4:05pm: Break Time
Well that's four closely-contested levels played through and we've seen 10-12 players lose their entire 20k starting stacks already.

At the moment we have 127 official entrants, though there is room yet for that number to rise. You've got twenty minutes of late reg to sign up if you fancy it.
The players meanwhile will be using that 20 minute break to recharge. We'll see you back here shortly.

4:00pm: Dancing girls
If you need any encouragement to forego the sunshine and various attractions on offer in London on this beautiful weekend, consider that some of those attractions are happening right here in The Hippodrome Casino, not least of which are the dancing girls who appear with regularity every night to a fanfare of music.

Little tip - if you are thinking about stealing the blinds - doing so to coincide with the appearance of theser scantily-clad young ladies will increase your chances of getting the steal through by at least 300%.

3:50pm: Mission of Attrition
Yesterday, we saw 89 players manage to lose their 20,000 starting stacks over the course of the day. This doesn't happen by accident but design. The rapidly escalating blinds take meaty chunks out of the players stacks and scope to make sophisticated plays and already we have seen this is starting to bite.

Gone are Afloarei Constantin and Zayed Al Rufaie - the latest victims of this increasingly onerous blind pressure.

There are a host of shortstacks looking to blast their way to a double or follow them sharply out of the doors so expect many more eliminations incoming.

3:42pm: Max the King slayer
A quick detail from earlier - Max Johnson was the man who delivered the final blow to Andrew King's tournament hopes - that hand helping boost Max's early hopes.

Unfortunately for Johnson, variance has seen him slide back down the chip standings in the interim period - he now is sadly shuffling a small handful of chips and looking wistfully into the distance.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300-25

3:23pm: Shown the door, early doors
The following players have seen the lights go out in the opening few levels. It can be tough out there on the felt sometimes. We suggest finding someone to hug and possibly buying some fries. Fries always cheer you up.

Good game Christopher Allen, John Earle and Gary Taylor.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200-25

3:00pm: Royal Retreat
Long live the King - the King is dead.

Not literally of course, but Andrew King's tournament has drawn to a close. Perhaps still feeling discombobulated following that incredible hand moments ago - King went for a double-through with an aggressive shove with [As][9d].

His opponent in the hand made the call - a dejected King knowing this meant he was almost certainly behind.

"I should have 30%," he said glumly and indeed he did as he was shown [Ac][Kh].

A board of [Js][6h][Qd][Tc][7h] swiftly reduced that equity to 0% however - his opponent making broadway to send King to the rail and end a miserable morning for him.

2:52pm: Dynamic hand dethrones King
As set ups go, this hand was pretty special.

We joined the hand with Kamil Stankiewicz having made a big 7,000 raise from the blinds preflop and Andrew King pondering his decision.

"You really don't want to see a flop," he said before finally moving all-in and showing down pocket queens.

Unfortunately for him, Stankiewicz had him in bad shape - holding a dominating pair of kings.

At this point, the poker gods decided to have a little fun.

BOOM! The flop fell [Qs][5c][5h] to give King a huge advantage with a flopped full house. The turn fell the [8c] and Kamil began gathering his belongings.

Not so fast young man. BOOM! (again!)

The [Kc] spiked on the river to give Stankiewicz a winning full house and a 34,000 stack. Naturally he was all smiles and wide-eyed joy following the hand.

"I was just out the door!" he said laughing in disbelief. King is left short-ish with around 7,000.

2:45pm: Mystery man revealed
Martin Hogarty is the man who suffered that early elimination on table nine. Bad luck sir!

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2:36pm: First elimination
We're still awaiting the full player lists so I can't confirm the identity of the first elimination just yet but table 9 has seen a bustout.

There were hushed rumours of a flush versus full house confrontation - more details as they come in.

"That was quick!" one of the players commented regarding this hasty elimination to murmured general assent from the surrounding players.

2:25pm: That's number-wang!
Early numbers suggest there are 105 or so entrants at the moment. With four levels (plus twenty minutes) of late registration however, this number should rise considerably.

We're going to make a guestimate at the final number of entrants being 133. The big question is whether the hot ribbons of golden sunshine beaming down on London Town will dissuade some players from playing - declining the opportunity to play poker in favour of a day throwing bread at ducks in the park.

2:15pm: The Fast and the Furious
With twenty thousand strong stacks, there may be a temptation to either splash around in a surfeit of pots, or rock up waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself.

Both approaches could prove costly if what we saw yesterday is replicated here on Day 1B.

Whilst the stacks are relatively deep, the whip-quick thirty minute levels do just fly by - blind pressure accelerating quickly so sitting back and waiting is only a viable strategy for so long.

Equally splashing around in a variety of pots can be a costly venture. Lose those 4,000 playing a little too liberally and your double through (if it arrives) will only yield 32,000 instead of 40,000 - a pretty sizeable difference.

Mastering both your table, other players tendencies and the structure will be key to whoever manages to surf those choppy waves of variance with greatest aplomb.

2:00pm: Cards are in the air
TD Luca's dulcid Italian tones have informed the players that we are underway. Clicking chips, gentle chatter and focused faces abound.

Day 1B is GO GO GO!

1:58pm: Day 1B of the UKIPT5 Series 2 London

Welcome back to The Hippodrome Casino for day 1B of the PokerStars UKIPT5 Series 2 London. For those wondering what all the numbers secreted liberally around the title of the event mean - this is the UKIPT's 5th season and it's the second series event of that season.

All the reasons the UKIPT has flourished over five seasons were on show yesterday as a a healthy 119-strong field packed into the casino to play out twelve highly-entertaining levels. Jerome O'Shea was the man who made hay most effectively, climbing to the top of the chip standings once the 30 remaining stacks were reckoned at the end of the day.

Today is a sunny, bright, beautiful day. It's also the weekend and the second of two starting days. All these elements are working synchronistically toward today's field being even more fulsome, a bonanza of poker lurking in wait for our plucky entrants.

A quick rundown of the format. We'll be playing out 12 thirty-minute levels, starting with 20,000 stacks. There will be two twenty minute breaks following levels 4 and 8 and an expected finishing time of 8:45pm or so.

That's it! We're moments away from the start - good luck all.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

6:30pm: Break it up folks
Another four levels, another all too brief respite from the action for our players. Twenty minutes are theirs to spend as they will on this balmy Saturday evening before donning arms and joining the fray once more.

While they recuperate from what has been an action packed four levels, we will do likewise. We will return shortly for the final four levels of the evening. We anticipate some incendiary poker over what have traditionally proved to be the most aggressive levels of the opening days of Series events. Hold tight, there may be shockwaves headed your way.

6:27pm: Roll-call of the damned
With the blinds now a big chunk of many players' stacks, there is no hiding. Confrontation is inevitable and we are seeing that confrontation take its toll on the field.

Most recently we have lost Mark Carlos Nunez, Neil Kapoor, Lee Tyson, John Bradley, Robert Angood, Kamil Stankiewicz, Mark Jefferies and Andrea De Giorgi.

Well played all, bad luck the run has ended.

6:20pm: Sting in the Tal
Tal Mirezki and Daniel Doyle just played out one of those incredible hands that seem to have become the norm in recent times.

We joined the hand with the pair having gone to war preflop - Doyle holding the bigger stack and the upper hand - his pocket queens a sizeable favourite versus Mirezki's [8s][9s].

That was transformed by the flop however - "WOW," gasped Ilana Belsky as the board peeled off [9c][8d][9h] to give Mirezki a boat.

The turn was the [Th] and the dramatic denouement to the hand suggested by the title was a rivered [Qs] to twist the fickle hand of good fortune back in Doyle's direction once more.

Mirezki flew out of the arena like Lewis Hamilton and a smiling Doyle looked vaguely stunned as he swept up his 30,000 stack.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800-100

5:55pm: Private Ryan wins the war
Ryan Reece is quietly going about his business, but has made an effective climb up the chip rankings, winning a preflop battle with Benjamin Meyer when his pocket Kings bested Meyer's unfortunately out-gunned pocket queens.

That hand left Reece with 28,000 and Meyer with a proverbial bowl of rice.

5:42pm: Craig's list of victims gets bigger
Andrew Craig has seen his stock rise efficiently over the day - currently one of the chip leaders.

Most recently we joined him on the river of a [Qs][9h][9d][6c][9c] board - Craig leading out for 6,000.

His opponent in the hand - Gary Brown - uhmmed and ahhed - finally making the call.

"Good call," Craig said quickly, tabling pocket sevens.

"No, you're good, I called ace-high," Brown revealed - Craig rising to 67,500 and possibly the chip lead whilst Brown is down to a sub 20,000 stack.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600-75

5:30pm: Ross out-kicked and kicked out
Kenneth Ross (we beleive, although his ID card left with him) has been eliminated - his desperate 5,000 ish shove with [As][9s] running into Matthew Bryan's dominating [Ac][Qc].

The board of [Qd][4s][8s] gave him a sniff of an outdraw but it bricked out with the [4h][6d] and Ross somewhat ungallantly threw his all-in triangle across the table at seeing his draw whiff.

Bryan meanwhile climbs up to 18,000 or so.

5:15pm: The Graveyard Shift
We were always entering an attritional phase of the tournament - a number of shortstacks are being forced to gamble and many of them are falling afoul of coin-flips, blind steals and other methods of poker defeat.

This is a long list of recent KO's - look away now if violence offends you.

Marino Mura, Kfir Irgi, Michael Nesbeth, Cesare Moro, Charlene Coleman, Marcus Lidgett, Nicolas Berry, Max Johnson, Edoardo Santino Rocco, Kenneth Ross, Richard Steele, Jodi Hurly and Mohammed Himedan
- (....take a breath....) - have all busted out.

At present, we are looking at 134 total runners, of whom 90 or so are still in contention.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 250-500-50

5:02pm: Quad-tastic times for Tomlinson
It's been a difficult day up till now for Hannah Tomlinson. She's been at an aggressive table and seen her initial 20,000 stack depleted somewhat. Her fortunes changed round a few moments ago however in one of the most dramatic hands of the day.

Table 10 was the table that saw Kamil Stankiewicz win that topsy-turvy queens-kings confrontation earlier and this hand was if anything more dramatic.

We joined the hand at the preflop stage - Bojan Zekic, Max Johnson and Tomlinson all sitting with all-in triangles in front of them

Tomlinson was the shortest stack with around 7,500 and looked in bad shape when the hands were turned on their backs.

Zekic: [Ad][Kd]
Johnson: [Qh][Qd]
Tomlinson: [7h][7c]

Needing a spate of clubs or a seven to flop, Tomlinson pulled off the unlikely trick of flopping a set whilst remaining behind, the board peeling [4d][6d][7d] to give Zekic a currently-winning flush.

"I have options," Tomlinson joked and one of those options was realised as the [7s] binked on the turn amidst some sharp intakes of breath from the other players. That gave her the unlikely and impregnable hand ranking of quads. Delicious. The irrelevant [4c] on the river ended proceedings and Tomlinson's stack had jumped up to a more respectable 27,000 or so.

Meanwhile former high flyer Max Johnson was eliminated as Zekic's flush had dusted him off in the overpot - Zekic left with 17,000 or so following the hand.

That table is crazy - beleive us.

4:45pm: Hanchard heads straight for the top
Naith Hanchard may well be our chip leader right now, courtesy of a huge hand that played out versus Aleksandar Spadijer moments ago.

Both players had in excess of 25,000 so when a series of raises saw them both put their stacks in on the [9d][Ts][Qh] board, it was no surprise to find them both holding monsters.

Pocket nines for Spadijer for a set, however Hanchard had [Kd][Jc] for no less than the nuts.

He wasn't home and hosed just yet though, any pair up would see him cede the pot, but a [3h] then [4h] run out kept Hanchard in the ascendancy and Spadijer accepted his fate with dignity, wishing everyone good luck.

Hanchard was left with a huge pile of chips - his stack now worth 55,000 - quite possibly good for the chip lead. Very tasty.

4:35pm: Man Down!
The frothy waters of variance have taken another clutch of victims, Karim Louis, Scott Coleman, Yang Liu, George Hassabis and Amar Al Hussona the men to have succumbed gasping under their bubbling waves.

4:25pm: Back in effect
The break has come to an end - coffees and other reinvigorating beverages supped - the players are back at the felt ready to do battle once more.

The end of level four and its corresponding break also means we will have the final tally of entrants shortly, and therefore also the prize pool - how exciting!

To read updates from levels 1-4, click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

8:55pm: End of Day 1B - Jonathan Bridges Snatches Chip Lead!
The last three hands played out with the same levels of aggression we saw all day.

There was time for Ryan Reece to make a late three-bet shove with [Jh][Qd], only to get a call from a dubious-looking Cristian Iuga.

"That's not too bad," an excited Reece yelled as he saw he was in a flip versus Iuga's snowmen.

It looked significantly worse however when the board fell [8s][3d][9s] to give Iuga a set.

"Still got a ten!" Reece continued yelling and though the turn was the [As] - a miraculous [Tc] appeared on the river - huge fistpump from Reece as he was back up to 67,000 or so.

"Thanks for that" said Iuga to the dealer - a tad glum.

While this drama was taking place Dahe Liu was busy losing some of his monster stack and Jonathan Bridges was busy chipping up. We're just checking but we expect Bridges to be confirmed as the overall chip leader with 251,300 shortly. Liu should be in second place with 199,600 and Sean Murphy will be in third with 193,700.

Here are the end of day 1B chip counts and the combined chip counts for Day 2.

And just for your perusal enjoyment and general merriment, here is the seat draw for Day 2

Thanks for following today's play here on the PokerStars blog.

The day's been full of twists, turns and drama and we're looking forward to seeing how the final day plays out.

We'll be back tomorrow at 12:00pm this time (don't snooze through the first few levels!)

See you here for the resumption as we play through to crown our 2nd UKIPT Series champ of the season. Bye for now - enjoy your evening folks!

8:33pm: Kerr flipped out
Short and desperate - Marc Kerr found an ace to shove with but Naith Hanchard was happy to take him on with deuces and did so successfully - flipping up the counts to reach 75,000 or so.

Kerr however shook hands and hit the rail. Good game. 31 remain...

8:25pm: Liu moves into the lead
We're seeing some major swings out there on the felt right now - Dahe Liu has amassed an enormous stack of chips, including the first full twenty-strong stack of blue 5k chips.

He has 250,000 right now, meaning he's scorched ahead of his rivals Darren Murphy and Jonathan Bridges for the chip lead.

What an exciting finish to the day!

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

8:22pm: New Chip Leader - Murphy top of the tree
Darren Murphy is currently the man all else are looking up to - his 175,000 good for the chip lead as we approach the final level.

8:16pm: Nothing to show for their hard day
It's a harsh, unforgiving world the poker jungle.

These players have found this out, grinding their way through the best part of the day only to bust just prior to its end. Good game to all the following:

Benjamin Rathjen, Shvan Frost, Tautvydas Tukaciauskas, Andrew Craig, David Barnes, Tomasz Kozaczuk, Daniel Doyle, Michael Taynton, Taka Masa Endo, Anthony Fernandez,Daniel Brock, Heinz Frye, Istvan Karikas, Russell Tarbox, Alessandro Marega and Ramzi Pekhazis.

8:03pm: That's just the way it is
The home stretch is in sight and it remains Jonathan Bridges heading this field - his stack a fulsome 118,000. Given the smaller field yesterday generated a 180,000+ chip leader though, he is unlikely to remain at the head of the counts if he stays still.

Use your strength young padawan!

There are now 47 players left from the 131 who started the day.

7:55pm: The Art of War
Adhering to the principles laid out by the infamous general Sun Tzu in his much-lauded philosophical treatise will serve these players well as they enter this difficult part of the tournament.

"Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder and crush him... Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance"- Sun Tzu , The Art of War.

Draw your opponents into mistakes, mislead them about your hand strength, make them play to your tune. Battle is engaged now - each hand of blind and antes is significant to nearly every player.

Who can display the skills and serendipity to finish the day atop the chip counts?

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1600-200

7:48pm: Prizepool
A quick reminder of the prizepool. The 250 total entrants will be playing for a combined total of £60,625, with a first prize payout of £12,820.

Click here to view the full payout spots.

7:30pm: The plot thickens as the field thins
More eliminations I'm afraid. There has been a steady stream of players heading to the growing throng at the bar over the last six levels or so and this looks unlikely to abate anytime soon.

Well played the following but your day is done:

Ferenc Nadori, Peter Ali, Denis O'Mahony, John Crossan, Phillip Fetzer, James Thomson, Sebastien Jung, Peter Upton, Mats Rosen Pihl, James Edward Hall, Gary Brown, Benjamin Meyer, Donghong Yu, Antoine Erwan, Andreea Raluca Ciobanu, Robert Malvasi, Kwok Wau Li, Jill Scott and Ramzi Pekhazis.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1200-200

7:20pm: Leading Lights
Here are some of the stacks heading the action at the moment, Jonathan Bridges looking like he's clear of the field as we speak::

Jonathan Bridges120,000
Darren Murphy 80,000
Cristian Iuga 65,000
Matthew Buckland60,000
James Conteh 58,000
Paul Damian 50,000
Dalius Balciunas50,000
Leah Reeman 50,000
Dahe Liu 45,000
Andrew Craig 40,000
Naith Hanchard 35,000

7.05pm: Missing in action
Goodbye mes amis. Your arduous, hard-fought day is done. You have performed with grace and dignity and brought great honour to your prestigious houses.

Enjoy your break brave warriors, for it is well earned:

Ilana Belsky, Jesse Chambers, Thomas Drew, Georgios Kyriacou, Tal Mirezki, Benjamin Swans, Mario Trattou,Stephen Bridges, Christopher Yong, Mohammed Himedan, James Morris and Ramzi Pekhazis.

6:55pm: Back for the final countdown
What a day it's been so far. We barely had the chance to mention Chris Wong - the defending UKIPT Series champ - having sat down and busted, unable to continue his recent successes here at The Hippodrome Casino.

There have been myriad exciting hands played out today and we expect the action to ramp up another notch as the chunky blinds take another hefty rise.

Good luck to the remaining 62 players as we play out the final four levels of the day.

To read updates from levels 5-8, click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

14:12pm: Break Time Well, that breathless period of poker has ended with the end of level 16. The players are now going on a break to get some brief respite before they return to determine who will be the bubble boy. We'll be back in twenty minutes for the resumption. See you shortly!

14:05pm: Chan busts 33rd, hand for hand engaged... Wilson Chan has been battling with a shortstack for some time and when he found [Ah][Js] and a limping cut-off, he happily jammed his stack into the middle. The limper however had some strength with pocket sixes and made the call - duly winning the flip over the [Qc][9c][Qd][Qs][6h] board to send Chan to the rail. Good game sir, with 32 left we are officially on the bubble, the tournament clock is being paused for any allins and we are playing hand for hand. It's tense out there...

14:03pm: Bridges comes crashing down
A huge hand just played out between Jonathan Bridges and Jerome O'Shea. The pair went to war preflop for their monster stacks and when the cards were turned over - Bridges was in dire shape - his [Ac][Ks] a huge dog to O'Shea's serendipitously-timed pocket aces. No redemption on a bricky flop meant O'Shea rises to over 600,000 - clear chip leader of the tournament - whilst Bridges is left now short and in trouble with around ten big blinds. "Hand of the year," commented a railbird as the chips were handed over to O'Shea.

14:00pm: West goes North
Tense moment for Marcus West as he found himself all-in, reshoving on Joseph Roberts' opening raise to 11,000 for his 40k ish stack holding [ah][ks]. When Roberts called with [As][9d], West was dominating, though that is no guarantee in poker. However a helpful board of [5h][Qh][7s][3c][2d] saw him home to a double through to 95,000 whilst Roberts suffers a corresponding dip, dropping to 80,000. Just 33 are left now, we are two places off the money...

13:51pm: Casualties grow as bubble approaches
Variance is a difficult beast to tame and few are completely safe out there as the bubble looms into view. For evidence of this, look no further in the following llist of bustouts than the name of Darren Murphy, who came into the day third in chips but now finds himself on the rail. NO ONE IS SAFE! Bad luck guys: Darren Murphy, Rafael Henderson, Eldad Korn, Leah Reeman, Paul Damian, Garry Sleet Cristian Iuga.

