up with Mickey Petersen in London, he'd hit a lucky break. In the process of packing up his belongings for an impending relocation from London to Edinburgh he found a $5,000 chip from The Rio Casino in Las Vegas. However, life has a funny way sometimes and whilst Petersen's belongings - minus the chip, more on that later - might still be in Rupert Elder's apartment in Edinburgh, he has moved back to London.

""Funny story," starts Petersen with a grin. "So I moved all my stuff up to Edinburgh, to Rupert Elder's, apartment after EPT London. Then I went there and it was a bad time to find an apartment and I wanted to find a nice one so I took my time. Then whilst that was happening I met a girl in London and things got pretty serious and actually just today we found a place to live. So, I'm moving back to London, although all my things are in Edinburgh so I've kinda been homeless for the last three months. No more chips have turned up though!"

But, that's perhaps not a bad thing. "That $5K chip was apparently pretty hard to cash in. I gave it to someone who went to rail Martin (Jacobson - in the WSOP Main Event). And he told me it was harder than you'd imagine to cash in that chip but he managed to do it."

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Petersen - back home in London

Petersen, who cashed in both EPT London and EPT Prague is happy to be back home and playing another tour in which he's had a decent amount of success. "It's always nice when you go to these live tournaments and have a deep run. I actually busted on Day 3 of the PCA shortly before the money but even though I've won an EPT I'd only cashed in three others (prior to London and Prague) and I've played a substantial amount of them."

It's a different story on the UKIPT. "I've done pretty well in UKIPT events both in the main event and in the high rollers. Whilst I've not had any huge cashes my in the money percentage is a lot higher than in EPT events. I've had a couple of thirds and a fourth in high rollers and a couple of deep runs in main events."

And that brings us to today and the first event of UKIPT Season 5."It's quite nice to play an event of this buy-in with a smaller field size, also the structure in this event is significantly better than most of the UKIPT High Rollers I've played. Almost all of them have been one day tournaments, this one is so big that it's a two day tournament."

The smaller field size in events like these has a knock on effect on the atmosphere according to Petersen. "As it often is with high rollers they're a lot more relaxed than the Main Events. There's more short -handed play (the High Roller is eight max) and you get more play in earlier. It's crazy how big of a difference playing eight handed instead of ten handed pre-antes makes in terms of how much I enjoy a tournament."

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10 handed no antes...

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eight handed with antes

But ever the professional Petersen's approach is the same. "I approach a 45 runner tournament the same way I'd approach a 450 runner tournament and just focus on making the right decisions. In this tournament there's a re-entry so you do see a bit looser play."

Whilst not a New Year's resolution, the Dane is planing to cut down on his live poker trips during 2015. "Part of the reason for less live tournaments is the woman in my life but it also to do with the fact that I really miss playing online. I enjoy it more. I just really want to play a lot more online."

If you haven't heard the UKIPT Main Event structure has had a bit of a overhaul. "What I've seen is mostly feedback on the forums and that's largely going to be players who aren't going to be happy with the changes," says Petersen. "The UKIPT is the buy-in level where I'm actually happy that I'm likely to bust Day 1 more often. I know that sounds silly but I want a smaller percentage of the field to make Day 2. I haven't actually looked that closely at the structure but that's my impression of how it's going to be. So for me specifically I like that, but at the same time if they changed the EPT Main Event - which is the bigger buy-in I play - in the same way then I'd be against it. So, I can understand for those for whom the UKIPT is the biggest events they play, why they want the better structure."

But as the break ends Petersen's focus turns back to the tournament in hand. "It's going pretty poorly I've got about 16,500 from a starting stack of 20,000 but at least I'm only in for one bullet! I've got a friend of mine - Oliver Price - at the table and a German guy but other than that it seems like a pretty good table."

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Petersen - down but not out

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May (welcome back Mickey!).

UKIPT5 London: High Roller champion to win £44,900

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Most over/under lines on the £3,000 High Roller were south of 30 but the players have turned out in their droves and completely obliterated those who claim to be able to predict these things. Late registration is now closed and the total number of entries in the £3,000 + £250 UKIPT5 High Roller is 49, with 46 of those being unique entries.

When you total that all up in means a prize pool of £142,590 will be split seven ways. The winner will take home £44,900 whilst a min-cash in this event is worth £7,480. The full payout structure is below:

1st. £44,900
2nd. £32,420
3rd. £20,700
4th. £15,700
5th. £12,100
6th. £9,290
7th. £7,480.

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Christos Kyprianou

Currently just 23 players remain and the man who currently looks most likely to take the lion's share of the prize pool is Christos Kyprianou (106,000). His advantage is substantial as Sergio Aguilar (76,000) and Rhys Jones (71,000) complete the top three. As level 10 (600/1,200 ante 200) gets under way these are how the other players who're still in stack up.

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Jones - most can't keep up with him

Chip counts:

Victor Ilyukhin - 69,700
Elior Diun - 69,000
Alberto Gomez - 55,000
Christopher Kyriacou - 49,000
Vasile Stancu - 48,000
Gareth Teatum - 46,200
Charles Carrel - 45,000
Jon Carsten - 40,000
Sergio Aido - 35,000
Viktor Katzenberger - 34,400

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Sergio Aido - going well


Richard Cashman - 33,200
Philip Long - 31,000
Jonathan Wong - 29,300
David Phelan - 28,200
Rokas Asipauskas - 28,100
Victoria Coren Mitchell - 28,000
Morten Klein - 27,400
Ariel Adda - 22,300
Philip Carey - 16,400
Morten Mortensen - 13,300

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Victoria Coren Mitchell - still in

Of course poker is a zero sum game so whilst some have gone up, others have come crashing down. These are some of the players who fallen by the wayside on Day 1: Enzo Gomez, Jordan Kaplan, Francis O'Foord, Pancios Ellinas, Paul Byrne, Team Pro Online's Mickey Petersen, Oliver Price, Jesse Chambers, Billy Chattaway, Arvydas Merfeldas, Michael Aron, Seth Davies, Pierre Nadim, Christopher Brammer and Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody who busted out right at the end of level nine.

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Cody - out but back tomorrow for the main event

The PokerStars Blog caught Brammer's exit first hand. He three-bet shoved with pocket nines but ran into the pocket kings of David Phelan.

The remaining players will now play three more levels before play ends for the night and then return for Day 2 at midday. The PokerStars Blog will be back at 11am for Day 1 of the UKIPT Main Event and we'll catch up on what happens in the final three levels of the High Roller before play restarts at noon. We'll then provide frequent updates on High Roller alongside the Main Event before ramping up the coverage when it gets to the business end of the tournament.

Until tomorrow though, it's good night.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May


UKIPT5 London: Day 1A Level 1-6 Updates (200/400 ante 50)

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3:15pm: End of Level 6
The end of level 6 also means we are now having our second 15 minute break of the day. To bring you up to speed, the latest eliminations from proceedings include Luca Falaschi, multiple UKIPT champ Duncan McLellan, David Clifton-Burraway, Robert Beckett and Daniel Gaina

That also ends the live coverage from this page but dry your eyes folks as we will be picking up from level 7 onwards in a fresh, all-new, shiny update page. See you in 15 minutes for the resumption. -- RS

2:50pm: Busted
The roster of potential champs has been reduced further over the last level. The dream is over for the following players though on the plus side that clears their diary to enjoy the many diversions London has to offer. Enjoy your evening guys.:


Daniel Laming, Yannick Bourdain, Matias Ruiz Virals, Jesse Algranti, Erol Taylan, Nadeem Younas, Gomez De La Corte. -- RS

2:48pm: King Kongsgaard
Soren Kongsgaard is climbing the Empire State building, swatting bi-planes and beating his chest right now.

Metaphorically speaking of course.

In reality the polite Dane is quietly stacking up chips after winning an impressively large pot. This is how we got there:

The action opened with Matias Ruiz Virals raising to 700, Markos Georgiou making the call only for Kongsgaard to spoil the party, popping the action up to 1,900. Virals made a quick call, as did Georgiou.

The board of [Ks][9d][5h] saw the action checked to Kongsgaard who reacted to this by leading out 3,200. Virals called, Georgiou ducked out of the way.

The [3s] on the turn saw Virals check once more and Kongsgaard bet out 5,200, only to wince as Virals went all-in for his remaining 15,000 or so.

Kongsgaard was unhappy at this strong action but being offered a good price from the pot he made a very quick call with [As][Kd] for top, top and was rewarded as Virals could only showdown the eyebrow-raising [Jd][Tc] for a gutshot.

The [Ts] on the river proved insufficient improvement for Virals and he crashes out, whilst a beaming Kongsgaard moves up to 48,000. -- RS

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Thank you very much!

2:35pm: Chip counts
Here's a look at how some of the names and notables are getting on:

Rhys Jones, 44,000
John Eames, 42,000
Rory Liffey, 33,000
Tom Langley, 26,600
Louise Duffy, 26,000
Mickey Petersen, 22,000

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Rhys Jones - chip accumulator

Mat Frankland, 15,000
Jake Cody, 13,600
Pablo Gordillo, 13,500
Duncan McLellan, 10,000
David Clifton-Burraway, 6,000

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Jake Cody - down but not out

2:20pm: High Roller update
The High Roller is down to eight players and although the top seven were due to get paid the chip leader - Owain Carey - suggested a deal that would see all eight get paid and everyone agreed to it. So £350 has been taken off each payout to provide an eighth place prize of £2,450.

At the moment Carey has a huge chip lead and he has over 40% of the chips in play with eight players remaining. Here's how the final table stacks up:

Seat one: Sergio Aguilar, 39,000
Seat two: Morten Klein, 40,000
Seat three: Christos Kyprianou, 145,000
Seat four: Jonathan Wong, 80,000
Seat five: Gareth Teatum, 85,000
Seat six: Owain Carey, 400,000
Seat seven: Vasile Stancu, 45,000
Seat eight: Victor Ilyukhin, 170,000

The blinds are currently 1,500/3,000 ante 400. -- NW

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Carey is crushing the High Roller

2:15pm: Registration closed
Day 1A's registrants are all in the books now. The passing of level 4 means no more entrants will be allowed to participate today and we'll be able to bring you the final tally of players shortly.

Expect that number to be around the 142 mark.

One player to have enjoyed the opening period is Markos Georgiou, who has risen to 42,000 or so, his ascent assisted by one of those "live misclicks" we mentioned earlier.

We aren't 100% sure of the details till we get a chance to clarify with Georgiou but it seems his intention to call was interpreted as a raise by the dealer and a dynamic was set up which saw Georgiou fight for the pot four-bet what he assumed was a light 3 better.

Eventually he won the hand with what seemed to be a light holding given the demeanor of the rest of the table but Georgiou was happy with his decision-making. "I had a lot of fold equity there I think" he said, sweeping up the chips that have elevated him to near the top of the leaderboard. -- RS


Blinds up: 150/300 ante 25

1:55pm: Exits
Just 123 of the 142 entrants remain as: Mazalahedwa Bako, Sebastian Malec, Philip Campbell, Rupom Pal and Chris Brammer are all out. -- NW

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Short day for Brammer

1:40pm: Cautious Cody negiotiates early levels
Jake Cody has added his formidable poker presence to the list of hopefuls in attendance.

Already up to 5th in the England all-time money list for live tournament scores, Cody has dominated tournaments across the globe. What is the secret of his success, how does he continue to pick up these chunky scores?

"I just keep folding," he told us with a grin. At least that is the tale from today. Cody maintaining his 25,000 starting stack. As the day progresses we anticipate seeing Cody playing a few more hands. We'll settle for just one in fact. Come on Jake! -- RS

UKIPT_Lon_2015_52366.jpg

Cody easing himself into the day

1:35pm: More names!
The number of players on Day 1A is steadily creeping upwards and there are now 138 players who've elected to play today. They include: Tom Langley, Robert Boon, David Clifton-Burraway, Daniel Laming, John Eames, Lee Atherton, Mat Frankland and Team Pro Online's Mickey Petersen. -- NW

1:25pm: Chip drought
25,000 is a lot of chips but coolers, lack of concentration or live misclicks can all contribute to an early exit.

Here are some of those to have perished over these first few levels:

Isaac Opoku Wiafe, Dean Perry, Erik Ladanyi and Allan Watson Graham, David La Ronde, Ryan Kelly, Terence Jordon and Craig Grant and Ian Frazer.

Bad luck guys! Enjoy the rest of your day.-- RS

1:20pm: Back in effect
CIgarettes smoked, coffees drunk and tales told, the players are back at the tables to cross swords for another four levels. -- RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200 ante 25


1pm: Break time
The players are now on a 15 minute break. -- NW

12:55pm: Poker quiz
Let's play a game of Who am I?

For 10 points can you name the person in the picture below.

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1_soren_kongsgaard.jpg

Our mystery man today

Need more clues, ok. This player has almost two million in lifetime earnings and finished third in the EPT Grand Final in Season 3 when he looked like this

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1_soren_kongsgaard.jpg

And back in 2007

Got it yet? Well he's Danish and is seventh on their all-time money list. Ok your time is up. The player in question is Søren Kongsgaard and between 2006 and 2010 he racked up a string of cashes at events around the globe and was a fixture on made for TV poker shows like Late Night Poker and The Poker Million.

Then, it all went quiet. There are no cashes on his Hendon Mob page between January 2011 and March 2014 when he cashed in a LAPT event in Chile. Only he didn't because as he told the PokerStars Blog during the first break. "No, not me. I've never been to Chile." But, his story is no poker player goes busto shocker. "I got married and stopped playing live and instead played online," says the 27-year-old.

And his attendance at the UKIPT marks a rare live appearance for the Dane who now lives in Chiswick with his wife and two children. "I don't really play poker any more, I played professionally for six years but the games are getting tougher so I now concentrate on sports betting, specialising in football."

He's down to about 20,000 from his starting stack of 25,000 in London at the end of the first three levels. -- NW

12:35pm: Sweden makes frosty start
Craig Sweden is a familiar face to patrons of the london poker scene, a regular attendant at some of London's major casinos and poker tournaments.

He's had a slightly unfortunate start, check-calling a roughly 3,000 bet from Antonio German on the turn of a [8s][8c][5c][7d] board before checking and facing a larger bullet of 6,500 from German on the [Th] river.

He squirmed and vacillated over his decision, verbally running through his opponent's potential holdings.

After apologising to the table over his extended ruminations Sweden finally, and reluctantly threw his hand away.

"Nice hand" he offered resignedly to German who indicated he thought Sweden was probably well behind.

Sweden drops to around 17,000, German up to 33,000...-- RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200


12.05pm: High Roller resumes
When we last checked in with the High Roller there were 23 players remaining from the 49 entries (46 uniques, three re-entries) and it was Christos Kyprianou who led with a stack of 106,000. There were three levels left in the night and a lot happened in those two hours.

The field was reduced to just 11 players and whilst Kyprianou managed to increase his stack to 120,000 it was only good for third place overnight. Leading the way as Day 2 starts is Owain Carey, who with a stack of 315,000 has a monstrous chip lead over Victor Ilyukhin (156,900) who's in second place. The Day 2 seat draw and prize pool is as below, we'll be checking in with the High Roller throughout the day. Blinds are 1,200/2,400 ante 300 as play resumes, when eight players remain they'll combine to one table.

Table 1:

Owain Carey, 315,000
Rhys Jones, 39,400
Vasile Stancu, 63,400
Morten Klein, 33,200
Rokas Asipauskas, 47,000
Gareth Teatum, 57,700

Ukipt5_london_high roller_day1_rhys_jones.jpg

Rhys Jones

Table 2:

Jonathan Wong, 69,900
Christopher Kyriacou, 40,800
Christos Kyprianou, 120,000
Victor Ilyukhin, 156,900
Sergio Aguilar, 33,100

Ukipt5_london_high roller_day1_christos_kyprianou.jpg

Christos Kyprianou

And a reminder of the prize pool:

1st. £44,900
2nd. £32,420
3rd. £20,700
4th. £15,700
5th. £12,100
6th. £9,290
7th. £7,480.

12:00pm: Wham Bram thank you Ma'am
Anyone unfortunate enough to have been allocated table 7 in the table draw will face the task of subduing the rampaging figure of Chris "NigDawg" Brammer if they are to propser through the day.

