Day two on the UKIPT is, quite simply, moving day. Whilst roughly 30% of the field advance from Day 1 to Day 2 only 12% of the players who came back for Day 2 still have an interest in this tournament tomorrow.

They've all locked up £2,730 for their efforts so far but it's tomorrow when the big bucks will be dished out. Looking most likely right now to win the £95,100 first prize is Andrew Mytton. The self-employed builder is playing only his third UKIPT and takes 1,842,000 into tomorrow. "It's the first day in my poker history that I haven't lost a flip!" he told the PokerStars Blog at the end of play.

Indeed it was a flip near the end of play that has vaulted him to the position of chip leader. "I had ace-king against my opponent's pocket queens," he said describing the most classic race of all! "He flopped a set but I rivered a flush." So not your typical classic race at all then, but one that went the way of the over cards this time thankfully for Mytton.

Today there was (almost) no moving Lawrence 'bigstealer' Bayley. Although the SuperNova Elite dropped as low at 25 big blinds at one point the Day 1A chip leader finished Day 2 fourth in chips as he bagged up 1,142,000 to leave him well placed for a shot at a final table place at least tomorrow.

With two levels to go it looked like Bayley would take the lead into Day 3. He was the first player to have over a million chips and his ascent to the top of the chip charts came in what he ironically termed an "above average spot," to tablemate Christopher Nazar. It was a spot that dreams and tournaments are made of.

After a 5.5 big blind shove of 67,000 from Gabriel Gusetoiu, it folded to David Clarkson in the small blind. He was the chip leader at the time and called from his stack of 815,000 with pocket tens. Bayley then peeked down at two aces and decided to bump the price of poker to 170,000. Clarkson, thinking Bayley only had around 500,000 total, decided to move all-in and Bayley, who actually had around 630,000, called and won a huge 1,350,000 pot.

It that wasn't bad enough for Clarkson, on the very next hand his jacks were cracked by the [Ad][10d] of Rapinder Cheema and he went from the penthouse to the outhouse in two hands. Poker it's a cruel game.

Whilst Mytton leads there's a ferocious chasing pack all looking to dethrone the current chip king. Second in chips when play starts tomorrow, with blinds of 12,000/24,000 ante 3,000, will be Fernando Marin (1,376,000). Others who enjoyed 'above average' days at the felt include: Christopher Nazer (1,140,000), he also had the chip lead at one point and Jamie O'Connor - seventh at UKIPT4 Isle of Man - was another who held the chip lead before spinning down and then up again to 1,027,000. They'll all have high hopes of making the final table tomorrow.

Another emerging story line in this tournament is that of Brett 'back to back?' Angell. The Middlesbrough based player, who finished second at UKIPT2 Nottingham, took down UKIPT4 London at The Grand Connaught Rooms in October and he's still in contention here. With a stack of 382,000 he'll start 20th of 26th tomorrow and has some work to do if he wants to make it two from two.

A couple of poker veterans proved they can mix it with the 'kidz' at the poker felt still as Andy Black and Ross Boatman showed that they've still got some wily poker skills and gas in the tank. Both will be back tomorrow but had contrasting days. Boatman was amongst the leaders for the first half of the day but had slipped below average by the time the players returned from the last break of the day. Over the final two levels he trod water and finished on 377,000.

Whilst for Black, it was the reversal of the Boatman experience. The Irishman grinded an average or below average stack for much of the opening six levels of the day but powered through in the final four to finish on 868,000. Such was the velocity of Black's rise he told the PokerStars Blog: I've been getting lots of presents. I'm thinking about offering my younger sister to the dealer."

The prize pool was announced to the players just before play began and they learned that 111 players would make the money with a min-cash worth a respectable £1,260. On the pure bubble there were numerous short stacks. The likes of Damian Robertson (11,000) and Camilla Reventlow (22,000) were well and truly in the danger zone.

As it transpired though they'd both make it safely into the money as two-time SCOOP champion Charlie Combes shoved for six big blinds with pocket sixes and lost a race against Guðmundur Gunnarsson's [As][Js] when the Icelandic player flopped an ace.

As you'd imagine the rate of bust outs after the bubble reached warp speed and two of those who crashed out soon after cashing were Team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody and Matti De Meulder. Both had come into the day with below average stacks and built them up without ever threatening the chip lead but by the time the bubble burst Cody was down to around 20 big blinds and De Meulder had fewer than 10 to his name.

Cody lost two 40-60 races to bust in 102nd, whilst De Meulder's [Ac][7d] couldn't get there against the pocket sixes of Beyazit Zorlu and the Belgian was bust in 98th place.

They weren't the only poker luminaries whose lights went out today as over the course of ten 50 minute levels we lost: Willie Tann (91st, £1,385), Billy Chattaway (86th, £1,385), JJ Hazan (59th, £1,590), Kevin Allen (46th, £1,815) and Nik Persaud (41st, £1,815).

But at least they made the money as the likes of Gary Clarke, Steve Watts, Phillippe Souki, Will Dorey, Paul Vas Nunes and Dave Shallow all left empty handed.

The 26 players who do still have chips like: Tony Martin (945,000) Miguel Seoane (766,000) and Angelo Milioto (473,000) will be back at 11am when levels are increased to 60 minutes and the first UKIPT champion of Season 5 will emerge. But for now that's all from us, you can catch up on all today's action and see the overnight chip counts and Day 3 seat draw below. So long, see you tomorrow.

Day 3 chip counts

Day 3 seat draw

Levels 13-16 updates

Levels 17-22 updates

Prize pool and payouts so far

All photos are copyright of Mickey May

What are you doing here? All the cool kids are following final table updates in this post.

3:10pm: Final table chip counts and seat draw
It's 29-year-old professional poker player Fernando Marin who takes the chip lead into the final table. Brett Angell's title defence continues, although he finds himself in a far different position than he did at the start of the UKIPT4 London final table.

Three months ago he was chip leader going into that one, now he's the second shortest stack with just under 20 big blinds. We've had three players win two live UKIPT titles but no one has ever won two in the same venue. Can Angell do it?

Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,840,000
Christopher Yong, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 3,510,000
Lawrence Bayley, United Kingdom, 1,930,000
Martin Hanham, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,805,000
Brett Angell, United Kingdom, 910,000
Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, 3,590,000
Fernando Marin, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 4,055,000
Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, 715,000

3pm: Andrew Mytton out ninth, final table set
Start of day chip leader Andrew Mytton has just been eliminated in ninth place meaning the final table of UKIPT5 London is set.
He shoved for 670,000 with [A][Q] but ran into the dominating [A][K] of Matthew Hanham. No ladies appeared in the community cards and Mytton headed to the exit £7,200 better off.

The eight remaining players are now on a 45 minute break, we'll bring you news of the seat draw and chip counts shortly. -- NW

2:55pm: Final table set!
Officially the final table starts with 8, but the remaining players will be consolidated on the last single table of the tournament - call it what you will.

We'll have news of their chip stacks shortly, it looks like Fernando Marin will be the man heading the chip counts with over 3.5 million. -- RS

2:50pm: Bounsall bounced in 10th
Alex Bounsall was only just stacking up his newly-won bounty before it had been snatched from under his nose.

He woke up with pocket tens in late position and with the blinds advancing as they have been, there was no chance he was folding this hand.

Involved in a preflop war with Rapinder Cheema, he got the bad news that he'd run into Cheema's pocket queens in a nasty cooler.

A board of [Jd][9d][4h][8d][4s] raised his hopes briefly as he picked up a straight and flush draw but once more the draw missed and he was left to go and collect his £5,900 from the cash desk.

2:40pm: Seoane eliminated in 11th
Miguel Seoane's stack had started to shrivel up and feeling the pressure of the blinds, he decided the time was now when he took a peek at a couple of suited connectors - [5c][6c].

Unfortunately for him lurking in the wings was Alex Bounsall who pounced with alacrity with pocket nines.

Seoane hit a pretty juicy-looking flop of [7c][5d][3s]to give him plenty of outs, but they steadfastly refused tio materialise as the board ran out devoid of upset, coming [Kd][7d] to scupper his hopes.

Seoane collects £5,900 for his 11th place finish--RS

Blinds up: 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante

2:30pm: Jamie O'Connor busts in 12th
Jamie O'Connor has seen big stacks come and go in this tournament but everytime one has disappeared, like an accomplished stage magician he has rustled another one back up.

Finally though the run-good hat ran out of comeback rabbits and the curtain has fallen as his shove with pocket threes for around 500,000 was picked off by Lawrence Bayley with [As][Jc] and Bayley duly won the flip over the [Jd][2s][8d][7h][4h] board.

O'Connor goes out 12th, collecting £5,250 for his finish, -- RS

2:20pm: Clarke chucked in 13th
Chuck Clarke has runa foul of that old devil variance. Tossed on its horns when he ran his ace-queen into Bayley's pocket queens, he was pitchforked through the heart when his shove with ace-six ran into the [As][Ts] of Andrew Mytton and he failed to spike.

Clarke had a smile on his face as he resignedly accepted his fate and toddled off to cash in his £5,250 payout. -- RS

2:20pm: Eights are snow joke for Simmons
A pair of eights is often given the poker nickname 'the snowmen' due to their resemblance to one another and Paul Simmons just played two huge pots with that very hand.

In the first Fernando Marin opened to 85,000 on the button, Simmons three-bet to 235,000 from the small blind only for Rapinder Cheema to move all-in from the big blind for 1,105,000.

Marin swiftly folded but Simmons got a count before looking at his own stack, which was around the two million mark. Eventually he decided to call and to showdown they went.

Simmons: [8d][8s]
Cheema: [Ad][10h]

"I thought you were making a move on him," said Cheema pointing at Marin, who with his big stack has been very active. A [6s][2d][Ks][As][Kd] board favoured Cheema and he doubled to 2,300,000.

A couple of hands later Simmons raised to 85,000 with [8s][8c] and called all-in for 920,000 when Miguel Seoane moved all-in. The Spaniard had [Ad][Qc] and Simmons had to dodge over cards once more with the snowmen. The [7c][3s][2d][5d][7s] board kept Simmons in front and he said: "I don't think I'd have played eights again if I'd lost the pot."

He's back up to around 1,900,000 whilst Seoane is down to 400,000. -- NW

2:10pm: O'Connor doubles up
Jamie O'Connor had lost a big pot to Fernando Marin and was down to under 10 big blinds when the action folded to him in the small blind. He moved all-in for 385,000 and Brett Angell got a count before calling from the big blind.

O'Connor: [As][Kh]
Angell: [Jc][9d]

The [7c][3c][Kc] flop kept O'Connor in front but gave Angell a flush draw, the [Jh] turn gave him additional outs but he missed them all on the [10d] river. Angell down to 1,100,000, O'Connor back up to the relative safety of a 20 big blind stack. -- NW

2:05pm: In the money finishers today
Half the field who started the day have now been eliminated, here's a look at who's finished where so far today:

14th. Marek Banas, Poland, £4,740
15th David Gomez, Spain, £4,740
16th Angelo Milioto, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £4,230
17th RIchard Milner, United Kingdom, £4,230
18th Hak-Mann Lee, Sweden, £3,730
19th Rory Foster, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £3,730
20th Tony Martin, United Kingdom, £3,730
21st Tomas Raniszewski, Poland, PokerStars Qualifier, £3,230
22nd Chaz Chattha, United Kingdom, £3,230
23rd Christopher Nazer, United Kingdom, £3,230
24th Andrew Black, Ireland, £2,730
25th Clayton Ka Cheuk Koo, Hong Kong, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,730
26th.Ross Boatman, United Kingdom, £2,730

2pm: Marek Banas eliminated in 14th spot
Christopher Yong and Marek Banas just flexed their muscles preflop, although Yong proved the man whose biceps bulged the biggest - the pair getting it in pre - Yong turning over kings to Banas comparatively puny-looking [Kh][Qs].

"That's a good match up for you," table commentator Lawrence Bayley observed wryly, the table laughing at the ridiculous redundancy of the comment.

A good match up indeed and once the board had run out [9s][7d][5h][Ah][5h] Banas had been eliminated in 14th spot for £4,740 and we were down to 13 players. --RS

1:50pm: David Gomez eliminated in 15th place (£4,740)
Brett Angell has done his chances of winning back to back UKIPT titles no harm as he just won a race to eliminate David Gomez in 15th place. The UKIPT4 London champion opened to 80,000 from under-the-gun with [5s][5d], Gomez shoved for 555,000 with [As][Qh] and after getting a count Angell made the call.

The [2s][5c][8s] flop was gin for Angell and he stayed infront on the [Qc] turn and [Kh] river. He's up to around 1,700,000. -- NW

1:40pm: Chips by table
When we got down to the final 16 players there was a complete re-draw, this is what the random computer generator - and by that we mean the pick a card system - spat out.

Table 1:
Miguel Seoane Spain PokerStars Qualifier 1,325,000
Andrew Mytton United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 785,000
Lawrence Bayley United Kingdom 1,665,000
Christopher Yong United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 2,230,000
Chuck Clark United Kingdom 825,000
Marek Banas Poland 610,000
Joakim Sorensen Sweden 680,000
Martin Hanham United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 625,000

Table 2:
Fernando Marin United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 1,880,000
Paul Simmons United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 1,610,000
Rapinder Cheema United Kingdom 1,395,000
Jamie O'Connor United Kingdom 1,650,000
Brett Angell United Kingdom 1,350,000
David Gomez Spain 655,000
Alex Bounsall United Kingdom 1,070,000

1:35pm: Chip counts
The tournament staff did full chip counts at the break and here's how the remaining 15 players stack up.

Christopher Yong United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 2,230,000
Fernando Marin United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 1,880,000
Lawrence Bayley United Kingdom 1,665,000
Jamie O'Connor United Kingdom 1,650,000
Paul Simmons United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 1,610,000
Rapinder Cheema United Kingdom 1,395,000
Brett Angell United Kingdom 1,350,000
Miguel Seoane Spain PokerStars Qualifier 1,325,000
Alex Bounsall United Kingdom 1,070,000
Chuck Clark United Kingdom 825,000
Andrew Mytton United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 785,000
Joakim Sorensen Sweden 680,000
David Gomez Spain 655,000
Martin Hanham United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier 625,000
Marek Banas Poland 610,000

1:30pm: Yong leads the pack
With just 15 left Christopher Yong is the man they are all chasing at the moment with 2.2 milllion.

The remaining players are relatively closely bunched together and it is hard to pick a winner right now. --RS

Blinds up: 20,000/40,000, 5,000 ante

1:16pm: Break time
The players are now on a 15 minute break. -- NW

1:15pm: Milioto busts in 16th spot
Crippled in a big coin flip( tens vs the AQ of Rapinder Cheema), Milioto was left with mere shrapnel (26,000) which was ground to nothing as Paul Simmons' [Ac][Js] saw off his [Qc][3c] over a [Ad][Ks][Qh][Kc][3s] board.

"Sick river," joked Milioto as he waltzed over to pick up his £4,230. -- RS

1:10pm: Milner crashes out in 17th spot
Richard Milner was short and needing to give his chances a shot in the arm, electing to shove [Ts][9d] from late position, only for Miguel Seoane to make the call with [As][Th].

Dominated and looking down the barrell, there was no escape from the firing squad for Milner as the board ran out [8d][2s][5h][7h][Ad] to move Seoane to one million and send Milner rushing to the cash desk to pick up his £4,230.

1:00pm: Lee eliminated in 18th spot
Tough times for Hak-Mann Lee. He was very unfortunate to see his hopes dissolve so close to the final in a painful pot.

A three-way allin developed between him, Angelo Milioto and Joakim Sorensen,and when the cards were put on their backs Lee must've been delighted to see his pocket queens were up against [Ah][Kh].and [Ad][Ks].

"A great spot for you," a tablemate commented, Lee holding a healthy equity advantage and potential triple up in the making although with four cards still out there in the deck waiting to be spiked - the board of [Kd][3d][4d] saw just that happen.

The writing was on the wall for Lee, his chances hanging by a thread - and the main element of interest was whether Sorensen could spike a diamond and scoop the whole pot.

Spoiler alert: he didn't. The board ran out [8s][Tc], he and Milioto chopped the pot and Lee quietly left the table to collect his £3,730. --RS

12:50pm: Rory Foster eliminated in 19th place
You've got to hand it to young Rory Foster who came up with two of the most understated lines of the day when he was up against it and at risk.

He shoved with pocket sixes for just over 12 big blinds and Martin Hanham re-shoved behind him. When Hanham showed pocket tens, Foster said: "Oh dear," and looked on as the board came [4c][3c][7h][2s][Jc].

The stacks were very close and indeed Foster was left with just 1,000 after that clash. It went in as part of the ante on the next hand and after Brett Angell raised with [Kh][Jh] everyone else folded. One by one Foster flipped his cards to reveal he had [th][4h]. "They're suited," he exclaimed, before looking at Angell's hand and adding: "Oh that suit."

The [4c][3c][7h][2s][Jc] board put Foster out of his misery and left us with 18 players in the tournament. -- NW

12:40pm: Martin gets unlucky to bust in 20th place
There must be something in the water on table three as we've seen players get unlucky to lose big pots and then when they get the rest of their stack in find lady luck has once more deserted them.

The latest player to fall foul of this one-two knockout combo was Tony Martin. In the pot that did for most of his stack he three-bet to 130,000 from the big blind after Fernando Marin had opened to 69,000 from the cut-off. Back on Marin he moved all-in for 994,000 and Martin snap called.

Marin: [Ac][9d]
Martin: [Ad][Kd]

The [7d][10c][8d] hit both players hard, the [6h] flop only hit Marin though and he held on the [Jc] river. Martin looked disgusted and rightly so.

On the next hand he shoved for 152,000 from the small blind with [Kc][9d] and Paul Simmons - a little reluctantly - called with [Jh][9s]. The board ran [3h][6c][Js][7s][3c] and Martin was out in 20th. -- NW

12:32pm: Bayley clips Angells wings
Lawrence Bayley and Brett Angell have been bantering regularly at the table, but their friendly verbals have been matched by equally competitive sparring on the felt.

Angell has probably edged the early exchanges of chips although Bayley won the most recent battle, three bullets fired across the [Th][8c][5d][4c][7h] board - the last a chunky 425,000 bet - eventually dissuading a suspicious-looking Angell from calling.

Angell remains at 1.3 million, Bayley around the 1 million mark.