13:45pm: El Annaoui bows out
Erik El Annaoui was in possession of a very short stack which he decided to move allin versus the preflop raise from Cypriot Alexis Savvides. His [8s][6s] was live but unsurprisingly behind Savvides [Ac][Kh] and although he remained live till the river a board of [Jd][9s][9h][Qh][Ad] saw his tournament life extinguished. Savvides meanwhile moves to 170,000. Also going great guns at that table is Hannah Tomlinson, who has worked her starting stack from the day with great aplomb - now up to a potentially chip-leading 295,000.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 2,500-5,000-500

13:30pm: Moneyspots approach Nails will be bitten to the quick, pulses will race and dreams will be dashed. Joy and tears lie in wait for these intrepid players.

13:18pm: O'Shea takes scalp to further title ambition
Jerome O'Shea has had a sturdy start to the day, bolstered by his recent dismissal of Jonathan Rozema. Rozema had shoved for around 50,000 from early position and O'Shea tanked for some time before calling with pocket nines. The board ran out [Kh][7d][2s][Js][8s] to leave Rozema on the rail and O'Shea proudly organising his new 225,000 stack.

13:10pm: Wilson punctured Wilson Chan and Patrick Murray just went to war - a preflop battle seeing the pair get to a [6s][5s][4c] board. Murray moved his last 28,000 or so into the middle and Chan probably felt quite happy, calling with pokcet jacks on this seemingly safe-ish board. When the cards were flipped - Chan was indeed ahead as Murray tabled [As][Ks] - although Chan recognised the potential of his opponent's strong draw with a whispered, "Wow!" He survived the [9d] on the turn but the [Qs] on the river saw Murray win what had become a huge pot - the Irishman moving to over 120,000 whilst Chan has been knocked back to 30,000 or so.

13:08pm: Rampant opening We started with 61 but in just over one hour the field has lost 16 of those and we are down to 45 already. Can this incredible rate of attrition continue?

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 2,000-4,000-500

13:04pm: Gone, gone, gone The pace hasn't relented in these early levels. We're seeing aggressive play, pushing of edges and all-round brutality at the felt. The latest players to feel the brunt of this maelstrom of fiery chaos are: Ricky Davies, Dalius Balciunas, Bojan Zekic, Chihao Tsang, Timothy Jone and Ben Mensa-Bonsu. Well played all - enjoy your sunday.

12:49pm: Borza meets Italian Resistance Antonio Borza looked like he might just blind steal his way to the chip lead. He got 3 or 4 shoves through, before finally shoving from the button and running into his earlier nemesis, Carmine Belvedere, once more. Borza had made a legitimate shove with [As][3h] from the button and it turned out he was marginally ahead - the Italian having called the 25,000 shove with [Kd][Jc]. Borza's slim equity edge dissolved however on the [Kh][Qc][Ts] and any slim hopes a gutshot jack would dig him out of his predicament disappeared as the board ran out [4d][Td]. "It's frustrating," Borza said sadly to his loyal railfan as he left after shaking hands with his conquerer. Belvedere meanwhile now has 190,000 and is in prime position to battle for the title.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,500-3,000-400

12:40pm: Fours is with Reeman James Rann just made a button shove for his 41,000 stack, Leah Reeman snap-calling from the small blind and the big blind dropping out. "Seat four, table four" said Reeman with a shrug, turning up [4c][4s]. "I like your thinking," laughed Raan, who was flipping with [As][6d]. The laughter ended however as the board ran out [8c][3d][2c][7h][3h] - Raan losing the flip and hitting the rail as Reeman's stack increases to 93,500.

12:30pm: Dropping like flies A host of small and medium stacks have bitten the dust in the early going. Good game the following: Catalin Dumitrascu, Mike Lee, Naith Hanchard, Nicholas Craxton,Ian King, Benjamin Fergus-Woolf, Kieran Plater and Ben Mensa-Bonsu

12:22pm: Borza Italia
Antonio Borza has come unstuck in the early levels - holding [Ah][Qd] on a [Jd][Ac][8c] board - he and Italian tablemate Carmine Belvedere backed their holdings with their stacks - Borza getting the bad news that he was marginally but crucially outkicked by Belvedere's [As][Kh]. A non-helpful runout of [3d][7c] saw the Italian's advantage remain and Borza was left with just a sprinkling of chips - around 11,000 - with which to mount a comeback. Hope springs eternal however - Borza got two blind steal shoves through to move to around 25,000 - he's still got skin in the game.

12:20pm: Mitchell-(not)in Man
Former Irish open winner James Mitchell is a big name casualty from the early levels. Another BVB confrontation saw Mitchell and Jitesh Mistry reach a [6s][5d][4c] board - Mitchell shoving over Mistry's initial bet with the pair and straight drawing [7h][5c.] Mistry shrugged and called with [As][6d] for top, top and his hand held as the board ran out [9s] [Td]. Mistry up to 140,000 - Mitchell's gone.

12:10pm: Davis finds little sixes
As expected, it's been a quickfire start to the day, Martin David one of the early victims when he went ot war in the blinds for his 40,000 stack versus James Tiltscher. David held [6s][6c], Tiltscher [Kh][Qs] and the latter won the flip over the [Kc][7d][5d][Jc][8c] board. Tiltscher moves into top ten chip contention with 150,000 whilst David's Sunday has been freed up to go and jump in some of the gathering puddles in Leicester Square - or pursure more mature, productive pursuits as seems likely.

12:00pm: Shuffle Up and Deal! We're underway. Good luck all!

11:55pm: Welcome back to the final day of UKIPT5 Series 2 London We're back at The Hippodrome Casino for the final day - players are buzzing with anticipation, there's a standard and strangely comforting drizzle dampening the streets of London - everything is as it should be and we're primed and ready to go. We've had two dense and hotly contested days of poker leading up to this point - 12 superquick 30 minute levels each day have seen the 250 strong field shorn to less than 25% of its initial size - 61 players left still holding onto dreams of a financial return for their investment. Day 1B's larger field produced the lion's share of chip heroes - Jonathan Bridges the biggest hero of all - his 251,300 seeing him clear by over 50,000 from his nearest challengers - Dahe Liu and Darren Murphy. Murphy has shown his skills here at The Hippodrome before - a final table berth at the UKIPT Series in September 2014 evidence of this. That day his tilt at the title ended in 6th place for £3,900 and he'll be looking to better that achievement here if the winds of fortune favour him, Liu will also be a threat for the title with three previous UKIPT cashes and nearly $120,000 in live tournament cashes to his name. He went about his business with inscrutable efficiency yesterday - watch out for this player. You can view the full chip counts from the start of the day here.

Today will see the remaining 61 players play to a winner. That seems like a lot of poker to get through but the earlier start of 12:00pm and the sharply-increasing blinds mean we'll see that bulky number whittled down to a single champion in next to no time. Before that, there's some crucial poker to be played out though. We'll be kicking things off momentarily so good luck one and all - let's get this underway!

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

4:40pm: Shabtay picks wrong moment to go for broke(16th)
Lior Shabtay is the latest man to fall foul of the variance beast - his shove with pocket threes running into jacks.

The [Ks][Ts][5c][Qs][4d] gave him a shot of survival as he held the only spade but his time finally ran out and he finishes in 16th for £805.

4:30pm: Van Kraayenburg eliminated (17th)
Chris Van Kraayenburg has seen his chances of progression evaporate. Having been crippled in a trips versus house cooler earlier, he moved his final minute stack into the middle and received three callers.

The board was checked to the turn of a [7c][8c][4c][tc] board - Giovanni Canali betting out 35k to a series of folds and showing down [Ts][Jc].

Kraayenburg couldn't beat that and drops out 17th, collecting £805.

That hand brings us down to 16 runners. There is a quick redraw for the final two tables and we'll be back at it in no time...

4:20pm: Tomlinson faces uphill battle
Erstwhile top 3 stack Hannah Tomlinson has taken a dive down the chip standings - her stack a mere 90,000 now.

She hasn't had the most fortunate time of it, losing out with [Ad][7d] on a [9d][7c][5d] board versus neighbour Sandra Reid's pocket tens.

That hand helped boost Reid to over 275,000.

Hannah meanwhile has lost several other important pots and is very much in push/shove mode right now.

4:15pm: Mistry solved (18th place)
Jitesh Mistry was forced to make a dash from the tournament midway through and he has failed to return, culminating in him blinding out in 18th spot.

He collects £715 in absentia and we continue 19 handed...

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 6000-12000-2000

4:02pm: Current chip counts
Here are the current standings with 20 players remaining.

Jerome O'Shea 700000
Dahe Liu 430000
Hannah Tomlinson 400000
Otto Castle 400000
Alexis Savvides 320000
James Tiltscher 255000
Chris Van Kraayenburg 245000
Giovanni Canali 235000
Lior Shabtay 215000
Sandra Reid 192000
Joseph Roberts 190000
James Evans 185000
Ryan Reece 175000
Carmine Kevin Belvedere 175000
James Evans 165000
Robert Tyley 160000
James Conteh 120000
Lee Hanlon 95000
Brett Noades 90000
Shaun Montana 80000
Matthew Buckland 80000
Jitesh Mistry 50000

3:45pm: Latest Fallers
There's nowhere to hide right now with the blinds biting substantial chunks out of all but the elite chip leaders.

The most recent men to be swallowed up and digested by these advancing blinds are:
Brett Noades, Shaun Montana, Marcus West and Patrick Murray.

Good games!

3:20pm: Bridges busts 26th
A day that started so brightly has dimmed considerably for Jonathan Bridges.

After losing out with pocket sevens versus the pocket nines of Chris Van Kraayenburg, his final few chips were thrown in with [Qs][3s] versus Lior Shabtay's pocket sixes.

His hand dominated, the board didn't come to his aid, running out [8c][Ts][Ac][4c][4h] to consign him to the list of nearly men with £595 his consolation.

3:15pm: Spadijer runs into nuts
Another short stack Aleksandar Spadijer went for a double with 66 but ran into both Alexis Savvides' reshove with king-queen and crucially Hannah Tomlinson's fortuitously-timed pocket aces.

He ended up losing to both players, the board running out [qh][th][9h][Ac][5s] - Tomlinson winning a huge pot to jump up over 300,000 whilst Spadijer ends up 28th for £535.

Following him close out of the arena was Stuart Snowden, who busts 27th, winning £595.

3:10pm: Sanchini loses head as snowmen melt
A harsh elimination for Olmo Sanchini saw him go toe-to-toe with compatriot Giovanni Canali - holding a crucial advantage with pocket eights versus Canali's sevens.

The board seemed relatively safe till the rivee, peeling off [As][Kc][Kd][2s][7h] but that crucial spike sees Canali jump to 110,000 and Sanchini bust.

That crucial and excruciating river card saw the hard done by Italian hit the table with his hand, utter several expletives referencing the faecal matter of a male cow and storm out of the arena.

Bad luck sir - don't forget to collect your £535 for 29th! We continue 28-handed...

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 4000-8000-1000

3:00pm: Quickfire busts following bubble
No surprise that the bursting of the bubble has precipitiated a rash of eliminations.

Soon following Mike Lee out the door were Darren Fuller and Gary Wilson - the key difference being both secured a payout of £535 for their efforts.

2:44pm: Bubble bursts - Mike Lee crashes out
Mike Lee was sitting with 2 big blinds and looking down the barell so when Matthew Buckland min-raised from the hijack, he vacillated for some time - the rail grew - the clock was called...and he finally made the call for his tournament life.

His reason for these extended deliberations was made plain as he turned over the paltry [2c][3s] which was live at least versus Buckland's [As][Ks].

The board however failed to provide deliverance - peeling off [4d][9s][8s][Qc][9c] - Buckland's ace-high good at showdown and Mike Lee becomes the official tournament bubbler.

He was also the last surviving "PokerStars LIVE! at The Hippodrome Casino"-sponsored player. Bad luck Mike.

However that left 31 players with guaranteed remuneration - hooray!

It's fair to say we can expect a number of these to loosen up their raising requirements over the coming hands - expect carnage shortly...

2:30pm: Back for the Bubble!
32 players remain in contention, though one man or lady will be left with a sour taste in their mouth once we have our next elimination.

Jerome O'Shea remains the out and out chip leader following that huge hand with Jonathan Bridges - his stack over 710,000.

The next few hands should prove very interesting...

To read updates from Levels 13-16, click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

6:25pm: Final Table Chip Counts

Here's how they will line up on the final table - Dahe Liu leading the way.

Dahe Liu 1014000
Otto Castle 759000
Alexis Savvides 748000
Giovanni Canali 659000
Jerome O'Shea 572000
Carmine Kevin Belvedere 534000
Lee Hanlon 481000
Ryan Reece 241000

6:05pm:Sandra Reid out 9th - Final Table Set!
Reid has survived some ropey moments in parlaying her initial investment into a 9th place finish but she could go no further than that.

Earlier on when she managed to spin a pittance back into a stack once more - a frustrated Jerome O'Shea (who she rivered in the pot) - let out an exasperated exclamation "Why won't you just die!"

It was uttered in jest, though he was clearly keen on polishing Reid off and finally his wish came true, as he called her shove with [Ac][Kh] - dominating Reid's sub ten-BB shove with [Kd][Qs].

A board of [Ks][Th][3c][4d][9c] kept Reid interested till the last but finally she was dusted off - finishing up 9th for £1,310.

And that is our final table set!

We'll have chip counts and player profiles up shortly but for now the players are taking a short break to gather energy before we play out the final. See you shortly.

5:55pm: Buckland perishes in 10th
Matthew Buckland has been patient since having his wings trimmed in unfortunate circumstances (A-K losing out to K-J)

He was to prove unfortunate once more as he went for a double up with K-J and looked in great shape versus Alexis Savvides' K-T.

A board of [Ts][6c][3h][Qd][Th] however failed to comply with his desire to double through and he was left victim of one more crucial outdraw - hitting the rail in 10th place for £1,110.

That hand left 9 players still in the running, meaning we are consolidating down to one table - although the official final table will only start when there's 8 players left.

So close now!

5:46pm: Robert Tyley busts 11th
Robert Tyley had less than ten big blinds when he found [Ks][Qc] and re-shoved over an opening raise, only for Belvedere Carmine to re-shove behind him.

The opening raiser looked pained but laid his hand down - leaving Carmine to table pocket aces.

The outlook was bleak for Tyley and a bricky board confirmed his demise - he busts 11th for £1,110, Belvedere up to 520,000..

5:35pm: Tiltscher out in 12th
A strange end to James Tiltscher's tournament.

First off Matthew Buckland jammed his shortstack into the middle for 150,000 (less than ten bigs) and Tiltscher folded A-Q offsuit.

His table found this incredible laydown very amusing, Tiltscher defending his play by exclaiming "I don't want to call of half my stack!"

A few hands later he made a raise and picked up the blinds with 9-5os, showing his hand down again and claiming it was his favourite hand.

Finally, he jammed for 150,00 0 on the turn of a [4h][3s][3c][5d] board, Alexis Savvides making the call with [Ah][5h] and winnning on the brick river versus Tiltscher's [Qh][2c] semi-bluff.

Exciting finale but Tiltscher busts in 12th for £990.

5:25pm: Pre-break chip counts
Here's how the players stood at the end of the previous break(eliminated players italicized):

Name Chips Two Tables
Dahe Liu 739000
Giovanni Canali 666000
Alexis Savvides 652000
Jerome O'Shea 581000
Otto Castle 494000
Carmine Kevin Belvedere 448000
James Tiltscher 343000
Sandra Reid 187000
Lee Hanlon 184000
Matthew Buckland 176000
Ryan Reece 157000
Hannah Tomlinson 132000
Robert Tyley 116000
James Conteh 88000

5:23pm: Conteh crashes out 13th
A desperate James Conteh jammed his final few chips with [Tc][5s] - up against chip leader Dahe Liu's pocket sixes.

A board of [9s][Ac][7d][Qh][As] saw Liu's preflop equity edge maintained and we lose Conteh in 13th for £990.

5:20pm: Liu doubles Tyley
Robert Tyley just received a welcome boost to his stack - shoving his last 100,000 with [Ac][Kc] and picking up a quick call from Liu with [Qc][Qh].

The board of [4h][Tc][3s][Ah][9c] was great news for Tyley - he wins the flip to spin up to over 200,000. Liu's stack could afford to take the hit and he remains the chip leader.

5:15pm: Tomlinson busts 14th
A frustrating run of cards has seen Hannah Tomlinson bust in 14th for £895, having contended the chip lead earlier in the day.

That leaves Sandra Reid as the sole remaining female player.

5:00pm: Run-in to the final table
With 14 left, the final is tantalisingly close - almost within reach.

Here are the 14 players still contending the title:

There's everything to play for, it's proved very hard to predict just who will rise from the pack and become a force so far in this tournament.

The players are back from a twenty minute break and we are ready to resum. Good luck all!

To read updates from levels 17-20, click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

10:15pm: Giovanni Canali wins UKIPT5 series 2 London!(£12,820) - Otto Castle 2nd (£8,630)
The heads-up was an interesting affair - Canali perhaps getting the better of the cards, putting in a few big three-bets to Castle's button raises.

Castle called several times looking for a benevolent flop but it never seemed to come - Canali's continuation bets always winning him the pot.

A short-stacked Castle began to jam preflop more often - Canali frequently looking at his hand before laughing and throwing away 5-3os and such.

Eventually Canali issued a semi-ultimatum. "I am feeling it, so if you shove next hand, i just might..."

Well, guess what happened? A button shove from Castle and a quick and definitive call from Canali who proudly tabled [Jh][9h] - sadly dominated by Castle's [As][9s].

It looked like Castle might get a foothold in the heads-up at last but it wasn't to be - a board of [Jc][7h][3d][8s][9c] securing the pot and the tournament for the Italian.

After a mammoth day, everyone looked shocked at the sudden ending, but the beaming visage of Canali told you all you needed to know about who had come out triumphant.

"I'm ecstatic, really happy. It hasn't sunk in yet. I'll struggle to sleep tonight," gushed Canali following his win.

He collects £12,820 for the win whilst Castle can be proud of his efforts in coming 2nd for £8,630.

Well played both!

To read a wrap of the day's events, click here.

Thanks for following us on our journey to crown a new UKIPT Series champ.

As usual, it's been a blast - thanks to the staff at The Hippodrome Casino for making us feel so welcome.

9:40pm: Savvides bows out in 3rd place (£6,090)
Alexis Savvides has been a thorn in the side of everyone at this final table - a sure sign he has talent.

At last he came unstuck though, raising to 135,000 before Giovanni Canali re-raised to 560,000 - a big three bet.

"Have you got anything?" asked Savvides with one of his trademark giggles.

"Huge, huge" said Canali. "I never lie."

Savvides thought it over - before moving allin, called quickly by Canali with pocket tens.

Savvides nodded in reluctant semi-defeat, tabling pocket sevens and when the board ran out [9d][Ts][2c][Ah][5s] - that was it, his day was done.

He kept the grin that has been on his face throughout this tournament and disappeared to collect his prize money.

Well done sir, that leaves Otto Castle and Giovanni Canali vying for the title - Canali with around a 4-1 chip lead.

Who will rise to the challenge?

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 40000-80000-5000

9:25pm: Liu Busts in 4th place (£4,940)
Pocket nines for Liu and 500,000 in his stack meant just one thing. Shove-time.

Giovanni Canali elected to reshove with another big holding four-handed - [As][Ts] and the Itlian hit a decisive flop - the board being dealt out [Ad][Ac][7h][7s][2h].

Warm handshakes were the order of the day and we continue four-handed - Canali now with the chip lead in this topsy-turvy final.

9:10pm: Battling for the title
Four-handed they have retaken their seats - Alexis Savvides returning with what looks like a lobster's tail (his dinner not a wierd appendage.)

Who can show the greatest skills/ run-good and take this down?

8:50pm: Break time
The players are just taking a twenty minute break to gather their thoughts. Just before the break Otto Castle raised to 50,000, which was three-bet to 170,000 by Giovanni Canali.

Castle took a short while before annoucning all-in for his 597,000 stack and although Canali requested a count - halfway through he said, "Don't worry, I call."

His [Ks][Qh] was a dog to Castle's [Ah][Kc] and the board of [Ac][5s][3s][Jd][5d] saw him secure a double through.

That hand leaves the chip standings as follows: -
Alexis Savvides - 1,915,000
Otto Castle - 1,390,000
Dahe Liu - 1,085,000
Giovanni Canali - 675,000

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 30000-60000-5000

8:35pm: Liu suffers at hands of Savvides
Dahe Liu just raised the button to 100,000, called by Canale and a giggling Savvides in the blinds.

The board fell [9c][2c][5h] - Savvides leading for 100,000 - called by Liu.