Brammer's online expolits led him to top the P5 rankings in 2012 - with some labelling him "the new Moorman" - and he has remained a highly-ranked figure in the world of online poker ever since. His live resume might not quite have the same list of sterling achievements just yet, though he can still boast a host of enviable scores - including final tables at both the WSOP and WSOPE in 2012, both good for $200,000+ scores.

It is surely only a matter of time before Brammer's talent yields that marquee tournament win his resume suggests he is capable of. Could this be the year he nails it? -- RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150


11:35pm: Rise and shine!
Poker players can sometimes struggle to adjust to new conditions and they are facing some unfamiliar territory here.

Firstly, the 11:00am starting time may be a shock to the system for some of those used to the traditional later starts for live events. A quick caffeine-inspired slap in the face from an espresso should catalyse the transition from sleepy grinder to finely-tuned poker warrior.

Secondly, the shorter levels mean there is slightly less time to sit back and wait to pounce, which might push the action somewhat.

It would be folly to overstate this of course - 25,000 stacks allow plenty of play and the stack sizes will remain deep for some time. On the other hand, players may look at the clock counting down from 40 instead of 60 every level and feel the need to knuckle down and fight that extra bit harder for those pots. -- RS

11:20am: Three times a winner?
Play is spread around ten tables here in the Matcham Room at The Hippodrome Casino but one face immediately stands out in the crowd and it belongs to Duncan McLellan. Whilst Daragh Davey may have won the Season 4 leader board and proved his consistency, McLellan was arguably the MVP of last season.

The Corby based builder took down two UKIPT titles and also won the Nottingham Cup. He even had a poker move named after him by UKIPT host Nick Wealthall - high praise indeed. So if you see McLellan call a three-bet out of position then check raise the flop, well, you've been 'Duncan'd'.

He plays a brand of high variance poker so expect him to get his hands on a big stack or die trying here on Day 1A. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main_event_day1_duncan_mclellan.jpg

Two-time UKIPT winner Duncan McLellan

10:55pm:Welcome to UKIPT5 London!
This year may have started with a brisk, bitter cold snap banishing memories of the hottest year on record last year, but the inclement conditions can't stop the UKIPT barrelling into The Hippodrome Casino, London town for 2015's first stop on season 5's tour.

A healthy attendance is expected with no less than three starting days. A few points of order to run through. The tournament format has been altered slightly; 40 minute levels now the order of the day. Shorter levels than we have seen previously then, though compensating for this reduction is an increase in the stacks to a very healthy 25,000 chips.

Plenty of play for your money then and given the chunky attendance at the High Roller yesterday, there is optimism about attendance levels, which should mean there will be a bumper prize pool for the players to fight for.

Play is set to start at 11:00pm here at the Hippodrome and the shortened levels mean we will be cramming 12 of them into the day, ready for a circa 7:30pm finish.

Everyone has now taken their seats, the air is filled with the familiar sounds of clicking chips and we are off!

Good luck one and all. -- RS


PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright and Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London: Day 1A Level 7-12 Updates (1,000/2,000 ante 300)

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8:10pm: Done for the day
Day 1A has come to an end and it's Lawrence Bayley who leads the way with a stack of 265,000. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way. -- NW

7:50pm: The final furlong
It's been a busy day replete with incident but with the end of level 12 in sight, the TD has called for the final three hands to be played out. We'll have news of how the end of day chipcounts have shaped up, along with who has snatched the chiplead shortly.

Hold tight for news! -- RS

7:45pm: There's still time to qualify!
If you fancy a crack at the UKIPT London Main Event yourself then there's still time to qualify.

Whilst a live satellite is playing out here at The Hippodrome Casino, the final two online satellites take place online on PokerStars. A £33 2R1A satellite gets under way at 20,00 GMT and a £82 Hyper-Turbo satellite begins at 22.00 GMT. In PS7 you'll find these satellites (and feeders to them) under Live Events>Europe>UKIPT London. -- NW

7:40pm: Cody the comeback kid
Jake Cody has been below starting stack for pretty much the entire day but has staged a late night rally to get his head above water finally. He's up to 50,000 and is in the relative comfort of 25 big blind territory. -- NW

7:25pm: Chip leaders
There's less than 30 minutes to go in the day and these players are the ones vying for the title of overnight chip leader:

Lawrence Bayley, 217,000
William Dunlop, 207,000
Adam Kossew, 175,000
David Clarkson, 170,000
Stuart Green, 160,000

7:10pm: More exits
As the last level of the day gets under way just 48 of the 143 starters remain. Those who've recently been left potless inlclude: Markos Georgiou, Robert Deacon, Stuart Easton, Callum Malcolm, Daniel Efeturk, Krzysztof Michalik, Peter Blow and Iman Chamazkati. -- NW

7pm: Shuffled off this mortal coil
Perhaps we overplay it sometimes. Poker is after all just a game. No one really suffers mortal consequences as a result of losing their chips and you can always go and play a new game at one of the multitude of online or live facilities available online and around London.

It still hurts losing your chips however. Bad luck to the following folks:

Peter Dibben
Richard Lord
Dalius Balciunas
Gavin Manley

--RS

6:55pm: Owain Carey wins UKIPT High Roller and £44,550
Whilst the UKIPT Main Event is just getting started the UKIPT High Roller has just finished. When the 11 remaining players returned today Owain Carey was the chip leader and he's gone wire to wire to win. He takes home £45,550 for defeating field of 49 players (46 unique entries and three re-buys) whilst runner-up Victor Ilyukhin earns £32,070.

The final hand was a good old race with all the chips going in pre-flop. Carey had pocket tens to Ilyukhin's [K][J], neither player connected with the board and Carey's pocket pair held to give him the title.

A full list of the in the money finishers is below:

1st. Owain Carey, £44,550
2nd. Victor Ilyukhin, £32,070
3rd. Christos Kyprianou, £20,350
4th. Morten Klein, £15,350
5th. Gareth Teatum, £11,750
6th. Sergio Marti Aguilar, £8,940
7th. Vasile Stancu, £7,130.
8th. Jonathan Wong, £2,450

Congratulations to Carey and well played to all those who cashed. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_high_roller_day2_owain_carey.jpg

Owain Carey - UKIPT5 London High Roller champion


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600-200


6:45pm: Bowl stopped play
Last time Jake Cody played an event in London his popular 'Play With Jake' competition earned James Raddon over £1,200. But, Cody's been unable to break out that particular competition today.

6:35pm: Three-way all-in madness
The PokerStars Blog arrived on the scene to see a three-way all-in progress between Joakim Sorensen (hijack), Richard Lord (cut-off) and Yucel 'Mad Turk' Eminoglu (button).

Sorensen had both players covered but Eminoglu only had around 10,000 to Lord's 40,000 so the side pot was bigger than the main pot. The hands were as follows:

Eminoglu: [9d][9s]
Lord: [Qs][Qd]
Sorensen: [Ah][Jh]

"Let me know when the nine comes," said Eminoglu to the player across the table from him and he didn't have to wait long as the flop fell [Kd][9h][Ac]. The [Jc] turn gave Sorensen outs to scoop the lot but the [2c] river kept Eminoglu in front. He tripled up to around 30,000, Sorensen is up to 110,000 and Lord was left with nothing. "The best hand came last," said Eminoglu as he stacked his chips.

Jake Cody, who is at the same table was a keen observer of the hand and will be hoping to perform his own Lazarus like comeback as he's currently got just 12,700. -- NW

6:25pm: Not so Lucky Nguyen
The ever-rising blinds continue to encroach upon the players stacks, Meaty blinds and increasingly dwindling blind to stack ratio mean the players are being forced to fight tooth and nail fot the pots, and this is taking its toll.

The inaptly but appealingly-named Lucky Nguyen is the latest to succumb, leaving around 57 players remaining as we move through the antepenultimate level of the day. -- RS

6:20pm: Fewster's millions evaporate
Henry Fewster won't have enjoyed his short stay in the new environ greatly, as he has busted just 10 minutes or so into the move.

He was already showing a few signs of strain,bemoaning the superior conditions of an adjacent table, albeit with a smile on his face.

"Look at those guys, they have a chandelier, a beautiful view next to the window. Meanwhile we can barely see our cards!"

His torture was to be short-lived. Moving all-in with [Ad][Qs], he was called by pocket jacks and failed to spike any required cards over the [8h][2h][7c][Kd][3s] board, leaving him off to better-lit pastures new. --RS

6:10pm: Carey still in charge
We're still heads-up in the High Roller and the two protagonists have just taken a break at the end of level 17.

When they return to blinds of 4,000/8,000 ante 1,000 Owain Carey will be playing a stack of 593,000 whilst Victor Ilyukhin has 387,000. -- NW

6pm: Exits
These players have all failed to make level 10: Daniel Rohrbasser, Jordan Bamford, Christopher Deacon, Charles Coates, Nicholas Galtos, Ricky Farbrother, Pablo Gordillo, Antonio German, John Eames, Rory Liffey, Kevin Parkes, Dost Mohammad Ghrabie, Ralph Baylor, Lee Atherton and Oliver Price.

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1_john_eames.jpg

John Eames


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 200


5:45pm: End of level 9
That's all for level 9 folks, meaning the players are once more relieved of poker duty for 15 minutes. They have also had their chips scooped off them, deposited into plastic bags ready to be re-assigned to the relevant player in their new venue - an adjoining room.

We'll be back shortly for level 10 at the new locale. See you then! -- RS

5:40pm: Roberts hit by ladies
Jamie Roberts has had a fruitful day, up over 60,000 following a very auspicious start, although he was relieved of a few of those by WIlliam Dunlop a few moments ago.

After Roberts had raised pre-flop, Dunlop made the call and check-called two barrels (the 2nd a chunky 6,500 on the turn) from Roberts over the [9d][6h][4h][Kd] board.

The [As] river saw Roberts finally check to showdown pocket queens, only to get the bad news that Dunlop's flopped flush draw with [Kh][Jh] had connected on the turn.

A minor setback for Roberts then who drops to 58,000 whilst Dunlop is running good, could be the sole survivor, is doing it just for the kicks, [insert myriad shoe puns in this space] etc etc.

Well done is basically what we are saying. He has 50,000 or so as we speak. --RS

5:20pm: Heads-up in the High Roller
And then there were two...

We've just gone heads-up in the £3,000 High Roller here at The Hippodrome Casino and it's Owain Carey versus Victor Ilyukhin for the title. As play gets under way Carey has the lead with 543,000 to Ilykhin's 437,000. With blinds at 3,000/6,000 ante 1,000 it could take a while to determine the winner and who gets the first prize of £44,550 and who picks up the runners-up cheque of £32,070.

Ukipt5_london_high_roller_day2_heads_up.jpg

Heads-up play begins

What we do know is that Morten Klein finished fourth taking £15,350 and Christos Kyprianou was out in third earning a £20,350 payday. -- NW

5:10pm: Gone, gone, gone
There has been virtual slaughter at the felt, with the following all succumbing beneath the unrelenting waves of variance. No one is safe, as evidenced by the rise and fall of Soren Kongsgaard, riding high so recently, even he could not manage to make it through the day.

Well played and farewell brave folk.

Joel Ettedgi
Boutros Pierre Naim
Matas Cimbolas
Marc Church
Soren Kongsgaard
Matthew Frankland
Jareth East
Gary David Pearce

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1_mat_frnakland.jpg

Franky - did not have a fun time

David Gassian
Angelo Karunakaran
Matt Rickard
Iacopo Palla
Marios Andreas
Randolph Reese
Louise Duffy
Zahari Petrov.


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000-100


4:48pm: Field strength at 66%, cap'n
With just 90 players remaining of the adventurous 143 who arrived to contend the title in the first place, we have already schythed down 1/3 of the field as we approach the completion of the eighth level.

A quick look at a couple of interesting stacks from the tables sees John Eames with 37,000, Jake Cody continuing to struggle onward with 18,000 Gillingham winger Antonio German up to 25,000 and Dominic Wells, a recent UKIPT Series finalist, doing a good job with 67,000 total. -- RS

4:40pm: Chip leaders
As we approach the end of level eight these are the top dogs:

Adam Kossew, 145,000
Stuart Easton, 99,000
Stuart Green, 89,000
Jonas Christensen, 88,000
Christopher Nazer, 78,000
Alex Bounsall, 77,000
Miguel Riera Suarez, 69,300
Richard Steele, 67,000
Rhys Jones, 65,000

Blinds are about to go to 500/1,000 ante 100. -- NW

4:25pm: Oppong pinged out
Lawrence Bayley just dusted off Sidney Oppong, though he was somewhat fortunate to do so.

The hand involved some early confusion, Oppong quietly moving all-in for his shortstack before a blissfully ignorant Bayley tried to raise from the small blind and pick up the big blind's chips.

"Oh I didn't see you were all-in!" Bayley suddenly realised in shock. "I have to call now do I?"

The TD was called and confirmed that he did have to call the raise, which he did so with a laugh. "Well, I have 8-high, are you worried?" he joked with Oppong.

"In that case I have you dominated!" Oppong countered, pleased as punch to be facing a potential double up, holding [Ks][8h] to Bayley's [8d][6d].

He was even more cheered as the flop fell king high, though
his face dropped as he realised the [Kd][7d][7c] board gave Bayley a flush draw.

BINK POTENTIAL: MEDIUM

The [5h] on the turn was accompanied with "ooooooohs" from the table as Bayley picked up an open-ended straight draw to go with his flush draw.

BINK POTENTIAL: HIGH

Finally Oppong was put out of his misery - the [9s] spiking on the river to send him to the rail.

BINK POTENTIAL: BINK.

Bayley could not have been more apologetic. "I'm so so sorry. I'm not a live player," he effused energetically as he picked up the chips, moving to 35,000.

Oppong took the beat with good grace, laughing as he left the arena. "Well you had enough outs," he bantered as he departed the felt. -- RS

4:10pm: The fallen
Not surprisingly there's been a increase in the volume of exits during level seven and the following players have all seen their Main Event hopes extinguished: Jonathan Clark, Ian Hastie, Sidney Oppong, Jimmy Kebe, Thomas Langley, Jen-Yue Chiang, Craig Sweden, Mark McShane, Steven Fatt Fai Ly, Daniel Tersigni, Luke Bindon, Daniel Gaina
, Timothy Dearing, Milcho Angelov, Dimitri Joubert and Neil McCulloch. -- NW

Blinds up: 400/800 ante 100

3:50pm: Down to four in the High Roller
Whilst the main event plays out on in the Matcham Room a hop skip and a jump away the final table of the £3,000 High Roller is playing to its conclusion.

When we last checked in there were eight players remaining and after a deal took £350 off the prizes for 1st-7th they were all in the money. Fast forward to now and Gareth Teatum has just been eliminated in fifth place and this is how it happened. He moved all-in from under-the-gun for 26,500 (5.3 big blinds), Victor Ilyukhin asked for a count before splashing in the call and Christos Kyprianou called from the big blind.

The two active players checked it all the way down on a [8d][9d][8h][10c][4d] board and Teatum announced 'ace-king' and showed [Ad][Ks], it was ahead of Ilyukhin's [Ah][6c] but behind Kyprianou's [Kh][9c] and he wished the table good luck as he left the table.


With blinds at 2,500/5,000 ante 500 the final four stack up like this:

Seat two: Morten Klein, 72,000
Seat three: Christos Kyprianou, 225,000
Seat six: Owain Carey, 450,000
Seat eight: Victor Ilyukhin, 180,000

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1_owain_carey.jpg

Carey still leads

Whilst the in the money finishers and what's still up for grabs is as below:

1st. £44,550
2nd. £32,070
3rd. £20,350
4th. £15,350
5th. Gareth Teatum, £11,750
6th. Sergio Marti Aguilar, £8,940
7th. Vasile Stancu, £7,130.
8th. Jonathan Wong, £2,450

Ukipt5_london_high_roller_day1_jonathan_wong.jpg

Wong's hopes have gone up in smoke

3:40pm: Cody battles to recover poise
Jake Cody has been struggling to build a stack today, but he hasn't thrown in the towel yet, most recently picking up chips following an UTG raise from William Dunlop to 1,600, Cody shoved all-in for his 13,000 or so.

Dunlop laid his hand down and Cody moves up to 15,500. --RS

3:35pm: Halfway home
Half a dozen levels are in the can but the players have another six levels to negotiate if they wish to be back here on Saturday for Day 2.