As Bayley noticed the photographer snapping Angell and him together, he queried whether the photo would be posted on the blog with the caption #gingerswithstacks.

Who are we to stand in the way of a young man's dreams?

12:27pm: Chattha silenced
Chaz Chattha has been a quietly effective force in this tournament. Having suffered a torrid day 1, he showed great resilience to hang in there and wait for his chances to arrive. Eventually they did and he has parlayed them into an impressively deep run here, although finally he faced one showdown too many and exits in 22nd place.

Christopher Yong did for Chattha's chances of further progression, Chattha battling a Yong late position raise with ace-jack, only to find Yong close to the top of his range with A-Q.

No surprises on the board and the game was up for Chattha who collects £3,230 for his troubles.

Yong moves to 1.2 million.

Tomasz Raniszewski has also succumbed in 21st spot(£3,230), leaving us 20-handed for the title. -- RS

Blinds up: 15,000/30,000, 4,000 ante

11:55am: Chattha gets a double
After Christopher Yong opened to 51,000 Chaz Chattha moved all-in for 243,000 and after getting a count Yong put in the extra.

Chattha: [6c][6h]
Yong: [As][7s]

It was a race, but Chattha had some help in his corner as JJ Hazan - who's waiting to play the pot-limit Omaha side event - was sweating the action. "Hold," said Hazan as the dealer fanned a [5c][8h][2h] flop. The [Js] turn and [Jd] river kept Chattha in front and he survived. "I want a percentage for that," quipped Hazan. "We're going out no matter what," said Chattha. -- NW

11:40am: Kingdom crumbles for Nazer
Christopher Nazer started the day well placed with a stack of over 1.1m. But, if we needed proof that no-limit Hold'em tournaments are a cruel mistress then Nazer's demise is it as in two hands he went from well stacked to out and pocket kings played a part in both hands.

In the first Christopher Yong opened to 51,000 from under-the-gun and Nazer bumped the price of poker up to 153,000 total. Back on Yong he asked Nazer how much he was playing. "About one point one million," was the reply and after cutting out varying amounts of chips Young settled on four-betting to 270,000. Nazer then took some time processing this information before announcing that he was all-in. Yong had just over 800,000 total and after a peak back at his cards he half sighed before making the call.

Yong: [Kc][Kh]
Nazer: [Jd][Jc]

The [Ac][Ks][Ah] flop left Nazer all but drawing dead and the [6h][9s] turn and river were not the perfect, perfect run of cards he needed.

On the next hand Nazer shoved with [Ks][Kd] and got a call from Tony Martin who held pocket sixes. When the [2h][2s][Jc] flop fell Nazer said, "there's the jack!" the [6s] turn was a bitter blow to his chances of recovery and the [4c] river saw him eliminated in 23rd place. -- NW

11:30am: Black out
It's been a bad opening period for those harbouring hopes of seeing one of the old school campaigners roll back the years.

Ross Boatman succumbed in the first moments of the day and now Andy Black has joined him on the rail. Crippled in that earlier hand, Black looked ready to spring into action at any moment with his microstack. Eventually, he made his move to double through, shoving with [As][7c] only for Jamie O'Connor to find precisely the sort of hand Black didn't want to see - [Ac][Kd].

Once O'Connor had called, a board of [4c]5s[3s][Td][Tc] didn't alter the balance of power and Black was left blinking into the morning sun - his hopes of securing the title in tatters.

O'Connor moves to over a million - his potential title chances increasing with every
passing moment. --RS

11:18am: Down to three tables
We're down to three tables in the main event as Clayton Ka Cheuk Koo has just been eliminated in 25th place. He shoved from late position for 170,000 with [Kd][9s] and Marek Banas made the call from the small blind with [Ac][7h].

The [8s][4s][7d][3h][Qs] board brought no help for the at risk player and with his exit table four was broken and the players redistributed around the room. Both Lawrence Bayley and Jamie O'Connor were moved to the same table as Brett Angell so there's now a lot of chips on table two. Overnight chip leader Andrew Mytton was moved to table one where he has over double the stack of his nearest contender.

11:13am: Angell doubles again
As starts go it's been a very lucky opening 13 minutes for Brett Angell as he's just doubled up again.

He opened pre-flop from under-the-gun and Rory Foster called from the small blind. On the [7s][6h][Ks] we didn't see exactly how but fact is very quickly there was all-in and call action with Angell all-in for 709,000. The UKIPT4 London champion showed [Kd][Kh] for top set and Foster was drawing dead with [Kc][Qc].

Angell is now up to 1,550,000 whilst Foster drops to 500,000. -- NW

11:10am: Rory Foster doubles through Andy Black
Plenty of action in the opening moments of the day, although Andy Black will wish it wasn't him who was involved as he was on the wrong side of a cooler.

From under-the-gun+1 - which is also the hi-jack as play was six handed - Rory Foster opened to 50,000, Andy Black then three-bet to 140,000 from the small blind and after tanking for about 30 seconds Foster moved all-in for 609,000 and Black made a quick call.

Foster: [Ad][Ah]
Black: [10c][10h]

In the clash of big pairs it was Foster who was dominating and the aces held as the board came [7s][9d][3c][3d][2s]. Foster up to 1,250,000, Black down to 200,000. -- NW

11:05am: Boatman exits to Angell's
What a start! With some players still unbagging their chips, there was a shout of all-in and call. Ross Boatman and Brett Angell were the two men contending the pot and the look of distress across Boatman's face spoke volumes.

We believe the chips went in on the turn of a [Ah][Kd][5h][5d] board - Ross Boatman holding [Ac][Jd], the source of his consternation plain as Angell flipped [As][5s] for a full house.

With just one out for a split, the final ace never arrived and we lose Boatman in 26th place, good for £2,730.

"Well that was worth coming in for," joked Boatman.as he moved to the cash desk and got a consolatory handshake from his multitude of poker pals, including Andy Black.

Angell doubles to 740,000 - the back to back dream getting an extra boost. --RS

Doubled very first hand... as starts go...... #UKIPTLondon

— Brett Angell (@brett_angell) January 25, 2015

11am: Mytton leads as Angell goes for back to back titles
Earlier this week Brett Angell tweeted the @UKIPT account with a sad face about the fact that the levels on Day 1 of the UKIPT Main Event had been reduced to 40 minutes. We informed him that the levels increased to 50 minutes on Day 2 and 60 minutes on the final day. His response "Well at least I'll get to play some 60 minute levels."

He said it tongue in cheek of course but fact is Angell is one of 26 players still in contention for the first UKIPT title of Season 5, having won the last UKIPT title of Season 4. Can he go back to back?

Angell has got some work to do as with 382,000 he's some way behind start of day chip leader Andrew Mytton who has 1,842,000. Lawrence Bayley (1,139,000) and Jamie O'Connor (1,027,000) are other proven players with seven figure stacks and with the likes of Andy Black (868,000), Ross Boatman (377,000), Tomasz Raniszewski (346,000) and Chaz Chattha (316,000) still in the mix it's shaping up to be a fascinating day of poker.

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

4:35pm: Brett's in Bayley's corner
Brett Angell was philosophical about his exit and took to twitter to wish Lawrence Bayley good luck. -- NW

Game over! 7th, gave it my best shot! Gl to @bigstealer - yours to throw away #UKIPTLondon

— Brett Angell (@brett_angell) January 25, 2015

4:25pm: Brett Angell eliminated in seventh place (£13,300)
There will be no fairytale second title in back to back UKIPT Main Events for Brett Angell. The 'Boro boy shoved for 890,000 on the button with [Qs][8c] and Rapinder Cheema called from the small blind with [Ah][10c].

Cheema flopped Angell dead on a [10d]][10s][Ac] flop and Angell was up and shaking hands as the [4c] turn and [6c] river completed the board. -- NW

4:15pm: Bayley and Marin go to war
With the rising blinds shrivelling up the players' stack to blind ratios, mistakes at this point will be magnified and good decisions could make a huge difference to the payouts the players might receive.

Moments ago, we saw Bayley raise to 100,000 and Marin make the call from the button.

A board of [Th][9s][9d] saw Bayley make a slow check, Marin following suit.

The turned [4s] produced a second check from Bayley who was remaining quiet throughout the hand. Marin however was keen on making a move on the pot and bet out 100,000. Bayley called.

The river saw the [6c] appear - Bayley checked once more and Marin now bet out 355,000. Bayley went into "mental calculator" mode - eyes moving about as figures danced around in his head.

Finally he called, showing down A-Q for just ace high, but it proved an inspired call as Marin could only table [Ks][Js] for a missed draw and king-high.

Good stuff from Bayley, Marin looked annoyed at himself for losing those chips.

Bayley rises to 2,100,000, Marin drops just below the four million mark. --RS

4:05pm: Sorensen falls first in 8th place
Joakim Sorensen's short stack didn't afford him the luxury of passing up hands like [Ac][Jh] so when he looked down at such a pretty hand, he did what all poker players with a shortstack must do - shoved from under-the-gun.

A reshove from Paul Simmons UTG+1 didn't bode well and when everyone else elected to pass (Rapinder Cheema briefly considering getting involved before throwing his hand in the muck) it was left for Simmons to showdown [Ah][Kh] for a dominating hand.

A board of [Kd][9h][2d][4h][Qs] sealed the Swede's fate and he departed to a smattering of applause to collect the £9,138 his 8th placed berth was worth.

"Congratulations on the pay jump chaps," Bayley added, although he was polite enough to wait till Sorensen was out of earshot first. --RS

3:50pm: Let's get this final started
The final table has been set up on the main stage here at The Hippodrome Casino and the players are now in their seats ready for the show to start. Tournament Director Toby Stone has just done the introductions and cards are back in the air. It's Fernando Marin who leads but all eyes are on Brett Angell who is not only attempting to win a second UKIPT title but back to back UKIPT Main Events.

Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,840,000
Christopher Yong, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 3,510,000
Lawrence Bayley, United Kingdom, 1,930,000
Martin Hanham, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,805,000
Brett Angell, United Kingdom, 910,000
Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, 3,590,000
Fernando Marin, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 4,055,000
Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, 715,000

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

Seat 1: Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,840,000

Paul Simmons has been playing poker for over 10 years after discovering the live game as a student. The 30-year-old taxi driver still enjoys the game and plays "quite a lot," including a turn online as proven by his qualification into this Main Event on PokerStars.
This final table represents his first in a major live event, although he does have a UKIPT cash under his belt (in Nottingham in 2011) among others.

Seat 2: Christopher Yong, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 3,510,000

Christopher Yong doesn't get too much time off work to play poker these days (his game of choice being hold'em cash), being a trainee solicitor. After winning an online satellite into this, his first UKIPT, he's finalled what is only his fifth ever live tournament. "I've taken Monday off," admitted Yong, as he headed to the table as one of the three big stacks.

Seat 3: Lawrence Bayley, United Kingdom, 1,930,000

Lawrence Bayley, 26, plays live rarely, considering the UKIPT Main Event as "more of a holiday or break" from his day job playing turbo and hyper-turbo online sit and gos on PokerStars, where he's better known as SuperNova Elite 'bigstealer.' He's enjoyed the Main Event, saying there was "less autopilot" involved and is comfortable going into the final as "the stack size stuff isn't unfamiliar."

Seat 4: Martin Hanham, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,805,000

Martin Hanham's only live poker experience has been in UKIPT events, for which he is adept at qualifying online, turning a £5 satellite on PokerStars into his entry into this one. The 39-year-old tube driver is more usually found on the virtual felt but has a decade of poker experience behind his run at this final. Like Yong, his "long weekend" from his job has come in handy as Monday doesn't loom over his final table.

Seat 5: Brett Angell, United Kingdom, 910,000

Brett Angell, a fixture on the UKIPT for many years, went one better than his runner-up finish at UKIPT2 Nottingham when he won UKIPT4 London in October 2014. Should he win today, Angell will join Nick Abou Risk, Joeri Zandvliet and Wojtek Barzantny as a two-time UKIPT winner. Finish second or third and he'll have put up the best ever defence of a UKIPT title (Max Silver's first and fourth at consecutive UKIPT Dublin's is the current record) and if he finishes third he'll have the full set of UKIPT medals with a first, second and third to his name.

"It would mean a lot to me to win a second UKIPT title and to be the first to do it in the same venue would be great and going back to back is something no one's ever done live on the UKIPT."

Despite all his success on the felt Angell's not a full-time player but an IT professional and the 31-year-old has no plans to give up the day job anytime soon; win or lose he'll be back at work in Middlesbrough tomorrow.

Seat 6: Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, 3,590,000

Amazingly, this is 34-year-old Rapinder Cheema's first live tournament. He tried to qualify online but when he didn't he thought he'd just "give it a go." He hails from Dartford and is using a bracelet that says "number one dad" on it as a card protector, which was given to him by his five-year-old son Chamdan. Initially it didn't look promising (he entered as an alternate and lost two-thirds of his chips within the first three hands), but comes to the final table second in chips, already guaranteed his biggest cash.

Seat 7: Fernando Marin, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 4,055,000

Fernando Marin is one of many Spaniards who play poker for a living and call London home. His chosen game is multi-table tournaments but he also dabbles in sit and gos. Marin's played poker for 10 years but this is his biggest live cash to date. It's only his second UKIPT tournament (his first being Edinburgh in Season 1). Marin's a big Real Betis fan, is wearing a tracksuit top with the club crest on today and says his favourite Betis player of all time is Denilson.

Seat 8: Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, 715,000

The only player not from the UK to reach the UKIPT5 London final table, 26 year old Joakim Sorensen is a professional poker player who last played a tournament like this a couple of years ago. Now he plays mostly heads up online but admits that this event, with its 742 entrants, has "nice money" especially at the top which is where he's aiming despite coming to the final as the short stack.

Season 5's London UKIPT has just been played to a winner and Rapinder Cheema is the man who felled all rival contenders to claim the title here at The Hippodrome Casino London.

After defeating Fernando Marin heads-up and collecting the £78,825 first place prize money(after a deal was struck heads-up), the inexperienced Cheema was happy if a little exhausted following the experience.

"It's a good feeling" he said with a weary smile. "I'm a bit drained. I need to work on my stamina!"

Cheema then went on to make the astonishing revelation that "I've never won a poker tournament before!"

The final stage of the London UKIPT had started with just 26 hopeful runners remaining from the colossal 742-strong field that burst through The Hippodrome Casino's doors five days previously.

The day held great promise - the field replete with established and potential superstars. Two of the men remaining who have already built themselves watertight poker reputations were Ireland's second highest tournament cash winner Andy Black and celebrated Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman.

Fans aplenty were willing on deep runs for these talented vets, but the poker gods were deaf to such entreaties today, both players falling during the early stages. Boatman's day was as brief as they come, a first hand dismissal at the hands of Brett Angell leaving him wondering whether he should just have enjoyed a lie-in this morning.

Angell was one of the players gunning for a place in the UKIPT history books. Having won the previous London UKIPT, Angell had the potential to be the first man to defend his UKIPT crown at the same event. The early stages were kind to him - his stack rising during an imperious run which saw him through to the final table.

Meanwhile previous UKIPT Isle of Man finalist Jamie O'Connor was looking to convert his stack and skills into a win. It wasn't to be however, O'Connor falling victim to the loquacious Lawrence Bayley before the day was out. Bayley proved a lively presence throughout - his convivial banter and conspicuous array of poker skills illuminating his run to the final table.

Eventually the returning 26 were whittled down to just 8 players - overnight chip leader Andrew Mytton the man to be eliminated on the final table bubble.

Thus the final table was set!

Here's how the remaining eight lined up to take their shot at the title, the blinds standing at 25,000/50,000/5,000.

Seat 1: Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, 1,840,000
Seat 2: Christopher Yong, United Kingdom, 3,510,000
Seat 3: Lawrence Bayley, United Kingdom, 1,930,000
Seat 4: Martin Hanham, United Kingdom, 1,805,000
Seat 5: Brett Angell, United Kingdom, 910,000
Seat 6: Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, 3,590,000
Seat 7: Fernando Marin, United Kingdom, 4,055,000
Seat 8: Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, 715,000

Once they got started the lone Swede at the table, Joakim Sorensen, didn't take long to get involved, unloosing the full clip of his stack with ace-jack in late position, only to run into Paul Simmons holding a dominant ace-king. He Sorensen proved unable to spike himself out of trouble, finishing 8th for £9,138.

Angell's fairytale run ended agonisingly close to that historic second title but fell short - Rapinder Cheema picking the Middlesborough native's desperate blind steal off before flopping a full house to shoot down his pursuit of back to back titles.

Angell can still be proud of the incredible feat of back to back final tables at the same event and the £13,300 he claimed for 7th will be some consolation when he reflects on what has been an accomplished week's poker

.

Six-handed now, there was a hiatus in eliminations, some good quality poker seeing every remaining player fight for a higher payout position.

Something had to give eventually and it was Paul Simmons who blinked first, the cab driver's meter switched off by Bayley, when his [Ah][7c] failed to get there against Lawrence Bayley's sixes.

6th place for Simmons then - a well-merited £18,600 awaited him at the cash desk.

Christopher Yong had come into the final as one of the big stacks, but his successes in the latter stages were largely outnumbered by his setbacks. He owed much of this misfortune to poor luck from the dealer, although one moment where Bayley showed a streak of flair to outplay him with a 5-bet airball would have done little to increase his confidence.

Despite the hardships he suffered card-wise, the positive young player remained upbeat and smiling throughout - a friendly presence right up to the moment Rapinder Cheema dusted his ace-nine off with pocket kings to consign him to 5th place (£24,600.)

Lawrence Bayley had played out a confident and virtually flawless final table until the latter stages - no surprise perhaps given his Supernova Elite status on PokerStars.

A few big set backs however rocked both his mindset and his chip stack and when his pocket three re-steal ran into the rampaging Cheema's pair of tens, there was to be no redemption for the popular player - handshakes and good wishes the prelude to a trip to the cash desk to collect his 4th placed prize money - £31,000.

Martin Hanham came into the final relatively shortstacked but the professional Tube driver picked his spots with judicious care to navigate his way to third spot.

Ultimately though his last stop was to be 3rd place, the big-stacked Marin one barrier too many as a key coinflip derailed his bid for the title.

Considering his outlay for the tournament was a mere £5 token however, the impressive £41,000 he parlayed this minimal outlay into can be considered a massive success - a real inspirational story for all aspiring poker players.

Hanham's elimination left UK-based Spaniard Fernando Marin battling Rapinder Cheema heads up - Marin with the 3-1 stack chip lead. The pair did a deal to flatten the pay structure and were left playing on for £15,000, the trophy and the title.