The turn was the [Kh] - again Savvides fired - this time for 170,000 - quick call from Liu.

The river was the [8s] and again there was a barell from Savvides of 300,000. Liu pushed a chip over the line indicating call - only to get the bad news that Savvides had rivered a highly disguised two pair with [8d][5s].

Liu mucked. "Big blind special" commented Giovanni Canali as Savvides took the chip lead - allowing himself another giggle.

8:25pm: Liu sees off Reece(5th £3,900)
Dahe Liu has held some pretty cards in recent times, but his reputation as an active player has meant he is getting paid almost everytime he gets them.

The latest coup saw him raise to 100,000 from the button - big blind Ryan Reece jamming allin for just under 300,000.

A quick call from Liu with queens, a resigned-looking Reece flipping sixes and a board of [Jc][Jh][7h][2d][2h] means we lose Reece in 5th place and we are now 4-handed for the title!

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 25000-50000-5000

8:12pm: Hanlon exits in 6th place (£2,960)
Lee Hanlon has skirted elimination many times on his way to the final 6, but finally, he faced the gauntlet one too many times.

Jamming his 6BB stack (250,000) UTG with [Jc][8h], Savvides made the call with [Ah][Td] and a board of [5c][7d][Ks][7c][6h] saw the Cypriot home as he jumps up to 1,600,000 and Hanlon is finally shown the door.

Well played sir, enjoy your trip to the cash desk.

8:00pm: O'Shea busts in 7th(£2,165)
Alex Savvides has barely made a mistake at this final table and after raising to 80,000 and seeing Jerome O'Shea shove for around 320,000, he took a moment to consider....then made the call.

It was a brave call with [Ac][5d] but a good one - O'Shea tabling the slightly behind [Ks][Js].

A board of [8s][8h][8d][9s][7h] rewarded Savvides' bravery and O'Shea joins the rail in 7th place having made an impressive run to thsi final table.

We continue 6 handed - Savvides now in the chip lead with 1.2 million chips.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 20000-40000-5000

7:45pm: Belvedere busts in 8th (£1,580)
He's not had the best of luck on this final table and Kevin Belvedere's day is now done.
With less than ten big blinds, when the aggressive Dahe Liu raised it up, Belvedere went for a re-steal with [Jc][Tc], only for Liu to make a swift and easy snap-call with pocket kings.

A board of [Kd][Jh][6h][7d][7h] left Liu the victor of the confrontation and we lose out first player at this final.

Good game Kevin.

7:23pm: Lucky Lee trips up Canali
Giovanni Canali must be a cool customer as he just took what was a nasty beat with very good grace moments ago.

Making a raise to 75,000, Lee Hanlon checked his stack, shrugged his shoulders, had a little think, then jammed allin for 270,000.

Canali snap-called - Hanlon asking "Ace-queen, ace-king?" hopefully as he tabled pocket fours.

No such luck - the Italian held aces and Hanlon's head was on the metaphorical chopping block.

A board of [Kh][Qd][9c][2h] peeled off - Hanlon readying himself to depart - only for the [4d] to arrive in the nick of time and save him.

"I've had some luck today!" an understandably ecstatic Hanlon said.

"I'd like to say I'm delighted for you but I'd be lying out of my backside," chipped in Jerome O'Shea from the sidelines.

Hanlon up to 540,000 - Canali down to 400,000...

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 15000-30000-4000

7:15pm: Double for Reece
Looking to make things happen, Ryan Reece shoved for his 10BB stack over the button raise from Carmine Belvedere.

Belvedere got a count (around 240,000) and made the call with [8c][8h] - in great shape to eliminate Reece, who held [Kd][5d].

A flop of [Ks][5h][3d][6c][Js] changed all that though - Reece doubling to 470,000 whilst a wincing Belvedere takes a hit and is down to roughly the same.

"I was running too good anyway," Belvedere admitted honestly as he handed over a chunk of his stack. Reece just grinned mischievously.

7:10pm: Final Table Profiles

Seat 1: Otto Castle, United Kingdom - 709,000
Otto Castle is 25 years old and works in software. He has played poker for a while but only seriously in the last 6 months. Now, however, he's looking to play more UKIPT and EPT events - in fact, any that look fun, although he has played at several London-based UKIPTs previously. He'd prefer not to mention his biggest poker win, but roughly tied with Alexis Savvides for second place coming to the final here, he's guaranteed at least £1,580 for his performance here over the weekend.

Seat 2: Jerome O'Shea, United Kingdom - 572,000
Jerome O'Shea, 54, began playing poker as a smoking-cessation aid about eight years ago, and the new habit has not only saved him money, it's racked him up $70,000 of live tournament earnings. Online on PokerStars he plays both cash and tournament poker (including a bit of Omaha and occasionally Hi-Lo), but when it comes to live events his job as a sales coordinator stop him playing "as many as I'd like." O'Shea will need a podium finish to beat his best prior live score (£6,050) but having held the chip lead he won on Day 1a for most of today, his average stack now won't faze him.

Seat 3: Dahe Liu, China - 1,014,000
Dahe Liu, 30, has been playing both the UKIPT Series and main tour for a few years, but due to time commitments (he runs his own Birmingham-based business) he can't leave to follow the full major tournament schedule Europe-wide. This hasn't stopped him cashing for over $100,000 live since 2008, including a 10th place finish at UKIPT Isle of Man in 2013. Liu comes to the final table as chip leader, insisting, "I don't gamble a lot. I haven't lost any really big pots," and that his smooth ascent to the chip lead today was down to this cautious approach. The most regularly seen on the tour of any of the finalists, his million chips are going to be an obstacle for the others.

Seat 4: Kevin Belvedere, Italy (PokerStars Qualifier) - 534,000
Carmine Kevin Belvedere, at 19, is the youngest finalist, still studying physics at Surrey University while making time for poker via a short commute to London. He plays cash games here in town, but has only ever played four live tournaments (in which he can boast three cashes); the UKIPT Series represents his first foray into tour events after he won his seat online on PokerStars. Fresh from a recent four-figure £20 rebuy win at the Empire, the enthusiastic Belvedere is another finalist who would play more live tournaments if they were available, even if he does admit to having exams in two weeks.

Seat 5: Giovanni Canali, Italy - 659,000
Giovanni Canali is a 40 year old Managing Director working in telecommunications. He started playing online 10-15 years ago, but having made the transition to playing live has enjoyed it so much that he now plays much more live poker. This is his first UKIPT, and he's loving it (this he revealed while laughing and pointing at his stack). His recent big win - £1,800 at a tournament in Reading - represents his best cash to date, but he just needs to avoid exiting the final first to outdo it.

Seat 6: Ryan Reece, United Kingdom - 241,000
Ryan Reece is a 25 year old shipping agent - involved in customs and immigration: "Lots of paperwork," he revealed with a sigh. He started playing poker at 15 years of age with his friends. "We used to play for £1 each," he revealed, "You could only win a tenner but we'd play till three in the morning!" Reece moved on to casinos, finding his niche in tournaments, which he prefers playing to cash games. Three weeks ago he achieved his biggest cash - 4th in an online tournament for €2,500, but he still prefers playing live as a rule. This is his first UKIPT.

Seat 7: Alexis Savvides, Cyprus - 748,000
Alexis Savvides, 24, hails from Cyprus but has been living in London for the past seven years. He says that he loves the pace and excitement of the city, where he works as a financier. His biggest ever live cash was for £10,000, and he really wants to beat that by taking the UKIPT Series title, although his regular game of choice is cash rather than tournaments. Savvides lies in joint second place coming into the final and has not struggled for chips during Day 2.

Seat 8: Lee Hanlon, United Kingdom - 481,000
Lee Hanlon has been playing poker for seven years, enough to describe himself at 34 as a semi-pro "online grinder" playing under the name taffyfella on PokerStars. He's previously come 3rd in a SCOOP event for $10,000 and won $42,000 in the Sunday Warm-Up but this UKIPT Series represents his very first live event and a turning point in the game for him, in terms of the buzz of the tournament. Hanlon's stack might be near the bottom of the pack on the final table, but this is unlikely discourage him; he's already locked up £1,580 in his first foray off the virtual felt, in a tournament for which he qualified online.

7:00pm: Final Underway!
So we're underway with just 8 players remaining from the 250 who started out this journey toward UKIPT Series glory.

To read updates from levels 21-22, click here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

Giovanni Canali is the UKIPT5 Series 2 London champion, having defeated Otto Castle here at The Hippodrome Casino for £12,820.

It was an emotional ride for Canali, who began the day with a shortstack.

"I came in as a shortsack, but I always felt something better was round the corner, I had an inner peace," the Italian Telecoms Managing Director said following his victory.

The final day of the event began with 61 players hopeful of victory, though the swiftly augmenting blinds saw to it that this number was whittled down to a final eight in swift fashion.

There was always likely to be carnage at the felt with aggressive poker and regular confrontations meaning every player was forced to run the gauntlet of showdowns with great regularity.

Two men who had come into the day with high hopes of a deep run were Darren Murphy and Jonathan Bridges, two of the top three stacks overnight.

Murphy was to see his fortunes wane dramatically - falling prior to the cash spots whilst Bridges had a calamitous ace-king versus aces confrontation with fellow bigstack Jerome O'Shea in the middle stages - barely surviving before squeaking into the money and perishing soon after.

O'Shea however used that cooler to great effect, parlaying his fortune into a deep run to the final table.

The man no one wanted to be today was Mike Lee - reduced to a tiny stack he was forced to call his tournament life off on the bubble with 2-3 and this proved his final contribution - missing out on the cash spots by the slenderest of margins. The rail (composed primarily of interested parties) showed a combination of empathetic sympathy and self-congratulation as they secured a cash for themselves whilst recognising Lee's misery.

With the bubble burst, the relentless pace continued unabated - a slew of exits bringing about the final 8 players in the virtual blink of an eye.

Sandra Reid was the lady who ticked the box for the last standing female and the player who just missed out on the official final table.

Her elimination left the remaining 8 players lined up on the final table as follows:

Dahe Liu 1014000
Otto Castle 759000
Alexis Savvides 748000
Giovanni Canali 659000
Jerome O'Shea 572000
Kevin Belvedere 534000
Lee Hanlon 481000
Ryan Reece 241000

Given the incendiary pace of the rest of the day, it was somewhat surprising we had to wait nearly a full two levels before seeing the final table's first casualty - Kevin Belvedere suffering misfortune and poor timing to run a re-steal into Dahe Liu's pocket kings - £1,580 his reward for 8th.

Jerome O'Shea was next to go, another re-steal attempt going awry as he crashed out in 7th spot (£2,165.)

Lee Hanlon rode his luck on more than one occasion on the final - cracking Canali's pocket aces along the way. Finally, though, the dam of good fortune broke and he was submerged in 6th spot for £2,960 - Alexis Savvides doing the crucial damage.

Ryan Reece had played fast and loose with his stack - an approach that yielded great returns right up to his elimination. Liu again was the man who took his scalp - a bigger pair seeing off Reece's bold challenge in 5th spot (£3,900).

For a while Dahe Liu, formidably dressed in his white tiger jacket, looked the only man likely to win the title - his selectively aggressive approach keeping the other players off balance for the most part.

Savvides was the man most likely to stand up to Liu however and the Cypriot won several key confrontations before a now shortstacked Liu jammed pocket nines and lost out to Giovanni Canali's ace-ten. Liu will surely be back, given the qualities he showed here and £4,940 was his reward for those skills on this occasion.

Three-handed, Alexis Savvides was surprisingly the next to go - a cooler seeing him take an aggressive line with pocket sevens, only for Canali to pick him off with pocket tens.

A set on the flop for Canali consigned Savvides to 3rd place for £6,090 - an impressive run from the talented Cypriot.

The heads-up battle saw Canali take a 4-1 chip lead, Otto Castle struggling to find traction. Finally, thought it looked as though Canali may have made a misstep and Castle could make inroads into his lead.

Promising Castle action on the next hand, Canali called Castle's shove with [Jh][9h] running into Castle's dominating [As][9s].

Canali had said he was feeling it, however, and when he spiked a jack, that was the end of Castle's circumspect and profitable run in 2nd place for £8,630.

In the final anaylsis, it was Canali who was left grinning into the cameras with the trophy, having secured the victory.

"I'm ecstatic, really happy. It hasn't sunk in yet. I'll struggle to sleep tonight," he told the blog afterward.

When asked if his success here would act as a springboard for further UKIPT challenges, he explained he hoped so:

"I've got 2 teenage children who are full of activity so when I'm not being a taxi driver for them, I'd love to play some more."

Giovanni was really a model ambassador for the UKIPT Series, pleasant and genial at the felt and really humbled and happy at his win.

We hope to see him again in the future.

For now though, that was the end of this UKIPT Series event and though we are sad to go, the PokerStars Marbella festival is just round the corner from 15th-21st June, with the €1,000 + €100 main event running from the 17th-21st.

Poker in the sun - chip up and work on your tan - is there anything better than that?

We hope you'll join us there or at least follow developments on the blog. It will be a riot - don't miss out or you'll regret it!

To read updates from the final table, click here.

For the full payouts from the event, click here.

strong>PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Series 2 - London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos by Micky May.

8:30pm: End of the day
Play is done for the day, it looks as if Julian Cabello is the overnight chip leader as he bagged up a very impressive 201,600. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way and overnight chip counts will be uploaded to the blog when they become available -- NW

8:15pm: Last three hands
Each table will play three more hands before play concludes for the day.

8:05pm: Keeping an eye on table two
Whilst there's no feature table here at UKIPT Marbella you sense table two would probably get that billing if there was.

Sat side by side at said table are Team PokerStars SportStar Fatime Moreira de Melo at EPT5 Grand Final winner Pieter De Korver. Despite winning his title back in 2009, De Korver is one of those players who's seemingly ageless. He looks the same now as he did back then. He and De Melo are busy chatting away and it's De Korver who's got more chirping chips right now.

Also at that table is Richard Pearson. He's being railed by Dominic Mahoney and the latter told me about a move that Pearson managed to pull off. On a [A][A][6][7] board Pearson's opponent bet, Pearson raised and forced his opponent to fold. As he stacked the chips Pearson showed [9][5].

Sounds like a fun table. --NW

7:50pm: Early bath for...
It's never great to bust a poker tournament, it's even worse to grind for almost an entire day and fail to advance. That's a feeling that: Nuno Capucho, Frederico Volpe, Terry Carter, David Lappin, Daniel Chutrov, Manuel Moreno de Guzman, Alberto Gonzalez, Sergio Esteban, Daniel Merrilees, Roberto Alcalá, Grzegorz Krajeski, Kimmo Heikki, Mathijs Janssen, Martin Darnbrook, Anthony Fox, Tonino Montesanti, Samvel Oganesyan, Pawel Kapczynski, Vu Dung Dao, Danut Talpan, Markus Pohl, Arturo Fernandez, David Clarkson, John Franklin, Jesper Onrust, David Cruas, Luca Pazaglini, Gary Bluston, Keith Christie, Ivan Sebeledi, Morten Mortensen, Jonathan Abdellatif, Maria Duarte de Miranda, Pantazidis Anestis, Michal Kukla, Jari Aaltonen, Jonathan Abdellatif and David Gomez know all too well.

They're all out and just 161 of the 349 Day 1A entrants remain. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200, 200 ante

7:40pm: Back to back cashes for Seun Oluwole?
Seun Oluwole banked his third UKIPT cash in the recent Nottingham leg with his 107th place finish and, although it's early days, is building a stack that could help him to back to back cashes.

His stack has grown close to 65,000 after he was fortunate to eliminate Juan Evangelista Arana. The Spaniard moved all in from the button with ace-queen for his last 15 big blinds and was called by Oluwole in the big blind who held king-queen. The boar ran king high and Arana took his defeat with a big smile. -- MC

7:20pm: Moreira de Melo can't get a call with kings
Fatima Moreira de Melo's stack had shrunk to the point where she feels it's all in or fold in certain spots.

Joao Carlos Carreira Marcelino limped in from second position before the Team PokerStars SportStar held her stack in one hand so she could have a good look - it was around 21,000 - before she moved all in. Marcelino smiled immediately as he watched all other fold back around to him.

He open folded [7h][7d] and was shown [ks][kh] by Moreira de Melo. -- MC

7:15pm: A few counts
As we approach the final hour of play on Day 1A here are a few counts of some of the notable names left in:

Alexander Stevic - 70,000
Christian Grundtvig - 64,000
Katja Spillum Svendsen - 22,300
Lasse Frost - 48,000
Pieter De Korver - 53,000
Richard Pearson - 28,000

7:05pm: James continues to build
At the start of the previous level Mark James had 110,000, good for third place overall. In the last 45 minutes he's upped his stack to 150,000 and looks like he's the chip leader right now. --NW

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

6:55pm: Margets flips out
She may be a fine runner outside but Leo Margets hasn't raced very well indoors today. The Team PokerStars Pro lost a classic race versus David Tovar.

The latter opened to 1,600 and was called in one spot before the Team PokerStars Pro squeezed to 6,000 from the big blind. Tovar quickly moved in after that, which was enough to oust the flat caller but not Margets who called all in for 24,000.

Tovar: [jc][jd]
Margets: [as][kh]

The board ran [8h][qd][2s][7s][4s] and Tovar got the chips, the scalp and a hug for his efforts. -- MC

6:35pm: Separated at birth?
Not since Joe Sebok was knocked out of a tournament by Joe Serock have we had to do such a double take as we just did in Marbella. That's because Bob Janssens has just been eliminated from this tournament by Bob Jansen!

The latter three-bet to 5,100 over the top of a 1,700 open and Janseens then moved all-in for 9,500 and after the initial raiser folded, Jansen made the call.

Janseens: [Kd][Qs]
Jansen: [Ah][Jd]

The [2h][3s][Th][2d][Td] board favoured Jansen and Janseens was on his way. -- NW

6:20pm: Big stack watch

6:15pm: Pino picked off
From A-Z Andrzej Zakrzewski has got all the poker moves and just before the break he just picked off a river bluff from Cesar Pino to pad what was an already impressive stack.

There was around 15,000 in the pot by the time Zarkrzewski checked on the turn of a [Kd][Qs][9d][9c] board, Pino followed suit and the [7h] completed the board. Once again the Pole checked to Pino and the Spaniard bet 8,500. This sent Zarkrzewski deep into the tank and he sat there constantly puffing on his e-cigarette, blowing vapour in the direction of the table.

After a couple of minutes he made the call and Pino could only claim ace-high, Zarkrzewski showed [Jc][Jh] to claim the pot. -- NW

Blinds up: 400/800, ante 100

5:57pm: Last break of the day
Three levels left to play once the players return from a short break. -- MC

5:55pm: Some say it's the taking part that counts
These players might not agree: Emilio Manuel Molina, Xavier Marcel Detournel, Rubén Velasco, Luis Andre Pinho de Faria, Kirill Panov, Juan Navarrete Azon, Rozanna Jeffry Ketting, Chris Wood, Wouter Quirijn van der Peijl, Francisco Cordero, Thomas Dunwoodie, Ander Sarasua, Floyd Winterberg, Maher Isa Bakir, Georges Yazbeck,

Antonio Viñas, Teresa Ortega y Albareda, Fabio Scepi, David Dancey, Antonio Jesus Diaz, Adrian Eugen Constantin, Sergio Cabrera, Felipe Darsa Boianovsky, Jose Pedro Da Silva, Peter Wilson, Tom Drew, Henrik Matthe Juncker, Ignacio Sole Aparicio, Marcus Theodorus van Opzeeland, Jesus Aragon del Valle, Juan Garcia, Juan Fraile Ortega, Dominic Mahoney, Alfonso Jesus Fernandez, Rapinder Cheema, Jose Manuel Nuñez, Diego Soto, Lukasz Winski, Iago González, Daniel Rodriguez Rivero, Bjorn Nordberg, David Thompson, Carlos Sarria and Eduardo González.

5:42pm: Not that nice for Valle
Martin Vallo has got poker results dating back more than 12 years, making him one of the original Danish grinders on the European circuit. He hasn't been seen as much the past few years but he's back here in Marbella. Well, he was back until his aces were cracked.

He opened to 1,200 from early position and was only called by Fausutus Karl Korn in the big blind. The flop fanned [9c][2c][6h] and the chips went in with Vallo the shorter of the two with around 29,000.