Currently 115 of the 143 Day 1A entrants have chips and a chair but that number will decline sharply before play is done for the day. Blinds are now 300/600 ante 75 and the average stack is 31,086 so just over 50 big blinds. Action is back under way. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1_cards.jpg

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright and Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London: Bayley leads counts at end of Day 1A

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Season 5 of the UKIPT opened today at The Hippodrome Casino, London with a brutal first day where reputations were shredded and previous poker acumen counted for little.

Combat proved fierce and fast-paced and come the close of play it was Lawrence Bayley who had slewn sufficient competitors to find himself atop the chip counts, his 265,000 leaving him top of the pile.

SuperNova Elite Bayley, who plays at PokerStars under the moniker "bigstealer" was self-effacing about his coruscating rise to the chiplead, modestly commenting "I found a lot of good spots and ran really well."

UKIPT_Lon_2015_52894.jpg

Supernova Elite Bayley has a wealth of experience

Close behind him at bag and tag time, were Miguel Seoane and David Clarkson with 241,100 and 234,500 respectively - the pair well placed to put together a deep run when they reconvene on Saturday for Day 2.

Day 1A of the London UKIPT saw a broad spectrum of players escape from the frosty inclemency waiting on the doorstep and pour into the vastly warmer and luxuriant environ within The Hippodrome Casino. As well as warmth, food and shelter, they were provided with the opportunity to test their luck and skills at the felt - one they seized with relish.

UKIPT_Lon_2015_52323.jpg

That elusive third title remains elusive

Glancing down the list of registrants at the beginning of play, a number of illustrious marquee names leapt out as likely contenders for the title. Triple crown winner Jake Cody, 2012 WSOPE final tablist Chris Brammer and double UKIPT winner Duncan Mclellan all brought deep reserves of talent and experience to proceedings.

It is testament to the growing quality of the tour however that out of these three only Cody was able to fend off the vagaries of misfortune - McLellan and Brammer consigned to the wintery cold without, whilst Cody ground the day out with admirable resolve, making a late charge up the leaderboard to finish up with 78,500.

Cody admitted he owed his survival to a benevolent hand from the poker gods.

"Basically I got really lucky near the end," he explained. "The hi-jack raised, the cut-off called and I jammed with ace-jack. The hi-jack called with jacks, the cut-off folded an ace but we still flopped an ace. Then I moved tables and got dealt kings, got it in against ace-jack and held."

UKIPT_Lon_2015_52929.jpg

Cody: saved face with an ace from space.

Other notable attendees - Scandinavian superstar Soren Konsgaard, Team Pro Online Mickey Petersen and online whiz John Eames - may boast proficient poker chops but their ducks would not line up today, early finishes all round the order of the day.

When all twelve levels had been played out, just 30 remained standing, ready to take their stacks through to Saturday's Day 2. Bayley's ascent to the summit of the day may surprise some, though his lack of poker celebrity owes more to his limited exposure to live poker than any paucity of poker skill.

"I don't play live poker a lot because I need to maintain SuperNova Elite, but I like live poker when it's like today," Bayley explained.

"It'd be nice to win a tournament but the sample size is so small I don't expect to! I'm aware of the variance in tournaments."

The full end of day chipcounts can be found here.

To read updates from levels 1-6, click here.

To read updates from levels 7-12, click here.

Playing out simultaneously with Day 1A of the Main Event was the High Roller final table.

Owain Carey had entered the day holding the chip lead and, after seeing off Victor Illyukhin heads-up, he had parlayed this enviable position into a win, picking up the title, £44,500 and the trophy.

Congratulations to Carey, here are the full payouts from the High Roller:

1st. Owain Carey, £44,550
2nd. Victor Ilyukhin, £32,070
3rd. Christos Kyprianou, £20,350
4th. Morten Klein, £15,350
5th. Gareth Teatum, £11,750
6th. Sergio Marti Aguilar, £8,940
7th. Vasile Stancu, £7,130.
8th. Jonathan Wong, £2,450

Ukipt5_london_high_roller_day2_owain_carey.jpg

Wire to wire Carey scoops High Roller title

That brings you up to date with the day's proceedings then. We'll return for the resumption of the Main Event tomorrow at 11am sharp.

Join us then as we continue the march on the title.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright and Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London Day 1B: Level 1-6 updates (200/400 ante 25)

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3:22pm: End of level 6
We have played through level 6 meaning we are half way through today's play. We estimate around 215 out of the initial 244 players who entered remain.in contention.

Anyway, another three levels mean it's time for the players to take a breather. They'll be back in 15 minutes after cigarettes and coffees as will we.

Updates from levels 7 onwards can be found here.

See you shortly. -- RS

3:20pm: Shy of a million, but table 16 on the spin up
There was a three or four way conversation going on about table 16 and the subject was...poker. First it was seating scripts but it soon moved onto Spin and Gos. "For $5 you might win a million and one person has," said a player at the table. "Three people have!" replied another informing the first player that two more people had hit the jackpot.

"So sick to be freerolling $100,000," said Gabriel Carter. "But you'd be devastated if you lost heads-up," replied Benjamin Raven. "Absolutely devastated because you've just lost $900,000," he added.

No deals are allowed in Spin and Gos but Carter said he'd definitely try and negotiate one if he could. "I'd definitely be trying for a chop, getting my opponent's details if I could."

Whilst no one on table 16 is approaching millionaire status in terms of chips, there are a few players who've chipped up since the start of play. Adam Owen is up to 45,000 and Carter has 48,000. -- NW

3:10pm: One random pwner
Not everyone can be a superstar. But everyone can potentially be a superstar in the making. David Crane may be tucked away on the outer tables of the tournament but he has been an efficient chip gatherer thus far, his stack rising to over double it's initial size - up to 52,000.

Maybe he will be the next Phil Ivey. Who knows? -- RS

3pm: Vanquished but remembered
The blinds continue to grow in size and significance, with more and more casualties falling as they battle their evermore oppressive pressure.

These are the most recent players to have been run down by variance. Sorry guys, it was not to be your day.

John Phillip Small
Vincenzo Taliercio
Christopher Kyriacou
Robin Fisher
Giulio Mascolo
Mark Shepherd -- RS

2:40pm: Meanwhile, up on the Poker Deck
Whilst late registration might be closed the turnout today of roughly 244 players has meant that there are two tables in use up on the Poker Deck. That's the permanent poker area here at The Hippodrome Casino and where the cash games usually take place.

But for now it's a tournament only zone and it's possible the current high stack is among the two tables currently in use up in the gods. Dave 'Dubai' Shallow has a stack of roughly 70,000 and that's good for the lead right now. He's also got UKIPT4 London 7th place finisher Patryk Slusarek (19,000) at his table and Morten Mortensen (13,200).

Whilst the latter is yet to cash on the UKIPT he's got over $700,000 in lifetime earnings and can boast a EPT and WSOP final table amongst his achievements. -- NW


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400-25


2:35pm: Catt falls but lands on feet
Edmund Catt has had a good start to the day, up to over 40,000 it's been relatively plain sailing so far.

Moments ago however he did slip up, check calling all three streets of a [Ad][5d][5c][2h][7h] board for 600, 1,700, then 3,200 only to muck upon being shown his opponent's [4h][5h] for trips.

A 5,500 dent in his stack then, but he remains well placed with 38,000. -- RS

2:15pm: Felt Snapshot
Here's news from some of the larger names scattered around the arena.

Jerome Bradpiece has been a fixture on the poker circuit for many years now. Bradpiece has been there, done that, got the t shirt, his witty laconic drawl instantly recognisable.

Things have gone slowly for him so far here today. He's down to 20,000 and even worse, his cup of tea was delivered without milk. Outrageous!

Ludovic Geilich plays the kind of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants poker that makes him such a compulsive character to watch. He plays a multitude of pots from all sorts of positions in unorthodox ways and is a really tough man to tame, as evidenced by his recent heroics at UKIPTs and EPTs. So far his LAG style is paying great dividends. He's up to 50,000 and was last seen celebrating this by ordering a coffee...

Then there's Kevin Allen, playing poker with slicked-back hair and a swagger, he too has managed to bolster his stack to the tune of 45,000. --RS

2:10pm: Chip counts
As level five gets under way here's how some of the names and notables stack up:

Tamer Kamel - 39,000
Stuart McDonald - 34,000
Angelo Milioto - 33,000
Leon Louis - 31,000
JJ Hazan - 28,500
Chris Ferguson - 25,800
Phillipe Souki - 24,800
Mark McCluskey - 24,700
Jerome Bradpiece - 21,600
Thomas Ward - 19,900
Charlie Combes - 19,200
Gareth Teatum - 16,400
Christos Kyprianou - 15,300

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_thomas_ward.jpg

Thomas Ward

Blinds up: 150/300 ante 25

1:55pm: Christie bluff falls on stony ground
Bluffing is a delicate art. The timing, sizing and the story-telling needs to be well-balanced for the bluff to work and moments ago Keith Christie's radar went a little awry.

We joined the hand on the river of a [Kd][3d][4c][Ac][Ks] board, Christie leading out for 5,200 into a roughly 13,000 pot.

His opponent Chi Hang Tang made the call after some deliberation with A-2, while Christie could only table J-Q for queen-high.

Two pair for Tang he swept up the chunky pot to move to 40,000 whilst a disappointed-looking Christie drops to 15,000 or so. -- RS

1:40pm: Early bath for...
230 of the 242 players remain on Day 1B. Among those to have exited are: Anthony Fox, Katja Spillum Svendsen, Marc Hunter, Umberan Akhtar, Wai Kwan Yuen, Pol Hernandez, Colin Marks and Daryosh Rossookh. -- NW

1:25pm: Aido on the up
UKIPT3 London champion Sergio Aido is situated on one of two tables on a balcony to the left of the main tournament area. He's not got the easiest table draw as he's got Andrew Hulme, Renee Xie and Rumit Somaiya for company.

He'd dropped to 18,500 but just won a sizeable pot against Enzo Gomez to get back above starting stack. It was Aido who got the action started, raising to 600 from early position and getting calls from Gomez (cut-off), Spyridon Dimotsantos (small blind) and Hulme (big blind).

On the [Kh][5h][6d] flop Aido c-bet 1,200 and Gomez was the only caller. The [Jh] hit the turn, Aido slowed down as he checked to Gomez, he bet 1,500 and Aido smooth called. The final community card was the [Jc] again Aido checked, Gomez fired 2,200, Aido check-raised using two 5k chips and Gomez folded his hand.
Pot to Aido, who's now up to 28,000. -- NW

1:15pm: Praying to the gods
It never hurts to ask for good fortune to smile on you...

Blinds up: 100/200 ante 25

1:00pm: Break Time!
We have played out three levels and the players are now spilling out to enjoy a twenty minute break. It's been tense and keenly contested out there. We'll be back shortly to resume battle at level 4. See you soon!

12:45pm: Three rooms
Due to the size of the field play is split over two, well two and a half rooms really, here at The Hippodrome Casino. There are 13 tables in the main room and another seven in the auxiliary room and two on a private balcony, which is where the High Roller took place yesterday.

In the auxiliary room you'll find the likes of Kevin Allen, who's already up to 32,000, Tamer Kamel and Ludovic Geilich. It won't come as a shock to hear that Geilich was involved in a pot when the PokerStars Blog stopped off at this table. He'd raised to 450, found a caller, only for a short stacked player to shove for 5,600. Geilich hates losing pots and reluctantly folded as did the flat caller.

227 of 231 players remain. -- NW

12:25pm: Bullet pain for Hunter
Marc Hunter is a popular figure at the UKIPT events, though his tournament just took a big turn for the worse moments ago.

Holding pocket aces, he raised a limp to 700 in position which was called by Tai Phuoc Du - the pair heads up to a [9d][6d][6s] board.

Checked to Hunter, he led out for 1,600, only to see Du make a big check-raise to 7,000.

Looking at the potential straight draws and flush draws, Hunter must have felt there was room enough for his opponent to be semi-bluffing and moved all-in for his stack - his opponent snap-calling with [7c][6c] for trips - which he victory slammed down as he was shown the aces.

"Running diamonds would be nice!" said Hunter, although any faint hopes of an outdraw were extinguished when his opponent hit the [6h] on the turn to improve to quads and leave him drawing dead.

A big fistpump and joyous exclamation from Du said it all, and when the chips were tallied, Hunter was left mortally crippled with just a few chips the smoking residue of his once fulsome stack.

Meanwhile Tai Du has become the likely chipleader at this point with approximately 47,500 -- RS

Blinds up: 100/200

12:10pm: B is for bigger
There's still 90 minutes of late registration here on Day 1B but the field has already surpassed the size of Day 1A. There's currently 215 players in the field and given it was only at 141 during level 1 it's conceivable the field could go north of 250 runners today. -- NW

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11:50am: Teatum looking for elite status
Gareth Teatum is the kind of player that gets respect from his peers despite having never quite managed to secure that big tournament win to elevate him from accomplished player to poker superstar.

Despite that missing marquee win, there's no doubt his poker CV is peppered with signs of his talent. A WSOP final table here, a Bellagio cup 4th place finish there, 3rd place at the EPT side event, a deep run at the Aussie Millions.

Teatum has been on the cusp of a big result for a long time, his $390,000 in winnings testament to his potential.

He's already managed a 5th place at the High Roller event here in London (another near miss!) so is showing some form.

Could this UKIPT be his breakthrough event? -- RS

Blinds up: 75/150

11:30am: Spotted
A quick glance around the room has revealed a number of familiar faces, many of whom have had success in the past on the UKIPT. Where else to start but with Thomas Ward? With a total of 12 he's the all-time leading casher in UKIPT Main Events and someway clear of Dara O'Kearney, Tom Hall and Rupinder Bedi who all have eight.

Of course it's not just cashes that Ward can boast but final tables too. He came second to Sergio Aido at UKIPT3 London, earning £ 116,845, fourth in Edinburgh in Season 2 and seventh at UKIPT Isle of Man in Season 4. Perhaps London will be the stop where he makes his token final table of the season?

Another player who made the UKIPT3 London final table is playing today and that man is Philippe Souki. The London based cash game pro finished fourth that day and for someone who spends the majority of their time playing cash he's had some impressive results since then. He went deep at EPT100 in Barcelona before busting in 41st place and will hope to have another deep run this week.

There's another UKIPT final tablist in the field too, back in Marbella in Season 4 Katja Spillum Svendsen almost became the first ever female UKIPT Main Event champion before busting in third place. The Norwegian, who lives in the South of England, is a woman of many talents as she's also a world-class backgammon player.

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Katja Spillum Svendsen

We've also spotted JJ Hazan - who was one of over 20 players to win his seat in a live satellite on Tuesday night - and Mark McCluskey. It's early days of course - an 11am start time in poker is somewhat unheard of - so the field will likely increase considerably before late registration closes at 1.55pm. -- NW

11:15am: Number crunching
With 128 players in already and new registrants continuing over the first four levels, it looks as though Day 1B's attendance is likely to trump the bumper field of 143 on Day 1A.

It's a good sign for poker that there appears to be this ravenous hunger for the game especially given the 11am start that will have been a shock to the system for many players.

Long may it continue! --RS

11am: Day one, take two
Welcome to the second of three starting flights at UKIPT5 London which is taking place at in London's west end at The Hippodrome Casino.

We'll be hoping this flight isn't the awkward middle sibling of the three and it passes smoothly and serenely like Day 1A did yesterday. In case you missed any of the action yesterday 143 players took to the felt and after a dozen 40 minute levels just 30 still had chips in front of them, meaning just under 21% of the field advanced to Day 2.

Those who have a fresh set of chips in front of them today will be hoping to emulate SuperNova Elite Lawrence 'bigstealer' Bayley who ended Day 1A as chip leader with a massive 265,000. Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody (78,500) also made it through.

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Players are starting to file in to The Matcham Room now as play looks set to start bang on time. Stay right here for coverage of Day 1B of UKIPT5 London we'll be updating selected chip counts throughout the day here.