On the face of it Cheema appeared to have everything working against him - fewer chips, very little experience of live tournaments and up against a confident opponent in Marin who had been crushing the final table.

What Cheema did have going for him was fearless optimism, tenacity, and a dash of fortune. In the final analysis, this combination served him well.

A blistering series of showdown wins saw Cheema ride the waves of fortune to turn the tables on Marin and snatch the title and first prize money £78,825 from the Spaniard's hands. Marin won't be too disappointed - his high class performance netting him an impressive £74,275 in prize money.

Here are the full results from the final:

1st. Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, £78,825*
2nd. Fernando Marin, Spain, PokerStars Qualifier, £74,275*
3rd. Martin Hanham United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier £41,000
4th. Lawrence Bayley United Kingdom £31,000
5th. Christopher Yong United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier £24,600
6th. Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £18,600
7th. Brett Angell, United Kingdom, £13,300
8th. Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, £9,138

*Deal agreed heads-up

Congratulations to Rapinder Cheema for a great result here in London. Delighted but exhausted, family man Cheema is eschewing drinks at the bar to rush home and see his five year old child and family.

"I do it all for them anyway." What a champ.

Well that brings an end to our coverage of the London UKIPT.

To read full updates from the day, click here for the levels leading up to the final table.

Click here for the final table updates.

The inaugural tournament on the UKIPT season 5 schedule has been full of excitement and memorable moments. It bodes well for the rest of the season, the next stop of which is Nottingham which will have a mouth-watering £1,000,000 guarantee.

Clear the dates April 13-20, 2015 from your diary as this will be one event at Nottingham's Dusk till Dawn you won't want to miss. Information regarding the event can be found here. Satellites start Tuesday 27th January.

We'll see you there but for now thanks for following.

All photographs are copyright of Mickey May.

If you've been waiting for the UK & Ireland Poker Tour to lock up its 2015 Season 5 dates before planning out the rest of the year, your wait is finished.

Today, the UKIPT announced the rest of its stops for this year.

Here is the nitty-gritty:

• Nottingham, April 12th-19th
• Marbella, June 15th-21st
• Bristol, August 6th-9th
• Isle of Man, October 1st-4th
• Edinburgh, November 19th-22nd

The next stop is bound to be a rocker. UKIPT Nottingham has already announced it will guarantee a £1,000,000 prize pool in the Main Event. The £1000 + £100 buy-in (single re-entry per day available) is the centerpiece of a big festival that will include the Nottingham Cup (£300+£30) and the UKIPT High Roller (£3000+£300).

You can register directly for Nottingham on PokerStars or play any of the satellites to win your seat on the cheap.

For more information about the next stop visit the UKIPT Nottingham page.

I have a theory to try out, so you might just have to indulge me for a second. I don't have a name for it yet, but it goes something like this.

When it comes to picking the poker title you most want to win, it's not the EPT Grand Final or the World Series Main Event; it's just whatever tournament you happen to be playing at the time. Let me elaborate.

Winning is what poker is supposed to be about. It's why you pay your entry fee to begin with. So while it'd be nice, we can't all win bracelets or EPT trophies, at least not yet. But that doesn't mean we can't win something else while we wait for that shot at glory.

This, conveniently enough, is where the UKIPT Series at the Hippodrome in London comes in, all set to go in central London from March 27-29.

It may be that you'll be in Malta for the latest stop on the European Poker Tour. In which case we wish you the best of luck and what's more we'll see you there. But for those who aren't the Hippodrome is offering a pretty good incentive to try to "win your next tournament" regardless, one with a £250 buy-in, a starting stack of 20,000 chips and 30 minute levels. And if you haven't played in the Hippodrome before, it's a great place to play cards.

So for a fraction of the cost of an EPT Main Event ticket, you can still win the next tournament you play, which is really all any poker player wants to do, isn't it? What's more you can win your seat to the UKIPT Series on PokerStars, with details of satellites on the PokerStars Blog. Think of it, that's TWO chances to win the next tournament you play!

So what do you think: "Win the next one" theory? How about "I want this one!" theory? It needs work. In the meantime we'll call it "Hippodrome Theory" and encourage you to make your way to Leicester Square in London for what will be a great few days. And while you're there let me know if any of this theory holds true.

Next year's Isle of Man UKIPT stop from October 1-4 will again overlap with the PokerStars Chess International from October 2-12. I can't wait to return to the PokerStars headquarters for a week of chess, poker and getting to know staffers over beers, turbos and dramatic walks.

The overlap of chess and poker makes a lot of sense to chess prodigy turned poker pro Jeff Sarwer, who said in a recent interview, "I don't like to call them sports or games, I think of them as exactly mindsports. A lot of things crossover, like patience and rhythm and discipline."

For poker players considering getting in on the action in the Isle of Man, I have some tips.

1. Center Pawns first

Bobby Fischer famously said that moving your king pawn forward on the first move, 1.e4 is "best by test."

Learning the first few moves of every opening is similar to having default preflop ranges in NLHE. When a certain move will surely arise at some point in your session, you have fewer excuses not to be prepared. There are plenty of apps where you can play casual games, from Chess With Friends to chess.com. Use an online opening book to see what the top players did in the first few moves.

My favorite opening is the "Sicilian Dragon", named for the shape of the pawn structure. It's characterized by the strong dark bishop square, the "dragon bishop."

2. Avoiding Tilt

In one of my favorite episodes of the Shark Cage, Slovakian women's chess champion Zuzana Borosova gets Heads-up with eventual champion Griffin Benger. I've never met Zuzana in person, but we have a lot of mutual friends in the chess world, and I thought she played great under the pressure. She even maintained her composure after losing a 65/35, which would have knocked out Benger and secured a spot in the final worth over $100,000 in equity.

In chess, you can't lose flips, but you can tilt after dropping a pawn or missing a key response. Rather than get angry at yourself and throw away the game, you should look for chances back into the game. Most amateur players will give you a chance or two. Even top players sometimes make outrageous errors. Take this example from former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who was playing Black and missed a mate in one move here (the white queen can simply move to the highlighted square.)

3. The Practice to Study Ratio

You must practice AND study to improve in chess. Studying the game from a theoretical point of view doesn't help if you aren't testing out those theories. Playing a variety of opponents, followed by a critical look at the games is a great way to improve.

4. Building Castles

In chess, just like in poker, you can often tell how strong someone is by how reluctant they are to make pointless generalizations. When I teach poker to a chess player, if they ask me questions like "How should I play ace-king from middle position," I explain to them that question sounds exactly like, "Is it good to get my queen on the e4 square?" The harsh reality is that every chess position is different and general rules won't get you far enough beat an average nine-year-old in a Scholastic competition.

There is one rule that you can adopt though. Castle!

That's the move in chess where your rook hops over your king, the only time you can move two pieces at once (the diagram on the left is before castling, the diagram on the right is after).

If aces is your favorite hand, castling should be your favorite move.

Well at least 85% of the time.

9:15pm: Pateman Heads Day 1A field
What a day it has been and with the players finished for the day, it is Joseph Pateman who heads the field- his stack a fulsome 165,000.

Pateman finishes the day clear of the pack but he had time for some regrets. "I had more earlier," he said with a touch of unbecoming glumness. By the time he reflects on his day later, we're sure he'll find plenty to smile about.

Gabriel Gusetoiu from Romania has also had a successful day - his 154,500 good for second place.

We'll be posting up the final chip counts shortly for your enjoyment and perusal. Just 21 players were left from the opening 78 that began their journey in the early afternoon.

They will return on Sunday, looking to turn their efforts today into something profitable, but before then another group of hopefuls will take to the felt looking to emulate the more successful denizens of Day 1A.

We expect a larger field tomorrow when we take up arms at 2:00pm and the poker should prove as compulsive as that we have witnessed today.

A quick reminder to the players that the clocks go forward an hour on Saturday night so don't have an accidental lie-in and miss one hour of blinds. That could prove very costly. For now thanks for following the coverage, well done to Joseph Pateman and have a lovely Friday night one and all.

We'll be back tomorrow at 2:00pm sharp for Day 1B. See you there!

8:43pm: Brave Pateman rises to chiplead
Two of the chipleaders just contended an interesting pot. We joined the hand on the turn of a [2c][6h][Td][Qc] board, Richard Paul betting out 6,500, only for Pateman to make a slow, deliberate check-call.

The river saw Paul quickly check and Pateman reach for chips before firing out 12,500.

This was a tough decision for Pateman and he mulled it over before making the call. "Nothing," said Paul ruefully whilst Pateman showed a nice call with just [Ah][6s].

Pateman rises to over 150,000, which looks like the leading stack at this time, whilst the previously rampant Paul drops to 120,000.

Gabriel Gusetoiu is also going well with 130,000.

We are playing the last few hands now...

8:14pm: Pace slows a touch
The remaining 24 players are closely huddled on three tables right now. There is a sense no one is keen to bust having battled through virtually the entire day and things have tightened up a little barring the odd shove from the shorter stacks.

Despite the drop in pace, these players have been unable to stave off the grim reaper.

It's been fun Ross Mannion, Carlos Citara, Mark McCluskey
and Lydia Cugudda.

We are especially sad to see Lydia bust given that she was the sole female remaining, keeping the clouds of testosterone from converging.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

7:58pm: The state of play
It's been a day replete with quick, dynamic play. No one has been able to shy away from the action, meaning we have seen nearly 2/3 of the field shorn away under avalanches of blind and player pressure.

Just 29 remain now as we head into the last few levels and we can expect the relentless jaws of variance to chew up and spit out more than a few of those still left in as these last few contend the final hour of poker.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600-200

7:44pm: Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel...
...is an oncoming train.

The following have seen their chances bulldozed by one of the rampant locomotives left chuntering through the field. Bad luck guys.

Struan Whiteley, Shaun Williams, Michael Tollervey, Wilson Chan, Timothy Lee-Davis, Yonatan Sagis are all gone-zo.

7:30pm: Dean of mean remains keen
David Dean is starting to amass a decent stack here, given a minor boost recently as he sent the short-stacked Christos Kyprianou to the rail.

Raising from early position, Dean saw Kyprianou move his small stack into the middle and the pair turned over their cards.

Pocket fours for Dean, [Ac][Td] for Kyprianou, a board of [Ks][4c][7h] saw Kyprianou's chances hanging by a sliver and finally they dropped into the pit of oblivion as the [7c] arrived to complete an impregnable full house for Dean.

Kyprianou made a swift exit whilst Dean has risen to over 40,000 now.

7:15pm: Germaine stack remains relevant
We referenced Jack Germaine as a potential threat early on in the tournament and he hasn't let us down, efficiently rising up the chip rankings, his stack now north of 80,000.

His latest coup saw him take on Jeffrey Baron, his pocket kings duly dusting off the Baron's sizes and sending his foe to the rail.

Germaine has quietly slipped into the top few chips spots.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200-200

7:05pm: JJ lets JJ down
With a name like JJ Hazan, you would have thought jacks would be the one hand you could rely on. Not so, it turns out, Hazan succumbing moments ago in a flip versus ace-king.

"Knocked out with jack-jack. The irony," Hazan muttered as he departed the tables, his hopes of a deep run curtailed in level 9.

6:58pm: Dark side of the moon
Sometimes it runs for you, sometimes it doesn't. These players haven't had the rub of the green and will not end the tournament rubbing greens.

Good game to the following. Friday night beckons.

Matous Kadula
Edward Johnson
Baglan Kuanov
Gary Brown
Martin Hellmuth
Paul Romain
Robert Barber
Daniel Smallman
Stephen Howell
Hilary Hin Cheung
Rikky Ben Wingate
Hok Wan Henry Zhang

6:52pm: Gunning for glory
So far so good for these players who together form the top 10 remaining players. All smiles and sunshine so far. Will it continue?

110100 Gabriel Gusetoiu Romania
90000 Jack Germaine United Kingdom
70800 Joseph Pateman United Kingdom
63600 Sam Miller Ireland
63600 Cheok Fan Lao China
63000 John Law United Kingdom
61500 Mark Hitchens United Kingdom
60500 Richard Paul United Kingdom
47100 John Dimitris Nikas Greece
47000 Richard Tongue United Kingdom

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000-100

6:45pm: House of pain back in effect
20 much needed minutes of refreshment enjoyed, the players have retaken their positions and continue their assault on the title, just 42 remaining in what has been a brutal day of poker so far.

The men who lead the charge to follow shortly.

6:25pm:Break it, shake it
The end of level 8 signals another 20 minute break for the players, during which time they could squeeze in a quick boogie if they should so wish. The card room has gone strangely silent, but will be revitalised shortly as we play out the final frantic 4 levels of the day.

We'll see you shortly!

6:21pm: Latest fallers
Much like the grand national early fences, players continue to fall thick and fast. Fortunately so far, none have broken their legs and been taken behind the shed to be sent to the giant golden haystack in the sky.

Hok Wan Henry Zhang, Rikky Ben Wingate, Hilary Hin Cheung, Stephen Howell will be thankful they are poker players, not horses, despite the fact their chips and chances have all evaporated.

6:10pm: Feiskanov builds recovery on house of ladies
Quiet Russian Evgenii Feiskanov has seen his stack take several hits in the early stages, but is threatening a recovery after winning a useful double-through.

The hand in question saw an early position raise called by JJ Hazan, before Feiskanov shoved for his sub- 10k stack. There was a quick call from the initial raiser, Hazan electing to throw his hand away.

Pocket eights for his foe, pocket queens for Feiskanov.

"I either had a queen or an eight, I'd rather not say," offered Hazan by way of contribution.

A decisive flop of [Qd][3s][3h] saw the Russian seize control of the pot. "Probably an 8 then," someone muttered, doing their best impression of Inspector Poirot.

The board ran out a redundant [4d][Jc] and Feiskanov rises back to close to 20,0000 once more.

6:00pm: Final Tally
With registration closed, the numbers are in and we have had 78 entrants today.

Of those just 2/3 remain - 55 players still in the running - the average stack 28,363 as we speak.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800-100

5:47pm: More vanquished warriors
This blind level has been a real watershed moment, players disappearing faster than we can monitor their exits.

The latest men to fell the cold hand of variance gently escorting them toward the exit include Shaun Debenham, Robert Brabin, Simon Nebesnuick, Martin Comitti and Ganapathy Samiappan.

It's carnage out here!

5:32pm: Pateman's aces hold for big double
Joseph Pateman just saw off Terence Jordan , Jordan making a big move which unfortunately ran into Pateman's bullets.

We caught the hands just as they were swept into the muck, it looked as though Jordan had [9h][6h] on the [Qd][5h][3h] board and went to war with Pateman, whose bullets held as the board ran out [5d][9c].

Jordan quietly grabbed his things and departed whilst Pateman was left smiling as he scooped in the pot and began the enjoyable job of organising his newly-won 40,000+ stack.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600-75

5:24pm: Done and dusted

Terence Jordan, Dean Perry, Matteo Vincenzi, Robert Drummond. Drummond was particularly unfortunate to run pocket queens into pocket aces. Bad luck - enjoy your Friday sir!

5:10pm: JJ Hazan finds juicy spot to double
It's not been an auspicious early few levels for JJ Hazan but he just made somewhat of a recovery moments ago, warring with a tablemate preflop and eventually getting his chips in with [Ac][Tc] - a small favourite over his opponent's [Kc][Jd].

A flop of [7h][6c][4c] gave Hazan a sizeable advantage with a flush draw and the run out of [8s][9s] saw his ace-high remain the best hand.

His opponent got up to leave the table, only to be called swiftly back as Hazan pointed out he only had 10,000 or so left at the start of the hand.

A double up sees him return to his starting stack of 20,000. As you were, troops.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400-50

4:55pm: Rail huggers
Not everyone can be crushing. Zero sum games mean winners are inevitably accompanied by losers. Here are those whose time has been liberated as have their chips.

OUT - David Ball(never recovered from that KK/AA collision earlier)
OUT - Colin Good (only the Good die young they say)
OUT - Niall Murray (A late entrant who saw his chips spend little time in his stack)

4:40pm: Early Heroes
There's a long way to go but here are the players who have handled the slings and arrows of the early stages most comfortably - Mark McCluskey leading the way.

Mark McCluskey United Kingdom 46275
Epameinondas Sintos Greece 43000
Daniel Smallman United Kingdom 42000
Mark Hitchens United Kingdom 37925
Joseph Pateman United Kingdom 37375
David Wellings United Kingdom 35650
Ettore Mezzone Italy 32200
Jack Germaine United Kingdom 43000
Ganapathy Samiappan India 34000
Cheok Fan Lao China 33525.

4:25pm: Break it up
The players have had a break and are ready to take to the felt once more for another swiftly-played out set of four levels.

With antes in play and one or two stacks who have been on the wrong side of variance, we could well see some desperation shoving over the next level or two.

4:20pm: Chip Crushers
The wonderful staff here at the Hippodrome have whizzed round the tables in the break and collected chip counts meaning we will have a full list up shortly.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300-25

4:00pm: Break Time
That's four fast levels done and dusted. We're already had some huge pots and eliminations, drama and confrontation stalking these players as they have traversed the opening levels of the day.

The break will feel well-merited and the players can now take a breather for 20 minutes while they tweak their strategies based on what they have learned over the initial stages.

3:44pm:Bullets flatten Ball
Brrrr, the chilly breeze that accompanies a cold deck leaves many a poker player hunching their shoulders and shivering in empathetic sympathy.

David Ball, holding pocket kings, was the man at the center of the maelstrom of action that ensued from this latest cooler - his 475 raise, flatted in one spot before Epameinondas Sintos made it 1,200 to go. Ball now made it 3,000, looking to punish what looked like a squeezy-looking move. Again, he was flat-called, before Sintos now jammed for 21,000.

Ball was not folding the second nuts and made the call (the flat-caller eventually persuaded to lay down) only for the players to turn their cards over and Sintos to reveal an exquisitely-timed pair of aces.

A board of baby cards failed to change the status quo, Ball left with shrapnel remaining in his stack whilst Sintos rises to 45,000 to put him amongst the chip leaders.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3:25pm: Hedges trimmed
Another player to have seen his early riches evaporate is Peter Hedges, who has lost the last of his chips and thus becomes our third official elimination of the day.

3:15pm: Big draw sees Tuna canned
David Dean just gave Gabriel Tuna his marching orders.