Vallo: [ah][ad] for the over pair
Korn: [2s][2d] for the bottomest of sets

The board ran out [qh][kh] and Vallo said, "Ok, nice game" and made his exit. -- MC

5:35pm: Strike out
It's a tale of going from the penthouse to the outhouse for Neil Strike as the former chip leader has seen his stack reduced to dust over the past four levels. The Brit, who won the High Roller here last year, was pretty upbeat about it all, explaining that there wasn't much he could do about it really.

He was kind enough to explain what happened to the PokerStars Blog and it's hard to argue with his assessment. First Strike lost a 50,000 chip flip with queens against ace-king, his opponent flopped trip kings just for good measure.

That knocked Strike down to around 35,000 and he then lost another big pot with ace-king. "There were two shoves in front of me and I covered both players," he explained. "One had sevens, the other jacks and the jacks held."

Left with around 10,000 that soon went in with king-queen suited and wouldn't you know it he ran into ace-king, which unfortunately for Strike held up. "Ace-king has not been kind to me," he smiled. Strike intimated that he'll be sticking around for the rest of the week so expect him to be back to defend his high roller title. -- NW

Blinds up: 300/600 ante 75

5:20pm: Margets marches on
The PokerStars Blog arrived at the table to see that Leo Margets was all-in. The Spanish Team PokerStars Pro had a bet of 16,875 in front of her and Nikolay Baryshnikov, who had a bet of 2,700 in front of him, was in the tank.

After about 20 seconds he elected to fold his hand and Margets survived. A few minutes later she was stacking more chips having sccoped a pot with [Qh][Jh] on a [9][9][10][J][4] board. She's up to 26,000. -- NW

5:10pm: Pearson eliminates Raine and then gets sucked out on
The first PokerStars qualifier for this event - Neil Raine - has been eliminated at the hands of Richard Pearson; his [jh][qh] couldn't beat his neighbour's [kd][jd] after he committed his last 4,500.

A short while after, Pearson had another player all in and dominated but he couldn't take a second scalp. He opened to 1,200 from early position and called after Joao Carlos Carreira Marcelino ripped all in for 14,975.

Pearson: [as][qh]
Marcelino: [qs][td]

The board ran [9h][8d][tc][8c][4s] with Pearson shaking his head most of the way. He's stack was still at a healthy 40,000. -- MC
4:55pm: Bust outs
Plenty of fallers to tell you about as: Javier Valencia, David Lloyd, Santiago Ramirez, Jose Luis Valdes, Alessio Kullmann, Javier Domingo, Manuel Martin Campos, Halit Sahitaj, Florian Langmann, Artur Zamora, Esteban Martínez, Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz, Lennart Vallo, Ian Holmes, Faisal Ali Shihabi, Sergio Coutinho, Jose Luís Puente, Krzysztof Idziak, Stephane Said, Manuel Utrera Nuñez, Daniel Herreros, Joao Gonçalves, Scott Franklin and Eduardo Gómez are all out. -- NW

4:50pm: Day 1A numbers are in
As was mentioned earlier in the blog, registration closed at the beginning of level 5. The final number for Day 1A rests at 349 players.

To put that into context, Season 4's Day 1A attracted 293 players so hopes are out there that the total field size could top 800 for the first time in Marbella. -- MC

4:37pm: Nebezhev and his wide under-the-gun range
Khazret Nebezhev seemed a little embarrassed after he was caught playing four-deuce off-suit in hand from first position. A hand that saw his stack drop to around 1,000.

He and Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz were heads up to a [4s][6s][2s] flop where the latter bet 3,000 when checked to him. Nebezhev check-raised all in and was called.

Wyrzykiewicz: [js][jc] for an over pair with flush draw
Nebezhev: [4c][2s] for two pair and baby flush draw

The board ran out [3c][jh] to make Wyrzykiewicz a set. All Nebezhev could do was laugh about the situation. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 250-500, 50 ante

4:25pm: Spillum Svendsen stacking chips
After a near miss last year, when she finished third, Katja Spillum Svendsen is back in Marbella for another tilt at the title.
She's got off to a decent start and was already up to 35,000 before winning a pot against Gunnar Rabe. It was an all Scandinavian battle as Rabe bet 2,600 on a [Ah][5s]Kh] flop with Spillum Svendsen calling from the button.

Both players checked the [Ad] turn and the [6h] completed the river. A quick check from Rabe was followed by a swift bet from Spillum Svendsen and an equally fast fold from the Swede. 1-0 to Norway. -- NW

4:15pm: Rubio wins battle of the kickers
There were a lot of gold 1K chips in the pot as Jose Rubio and Maria Duarte de Miranda went to the river of a [Qs][8s][Th][3d][2d] board. It was Duarte de Miranda who was first to act, she bet 2,500 and Rubio instantly called. The Portuguese lady showed [Qh][7h][ but she was pipped by Rubio who held [Qd][9c].

As a result of that hand Duarte de Mirnada drops to 15,000 whilst Rubio is up to 60,000. -- NW

4:05pm: Stevic feeling the Frost
Alexander Stevic was the original PokerStars champion. More than ten years have passed since he took down the very first European Poker Tour event in Barcelona. Times have moved onto the extent that the buy in for that first tournament is the same as Stevic had to pay to enter here in Marbella.

Stevic is sat over in the corner and is feeling the frost on two counts. He seems to be under an Air-con vent as look very cold wrapped up in a tracksuit top and he has a certain Lasse Frost sat to his left. Stevic's count is around 27,000 whereas Frost has moved up to 42,000.

Frost raised to 900 from under the gun and was only called by Hans Marius Stokkenes in the small blind. Frost bet 1,000 on the [as][8d][5c] flop and 1,700 on the [js] turn. Stokkenes called the first bet but admitted defeat after the turn bet. -- MC

3:45pm: Luck of the Irish
Just before the break David Lappin all but doubled up to climb to 56,000. "I think I played the hand really well," he told the PokerStars Blog, tongue firmly in cheek. "I raised with [5d][3d] from the lojack and got one caller. The flop was [4][6][7] and my opponent had [7][6]. I bet, he check raised, I clicked it back, he shoved and after checking my cards to make sure I didn't have [5][4] I called."

Easy game. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400, 50 ante

3:27pm: Break time
The players are on their second break of the day. Registration will be closed when level 5 begins.

3:25pm: Room 101 for Hawes
Richard Hawes narrowly missed out on a seat in last night's live satellite - finishing 25th (with 21 seats) after his kings were cracked - and the Main Event hasn't been any kinder after he busted to an opponent holding pocket kings.

The Brit raised to 700 from the cutoff and called after Andrei Vlassenko three-bet to 1,900 from the big blind. The flop came [6s][7x][ts] and Vlassenko continued for 2,100. Hawes raised to 6,700 and called all in for 22,000 after Vlassenko set him in.

Vlassenko: [kh][kc] for an over pair
Hawes: [as][9s] for a flush draw

The board ran out [jc][3h] and Vlassenko moved up to 57,000. -- MC

3:15pm: Chip counts
Below are the counts of some of the names and notables in today's field. Neil Strike - who won the high roller here last year - looks to be the current chip leader. He's got around 60,000 and told us: "I've just been steadily accumulating, no huge pots. I did have a royal flush draw, which turned into a flush."

Neil Strike - 60,000
David Lappin - 56,000
Katja Spillum Svendsen - 35,000
David Clarkson - 34,500
Morten Mortensen - 31,000
Leo Margets - 30,025
Rapinder Cheema - 26,500
Fatima Moreira de Melo - 26,300
Pieter De Korver - 26,300
Georges Yazbeck - 24,025
Christian Grundtvig - 21,600
Thomas Dunwoodie - 19,500
Sebastian von Toperczer - 17,000
Neil Raine - 12,500
Tomasz Raniszewski - 8,000

3pm: Time for sunbathing
They'll be no Main Event glory for: Dave Masters, Antonio Dascenzo, Enrico Fiorentin, Jose Manuel Gomez, Igor Pihela, Adrian Garcia, Sam MacDonald, Franciso Javier Sánchez, Abraham Serrrano and Konstantinos Nanos. All failed to make the end of the fourth level. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, 25

2:47pm: Rabe's sevens good
Gunnar Rabe's pocket sevens were good in a five-way pot to see his stack approach the 30,000-mark.

He limped in from under the gun and was called in one spot before Katja Spillum Svendsen raised to 800. Her raise was called in two spots behind and by the two limpers. The flop fanned [6d][2c][ts] and all five players checked to the [td] turn. David Leon was in the big blind and led for 2,350. Rabe raised to 5,200 and all folded except Leon who made the call.

Both players checked the [8s] river and Leon opened [ad][7d] for a missed flush draw, losing out to Rabe's [7h][7s]. -- MC

2:35pm: Onrust on the up
Jesper Onrust just took a chunky pot against Stephane Said to boost his chances in this tournament. Four players saw a [Kc][Tc][Ah] flop and Onrust - who was in early positon - bet 2,000 and Said was the only caller. On the [5d] turn Onrust slowed down, he checked the action to Said, the Frenchman bet 4,500 and the Dutchman stuck around.

The [4s] filled out the board and this time Onrust decided to retake the betting lead, he fired out 4,500 and Said all but beat him into the pot. The Dutchman showed [Ad][Kd] and Said gave a little shake of the head before rechecking his cards and sending them face down to the dealer. Despite that bump in the road Said still has 21,000 to his name. --NW

2:20pm: Some in, some gone
Whilst Ulf Hakan Delin, Stephen Lockett, Benjamin Greenberger, Graham Phipps, Roberto Perez have all been eliminated Alejandro Martínez lives to fight another day after winning a pot against Bonifacio Martinez.

On the turn of a [9h][2h][8s][2s] board the latter bet 2,100 but folded when Alejandro moved all-in for around 14,000 total. 313 of 325 runners remain. -- NW

2:10pm: MacDonald flushed by Zurilla
Sam MacDonald had a (deserved) reputation back in the early days of the UKIPT of tearing up day ones often ending said day as chip leader. He hasn't been seen much the last couple of seasons but he's back and not tearing up much as yet.

He's down to around 11,000 after his neighbour, Jose Ruben Zurilla, made a flush against him. Zurilla check-called bets of 1,350 and 2,550 on the flop and turn before the river was checked. The final board read [kh][6h][6c][qh][4c] and MacDonald mucked upon seeing his opponent's [jh][9h]. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200, 25 ante

1:43pm: Break time
Two levels have passed and the players are on their first break of the day.

1:40pm: The speedy seven
The following players are known as that due to their hast in busting the Main Event: Miguel Angel Baez, Aquilino López del Rio, Mohamed Mohamed Hadu, Tarjei Forus, Toomas Mandmet, Yinka Taiwo and Joemeiry Brito all went during the first two levels. -- MC

1:30pm: A trio of tournament titans
It seems not all the big names are bracelet hunting in Las Vegas at the moment as we've unearthed another triumvirate of top tournament players who'll be hoping to go home without a sun tan. One man who knows what it's like to pose for a winner's photo in Nevada is Florian Langmann. The German grabbed gold in a Pot limit Omaha Hi/Lo event but will be out to show he's now slouch at two card poker here.

With over $1.3M in lifetime winnings Christian Grundtvig will be a force to be reckoned with. The bulk of those earnings came when he won a WPT title in Paris back in 2006. Last but not least we have Sebastian von Toperczer. The Norwegian final tabled the EPT10 Grand Final a little over 12 months ago. -- NW

1:20pm: Pearson pays for Raine and De Korver company
The jovial Richard Pearson has been sat down next to Neil Raine and across from Pieter De Korver.

Tough company, especially when you have to pay full price for the privilege. Pearson tried to win a seat in last night's live satellite but fell just short, meaning he's had to buy in for a UKIPT for the very first time.

Ruben Pleijster can be found sat a couple of tables along. The Dutchman came fifth at Eureka5 Rozvadov back in February for €53,215 not long after entering the live poker scene for the first time. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

1:05pm: Fatima making friends (not)
Fatima Moreira de Melo is not the favourite person of Pauline Bowden right now.

The two ladies were heads up to the turn of a [7c][js][ah][3d] board where a 600 bet was called (not sure who bet). The board completed with the [tc] and Bowden check-called a 1,300 bet and was shown [ad][th] by Moreira de Melo.

Bowden gasped at the sight of her opponent's hand before slamming down [as][8h] on the table. Moreira de Melo didn't take any notice, as she was too busy stacking chips and chatting away to a neighbour on her left. -- MC

12:50pm: More names
Players continue to trickle in and take their seats, the tournament clock shows that their number currently totals some 250.
Neil Raine, who was runner-up in the UKIPT3 leader board runner-up, was the first player to win a seat to this event via online satellites and he's just sat down. The third placed finisher in the UKIPT4 leader board race is playing today, that'd be Tomasz Raniszewski of course. He finished three spots ahead of David Lappin and the member of The Firm is chasing more leader board points today.

One man who's chasing a second UKIPT Main Event title is Rapinder Cheema, he triumphed in London back in January and is now trying his luck in Spain. As is Chris Wood, he made his mark on the UKIPT in Season 4 when he finished third behind Max Silver and Kevin Killeen at UKIPT4 Dublin. -- NW

12:40pm: Who's about?
The tournament got under way a little late and players are filing in from the beach to take their seats.

Good friends, and fellow Team Pros, Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo have already taken their seats. Katja Spillum Svendsen was also here from the start and looking to do well again this season. The Norwegian made it all the way to third pace last year for a career-high score of €58,700.

An ever-smiling Pieter de Korver and Morten Mortensen from Denmark have also made their presence known and will be players to keep an eye on. -- MC

12:20pm: Shuffle up and deal
A little late, but cards are in the air here in Marbella. --NW

11:45am: Fun in the sun set to start
Hello from sunny Marbella and welcome to the third event of Season 5 of the UKIPT. Once again the UKIPT and Estrellas poker tours have combined as one to bring you the Marbella Poker Festival.

In 2013 Ludovic Geilich announced himself to the poker world when he outlasted 762 others to take the title and last year Rodrigo Espinosa ploughed through a final table, that included Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, in under five hours to finish atop a field of 750 players.

So the score then is UK 1-1 Spain, it's possible that someone else will get on the scoreboard this season and we'll find out over the next five days. Follow updates every step of the way right here, via the @UKIPT twitter account and on our Facebook page. If Spanish is your bag then you need to head to the Spanish language PokerStars Blog .

Play is set to get under way at midday.

Key UKIPT5 Marbella Facts:
- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 50/100 for 250 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be ten of them. From Day 2 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes.
- Day 1A is today, Day 1B takes place tomorrow, the field will then combine for the first time on Friday, before (hopefully) playing down to a final table on Saturday and then to a winner on Sunday. Cue mad celebrations and jumping in the pool with the trophy (possibly).
- Full UKIPT5 Marbella schedule here.
- There's a live satellite to the Main Event tonight, it begins at 17.00 CET and the buy-in is €150+€15
- It's not all about the poker here in Marbella. There's some fun stuff too like an official party. That takes place on Saturday June 20th from 22.00 until late at Guey Marbella. Spots are limited and players need to contact info@estrellaspokertourhotels.com to sign up, wristbands are required for entry but the good news is there's an open Bar for the first two hours of the party.
- Players in Marbella will also be able to enjoy a wide-range of off the felt activities, including karting, water sports and more. Contact info@estrellaspokertour.com if you wish to book any activity.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

The British and Irish have had a love affair with Spain since the 1950s when the very first package holidays starting appearing on the market. More than half a century later and that bond remains strong with the counties more connected than ever. The last decade has seen a poker boom emerge in Europe and gave the counties, and more specifically the premier poker tours (ESPT and UKIPT) an excuse for a summer get together.

Let's be honest, the conversation about where to host this collaboration was a pretty short one. Spain? Yes. On the coast? Yes. Marbella okay? Sure! And the PokerStars Marbella Festival was born two years ago and is in its third edition. This year could well be the most successful yet as 349 players took their seats today, up from 293 last season. A total number north of 800 is hoped for.

Day 1A played out today over ten 45-minute levels and the field was reduced to 136. PokerStars qualifier Julian Cabello made the most of them as he bagged up a mountainous 201,600. Other players through with big stacks include: Pablo Galache (188,100), Johnny Soerensen (151,900), Constantin Daniel Georgescu (137,200) Josep María Galindo (128,400) Mark James (120,600) and Jonathan Matthews (122,900).

The red spade was represented on two fronts today as friends and fellow Team Pros, Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo took to the felt with mixed results. Margets built from her starting stack but couldn't maintain the trend. She ultimately busted two-thirds of the way through day when her ace-king couldn't connect to overhaul David Tovar and his pocket jacks. Moreira de Melo also got off to a positive start before she too had to battle late on and was as low as 10,000 at one stage. The day ended on a positive trend for her though as she doubled up with tens versus ace-nine and bagged up 68,300.

Other notables advancing to Day 2 are: Pieter De Korver (73,600), Richard Pearson (44,800), Katja Spillum Svendsen (25,900) and Alexander Stevic (71,500). Full end of Day 1A counts can be seen here.

Those who came, saw but failed to conquer in the sun included: UKIPT London champ Rapinder Cheema; David Lappin, David Clarkson, Morten Mortensen, Chris Wood, Thomas Dunwoodie, Georges Yazbeck, Martin Vallo, Neil Strike and Neil Raine.

A bumper field is expected tomorrow where the Day 1B players will play out another ten levels before all survivors will join together for the first time on Friday. Midday CET is the start time once more so join us back here then. For now, read back over many of today's talking points by clicking here and check out the video below.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. In a past life, Mickey May once fled to Spain and is very well connected around these parts, so steal her photos at your peril!

If you're following our coverage of the UKIPT Marbella event then you might have noticed the fortunes of Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo and yesterday.

For Margets it was a difficult start, concluding with a bust out late in the day. Meanwhile Moreira de Melo avoided the same fate and survived a few dicey moments to advance to Day 2.

That said, while we wouldn't wish an early departure on anyone, there might be a silver lining in the case of Margets and Moreira de Melo, as viewers of their new show on Twitch will discover today.

Starting tonight the two Team Pros will begin hosting a poker themed "Girls Night In" series on Twitch, with the broadcast starting at 7pm CET, live from UKIPT Marbella.

As with all things Twitch it will be a great way to watch the due in action, interact with questions and comments, and generally have a good time. And while it says "Girls" on the label, I'm pretty sure we menfolk are invited to the party.

It'll be the first of a series of shows that the pair plans to host while on the road at UKIPT or EPT events. The plan is to kick things off and see where things go. Wherever that is you can see for yourself by tuning in.

So set an alarm, mark in it the diary and clear the schedule. 7pm CET tonight on Twitch, live from UKIPT Marbella.

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

8:40pm: Play is over
The final whistle on Day 1B has been blown and players are bagging and tagging their chips. Daniel Sochanek ended the day as chip leader with 167,200. A wrap of the day's events will be up on the blog shortly and Day starts at Midday CET tomorrow. -- NW

8:20pm: Final four
The clock has been paused and each table will play four more hands. -- NW

8:15pm: Davey's bluff timing way off
He may have been free-rolled into this event by virtue of his UKIPT Season 4 Leader Board victory, but Dara Davey will still be annoyed at the manner of his bust out to Roland Morckhoven.

Sam Grafton told the blog, "He shoved a flop when that man (pointed to Morckhoven) had the nuts!"

Morckhoven moved up to 170,000 as a result. -- MC

8pm: Diaz departs; Iermolcheva soaring
Gaelle Garcia Diaz, the multi-lingual PokerStars TV presenter has failed to repeat her deep run from Season 4, where she came 40th for €2,590.

Olga Iermolcheva on the other hand seems to be playing lots of pots at her table. Her high VPIP has helped her up to 145,000.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200, ante 200

7:42pm: Bluff your way to 50k
Tobias Peters has got to the 50,000-mark after bluffing Juan Mañez off a hand. The latter raised fro mid position preflop and Peters called from the hijack. The flop fanned [3d][tc][3s] and Mañez gave up the initiative by checking. He called a bet from his Dutch opponent and checked again on the [9c] turn. Peters fired 6,800 and Mañez admitted defeat with a fold.

"Show the bluff!" said a table mate and Peters obliged by showing [ad][8s] before responding with, "Are you going to show the next time I ask then?" -- MC

7:30pm: Gone
It's quite close but no cigar for: Alvaro Martin Recio, Thomas Brownlee, Fernando Perez, Iulian Enache, Francisco Manuel Salvador, Ivan Kalac, Manuel Solis, Charles Shaw, David Kristek, Sebastian Barhs, Peter Jaksland and Adrian García as they're all out. --NW

7:20pm: Manx man making money (well chips)
The PokerStars Blog arrived at table 26 to see a three-way all-in in progress. Dariusz Dejko was the shortest stack of the three, David Tierney was all-in for just over 14,000 and Alberto Blasi was the covering stack.