Key UKIPT5 London Facts:

- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 50/100 for 250 big blinds
- Day 1B is today, Day 1C is Friday, the field will then combine for the first time on Saturday before playing down to a winner on Sunday.
-The UKIPT structure has been tweaked for Season 5. Levels on Day 1 are now 40 minutes, on Day 2 that increases to 50 minutes and then further to one hour levels on the final day.
- Full UKIPT5 Lodnon schedule here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT London: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London Day 1B: Level 7-12 updates (1,000/2,000 ante 300)

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7:55pm: End of Day 1B
A fascinating day of poker has crashed to a standstill and the final freeze frame sees Warsaw-based Pole Piotr Tuczynski cutting the pose of a champion - his gargantuan 332,100 chips good for the chip lead. Some other notable stacks at the close of play include James Dorrance - who finished up with a enviable 247,000 in chips and Dave "Dubai" Shallow managed to winkle out some extra leverage for his stack when he returns for Day 2 on Saturday, recovering from a bowl of rice to finish up with 62,900.

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Dorrance flirted with the chip lead, but she took a taxi home with Piotr

That's it then. We'll be posting a final wrap of the day's proceedings shortly but for now thanks for following.

We hope you've enjoyed the coverage and we'll see you back here at 11am sharp with cappuccinos and croissants in hand to follow all the twists, turns, follies and surprises day 1C can throw at us. Good night one and all. --RS

7:40pm: Last three hands...
The tournament clock has been paused, the end of the day looming large in the close distance.

Piotr Tuczynski has managed to snatch the lead back off James Dorrance for now in what has been a very tit for tat battle.

W'll be bringing you news of the end of day counts shortly. Hold tight! -- RS

7:28pm: Chaos reigns as we play through level 12
The last level sees plentiful shortstacks, large blinds and short fuses as players look to chip up a bowl of a stack into something meaningful or clear their plans on Saturday rather than come back and have to do their gambling then,

It's a shove-fest out there, the player roster already reduced to 79 players out of the 244 who started and that number looking set to be significantly trimmed before these final 25 minutes are played out.

Here are some of the latest casualties:

Lin Junsheng
Kestutis Burba
Mark Southwood
Jorge Sevillano Rosa
Mark McCluskey
Adrian Espinosa
Stavros Tsourou
Sameer Singh
Guillermo Sanchez Otero
Tamer Kamel -- RS

7:15pm: Shallow fried by Dorrance
We only caught the very tail-end of a hand played out between Dave Shallow and James Dorrance - more details when we get the chance to speak to either.

The upshot however is that James Dorrance picked up most of Dubai's stack to move to 280,000 - good for the chip lead.

Soon after, he knocked out a tablemate for good measure, consolidating that chip lead by winning a classic flip - jacks versus ace-king - meaning with well over 320,000 - he is head and shoulders clear of his nearest adversary.

Dubai meanwhile is down to around ten big blinds, perhaps a touch more...--RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,000-2,000-300


6:58pm: UKIPT London's leading men
Here are the players currently contending the chip lead.

Piotr Tuczynski Poland 190,000
James Dorrance United Kingdom 160,000
David Antelo Gomez Spain 150,000
Christopher Yong United Kingdom 150,000
Carl Croucher United Kingdom 120,000
Kazimieras Piečius Lithuania 115,000
Lee Andrew Brooks United Kingdom 110,000

This can certainly all change over what is likely to be a very fast final level however!-- RS

6:40pm: Toffell topples Hussein
Talk about an action flop! Mudasser Hussain and Danny Toffel got it all-in on a [Ks][2d][Jd] flop and it soon became clear why.

Hussain: [Kh][Jh]
Toffel: [Qd][10d]

It was top two against an open-ended straight flush draw and although Toffel didn't hit his gin card on the turn, the [7d] gave him the lead and he held onto it on the [7h] river. He's up to 80,000 whilst Hussain joins a growing list of Level 11 casualties. -- NW

Blinds up: 800/1,600 ante 200

6:30pm: Chip counts
A few counts from around the room:

Dave Shallow - 105,000
Angelo Milioto - 90,000
JJ Hazan - 88,000
Charlie Combes - 63,000
Rumit Somaiya - 58,000
Kevin Allen - 56,000
Marc McCluskey - 28,300
Philippe Souki - 11,000

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_dave_shallow.jpg

Shallow's stack is anything but


6:20pm: Body-bagged
Some big names are amongst the lists of recently-departed. The poker gods show no mercy, regardless of your poker standing.

None of these guys are potential London 2015 UKIPT champions I'm afraid. Well played all.

Aleksandar Spadijer
Neil Mahamdi
Vytenis Salickas
Joann Martin
Bradley Amico
Jerome Bradpiece
Michal Gorlej
Edmund Catt
Christopher Ferguson --RS

6:10pm: Crab unloads the clip
Dave"Crabmaki" Shallow is a lot of fun to watch. He has boundless reserves of aggression and plays so many pots that his poker really is a pure spectator sport.

Most recently he raised in early position to 2,600, called by big stack Thales Filho and the button.

A big pot was brewing and Dubai didn't take his foot off the accelerator, leading out for 3,700 on the [Qh] [4s][4c] board, Filho the sole caller.

The turned [5h] saw Dubai fire a second bullet of 7,700. Filho eyed him up carefully but it seemed unlikely he could penetrate the wooly-hatted sanctuary Dubai had hunkered down in. He made the call.

The river was the [Jd].

Would Dubai fire a third barrel (or fourth depending on how you look at it)?

He didn't let us down. A big chunk of chips were laid out - 20,800 the bet, leaving Filho looking a bit uncomfortable. He tried the old "reach for chips as if you are going to call" move, but Dubai was giving nothing away.

Save those tricks for someone with less poker miles on the clock!

Eventually Filho laid down his hand under this brutal assault from Shallow. More chips to add to the rickety piles Dubai is building. He rises back up to 95,000...

Thales Filho takes a hit but is still well-stacked with 85/90,000. -- RS

5:55pm: All under one roof
The rate of eliminations has quickened and with just 120 players remaining all the players are now in the same room. The average stack right now is 50, 800 (42.3 big blinds) but the following players are all out: Bjoernar Kvamme, Gareth Teatum, Martin Carty, Scott Adams, Ben Jordan, Nadil Abdien, Kevin Walshe, Eleftherios Sinnos, William Martin, Stuart Mcdonald, Duncan Riches, Daiva Barauskaite, Mark Hester, Adam Owen, Gerald Candy, Mir Mousavianpour and Andrew Hulme. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_andrew_hulme.jpg

Andrew Hulme

Blinds up: 600/1,200 ante 200

5:45pm: Break it up
Another three levels have been ploughed through, players falling with increasing regularity during that last two hours. After that whirlwind of action, the remaining warriors are due a break and that is just what they have - 15 minutes of peace and quiet before rejoining the fight.

We'll see you soon for levels 10-12 as we play to a finish. -- RS

5:40pm: Zero Sum game
For every winner, there must be a loser and Richard Blacklock just played the role of the latter after seeing his tournament hopes dissolve in unfortunate fashion.

Following a raise to 2,200 from early position called in the hijack by Sum Yip, Blacklock found the perfect spot to shove his 17,000 into the middle with [Ah][Kd].

The initial raiser melted like snow in front of a blowtorch but Yip took more dissuading, shrugging before making the call off his bigstack with [Ts][Js].

Live but behind, Yip managed to spike a card on the [Qc][6h][Jh] board and although Blacklock had nine clean outs to hit, he avoided them all on the [Qd] turn and [9h] river.

He took the beat in good grace, congratulating his opponent before leaving the arena quicksmart.

Yip meanwhile rises to 80,000, standing amongst the chip leaders as we speak. -- RS

5:25pm: It's lonely in Tournament Room B
There's only one table still in use in Tournament Room B but it contains two of the biggest stacks in the tournament. David Gomez has 111,000 but Thales Filho can trump that as he's got 116,000. He climbed to that dizzying height in a hand against Renee Xie in which Filho flopped quad twos, got two streets before Xie folded to a bet on the river.

As he took the pot Filho showed his four of a kind. "You've got to show quads," said Tamer Kamel, who's to Filho's immediate right, the British pro isn't doing too badly either as with 83,000 he's got nearly double the average. -- NW

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Tamer Kamel

5:15pm: Victims of the poker war
It's the nature of the beast. The blinds rise, players are forced into confrontation with each other and often only one comes out alive. It's basically the script of gladiators with cards.

These are the men whose demise has been hastened in the wake of the increased blind pressure:

Paul Romain
Jesus Espinosa Fernandez
Andrew Dickinson
Rajiv Sakaria
Oliver Horne
Spyridon Dimotsantos
Diego Soto Benitez
Andrew Purser
Ludovic Geilich
Rokas Asipauskas
Corrie Johannes Romate
Lurie Cudrinschi
Gary Whipp
Thomas Alexander High
Joseph Crampsie
Mariano Martiradonna
Milorad Dobrijevic --RS

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Shouts of "Ludo, Ludo" won't be heard in three days time

5pm: B is for bust
Roughly a quarter of the field has been eliminated thus far on Day 1B. Among those who've been given a one way ticket to the rail are: Michael Kossov, Pedro Miguel Carvalhas Faustino, Dinh Tuan Nguyen, Christos Kyprianou, Pal Zsibrita, Keith Christie, Nicholas Mingoia, Adrian Soriano Aleman, Charles Carrel, Honglin Jiang, Jose Rubio Garnito...

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_charles_carrel.jpg

Charles Carel

And: Leon Louis, Max Winberg, Andrey Veselov, Abdulkadir Ahmed, Lasse Aspen Melby, Philip Butt, Mikko Väisänen, Stephen Woodhead, Ken James, Paul Skipper, Benjamin Greenberg, Ali Zihni, Benjamin Raven, Chuc Gia Khuu, Andrius Janca, Darren Hand, James Parker, David Zermon, Matteo Mutti, Enzo Gomez, Simon Fuller and Nimisha Rattan. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_nimisha_rattan.jpg

Nimisha Rattan


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000-100 ante


4:48pm: Silence reigns
The players had already reined in their table chatter as we pointed out earlier but one of the tournaments most garrulous combatants Michael Kossov has just departed. Love him or loathe him, you can definitely always hear him!

Also gone is Bernhard Svaeren, a victim of poor fortune.

Well played both on surviving most of the day. --RS

4:30pm: Tang turns up the heat
Chi Hang Tang just won a sizeable pot to hurtle up the chip standings. The hand opened with William Davies raising to 1,600 from early position, only for Tang to make it 3,800 from the button.

Davies was unperturbed by this action, popping the price to pay up to 6,200 and after Tang had made a survey of his opponent's remaining stack (around 24,000) he made the call.

The flop fell [Jc][Jh] [3d] and Davies led for 6,200. Tang called.

The turbed [7d] changed little and this time Davies quietly tapped the table- checking to Tang, who thought about it before cutting out 8,400. which after a protracted think was enough to leave Davies abandoning ship and Tang chipping up to an impressive 58,000.

Davies drops to 18,500. -- RS

4:15pm: The chasing pack
Whilst Dave Shallow is the chip leader there's a bunch of players vying to take his mantle. His closest challenger is Vincent Meli as he's got 89,000. Christopher Yong is also well placed with a stack of 70,000 and Kevin Allen has 64,000. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_kevin_allen.jpg

Kevin Allen

Blinds up: 400/800 ante 100

4:10pm: Shallow Stacked
Dave "Dubai" Shallow has an impressive poker pedigree, his exploits as "crabmaki" online coupled with some explosive live highlights including winning the 2012 WPT Dublin for just shy of $300,000.

He's quietly rampaging over his table right now, raising regularly and winning more than his fair share of those pots.

He was winning plenty of pots without showdown so it made a change when a shortstacked tablemate (Abdulkadir Ahmed we beleive) moved all-in for around 15 big blinds and Dubai made the call. We were about to see his cards for once, how nice.

It turned out to be a great spot for Shallow, his pocket tens a significant favourite over Ahmed's fives.

Ahmed stood up, anticipating elimination, although the board of [3c][2c][5d] saw him re-take his seat - a set spiked - and his hopes of glory reignited.

Unfortunately for Ahmed the [Jc] turn and [8c] river saw an impassive Dubai make a flush and send another opponent to the rail.

Dubai up to 90,000, he's beginning to look more and more like a credible threat for the title with every pot he scoops. -- RS

3:55pm: Adios to Aido
UKIPT3 London champion Sergio Aido is out, in fact he's been out for a while according to former table mate Andrew Hulme. He told the PokerStars Blog. "He lost with kings against the ace-king of seat nine." Seat nine is Rumit Somaiya, the PokerStars Qualifier has a number of big scores to his name, including an 11th place finish at EPT7 London ,and is up to 60,000. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_sergio_aido.jpg

Aido - out

3:46pm: Upping the ante
This blind rise has seen a small but perceptible shift amongst the players left vying for supremacy. The earlier bantering that was fairly common has quietened down as the players knuckle down to become pure chip accumulating machines.

The wiggle room has been encroached on by the larger blinds. A small mistake earlier will be a much bigger one now with larger percentages of everyone's stacks in every pot.

The concentration levels are rising with the stakes and everyone is strapping in for the long hail. -- RS

3.35pm: Strap in for six more levels
There players are back in their seats and play has restarted. The board says that 200 of 244 runners remain. However, Michael Bartov, Pelayo Gil Carnero, Benjamin Dixon, Richard Sheils, Harrison Beattie, Thomas Rowland, Peter Kvisthammar, Stephen Kirk, Vadim Cojocaru, Manuel Soares Ruivo, Nicos Nicolaoum, Javier Rodriguez Gonzalez, Caleb Sheridan and Kevin Steward are not amongst them.

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May the cards fall kindly for you

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT London: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

Shuffle up for the UKIPT All-In Kitchen

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Food, or poker? Depending on what time of day it is, and maybe the size of your stack, it's sometimes hard to work out which is the more pleasurable. So we're happy to announce we've discovered a way to bypass this universal quandary, with an innovative pop-up restaurant.

This week PokerStars and Jones & Sons teamed up to celebrate the new season of the UK and Ireland Poker Tour. Uniting poker with gourmet food, the "All-In Kitchen" was created, the world's first pay-by-poker restaurant.


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It sounds like something out of a daydream between hands, but it's exactly as it sounds -- you play poker to determine how much you pay for your meal.

The first All-In Kitchen proved a huge success this week, and there are now plans to roll out the experience nationwide across all the UKIPT stops this season.

Here's how you put your money* where your mouth is, whether you're a poker rookie, or regularly frequent the world of Super High Rollers (free stuff is free stuff after all).
First you play three hands of poker. Then, what you pay is based on how many chips you have at the end of those three hands. That could be £10, £5 or absolutely nothing, all complements of PokerStars.

And the thing is, even if you bust out in the first hand with a gloriously ill-considered hero call, you're still only paying £10 for a great three course meal, normally worth about £50 a head, with a cocktail to wash it down with of course.


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As Andy Jones, Founder of Jones & Sons, put it: "I love food and never shy away from the tables when I get the chance, so having the opportunity to create a menu that combines two of my favourite things was something I jumped at. Embracing Poker within the dishes was a lot of fun and some of the dishes that hit the cutting room floor were a bit out there, but I can't wait to see the results and serve up some Aces."


One look at the menu, curated by Jones & Sons, and you get an immediately idea why, when it comes to the All-In Kitchen, you can't really lose.

The gourmet offering will feature a 'Royal Flush of King Crab Thermidor', 'Queen Scallops accompanied by Salt Baked Swede and Bacon Marmalade, '4 Of A Kind of Lamb Chops, Rump, Kidney and Shoulder With A Rosemary Jus' and even a '2 Pair of Pear Tarte Tatin, Pear Caramel and Ice Cream'.

So let's see: £10 at most for a £50 three course gourmet meal? That's £40 added to the prize pool right there.


all-in-kitchen_food.jpg

The All-In Kitchen has already packed up its London operation but plans are already afoot for it to re-appear at future stops. Watch out for details of how you can book a seat as the Tour continues.

For now, shuffle up and eat.

* The event is meant for customers to have fun. Poker at this event is optional and no money is wagered during the poker element of the experience. You can rock up and soak up the atmosphere and pay full price for you meal, or you have the option of playing a few hands and winning your meal for less or completely FREE.


Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

UKIPT5 London: Piotr Tuczynski tops Day 1B field

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When a tournament has two starting days, in the absence of some natural disaster you can basically bet your house on the second starting day attracting a larger field than the opening flight. But what about when there are three start days as there are here at UKIPT5 London, is this bet still such a banker?