We joined the hand on the turn of a [Qc][5c][3h][6s] board, Tuna committing the last of his chipswith [Ad][Qh], only to get the bad news that he was drawing dead to Dean's drawtastic [2c][4c] which had connected with the turn.

"What a flop" gushed Dean after a respectful pause to let Tuna gather his belongings and depart quietly. "And he had the queen!"

Dean is up to 35,000+ now after a fast start.

3:04pm: Perry winkled-out
Eliminations have been few and far between in the early stages, but we can report that Dean Perry is one of those who have succumbed. The downside is obviously clear, but the silver lining to this bustout cloud is that he is free to step into the bright sunshine and visit some of the many attractions on offer in the heart of London.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2:50pm: Juicy Wing with chips
We're not just reading off the tasty Hippodrome menu (though the title is one of the options)
No instead we can report that Wing Yeung has chipped up in the early stages, Nicholas Craze his slightly unfortunate victim. Both players made strong hands over the [Qh][9s][8c][3d][Td] board, though Craze's pocket tens had hit their nut worst card on the river, Wing's pocket jacks improving to a straight simultaneous to his spiking a set.

Craze felt obliged to pay off Wing's river bet, getting the bad news with some consolatory observations from a beaming Yueng. "That was the worst card you could have hit."

Despite this early fillip, Yueng admitted he was still a little bleary eyed. "It's too early, i'm still asleep!" he told the table.

2:31pm: Blinding Speed
20,000 stacks and 25/50 sounds like a lot, and to be fair it is. 400 BBs deep gives ample play in the early stages.

However the blinds will be shooting up every 30 minutes, and relative stack sizes can change pretty swiftly for anyone sitting back too long. The latest level up means we are a paltry 200 BBs deep now!

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

2:24pm: Is it Miller Time?
Another man who has shown local excellence is Sam Miller, winner of the Winter Classic event here, just a couple of months ago. He defeated Tim Wong heads up to pick up the £11,620 for 1st place and will be looking to emulate that performance here to cement his reputation as a skilled poker practitioner.

2:12pm: Leaderboard Legends
Two players present who have already established formidable reputations for themselves at these events are Jack Germaine and Paul Romain.

Jack has shown he loves this venue having finished runner up on the 2014 Hippodrome Live leaderboard whilst Paul also made the Top 10 on the leaderboard. Both picked up UKIPT series entries for their consistent excellence and both have chosen to cash those entries in today. Two men who could well cause some damage if the poker gods see fit to give them the rub of the green.

2:05pm: Chipping Up
Everyone has taken their seats, chips are being clicked, shuffled and gradually redistributed amongst the current circa 53 runners. In short, we are off!

1:55pm: UKIPT5 Series1 is in effect
Welcome to the heart of London for the first UKIPT Series Event on the Season 5 schedule. Over the last season, the Hippodrome Casino bore witness to some epic confrontations as we crowned 6 previous UKIPT Series champions. There's no reason to think we won't see an equally exciting season play out this year and we have this £250+£25 event to kick things off.

20,000 starting chips and 30 minute levels mean the players have some healthy wiggle room and should have enough time to put their A-game on the tables and let variance do its job of thinning the field.

We're moments away from the start, we'll have news of runners, big names, early confrontations and anything that catches our interest in the early stages shortly. For now though good luck one and all, cards are (almost) in the air!

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT Series 7: Rod Stirzaker; Photos courtesy of Mickey May

6:02pm: Prizepool Information
The numbers are in! 160 players have contributed to a prizepool of £38,800.
18 places will be paid and the first prize will be a juicy £12,210.
A link to the full prizepool can be found here

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800-100

5:51pm: A Waterfall of Eliminations
What was once a thin trickle is gaining momentum and there is now a cascade of players hitting the rail at regular intervals. The blinds are really starting to bite.

Here are the latest victims of ill luck. Good games!

Camille Abram
Mike Lee
Benjamin Rogers
Conor Smyth
Ali Zihni
Haoran Cai
John Crouchley
Thomas Postlethwaite
Daisuke Mishima

5:30pm: Slick Zihni turfed out by cowboys
Ali Zihni's tournament has drawn to a close. Facing three-way action, Zihni saw his raise with big slick three-bet by an aggressive player, and flatted in one spot.

He felt like this was a great opportunity to make some chips and four-bet to 8,000, the aggressive player laying it down before the flat-caller made a surprising move, shoving for an additional 12,000.

Suspicious action, but Zihni was priced in to call and did so, only to discover his foe had pocket kings. The flop was no help and that was that for Zihni.

"I may have played that hand badly," he mused after his exit, although either way, it was a tough spot to escape from.

Good game sir.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600-75

5:25pm: Gone, but not forgotten
The following players have seen their hopes of further progression halted by the steel curtain of variance. Enjoy your future Saturday endeavours people!

James Edgington
Dennis Sandmark
Dimitrios Patroklou
Chung Hoang
Roman Sokolovskij
Austin Gontier
Daisuke Mishima

5:15pm: Man of Steele plays the hero
The problem with tying on your cape and pulling off a big call is that once in a while it will blow up in your face and you may feel a tad embarrassed.

Richard Steele was the latest man to risk humiliation by making a brave but ultimately futile call with [Ks][9s] on a [Kh][5c][7d][As][4d] board.

Facing an 11,500 shove from Sameer Singh on the river, he had a long think about this before finally dropping his chips over the line.

Singh turned up pocket sevens for a set and Steel tabled his second pair sheepishly, his ballsy call going unrewarded on this occasion.

Singh rises to 23,500 and Steele is left with under 15,000.

5:03pm: Fun Lovin' Criminal Dempsey
After a slow start James Dempsey has started putting a stack together, up to 28,000 now.

He's doing a good impression of scooby doo right now, gobbling cookies that look suspiciously like scooby snacks. "I just made a flush to win a few chips" he said happily.
"Was it a big one?" we asked.

"Raggy" barked Scooby/Dempsey.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400-50

4:41pm: The Alpha Bets
Here are the players heading the chip counts at the first break. Congratulations on your early successes, people.

Christopher Yong Malaysia 42000
Ruslanas Rudycevas Lithuania 42000
Amirreza Davoudzadeh Iran 36925
Nicholas Stylianou United Kingdom 34500
Michelle Bricknell United Kingdom PokerStars Player 37000
Jonathan Santos France 30300
Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert Netherlands 38500
Luca Gavazzi Italy 41800
Matthew Shiels United Kingdom 32000
Gary Pearce United Kingdom 35000

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300-25

4:20pm: Back in effect
Rested and back for more are the remaining 72 players or so. Battle is taken up once more as we continue the next four levels of the day.

4:00pm: Break Time!
Just two hours into the day, we have already seen a whirlwind of action. Four levels have played out and we have had close to ten players already sent packing to the rail.

The remaining players will have twenty minutes to refresh, re-organise, go have a recuperative coffee, cigarette etc.

We'll be back shortly.

3:59pm: Say my name, say my name
...because I am busted.

GONE...Albert Sapiano
GONE...Huy Thanh Nguyen
GONE...Ali Nisar

Good game fellas, catch you later.

3:50pm: Worley-Roberts in the house
One of the more effusive characters on the UK poker scene, Deborah Worley-Roberts is a colourful and engaging presence whenever she graces the felt.

We inquired as to her health and although her reply was slightly muffled by a large silk scarf keeping her warm, we believe she answered... "oh you know, older and wiser!"

It's been a quietish start for Worley-Roberts, her stack just a touch below its starting point.

3:40pm: Ante Up
The introduction of antes will no doubt serve to foster action as the pots become just that teensy bit more juicy whilst the cost per round for every player has a small but potentially increase also.

War is on the verge of breaking out we feel.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200-25

3:25pm: Over and Out
20,000 chips sounds like a lot, but it is no insurance against elimination if events and cards conspire against you - especially in today's aggressive games.

Richard Steele, Danilo Oppo and David Stonehouse are the latest men to sup from the acrid chalice of bitter defeat.

3:04pm: Berry Crushed
Ouch. A painful moment for Nicholas Berry saw a flurry of raises resulting in Amirreza Mogh moving all-in with [Ac][Jc] before Berry made a happy call with [Kd][Kh].

A healthy advantage remained in placed for Berry right up to the painful river of the [Ts][8c][6h][Jd][As] board - Mogh spiking to sweep up a big pot and jump close to the chip lead in the tournament.

Berry meanwhile took a huge hit to his stack and hopes and in fact has been unable to mount a comeback, leaving his table moments ago.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2:50pm: Zihni takes hit
With 20,000 stacks, the players can afford to take a hit or two, but it's not something you want to make a habit of.

Moments ago, we saw Ali Zihni call a bet on a [Jc][Qc][8h] board, before checking back when checked to him on the [8d] turn card.

On the straight and flush-completing [Kc] river, his opponent quickly fired out a bet, and though Zihni didn't look happy about it he made the call, only to get the bad news that his opponent's K-Q for top two pair was good.

"I had A-Q," he lamented, his stack damaged but not yet in the danger zone.

2:35pm: Hippodrome Heroes
Allan Pike has some pedigree here at The Hippodrome Casino, having won the Spring Classic last year, defeating JJ Hazan heads-up for the title.

Other players dotted around the playing arena who have impressive local chops include Mike Lee (Autumn Classic Winner 2014) and Tim Wong (2nd in 2014 Winter Classic>)

Wong's run to 2nd place was particularly memorable, given he returned for the day with just 6BBs and performed an incredible spin-up. Whilst he will no doubt hope he doesn't have to repeat those unlikely heroics, it will doubtless be of some comfort to him knowing that if he gets short, things can always turn around for him.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

2:25pm: Garrulous Zhini quiet for once
Al Zhini is a fun, bubbly character but his usual loquacious manner was stunned into silence as he sparred with Dave Curtis in a bit of light hearted banter.

Filling the air with chatter, Dave responded to one of his comments with "I look forward to hearing your bad beat story later," which elicited gales of laughter from the surrounding rail.

Zhini grinned, taking the jibe in the jovial manner it was intended but for once was stumped for a pithy comeback.

2:12pm: Dempsey takes day off from golf
James "Flushy" Dempsey may have a WSOP bracelet and WPT title in his locker room but he has been spotted more often on golf greens than at the poker table in recent times.

"It's raining today," he said explaining his decision to stay out of the clubhouse for once. "The last few events I've played, I've been knocked out by Willie Tann and bashed up by Barney Boatman. The old school are coming after me!" he revealed with a grin.

2:00pm: Cards are in the air
The players have filled in their paperwork, dotted their i's crossed their t's and are strapped in for the long haul. The prizepool is constantly rising and we'll be able to give you the full and final total around 5:00pm once all the late registrants have been tallied.

For now though the room is resounding with the sounds of chips being clicked back and forth. Day 1B is in effect!

Welcome back to The Hippodrome where Day 1B of the UKIPT Season 5 is on the cusp of bursting into life.

Yesterday's Day 1A saw a compact field of 78 runners whittled down to 21 by the close of play, Joseph Pateman racking up a sizeable 165,000 come the close to see him top the chip rankings.

Close behind was Romanian Gabrile Gusetoiu with 154,500. These are the men today's entrants can lock their sights on. Being a Saturday, we anticipate a larger and more chaotic field today. The weekend brings with it feelings of freedom and exuberance for many, liberated from their day job for several precious days and this should translate into some fresh, exciting action at the felt.

A quick note on the structure. Each player gets around 20,000 in chips, the blinds will rise every 30 minutes, till all 12 levels of the day have been played out and late registration will be available until the start of level 5 (around 4:15pm.)

We're just gathering up all the information about today's plucky entrants and will be relating all the action from the start of the tournament at 2:00pm. Later on, with all the numbers in, we can take a look at the prizepool and start to identify the larger stacks as the day progresses but for now, we wish everyone the best of luck.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT5 Series 1 brought to you by Rod Stirzaker. Photos courtesy of Mickey May.

8:50pm: Rachael Costa Leads chip counts at close of play
The final counts have been tallied and it is Rachael Costa who finishes atop them by the smallest whisker of a margin - her 176,600 pipping Dutchman Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert's 176,500.

"My table was crazy!" she said of what had been the most aggressive of the seat draws throughout the day. Her impressive accumulative exploits mean she will take the overall chip lead through to the final Day tomorrow.

WSOP and WPT winner James Dempsey also made it through the day (on that same crazy table) with 85,900. "I've got a train to catch back to Brighton!" the bobble-hatted poker crusher yelped as he quickly bagged and tagged ready for his nightly commute to the south coast.

A full list of the 21 players who made it through the day, along with their final counts can be found here.

The combined survivors from Days 1A and 1B can be found here.

The table draw for tomorrow's play will be made available at the casino on arrival and we will post this up to the blog then as well.

That brings today's play to a close! It's been aggressive, all-out, hardcore poker all day long and we've thoroughly enjoyed an entertaining day's play. Tomorrow will see the two flights of survivors from day 1A and 1B combine to play to a finish.

We'll be starting things off bright and early at 12:00pm (clocks go forward, shaving an hour off tonight's partying/ tomorrow's sleep - don't forget).

Join us then as we play through to the winner! Thanks for following, we'll see you tomorrow as we continue the bid to crown a UKIPT Series champion.

8.45pm: End of play
The final hand of the day has played out. 21 players remain of the 81 who started the day and with all the chips bagged and tagged the staff are just collating the chip counts so we will be able to give you the full picture shortly.

8:30pm: Van Den Bogert causing mayhem
The sole Dutchman in the field is causing havoc at his table and he may well be the chip leader right now.

Most recently he bet 20,000 on the river of a [7c][Th][Jh][5h][4d] board, eliciting a call from Colin Marks, who mucked when Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert showed his [Qh][6h] for a flush.

"I'm really surprised you called a raise with that hand," Marks remarked as Van Den Bogert smiled and raked in a big pot.

Soon after, the Dutchman won a flip to send another unfortunate to the rail - his king-jack spiking a jack to defeat pocket fives.

He is up over 150,000 now, certainly contending the chip lead.

8:20pm: Restart tomorrow at 12:00pm
A quick reminder that tomorrow's play will be kicking off at the earlier start time of 12:00pm. The clocks will also be moving forward so those late night drinks are going to be extra painful if they are extended. Be sensible remaining players!

8:18pm: Vanquished Warriors
22 remain as we approach the finish of the day. Here are the latest players who have been unable to swerve the evil machinations of the poker gods.

Well played all for making it so deep!

Gary Pearce
Mats Dag Rosen Pihl
Sameer Singh
David Alderton
Benyamin Abrishamchi
David Gasian
George Alexander
Mia Dac Liu
Allan Pike
Siavosh Ardabili
Dominic Wells

8:10pm: Final Furlong
It's been an incredibly fast day's play. Just 24 remain right now and we may even have time to consolidate the remaining players down to two tables if this incendiary knockout rate continues.

It will be an exciting finish to the day for sure. Keep them locked on this spot.

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

7:55pm: "My head is spinning"
Dempsey is struggling to come to terms with some of the plays at his table.

Most recently he saw three players go to war preflop - Colin Marks picking up some great action with pocket jacks versus two ace-sevens.

A big favourite preflop, the board run out kept him in front and he sends two opponents packing to the rail as his stack rises to an auspicious 95,000.

7:40pm: Big battle settled by the kings
The blinds have risen to a significant level now and the players are battling hard to steal and re-steal them.

Aneris Adomkevicius and Luca Gavazzi are the latest pair to go to war - a huge pot playing out button versus big blind as a series of raises eventualy saw Gavazzi move all-in for his 43,000 stack - Adomkevicius covered.

The Lithuanian had a long think about this before quietly announcing "I'll call" and pulling out his phone to take a picture of his all-in stack.

"I'd move your chips over the line before they muck your hand if I were you," advised a tablemate, Adomkevicius obliging before turning up A-Q to Gavazzi's superior [Kh][Ks].

A board of [Jh][Js][8d][4c][9s] saw the Italian send his foe to the rail - his stack now up in the 80,000 region.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600-200

7:30pm: Flushy flushed
Mark Thomas has just put a dent in Dempsey's stack.

A family pot brewed with the pair in the blinds and 2 other limpers also partaking in the action.

A board of [Tc][8c][6h] saw Thomas check to Dempsey who fired out 3,100, called in one spot before Thomas check-raised allin for around 15,000.

Dempsey rubbed his bobble-hat-covered temple before raising to 35,000 and isolating the all-in player.

[As][Th] for Dempsey, [6c][7c] for Thomas.

"Oh I'm miles ahead," said Thomas with his big draw, an impassive Dempsey watching on as the board completed [Ac][Js] to give Thomas a winning flush.

For those interested in the statistics, Thomas was indeed a 59.3% favourite on the flop. He continued to tell all and sundry how pleased he was with the hand over the next five minutes. Dempsey quietly adjusted his bobble hat and his prospects - his stack down to around 50,000.

7:15pm: Field schythed down
The field is thinning fast now. We have a swathe of elimination news to share with you. All the following will not be champions this year.

Thissa Desilva United Kingdom
Kelly Saxby USA
Peter Upton United Kingdom
Thomas Grundy United Kingdom
Michelle Bricknell United Kingdom PokerStars Player
Paul Allen United Kingdom
Tomasz Deptula Poland
Alexis Savvides Cyprus
Nilay Ganatra United Kingdom
Begoña Guedes Fernandez Spain
Deborah Worley-Roberts USA
John Sloat USA
Colin Chalmers United Kingdom
Richard Shiels United Kingdom
Munaaf Ghumra United Kingdom
Stefanos Moysidis Greece

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200-200

7:00pm: Leaders of the Pack
Here are the top ten chip leaders as we speak - Christopher Yong doing an excellent job of maintaining the momentum he created during the first four levels of the day:

Christopher Yong Malaysia 107 98300
Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert Netherlands 41 95000
Sandra Reid United Kingdom 135 91200
Gary Pearce United Kingdom 64 73300
Matthew Shiels United Kingdom 55 65200
James Dempsey United Kingdom 27 58500
Thissa Desilva United Kingdom 54 56800
Richard Heron Ireland 37 51800
Amirreza Davoudzadeh Iran 22 48000
Nicholas Stylianou United Kingdom 32 47800
Luca Gavazzi Italy 43 47000
Tim Hong Wong United Kingdom 58 46700
Rachael Costa United Kingdom 72 44000

6:50pm: Dempsey on the charge
It's been a healthy second tranche of levels for James Dempsey who has chipped up to 60,000.

It could have been even better he revealed.