Dejko: [Ah][Qs]
Tierney: [Ad][Kc]
Blasi: [Ac][Ks]

The [6d][6h][Jd][2d][5d] board meant Tierney - who's from the Isle of Man - four flushed Blasi to nearly triple up, Djeko was eliminated and Blasi slipped to 23,000. -- NW

7:12pm: Morckhoven trips up
Roland Morckhoven still has a stack worth 104,000 despite running two pair into the trips of Ross Mannion.

Those two and Dara Davey saw a [9d][6s][9h] flop where the action was checked to Morckhoven on the button. He bet 3,300 and was only called by Mannion in the big blind. Both players checked the [ad] turn before Mannion led out for 6,700 on the [8c] river. Morckhoven called with [8d][6h] but lost out to Mannion's [qd][9d] who's stack rose to 78,000. -- MC

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

7:05pm: A brutal way to go
Getting counterfeited is high on the list of 'worst ways to exit a poker tournament' it's probably nestled inbetween 'aces cracked' and 'got it in drawing dead' in terms of pain, which is something Keith Cummins can relate to right now.

Just bust, got in my last 13bb with 22 vs KQ, 886,J,6 #counterfited #UKIPTMarbella

— Keith Cummins (@Keith_Cummins) June 18, 2015

Mick Graydon had a pretty gruesome bust out too, but looked on the bright side of life:

No joy in #UKIPTMarbella top 2 into set. Best ukipt destination to bust early anyway. Back to my holiday

— Mick graydon (@BIGMICKG1) June 18, 2015

7pm: More chops than a Butchers
There are many reactions to chopping a pot - most of which don't involve singing - and never was this starker than the contrasting reactions of a pair of players at table nine and table 18.

In the first chopped pot that the PokerStars Blog saw, Oscar Enríquez opened to 2,200 and then called when Rodrigo Jimenez three-bet to 5,100. The two players checked it all the way down on a [8h][7d][6d][2d][3c] board and both players had ace-jack. The two of them laughed about it and shook hands as the dealer split the chips down the middle.

Meanwhile across the room Tataru Valentina was all-in for 5,400 with [Ac][7s] and had found a caller in the shape of Luis Joaquin Ruiz, who had pocket queens. The board ran [Ad][5s][3c][2h][4c] giving both players a straight. When the river card hit Valentina - who was behind pre-flop - banged his fist on the table extremely hard as he'd been denied a double up. Ruiz was more passive about it and merely took his bet of 5,400 back to allow the dealer to divvy up the blinds and antes. -- NW

6:55pm: Mitchell and Grafton on the move
Virtually all the tables in the downstairs room have been broken now. One of the most recent to break was the one containing Sam Grafton and James Mitchell.

Grafton has been moved two to the left of UKIPT4 Leader board champion Dara Davey, who looked up at us and commented, "It was such a quiet table as well!" Grafton, who's known for his booming voice, (ironically) quietly smiled.

Mitchell arrived at his table and promptly three-bet to 4,500 from the hijack after Alexandr Cagrov had opened to 1,700 from early position. Cargov came back with a four-bet to 10,500 and Mitchell folded to drop to around 50,000. -- MC

6:40pm: The numbers are in
Drumroll please...the total number of runners in the UKIPT5 Marbella Main Event is 841! A total of 492 players entered Day 1B of the UKIPT5 Marbella Main Event and 349 played on Day 1A. That makes the split of players over the two start days 58.5% to 41.5% in favour of Day 1B. -- NW

6:30pm: Check you later
No chips left for this poor bunch: Tomasz Wrobel, Gleb Krochmalis, Antonio Melendez Marin, Thierry De Quick, Arnaud Louis Peyroles, Marc Radgen, Simen Enggrav Iversen, David Algarra, Ben Farrel, Oscar Enríquez Cabello, Garret Devine, Miguel Gurrea Monton, Aitor Larbide Aldasoro, Jose Luís Perez, Alexis Zervos, Roseline Sekartjem, Carlos German Serrano, Mauricio Oscar Riachi, Marcos Martín Martínez, Georgios Papadopoulos, Gary Johnson, Wilfrid Fouillaret, Gytis Lazauninkas, Marco Silva Valente, Sameer Singh, Conor Beresford, Benjamin García, Patrick Wiefels, Steven Mcintrye, Andres Molina, Mario Sanchez, Stefano Locorotondo, Jose Luís Plaza, Frederic Mark Hebette, David Martin Santana, Ross Greig, Marc Victor Uzan, Paul Bambrough, Jose Ignacio Albert, Luis Ramirez, Carlos Sánchez, Jesus Antonio Hervas, Paul Lozano, Kim Sundin, Elliot Sorsky and Joao Vasques Rosa Nunes. -- MC

6:15pm: Big stacks
During the break the tournament staff kindly got the dealers to note down the biggest stack at each table. These ladies and gentleman are therefore your chip leaders as level eight gets under way.

Javier Torregrosa, 106,900
Grzegorz Grochulski, 105,200
Jerome Sgorrano, 100,000
Davide Andreoni, 88,000
Niko Kettunen, 88,000
Malte Moening, 85,000
Philipp Schimmerl, 82,000
Jose Luís Rodriguez, 80,000
Linda Alexandra, 78,200
Antonio Fernandez, 78,000
Jorge Antonio Juste, 77,200
Manuel Antonio Rupert, 75,700
Alvaro Picatoste, 74,400
Alex Ferguson, 70,700

6:10pm: Malte Moening the chips in
Malte Moening, who came third in the EPT10 Grand Final, has more than doubled up to 85,000 after he made a flush versus Spyridwin Koukouris.

Those two plus Iulian Enache were all still involved on the turn when the board read [2s][qd][3d][6d]. Koukouris led for 5,000 and was called by Enache before Moening raised to 16,626. Koukouris made a difficult looking tank call but Enache left them to it.

The board completed with the [4h] and Moening moved all in for his last 14,500. Koukouris called with [as][ah] but lost out to his German opponent who had already opened [ad][5d]. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800, ante 100

5:50pm: Seven down, three to go
The players are now on a 15-minute break. -- NW

5:40pm: Downstairs but up in chips
The number of tables in use in the downstairs tournament area - called La Caseta which roughly translated means The Booth - number just five now but there are plenty of big names and big stacks still involved down there.

They include: Ognyan Dimov (29,500), Ross Mannion (41,000), Luke Perrott (67,000), Sam Grafton (56,000) and James Mitchell (44,500).

Grafton and Mitchell are sat side by side and were involved in a three-way pot with Franjo Zivkovic. "This was meant to be an all English affair," joked Grafton as Zivkovic got involved. On the [2s][3d][7d] flop the action checked to Mitchell who bet 2,600, Zivkovic check-raised to 7,000 and both Englishmen folded.

"I was doing that if you didn't," said Grafton to Zivkovic. "It was so obvious," he needled Mitchell. "In fact I'd probably have check-called all the way down with ace high," he added getting another not too subtle dig in at this friend. -- NW

5:27pm: Some chips counts from the main room

5:15pm: Running up a stack
Players started with 250 big blinds each and whilst no one has that amount now if you've got over 100 then you're in very good shape indeed. Members of that club include: Linda Alexandra (83,000), Tim Petzold (71,000) and Jorge Antonio Juste (61,000). -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600, ante 75

5:10pm: Show to take
A bit of showdown confusion to tell you about now...

On the turn of a [Tc][Jh][Js][3d] board Keith Terence (under-the-gun) bet 1,500 only for Antonio Perez (small blind) to check raise to 3,700 total. Call from Terence.

The [8s] completed the board and Perez fired out 7,300 which was swiftly matched by Terence. Perez turned over the [Ad] but didn't open his other hole card. He was in seat ten and the dealer took these actions to mean that Perez had mucked his hand and moved his two cards towards the muck, they touched the muck, but were still clearly identifiable.

Terence had his cards in his hand and had them over the betting line and was preparing to muck them, when Perez indicated that surely Terence had to show to win the pot. At this point the dealer turned both of Perez's cards over revealing - [Ad][5h] and Terence then showed [Kh][Jc] to win the pot and the next hand could begin. -- NW

5pm: Gomez busts after failed hero call
Diego Gomez's Main Event has come to an end after he called off with ace high, only for his opponent to open top set.

Philipp Schimmerl opened to 1,100 from under the gun and called after Gomez three-bet to 3,000 from the cutoff. Schimmerl called to a [6d][9c][5d] flop where both players checked. The turn was the [tc] and Schimmerl check-raised a 1,500 delayed c-bet up to 3,500. Gomez called and then quickly called off his remaining 9,350 on the [2c] river when Schimmerl set him in.

Schimmerl opened [ts][th] beating out Gomez's [as][kc]. -- MC

4:45pm: Exits
As the blinds go up, naturally so does the rate of fallers. Among those who'll be able to enjoy the late afternoon sun here in Marbella (tough life) are: Abdelkader Benhalima, Ruben Veras, Stoyan Todorov, Peter Ockenden, Miguel Gurrea, Brahim Oubella, Zelko Adzaga, Giancarlo Martagni, Jose Francisco Romero, Luis Miguel Magan, Marco Pacini, Andrey Dimitrov, Cesar Sanz Alba, Aras Janulis, Jurgen Siegwart Bielz, José Martínez Cao, Antonio Guimaraens, Samuele Grassi, Adrian Ko, David Wilkes, Liam Duffy, Silas Meyer, Adrián Donoso, Roberto Rodriguez, Jose Gomez, Francisco Torres, Roberto Gomez, Radostin Todovichin, Francisco Manuel Rebolo, Nikita Staroverov, Hector Ballester and Javier Carpio. -- NW

4:30pm: James joins James
James Mitchell had just been spotted and has been drawn at the same table as James Akenhead. Mitchell has won nearly $1.7 million in live tournaments and a lot in live cash games as well. His biggest result to date was for €600,000, which he got for winning the 2010 Irish Open.

Mitchell has 36,000 chips and that was after he folded to a 22,600 shove (15k in pot) an opponent made on the turn of a [3s][2d][7d][6c] board. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 250-500, ante 50

4:15pm: Double up for Pastor
Moises Pastor just pulled off the old call, call, shove trick and as a result he got a double up through Stefan Batalka.

From under-the-gun Pastor opened to 1,000 and then called after Batalka three-bet to 2,500 from the button. The flop fell [Jh][8h][7d] and Batalka bet 3,000 with a flourish, Pastor was much more workmanlike in placing his chips into the pot.
So to the [5s] turn they went, another check by Pastor and another extravagant bet from Batalka, this time a looping high chip toss was his chosen method of putting 6,000 into the pot. Back on Pastor he picked up a blue 5k chip and a gold 1k chip and started doing the 'chip twirl trick' before electing to call.

The [5h] finished off proceedings and Pastor took less than ten seconds to pile his chips into one tower and push them over the line, Batalka quietly said: "I call," and Pastor turned over [6c][5c] for trip fives, it was good as Batalka had pocket queens. The all-in shove was for 14,600 and Batalka was left with around 10,000 after shipping his chips to Pastor. --NW

4:05pm: The confidence quads gives you
Lewis Swift had dropped a few chips this level before he got up to around 33,000 by powerfully playing pocket jacks on a very dangerous board.

He was battling heads up with Antoni Faisca Blanco and the two had made it to the turn where the board read [7s][kd][ts][ac]. Swift bet 2,300 from under the gun and Blanco check-called from the small blind. The board completed with the [9d] and Swift moved all in for 11,475 when Blanco checked to him once more.

The Belgian admitted defeat and threw his cards in the muck. Swift opened [js][jh] and Blanco nodded before turning to neighbour Tobias Peters for a conversation that involved a lot of head shaking.

While the dealer was shuffling for the next hand, a player at the table had his hand in the air trying to attract a waitress just as Olga Iermolcheva was walking by. She instinctively gave him a high-five and caused the table to erupt in laughter. -- MC

3:55pm: Very nice for Veiga
Hands up who's played as high as $200/$400 no-limit Hold'em online? Anyone who has is in exalted company and there's (at least) one such player in the field today. His name is Diogo Veiga and the Portuguese player is no slouch at tournaments either as he's got lifetime earnings of over $220,000. These winnings were boosted recently by a deep run in the EPT Malta Main Event where he finished 31st.

He's up to around 46,000 in this tournament by virtue of winning a sizeable pot against Laura Gallardo. We picked up the action on the turn of a [4c][4d][8c][Ks] board to see Veiga betting 2,800 and Gallardo making the call. On the [5s] river Veiga reached into his stack again and settled on a bet of 7,050, this sent Gallardo deep into the think tank, she eventually elected to call, but mucked when Veiga turned over [Ad][Kh] which was good for the pot. -- NW

3:40pm: Swift double up for Lewis
Lewis Swift was in the happy camp during the break. He popped by media row to tell us how get got up to 32,000 with quad sixes.

He was in the small blind and was one of two players who called a min raise. The flop fell [6c][jc][qc] and all three checked to the [6d] turn where Swift led for 1,200. He was called in one place and the board completed with another queen. Swift led for 4,000 and called all in when his opponent set him in with king-queen for a full house. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400, ante 50

3:20pm: Break time
The second break of the day has arrived. Registration will be closed once level 5 commences. -- MC

3:15pm: Many bustouts already
There's always the sun, sea and ...... sangria for the following: Maria Celia Montoya, Santiago Parra Garcia, Alfredo Urtubia, Joaquin María Gil, Vicente Besalduch, Ruben Cortes Esteban, Dean Hutchinson, Bruno Ortuño, Gonzalo Veiga, Kieran Woods, Silviu Petrica Togui, Andrea Manzoni, Milan Rabsz, Rafael Muñoz, Henri Luc Thomas, Daniel McHugh, Fernando Heredia, Cristian Martinez, Jeronimo Linero Marin, Gerard Cordier, Jakub Krehla, David Riches, Steven Bartley, Sergey Dozhdev, Daniel Jonathen, Manuel Clement Bujalkdon, Zack Goldsmith, Ryan Townsend, Thomas Hagmann and Adrian Costin Constantin. --MC

3pm: Delgado joins the party
Table 14 just got a lot tougher as Vicente Delgado has taken up situ in seat seven. The Spaniard, who lives in London, has racked up over $1,700,000 in lifetime earnings on PokerStars and over $200,000 in the live arena. His biggest individual online cash came when he won a WCOOP bracelet in 2014. He took down the $10,300 NL Hold'em [8-Max, Re-Entry, High Roller] for $702,625. --NW

2:50pm: Carter got
"Who's ready to party?" said Dan Carter as he walked towards media row. "I got it in pre-flop with aces," began the UKIPT1 Coventry fourth place finisher. "I raised to 800 from the cut-off, the button (Luis Joaquin Ruiz) raised to 1,800 and the small blind (Mykyta Ishchenko) cold called. It was the buttons third three-bet against me and I was just going to peel but when the small blind cold called I have to three-bet and made it 5,100 total. The button then clicked it back and I six-bet jammed for around starting stack (25,000) and he called. He had queens and flopped a queen."

Carter seemed philosophical about his exit and said: "I bought some shorts with me in case this happened, time to go for a walk." Yep there are certainly worse places to bust a poker tournament than sunny Marbella. -- NW

2:40pm: Chips and tales from the basement
The overspill room downstairs is more like a basement but that's a good thing as it's the coolest place to play with its shade and tiled floors.
Sam Grafton can be found there with a 55,000 stack. A healthy place to be and allows him the space to call a three-bet pre flop before folding on a flop. Luke Perrott (8th at UKIPT5 Nottingham) was busy getting his stack in on an adjacent table. He raised to 1,500 and was called in one spot before EPT Deauville winner Ognyan Dimov squeezed to 2,500. Perrot shoved for around 14,000 and took the pot down.

Down from them, you'll find Paul McTaggert (33,000), Mick Graydon (36,000) and Dan Stacey (22,500) sharing a table and all comfortable. James Akenhead has won some chips back and is back up to 18,000, shy of the 38,000 that Tomeu Gomila has amassed one more table along. -- MC

Blinds up: 150/300 ante 25

2:20pm:Chip counts
A few counts from around the main tournament room:
Dara Davey, 40,000
Olga Iermolcheva, 35,700
James Noonan, 32,000
Dan Carter, 25,300
Jack Stanton, 23,000
Gaelle Garcia Diaz, 22,000
James Atkin, 18,000

2:10pm: Day 1B up to 440 players!
Registration is open for two more levels and players keep arriving. The tournament clock is saying 440 have entered so far.

Tobias Peters, who recently won the High Roller Event at Eureka Hamburg for €37,548, has his stack in the black. He was in the small blind and three-way to the turn of a [5d][9h][3c][6c] board. Antoni Faisca Blanco bet 900 from the big blind but snap folded after the Dutchman check-raised to 2,700.

Olga Iermolcheva, from the Ukraine, will be hoping to continue her good form from 2015. She came second at LAPT Panama just over a month ago, earning her a career-high score of $113,580. Also spotted were serial UKIPT casher Chris Gordon and gentleman Diego Gomez. -- MC

1:55pm: Heard the one about the Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman?
There's a strong British and Irish presence at table 42. In seat six sits Daniel Stacey, he final tabled UKIPT4 IOM just a few weeks after finishing 10th at UKIPT4 London. He's taken a knock early and is down to 16,000. His decline may well be responsible for the fact that Paul McTaggart - who's in seat seven - is up to 36,000.

A couple of seats to their left is Mick Graydon, he's got almost $500,000 in live tournament earnings and has final tabled both an EPT and a UKIPT - the first ever one in fact. That's not the only first that Graydon is known for as he was Ireland's first Supernova Elite. Completing a triumvirate of firsts is that fact that Graydon is without his usual German Shepherd card protector/lucky charm. "If I win this then that's getting retired," joked Graydon. -- NW

1:45pm: One and a half in a row for Santana
David Santana is hitting all the right notes here in Marbella, as he just won a big pot against Steven Bartley and the Irishman has dropped to less than 10,000 as a result.

The pre-flop action is unknown but on the monotone [6h][5h][Th] flop Santana fired out 1,075 and Bartley barely hesitated before calling. The [4h] turn was always going to be an action killer or an action generator and it proved to be the former as both players checked and the [Jh] rolled off on the river. Bartley checked the action to Santana and despite all the hearts he had the heart to bet, 2,825 to be precise, Bartley called very quickly but saw the bad news as XX had [Ad][Kh] for a king high flush. Bartley couldn't beat it and mucked his hand.

On the very next hand Santana played another chunky pot, this time against Magnus Karlsson. He bet the flop and turn of a [As][3h][Qs][2d] board for 525 and 1,350 respectively, before check calling a bet of 1,600 on the [6h] river. Both players had ace-king and chopped the pot.

A decent start for Santana then and the same is true for Sam Grafton, who's also at that table, he's up to 37,000. - NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200, ante 25

1:35pm: Break time
Two levels down and time for a quick break. Join us back here soon

1:18pm: Efimova runs into a set
Irina Efimova had gotten off to a positive sight but ran into a set to drop back to 23,000 chips.

The Russian raised to 350 from under the gun and picked up four callers en route to a [qs][6d][3d] flop. She continued for 1,800 and was only called by Dario Carrion in the big blind. The turn was the [7s] and he check-called another 2,750 before the board completed with the [5c]. The action went check-check and Efimova mucked upon seeing Carrion's [3s][3h] for a flopped set. -- MC

1pm: Suarez amongst three early fallers
Manuel Rocha Suarez has the unfortunate title of being the first player out here on Day 1B. No details but it's safe to say he won't be satisfied with the bite he had of UKIPT Marbella.

It wasn't long before he had company on the rail. Jose Ignacio Albert and Raul Martinez Requena also departed before the end of the first level. -- MC

Blinds up: 75/150

12:55pm: Fergie time
Alex Ferguson is off to a good start in Marbella:

Nice start to #UKIPTMarbella pick up 11k first with Full House. TT on 233T8 board. Let the run good continue please.

— Alex Ferguson (@AlexFergielive) June 18, 2015

12:40pm: Early bump in the road for Bosley
Ian Bosley had a deep run in the last UKIPT event, finishing 45th out of 1,026 runners at UKIPT5 Nottingham. He's playing today in Marbella but his hopes of another deep run in a UKIPT main event were just dented as he lost a big pot (by level one standards) to Hector Camarote.