If today's evidence is anything to go on then the answer to that question is a big fat resounding yes! In total 244 players chose Day 1B as their start day of choice, which surpassed the Day 1A field size of 143 by over a 100 players. That takes the total number of runners so far to 387 and (here comes the maths bit) represented a 70% increase for Day 1B from Day 1A. If we get a similar day on day increase tomorrow then the total field size will just creep over the 800 mark.
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Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_piotr_tuczynski.jpg

Tuczynski is in pole position

Of the players who started today only 73 (29%) made it through and the player who fared best of all over the first dozen levels was Piotr Tuczynski. The Pole finished with 332,100 to eclipse the 265,000 the Lawrence Bayley accumulated on Day 1A. Like Bayley though this tournament marks a rare foray into the live arena for the Warsaw based player: "I used to play a lot of poker not as much these days. Most of the poker I play is online. I am not a live player!" he told the PokerStars Blog after play was over.

If he were to cash in this tournament it'd significantly increase the $167 of live earnings he currently has and he was in bullish mood at the end of play when asked about his day at the felt. "It was good, I was pretty lucky but there were no big pots, I won a lot of hands without showdown. I am confident for the rest of the tournament."

Other players who'll take big stacks into Day 2 are James Dorrance (247,000) Gabriel Carter (206,100), Angelo Milioto (183,100) and Pratik Ghatge (168,900) as they all enjoyed profitable days at the felt.

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A typically swingy day for Shallow

For much of the day Dave Shallow was amongst the top stacks in the room. A talented player, Shallow has almost $500,000 in lifetime earnings in the live arena but has won more than that in a single tournament on PokerStars and has two WCOOP bracelets to his name.

As anyone who's played against Shallow will attest to he plays an expansive fly-by-the -seat-of-your-pants style of poker and sometimes what goes up must go down. He ended the day with 62,900, which may be below average, but at least he's here to fight another day as are: Kevin Allen (132,200) and JJ Hazan (91,300). They'll both be back for Day 2 at 11am on Saturday.

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Ward - wamboozled

Whilst there were no players representing the Red Spade today there were plenty with previous on the UKIPT. Not all of those found further success though. Thomas Ward - who with 12 - holds the record for the most cashes on the UKIPT couldn't stay in the hunt for cash number 13 and he exited towards the end of the day.

He lasted longer than the man who beat him to the UKIPT3 London title though as an early accident with kings, against Rumit Somaiya's ace-king, left Sergio Aido short on chips (and luck) and he exited during level five.

The Spaniard wasn't the only UKIPT champion to bust on Day 1B though as UKIPT3 Newcastle winner Chris Ferguson (not that one) couldn't get anything going. And the Ludovic Geilich show was cancelled after eight levels, but not before he'd managed to double his starting stack. The Scotsman's in good company on the rail though as: Leon Louis, Charles Carrel, Jerome Bradpiece, Gareth Teatum, Andrew Hulme, Tamer Kamel and Daiva Barauskaite were among those who were sent packing.

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1b_ludovic_geilich.jpg

Geilich - gone

To catch up on all today's action and for overnight chip counts click on the links below. We'll be back for the third and final starting flight at 11am GMT. It's going to be busy.

Levels 1 - 6
Levels 7 - 12
End of Day 1B chip counts
End of Day 1A chip counts

UKIPT5_london_Day1A_chips.jpg

Want counts? We've got 'em

All photos are copyright of Mickey May.


UKIPT5 London Day 1C: Level 1-6 updates (200/400 ante 50)

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3:30pm: Level 6 terminated; break begins
Another three in the bag, it's that smoke em if you got 'em time again for the players. Well the smokers at least. The more healthy sorts will be off for fresh air, tofu and clean living. See you in 15 minutes. You can now follow level 7 updates here. -- RS

3:28pm: Matti flying the flag
Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Meulder was a late arrival on Day 1C but he's already gone to work and is up to 31,000. He, like Team PokerStars SportStars member Fatima Moreira de Melo, is up on the poker deck. At the moment he's fairing better than the Olympic gold medallist as De Melo is down to 13,600. -- NW

3:25pm: Huge draws collide:
Poker is an aggressive game these days and when two players flop huge draws, chances are fireworks are in the offing.

That is just the situation we encountered moments ago as Ruizi Lin ([7d][8d]) and Diego Gomez ([Kd][Jd]) went to war on what looked like a juicy flop for both of them : [Td][9d][8c]

Equity wise, Lin's pair and open ended straight flush draw was a small dog to Gomez' overcards flush and straight draws and a king on the turn and brick river saw him lose this crucial virtual coin flip.

Gomez rises to 45,000 and Lin is left very short with around 6,000. After the hand there was a lot of joking and guessing as to the exact percentages as to who was the favourite when they got their hands in.

We've run it through an equity calculator for those curious as to the results:

8d 7d 0.482
Kd Jd 0.518 -- RS

3:20pm: Count Chipula
Some other stacks of interest from around the casino as we move toward the end of level 6:

Pablo Rojas - Resigned to a short stacked existence, alternating between smiling and yawning - 8,000
Fatima Moreira de Melo - gobbling energy bar with glee- 17,000
Asaf Turgeman - 34,000
Peter Jaksland - 43,000
Neil Bernardout - 55,000 -- RS

3:10pm: The Will to win
Will Kassouf has a number of impressive scores to his name, the pinnacle of his poker career thusfar coming at the 2009 Irish open where his 6th place finish yielded a €100,8000 score.

He has taken some important steps toward being a title contender today, his stack a chiplead worthy 105,000. Most recently he sent not one but two opponents to the rail after flopping quads - Hicham Anbry and Atilla Efeturk
his two victims. The much shorter-stacked Rojas pointed out he'd had some pretty good luck today.

"I've still got to find someone to pay me off," countered Kassouf with a smile as he tidied up his enormous stacks of chips. -- RS

3:05pm: Hemming puts hurt on Cowen
"Clock on table one please," said the dealer and the floor staff was quickly on the scene to tell Robert Cowen that he had 60 seconds to make a decision and this is what he was faced with.

There was 19,900 in the pot and Thomas Hemming had shoved for 16,600 on the river with the board showing: [Kd][Kc][7h][10s][10c].As time ticked down Cowen looked no closer to making a decision and his time eventually ran out. He showed the [10d] as he folded but he won't know if it was the right decision or not as Hemming remained tight lipped about his holding. -- NW


2:55pm: An alternate universe
Late registration is now closed, but new players are still coming into this tournament. That's because there were 83 alternates in total, they can only get a seat when a player busts out and we're some way shy of that number of bust outs currently.

All the alternates will get a seat today, but they also have the option to unregister should they wish to. The board is currently showing that 280 of 289 players remain. -- NW


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200/400 ante 50


2:45pm: Exits
A few more exits to tell you about now as: Stipe Krivic, Ignacio Garcia, Tom Simm, Cesar Santos, John Duthie and Steve Miller are all out. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_john_duthie.jpg

Short day for Duthie

2:40pm: Gavin needles Boatman
Be it in person or on the internet Fintan Gavin is a bit of a joker and got a friendly dig in at Ross Boatman in a recent tweet.

2:30pm: Counts from the secondary room
A quick walk around Tournament Room B unearthed the following chip counts:

Daragh Davey - 26,000
Kelly Saxby - 13,000
Brett Angell - 15,000
John Duthie - 7,700
Vicente Delgado - 27,000
Chris Straghalis - 23,000
Lee Taylor - 39,000
Leo McClean - 23,000
Simon Hemsworth - 15,000
Fintan Gavin - 21,000

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_vicente_delgado.jpg

Team Pro Online's Vicente Delgado

2:20pm: Ferguson bullied out
Karin Boquist Bruteig is still finding her live feet with just a smattering of scores, but no doubt the Norwegian will have gained a great deal of confidence from a deep run at the Barcelona EPT last summer.

She's going along slowly but surely here, winning a pot most recently by three-betting Andrew Ferguson's initial raise to 500 to 1,500 before firing out at the [Kh][Js][8h] board, Ferguson folding and Bruteig picking up the chips.

She moves to 28,000 whilst Ferguson drops to a still manageable 21,000. --RS

2:10pm: Dempsey rises through pack
With a WSOP bracelet, WPT title and a wealth of experience garnered from around the world, James Dempsey is a dangerous opponent and his skills are showing so far as he has leapt to the probable chip lead with 68,000.

Nic Persaud has had a slow start, all his small denomination chips disappearing into a black hole of variance. The good news is he has the majority of his larger chips so is only a few thousand down at present. -- RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150/300/25


2:05pm: Emergency for Simmons
Marius-Adi Cracuin just doubled through Paul Simmons and he was very fortunate to do so. All the money went in pre-flop with Cracuin at risk and all-in for 8,800.

Craucin: [9s][9c]
Simmons: [Qd][Qs]

The [8c][Jd][Ah][9d][6s] board favoured Craucin and he doubled up to around 18,000. -- NW

1:55pm: One in one out
Alternates are getting seated with Nik Persaud one of those who's just got a seat. There's been very few eliminations so far though with only four exits. Daniel Waters, Elena Banas and Charles Denton three of those to fall. -- NW

1:52pm: Black Friday
Apologies if that made you break out in nervous shivers, don't worry, we're merely referencing the fact that Andy Black has arrived - and it's Friday. Looking warm and cosy in woolly hat and hoody, he's been floating around like a social butterfly, engaging James Dempsey, Dave Curtis and others in animated conversations.

As of yet, he hasn't played a hand of poker, but should he get a chance to play as an alternate, he'll surely seize it with the same relish with which he approaches his social interactions. -- RS

1:45pm: Chip counts
Here's how some of the great and the good in Tournament Room A stack up:

Emmett Mullin - 27,000
Andrew Ferguson - 33,500
Jonathan Weekes - 32,000
Ciaran Heaney - 9,500
Andrew Sweeney - 35,000
Julian Thew - 23,500
James Dempsey - 48,000
Gary Clarke - 21,600
Steve Watts - 11,500
Kevin Williams - 19,500 -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_kevin_williams.jpg

Kevin Williams

1:35pm: Dorey doing well
Will Dorey is one of those players who you just know is going to bink a really big score at some point is his poker career. He's accumulated almost $250,000 in live tournament earnings thus far with his biggest cash weighing in at $50,769. He's one of those players who seeks out the 'value' tournaments and that's seen him rack up cashes in Cyprus and The Ukraine.

He's off to a good start here in London, even if he can't remember what stack he started with, it was 25,000 Will!

1:30pm: Back in the game
The break is done and dusted, the tables have been repopulated and we are back in action for level four. -- RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100/200/25


1:10pm: End of Level 3; Break it up
The end of the third level of the day means the players are now taking a 15 minute break to collect their thoughts and assess their damages/ successes so far.

We'll be back shortly.

1:02pm: Rojas stunned by bluff
Pablo Rojas has produced some fantastic poker displays in his poker career, including a UKIPT near-miss when Ludovic Geilich pipped him to the post at UKIPT Marbella 2013.

Hitcham Anbry just got the better of the Spaniard however, raising to 600 preflop with one caller in position and Rojas also making the call from the big blind.

The board fell [9d][5h][4c] - Rojas leading for 600, which both players called.

The turn was the [3d] and when Rojas led again for 700, Anbry popped it up to 2,100. A thoughtful Rojas eventually made the call.

The rivered [As] saw Rojas check to the aggressor and face a 4,500 bet. Facing this tough decision, he tried to eke out some information from his foe. "That's a total bluff or set of fours fives maybe?" he asked but a stony-faced Anbry was revealing nothing.

Eventually Rojas folded, leaving Anbry to collect the pot, brandishing the airball [7d][8d] as he did so.

"I knew it!" said Rojas. "I folded a 9!"

Rojas has had a bad start then down to 15,000 whilst Anbry's star is shining right now as he moves to 30,000... --RS

12:40pm: Up on the Poker Deck
The Poker Deck is the permanent poker presence here at The Hippodrome Casino and usually it's a hive of cash game activity but today, like the other areas of The Hippodrome Casino it's been taken over by this tournament. There are seven tables in use up there and this is a snapshot of what's happening up in the gods.

Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo is to the direct left of UKIPT5 London High Roller champion Owain Carey, although they're separated by a dealer. Carey was busy winning a pot where he check-raised the turn of a [Ah][4s][7h][6c] board and then bombed the [Ks] river. His opponent folded what he claimed was [Kh][Jh] and Carey said: "Lucky for me the river wasn't a heart then," as he stacked his chips. As for De Melo, who was runner up at UKIPT4 Isle of Man, this is her fifth UKIPT Main Event and she's cashed in the previous four.

Also plying their trade up on The Poker Deck are: Will Kassouf, Fraser Macintyre and John Bousfield. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_fatima_moreira_de_melo.jpg

Can De Melo go five from five?

Blinds up: 100/200

12:30pm: Who'd be an alternate?
It's a full house here at The Hippodrome Casino with not a seat to be had. But the tournament staff are doing a grand job of seating the alternates. We're told 25 alternates have already been seated, but there's another 60 or so playing the waiting game. -- NW

12:20pm: Structural Integrity
A quick reminder for those who weren't aware that the structure and format of this UKIPT has been tweaked slightly from that of last season.

Firstly the levels are now 40 minutes long, allowing 12 of them to be packed into the day. Compensating somewhat for the faster blinds, the stack sizes are 25,000, allowing the players plenty of deepstacked wiggle room early on.

Come Day 2, the clock will be extended to 50 minutes whilst the final will be played out with one hour levels. Anyone with designs on the title will have to adapt and evolve as the tournament progresses. --RS

12:10pm: News from Tournament Room B
Way back on the first day of the festival, well Tuesday to be precise, the High Roller got this festival started. That tournament took place in what we now call Tournament Room B. Today there are seven tables in there and they're all packed.

Fintan Gavin is going to liven up table 14, he arrived a short time ago and immediately raised the decibel level at his table. One table over you'll find tour regulars Kelly Saxby and Dean Clay sat side by side. Saxby was runner-up in a tournament here at The Hippodrome Casino in November of last year and won the woman's event at EPT London in 2013. She'll be hoping she's too busy in the main event to be playing the UKIPT ladies event which takes place Sunday at 3pm.

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Saxby - hoping for more success at The Hippodrome Casino

As for Clay, most of his $111,000 of live earning have come on tours other than the UKIPT where his best finish to date is 67th at UKIPT3 Galway, he'll be hoping to put that right this week.

Sat in adjoining seats at another table in the room are John Duthie and Brett Angell. Duthie of course was a driving force behind the EPT for many years but we're fairly certain this is his first time playing a UKIPT main event. That of course is not the case for Angell, he's looking for back to back victories on the UKIPT having won UKIPT4 London back in October.

A little further into the room you'll find Chris Straghalis and Vicente Delgado sharing the same felt. It's harder not to spot Straghalis than it is to spot him, although he's toned it down today as he's decked out in a black shirt adorned with poker cards and a hat to match. Whilst Team Pro Online's Delgado has come dressed for dinner as he's wearing a smart button down shirt. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_john_duthie.jpg

It's UKIPT debut time for Duthie

12:00pm: Flush with success
James "RoyalFlush" Dempsey has had an auspicious start to the day, chipping up to 35,000. He was reticent about the details of the hand that sprung him up the leaderboard, though the words "backdoor draw" were heard in mumbled whispers suggesting fortune had smiled upon him.

Tablemate Julian Thew is also on the up, his stack also above the 35,000 mark.

"I join the table and there's Julian Thew with top set versus two pair. Nothing's changed in poker over the last 10 years!" Dempsey commented. -- RS

Blinds up: 75/150

11:40am: In the main room
Play is spread over three separate areas here at The Hippodrome Casino and there's 12 tables in the main room, known as the Matcham Room. There's plenty of familiar faces around those dozen tables including: WSOP bracelet winner James Dempsey, EPT winner Julian Thew, UKIPT champion Emmett Mullin, UKIPT runner-up Ciaran Heaney, Jonathan Weekes, Gary Clarke, Chihao Tsang and Andrew Ferguson.

Thew and Dempsey are actually at the same table in the six and nine seats respectively. -- NW

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James 'flushy' Dempsey

11:30am: Capped!
The field cap is around the 280 number, although alternates will likely boost this through to the 320 mark perhaps even beyond. It's a slight struggle cramming all these keen players into the facilities but the organisers have done a good job of allocating table space to fulfill the almost insatiable demand for UKIPT poker.