"I flatted ace-queen to an early position raise from a tight player and was three-bet behind me. I jammed it in and got called by ace-ten...but we chopped."

Despite this, things are going his way and he is confident as we head into the last third of the day. "I could end up with chips by the close!" he claimed.

6:40pm: Run-in to the final
20 minutes of R&R will have done the players' constitutions a world of good you'd have thought and they can now knuckle down and focus on finishing the day bagging up the maximum amount of chips their efforts and variance will allow. Good luck tigers.

6:20pm: Final Break!
It's been a swift day's play so far and the players are now taking their final break of the day before they return to plough through the last four levels.

We'll have news of the current chip leaders on the resumption so see you shortly!

6:15pm: Worley-Roberts secures precious double through
It's not been a good day for the bubbly Worley-Roberts, but she has made at least the first faltering steps back into the ranks of contenders with a much needed double-through.

Pushing her stack into the middle with [9d][5d], she looked in trouble when she was looked up by a tablemate's big slick.

"Diamonds are a girl's best friend!" she announced confidently and the dealer duly obliged peeling off two diamonds on the flop and a third on the turn.

Worley-Roberts sprung up and covered her unfortunate tablemate's eyes before retaking her seat with her chances given a boon.

6:02pm: Prizepool Information
The numbers are in! 160 players have contributed to a prizepool of £38,800.
18 places will be paid and the first prize will be a juicy £12,210.
A link to the full prizepool can be found here

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800-100

5:51pm: A Waterfall of Eliminations
What was once a thin trickle is gaining momentum and there is now a cascade of players hitting the rail at regular intervals. The blinds are really starting to bite.

Here are the latest victims of ill luck. Good games!

Camille Abram
Mike Lee
Benjamin Rogers
Conor Smyth
Ali Zihni
Haoran Cai
John Crouchley
Thomas Postlethwaite
Daisuke Mishima

5:30pm: Slick Zihni turfed out by cowboys
Ali Zihni's tournament has drawn to a close. Facing three-way action, Zihni saw his raise with big slick three-bet by an aggressive player, and flatted in one spot.

He felt like this was a great opportunity to make some chips and four-bet to 8,000, the aggressive player laying it down before the flat-caller made a surprising move, shoving for an additional 12,000.

Suspicious action, but Zihni was priced in to call and did so, only to discover his foe had pocket kings. The flop was no help and that was that for Zihni.

"I may have played that hand badly," he mused after his exit, although either way, it was a tough spot to escape from.

Good game sir.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600-75

5:25pm: Gone, but not forgotten
The following players have seen their hopes of further progression halted by the steel curtain of variance. Enjoy your future Saturday endeavours people!

James Edgington
Dennis Sandmark
Dimitrios Patroklou
Chung Hoang
Roman Sokolovskij
Austin Gontier
Daisuke Mishima

Click here for updates from levels 1-6.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT5 Series 1 brought to you by Rod Stirzaker. Photos courtesy of Mickey May.

7:05pm: Chris Yong is UKIPT5 Series 1 Champion!

That's it then. Chris Yong has bested his 160 competitors to reach the summit and become champion. He's been in rich form in recent times - his 5th place finish at UKIPT two months ago a taster of what was to come. Although his cash prize there exceeded 1st place here, outright victory will have perhaps tasted sweeter as his beaming face suggested.

"I've got a 100% final table record here now!" he gushed after winning, enthusiasm dripping from his every pore. Winning here has opened up opportunities for future tournaments as Yong revealed.

"I've been trying to satellite into [UKIPT] Nottingham but without success. I think I'll just buy in now," he said.

We'll see Yong at the next major stop on the UKIPT then and don't bet against this talented form horse.

We'll have a wrap of the days action up shortly, but for now thanks for following us on a fascinating day's poker and well done to Chris Yong!

6:45pm: It's all over!

That was a fast heads-up.

The pair first struck a deal to iron out the jump between first and second - Chris Yong taking £9,186 and Joe Pateman £7,819.

They then played on for £1,800 and the trophy and it was a whirlwind affair.

It looked like Pateman had the edge when the pair got it in on an [Ah][8s][9h] board, both with draws, but Pateman's [Kh][Jh] a decent favourite over Yong's [Th][Js].

It held and suddenly Pateman had the 2-1 chip lead.

Yong however fought back, flopping top two with [Kd][Qs] on a [Kc][Qh][7c] board and picking up a full double-up when Pateman flopped top pair with [Ks][3s].

Finally Yong finished him off in a cooler hand - Pateman going to war with tens preflop, only for Yong to find kings in the same hand.

"That was always going to do it," laughed Pateman as the board ran out with no help.

Just like that, we had a winner!

Pateman picks up £7,819 for his 2nd place finish. Congratulations on a fantastic run but it is Chris Yong who picks up the adjusted £10,986 for 1st place, along with the trophy and the plaudits.

He is beaming with joy at that win. Photos of the winner to follow shortly.

6:30pm: Heads - Up!
That dramatic elimination means Pateman and Yong are heads-up for the title. They are discussing deals at the moment - Yong with a 2.1 million to 1.1 million chip lead.

More news if negotiations reach some sort of conclusion...

6:22pm: Paul squeezed out (3rd)
Yong's relentless plundering of the blinds meant sooner or later someone was going to play back at him and Paul felt he was the man to do so.

Yong raised as per usual, Pateman made the call and now Paul jammed all-in for his entire stack from the big blind.

Yong elected to fold this time, but Pateman called quickly with a sneakily played pair of aces!

Paul could only table pocket eights, which were the second best hand by the time the board ran out [Qc][9c][3s][Js][Jc].

All over for Paul he collects a handy £4,305 for his third place finish.

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

6:10pm: Hitchens' tilt at title crushed in 4th
Mark Hitchens has found Chris Yong virtually unplayable today, Yong making his life misery in position.

Finally he found a spot to perhaps enact a small measure of revenge, shoving his smallstack from the small blind with [Qd][9d] and Yong making a pot odds call with [4h][5d].

Despite having the equity edge, Hitchens could only watch his hopes of finally winning a pot off Yong dissolve as the dealer found cards to better suit his opponent - the board peeling off [Kh][Kc][5h][6h][5c] to give Yong a winning full house.

Hitchens threw his hands up in mock despair, laughing it off, before sidling away from the table to collect the £3,105 his impressive run to 4th spot had garnered him.

5:50pm: Castro sees empire crumble(5th)
Jesus Castro has represented Spain with aplomb, shortstacked for virtually the entire day, he has shown the sticking power of a barnacle as he has hung in laddering spot after spot.

Finally though, his stack has been winkled off the table, Jason Pateman doing the damage.

With 174,000, and [Ad][9s] Castro found an easy button shove spot and did so, Pateman rubbing his chin, before making an understandable although dominated call with [Ah][2s].

The board however was kind to Pateman, running out [Ts][4h][3d][5d][7h]to give him the straight. A commiseratory handshake for Castro and he bows out in 5th place, good for £2,320.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 10,000-20,000-3,000

5:45pm: Yong on roll

Chris Yong is using his stack like a battering ram, raising almost every pot and winning 90% of them. His stack has risen to 1.4 million virtually without a showdown.

5:35pm: The chip kings

Here's how the final five line up right now, Chris Yong leading the way,

900,000 Christopher Yong Malaysia
743,000 Joseph Pateman United Kingdom
639,000 Richard Paul United Kingdom
629,000 Mark Hitchens United Kingdom
265,000 Jesus Castro Spain

5:25pm: Heron finally undone(6th)
It's not been a pleasant final for Heron card-wise.

He was unfortunate to fail to eliminate Gusetoiu earlier when his eights were undone by the Romanian's A-8 and he accidentally turned his cards face up when holding [Ad][Jd] in one hand versus Chris Yong.

Finally the pain is over however, his shove with [Qs][9c] picked off by Richard Paul's [Ac][4c].

The board threatened redemption before denying him at the last, coming off [Jc][3h][2s][Qh][5h].

"Horrible river," joked Heron as he departed with £1,745 in his pocket for his 6th place finish. Paul's spate of eliminations have seen him rise 3rd in the chip standings.

5:10pm: Gusetoiu out-kicked and kicked out in 7th
It's generally been a pretty aggressive tournament and when both Gabriel Gusetoiu and Richard Paul flopped top pair on a [3h][Jc][3c] board, neither were llikely to back down.

So it proved, the Romanian Gusetoiu betting out 50,000, Paul shoving and Gusetiou calling off his stack.

He held [Jh][Qh] but was crucially outkicked by Paul's [Kd][Jd] and when the board bricked out Gusetiou was out in 7th place, good for £1,260.

4:50pm: Hitchens finds ladies to tumble Brabin out(8th)

A desperate Richard Brabin went for a double up with a pretty-looking [Ac][Jd], but when Hitchen found an even prettier looking pair of queens and re-shoved to isolate, the writing was on the wall.

A board of [4c][7d][Ks][9h][Qh] did nothing for Brabin, Hitchen even finding time to unnecessarily improve to a set.

Brabin is out first elimination, out in 8th spot where he collects £1,025. Well played sir.
4:25pm: UKIPT Series Final Table Standings
The players have had a short break to catch their breath, congratulate each other and have their picture taken. The action will resume with the chip standings as follows:

1st - 859,000 Joseph Pateman United Kingdom

Day 1a's chip leader, 42 year old Joseph Pateman comes to the table still on top after "a good run of cards, and some decent play" kept him in pole position. He's been playing cards since the age of six, discovering poker (the 5-card Stud variety) at 18 and turning to NLHE 6 years ago. He's a multitasking casino employee in Brighton by day, but is always trying to find time to hone his live Hold'em tournament game, in which he feels most comfortable.

2nd - 780,000 Christopher Yong Malaysia

Chris Yong is a 26 year old trainee solicitor living in London. He started playing poker at school before moving into playing online at university. He likes to play cash games on the whole, but has started including more tournaments into his game as they are fun to play.

Chris is in a rich vein of UKIPT form, having made the final table at UKIPT London in January, where he finished 5th for £24,600.

3rd - 386,000 Richard Paul United Kingdom

This is CFO Richard Paul's second UKIPT Series final table after his 8th place last April here in London. He's looking to improve on £1,850, however, as 2014 was encouraging: he won £15,000 at Dusk Till Dawn alone. Originally a lover of all card games (especially types such as bridge), Londoner Paul, 54, has been playing poker for five years and greatly prefers live tournaments to their online counterparts.

4th - 330,000 Jesus Castro Spain

Jesus Castro, 25, has been living in London learning English for the past four months, originally calling Granada in Spain home. Counting himself as a semi-pro poker player, he's been playing for five years and has online results including a wins in the PokerStars Big $100 and $50. His live experience includes stops on the Estrellas Poker Tour where he cashed in the Main Event in Valencia last year.

5th - 315,000 Mark Hitchens United Kingdom

London-based Mark Hitchens, 49, works part-time as a health and safety consultant, leaving regular days open to concentrate on a game that has become a second stream of income for him, live poker. His best results have come at Dusk Till Dawn where a runner-up spot for £14,000 led to an added ticket in to the WPT, where he cashed for £6,000 the same week. He turned to poker six years ago after spending time, as he says, "Gambling in the wrong way; I quit the bookies and concentrated on a game with some skill in it!"

6th - 287,000 Richard Heron Ireland

Richard Heron is a 30 year old financial Investor from Dublin. He's predominantly been a cash game player over the last 7 years at $2-$4 and $5-$10 levels, rarely playing MTTs. He does plan to squeeze a few more UKIPTs and maybe EPTs into his schedule in the future given his success at this tournament, however.

7th - 113,000 Richard Brabin
Richard Brabin, 31, from Evesham in Worcestershire, has been playing poker for 10 years. He has his own catering business but loves to play live poker and although he nurses one of the short stacks on this final table will be looking to spin up a score to dwarf his previous best result, an online cash for €1,600.

8th 103,000 Gabriel Gusetoiu Romania

Tony Gusetoiu, 28, originally hails from Romania but now lives in London making his living as a rare combination of fitness instructor and poker pro. He's been playing for two years and prefers live tournament poker, recently finding success in the £770 UKIPT London Main event this January. Another of the table's short stacks, Gusetoiu hopes to better that result by coming 5th or higher.

To read updates from the start of the day, click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 1 from The Hippodrome Casino: Rod Stirzaker. Photos courtesy of Mickey May.

Day 2 of the UKIPT5 Series1 has played to a winner and it is Chris Yong who claimed dominion over his fellow players by blitzing his way to the title in quicksmart fashion here at The Hippodrome Casino.

"Well I feel great!" he said with a beaming smile following his win.

The steep blinds and snappy 30 minute levels always meant the day would play out with a degree of alacrity, but everyone was caught off guard as the 42 arriving players were whittled down to the final 8 in just a few dramatic levels.

Naturally there were some big name casualties falling in the wake of this meaty action. Rachael Costa came into the day with the chip lead and burning hopes that she could convert this position into a title-winning performance.

It wasn't to be though, Costa crashing out in a crucial hand, as Yong outflopped her pocket aces to win a huge pot. James Dempsey would also see his challenge fall on stony ground, a key coin flip derailing the WSOP and WPT winner's progress just prior to the cash spots.

Eventually the bubble was breached with Colin Marks, Luca Gavazzi and Evgenii Feiskanov all just failing to decorate their weekend with a hendon mob flag.

18 players however were left fist-pumping their glee at guaranteed remuneration and within a blink of an eye, these 18 were shorn down to our final table:

Joseph Pateman, United Kingdom, 859,000
Christopher Yong, Malaysia, 780,000
Richard Paul, United Kingdom, 386,000
Jesus Castro, Spain, 330,000
Mark Hitchens, United Kingdom, 315,000
Richard Heron, Ireland, 287,000
Richard Brabin, United Kingdom, 113,000
"Tony" Gabriel Gusetoiu, Romania, 103,000

The relentless pace refused to relent on the final (relentless paces are like that.)

Players dropped with clockwork regularity, Brabin, Gusteoiu and Heron departing in 8th (£1,025), 7th (£1,260) and 6th (£1,745) respectively.

Spaniard Jesus Castro massaged an impressively deep run of 5th out of his perenially-short stack, eventually unlucky to bust in 5th spot for £2,320.

Four-handed Chris Yong turned up the heat, raising virtually every hand and winning a very high percentage of these as he steam-rolled the table.

Hitchens was one man to suffer greatly at the hands of Yong and it was no surprise when Yong administered the final blow to his chances as Hitchens crashed out 4th to finish up with £3,105.

Three-handed, Joseph Pateman and Chris Yong held a healthy advantage over third-placed Richard Paul and he couldn't find a way to turn this around, his final offering a fine-looking squeeze that was unfortunate to run into a craftily-played pair of aces in Pateman's hands.

Third place beckoned for Paul, who collected £4,305 and that left Pateman and Yong to contend the title.

After hammering out a variance-crushing deal, the pair played on for £1,800 and the trophy and although Pateman briefly threatened to turn round the 2-1 deficit at the start of heads-up, Yong was not to be denied.

A kings versus tens cooler was enough to ensure Yong would be left clutching the trophy to add to his recent golden run, which also included a 5th place finish at UKIPT London.

"I have a 100% final table record here!" he was unsurprisingly keen to emphasise following the win.

Here's how the final table payouts finished up:

1st Chris Yong, Malaysia £10,986
2nd Joseph Pateman, United Kingdom £7,819
3rd RIchard Paul, United Kingdom £4,305
4th Mark Hitchens, United Kingdom £3,105
5th Jesus Castro, Spain £2,320
6th Richard Heron,, Ireland £1,745
7th Gabriel Gusetoiu, Romania £1,260
8th Richard Brabin, United Kingdom £1,025

This win ensures we will see Yong partake in the upcoming UKIPT Nottingham April 12th-19th, the main event guaranteed at a jaw-dropping £1 million.

Hopefully we will see you there too. Historic tournaments like this don't come along too often. Don't miss out on this slice of poker history. For now though, thanks for following.

To read updates from the day, click here for levels 20-23 and here for levels and here for levels 13-19.

Photos courtesy of Mickey May.

10.15pm: Rapinder Cheema wins UKIPT5 London and £78,825
It's all over here in London and Rapinder Cheema is the newest UKIPT champion. But spare a thought for Fernando Marin who will be wondering how in the world he lost this heads-up battle.

The biggest pot was actually not the final hand but it might have well as been. Pre-flop Cheema raised to 530,000 on the button, Marin shoved from the big blind and Cheema made the call. When the cards where turned over the situation looked like this:

Cheema: [Ad][2d]
Marin: [As][7d]

The stacks were very close so this hand was basically for the title. The [9c][8d][2s] flop gave Cheema the lead and Marin looked disgusted. He'd got it in good again but was now behind. The [3d] turn and [Kc] river kept Cheema in front and it was now time to count the stacks down.

Cheema had 8,940,000 whilst Marin had 9,350,000 so was still in...just.

On the next hand Marin moved all-in for just over two big blinds with [9d][5h] and Cheema called with [6h][6s]. The [6d][5d][9c] flop was a fine microcosm of this heads-up play as Marin hit the flop hard, but Cheema had hit it even harder!

The [8h] turn and [2c] board meant Rapinder Cheema is the champion of UKIPT5 London whilst Fernando Marin finishes second for £74,275. -- NW

Blinds up: 100,000/200,000, 30,000 ante

10.15pm: Chips for Cheema as he doubles
It had been brewing and after Fernando Marin made his standard raise of 330,000 on the button, Rapinder Cheema moved all-in for 4,165,000 and Marin made a quick call.

Marin: [Kh][Qd]
Cheema: [Jc][10d]

Marin was five cards away from the title with the best hand, but it didn't hold as a [As][Jd][5h][6h][7c] board meant Cheema doubled up to 8,330,000 and Marin slipped to 10m. -- NW

10pm: Back and forth
The chips are just flowing back and forth at the moment. No major action to report, but Rapinder Cheema is up to about 3,900,000 whilst Fernando Marin has dropped to around 15.8m. -- NW

9:49pm: More for Marin
Fernando Marin has increased his chip lead further and is up to around 16.2m whilst Rapinder Cheema is down to 3.5m. You sense he's going to take a stand soon. -- NW

9:39pm: Fernando Marin doubles through Rapinder Cheema
Big swing in chips now and Fernando Marin is now in a very dominant position indeed.

He opened to 425,000 and then called all-in when Rapinder Cheema shoved from the big blind, Marin was at risk for 6,885,000 total.