The action to the river is unknown but with the board showing [Ac][9h][9c][Kc][3d] and action on Bosley, his Spanish opponent bet 4,500 out of turn. Bosley now took his time before eventually electing to call this chunky bet. Camarote turned over [Qc][6c] for the nut flush and Bosley grimaced before showing [Jc][Tc] for a good, but second best hand. -- NW

12:30pm: Pub game or poker game?
Back in 2009 James Akenhead was one of the most exciting players on the planet. His fearless, aggressive style helped him to the WSOP and WSOPE Main Event final tables that year. Luck wasn't so kind in the proceeding years and the Londoner ceased being a professional to open a pub and restaurant.

It's good to see Akenhead in the field today but he might not be so happy to be here after he lost a big hand to start off his tournament.

The flop read [9s][8s][kh] and Akenhead led for 375 from the big blind. A player in mid position folded but Silas Meyer called from the small blind to see an [8d] turn that was checked through. Meyer then led for 1,125 on the [7s] and faced a raise to 2,850 from Akenhead. The action didn't stop there though as the Dane three-bet to 9,000. Akenhead looked confused but flicked in a chip to call and was shown [5s][6s] for a straight flush!

Akenhead just shook his head and stared down at the floor. Never nice to lose nearly half one's stack so early on. -- MC

12:15pm: Packing them in
The tournament clock is still showing that 400 players are registered but we suspect that's a little on the low side as players continue to take their seats here.

We'll be keeping track of the names, notables and big stacks over on the chip counts page. One player we'll be keeping an eye on is James Akenhead, indeed news of a big hand involving him is coming shortly. -- NW

12:05pm: Let's go!
Play is under way. -- NW

11:45am: Back for more on Day 1B
Welcome back to Casino Marbella for Day 1B of UKIPT Marbella. Yesterday attracted a record 349 players and that number is expected to be eclipsed today. Actually, there are already more than 400 players registered meaning the main tournament room isn't big enough to seat everyone. Not to worry, as there's an overflow room that's was used for side events and satellites yesterday and shall be used today until the numbers have been whittled down enough.

Julian Cabello was the only player to pass 200,000 after ten levels of play yesterday and has set a high benchmark for those playing today. Those who have spotted around the complex include EPT11 Deauville champion Ognyan Dimov; UKIPT4 Edinburgh champion Dean Hutchison; Alex Ferguson, Dan Carter, Ross Greig, Andrew Hedley, UKIPT4 Leader board winner Dara Davey; Lewis Swift and Sam Grafton.

Grafton's girlfriend, Floor person Kate (formerly known as Dealer Kate), is also here so we'll try and get her to do some work seeing as it's going to be so busy! PokerStars blog contributor Jack Stanton (who you may remember from the UKIPT5 Nottingham blog) has dropped his quill after winning a seat online.

Cards are due in the air at Midday CET but there could well be a delay as the mass of players try to find their seats.

Key UKIPT5 Marbella Facts:
- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 50/100 for 250 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be ten of them. From Day 2 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes.
- Day 1B is today and the field will then combine for the first time tomorrow, before (hopefully) playing down to a final table on Saturday and then to a winner on Sunday. Cue mad celebrations and jumping in the pool with the trophy (possibly).
- Full UKIPT5 Marbella schedule here.
- It's not all about the poker here in Marbella. There's some fun stuff too like an official party. That takes place on Saturday June 20th from 22.00 until late at Guey Marbella. Spots are limited and players need to contact info@estrellaspokertourhotels.com to sign up, wristbands are required for entry but the good news is there's an open Bar for the first two hours of the party.
- Players in Marbella will also be able to enjoy a wide-range of off the felt activities, including karting, water sports and more. Contact info@estrellaspokertour.com if you wish to book any activity.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

With 349 players having entered the opening flight of the UKIPT Marbella Main Event on Wednesday the gut instinct of those involved behind the scenes was that this could and should be the biggest ever UKIPT Marbella Main Event. When late registration slammed shut halfway through Day 1B they'd been proved right. A further 492 poker hopefuls hit the felt today to take the total number of runners to 841. That number eclipsed the total in both 2013 (762) and 2014 (750) and created a prize pool of €807,360.

The majority of that won't be divvied up until Sunday but when it is there's going to be one very happy person holding a novelty oversized cheque worth €150,800, a small price to pay for being asked to pose for numerous winners photographs I think you'll agree. Anyone who makes the final table of eight will have locked up €14,100 for three days work and 127 players will secure a cash of at least €1,695. The full payout structure can be seen here.

Over 60% of the field are dead money - so to speak - as they've already been eliminated but one player who's very much alive is Daniel Sochanek, the player from Sweden bagged up 167,200 after a fine day at the felt. He didn't eclipse Day 1A chip leader Julian Cabello (201,700) though, nor Pablo Galache (188,100) or Heikki Juhani Piira (171,300) who all advanced from Day 1A with more chips, but the Scandinavian is in fine shape heading into Day 2.

Other players who saw their starting stack of 25,000 swell to considerably more during the opening 10 levels of play were: Juan Jose (155,700), Daniel Fernandez (142,700) Alex Ferguson (124,200) and Manuel Saavedra (122,300). They'll all be in the upper echelons of the chip counts when play restarts on Friday.

Whilst there were no players sporting the Red Spade in combat today - Fatima Moreira de Melo advanced yesterday with 68,300 - there were no shortage of big name players looking to follow suit. Dotted amongst the field there was a EPT winner, a UKIPT champion, the UKIPT Season 4 leader board winner, an Irish Open winner, a WCOOP bracelet holder, an EPT presenter and a Eureka Poker Tour High Roller champion.

Not all advanced, but the Day 2 field won't be easy as: Vicente Delgado (97,700), Tobias Peters (87,500) James Mitchell (60,200) and Sam Grafton (39,100) did navigate the 10 levels of play and will be searching for another big result to add to their poker C.V. here in Marbella. They'll be joined by the likes of Luke Perrott (104,200), Marcin Barwinski (31,300) and Daniel Stacey (17,400). All three of those players know what it's like to final table a UKIPT Main Event.

The Poker Gods care not for reputation of course and plenty of big names fell to earth. UKIPT4 Edinburgh champion Dean Hutchison was an early casualty and UKIPT1 Coventry fourth place finisher Dan Carter was another who was out before the half-time oranges were served. Carter got it in pre-flop with the best hand in hold'em but couldn't hold against the pocket queens of Luis Joaquin Ruiz. UKIPT4 leader board winner Dara Davey busted in the final level as did Gaelle Garcia Diaz. She went deep in this event last year and earlier in the day she did a short interview with the Estrellas Poker Tour video team.

Overnight chip counts and the seat draw will be uploaded to the PokerStars Blog when available but this will be well before play begins at noon local time on Friday. Also keep an eye on the @UKIPT twitter account as links to that information will be made available there too. Thanks for reading today's coverage, you can catch up on today's starter for ten here. For now so long, see you tomorrow.

All pictures are copyright of Mickey May

4:22pm: Break time
We're inching ever closer to the money here in Marbella as just 162 players remain, 127 of whom get paid. Those who remain are now on a 15 minute break. You'll find updates in a new post shortly. -- NW

4:20pm: Crying call works out for Miranda
You could tell that Antonio Miranda really didn't want to call, but really felt like he was priced in. He'd opened to 6,000 on the button and was now facing a decision for only another 15,000 or so as Jose Luís Rodriguez had shoved from the small blind for just over 21,000.

Miranda had started the hand with about 95,000 so it was a decent portion of his stack that he was potentially putting on the line. After a bit of TV tank time he did make the call and showed [8c][6s]. It was live as Rodriguez had [Ac][9s] and the board came [3h][Qd][6c][5h][2s] to eliminate Rodriguez. -- NW

4:13pm: Perrot eliminated
Budding golfer Luke Perrot never managed to spin up his short stack and busted shortly before the end of the level.

He came by and told the blog that he moved all in with ace-jack suited for 44,000 from the small blind and was called by the big blind, who opened queen-nine. The board ran [q][9][6][10][6] to make his opponent two pair. -- MC

4:05pm: "I had to bet..."
So said Fatima Moreira de Melo after she'd bet into a dry side pot. Hak-Hyun Lee had shoved all-in from under the gun for about five big blinds and picked up calls from De Melo (button) and Alejandro Martínez (big blind).

The flop fell [Qh][Ks][4c] and when Martinez checked De Melo fired out a bet of 25,000 forcing him to fold, the Spaniard showed pocket tens as he did so. First to show was De Melo she had pocket sixes and said: "I had to bet, he never has ace-queen or ace-king I don't think," she was in front as Lee had [Ad][8h].

The [8s] turn gave Lee the lead and he held on the [2s] river. "I saved you," joked De Melo who drops to 107,000 after that hand, Martinez is down to 140,000. -- NW

4pm: Brit watch
There are a fair few holidaymakers (British and Irish players) still left in the field, from chip leader Daniel Price all the way down to short stacks such as Luke Perrot and Lewis Swift.

Perrot (44,000) is sandwiched between Sam Grafton and James Aktin. The latter of those two, along with Perrot, has work to do with 60,000 and Grafton's a little more comfortable on 100,000 despite folding on the river in a three-bet pot.

Swift can be found on the other side of the room and is in shoving mode. His 40,000 shove from early position didn't get any callers. -- MC

3:45pm: Rosales straightens out Galindo
There was already a raise and a call before action reached Rodrigo Rosales on the button, he called as well only for Josep María Galindo to make the price of poker 18,000 out of the big blinds. Action folded back to Rosales and he elected to call.

So it was heads-up to a [9s][2s][8c] flop, which both players elected to check. The [7d] fell on the turn and after Galindo checked, Rosales fired out a bet of 24,500, call from Galindo. The [Qd] completed the board again Galindo checked, Rosales fired again - this time 45,000 - and again Galindo tanked before calling. After getting the call Rosales swiftly exposed [Jh][Th] for a straight and Galindo couldn't beat it.

After that hand Rosales is up to around 310,000. -- NW

3:35pm: Lattore lives to fight again
From under-the-gun Manuel Saavedra opened to 7,000 and Jose Angel Latorre then three-bet shoved for 44,100 from the cutoff. Next to act was Ignacio Lopez and he cold four-bet all-in for close to 150,000.

The action folded back to Saavedra and he requested a count of Lopez's chips before deciding it was too rich for his blood and left the two of them to fight it out:

Lopez: [As][Kc]
Lattore: [Ad][Td]

It looked bleak for Lattore but a [6d][Tc][8h] flop gave him the lead and he held on the [4s] turn and [6c] river. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,500-3,000, ante 400

3:22pm: Sanchez dominates opponent but departs
Juan Jose Sanchez got his chips in good and that's all you can do. He was in the big blind and squeezed all in for 34,000 after a 5,000 hijack raise from Francisco Carrasco and small blind flat from Richard Pearson. Carrasco called and that was enough to scare off Pearson.

Sanchez: [kd][jc]
Carrasco: [ks][ts]

The board ran [td][as][th][ad][8c] to make Carrasco a full house. His stack rose to 185,000. -- MC

3:15pm: Gone but not forgotten
Day 2 is often referred to as moving day as it's when big stacks start to appear and we reach the money. Of course for those two things to occur plenty of players fortunes have to go the opposite of up. Just 198 players remain now in the Main Event and among those who've seen their chip stack go down to zero are: Antonio Perez, José María Jaen Carrillo, Kurt Karlsson, Daniel Albors, Anatoly Usenko, Jake Samuel, James Noonan, Johan Ray, Spyridwin Koukouris, Steffen Carl, Alexandr Cagrov, Paul McTaggart, Jesus Moreno, Rasmus Larsen, Dirk Schweitzer, Pedro Monteiro, Leonid Sidelkovskiy, Mark James and Patrick Clarke. -- NW

3:05pm:Grafton waits before pouncing
The old check-raise manoeuvre came out of Sam Grafton locker just now to see his worth rise to 92,000.

Luke Perrot raised to 6,200 from under the gun and was called by Eetu Porkka in the cutoff and Grafton in the small blind. All three checked the [9h][3c][qh] flop to head to the [8c] turn. The action was checked around to Porkka who fired 8,000 at the pot. Grafton used both hands to check-raise up to 26,500 and both opponents folded. Perrot's stack dropped down to 26,000. -- MC

2:50pm: Delgado and De Korver depart
Two very dangerous players have been knocked out recently. Vicente Delgado was short on chips and is out as is Pieter De Korver. He was sharing a table with Fatima Moreira de Melo and she told us: "He ran queens into kings twice," ouch. -- NW

2:45pm: De Melo doubles
Fatima Moreira de Melo is up to 60,000 after doubling up through Lasse Frost. She told the PokerStars Blog: "He opened with [Kh][7h] and I called from the big blind with [J][10]. The flop was [K][J][10] with two spades, I checked, he bet, I shoved and he called."

Frost has dropped to about 80,000. -- NW

2:40pm: Top ten stacks
The tournament staff vety kindly collated all the big stack counts from each table. Below are the ten biggest of them, led by (a long way) Daniel Price.

2:25pm: De Melo in the danger zone
In the five and a bit seasons of the UKIPT there has yet to be a female winner of a Main Event. Plenty have come close and two of those who have are still in contention here in Marbella. Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo was runner-up to Duncan McLellan at UKIPT4 IOM, she started the day with 68,300 but has slipped to just 26,000 (just over 10 big blinds). She's got some work to do to get back to a workable stack.

It's better news for Katja Spillum Svendsen though. She was third here last year but came back today with just 25,900 to her name, she's since spun that up to 86,000. -- NW

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

2:06pm: Break time
The players are now on a 15 minute break. -- NW

2:05pm: Frost up to 140,000
Lasse Frost has an EPT final table and a UKIPT final table on his list of poker achievements and he now has a lot more chips than he started the day with as he's up to 140,000 from a start of day 36,400.

He just won a huge pot against Hak-Hyun Lee to get to that stack. The vast majority of the chips went in on a [6s][8c][2d] flop with Frost holding pocket kings and Lee with pocket jacks. The [Kh] turn gave Frost a lock on the hand, he was all-in for 58,500 on the flop. -- NW

2pm: Ferguson can't win a pot
It's not been a great start to the day for Alex Ferguson:

And the decent continues. Down to 65k. Can't win a single hand! #UKIPTMarbella #pokerstars

— Alex Ferguson (@AlexFergielive) June 19, 2015

The Scot finds himself at a tough table, one that contains EPT11 Deauville champion Ognyan Dimov and WCOOP bracelet holder Vicente Delgado although the Spaniard is well and truly in the danger zone as he only has 24,000.

It's gone a little better for Dimov, he started the day with 33,500 but has all but doubled that despite losing a pot to Enrique Rojas. In the hand in question it folded to Dimov, he limped the button and Rojas checked his option. Both players checked the [Jh][9c][9h] board and the [7s] fell on the turn. Rojas bet 4,000 and Dimov made the call. The [2d] completed the board and Rojas check-called a bet of 9,000 and won with [7h][5d] as Dimov had a busted flush draw with [8h][3h]. -- NW

1:55pm: They keep on falling
The following players tried, but failed, to make the top 300: Alexander Stevic, Javier Torregrosa, Cristobal Tomas Alamo, Dionisio Robles, Roland Morckhoven, Heikki Piira, Antonio Isidro Betato, Christopher Howden, Udo Erlei, Angel Martinez, Jonatthan Schuman, Dominykas Mikolaitis, Christopher Craig, Ricardo Sampaio, Ricardo Ibañez,

Ted Sundin, Samuel Gonzalo, Marciano Harman, Tobias Peters, Mantas Balcytis, Adrian Nunez, David Tierney, Joaquin Augusto Serrano, José Luís Simeon Delgado, Bartosz Piesiewicz, Audrius Stakelis, Manuel O'Shea, Mariusz Domoradki, Marcos Fernandez, Lee Goldsmith, Paulius Mikenas, Juan Antonio Maza, Ander Leonardo, Luís Rojas, Peter Hegedus, Gintaras Simaitis, Ezequiel Macho, Giuseppe Nicola, Juan Mañez, Jose Maria Marfilm, Tobias Grahn, Jari Tapani, Sabastian Huppertz, Marcin Barwinsky and Mark Wagstaff. -- MC

1:40pm: Rosales plays to the crowd
Table 29 is situated alongside the central area where spectators gather and there was quite a crowd around it which suggested a big pot was going down.

Indeed it was as Rodrigo Rosales have shoved all-in for around 130,000 on a [4h][6s][2h] flop, the action was on Rolf Tomas. The Swede had bet 17,000 on the flop and he was now faced with a decision for his remaining 85,000. After thinking it over for a long time he elected to fold and showed pocket sevens. As he took the pot Rosales couldn't resist showing pocket aces. -- NW

1:30pm: Dutchies converge
Fatima Moreira de Melo and Pieter de Korver ended up on the same table on Day 1A and it hasn't taken long for them to find each other today.

De Korver started the day on 73,600 and has already got that up to 135,000, which may be the reason he's bouncing in is chair, obviously in a great mood.

Moreira de Melo on the other hand looks a little frustrated. She lost a pot to drop to 51,000, from a 68,300 starting point. She was in the small blind and called a button raise from Jaime Tomas Escarrer to see a [9h][4c][ah] flop appear.

Escarrer continued for 6,000 and Team PokerStars SportStar check-called before checking the [7s] turn. Escarrer snap shoved all in for 23,200 and Moreira de Melo angrily mucked. -- MC

1:20pm: The Price is right
New chip leader alert! Poor old Ross Mannion, it should be him but it's not as Daniel Price cracked his kings with pocket sevens to win a huge 220,000 chip pot.

So I'm out . . . #UKIPTMarbella all inn pre with KK>>77 for a 220k pot and probably the chip lead . .

— Ross Mannion (@AKCH4RG3) June 19, 2015

1:15pm: Shorties shoving but surviving
Double ups all over the place at the moment:

The first was a classic race, Gioele Maruccia opened to 6,000 from the cut-off, Guillermo Moreo, who was the covering stack re-raised all-in from the big blind and Maruccia called all-in for 54,500 without skipping a beat.

Maruccia: [Jh][Jc]
Moreo: [As][Kh]

Maruccia didn't look happy that he was in a race situation but the [4h][3s][3d] flop was safe enough for him, the [5s] turn gave Moreo more outs and Maruccia made a face that said: "Come on dealer, more outs!" but he need not have worried as the [7c] river was a brick and he successfully doubled up to around 115,000, whilst Moreo was left with about 20 big blinds.

One table over it was a Brit on Brit battle of the blinds that created the second showdown. It folded to Arvin Ravindran, he shoved for an effective 26,000 with [Ah][8d] and Alexander Kaczmarek found [As][Qc] and a call.

By the turn of a [7d][3s][5d][6d] board Ravindran had 40% equity in the hand - way more than the 24% he started with - but the [3h] river meant Kaczmarek's hand held. -- NW

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

1:05pm: Tom none the Wiesner
Tom Wiesner would've taken a chopped pot after his all in shove was called but his opponent hit his kicker to bust him.

He was down to 68,000 when he moved all in from the cutoff and he had to wait a couple of minutes before Jari Petteri Kalenius decided on calling from the big blind.

Wiesner: [ac][4h]
Kalenius: [as][6c]

The board ran [5c][6h][js][qh][3c]. Wiesner shook a couple of hands, wished everyone luck and headed off. -- MC

12:55pm: Bust outs
Tournament staff informed us that they'd expect roughly 33% of the field to be left in after 10 levels, but, 41% of the field returned today. So, it's no surprise that there's been a rush to the exits in the opening 40 minutes. A total of 42 players have busted out for a rate of over one a minute, they include: Omar Rodriguez, Mario Prats, Diogo Veiga, Micha Hoedemaker, Alberto Blasi, Mario Navarro, Mykyta Ishchenko, Duncan Hamilton, Malte Moennig, Jeremy Gesto, Filippo Lazzaretto, Ross Mannion, Davor Pavic, Daniel Stacey, Thomas Muller, Sebastian von Toperczer and Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez. -- NW

12:45pm: No UKIPT champs but a couple of EPT winners
In our Day 2 prelude we mentioned that there would be a new UKIPT/Estrellas winner come the end of this tournament as there were no former champions remaining. But, whilst this tournament might be bereft of those sort of winners we do have two EPT champions still in the mix.

Alexander Stevic is the original champion having won the very first EPT in Barcelona way back in September 2004. He collected €80,000 for that victory in a tournament that cost €1,000 to enter. Fast forward ten and a bit years and Ognyan Dimov was posing for a winner's photo having taken down EPT11 Deauville. He collected € 543,700 for that victory.