Despite this there is a little bit of elbowing going on right now as everyone fights for their bit of space. Our talented photographer Mickey May was on the receiving end of one of these elbows moments ago, but her resilient Scandinavian roots shone through and she laughed it off and continued getting a good shot. --RS

11:20am: De Meulder on his way
Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Meulder is one of many poker players who've relocated to London and he's taking advantage of this to play his local friendly neighbourhood tour. -- NW

Welcome back to the Hippodrome Casino for London UKIPT Part three.

It's the third of the starting days and the first two have proved compulsive affairs. Day three could be the most explosive of the trilogy however. The starting numbers will be at max capacity with a full complement of players champing at the bit at the gates of the card room.

There will be alternates waiting to boost these numbers so the final tally should be impressive.

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Amongst the throngs of hopefuls taking their place at the felt will be a host of familiar faces. Fatima Moreira de Melo has that elusive combination of brains and beauty and will be looking to go one pip better than her 2nd place finish at the Isle of Man UKIPT in 2013.

John Duthie is a man who made a huge contribution to the poker boom with his work on the EPT. As well as helping the future of poker out, he has found time to notch up nearly $3 million worth of tournament results. He'll likely be a force to be reckoned with,

We could spend all day pointing out the celebrated players in the field, but the players are about to begin following a short delay to iron out a few logistical gremlins, but they have been dealt with and we are now ready to begin.

Good luck one and all!

UKIPT5 London Day 1C: Level 7-12 updates (1,000/2,000 ante 300)

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8.30pm: Day one is done
The third and final starting flight is in the books and from now on the number of entrants can only go down! It looks like roughly 123 players made it through today meaning the Day 2 field is going to be around 125 players strong.

Leading the way at the end of play today was UK poker stalwart Ross Boatman, he narrowly pipped another UK poker veteran - Nik Persaud - to that honour. Another UK verteran - Willie Tann - finished with 169,300 and is right up there too. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way. Day 2 starts tomorrow at 11am. -- NW

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The Diceman is on a roll

8pm: Last six hands
The tournament clock has been paused and players will play six more hands before they are done for the day. -- NW

7:55pm: Vying for the chip lead
There are a number of players in contention for the chip lead as play enters the final 15 minutes. Here are the contenders:

Nik Persaud - 190,000
Beyazit Zorlu - 165,000
William Ho - 155,000
Chuck Clark - 150,000
Diego Gomez - 143,000
Willie Tann - 140,000
Ross Boatman - 140,000

7:42pm: Gone
The following players have fallen one level short in their quest to make Day 2: Jakub Gora, Paul Simpkins, Elisabeth Hille, Katie Swift, Robert Hagevik, Andrew Hawksby, Craig Sewell, Michal Janczarski, Feng Tian, Grzegorz Reczko, Kane Power Owain Carey, and William Kassouf. -- NW

7:32pm: Last level of the night
Level 12 has just started and it's the final level of the day. Currently 140 of 347 players still have chips and the average stack is 62,000. -- NW

Blinds up: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

7:22pm: Chattha: "Back to square one"
Chaz Chattha has worked hard to build his stack up and managed to reach the lofty heights of 60,000 before getting in a huge 70,000 pot.

Having peeled a raise with [Jh][4h], he saw a delicious flop with a 4 and two hearts on it appear and decided he was happy to gamble.

"I wasn't going anywhere. I kind of expected him to show me kings but it turned out he had [Ah][6h] so I was actually ahead!"

Chattha ended up losing the hand dropping him into the push shove danger zone with 20 big blinds (35k).

"Back to square one," he said with a sigh. --RS

7:20pm: More chip counts
Just four tables remain in use in Tournament Room B and here are the counts of some of the names, notables and big stacks from that room:

Beyazit Zorlu - 167,000
Matti De Meulder - 70,000
Andy Black - 55,000
Owain Carey - 42,000
Brett Angell - 50,300
Will Kassouf - 18,000

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_matti_de_meulder.jpg

De Meulder - doing ok

7:10pm: Saxby suffers exit
From under-the-gun Fernando Marin Diaz raised to 3,400 and he picked up three callers including Kelly Saxby, who was in the big blind. So there was roughly 18,800 in the pot as the flop came [Qh][10d][6h].

Saxby was first to act, she moved all-in for 14,900, Diaz asked for a count and then called and the other two players folded their hands. Saxby was first to show, she turned over [Kh][10h] for middle pair and the flush draw but she was behind Diaz's [Ah][Qs]. The [5c] turn and [Qc] river bought no help for the American though and she wished the table good luck before leaving. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_kelly_saxby.jpg

Saxby - couldn't get there

7:01pm: Bust-a-roo
The bucking donkey of variance has sent these hapless players flailing from the saddle - their tournament hopes crash landing on the dusty road.

On the plus side, London's multitude of social hotspots are now available for their delectation. Enjoy!

Chen Wenbin
Chao Xia
Gregory Neal
Lee Taylor
Timothy Farrelly
Neil Bernardout
Slawomir Andrzej Grzechowiak
Rohan Marwaha
Johnny Franse
Philip John Marcu
Adam Kelly
Adam Forsyth
Lee Ball
Yoeri Van Erp
Stefan Belgasmi Blendulf
Frode Oesterboe Fmid
Bartosz Piesiewicz
Robert Cowen
Rapinder Cheema
Matz Åke Lindman
Nicholas Green
Michael Hawkins
Mark Wates
Guy Beiruty
Anthony Georgiou
Dara Davey
Niall James Duffy
Dimitrios Patroklou
Ruben Tack
Vicente Delgado
Lee Hanlon -- RS


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600-200


6:45pm: Chip counts
Willie Tann got in as the 72nd alternate earlier today but it's not done 'the diceman' any harm as he's boosted his stack to 60,000 since he's been at the felt. He's at the same table as James Dempsey, the Brit has completed two legs of the triple crown and just needs an EPT win to complete the set. He's dropped to around 53,000 from a high point of 90,000. Other stacks of names and notables in Tournament Room A are:

Diego Gomez - 135,000
Jamie O'Connor - 108,000
Nik Persaud - 92,000
James Tomlin - 70,000
Fraser Macintyre - 57,000
Andrew Sweeney - 48,000
Steve Watts - 46,000
Ross Boatman - 45,000
Jonathan Weekes - 27,500
Ciaran Heaney - 20,000
Gary Clarke 17,400
Mark Wagstaff - 12,000

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_ross_boatman.jpg

It's not got rocky yet for Ross

6:38pm: Lindman ship sunk
Matz Lindman had been working a smallish stack for much of the day and his tournament hopes finally fizzled out when a 14BB squeeze shove with [Kh][Qs] was reluctantly called by Thomas Hemming holding [Ah][6c].

Hemming's slim equity advantage held over the [Th][3d][2d][5s][7s] board.

"I had the right stack to do it," Lindman consoled himself with before thanking his tablemates graciously and taking leave of the arena. --RS

6:30pm: Not five alive
Coming into this event Team PokerStars SportStar had four cashes from four UKIPT Main Events. Not just cashes either she'd finished: 2nd, 96th, 38th and 59th on those four occasions.

So, hope was that she could make it five from five here in London but it's not to be as she's out. She intimated earlier that she may well play the ladies event though which takes place on Sunday at 3pm. -- NW

6:20pm: Come on down
As we're down to just 210 players the tables that were in use upstairs on The Poker Deck are no longer needed. Ross Boatman was one of the players to be moved downstairs during the last break. The former London's Burning star is chugging along on 37,000.

That's 37,000 more than a lot of players including this bunch who've all been eliminated: Gleb Krochmalis, Timothy Wright, John Bradley, Cosimo Sabatini, Rhys Ellis, Dirk Thijssen, Graham Farbrace, Sam Miller, Terence Owens, Marius Wolmarans, Alex Wharton, Angelos Megas, Nicholas Crozer, Mohammed Himedan, Paul Campbell, David Weir, Cathal Shine, Richard Lawlor, David Greene, Mateuisz Malinowski, Narinder Gill and Paul Mallett. -- NW


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200


6:10pm: Back for the final furlong!
Three levels remain and with the blinds at a hefty 600/1,200/200 we can expect the going to be fast and furious from here on out.

Wars are going to be fought over the chunky preflop additions to the pots and the casualty list will be rising exponentially. Watch this space... -- RS

5:55pm: Level 9 is caput
Time for another break as level 9 has drawn to a close. The players are 3/4 of the way through the day although some of the alternates have only just joined the felt so should be feeling a lot fresher than others.

Can they take advantage of those extra energy levels when they return? We'll be back in 15 minutes -- RS

5:45pm: "I'm doing chunks!"
James Dempsey was complaining about his bad luck, but it wasn't at the poker table. Chinese poker on his phone was costing him dear, although the compensatory factor of this is his chip stack continues to rise in the tournament, up to 90k. -- RS

5:35pm: Watts on the comeback trail
There are still two tables out on the first floor balcony area here at The Hippodrome Casino. Former Leyton Orient striker Steve Watts, who is now a professional poker player, is one of those and 'Watto' as is he is known is making a good comeback.

Earlier he dipped as low as 11,000 but the experienced live player has grinded his way out of the malaise and is now up to 40,000 which is above the average stack of 37,700. -- NW

5:25pm: Kerplunk!
Remember that 80's board game involving sticks and balls?

Well the following players have pulled their showdown sticks out of the poker tube only to find all their run-good balls sent crashing to earth: (Apologies for that tortured metaphor.)

Wuyong Xu
Ellie Biessek
Ross Elliott
Frank Matthijs Van Der Geest
Kjetil Håland
Charles Denton
Samuel Pye
Sergio Lazaro
Ruizi Lin
Jack Loraine
Raymond Caabay
Guerman Vladimirov
George Achillea
Thomas Gallagher
Lawrence Penfold
Tomasz Pięta
Neil Barron
Massimo Derico Sculco
Ganapathy Samiappan
Julian Thew

Bad luck to any of their supporters, and our special commiserations to Julian Thew who remains one of the politest and friendliest guys you'll meet on or off the felt. -- RS

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Thew kerplunk'd

5:15pm: Fallers everywhere
Almost 100 players have been eliminated so far on Day 1C and these unlucky cardsmiths were amongst them: Andrew Abernethy, Asif Rajah, Conor Smyth, Shahid Hussain, Ryan Straub, Andrew Hedley, Andrew Ferguson, Achim Prinzing, Jonathan Proudfoot, Knut Berntsen, Joshua Green, Henry Wride, Samuel Newman, Andrew Newson, Richard Pullen, William Alexander, Andrew Young, Tomasz Graczyk, Andreas Corneliusson, Tai Tran and Alan Stearn. -- NW


LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000-100


5:05pm: Quick stack snapshot
Here's a quick look at some of the haves and have nots in the tournament right now.

Bayazit Zorlu - 100,000
Diego Gomez - 62,000
Chaz Chattha - 16,000
Fatima Moreira de Melo - 10,000 --RS

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Short but still full of fire

5:00pm: Surfeit of riches for Kassouf
"The rich get richer."

That has been the phrase oft-used at William Kassouf's table today, his inexorable rise to the top of the chip counts causing maybe a touch of green-eyed envy from some of his tablemates.

The latest coup that swung in his favour saw Ellie Biessek commit the last of her chips on a [5c][Ad][8c][8d][4c] board with [Tc][7c] for a flush, only to get the bad news that Mr Wonderful had [Kc][Qc] for a superior flush.

"Come on," laughed tablemate Pablo Rojas, still battling gamely on with a short-stack.

"Hey I was winning anyway with king-high!" pointed out Kassouf, defending himself verbally, though with his neatly ordered towers of chips continuing their growth, the mild ribbing he's getting will be water off a well-stacked duck's back.

Biessek out then and Kassouf is up to 140,000. -- RS

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_william_kassouf.jpg

William Kassouf

4:55pm: Chattha chatter
Chaz Chattha hasn't been able to get his tournament going today but he isn't letting his paucity of cards spoil his mood. "I've only got twenty bigs now, it's all about shoving ranges at this point. I know my ranges pretty well."

Even if it doesn't work out for him, he's upbeat about his prospects. "If I get knocked out, well it's Friday night in London isn't it!" -- RS


4:55pm: Matti on fire!
It's been a good Day 1 for Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Meulder, by the looks of this photo he's up to around 50,000 (click on image to see entire tweet). -- NW

4:50pm: Hemming gets lucky
Yet again the floor was called to table one and this time it was to put the clock on Gleb Krochmalis. The Lithuanian was involved in a hand against Thomas Hemming that had reached the flop. On the [3d][10c][2c] flop Krochmalis had bet 4,700, Hemming had check-raised all-in for 15,000 more and Krochmalis was in the tank.

He needed only around 15 seconds of his allotted minute before he elected to call the all-in bet and it was time for showdown:

Krochmalis: [Kh][10d]
Hemming: [10h][9s]

The turn was the [As] and the river the [2s] Hemming got out of his seat to leave but the dealer pointed out it was a split pot and Hemming survived. -- NW

4:40pm: Floor!
At the very end of level seven a curious hand just played out at table one and it's one that needed the floor to provide a ruling. The action was started by Antonis Poulengeris, he raised to 1,200 from middle position, one seat along Neil Bernardout three-bet to 3,200 and action passed to Matz Åke Lindman who was on the button. He evidently hadn't seen Bernardout's raise as he said. "Raise to 2,500."

Initially, through table discussion only, it was ruled by the players more than anyone else that Lindman should raise the minimum so he put out a bet of 5,200. Robert Cowen, who was the big blind then said: "Shouldn't it have to be 5,700 and he said 'raise 2,500?'

At this point the floor was called and the dealer explained what had happened. Crucially the dealer explained to the floor staff that the exact words that Lindman had used were: 'raise to 2,500.' So the floor ruled that Lindman must put 2,500 into the pot and he then had the option to call the 3,200 or surrender his chips. Unsurprisingly he elected to call and Poulengeris said: "You've priced me in," before he too made the call. "You might have saved yourself 2,000," quipped Mark Lane to Lindman.

So it was three-way to a [6d][8s][Kh] flop, action was checked to Berandout, he bet 6,500 and it was enough to win the pot. "I can't work it out," said Poulengeris as he folded. "If you can't work it out then it's probably best to fold," said Bernadout. -- NW

4:30pm: Mullin mauled
UKIPT3 Galway champion Emmett Mullin is one of the players who've been eliminated during level seven. Others to have hit the rail include: Atilla Efeturk, Hicham Anbry, Kim-Erik Pedersen, Terence Cotter, Mike Panteli, Nuno Duarte, Patrick Thompson, Philip Petersen, Raz Alon, Adrian Constantin and Jack Stovell. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_emmett_mullin.jpg

Emmett Mullin

Blinds up: 400/800 ante 100

4:20pm: Angell gets aces
UKIPT4 London champion Brett Angell is going for back to back UKIPT wins and he just found aces and played a bit pot. He opened from early position to 600, Christopher McCall three-bet to 1,300, Tomasz Wrobel flat called the 1,300 and action was back on Angell. He asked McCall for a count of his stack - the lighting is not the best at that table - and then four-bet to 4,100 total. Mcall swiftly got out the way but Wrobel jammed for 17,000 and Angell - who was playing around 27,000 - made the call.

Angell: [Ad][Ah]
Wrobel: [As][Ac]

Both players had the bullets but it was Angell who was freerolling as the flop fell [6d][Jd][3s] the [2s] turn extinguished any hope of a bad beat and the [6c] completed the board. "That's pretty unlucky," said Angell to Wrobel as the next hand started. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day1c_brett_angell.jpg

Well at least they didn't get cracked!

4:20pm: Abernethy gets regal dismissal
Neil Bernardout has had a good day and it's just got a smidgin better as his pocket kings got the better of Andrew Abernethy's sixes after a preflop struggle.

Bernardout rises to around 60,000 and Abernethy is off to enjoy the rest of his Friday elsewhere. -- RS

4:10pm: In Black
Andy Black can stop disturbing players already playing the tournament now as the Irish poker legend has finally got his own seat in the UKIPT Main Event. He's got his own fresh 40 big blind+ stack. Although those getting it during level seven have missed over half of the action and not had the chance to chip up yet, the average stack is only 28,400 so they aren't at that much of a disadvantage chips wise. -- NW

4:00pm: Field of broken dreams
Not everyone can be a winner and the following players have seen their chances burn away:

Dean Clay, James Elliot, Sung Hee Yun, Georg Anton Giæver Beiske, Simon Hemsworth, Ylva Thorsrud, Terence Thomas Schofield, Neophytos Neophytou, Fintan Gavin, Jerome O'Shea, Jack Germaine and Philip Petersen are all gone. Good game all! -- RS

UKIPT_Lon_2015_54295.jpg

Gavin hits the rail

3:45pm: It's kick off!