Marin: [As][Qs]
Cheema: [Qd][9s]

The [10c][4s][7h][2d][5s] board kept the Spaniard in front and he now has 13,770,000 to Cheema's 5,000,000. -- NW

9:35pm: Changing of the guard
Rapinder Cheema now has the chip lead. There's been no major pots, just a couple of three-bets that have got through. He's up to 11,500,000 whilst Fernando Marin is down to 8,000,000. -- NW

9:25pm: Raps fast out the traps
Rapinder 'Raps' Cheema is up to 8,500,000 after all but doubling through Fernando Marin.

Marin made it 320,000 to go and Cheema called from the big blind. The [3c][Qc][6h] flop was checked through and the [Ac] fell on the turn. It checked to Marin, he bet and Cheema made the call.

On the [4s] river Cheema checked again, Marin bet 1,300,000 and called after Cheema check-raised to 3,000,000 total. Cheema turned over [jc][10c] and it was good. -- NW

Blinds up: 80,000/160,000, 20,000 ante

9:15pm: It's a deal
Shortly before heads-up play started the two players struck a deal. There's still £15,000 to play for but they've flattened the structure a touch. Fernando Marin is now guaranteed £74,275 whilst Rapinder Cheema has locked up £63,825. -- NW

9:05pm: Off we go
Heads-up play is under way here at The Hippodrome Casino in London. -- NW

8:55pm: Another worthy winner
The Main Event trophy isn't the only one that'll be handed out today, as well as the London Cup, Deepstack Turbo and Ladies events trophies one player got his hands on a very well deserved trophy today.

Back in October after a season long battle against Max Silver, Tomasz Raniszewski and David Lappin to name just three, Daragh Davey sealed the UKIPT4 leader board title in the glamorous environs of a £300 side event at UKIPT London.

Over the course of 16 months and 11 festivals Davey took on all comers and beat them. A deep run to third position at UKIPT4 Galway may have got the ball rolling but as well as two further cashes in UKIPT Main Events it was his prowess over a range of buy-ins and games that earned him the title. From pot-limit Omaha double chance events to no-limit Hold'em turbo 'Win the button' events Davey cashed them all and his title is thoroughly deserved.

Well played to Davey and we'll be seeing a lot more of him on the tour in 2015 as his prize for winning the leader board is hotel and entry to all events in 2015. -- NW

8:55pm: Heads-up chip counts
The players are on a short break and when they return to do battle Fernando Marin will start with a 13,885,000 chip stack, whilst Rapinder Cheema has 4,970,000. Below's a reminder of what they're playing for:

1st. £95,100
2nd. £58,000

-- NW

8:45pm: Martin Hanham eliminated in third place (£41,000)
Martin Hanham had shoved three times and get it through on each occasion, but on his exit hand he was the one doing the calling after Fernando Marin had set him in from the small blind for his last 1,800,000.

Hanham turned over [8c][8d] and he was racing for his tournament life against Marin's [Ad][9d]. The [9h][3h][3c] flop gave Marin the lead and there was no way back for Hanham on the [Qc][ turn and [4h] river.

The tube driver can buy plenty of oysters with the £41,000 he's won here this week. -- NW

8:35pm: Buzz has quietened, focus is on
Since Lawrence Bayley and his incessant stream of wry observations have been excised from the tournament, the players have gone into their shells a little - at least verbally.

Conversation is minimal - these guys just want to play to a winner.

So far three-handed Marin has been the busiest - raising every single button and occasionally three-betting late position raises, he is slowly but surely wearing Hanham and Cheema down at the moment as he moves up to the 11 million chip mark.

They still have stacks capable of hurting him though so a big pot could see the power balance shift.. --RS

8:15pm: Marin shows some frustration
Could we just have seen the first crack in the hitherto impenetrable force that is Fernando Marin?

He called a 325,000 pre-flop raise from the small blind after Rapinder Cheema had opened on the button. The [2d][Qd][2c] flop was checked through and the [5s] fell on the turn. First to act was Marin and he led for 325,000, call from Cheema.

The [10d] rounded things off and both players elected to check, Cheema showed [Ad][10h] and Marin slammed his cards face-up on the table to reveal he'd been holding pocket eights. -- NW

8:05pm: Back to crown the champion
The remaining three potential champions are back at the felt looking to turn that potential into tangible return.

Can anyone beat Spanish sensation, chipleader Fernando Marin? -- RS

7:50pm: End of level 29; Break it up
Three handed for the title, the players are taking a short 15 minute breather before they return to play to a winner.

Here's how they line up right now:

Fernando Marin: 10,340,000
Rapinder Cheema: 5,005,000
Martin Hanham: 3,010,000.

See you in 15 minutes.

7:40pm: Marin and Cheema the main protagonists
In the opening exchanges of three-handed play it's Fernando Marin and Rapinder Cheema who've been making most of the running. Marin has won the most pots and he's put Martin Hanham to the ultimate test a couple of times.

But, he's had the roles reversed against Cheema, on two occasions Cheema has shoved over Marin's opens for over 40 big blinds. On the second time Marin showed [A][9] and Cheema showed just a seven as he took the pot. -- NW

7:30pm: Lawrence Bayley eliminated in fourth place (£31,000)
Lawrence Bayley thought his exit hand was a bit of a slowroll on the part of Rapinder Cheema, who's playing his first ever live tournament, we'll let you be the judge of that though.

Down to just 1,750,000 Bayley three-bet shoved over the top of Cheema's 250,000 chip open. Back on Cheema he got a count, tanked for a bit and then called.

Cheema: [10h][10d]
Bayley: [3d][3c]

The board came [9c][5s][7c][10s][7s] and meant Cheema made a full house to eliminate Bayley in fourth place. So Bayley's entertaining tournament comes to an end and it's back to clicking buttons for the Supernova Elite. -- NW

7:25pm: Cheema injured by Marin
Fernanado Marin has had a fantastic final table. Most of his moves have worked out and his stack has increased steadily throughout.

He just took a huge leap toward the title by winning a big pot off his major stack rival, Rapinder Cheema.

Cheema had raised preflop and bet every street of the [Kd][7c][4d][7h][8h] board for 300,000 (call), 300,000(call) then 350,000. The last bet however saw Marin now raise instead of call, making it 825,000 if Cheema wanted to see his cards.

He was too curious to fold his top pair, calling with K-T only to get the bad news Marin had spiked the turn and had A-7 for trips.

Marin now up to 9 million, he is really starting to crush the final. Can anyone find a rush of cards to decimate his lofty towers of chips? -- RS

7:10pm: Bayley under the cosh
After playing that tension-filled pot with Marin earlier, Lawrence Bayley was pushed into a tough place once more, Rapinder Cheema the man to apply the pressure this time.

Bayley raised the button to 200,000 and Cheema peeled from the big blind.

Cheema saw the [Jd][7h][3s][8s][5c] board and just took off, betting 300,000 on the flop ( call) 350,000 on the turn (call) and 500,000 on the river (tank)

Bayley looked really perplexed at what Cheema could have "It just doesn't make sense!"

He tried his best to elicit some information from his opponent, pleading friendship, asking regular questions, suggesting hands but Cheema had turned statue-esque and refused to respond to external stimuli anymore.

Eventually Bayley threw his hand away. "Live to fight another day he said," though his stack has been reduced to below 2 million and he will be starting to move into shove/fold mode soon. Cheema meanwhile is up to 6million.

"All the interesting hands are coming at the end of the tournament," he commented smiling. -- RS

7:10pm: Double for Hanham
A simple, classic hand here.

200,000 raise from Cheema again, a 1.7 million shove from Martin Hanham, a snap call from Cheema - we had an all-in!

The showdown was about as flippy as it gets [Ah][Ks] for Cheema, [9c][9d] for Hanham.

The board ran out [Jc][Jh][2s][7c][4h] and it was Hanham who had run the allin gauntlet successfully once more - his stack now with a little more potential at 3,500,000 whilst Cheema loses those chips he just won from Yong. -- RS

7:00pm: Yong eliminated in 5th place
Christopher Yong has had his moments on the final table, but overall it's been a pretty tough experience for him. To be fair he doesn't seem to have had the best of cards at times, and once more the deck conspired to ensure he was pipped to the post - his 14 BB reshove with A-9 running into the pocket kings of Rapinder Cheema, who had min -raised from UTG.

A king on the [Kd][6s][3d] board pretty much sealed the deal and once the formalities of a [9c] turn and [5s] had been revealed, it was handshakes and farewells for Yong, busted in 5th place for a very healthy £24,600.

Cheema climbs to 7 million chips-- RS

Blinds up: 50,000/100,000, 10,000 ante

6:50pm: Marin puts Bayley in the hurt locker
Sound the big pot klaxon!!

Lawrence Bayley just went through a tournament's worth of emotion in the space of one hand but he was gracious enough to say: "great bet, whatever you had," to Fernando Marin at the conclusion of the hand.

The action started with Bayley raising to 150,000 from the cut-off and Marin defending from the big blind. The [4h][Jd][8h] flop was checked through, giving little indication of the fireworks that would follow. On the [6d] turn Bayley bet 205,000, Marin check-raised to 720,000 and Bayley smooth called.

The [5s] completed the board and Marin announced that he was all-in, he was the covering stack so the shove was for an effective 2,600,000 or so. Bayley rocked back in his chair and said: "fair play to you, you've given me a very tough decision." He then eyed up the rest of the stacks at the table which were roughly:

Rapinder Cheema - 2,900,000
Martin Hanham - 1,350,000
Christopher Yong - 1,500,000

Perhaps ICM considerations were playing a big part in Bayley's thinking and given his online background it's a distinct possibility. Bayley began talking through the hand and said to Marin. "What seven can you have?"
"You want a clue?" asked Marin.
"Yes," said Bayley."
"I don't have a seven," said Marin.
"So you've merged two pair or a set then?" responded Bayley.

Eventually Bayley elected to fold and fight another day. "You were losing," said Marin as he stacked the chips. "Yeah but you're Spanish and you always bluff," said Bayley with a grin.

Who was winning? We'll never know but Marin is up to 9,300,000 and has half the chips in play. -- NW

6:40pm: Marin gets shoved on
Two hands, two raises from Fernando Marin, two shoves and two folds from the Spaniard.

First to take him on was Martin Hanham, he shoved for 1,550,000 over Marin's 175,000 open and the Spaniard folded after getting a count.

On the next hand it was Christopher Yong's turn to shove over his raise, this time for 1,105,000.

The Spaniard gave it up once more, he seemingly won't be able to bully this table at will. -- NW

6:30pm: Marin hoovering up chips
Fernando Marin is increasingly moving away from the chasing pack and he's up to 8.3m after winning a big pot against Rapinder Cheema.

The hand started with Marin raising to 175,000 from under-the-gun, Cheema three-bet from the big blind to 450,000 and Marin elected to peel. On the [5c][10c][9s] flop Cheema c-bet 550,000 and Marin smooth called.

The [7h] fell on the turn and Cheema slowed down, Marin didn't though as he bet 800,000 and Cheema folded to leave himself with a stack of roughly 3m. -- NW

6:20pm: Paul Simmons eliminated in sixth place (£18,600)
When you've shoved and Lawrence Bayley asks for a count beware, he's about 95% likely to call you.

Once again, this proved the case as Paul Simmons moved all-in from the cut-off and Bayley re-jammed from the small blind after a few of his infamous calculations.

You don't get to Supernova Elite without crunching some serious numbers with a fair degree of accuracy and Bayley once more was on the money, his call with pocket sixes +EV versus Simmons' range and specifically his hand [Ah][7c].

"Overs at least!" Simmons piped up optimistically.

There was a flip to be contested though, a pretty key one for both players, and the mainly baby board of [8d][4h][3h][4s][Qd] suited Bayley's hand better - his stack vaulting to 4.4 million as he sends Simmons to the rail in 6th place for £18,600,

It looks like Hanham the tube driver has bested Simmons the cabbie in the driver face-off.

"Well played Paul," Bayley said, shaking hands with another of his new friends before Simmons left to collect his money. --RS

6:10pm: Double for Hanman
Martin Hanman;s hands are tied really. His only realistic move when he decides to play a pot is to shove all-in. So when he found [Ac][7c] this met the requirements for his sub-10 BB stack's shove range and he did the bizzo.

The allin triangle was passed his way but when Cheema made the call off his big stack in the very next spot, he must've been a bit dubious about how good he would look at showdown.

As it was when everyone else folded, Cheema turned up an inferior hand, albeit one with plenty of equity (41%) - his [Qh][Jc] not far from flipping with Hanman's suited ace.

A board of [Kc][Td][5s][5h][8h] would have sent a few shivers down Hanman's spine but his ace-high was ultimately good and he moves to 1,500,000 - his biggest stack for some time, whilst Cheema remains big stacked with over 4 million. -- RS

5:55pm Which driver will reach their final destination first?
As well as two professional poker players, there's a tube driver and a cab driver at this final table. Unfortunately unless our drivers go through the gears they're not going to be part of this final table for that much longer.

Paul Simmons (cab) and Martin Hanham (tube) are the two shortest stacks right now and it's Hanham's tournament that looks as if it could be derailed imminently. He's dribbled down to around 715,000 and whilst Simmons has a bit more wiggle room with 1,315,000 he's only just got over 15 big blinds. -- NW

Blinds up: 40,000/80,000, 10,000 ante

5:40pm Break
The end of level 27 means the players are taking a well-deserved break. We'll be back in 15 minutes, but in the meantime enjoy these stack counts:

Fernando Marin - 6,510,000
Rapinder Cheema - 5,020,000
Lawrence Bayley - 2,490,000
Christopher Yong - 1,925,000
Paul Simmons - 1,455,000
Martin Hanham - 955,000

5:35pm: Marin vs Yong part III
This is probably an understatement, these two have come into, if not mortal, then significant conflict on several occasions at this final table.

The main reason for this is that Marin is the button to Yong's BB and he doesn't seem to like to give it up too easily.

Most recently he peeled a 120,000 button raise from Marin, the pair seeing a board of [9s][7d][2c].

Check from Yong, 135,000 from Marin raised to 340,000 from Yong. Marin called...

The turn saw the [7s] appear and Marin called Yong's second bullet of 455,000 in position. A final [Kd] on the river saw Yong fire his third and largest bullet - 715,000 the price to pay - but Marin pondered this before deciding his [Qh][9c] was too good to fold and it proved a perceptive call as Yong could only table the semi-bluffing [8c][6s].

Marin up over 6 million, Yong down to 1.7 mill. --RS

5:25pm: Yong gets some back
Christopher Yong and Lawrence Bayley have continued to battle and in their latest skirmish it was Yong who came out on top.

He raised to 125,000 on the button, Bayley three-bet to 320,000 from the small blind and Yong called the extra. On the [3c][8d][Ah] flop Bayley bet 240,000 and Yong smooth called once more. The [5h] fell on the turn and Bayley check-folded to a bet from Yong.

Yong then won a pot of roughly 800,000 against Fernando Marin and he's back up to 3,000,000, whilst Marin is down to 3,000,000 and Bayley around 2,600,000. -- NW

5:10pm: Final Table Profiles
Here are some short profiles of our 8 finalists for your consumption.

Please help yourself to a delicious slice of information.

5:04pm: Bayley pulls out the flair moves
It's a fine line between genius and madness, but Bayley just pulled off perhaps the most audacious move of the tournament so far, certainly one that required a healthy dose of bravery.

The hand started with Paul Simmons min raising the button to 120,000, Yong calling and a quick check of the stacks from Bayley in the big blind and he decided a squeeze was in order, making to 360,000.

Simmons looked highly disinterested in playing out this pot, throwing his chips into the muck...Yong on the other hand was not about to let this precocious whippersnapper steal the pot off him and after some thought four-bet to 600,000 to leave Bayley the one facing a potentially tough decision.

Bayley dived into the tank for 20 seconds or so emerging with his scuba gear dripping and instantly 5-bet to 1,050,000. Wowzer.

Yong thought about it but decided to muck, only for Bayley to flash [Qd][4d]. for a pretty impressive airball five-bet. Bayley's antics mean he's up to 3.4 million, Yong is entering the danger zone with just 950,000.

For completeness, the other stacks stand at:
Cheema - 5,000,000
Marin - 5,000,000
Simmons - 1,600,000
Hanham - 500,000

"Sorry about showing the hand, it was for the table," Bayley later explained.

"Haha no problem. I thought it might be something like that" Yong replied with a smile that suggested all was forgiven. --RS

4:50pm: Marin causes Yong pain
Christopher Yong has been a somewhat peripheral figure so far in the final but he got involved moments ago, raising under the gun to 125,000, only for big stack Fernando Marin to put the pressure back on him, re-popping to 330,000.

A pensive Yong made the call and the pair went heads-up to an [Ac][8s][4d] board.

325,000 from Marin, a slow call from Yong. The turned [9d] saw Marin raise the price to pay to 650,000. Again Yong made the call.

Come the [7c] on the river, Marin considered this carefully before checking. Long deliberations from Yong eventually led to him checking also, Marin showing down [Ah][Jd] - evidently good as Yong quickly mucked. --RS

Blinds up: 30,000/60,000, 10,000 ante

4:35pm: Brett's in Bayley's corner
Brett Angell was philosophical about his exit and took to twitter to wish Lawrence Bayley good luck. -- NW

Game over! 7th, gave it my best shot! Gl to @bigstealer - yours to throw away #UKIPTLondon

— Brett Angell (@brett_angell) January 25, 2015

4:25pm: Brett Angell eliminated in seventh place (£13,300)
There will be no fairytale second title in back to back UKIPT Main Events for Brett Angell. The 'Boro boy shoved for 890,000 on the button with [Qs][8c] and Rapinder Cheema called from the small blind with [Ah][10c].

Cheema flopped Angell dead on a [10d]][10s][Ac] flop and Angell was up and shaking hands as the [4c] turn and [6c] river completed the board. -- NW

4:15pm: Bayley and Marin go to war
With the rising blinds shrivelling up the players' stack to blind ratios, mistakes at this point will be magnified and good decisions could make a huge difference to the payouts the players might receive.

Moments ago, we saw Bayley raise to 100,000 and Marin make the call from the button.

A board of [Th][9s][9d] saw Bayley make a slow check, Marin following suit.

The turned [4s] produced a second check from Bayley who was remaining quiet throughout the hand. Marin however was keen on making a move on the pot and bet out 100,000. Bayley called.