Coming into Day 2 it was Stevic who had the edge in terms of chips though as he began the day with 71,500 to Dimov's 33,500. -- NW

12:35pm: Not you too, Jack
Jack Stanton didn't have the best day yesterday and finished with around half starting stack. He told the blog he was never all in but not for want of trying.

He found a spot to get all in just now, with king-queen, but he too ran into aces behind him. Andrey Chizman was the man with rockets and made the call to send Stanton into orbit. -- MC

12:25pm: No Angel for Acero
The dealer at table 34 might not have had his morning coffee today as a few of his basics are off, but not to worry, as Fatima Moreira de Melo is there to make sure he got an ante from everyone and that the player on the button actually got two cards to play with.

Once all that was sorted, Jose Angel Acero - who only had just over starting stack - moved all in from early position and was called by Jonathan Matthews in the small blind.

Acero: [kh][qc]
Matthews: [as][ad]

The board ran [7s][5h][2s][jh][ts] meaning it was all over by the turn for Acero. -- MC

12:05pm: Shuffle up and deal
Cards are in the air for Day 2.

11:55am: Let the march to the money begin
841 entered, 351 remain and 127 get paid. The first order of business today is clear for all to see, make the money. We expect the bubble to burst sometime around level 15 so there's going to be around four hours of tense poker action before an even more nervous period of play in and around the bubble.

Before then stacks will be built, stacks will be bust and the dreams that go along them will soar or dissipate. One thing that we know for sure already is that whatever happens over the next three days they'll be a new name on the trophy come Sunday as no former champions remain. There are a few left in who've made a final table though as the likes of: Alex Ferguson (124,200), Luke Perrott (104,200), Marcin Barwinski (31,300), Katja Spillum Svendsen (25,900) and Daniel Stacey (17,400) look for a return to the big stage. As will Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo who brings a healthy stack of 68,300 into Day 2.

They - and everyone else - are looking up at Julian Cabello who leads the way with 201,600. You can see all of the chip counts from Day 1A and Day 1B by clicking on the links and the Day 2 seat draw is here.

It's almost time to shuffle up and deal.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

9:05pm: Day 2 is done
Day 2 of the UKIPT Marbella Main Event is in the books. A total of 61 players have advanced to Day 3 with Dario Carrion leading the way. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way and overnight chip counts and the Day 3 seat draw will follow later this evening when the tournament staff have worked their magic.

Day 3 starts at noon CET and will continue until a final table of eight is reached. --NW

9pm: Last three hands
The clock has been paused and players will play three more hands before they are done for the day. --NW

8:55pm: Dario Carrion up to almost a million
Dario Carrion appears to have taken the chip lead right near the end after eliminating Daniel Perkusic in a near 600,000 pot.

In a cut-off vs button battle Perkusic opened, Carrion three-bet, Perkusic four-bet, Carrion five-bet shoved with pocket eights and Perkusic called it off with ace-jack. A [2c][6s][5c][3h][Qh] board means Carrion is busy stacking chips rights now. --NW

8:50pm: Out but happy
They say the only person who's ever happy at the end of a poker tournament is the winner but you try telling that to Daniel Coloma. The Spaniard just busted out in 64th place but was giving high fives, shaking hands and smiling as he left the table.

He got his final 70,000 in with [Ac][7d] and was probably happy to be in a race against David Tovar's pocket fours. A [Kc][Qc][8h][5s][3d] board meant Tovar's pair held up and he now has an average stack of 300,000. --NW

8:40pm: 300!
Action has slowed down in last 20 minutes, but with just 68 players remaining the average stack is 300,000. One player who has a lot more than that is Pablo Galache, he's up to 795,000. --NW

8:20pm: Leaders of the pack
These are the chip leaders as the final level of the night gets under way.

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

8:10pm: Grafton stops the rot with a lucky double
Sam Grafton was cruising with an average stack before he ran queens into kings and fives into sixes to drop back. No bother though as he spiked a lucky double versus Andrei Vlassenko.

Grafton opened to 13,000 from the button before his Russian opponent three-bet to 29,000 from the small blind. Grafton quickly shoved for 81,100 and Vlassenko flicked in a calling chip.

Grafton: [ac][jd]
Vlassenko: [kh][kd]

The board ran [as][5s][qh][4h][th]. "Unlucky, sir, bad luck" said Grafton to Vlassenko. -- MC

8:05pm: No recovery for Atkin
PokerStars qualifier James Atkin never managed to recover after doubling up Richard Pearson. According to Pearson he moved all in with king-queen but ran into the big slick of Philipp Schimmerl. -- MC

8pm: Pearson doubles up again
Richard Pearson just talked Pascual Sanchez into calling his 19 big blind shove with a good old bit of speech wizardry.

He open shoved for 114,000 from early positon and it folded round to Sanchez in the big blind. He asked Pearson if he had a pair and the Brit said he did but that it was a low pair. "Sixes?" asked Sanchez. "Lower," replied Pearson. "I've got deuces here," he said pointing to his cards. After a bit more chat Sanchez pushed forward some chips to indicate a call and it was time for showdown:

Pearson: [Qd][Qs]
Sanchez: [5h][5d]

Pearson had been economical with the truth but then who isn't at the poker table? The [9c][As][Qc][Ah][3d] board meant Pearson doubled to around 240,000 whilst Sanchez slipped to around 300,000. --NW

7:50pm: Brit on Brit action
It took a long time to witness a James Atkin hand and when we did, he lost it by doubling up Richard Pearson.

The action folded around to Pearson in the small blind and he moved all in for his last 55,000. Atkin was in the big blind and made the call.

Pearson: [8s][8d]
Atkin: [ac][ts]

The board ran [ks][5c][qc][4h][kc]. Atkin dropped to 55,000 himself after the loss. -- MC

7:45pm: Daniel Price, come on down
Earlier today Daniel Price had a massive chip lead but no one seemed to know too much about that. Our Spanish colleagues decided to put that right by nabbing him for an interview during a break in play.

7:35pm: One in, one out
After Dario Carrion opened to 12,000 from the hijack, David Suarez requested the all-in triangle and shoved for around 135,000 from the button. Action was on the small blind but as he was thinking Nikolay Baryshnikov went to move all-in from the big blind. When the small blind did fold Baryshnikov could move all-in for what amounted to 104,000 and Carriron folded his hand to take us to a heads-up showdown.

Baryshnikov: [9d][9c]
Suarez: [Ac][Kc]

The board came [Qs][2h][7h][8h][6d] and Baryshnikov said: "Finally I win a flip!"

Over on another table Marcos Trastoy was all-in with pocket kings against the pocket fours of Daniel Sisa. The [Jd][9h][5d][4h][6d] board favoured the big stack and Sisa is up to 400,000 as a result. -- NW

7:29pm: Payouts so far

7:20pm: Frost and Moreira de Melo bust
Two of the better-known players left post bubble - Fatima Moreira de Melo and Lasse Frost - both busted from the same table.

The Team PokerStars SportStar was very happy she squeaked into the money and got her chips in with [9s][7s] from the button after the action folded around to her. Mats Sjoblom waiting in the small blind with queens though and made a call to bust her.

Frost was down to 29,000 when he raised 25,000 of them from second position. David Tovar was in the big blind and set Frost in for the rest. Call.

Frost: [as][9c]
Tovar: [jd][td]

The board ran [ah][5h][ad][3d][qd] to send Frost off in a cruel run out. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 3,000-6,000, ante 100

6:50pm: Break time
Everyone needs a breather after all that bubble excitement. Good job the last day break of the day has arrived then. -- MC

6:45pm: Let the spin up commence
Always quiet nice to squeeze into the money and then find aces the first hand after the bubble has burst, isn't that right Joe Hindry?

He was down to 33,000 when he three-bet all with [ad][ah] over an open from Michael Herbert. The latter called with [qd][jh] and the board ran [kd][5d][th][qs][6s].

Hindy was a very happy camper after avoiding the river sweat. -- MC

6:33pm: Three into two does go as Tomas ends up as bubble boy
So, turns out the bubble bubble was the actual bubble. Got it? Good!

On the hand after Tomas bubbled three players busted on the same hand and as a result have chopped the prizes for the first two in the money places, so they each get €1,130 for a small profit!

Salvador Mosteiro, Lukasz Jankowski and Alex Ferguson were the three players who'd all thought they'd bubbled and indeed Ferguson's exit was quite spectacular. There was an open to 11,000 a three-bet to 28,000 from Andrei Vlassenko and Ferguson then moved all-in for 190,000 and action passed back to Vlassenko. He asked for a count and then began to mull over his decision. He had the covering stack, with about 300,000 total. He tanked for so long that the clock was called and it ticked down to his final ten seconds before he decided to call.

Ferguson: [As][Kc]
Vlassenko: [Qd][Qs]

The [2c][6h][6d][7c][2d] board meant that Ferguson was eliminated, he saluted the table and began to wander off before he was called back by the tournament director. --NW

6:25pm: Bubble time in Marbella
We're now on the stone bubble as Rolf Tomas is the unfortunate 129th place finisher. He got his final 56,000 in with pocket kings but ran into pocket aces. --NW

6:20pm: Pereira goes back on promise
Roi Pereira and Alex Ferguson were in a blind on blind pot that got to the river with 100,000 in the middle when an interesting conversation broke out.

The board read [td][kc][qd][8c][7h] and Pereira led for 40,000. Ferguson asked his opponent if he'd show if he folded. Pereira agreed and Ferguson double checked that if he showed a king, Pereira would show. The Spaniard agreed once more but refused to shake hands on it.

Ferguson opened the [kd] as he folded and Pereira half went back on his work and just showed the [2h] before raking in the pot. Ferguson wasn't impressed but could also see the funny side of it. -- MC

6:12pm: Yanguas ejected
Adrian Yanguas just busted in 130th place after failing to get there against Aleksandar Abtovic. After a raise to 12,000, Yanguas moved all-in for roughly 40,000 with [Ac][8c], Abtovic smooth called with [As][Kh] and the original raiser folded. The [3s][Jc][2c] flop gave Yanguas a lot of outs, the [2s] turn even more, but the [Ks] river wasn't one of them.

129 left, 127 get paid. -- NW

6:08pm: De Melo shoves, survives
Down to just 46,500 Fatima Moreira de Melo shoved all-in from the hijack, one player tanked but ultimately everyone folded and she scooped some much needed blinds and antes. -- NW

6:06pm: Cortina runs well, one owner from new
Noel Cortina has eliminated another player and just 130 players remain now.

Andrei Vlassenko opened to 11,100 from early position before Bengt Eddeland moved in for 45,000 from the cutoff and Cortina did likewise for 96,600 from the button. Vlassenko asked for counts but ultimately folded after some thought.

Eddeland: [as][qd]
Cortina: [ah][ad]

The board ran [td][3d][7h][2h][6s] to send the Swede home four off the money. -- MC

6pm: So close...
Hard lines to: Jose Alberto Auslander, Alain Goldberg, Ciancanelli Teresio, Diego Redondo, Magnus Karlsson, Francisco Javier Minguez, Victor Herrezuelo, Joaquin Delgado, James Mitchell, Pedro Inglés García, Dominic Mulhall, Christian Grundtvig, Francisco Carrasco and Manuel Cortada who are all out.

132 players remain, 127 get paid. -- NW

5:50pm: You might remember me form such UKIPT final tables as...
Katja Spillum Svendsen and Fatima Moreira de Melo have both made a final table on the UKIPT and they're now sat side by side, albeit separated by a dealer. It's Spillum Svendsen who's in better shape as she's got 190,000 to De Melo's 58,000. Should the Olympic gold medallist hang on to cash though it would represent her fifth UKIPT Main Event cash. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 2,500-5,000, ante 500

5:42pm: Grafton no Urban child
Sam Grafton found a good spot to double up although it wasn't without its risks.

The action folded around to David Urban in the small blind and he set Grafton (big blind) in for his last 5,800. Call.

Urban: [ad][2d]
Grafton: [as][qc]

The board ran [jc][8h][9c][3d][ac]. Urban was left with 115,000. -- MC

5:40pm: Emergency avoided for Jiminez
Just 135 players remain but it should be 134 as Rodrigo Jimenez just got lucky to survive. He was all-in for just 27,000 with [Ac][9s] and was in trouble against Lukasz Jankowski who held a dominating [Ad][Kh]. The [7h][2d][9h][9c][9d] board ruled decisively in Jiminez's favour as he runner-runner quads!

Still 135 left then. -- NW

5:30pm: Lots of chips in Iceland
Steinar Edduson looks to have taken the chip lead, the Icelander is sitting on a very healthy stack of 630,000. -- NW

5:25pm: Sosa runs into them rockets
Jose Alberto Auslande fell just over ten players short of the money after he ran in to aces when making a move with pocket fives.
He was down to around 40,000 when he three-bet all in over the top of an 8,000 raise from Noel Cortina in the hijack. The board ran [6h][js][6s][jd][tc]. -- MC

5:10pm: A stressful time
An orange, a toy train, a picture with your kids on it. All three have been used as a card protector but this tournament is the first time we've ever seen someone with a stress ball at the poker table. Paulos Patsis, a Greek PokerStars qualifier is constantly playing with one at the table and it appears to be stressing everyone else at the table out.

When action gets to him he bounces the ball numerous times before taking any action, He's got a decent stack of 230,000 so this seems to be about routine more than any actual stress he may be under as he's not short on chips. -- NW

5pm: The not so secret seven
As the bubble approaches (141 left, 127 paid), these seven players (the only ones over 300k) will be looking to utilise the dynamics to add even more chips to their stacks:

4:50pm: Eight max
This tournament is now an eight-max affair. As a result the tournament floor staff are working their way around the room and removing a chair from each table. Will it speed up the action? Only time will tell. --NW

4:36pm: Busted before halftime
Players are back in their seats for the second half of today's play. The names below won't be joining them:

Ognyan Dimov, Josep María Galindo, Manuel Saavedra, Roberto Perez, Asier Urruzmendi, Andrzej Kozikowski, Alfonso Cara García, Isabelo Gómez, Sylvie Van Den Bergh, Oscar Martinez, Traian Nechiti, Dennie Sormani, Alejandro Rodríguez, Cesar Omar Pino, David Laka, Moises Pastor, Carlos Andres Duran, Jose Mellado, Simon Chamoun, Joan Fabregas, Tamu-Petri Kero, Jose Luis Calero, Mathias Maasberg, Juan Jose Sanchez, Sergio Roberto Bloeme, Alberto Salinas, Grzegorz Grochulski, Israel Lao, Antonio Battaglia, Juan Jose Ramos, David Suarez, Filipe Briga Claro, Patrice Brandt, Dheni Vodegel, Patrick Clarke, Joao Carlos Carreira Marcelino, Guillermo Sánchez, Jonathan Matthews, Patrik Mitzner, Gregorio Diez, Mark James, Dmitrii Pcheliakov, Khazret Nebezhev, Mario Perez, Leonid Sidelkovskiy, Ivan Macias, Pedro Monteiro, Bakazs Szalavics and Seun Oluwole. --MC

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

Day 2 on the UKIPT is always a frantic one and today proved no different. The 351 survivors from Days 1A and B combined for the first time and were spread high and wide due to play starting nine-handed. A large number of bust outs happened early on in proceedings due a higher than normal Day 1 survivor rate. Then there was the bubble to deal with and the usual mass exodus once it burst.

As you can see the waters were choppy but Dario Carrion had a vessel to cope and its bowels had storage enough to pack in 967,000 chips after eight one-hour levels. He didn't sail over the horizon and out of sight though as close to his stern you'll find Pablo Galache (783,000), Jeffrey Brouwer(737,000), Isidoro Barreña (733,000), Niko Kettunen (670,000), Aleksandar Abtovic (666,000), Steinar Edduson (663,000), Victor Gimenez (592,000) and long-time Day 2 chip leader Daniel Price (575,000).

Many of Carrion's chips were earned in the last level of the night when he five-bet shoved with pocket eights and got a call out of Daniel Perkusic holding ace-jack. Neither player connected with the board and no prizes for guessing who'll be the happier tonight.

Other players who sailed through to Day 3 include: Sam Grafton (463,000), Tomeu Gomila (175,000) and Richard Pearson (142,000). Around 61 players made it through the day.

Hand for hand play in a tournament can really eat into valuable time so it was nice to see that avoided today. Rolf Tomas was unlucky to bust in 129th place after running kings into aces and before Tournament Director Luca Vivaldi could initiate hand for hand play, three players busted almost simultaneously.

Alex Ferguson, Salvador Mosteiro, Lukasz Jankowski all departed and split 128th and 127th place between them, meaning each took away €1,130 apiece for a €30 profit! Ferguson also won a last longer he was in too and that netted him another €800.

Fatima Moreira de Melo had an unsettling day due to many table changes. She said she found it hard to get used to her opponents and what they were up to. It certainly had an affect on her accruing chips but she managed to squeeze into money, busting in 116th place for €1,775. That's almost enough money for the €2,200 High Roller event and that's exactly where the Team PokerStars SportStar headed.

Katja Spillum Svendsen came third here last year but she won't be able to repeat that this year but can be proud of her 93rd place finish for €2,020. Other players who fell but secured cashes were: Lasse Frost (100th - €1,775), James Atkin (82nd - €2,020), Lewis Swift (105th - €1,775) and overnight chip leader Julian Cabello (73rd - €2,020).

More than half today's field left disappointed after failing to secure a cash and they included: Jack Stanton, Alexander Stevic, Malte Moennig, Ognyan Dimov, Dan Stacey, Sebastian von Toperczer, Pieter de Korver, James Mitchell, Olga Iermolchevad, Tobias Peters and Paul McTaggert.

Tomorrow is a new day for the remaining players and they'll be setting themselves a new target. Actually, one simple target will be at the forefront of their minds: make the final table! As long as play doesn't slow down too much, the field should be whittled down to eight within another eight levels meaning everyone will be able to attend the official players party that kicks off at 10pm at Guey restaurant five minutes walk from the venue.

Play restarts at Midday CET tomorrow but for now, why not check out all the action from today and the payouts so far by clicking the links below. You can also take a look ahead to tomorrow with the overnight chip counts and seat draw

Levels 11-14.
Levels 15-18.
Payouts so far
Day 3 seat draw
Day 3 chip counts

1:40pm: Martínez marches on
Alejandro Martínez began the day with 260,000 (26 big blinds) but has had a brilliant opening 100 minutes as he's now up to 900,000.

He got his latest boost by eliminating Ruben Nils Pleijster, the Dutchman three-bet shoved for 80,000 with [Ah][Th] and Martínez snapped him off with [Ah][Kh]. A [5h][6c][8c][3c][Ks] board later and Pleijster was on his way. The Spaniard has an absolute mountain of gold 1K chips. He's doing a good job of keeping them in stacks of 20. He must have over 20 stacks of that number though. --NW

1:30pm: Short stacks do battle
Tomeu Gomila and Bernardo Miguel Baptista were two of the shortest stacks at table seven and the former could hardly afford to double up the latter, but he did, to his dismay.

Gomila raised from the cutoff and Baptista peeled from the big blind to see a [7s][4d][6h] flop appear. Baptista only had about 40,000 chips back and in they went. Call.

Gomila: [ah][5s] for a straight draw and over card.
Baptista: [js][7c] for top pair.

The board ran out [4s][6c]. Gomila was left with 98,000. -- MC

1:15pm: Daniel and Dimitry depart
Just 44 players remain in the Main Event with Daniel Sisa and Dimitry Vrnovitskiy the last two players to bust out.

Sisa got his chips in [Ac][Ks] but ran into Rafael Rembert's pocket queens and couldn't win the race. Shortly afterwards Dimitry Vrnovitskiy shoved for 63,000 from the small blind and Rodrigo Rosales gave it a good old think before calling with [Jc][2c]. He had Vrnovitskiy dominated though as the Russian had [7h][2s].

The [6c][8c][8d][3h][Qc] board kept Rosales in front and eliminated the Russian. -- NW

Blinds up: 6,000/12,000, ante 2,000

1:05pm: No win for the Finn
Niko Kettunen was left shaking his head after he doubled up Jonathan Cantle in a curious pot. The Finn opened to 22,000 from under-the-gun, there was one caller and Cantle then three-bet to 88,000 out of the small blind. Back on Kettunen he four-bet to around 210,000, Cantle then moved all-in for 381,000 total and Kettunen shrugged before calling.