The half time oranges have all been sucked, boots relaced and team talks given and we're back for the second half of the final of the three Day 1's.

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Confused? Don't be, all you need to know is that we've had some great poker played out in levels 1-6, which you can find here and we anticipate more drama as the huge numbers that have descended on London's Hippodrome Casino to do battle are whittled down by ill-fortune, great play, variance and rising blinds.

The players are just returning from their post level 6 break to resume level 7. Good luck all!

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT London: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London: Ross Boatman seizes Day 1C chiplead

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The third slice of UKIPT5 London first day fun was played out today at The Hippodrome Casino and it was London poker stalwart Ross Boatman who carved a skilful path through the gargantuan field, snatching the chip lead with the final hand of the day to reach 190,100.

Hot on his heels is another London-based pro, Nik Persaud(179,600) both of whom will return tomorrow for day 2 with dreams of the title, trophy and glory lying tantalisingly within reach.

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Veteran guile and talent served Boatman well

Day 1C proved one of the most popular in UKIPT history - ardent demand for tournament berths ensuring the casino was packed out all day long. Players from far-flung corners of the globe jumped in London-bound planes, cabs, canoes....whatever choice of vehicle was nearest to hand, no one wanted to miss this event.

Ultimately, The Hippodrome's 280-strong capacity was eclipsed with ease as near 90 alternates slipped seamlessly into vacated seats throughout the day to swell the final player tally to a mammoth 347 players.

Naturally, there were plenty of poker hotshots sprinkled around the field. It would prove beyond many of them to translate prowess to cold, hard chips however as High Roller winner Owain Carey, Team Pokerstars Sportstar Fatima Moreira de Melo, former EPT Supremo John Duthie and the garrulous, unpredictable and talented Irishman Fintan Gavin all became big name casualties of the day.

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Duthie fell victim to Brett Angell

James"Flushy" Dempsey was the early pace-setter, running his stack up to 90,000 halfway through the day but his challenge fizzled out in the latter stages, Willie Tann polishing off Dempsey by cutely limping aces and drawing the WSOP bracelet-winner into a false move with king-queen. Tann, also holder of a WSOP bracelet, was one of the alternates to register late on for the tournament, but his demolition of Dempsey was the springboard to reach an impressive 169,000 at close of play.

UKIPT_Lon_2015_54112.jpg

"I got Willie Tann'd"

2014 UKIPT London winner Brett Angell showed his capital skills once more in surviving the day with 91,100 whilst Andy Black also traversed the day serenely, finishing up with 85,900. Other notables who were counted amongst the day's 113 survivors include William Ho (157,800), Team PokerStars Pro Matthias De Meulder(64,200), Steve Watts(59,000) and Gary Clarke(26,400.)

To see the full chip counts for the combined Day 1 survivors, click here.

UKIPT_Lon_2015_54387.jpg

Persaud far, Persaud good

Ultimately, however the spotlight fell on Ross Boatman, the Hendon Mobster proving his fearsome poker reputation is well-earned.

Tomorrow will see all 216 remaining players reconvene for Day 2 to battle out 10 more levels. With all sorts of exciting potential match ups on the cards, we expect an irresistible spectacle and hope you are able to join us for our live coverage.

Here's the full table draw for tomorrow's play.

Those who fall foul of variance and miss out on the payout spots can always take a shot at the London Cup, which will have two starting "days" taking place at 1pm and 7pm.

To read updates from today's live updates (levels 1-6) click here.
To read updates from today's live updates (levels 7-12), click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT London: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London Day 2: Level 13-16 updates (2,500/5,000 ante 500)

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2:57pm: Break time
The bubble burst during the last hand of level 16 and the players can celebrate making the money during a 25 minute break. You'll find level 17 updates here. -- NW

2:55pm: Charlie Combes bubbles UKIPT5 London
On the second hand of hand for hand play the bubble burst and Charlie Combes is the unlucky player who's left empty handed.

He shoved for 36,000 from under-the-gun with [6c][6d] and one seat along Guðmundur Gunnarsson called with [As][Js]. The [Ks][7h][Ah][3d][Qc] board meant Combes busted in 112th place and everyone else is now in the money.

One player who'll be very happy at this turn of events is Asaf Turgeman who was down to 7,500 and two hands away from being the big blind. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_charlie_combes.jpg

Combes shakes hands with Gunnarsson

2:45pm: Hugging the bubble
Matti De Meulder (45,000), Charlie Combes (37,000) and Chi Hao Tsang (31,000) are just three of the players who're short stacked and hoping to survive the bubble. -- NW

2:38pm: Hand for hand
We're now on the bubble! Play will now be hand for hand until we lose one more player. Mike Wellend was one of those to bust just short of the cash when his Ace-jack lost out to Christopher Nazer's pocket queens. -- NW

2:35pm: The reign in Spain
The two chip leaders at the moment both hail from Spain. Juan Riera has 485,000 whilst Miguel Seoane has 455,000. -- NW

2:32pm: Cody and Gomez apply some pressure
Just four knock-outs away from the money, we couldn't help but notice some of the big names left in the field applying pressure to their tablemates.

PokerStars Team Pro Jake Cody shoved for approximately 80k in the small blind over Lawrence Harvey's 12k mid-position open and got it through, while on another table Diego Gomez shoved his last 11 big blinds on the button, forcing the blinds to both fold. Gomez emphatically turned over his [Ks][7s] and raked in the pot. --JS

2:27pm: Titans collide
A huge pot has played out on the virtual bubble between two big stacks.

Adam Kossew has been an unstoppable force today so far, building up to over 250,000, although the deck conspired to stop him in his tracks moments ago.

Holding pocket kings, he went to war with Miguel Seoane (165,000 or so) preflop only for the cards to reach showdown revealing that Seone had him cruelly beaten with pocket aces.

"Sick," commented a tablemate with several others, including Chaz Chattha shaking their heads at the cruel vagaries of poker.

Any hopes Kossew might be able to turn the equity tables evaporated on the [As][8d][7c] board and two bricks later he was carving his stack up like a christmas turkey and serving it up to Seoane.

Seoane moves to 360,000, Kossew drops to below 100,000 -- RS

2:25pm: Martin plays Sherriff
"Welcome to the table," said JJ Hazan to Tony Martn after the latter had made a hero call against Lawrence Bayley.

There was 65,000 in the pot and a complete board of [As][8c][6c][3s][8h] on the table as the PokerStars Blog picked up the action. Martin bet 30,000 only for Bayley to raise it up to 90,000 total. Back on Martin he tanked for a while before electing to call.

"You're good," said Bayley turning over [Qs][10s] for queen high, Martin showed [Kh][Qc] for the king high hero call, he's up to 325,000 as a result whilst Bayley slips to 250,000. At the same table Brett Angell has 135,000 and David Clarkson has 230,000. -- NW

2:20pm: Just short of the cash
The bubble is fast approaching as 117 players remain and 111 get paid. Those who've fallen just short include: Peter Jaksland, Ross Greig, Fabian Donovan, Attila Farkas, Ben Vinson and Sandiep Khosa. -- NW

2:15pm: Clarke "I need clubs...oh"
Gary Clarke has been grinding a short stack for some time and finally his time to showdown came.

With very few chips he committed the last of them in a three-way pot - and when Nicolas Berry bet and isolated the [Ks][Ts][6c] board to leave the pair heads-up, Clarke announced "I need clubs!" turning up [5c][3c].

As it turned out, that was the last thing he needed as Berry had been betting with [Ac][4c].

Live cards then, the ace on the turn however saw Clarke's hopes perish and he leaves just shy of the money. -- RS

2:05pm: The Dice Man gets caught on the river
With the blinds about to rise to 2,500/5,000, we noticed legendary poker pro Willie 'The Dice Man' Tann involved in a chunky pot with the man sitting to his right, online qualifier Haresh Thaker. The two have been rather talkative since Tann was moved to the table, so it was interesting to see how they would play against each other.

We picked up the action on the turn. with the board reading [Ad][9h][6d] [2c], Thaker checked to Tann who proceeded to bet 15,000. Thaker thought for a few moments before making the call.

The river brought another deuce, the [2s], pairing the board and busting any diamond flush draws. Thaker checked again, leading Tann to lead out for 25k. It didn't take long for Thaker to make the call with [Kd][9d] for second pair, which turned out to be good as Tann threw his hand towards the dealer. -- JS

2pm: Matti at the double
At the start of level 15 Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Meulder was sitting on a stack of just 83,000 but he's now up to 180,000 after getting a double up. "Nines against ace-eight," he told the PokerStars Blog. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_matti_de_meulder.jpg

Matti De Meulder

1:55pm: Chip counts
We're just 20 players off the money now, but which players are in position to bully the bubble and who'll be hanging on for dear life?

William Ho - 230,000
Billy Chattaway - 215,000
Piotr Tuczynski - 205,000
Matti De Meulder - 180,000
Kevin Allen - 180,000
Beyzait Zorlu - 140,000
Chaz Chattha - 100,000
Charlie Combes - 91,000
Diego Gomez - 60,000
Paul Febers - 64,000

With 128 players remaining the average stack is currently 143,500. -- NW

1:45pm: Prime stacks
Here is news on how some of the better known players still in contention are proceeding.

Willie Tann - The diceman has been a jovial presence all day. Wrapped up warm in a scarf he sits with a comfortable 180,000.

Jake Cody - It's been a solid day for Jake, chipping up in small increments he has a roughly average stack of 119,000 at present.

Nik Persaud - Nik's been chatty but focused and has 140,000 to his name right now.

Andy Black - A buzz of activity as usual, Black has 122,000 as we approach the money spots. -- RS

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Willie Tann is warm, cosy and stacked


Blinds up: 2,500/5,000 ante 500

1:35pm: Gone but not forgotten
It continues to be a maelstrom of activity on the floor. The carpet leading into the poker room is wearing thin with the amount of traffic as players pour out by their droves with their chip stacks depleted.

Here are the most recent eliminations:

John Allison
Ewan Le Marquand
Maurizio Pili
Ryan Barr
Andrey Dimitrov
Dominic Wells
Conall Smyth
Steven Watts
Pratik Ghatge
Nicholas Atkins
Anthony Gray
Stephen Eames
Michał Ozimek
Jabran Zahid
Tai Phuoc Du
Pawan Thaper
Lawrie Inman
Brandon Sheils
Philippe Souki -- RS

1:25pm: Outer-room casualties
As players returned to their seats after the break to continue their quest for the £95,100 first-place prize, many others made their way out the door. Some of the names from the outer rooms that have been knocked out during the first level of play here on Day 2 include:

Richard Milner
Daniel Bland
Samuel Orledge
William Dorey
Guy Taylor
Thien Chung
Conall Smyth
Frank Bastow

- JS

1:23pm: Seat open
Good news for those who like short-handed poker. All tables are now playing eight handed. -- NW

1:20pm: Wellend gets there twice
On the first hand back from the break Mike Wellend moved all-in from the cut-off for 31,500 and Nick Mazur called from the small blind. Wellend was in trouble as his [Kc][Qc] was dominated by Mazur's [As][Ks]. The [7s][Qd][6c] flop saw him take the lead though and just to rub it in he made his flush as the board ran out [3c][7c].

Wellend up to around 70,000 whilst Mazur frops to 32,000. -- NW

1:17pm: Milioto rises
Angelo Milioto has breasted the 200,000 mark, his latest coup seeing him send Michele De Giovanni on his way - jacks holding versus pocket eights.

Also gone is Nick Mazur, whose slim advantage with A-2 failed to hold against an opponent's K-J - a king appearing on the flop to scupper his chances.

"Not my day" he muttered sadly as he left the table.

133 players remain, the money spots starting to come into view... -- RS

1:13pm: Clock ticks down
In the last hand before the break, online qualifier Thomas Hemming from the UK was forced to make a decision for his tournament life. Hemming had opened from the cut off before Fernando Marin shoved his larger stack over the top.

It wasn't a decision Hemming made lightly; in fact, he didn't make it at all. After a few minutes spent in the tank and with the 20 minutes of the first break of the day ticking away, Marin called the clock. The 60 seconds were counted down all the way and Hemming's hand was dead. He flipped over [Ad][10h], before Marin showed his [Qc][Qs]. - JS

1:10pm: The return of Ross Boatman
"This is my first poker tournament since March 2014," says Ross Boatman to the PokerStars Blog during the first break in play. "I've been busy doing my other job," he continues.

Indeed he has, for the past 10 months Boatman has been starring in a National Theatre play called 'Great Britain'. It's a satirical comedy about the phone hacking scandal. "I played a reporter from the gutter press," explains Boatman. "I've been an actor for 30 years and it's the first time I've worked for The National," he explained. "The play transferred to the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. It was fun whilst I did it but I'm glad it's over!" he said.

As for the poker he's up to 300,000 and amongst the chip leaders presently although you might not see Boatman at too many tournaments this year. "I'm currently waiting to hear back about two roles, one's a theatre role and another is a TV part. I've also got a part in a movie, a British independent gangster film." -- NW

1pm: De Meulder looking up

Blinds up: 2,000/4,000 ante 500

12:45pm: End of level 14; Break
Following that incendiary two levels, the players are taking stock with a 15 minute break. We'll be back soon for the resumption of level 15. -- RS

12:40pm: Blood on the carpet

What a blistering opening two levels it has been. There's been wholesale slaughter at the felt, the bodies piling up as the tournament roster has been brutally cut from 216 to less than 130 players remaining.

The lightning culling of the field has meant that the average stack has risen, so this rate of attrition will have to slow. It's been an entertaining ride while it has lasted though!

Here are some of the latest casualties of the bloodshed:


Elisha Cohen
Brett Schuman
Gustav Kock
Milan Stanislav
Noel Broadbent
Jose Aguilera
Daniel Kneafsey
David Tierney
Paul Vas Nunes
Alex Spencer
George Evans
Edgard Cuenca
Robinder Dinsa
Nigel Holliday
Bogdan Jaworski -- RS

12:35pm: Big stacks: featuring Boatman, Bayley and Bounsall
The average stack at the moment is 119,000 which weighs in at just under 40 big blinds. Whilst some struggle with a short stack the big stacks are in prime position to take advantage of the impending bubble.

Ross Boatman is one of those, he's sat in the same seat the Fintan Gavin occupied for some time yesterday. Boatman started the day with just over 190,000 but was busy stacking chips and is up to 260,000. That's a good stack but not as impressive as Alex Bounsall's. He's up to 300,000 from a start of day 200,400. And Lawrence Bayley - who was the Day 1A chip leader - might have dropped a couple of big blinds but he's still chugging along nicely on 250,000.

He's at the same table as defending UKIPT London champion Brett Angell, the 'Boro boy has 90,000. -- NW

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Boatman is building his stack nicely

12:25pm: Plenty of action
There's just been a nice double up on table 7 for online qualifier Dariusz Paszkiewicz, whose [As][10s] held up against Jay Samani's [Kh][7c]. All the chips went in pre-flop, and Paszkiewicz let out a euphoric "YES!" as he dragged in the much-needed pot. Having started Day 2 with just 15,900, his stack is definitely moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile, a big pot was brewing over on table 12. With the board reading [7h][Ad][3c] [4s] [6d], Milan Stanislav from the Czech Republic led out for 23,100 into what was already a substantial pot, sending France's Vincent Meli deep into the tank. After a couple of minutes, Meli let out a loud sigh and threw his cards in the muck reluctantly.

Players from the outer tables are slowly being moved in as more and more seats become available. It seems like every other hand you'll hear a dealer announce "Seat open!", with bust-outs becoming fast and furious. - JS

12:20pm:Rigali guns down rivals
Patience is an important attribute in poker. If you can show discipline to pick out good spots, it can pay dividends, and Sophie Rigali's patience has just been rewarded. Down to just ten big blinds, she managed to find pocket aces on the button, shoved and found not one but two allins behind her, Hak-Mann Lee and Ryan Barr.

Lee was particularly unfortunate, with pocket kings whilst Barr tabled [Ac][Jd] - his glum face reflecting his lack of optimism at slipping the noose here.