The river saw the [6c] appear - Bayley checked once more and Marin now bet out 355,000. Bayley went into "mental calculator" mode - eyes moving about as figures danced around in his head.

Finally he called, showing down A-Q for just ace high, but it proved an inspired call as Marin could only table [Ks][Js] for a missed draw and king-high.

Good stuff from Bayley, Marin looked annoyed at himself for losing those chips.

Bayley rises to 2,100,000, Marin drops just below the four million mark. --RS

4:05pm: Sorensen falls first in 8th place
Joakim Sorensen's short stack didn't afford him the luxury of passing up hands like [Ac][Jh] so when he looked down at such a pretty hand, he did what all poker players with a shortstack must do - shoved from under-the-gun.

A reshove from Paul Simmons UTG+1 didn't bode well and when everyone else elected to pass (Rapinder Cheema briefly considering getting involved before throwing his hand in the muck) it was left for Simmons to showdown [Ah][Kh] for a dominating hand.

A board of [Kd][9h][2d][4h][Qs] sealed the Swede's fate and he departed to a smattering of applause to collect the £9,138 his 8th placed berth was worth.

"Congratulations on the pay jump chaps," Bayley added, although he was polite enough to wait till Sorensen was out of earshot first. --RS

3:50pm: Let's get this final started
The final table has been set up on the main stage here at The Hippodrome Casino and the players are now in their seats ready for the show to start. Tournament Director Toby Stone has just done the introductions and cards are back in the air. It's Fernando Marin who leads but all eyes are on Brett Angell who is not only attempting to win a second UKIPT title but back to back UKIPT Main Events.

Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,840,000
Christopher Yong, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 3,510,000
Lawrence Bayley, United Kingdom, 1,930,000
Martin Hanham, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,805,000
Brett Angell, United Kingdom, 910,000
Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, 3,590,000
Fernando Marin, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 4,055,000
Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, 715,000

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

Season 5's London UKIPT has just been played to a winner and Rapinder Cheema is the man who felled all rival contenders to claim the title here at The Hippodrome Casino London.

After defeating Fernando Marin heads-up and collecting the £78,825 first place prize money(after a deal was struck heads-up), the inexperienced Cheema was happy if a little exhausted following the experience.

"It's a good feeling" he said with a weary smile. "I'm a bit drained. I need to work on my stamina!"

Cheema then went on to make the astonishing revelation that "I've never won a poker tournament before!"

The final stage of the London UKIPT had started with just 26 hopeful runners remaining from the colossal 742-strong field that burst through The Hippodrome Casino's doors five days previously.

The day held great promise - the field replete with established and potential superstars. Two of the men remaining who have already built themselves watertight poker reputations were Ireland's second highest tournament cash winner Andy Black and celebrated Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman.

Fans aplenty were willing on deep runs for these talented vets, but the poker gods were deaf to such entreaties today, both players falling during the early stages. Boatman's day was as brief as they come, a first hand dismissal at the hands of Brett Angell leaving him wondering whether he should just have enjoyed a lie-in this morning.

Angell was one of the players gunning for a place in the UKIPT history books. Having won the previous London UKIPT, Angell had the potential to be the first man to defend his UKIPT crown at the same event. The early stages were kind to him - his stack rising during an imperious run which saw him through to the final table.

Meanwhile previous UKIPT Isle of Man finalist Jamie O'Connor was looking to convert his stack and skills into a win. It wasn't to be however, O'Connor falling victim to the loquacious Lawrence Bayley before the day was out. Bayley proved a lively presence throughout - his convivial banter and conspicuous array of poker skills illuminating his run to the final table.

Eventually the returning 26 were whittled down to just 8 players - overnight chip leader Andrew Mytton the man to be eliminated on the final table bubble.

Thus the final table was set!

Here's how the remaining eight lined up to take their shot at the title, the blinds standing at 25,000/50,000/5,000.

Seat 1: Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, 1,840,000
Seat 2: Christopher Yong, United Kingdom, 3,510,000
Seat 3: Lawrence Bayley, United Kingdom, 1,930,000
Seat 4: Martin Hanham, United Kingdom, 1,805,000
Seat 5: Brett Angell, United Kingdom, 910,000
Seat 6: Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, 3,590,000
Seat 7: Fernando Marin, United Kingdom, 4,055,000
Seat 8: Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, 715,000

Once they got started the lone Swede at the table, Joakim Sorensen, didn't take long to get involved, unloosing the full clip of his stack with ace-jack in late position, only to run into Paul Simmons holding a dominant ace-king. He Sorensen proved unable to spike himself out of trouble, finishing 8th for £9,138.

Angell's fairytale run ended agonisingly close to that historic second title but fell short - Rapinder Cheema picking the Middlesborough native's desperate blind steal off before flopping a full house to shoot down his pursuit of back to back titles.

Angell can still be proud of the incredible feat of back to back final tables at the same event and the £13,300 he claimed for 7th will be some consolation when he reflects on what has been an accomplished week's poker

.

Six-handed now, there was a hiatus in eliminations, some good quality poker seeing every remaining player fight for a higher payout position.

Something had to give eventually and it was Paul Simmons who blinked first, the cab driver's meter switched off by Bayley, when his [Ah][7c] failed to get there against Lawrence Bayley's sixes.

6th place for Simmons then - a well-merited £18,600 awaited him at the cash desk.

Christopher Yong had come into the final as one of the big stacks, but his successes in the latter stages were largely outnumbered by his setbacks. He owed much of this misfortune to poor luck from the dealer, although one moment where Bayley showed a streak of flair to outplay him with a 5-bet airball would have done little to increase his confidence.

Despite the hardships he suffered card-wise, the positive young player remained upbeat and smiling throughout - a friendly presence right up to the moment Rapinder Cheema dusted his ace-nine off with pocket kings to consign him to 5th place (£24,600.)

Lawrence Bayley had played out a confident and virtually flawless final table until the latter stages - no surprise perhaps given his Supernova Elite status on PokerStars.

A few big set backs however rocked both his mindset and his chip stack and when his pocket three re-steal ran into the rampaging Cheema's pair of tens, there was to be no redemption for the popular player - handshakes and good wishes the prelude to a trip to the cash desk to collect his 4th placed prize money - £31,000.

Martin Hanham came into the final relatively shortstacked but the professional Tube driver picked his spots with judicious care to navigate his way to third spot.

Ultimately though his last stop was to be 3rd place, the big-stacked Marin one barrier too many as a key coinflip derailed his bid for the title.

Considering his outlay for the tournament was a mere £5 token however, the impressive £41,000 he parlayed this minimal outlay into can be considered a massive success - a real inspirational story for all aspiring poker players.

Hanham's elimination left UK-based Spaniard Fernando Marin battling Rapinder Cheema heads up - Marin with the 3-1 stack chip lead. The pair did a deal to flatten the pay structure and were left playing on for £15,000, the trophy and the title.

On the face of it Cheema appeared to have everything working against him - fewer chips, very little experience of live tournaments and up against a confident opponent in Marin who had been crushing the final table.

What Cheema did have going for him was fearless optimism, tenacity, and a dash of fortune. In the final analysis, this combination served him well.

A blistering series of showdown wins saw Cheema ride the waves of fortune to turn the tables on Marin and snatch the title and first prize money £78,825 from the Spaniard's hands. Marin won't be too disappointed - his high class performance netting him an impressive £74,275 in prize money.

Here are the full results from the final:

1st. Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, £78,825*
2nd. Fernando Marin, Spain, PokerStars Qualifier, £74,275*
3rd. Martin Hanham United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier £41,000
4th. Lawrence Bayley United Kingdom £31,000
5th. Christopher Yong United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier £24,600
6th. Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £18,600
7th. Brett Angell, United Kingdom, £13,300
8th. Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, £9,138

*Deal agreed heads-up

Congratulations to Rapinder Cheema for a great result here in London. Delighted but exhausted, family man Cheema is eschewing drinks at the bar to rush home and see his five year old child and family.

"I do it all for them anyway." What a champ.

Well that brings an end to our coverage of the London UKIPT.

To read full updates from the day, click here for the levels leading up to the final table.

Click here for the final table updates.

The inaugural tournament on the UKIPT season 5 schedule has been full of excitement and memorable moments. It bodes well for the rest of the season, the next stop of which is Nottingham which will have a mouth-watering £1,000,000 guarantee.

Clear the dates April 13-20, 2015 from your diary as this will be one event at Nottingham's Dusk till Dawn you won't want to miss. Information regarding the event can be found here. Satellites start Tuesday 27th January.

We'll see you there but for now thanks for following.

All photographs are copyright of Mickey May.

If you've been waiting for the UK & Ireland Poker Tour to lock up its 2015 Season 5 dates before planning out the rest of the year, your wait is finished.

Today, the UKIPT announced the rest of its stops for this year.

Here is the nitty-gritty:

• Nottingham, April 12th-19th
• Marbella, June 15th-21st
• Bristol, August 6th-9th
• Isle of Man, October 1st-4th
• Edinburgh, November 19th-22nd

The next stop is bound to be a rocker. UKIPT Nottingham has already announced it will guarantee a £1,000,000 prize pool in the Main Event. The £1000 + £100 buy-in (single re-entry per day available) is the centerpiece of a big festival that will include the Nottingham Cup (£300+£30) and the UKIPT High Roller (£3000+£300).

You can register directly for Nottingham on PokerStars or play any of the satellites to win your seat on the cheap.

For more information about the next stop visit the UKIPT Nottingham page.

I have a theory to try out, so you might just have to indulge me for a second. I don't have a name for it yet, but it goes something like this.

When it comes to picking the poker title you most want to win, it's not the EPT Grand Final or the World Series Main Event; it's just whatever tournament you happen to be playing at the time. Let me elaborate.

Winning is what poker is supposed to be about. It's why you pay your entry fee to begin with. So while it'd be nice, we can't all win bracelets or EPT trophies, at least not yet. But that doesn't mean we can't win something else while we wait for that shot at glory.

This, conveniently enough, is where the UKIPT Series at the Hippodrome in London comes in, all set to go in central London from March 27-29.

It may be that you'll be in Malta for the latest stop on the European Poker Tour. In which case we wish you the best of luck and what's more we'll see you there. But for those who aren't the Hippodrome is offering a pretty good incentive to try to "win your next tournament" regardless, one with a £250 buy-in, a starting stack of 20,000 chips and 30 minute levels. And if you haven't played in the Hippodrome before, it's a great place to play cards.

So for a fraction of the cost of an EPT Main Event ticket, you can still win the next tournament you play, which is really all any poker player wants to do, isn't it? What's more you can win your seat to the UKIPT Series on PokerStars, with details of satellites on the PokerStars Blog. Think of it, that's TWO chances to win the next tournament you play!

So what do you think: "Win the next one" theory? How about "I want this one!" theory? It needs work. In the meantime we'll call it "Hippodrome Theory" and encourage you to make your way to Leicester Square in London for what will be a great few days. And while you're there let me know if any of this theory holds true.

Next year's Isle of Man UKIPT stop from October 1-4 will again overlap with the PokerStars Chess International from October 2-12. I can't wait to return to the PokerStars headquarters for a week of chess, poker and getting to know staffers over beers, turbos and dramatic walks.

The overlap of chess and poker makes a lot of sense to chess prodigy turned poker pro Jeff Sarwer, who said in a recent interview, "I don't like to call them sports or games, I think of them as exactly mindsports. A lot of things crossover, like patience and rhythm and discipline."

For poker players considering getting in on the action in the Isle of Man, I have some tips.

1. Center Pawns first

Bobby Fischer famously said that moving your king pawn forward on the first move, 1.e4 is "best by test."

Learning the first few moves of every opening is similar to having default preflop ranges in NLHE. When a certain move will surely arise at some point in your session, you have fewer excuses not to be prepared. There are plenty of apps where you can play casual games, from Chess With Friends to chess.com. Use an online opening book to see what the top players did in the first few moves.

My favorite opening is the "Sicilian Dragon", named for the shape of the pawn structure. It's characterized by the strong dark bishop square, the "dragon bishop."

2. Avoiding Tilt

In one of my favorite episodes of the Shark Cage, Slovakian women's chess champion Zuzana Borosova gets Heads-up with eventual champion Griffin Benger. I've never met Zuzana in person, but we have a lot of mutual friends in the chess world, and I thought she played great under the pressure. She even maintained her composure after losing a 65/35, which would have knocked out Benger and secured a spot in the final worth over $100,000 in equity.

In chess, you can't lose flips, but you can tilt after dropping a pawn or missing a key response. Rather than get angry at yourself and throw away the game, you should look for chances back into the game. Most amateur players will give you a chance or two. Even top players sometimes make outrageous errors. Take this example from former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who was playing Black and missed a mate in one move here (the white queen can simply move to the highlighted square.)

3. The Practice to Study Ratio

You must practice AND study to improve in chess. Studying the game from a theoretical point of view doesn't help if you aren't testing out those theories. Playing a variety of opponents, followed by a critical look at the games is a great way to improve.

4. Building Castles

In chess, just like in poker, you can often tell how strong someone is by how reluctant they are to make pointless generalizations. When I teach poker to a chess player, if they ask me questions like "How should I play ace-king from middle position," I explain to them that question sounds exactly like, "Is it good to get my queen on the e4 square?" The harsh reality is that every chess position is different and general rules won't get you far enough beat an average nine-year-old in a Scholastic competition.

There is one rule that you can adopt though. Castle!

That's the move in chess where your rook hops over your king, the only time you can move two pieces at once (the diagram on the left is before castling, the diagram on the right is after).

If aces is your favorite hand, castling should be your favorite move.

Well at least 85% of the time.

9:15pm: Pateman Heads Day 1A field
What a day it has been and with the players finished for the day, it is Joseph Pateman who heads the field- his stack a fulsome 165,000.

Pateman finishes the day clear of the pack but he had time for some regrets. "I had more earlier," he said with a touch of unbecoming glumness. By the time he reflects on his day later, we're sure he'll find plenty to smile about.

Gabriel Gusetoiu from Romania has also had a successful day - his 154,500 good for second place.

We'll be posting up the final chip counts shortly for your enjoyment and perusal. Just 21 players were left from the opening 78 that began their journey in the early afternoon.

They will return on Sunday, looking to turn their efforts today into something profitable, but before then another group of hopefuls will take to the felt looking to emulate the more successful denizens of Day 1A.

We expect a larger field tomorrow when we take up arms at 2:00pm and the poker should prove as compulsive as that we have witnessed today.

A quick reminder to the players that the clocks go forward an hour on Saturday night so don't have an accidental lie-in and miss one hour of blinds. That could prove very costly. For now thanks for following the coverage, well done to Joseph Pateman and have a lovely Friday night one and all.

We'll be back tomorrow at 2:00pm sharp for Day 1B. See you there!

8:43pm: Brave Pateman rises to chiplead
Two of the chipleaders just contended an interesting pot. We joined the hand on the turn of a [2c][6h][Td][Qc] board, Richard Paul betting out 6,500, only for Pateman to make a slow, deliberate check-call.

The river saw Paul quickly check and Pateman reach for chips before firing out 12,500.

This was a tough decision for Pateman and he mulled it over before making the call. "Nothing," said Paul ruefully whilst Pateman showed a nice call with just [Ah][6s].

Pateman rises to over 150,000, which looks like the leading stack at this time, whilst the previously rampant Paul drops to 120,000.

Gabriel Gusetoiu is also going well with 130,000.

We are playing the last few hands now...

8:14pm: Pace slows a touch
The remaining 24 players are closely huddled on three tables right now. There is a sense no one is keen to bust having battled through virtually the entire day and things have tightened up a little barring the odd shove from the shorter stacks.

Despite the drop in pace, these players have been unable to stave off the grim reaper.

It's been fun Ross Mannion, Carlos Citara, Mark McCluskey
and Lydia Cugudda.

We are especially sad to see Lydia bust given that she was the sole female remaining, keeping the clouds of testosterone from converging.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

7:58pm: The state of play
It's been a day replete with quick, dynamic play. No one has been able to shy away from the action, meaning we have seen nearly 2/3 of the field shorn away under avalanches of blind and player pressure.

Just 29 remain now as we head into the last few levels and we can expect the relentless jaws of variance to chew up and spit out more than a few of those still left in as these last few contend the final hour of poker.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600-200

7:44pm: Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel...
...is an oncoming train.

The following have seen their chances bulldozed by one of the rampant locomotives left chuntering through the field. Bad luck guys.

Struan Whiteley, Shaun Williams, Michael Tollervey, Wilson Chan, Timothy Lee-Davis, Yonatan Sagis are all gone-zo.

7:30pm: Dean of mean remains keen
David Dean is starting to amass a decent stack here, given a minor boost recently as he sent the short-stacked Christos Kyprianou to the rail.

Raising from early position, Dean saw Kyprianou move his small stack into the middle and the pair turned over their cards.

Pocket fours for Dean, [Ac][Td] for Kyprianou, a board of [Ks][4c][7h] saw Kyprianou's chances hanging by a sliver and finally they dropped into the pit of oblivion as the [7c] arrived to complete an impregnable full house for Dean.

Kyprianou made a swift exit whilst Dean has risen to over 40,000 now.

7:15pm: Germaine stack remains relevant
We referenced Jack Germaine as a potential threat early on in the tournament and he hasn't let us down, efficiently rising up the chip rankings, his stack now north of 80,000.

His latest coup saw him take on Jeffrey Baron, his pocket kings duly dusting off the Baron's sizes and sending his foe to the rail.

Germaine has quietly slipped into the top few chips spots.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200-200

7:05pm: JJ lets JJ down
With a name like JJ Hazan, you would have thought jacks would be the one hand you could rely on. Not so, it turns out, Hazan succumbing moments ago in a flip versus ace-king.

"Knocked out with jack-jack. The irony," Hazan muttered as he departed the tables, his hopes of a deep run curtailed in level 9.

6:58pm: Dark side of the moon
Sometimes it runs for you, sometimes it doesn't. These players haven't had the rub of the green and will not end the tournament rubbing greens.

Good game to the following. Friday night beckons.

Matous Kadula
Edward Johnson
Baglan Kuanov
Gary Brown
Martin Hellmuth
Paul Romain
Robert Barber
Daniel Smallman
Stephen Howell
Hilary Hin Cheung
Rikky Ben Wingate
Hok Wan Henry Zhang

6:52pm: Gunning for glory
So far so good for these players who together form the top 10 remaining players. All smiles and sunshine so far. Will it continue?