Kettunen: [Kd][Qh]
Cantle: [Ad][Tc]

When he saw Cantle's hand Kettunen just shook his head, unable to comprehend that his opponent had deemed it strong enough to five-bet all-in with. The [Jc][Kc][Ts][2h][Qd] board meant Cantle rivered a straight to survive after he was outflopped by Kettunen.

The Brit is up to around 800,000 after that hand whilst Kettunen drops to around 300,000. -- NW

1pm: Two more double ups
Two players - Richard Pearson and Scott Franklin, both from the UK, - got their chips in bad but managed to find a way to double up.

Pearson was down to 132,000 when he three-bet all in with [as][td]. Gabriel Barba had opened with [kd][kc] and made an easy call before the board ran [8h][qh][ad][2c][6c]. "Boom! Unlucky, mate." Said Pearson.

A few seconds later, on adjacent table, Franklin moved all in from the cutoff for his last 141,000 and was called by Javier Mateos in the big blind.

Franklin: [qc][jd]
Mateos: [ad][jh]

The board ran [2h][6s][js][8d][qs] to make the Brit two pair. -- MC

12:50pm: More for Barreña
Isidoro Barreña was fourth in chips overnight and he's just padded his stack by eliminating Noel Cortina in a pre-flop coin flip. Cortina shoved for 85,000 with [Kd][Qd] and Barreña looked him up with [5s][5c]. The [Jh][5h][Ts] both gave and took away for Cortina. His pair outs were no longer live but he did have an open ended straight draw.

The [3d] turn and [8d] river didn't help him though and he departs. --NW

12:29pm: Grafton doubles Razab-Sekh
Pocket queens seems to be the lucky hand of the day so far as Stieven Razab-Sekh used them to double through Sam Grafton.

A preflop raising war saw both players' hands flipped up:

Sekh: [qc][qd]
Grafton: [ts][td]

The board ran [2h][js][4s][8d][2d]. After a count, Grafton paid over 162,000 chips and dropped to around 300,000. -- MC

12:20pm: Bibikova busts in classic race
The last lady standing (or sitting) had busted in the most classic of races.

Ekaterina Bibikova was down to 136,000 when she moved all in from under the gun. David Vederal asked for a count from the cutoff and announced a call. Alejandro Galiana showed pocket fives in the big blind but mucked his hand.

Bibikova: [ah][ks]
Vederal: [qs][qh]

The board ran [7h][8c][4d][3d][6c] to send the pit the way of Vederal. Galiana, meanwhile, was nudging his neighbour to point out he would've made a straight. -- MC

12:10pm: Double up for Trujillo
After paying the ante Carlos Alberto Trujillo only had 7.5 big blinds to his name and so when he was dealt [Qc][Qh] on the button that was more than enough of a hand to see him commit his chips. The small blind folded but when Steinar Edduson looked down at [Ah][2c] he called to put Trujillo at risk.

The [3d][9s][6d][6s][7c] board was clean as far as Trujillo was concerned and he doubled up. -- NW

12:05pm: Early exit for Symes
Players were still taking their seats as John Symes was leaving his. On the first hand of play it folded to him on the button and he moved in for 121,000 total. Daniel Price was in the small blind and he pushed out a stack of T25,000 chips to indicate a call and Rodrigo Rosales folded from the big blind.

Symes: [Ah][Kh]
Price: [Ad][Qd]

The [9d][Td][3c] flop was the just the sort of flop Price was looking for and Symes seemed to know what was coming as he was out of his seat before the [5d] turn gave Price a lock on the hand. The meaningless [3s] completed the board. -- NW

12:02pm: Shuffle and deal
Cards are in the air for Day 3!

11:30am: The final 61 return with Carrion leading
It's very rare that you get deep into a poker tour without taking on a big flip at least once. Dario Carrion - the chip leader entering today with 967,000 - took that flip on in the last level yesterday. He won, has three times the average and most probably high hopes of making the final table.

That final table, with or without Carrion, will consist of eight players - the number the tournament will play down to today. Those who make it should get a nice early night but those who bust can celebrate/commiserate at the player party, taking place at 10pm at Guey restaurant just five minutes walk from the casino.

Sam Grafton is the headline name chasing Carrion. He'll be hoping to get at least as deep as he did lady year when he went from chip leader to out on the final table bubble. Other players still in the hunt include: Richard Pearson, Tomeu Gomila, Ruben Nils Pleijster, Neil Mackay and Mats Sjoblom.

Cards will be in the air at Midday CET but for now, check out the Day 3 seat draw:

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May

9:15pm: Aleksandar Abutovic eliminated in 9th place (€11,200)
Play had ended for the day and the official final table has been reached after the elimination of Aleksandar Abutovic in eighth place.

David Vedral opened to 100,000 and then shrug-called after Abutovic three-bet all in for 430,000.

Abutovic: [kc][qc]
Vedral: [as][4s]

The board ran [2s][8s][4c][ac][ad] to make Vedral a full house.

Full counts and a wrap of the day's play will be up on the blog shortly. Cards for the final table will be in the air at Midday CET tomorrow. -- MC

9:03pm: Rosales doubles through Latorre
The first signs of a blip for monster chip leader Jose Angel Latorre. He flopped top pair, top kicker but it wasn't good enough to avoid doubling up Rodrigo Rosales.

He opened to 110,00 from mid position and was called by Rosales (hijack) and Jeffrey Brouwer (big blind) en route to a [jh][qs][2s] flop.

Latorre continued for 200,000 before Rosales raised to 700,000. Brouwer folded but Latorre shoved and Rosales called all in for 1,390,000.

Latorre: [ah][qh]
Rosales: [qc][jc]

The board ran out [3c][3h] and Rosales was understandably over-joyed. -- MC

8:47pm: The unofficial final table of nine
Here's the final seat draw of the Main Event:

8:35pm: Rembert Net eliminated in 10th place (€9,250)
The unofficial final table at UKIPT5 Marbella is set and it's Rembert Net who's the 10th place finisher. After Rodrigo Rosales opened to 225,000, Net moved all-in for 400,000 with [Ad][Js] and Rosales called the extra with pocket nines.

The [Jd][9s][8d][2h][7s] hit both players, but it hit Rosales harder and they'll now be a redraw of the final nine players. -- NW

8:26pm: Victor Gimenez De-Houting eliminated in 11th place (€9,250)
It's the Jose Angel Latorre show on table number two right now after he eliminated another player to move close to seven million.

He raised to 105,000 from the button and called after Victor Gimenez De-Houting three-bet all in for 415,000 from the small blind.

Gimenez De-Houting: [qc][js]
Latorre: [ah][4h]

Latoree fell behind on the [qh][4c][3c] flop but continued to run pure as the board ran out [7h][3h] to make him a flush. -- MC

Blinds up: 25,000/50,000, ante 5,000

8:15pm: Crucial double up for Abutovic
Aleksandar Abutovic just got a double up in one of those funny hands where a human error led to the hand playing out far differently than it otherwise would.

Juan Bautista was the first to enter the pot and he meant to raise but instead of throwing out four T25,000 chips he threw out four T5,000 chips and so his bet went as a call. This meant Abutovic followed suit, that Dario Carrion completed from the small blind and that Sam Grafton checked his option in the big blind.

So the four of them saw a [Ad][4s][Ah] flop, no takes though and the [Kh] rolled off on the turn. It checked to Abutovic, who was on the button, he moved all-in for 300,000 and after it folded back to him Bautista made the call.

Abutovic: [Kd][Ts]
Bautista: [Kc][8d]

They both hand two pair so there were plenty of chop outs, but the [5d] meant Abutovic held onto the lead and doubled to around 800,000. --NW

8:05pm: Andreas Schillinger eliminated in 12th place (€ 8,280)
And the rich get richer...

It folded to Jose Angel Latorre on the button and after eyeing up the stacks of the players in the blinds he put out enough to cover either stack (about 500,000). Victor Gimenez De-Houting passed from the small blind but Andreas Schillinger decided to commit his chips.

It looked a shrewd move when he showed [Ac][6c], which was dominating Latorre's [Kh][6h], but the [Qd][3c][Ks][8h][Kd] board favoured Latorre and he's now up to around 6,200,000 and closing in on a third of the chips in play. --NW

7:55pm: Jose Angel Latorre increases his chip lead
No one can stop Jose Angel Latorre at the moment and the Spaniard is up to 5,600,000 after winning a big pot against Rodrigo Rosales.

He opened to 90,000, Andreas Schillinger flat called from the small blind and the dealer went to fan a flop only for Rosales to stop him as he was still to act. He raised it up to 270,000 and Latorre was the only caller.

Rosales fired bets of 280,000 and 425,000 on the flop and turn before giving up on the river of a [4d][4h][6h][5d][3h] board. He showed [Ad][Qh] but Latorre had pocket eights and he took the pot. Our Spanish colleagues tell us that Latorre is a very well known player, they informed us that he's a Supernova Elite and earned over 3,000,000 VPPs last year playing high stakes sit and gos under the screename 'Cejakas14'. -- NW

7:45pm: Javier Mateos eliminated in 13th place (€8,280)
Javier Mateos looked down at a queen in the big blind and decided it was good enough to go with. Chip leader - Jose Angel Latorre - had set him in from the big blind.

Latorre opened [jd][ts] so Matoes knew he was ahead. He rubbed the second card on the table in hope of it being a big one but it was the [3s] to go with the [qc]. The board ran a Latorre flavoured [jc][2s][8d][2c][2h].

Latoree moved back over the four-million mark with 4.2 million. -- MC

7:30pm: Jonathan Cantle eliminated in 14th place (€ 7,470)
Sam Grafton is the only British player left in the field after Jonathan Cantle was eliminated in 14th place.

He was in the big blind and three-bet all in for 875,000 after Juan Bautista had raised to 150,000 from early position. Call.

Cantle: [as][7c]
Bautista: [ad][ks]

The board ran [qh][8h][3c][5h][5c] to send Cantle on his way. -- MC

7:15pm: Chip counts!
As level 25 gets under way Jose Angel Latorre and Dario Carrion are beginning to pull away from the chasing pack whilst at the other end of the scale Javier Mateos, Sam Grafton and Aleksandar Abutovic fufind themselves in sub 20 big blind territory. --NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 20,000-40,000, 5,000 ante

6:55pm: Barreña doubles through chip leader
Jose Angel Latorre has dropped back a little to 4.1 million after he doubled Isidoro Barreña.

He raised to 65,000 and was called by Rodrigo Rosales and Barreña in the blinds en route to an [8d][3s][4s] flop. Latorre continued for 75,000 and called after Barreña shoved for 409. Rosales folded in between.

Latorre: [js][8s] for top pair and flush draw.
Barreña: [9h][9s] for an over pair.

The board ran out [3d][7h]. -- MC

6:45pm: Bautista hits the Bullseye
Juan Bautista has to see a man in Valencia about a bull. He bought a bull for €9,000 earlier this week and has been constantly checking his phone as he needs to get there. But, it'll have to wait for now as he just doubled up through Dario Carrion to continue his deep run in this tournament.

All the chips went in pre-flop, Bautista opened to 65,000, Carrion raised it up to 175,000, Bautista shoved for 454,000 and Carrion called it off.

Bautista: [Ac][Ah]
Carrion: [Jc][Jh]

The [6c][9d][Tc][3d][Ad] board secured a double up for the grey haired Spaniard whilst Carrion dropped to 2,700,000. --NW

6:35pm: Mateo Sempere eliminated in 15th place (€ 7,470)
The Spanish player had been short for sometime and on the hand prior to his exit hand he'd called a min-raise in a three-way pot from a stack of just five big blinds before folding post flop.

So, after Isidoro Barreña opened to 60,000 he didn't have to call much more as Sempere's shove totalled just 83,000. He was all-in and at risk with [Qc][9h] and up against Barreña's [Ad][5c]. It was all but over after the [2d][As][3h] flop and neither the [Jd] turn or [Tc] turn helped him.

14 players left. --NW

6:22pm: Double up for Brouwer
The action to the turn is unknown but there was already a sizeable chunk of chips in the pot by the time
Jeffrey Brouwer bet 112,000. The board was [5h][Jc][6d][Ac] and Brouwer's lone opponent - Victor Gimenez De-Houting - took his time before eventually making the call.

The [Ad] completed the board Gimenez De-Houting again checked and Brouwer didn't take too long to move all-in for 420,000 total. After getting a count Gimenez De-Houting cut out the calling chips from his stack, put them in one tower and then began to think. After a few minutes in the tank he pushed them forward over the betting line to indicate a call. Quick as a flash Brouwer showed [Ah][Qh] which was good as Gimenez De-Houting had made the call with [Jh][Th].

After that hand Brouwer climbs to 1,225,000 whilst Gimenez De-Houting drops to 800,000. --NW

6:17pm:Dawid Grabinski eliminated in 16h place (€ 6,660)
Dawid Grabinski had been in shoving mode for a while and it finally caught up with him. He found a caller and was in bad shape.

His last 290,000 went in from the button with [8h][7c] and Rodrigo Rosales shoved from the next seat with [tc][ts]. The board ran [kh][5s][5h][2d][7d]. -- MC

6:10pm: Final two tables

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 15,000/30,000, ante 4,000

5:55pm: Franklin out, down to 16
With the exit of Scott Franklin in 17th place this tournament is down to the final two tables. After a raise to 50,000 from Jose Angel Latorre, there was a three-bet to 137,000 from Rodrigo Rosales and Franklin then shoved for 250,000 total.

There was a quick fold from Latorre and Rosales got a count before making the call with [As][6d] which was ahead of Franklin's [Qc][Jd]. The [9h][2s][4h][6h][7s] board kept Rosales in front and they'll now be a short break as there's a complete redraw for the final 16. --NW

5:50pm: "I'm getting too old for this"
So said Sam Grafton, the Englishman is at the centre of all the action at the moment. Just minutes after he doubled up Andreas Schillinger it was Grafton's turn to get a double and again it was David Vedral that he doubled through.

The Austrian opened to 50,000 from the cutoff and after some consideration Grafton smotth called from the big blind.

On the [Qc][7c][4d] flop Vedral bet 65,000, Grafton check-raised to 151,000, Vedral moved all-in and Grafton called all-in for 526,000 total.

Grafton: [Qs][Jc]
Vedral: [Kc][3c]

The [Jd] turn gave Grafton two pair and he dodged the flush on the [8d] river. But, he didn't hang onto those chips for long. A couple of hands later Isidoro Barreña opened to 52,000 from the button, Grafton moved all-in from the small blind only for Schillinger to move all-in behind him for 435,000 total.

After some thought Barreña folded, Grafton opened [2h][2s] and was racing against Schillinger's [Ah][9h]. It wasn't a race for long though as the [5s][Ac][5h][9d][9s] board doubled up the German. After that hand Grafton is back down to 800,000. --NW

5:40pm: Three more double ups!
The Main Event has stuck at 17 players remaining after three more double ups.

Juan Bautista was the first to get his chips in, all 176,000 of them from the button, and he was called by Dawid Grabinski in the big blind with [ad][td]. Bautista opened [kc][qs] and got there on the [7d][4d][7d][kh][ts] boards, despite blowing air through his lips upon sight of the flop. Grabinski dropped to 280,000.

The next double up was a big one for Victor Gimenez De-Houting. He raised to 110,000 after two players had limped in before him. Jeffrey Brouwer was in the small blind and three-bet to 258,000 and called when De-Houting shoved for 896,000.

De-Houting: [ad][kc]
Brouwer: [9h][9d]

The board ran [8c][ks][7c][qd][6c]. Brouwer dropped to 940,000.

The third double up was a strange one. Sam Grafton completed from the small blind and Andreas Schillinger checked his option. The board ran out [4s][5s][2c][6c][qs] with no chips venturing forward until the river. There, Grafton over-bet the pot to the tune of 120,000 before Schillinger quickly shoved for 538,000.

Grafton smiled and said, "How much is that?" He continued with, "I got a straight, any good?"

He though for another coupe of minutes and then called with [jh][3d] for a straight but it was crushed by Schillinger's [as][7s] for a flush. Grafton dropped back to 540,000. -- MC

5:20pm: Sempere's turn to double
Mateo Sempere was the short stack of the remaining players and it didn't take him long to get his chips in the middle. He three-bet all-in for just 130,000 (just over five big blinds) and Jeffrey Brouwer, who had already raised to 65,000, quickly called the extra.

Brouwer: [As][9s]
Sempere: [Ac][5h]

The [4d][2c][Tc][5c][Qc] board favoured the short stack and Sempere celebrated his victory. He's still short on chips but has a little but more breathing room. --NW

5:15pm: Sam Grafton doubles through David Vedral
After David Vedral opened to 50,000 the action folded to Sam Grafton and he moved all-in. When it passed back round to Vedral he requested a rough count - Grafton had about 500,000 - and then made the call.

Vedral: [Ad][Qd]
Grafton: [8c][8d]

The board stayed low - [2d][4h][9s][7c][3s] to be precise - and Grafton, who was all-in for 555,000 doubled to over 1,100,000 whilst Vedral slipped to 2,300,000. -- NW

5:05pm: Benedi busted by Carrion
Jose Antonio Benedi picked the wrong time to four-bet shove with [As][Jd] as he ran into the pocket rockets of Dario Carrion. The [9d][7d][Qs][6c][Jh] board didn't even give him a sweat. He's out in 18th for € 5,850 whilst Carrion continues to climb the chip counts, he's now second in chips. -- NW

5pm: Chips ahoy!

4:50pm: Four levels down, 19 remain
That's four levels in the books and the 61 starters have already been whittled down to 19 players. They redrew at 24 and it won't be long before they redraw again, at 16 players. Full break time chip counts will appear on the blog shortly.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey "mad if you steal her pictures" May

We have reached the final eight in the UKIPT5 Marbella Main Event and as always with these events we've a varied line-up which should make for a great final table. Perhaps the 833 players who have already fallen might not feel that way but for any neutrals, following the fortunes of the final eight should make for compelling reading.

There's Jose Angel Latorre, the chip leader, who is a Supernova Elite, accrued over 3,000,000 VPPs last year on PokerStars. You 'only' need 1,000,000 to make Supernova Elite, however it takes most players who shoot for that target an entire year of locking themselves in their room to get over the line. Lattorre did that three times over, it's a bit like sprinting past a very fast runner whilst running backwards and giving them a cheeky little wave. The Spaniard, who now calls London home, hit that milestone mostly by playing high stakes Sit andGo's, although given he also has a TCOOP title to his name he's not exactly a tournament novice.

Then there's Sam Grafton, the gregarious Brit who is making a habit of running deep in this tournament. Last year he had a big stack but bubbled the final table in ninth place. This year he found himself in a very different spot as one of the shorter stacks from two tables out. He battled through though and after numerous deep runs (25th, 9th, 43rd, 33rd, 15th, 14th) over the five Seasons of the UKIPT Grafton takes his place among the final eight for the first time. Few, if any, will begrudge him that achievement .

Whilst they might be the headline acts the remaining six players representing Spain (four), Holland and Austria all have a chance to make a name for themselves and claim a first prize of €150,800 whilst doing so.

They've already locked up €14,100 for their efforts this week and the final table was set just after 9pm tonight when Aleksandar Abutovic's [Kc][Qc] lost out to David Vedral's [As][4s]. This is how the final eight will line-up tomorrow when play restarts tomorrow.

Read final table profiles here

They will be in Level 26, with blinds of 25,000-50,000 and a 5,000 ante (for another eight minutes), that makes the average stack 51 big blinds right now and 42.5 when the blinds next go up. There is still plenty of play left in this one.

The best way to recap how we went from 61 players to the final table of eight is to check out today's updates here and here but the short version of the day goes like this.

The start was fast, very fast. The field was cut down to the final 24 inside the first four levels and the likes of Mateusz Moolhuizen (27th), Daniel Price (29th), Tomeu Gomila (33rd) and Jesus Javier Bustos (53rd) had departed and Latorre had risen imperiously to the top of the chip counts. He would never let that lead slip.

It took another four levels to go from 24 to eight and it was during this period that Latorre went into overdrive hoovering up chips at every opportunity. He had over 20% of the chips in play with 16 players left and when he won a big pot against Rodrido Rosales and then eliminated Andreas Schillinger in 12th place he had damn near 33% of the chips in play. Had he not doubled up Rosales at the unofficial final table of nine we might have been looking at a chip leader with 50% of the chips with eight left.

As it is the other players are still in with a chance of overhauling him, follow the coverage right here from 12.15pm CET to see if anyone can stop Lattore going wire to wire. Until tomorrow good night.

Photos copyright of Mickey May and Rene Velli