Rigali's aces held sway over the [Jh][9h][2d][3s][9d] board and she triples up to 95,000 whilst Barr's pesimism proved apt as he was stacked and quickly dissolved into the early afternoon sunshine.

Meanwhile a smiling but shell-shocked Lee takes a hit, down to 30,000 himself. -- RS

12:10pm: The numbers are in
Late last night we had confirmation that 742 players had entered the UKIPT5 London Main Event. Given where the tournament is taking place it's no surprise to learn that most of the players who entered were from the UK or Ireland.

A staggering 500 on the entrants are from the UK, which works out at 67% of the field and with 26 Irish men and woman joining the fray they account for a further 4% of the field. The top five is rounded out by Spain (23) Poland (20) and Norway (19). Third and fourth is perhaps not surprising given both countries have strong representation in the UK in terms of poker players who've relocated to make their living here in the UK. But Norway, that's a puzzler!

Lithuania - with 16 entrants - also had strong representation but there were 15 countries for whom there was one lone warrior heading into poker battle for them. If a player from Andorra, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, India, Lebanon, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Nigeria, Oman or Sri Lanka wins it really will be a turn up for the books. All this information is available in a pretty pie chart below. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_nationalities.jpg

Where in the world do these poker players come from?

12:03pm: Inman falls to Banas
Lawrie Inman was just facing a decision for his tournament life...and he made the wrong one.

Facing a board of [7s][9s][2d][Jd] Inman had led out for 28,000 and Marek Banas had moved all-in for 85,000, sufficient to cover Inman.

With over 50,000 left, Inman could have folded to fight another day, but he clearly had a very low opinion of Banas' range as he vacillated before calling with just [Ks][Qc] for overcards and a gutshot.

His bold approach wasn't rewarded as Banas quietly turned over pocket deuces for a set. Inman announced "I'm dead" before grabbing his coat. He still had four outs to get him out of jail, but they didn't arrive on the full house-completing [9c] river.

Inman out, Banas rises to 175,000... --RS

Blinds up: 1,500/3,000, 400 ante

11.50am: Dropping quickly
It's a poker cliché, but Day 2 always sees carnage in the opening levels as players bust out at a frightening speed. It's been no different here at The Hippodrome Casino as 'seat open' has been the phrase of the opening level.

Another batch of players have felt the hangman's noose tighten around their tournament life as: Shaun Conning, Smit Trivedi, Martynas Vitkauskas, Bouali Saiah, Lee Brooks, Daniel Bland, Michael Lee, Scott Walker, Martyn Frey, Andrew Lees, Danny Toffel, John Cleverly-James, Jack Loraine, Ilana Belsky and Gerry Lillie have all been unceremoniously dispatched. -- NW

11:40am: There's no escaping the shuffle
You'd be hard pressed to escape the sound of chips rustling and shuffling in the Hippodrome Casino today, as we've currently got play spread out across four areas on three different floors. Everywhere you turn there's action, but as more and more people begin to bust they'll eventually come together in the main rooms.

Over on the Hippodrome's Poker Deck you'll find Team PokerStars Pro Matthias De Meulder, online poker beast Ben 'vindog03' Vinson, and Spain's Diego Gomez. Fresh off a deep run at the PCA, Gomez came into day 2 fourth in chips. With only three tables on the deck, it wont' be long before they're moved to join the rest of the action. -- JS

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_diego_gomez.jpg

Diego Gomez

11:36am: Slick Dubai runs into bullets
Dave "Dubai" Shallow came back with high hopes of spinning up his 30BB stack but a harsh cooler has had the opposite effect.

Raising UTG to 6,000 with [Ad][Kh], Shallow saw start of day chipleader Piotr Tuczynski 3-bet from UTG+1 to 12,500 and Clayton Ka Cheuk Koo make a committing 4-bet from the button. Shallow announced all-in, Tuczynski shrugged and did the same - understandable as he had [Qd][Qh] but button Koo made a delighted snap-call as he held [As][Ac] - a beautiful time to find the nuts.

A board of [7h][8s][Jc][5h][2c] held few gremlins for Koo and he punched the air as he trebles up to close to 300,000. Tuczynski drops to 230,000 and Shallow is out.

"Bad luck mate," Shallow was told, but he was upbeat. "It's alright son!" he said with a smile as he departed the tournament arena to go and enjoy the rest of his day. --RS

UKIPT_Lon_2015_53694.jpg

Cold deal sees Dubai iced

11:25am: Cody climbs, De Meulder drops
Contrasting fortunes for the two members of Team PokerStars Pro in the opening level of the day. Jake Cody started the day with 78,500 but is up to almost 100,000 after winning a three-way pot. He opened to 5,100 on the button and both Andrew Sweeney and Rumit Somaiya tagged along from the blinds.

The flop was a tasty looking [As][Qh]Kc], it checked to Cody, he bet 8,500 and Sweeney was the only caller. The [6d] fell on the turn and a second barrel of 13,700 from Cody was enough to earn the triple-crown winner the pot.

Unfortunately it's not been a good start for Matti De Meulder, the Belgian has dropped to 40,000 from his start of day 64,200. -- NW

11:20am: Brooks overthrown by Koo
Lee Andrew Brooks is the latest man to see his UKIPT hopes dissolve.

He got into a preflop war with Clayton Koo, though his A-5 was severely outgunned by Koo's pocket queens.

He failed to hit across the [6h][4d][Th][3d][Ts] board and was left congratulating his opponent and spilling out of the tournament arena to discover alternate diversions for fun on this bright Saturday in London.

Koo meanwhile moves to 90,000. --RS

11:05am: Fast start causes carnage
It's no fun sitting and grinding a microstack all day. Many of the shorter stacks have taken the aggressive route toward chipping up, looking to spin up or go home trying. This has led to a number of eliminations in the early going, uniquitous shouts of "seat open at x" echoing round the poker room.

Here are some of the players whose bid for glory was shot down:

Oliver Simpson
Jon Warmerdam
Alexander Steblina
Richie Allen
Andrew Lees
John Cleverly-James
Miguel Riera Suarez

Bad luck guys! -- RS

10:45am: The march to the money begins
Over the first three days of the UKIPT the numbers have been steadily going up. Over three starting flights 742 players entered the fray and as Day 2 starts just 216 remain. That number will steadily decrease.

The first milestone, as such, will be the money! Over 50% of the remaining field will get paid as 111 players in total will make the money. A min cash is going to be worth £1,260 whilst the winner of UKIPT5 London will take home £95,100. The full payout structure is as below.

1st. £95,100
2nd. £58,000
3rd. £41,000
4th. £31,000
5th. £24,600
6th. £18,600
7th. £13,300
8th. £9,138
9th. £7,200
10th - 11th. £5,900
12th - 13th. £5,250
14th - 15th. £4,740
16th - 17th. £4,230
18th - 20th. £3,730
21st - 23rd. £3,230
24th - 27th. £2,730
28th - 31st. £2,350
32nd - 39th. £2,070
40th - 55th. £1,815
56th- 71st. £1,590
72nd - 95th. £1,385
96th - 111th. £1,260

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_chips.jpg

Chips mean prizes

The overall chip leader heading into Day 2 is Piotr Tuczynski, the Pole topped the Day 1B chip counts and starts today with 332,100. Other players well placed to make a deep run are: Lawrence Bayley (265,000), Ross Boatman (190,100), Nik Persaud (179,600) and Willie Tann (169,300).

There are still two members of Team PokerStars Pro in contention with Jake Cody (78,500) and Matti De Meulder (64,200) back for Day 2. Play is about to get under way the plan today is to play 10 levels of 50 minutes which should mean play finishes around 8.30pm.

Let's shuffle up and deal.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT London: Rod Stirzaker, Nick Wright and Jack Stanton. Photos by Mickey May

UKIPT5 London Day 2: Level 17-18 updates (4,000/8,000 ante 1,000)

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4:40pm: We need to talk about Kevin
We're not just giving large amounts of coverage to Kev Allen because he is sat next to the media desk right now He's also winning some key pots that have seen him move from shortstack to title contender in the space of a few hands.

Recently we joined a hand on the turn of a [Td][5d][2d][Kh] board, Allen looking very serious and checking before his opponent (Simen Gangstøe) got a count of his remaining stack.

Once he'd done so, he set Allen in, Allen making a quick call with pocket deuces for a sneakily-played set.

Gangstøe merely had [As][Qh] for a gutshot which bricked on the river.

Allen up to 300,000 now, his opponent falls to 170,000...--RS

4:35pm: Big pot slides to Bounsall
After seeing a whole load of blue and green chips in the middle at table 3 we decided to stick around and sweat the action. On a board of [2d][7c][Ad][Kh][6s], UK player Alex Bounsall stuck out 55k. Jamie O'Connor thought for a moment and when his mind was made up he threw out the call. It turned out to be the wrong one as Bounsall flipped over [As][6d] for a rivered two-pair. -JS

4:22pm: Allen gets a boost
He may still be someway off the chipleaders and hasn't even got an average stack in fact but Kev Allen has just doubled and could yet prove to be a danger man.

Holding pocket nines on the button he battled preflop with Fernando Marin, who looked disappointed that his [Ac][Kh] wasn't in better shape than he felt it should have been versus Allen's button range.

A board which contained no kings or aces saw Allen double to over 150,000 whilst Marin takes a hit, down to 220,000. -- RS

4:18pm: Joy quickly turns to sorrow
When the dealer burns and spreads a flop and the first card you see is the one you need to hit, it's an awesome feeling; sadly, though, it's one that can so quickly turn the other way.

Steve O'Keeffe min-raised from early position and it was folded round to Caicai Huang in the big blind. She didn't take long to move all-in and O'Keeffe snapped it off. Huang showed [Jh][Jc] and was ahead of O'Keeffe's [Ac][Qc]. Then a queen fell in the window.

Followed by a jack. The board ran out [Js][10d][Qd][3s][3c] and O'Keeffe was sent to the rail. --JS

4:15pm: A fine defence
We've seen a few UKIPT champions put up strong defences of their title - Max Silver finishing first and fourth at consecutive UKIPT Dublin's is the closet there's been to a repeat though.

Well, Brett Angell - who won UKIPT4 London in October - is doing a good job here in London and just got a near triple up to further increase his chances. Nicolas Berry shoved from the button for around 80,000, Christopher Gordon then re-shoved from the small blind (he had about 150,000) and Angell took a few seconds before he called all-in for 109,000.

Angell: [Ac][Kc]
Berry: [Ah][5c]
Gordon: [Kd][10h]

Angell was a 49% favourite to win the hand pre-flop but after the [Jh][6h][3h] flop he and Gordon were near tied as favourites with 43% equity each. The [Ks] turn was a big help for Angell as it made him a 73% favourite and he held on the [8d] river to near triple up.

What's more as he won the pot his football team - Middlesbrough - took the lead against Man City and thanks to the wonders of instant replay Angell could watch the goal on his iPad. Nice life! -- NW

4:12pm: Quiet Lee does it
Hak-Mann Lee has been going about his business quietly and efficiently today and now has a stack capable of challenging for the title.

He doubled up care of Peter Flynn, having raised the button with [Ah][Js] and called Flynn's three-bet from the blinds.

A board of [As][6h][4s] saw Flynn fire 18,000 and Lee make the call. The turned [Kh] saw Flynn fire a second bullet of 36,000, although this time Lee waited a few moment before moving all-in.

Flynn made the call with [Ac][Td] only to squirm as he realised he was outkicked.

Lee has jumped up to over 300,000 now and Flynn is still well-stacked with around 275,000. -- RS

4:07pm: Cash crush
The period immediately after the bubble bursts is usually frantic and an astounding 31 players busted out during level 17. They all made the money of course, we'll bring you news of who finished where just as soon as the crush at the cash desk subsides. -- NW

Blinds up: 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante

4:02pm: Andy Black's in the black after double-up
Level 17 is proving to be a good one for Irish poker pro Andy Black. He just managed to double up when his pocket sixes turned into a set on the flop, and now sits a little more comfortably with a stack of 250k (41 big blinds).

With more than $4.4m in live tournament winnings, Black is no stranger to this stage of a tournament. He currently sits second on Ireland's all time money list behind Steve O'Dwyer. -- JS

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_andy_black.jpg

Black is smiling once more

4pm: Willie out
Not long ago Willie Tann was one of the big stacks, but he's just been eliminated in 91st place and his exit hand was pretty brutal. On the face of it losing with nines to ace-queen is about as standard garden variety as exits come but Tann explained that the board came [10][K][10][K] so his pair was counterfeited. -- NW

3:50pm: We don't know our "r"'s from our elbows
Christopher Nazer fans - apologies for managing to miss the "r" from Christopher's first name in an earlier post. He has not suddenly turned French.

Nazer's stack is still one of the biggest in the tournament though he has dropped down a little - currently sat with 420k or so... --RS

3:45pm: Weiland secures dominant double
Kevin Weiland has cut a chunk out of Paul Simmons stack. The hand saw two hands collide that seemed destined to go to war. With 100,000 and [As][Qh] on the button Weiland was always going to commit his chips whilst Simmons in the blinds might have expected his [As][Jc] to have a bit more equity when he took on the button raise and the cards were on their backs.

A board of [Qs][6s][Tc][6c][4d] saw Weiland double to 200,000 whilst Simmons drops to a similar amount. --RS

3:37pm: Matti De Muelder eliminated
It's the end of the line for Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Muelder. After Beyazit Zorlu min-raised on the button, De Muelder shoved his remaining stack over the top, forcing the Turkish player to a touch decision. It was one he would make, however, and the cards were on their backs: [Ac][7d] for De Muelder and [6s][6d] for Zorlu.

The board ran out [2d][10c][3d][4d][Qs], sending Matti to the rail where he'll collect £1,260 for his efforts. -- NW

3:30pm: Cody cashes, but then crashes
There's a big queue at the payout desk at the moment ant Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody is one of those waiting in line to get paid. He was kind enough to tell the PokerStars Blog how he exited the tournament. "On the first hand back from the break the big blind was sitting out and I was on the button. It folded to me and I shoved jack-nine, the small blind (Andrew Sweeney) called with K-Q and he held. That dropped me from 120,000 to about 45,000. I then shoved 8-9 from under-the-gun and got called by A-Q. We flopped a nine but he (Carl Croucher) rivered an ace."

Cody said that he's sticking around and may well late reg the London Cup which stated earlier today. -- NW

Ukipt5_london_main event_day2_jake_cody.jpg

Cody - in the money once more

3:25pm: Busting for fun
As is usual following the bubble bursting we've seen a further slew of eliminations as the handcuffs come off and the wanton spin ups begin.

Already 10 players or so have been eliminated, including Shaun Conning whose A-J failed to outdraw Christopher Gordon's A-K. Gordon up to around 300,000.

Also gone is Chi Hao Tsang whose pocket sevens lost a race to get him back in contention.

The potentially epic comebacks from the super shortstacks of Camilla Reventlow and Damian Robertson didn't come to pass and they depart with their hard-earned minimum payouts.

The queue for the cash desk is getting longer by the second. We're down to 103 players... -- RS

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Queuing to get cash rather than spend it

3:20pm: Heads-up
The start of level 17 caught many by surprise so much so that the first hand back from the break at table five was a heads-up affair. Both blinds were sitting out, Peter Seed limped in but Willie Tann was having none of it, raising it up to 21,500 total. Back on Seed he instantly moved all-in for around 80,000 and said: "I need a double up." Tann has a few miles on the clock though and simply folded his hand. -- NW

3:15pm: Day 2 action continues
Welcome back as we continue the Day 2's coverage with the bubble burst, 111 happy-to-be-getting-paid players and a title to fight for.

Luminaries such as Jake Cody, Andy Black, Nik Persaud, Ross Boatman and Willie Tann amongst others remain in contention but the field is stacked with talent and a number of players have a realistic shot of winning this title with some good cards and a fair wind.

At the moment Christophe Nazer is the man heading the pack - his 580,000 looking tough to topple. This is poker though, we've seen heroes come and go, and nothing can be taken for granted as the tension is ratcheted up.

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Tuczynski has lost his overnight chiplead but is still battling away

Two players who will be ecstatic about surviving the bubble period are Camilla Reventlow and Damian Robertson. With 22,000 and 11,000 respectively, they were in huge danger of elimination but with a cash secured, they can go for broke and look to spin up this pittance into something that could see them propelled further into the tournament. --RS

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