110100 Gabriel Gusetoiu Romania
90000 Jack Germaine United Kingdom
70800 Joseph Pateman United Kingdom
63600 Sam Miller Ireland
63600 Cheok Fan Lao China
63000 John Law United Kingdom
61500 Mark Hitchens United Kingdom
60500 Richard Paul United Kingdom
47100 John Dimitris Nikas Greece
47000 Richard Tongue United Kingdom

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000-100

6:45pm: House of pain back in effect
20 much needed minutes of refreshment enjoyed, the players have retaken their positions and continue their assault on the title, just 42 remaining in what has been a brutal day of poker so far.

The men who lead the charge to follow shortly.

6:25pm:Break it, shake it
The end of level 8 signals another 20 minute break for the players, during which time they could squeeze in a quick boogie if they should so wish. The card room has gone strangely silent, but will be revitalised shortly as we play out the final frantic 4 levels of the day.

We'll see you shortly!

6:21pm: Latest fallers
Much like the grand national early fences, players continue to fall thick and fast. Fortunately so far, none have broken their legs and been taken behind the shed to be sent to the giant golden haystack in the sky.

Hok Wan Henry Zhang, Rikky Ben Wingate, Hilary Hin Cheung, Stephen Howell will be thankful they are poker players, not horses, despite the fact their chips and chances have all evaporated.

6:10pm: Feiskanov builds recovery on house of ladies
Quiet Russian Evgenii Feiskanov has seen his stack take several hits in the early stages, but is threatening a recovery after winning a useful double-through.

The hand in question saw an early position raise called by JJ Hazan, before Feiskanov shoved for his sub- 10k stack. There was a quick call from the initial raiser, Hazan electing to throw his hand away.

Pocket eights for his foe, pocket queens for Feiskanov.

"I either had a queen or an eight, I'd rather not say," offered Hazan by way of contribution.

A decisive flop of [Qd][3s][3h] saw the Russian seize control of the pot. "Probably an 8 then," someone muttered, doing their best impression of Inspector Poirot.

The board ran out a redundant [4d][Jc] and Feiskanov rises back to close to 20,0000 once more.

6:00pm: Final Tally
With registration closed, the numbers are in and we have had 78 entrants today.

Of those just 2/3 remain - 55 players still in the running - the average stack 28,363 as we speak.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800-100

5:47pm: More vanquished warriors
This blind level has been a real watershed moment, players disappearing faster than we can monitor their exits.

The latest men to fell the cold hand of variance gently escorting them toward the exit include Shaun Debenham, Robert Brabin, Simon Nebesnuick, Martin Comitti and Ganapathy Samiappan.

It's carnage out here!

5:32pm: Pateman's aces hold for big double
Joseph Pateman just saw off Terence Jordan , Jordan making a big move which unfortunately ran into Pateman's bullets.

We caught the hands just as they were swept into the muck, it looked as though Jordan had [9h][6h] on the [Qd][5h][3h] board and went to war with Pateman, whose bullets held as the board ran out [5d][9c].

Jordan quietly grabbed his things and departed whilst Pateman was left smiling as he scooped in the pot and began the enjoyable job of organising his newly-won 40,000+ stack.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600-75

5:24pm: Done and dusted

Terence Jordan, Dean Perry, Matteo Vincenzi, Robert Drummond. Drummond was particularly unfortunate to run pocket queens into pocket aces. Bad luck - enjoy your Friday sir!

5:10pm: JJ Hazan finds juicy spot to double
It's not been an auspicious early few levels for JJ Hazan but he just made somewhat of a recovery moments ago, warring with a tablemate preflop and eventually getting his chips in with [Ac][Tc] - a small favourite over his opponent's [Kc][Jd].

A flop of [7h][6c][4c] gave Hazan a sizeable advantage with a flush draw and the run out of [8s][9s] saw his ace-high remain the best hand.

His opponent got up to leave the table, only to be called swiftly back as Hazan pointed out he only had 10,000 or so left at the start of the hand.

A double up sees him return to his starting stack of 20,000. As you were, troops.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400-50

4:55pm: Rail huggers
Not everyone can be crushing. Zero sum games mean winners are inevitably accompanied by losers. Here are those whose time has been liberated as have their chips.

OUT - David Ball(never recovered from that KK/AA collision earlier)
OUT - Colin Good (only the Good die young they say)
OUT - Niall Murray (A late entrant who saw his chips spend little time in his stack)

4:40pm: Early Heroes
There's a long way to go but here are the players who have handled the slings and arrows of the early stages most comfortably - Mark McCluskey leading the way.

Mark McCluskey United Kingdom 46275
Epameinondas Sintos Greece 43000
Daniel Smallman United Kingdom 42000
Mark Hitchens United Kingdom 37925
Joseph Pateman United Kingdom 37375
David Wellings United Kingdom 35650
Ettore Mezzone Italy 32200
Jack Germaine United Kingdom 43000
Ganapathy Samiappan India 34000
Cheok Fan Lao China 33525.

4:25pm: Break it up
The players have had a break and are ready to take to the felt once more for another swiftly-played out set of four levels.

With antes in play and one or two stacks who have been on the wrong side of variance, we could well see some desperation shoving over the next level or two.

4:20pm: Chip Crushers
The wonderful staff here at the Hippodrome have whizzed round the tables in the break and collected chip counts meaning we will have a full list up shortly.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300-25

4:00pm: Break Time
That's four fast levels done and dusted. We're already had some huge pots and eliminations, drama and confrontation stalking these players as they have traversed the opening levels of the day.

The break will feel well-merited and the players can now take a breather for 20 minutes while they tweak their strategies based on what they have learned over the initial stages.

3:44pm:Bullets flatten Ball
Brrrr, the chilly breeze that accompanies a cold deck leaves many a poker player hunching their shoulders and shivering in empathetic sympathy.

David Ball, holding pocket kings, was the man at the center of the maelstrom of action that ensued from this latest cooler - his 475 raise, flatted in one spot before Epameinondas Sintos made it 1,200 to go. Ball now made it 3,000, looking to punish what looked like a squeezy-looking move. Again, he was flat-called, before Sintos now jammed for 21,000.

Ball was not folding the second nuts and made the call (the flat-caller eventually persuaded to lay down) only for the players to turn their cards over and Sintos to reveal an exquisitely-timed pair of aces.

A board of baby cards failed to change the status quo, Ball left with shrapnel remaining in his stack whilst Sintos rises to 45,000 to put him amongst the chip leaders.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3:25pm: Hedges trimmed
Another player to have seen his early riches evaporate is Peter Hedges, who has lost the last of his chips and thus becomes our third official elimination of the day.

3:15pm: Big draw sees Tuna canned
David Dean just gave Gabriel Tuna his marching orders.

We joined the hand on the turn of a [Qc][5c][3h][6s] board, Tuna committing the last of his chipswith [Ad][Qh], only to get the bad news that he was drawing dead to Dean's drawtastic [2c][4c] which had connected with the turn.

"What a flop" gushed Dean after a respectful pause to let Tuna gather his belongings and depart quietly. "And he had the queen!"

Dean is up to 35,000+ now after a fast start.

3:04pm: Perry winkled-out
Eliminations have been few and far between in the early stages, but we can report that Dean Perry is one of those who have succumbed. The downside is obviously clear, but the silver lining to this bustout cloud is that he is free to step into the bright sunshine and visit some of the many attractions on offer in the heart of London.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2:50pm: Juicy Wing with chips
We're not just reading off the tasty Hippodrome menu (though the title is one of the options)
No instead we can report that Wing Yeung has chipped up in the early stages, Nicholas Craze his slightly unfortunate victim. Both players made strong hands over the [Qh][9s][8c][3d][Td] board, though Craze's pocket tens had hit their nut worst card on the river, Wing's pocket jacks improving to a straight simultaneous to his spiking a set.

Craze felt obliged to pay off Wing's river bet, getting the bad news with some consolatory observations from a beaming Yueng. "That was the worst card you could have hit."

Despite this early fillip, Yueng admitted he was still a little bleary eyed. "It's too early, i'm still asleep!" he told the table.

2:31pm: Blinding Speed
20,000 stacks and 25/50 sounds like a lot, and to be fair it is. 400 BBs deep gives ample play in the early stages.

However the blinds will be shooting up every 30 minutes, and relative stack sizes can change pretty swiftly for anyone sitting back too long. The latest level up means we are a paltry 200 BBs deep now!

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

2:24pm: Is it Miller Time?
Another man who has shown local excellence is Sam Miller, winner of the Winter Classic event here, just a couple of months ago. He defeated Tim Wong heads up to pick up the £11,620 for 1st place and will be looking to emulate that performance here to cement his reputation as a skilled poker practitioner.

2:12pm: Leaderboard Legends
Two players present who have already established formidable reputations for themselves at these events are Jack Germaine and Paul Romain.

Jack has shown he loves this venue having finished runner up on the 2014 Hippodrome Live leaderboard whilst Paul also made the Top 10 on the leaderboard. Both picked up UKIPT series entries for their consistent excellence and both have chosen to cash those entries in today. Two men who could well cause some damage if the poker gods see fit to give them the rub of the green.

2:05pm: Chipping Up
Everyone has taken their seats, chips are being clicked, shuffled and gradually redistributed amongst the current circa 53 runners. In short, we are off!

1:55pm: UKIPT5 Series1 is in effect
Welcome to the heart of London for the first UKIPT Series Event on the Season 5 schedule. Over the last season, the Hippodrome Casino bore witness to some epic confrontations as we crowned 6 previous UKIPT Series champions. There's no reason to think we won't see an equally exciting season play out this year and we have this £250+£25 event to kick things off.

20,000 starting chips and 30 minute levels mean the players have some healthy wiggle room and should have enough time to put their A-game on the tables and let variance do its job of thinning the field.

We're moments away from the start, we'll have news of runners, big names, early confrontations and anything that catches our interest in the early stages shortly. For now though good luck one and all, cards are (almost) in the air!

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT Series 7: Rod Stirzaker; Photos courtesy of Mickey May

6:02pm: Prizepool Information
The numbers are in! 160 players have contributed to a prizepool of £38,800.
18 places will be paid and the first prize will be a juicy £12,210.
A link to the full prizepool can be found here

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800-100

5:51pm: A Waterfall of Eliminations
What was once a thin trickle is gaining momentum and there is now a cascade of players hitting the rail at regular intervals. The blinds are really starting to bite.

Here are the latest victims of ill luck. Good games!

Camille Abram
Mike Lee
Benjamin Rogers
Conor Smyth
Ali Zihni
Haoran Cai
John Crouchley
Thomas Postlethwaite
Daisuke Mishima

5:30pm: Slick Zihni turfed out by cowboys
Ali Zihni's tournament has drawn to a close. Facing three-way action, Zihni saw his raise with big slick three-bet by an aggressive player, and flatted in one spot.

He felt like this was a great opportunity to make some chips and four-bet to 8,000, the aggressive player laying it down before the flat-caller made a surprising move, shoving for an additional 12,000.

Suspicious action, but Zihni was priced in to call and did so, only to discover his foe had pocket kings. The flop was no help and that was that for Zihni.

"I may have played that hand badly," he mused after his exit, although either way, it was a tough spot to escape from.

Good game sir.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600-75

5:25pm: Gone, but not forgotten
The following players have seen their hopes of further progression halted by the steel curtain of variance. Enjoy your future Saturday endeavours people!

James Edgington
Dennis Sandmark
Dimitrios Patroklou
Chung Hoang
Roman Sokolovskij
Austin Gontier
Daisuke Mishima

5:15pm: Man of Steele plays the hero
The problem with tying on your cape and pulling off a big call is that once in a while it will blow up in your face and you may feel a tad embarrassed.

Richard Steele was the latest man to risk humiliation by making a brave but ultimately futile call with [Ks][9s] on a [Kh][5c][7d][As][4d] board.

Facing an 11,500 shove from Sameer Singh on the river, he had a long think about this before finally dropping his chips over the line.

Singh turned up pocket sevens for a set and Steel tabled his second pair sheepishly, his ballsy call going unrewarded on this occasion.

Singh rises to 23,500 and Steele is left with under 15,000.

5:03pm: Fun Lovin' Criminal Dempsey
After a slow start James Dempsey has started putting a stack together, up to 28,000 now.

He's doing a good impression of scooby doo right now, gobbling cookies that look suspiciously like scooby snacks. "I just made a flush to win a few chips" he said happily.
"Was it a big one?" we asked.

"Raggy" barked Scooby/Dempsey.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400-50

4:41pm: The Alpha Bets
Here are the players heading the chip counts at the first break. Congratulations on your early successes, people.

Christopher Yong Malaysia 42000
Ruslanas Rudycevas Lithuania 42000
Amirreza Davoudzadeh Iran 36925
Nicholas Stylianou United Kingdom 34500
Michelle Bricknell United Kingdom PokerStars Player 37000
Jonathan Santos France 30300
Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert Netherlands 38500
Luca Gavazzi Italy 41800
Matthew Shiels United Kingdom 32000
Gary Pearce United Kingdom 35000

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300-25

4:20pm: Back in effect
Rested and back for more are the remaining 72 players or so. Battle is taken up once more as we continue the next four levels of the day.

4:00pm: Break Time!
Just two hours into the day, we have already seen a whirlwind of action. Four levels have played out and we have had close to ten players already sent packing to the rail.

The remaining players will have twenty minutes to refresh, re-organise, go have a recuperative coffee, cigarette etc.

We'll be back shortly.

3:59pm: Say my name, say my name
...because I am busted.

GONE...Albert Sapiano
GONE...Huy Thanh Nguyen
GONE...Ali Nisar

Good game fellas, catch you later.

3:50pm: Worley-Roberts in the house
One of the more effusive characters on the UK poker scene, Deborah Worley-Roberts is a colourful and engaging presence whenever she graces the felt.

We inquired as to her health and although her reply was slightly muffled by a large silk scarf keeping her warm, we believe she answered... "oh you know, older and wiser!"

It's been a quietish start for Worley-Roberts, her stack just a touch below its starting point.

3:40pm: Ante Up
The introduction of antes will no doubt serve to foster action as the pots become just that teensy bit more juicy whilst the cost per round for every player has a small but potentially increase also.

War is on the verge of breaking out we feel.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200-25

3:25pm: Over and Out
20,000 chips sounds like a lot, but it is no insurance against elimination if events and cards conspire against you - especially in today's aggressive games.

Richard Steele, Danilo Oppo and David Stonehouse are the latest men to sup from the acrid chalice of bitter defeat.

3:04pm: Berry Crushed
Ouch. A painful moment for Nicholas Berry saw a flurry of raises resulting in Amirreza Mogh moving all-in with [Ac][Jc] before Berry made a happy call with [Kd][Kh].

A healthy advantage remained in placed for Berry right up to the painful river of the [Ts][8c][6h][Jd][As] board - Mogh spiking to sweep up a big pot and jump close to the chip lead in the tournament.

Berry meanwhile took a huge hit to his stack and hopes and in fact has been unable to mount a comeback, leaving his table moments ago.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2:50pm: Zihni takes hit
With 20,000 stacks, the players can afford to take a hit or two, but it's not something you want to make a habit of.

Moments ago, we saw Ali Zihni call a bet on a [Jc][Qc][8h] board, before checking back when checked to him on the [8d] turn card.

On the straight and flush-completing [Kc] river, his opponent quickly fired out a bet, and though Zihni didn't look happy about it he made the call, only to get the bad news that his opponent's K-Q for top two pair was good.

"I had A-Q," he lamented, his stack damaged but not yet in the danger zone.

2:35pm: Hippodrome Heroes
Allan Pike has some pedigree here at The Hippodrome Casino, having won the Spring Classic last year, defeating JJ Hazan heads-up for the title.

Other players dotted around the playing arena who have impressive local chops include Mike Lee (Autumn Classic Winner 2014) and Tim Wong (2nd in 2014 Winter Classic>)

Wong's run to 2nd place was particularly memorable, given he returned for the day with just 6BBs and performed an incredible spin-up. Whilst he will no doubt hope he doesn't have to repeat those unlikely heroics, it will doubtless be of some comfort to him knowing that if he gets short, things can always turn around for him.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

2:25pm: Garrulous Zhini quiet for once
Al Zhini is a fun, bubbly character but his usual loquacious manner was stunned into silence as he sparred with Dave Curtis in a bit of light hearted banter.

Filling the air with chatter, Dave responded to one of his comments with "I look forward to hearing your bad beat story later," which elicited gales of laughter from the surrounding rail.

Zhini grinned, taking the jibe in the jovial manner it was intended but for once was stumped for a pithy comeback.

2:12pm: Dempsey takes day off from golf
James "Flushy" Dempsey may have a WSOP bracelet and WPT title in his locker room but he has been spotted more often on golf greens than at the poker table in recent times.

"It's raining today," he said explaining his decision to stay out of the clubhouse for once. "The last few events I've played, I've been knocked out by Willie Tann and bashed up by Barney Boatman. The old school are coming after me!" he revealed with a grin.

2:00pm: Cards are in the air
The players have filled in their paperwork, dotted their i's crossed their t's and are strapped in for the long haul. The prizepool is constantly rising and we'll be able to give you the full and final total around 5:00pm once all the late registrants have been tallied.

For now though the room is resounding with the sounds of chips being clicked back and forth. Day 1B is in effect!

Welcome back to The Hippodrome where Day 1B of the UKIPT Season 5 is on the cusp of bursting into life.

Yesterday's Day 1A saw a compact field of 78 runners whittled down to 21 by the close of play, Joseph Pateman racking up a sizeable 165,000 come the close to see him top the chip rankings.

Close behind was Romanian Gabrile Gusetoiu with 154,500. These are the men today's entrants can lock their sights on. Being a Saturday, we anticipate a larger and more chaotic field today. The weekend brings with it feelings of freedom and exuberance for many, liberated from their day job for several precious days and this should translate into some fresh, exciting action at the felt.

A quick note on the structure. Each player gets around 20,000 in chips, the blinds will rise every 30 minutes, till all 12 levels of the day have been played out and late registration will be available until the start of level 5 (around 4:15pm.)

We're just gathering up all the information about today's plucky entrants and will be relating all the action from the start of the tournament at 2:00pm. Later on, with all the numbers in, we can take a look at the prizepool and start to identify the larger stacks as the day progresses but for now, we wish everyone the best of luck.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT5 Series 1 brought to you by Rod Stirzaker. Photos courtesy of Mickey May.