4.35pm: Break it up
Every so often the world needs to pause for breath and so does this tournament. The end of level 4 signals one such juncture, so the players now have 20 minutes to rest their weary limbs before returning to the felt renewed and refreshed.

The level 5 updates onwards will continue on a separate page.

We'll see if we can get some interesting stories during the break but in the meantime, put the kettle on and make a cup of tea. We'll be back in 20 minutes... -- RS

4.35pm: Chips
It's been a good day so far for Andrew Couldridge, the UKIPT Nottingham Season 1 champion is up to 39,000, whilst Brett Angell, runner-up at UKIPT Nottingham Season 2 is down to 13,900.

Emmett Mullin, UKIPT Season 3 Galway winner is up to 30,000, Jamie Roberts though is down to 7,000 and Jake Cody (16,300) is two seats to the left of Rupinder Bedi (16,600). -- NW

4.15pm: Stella performance so far from De Meulder
Team PokerStars Pro Christoph De Meulder is flying high on 36,000 and he got his latest boost by eliminating Anthony Gale.

The action was started by Jason Tompkins who min-raised to 400 from early position, De Meulder made the call, as did Leon Campbell (button), Gale (small blind) and the big blind.

The [10h][8s][7h] flop seemed like it should've hit someone, but it was checked round and the [5s] fell on the turn. First to act Gale led for 800, it folded to De Meulder who raised to 2,300, Campbell got out the way, Gale moved all-in for around 6,000 and De Meulder made the call.

De Meulder: [5h][5d] - turned set
Campbell: [Jh][10c] - top pair and an inside straight draw.

The [3d] river was a blank though and Gale is no longer a force in this tournament. - NW

4.03pm Charalambos jacks it up
One more name has perished in the form of David La Ronda, finding himself shortstacked, he went for a double-through with [Js][Ts], only to run into the crushing form of Charalambos Xanthos, who held pocket jacks.

No dubious outdraw and La Ronda's day was done whilst Charlambos (or Bambos as he is known to his friends) was up to 34k.

"It's amazing how quickly things can turn round in poker!" Bambos observed, alluding to some unseen but crucial shift in fortune during this tournament. -- RS

3.59pm: Gone, but not forgotten
If this was tv, there would be some suitably mournful classical music playing whilst a montage of names was scrolled down the screen.

As this is a text-based service you'll have to find your own backing tracks to accompany these bustouts. We recommend Eric Satie's Trois Gymnopedies...

Magnus Martin
Dara O'Kearney
Steven Gray
Julian Thew
David Milby
Gil Pelayo
James Hinsley
Mark Goodchild
Patrick West
Ross Hamilton
Alan Wilde
Matthew Day
Zaak Hepnoz
Alison White -- RS

3.56pm: Quick count
Just a couple of quick counts for your attention:

Rob Akery - 15,750
Martins Adeniya - 13,000 -- RS

3.52pm: Keys cut
No, James Keys isn't out yet, but he has suffered misfortune in the earlier levels, leaving him on just 7,000.

He revealed the details of a rather unfortunate hand where he flopped a set of jacks on an ace, jack, seven rainbow board.

"Somehow I lost to [6d][4d]! He turned the [5d], giving him a flush and straight draw - we got it in and he made the straight on the river."

That hand cost him 10,000, but with 7,000 the 2011 Aussie millions runner-up remains a potential threat... -- RS

3.50pm: This tournament just got a little tougher
Triple crown winner Jake Cody is one of the latecomers today, but he's just taken his seat in this tournament meaning it just got a bit tougher for his tablemates. -- NW

3.40pm: Chip counts
Team PokerStars pro Vicky Coren is faring far better than Liv Boeree as she's up to 26,000, fellow EPT London winner David Vamplew has boosted his stack to 23,800, Keith Hawkins has 21,700, Matt Frankland has slipped a little to 14,600 as has Steven Watts who's on 13,800. Meanwhile of the Irish contingent I can tell you that Mick Graydon has 17,000 and David Lappin is on 14,300. -- NW

3.31pm: Tens moment for Gassian
David Gassian found himself relatively short (although still deep enough) in the small blind, holding pocket tens and down to 9,475, Gassian was not prepared to back down with his pair versus the big blind.

Following an aggressive series of raises, he moved all-in and was called by his opponent, only to discover the bad news he was staring down the barrell of elimination, facing off against pocket kings.

The board of [Ac][6h][Jh][Ad] that peeled off did little to shift the balance of power, though a game-changing [Tc] on the river caused a few sharp intakes of breath round the table - a relieved Gassian spiking his card in the nick of time to take the pot.

Up to 19,000, Gassian's jubilance was starkly contrasted by the morose demeanour of his opponent, who tried to leave the table, before realising he had his opponent covered by just a few chips.

Forced to continue, there was to be no miracle recovery as he was seen coat in hand, exiting stage left just a few hands later... -- RS

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.22pm: Boeree busts
Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree has just bust out of UKIPT Bristol and she was kind enough to tell me about her exit hand.

"I had 11,000 to start the hand," she told me. "I'd raised the last three hands and looked down at ace-king, bingo. I raised and seat two (Fabio Martins) re-raised. We had a bit of history, shall we say, and all the chips went in pre-flop and he's got pocket tens."

No king, ace or straightening face cards came on the board to save Boeree. -- NW

3.12pm:Calleb-OUT
The eliminations have been thin on the ground so far - no surprise given the fullsome starting stacks of the field - but as the blinds rise they are starting to mount up.

Kevin Callebaut is the latest man to feel the wrath of the poker gods, running into the pocket kings of Geoff Mockford on a decisive board of [Ks][Qd][7h][Qs][3h].

We didn't see Callebaut's hand, suffice to say he didn't have the pocket queens required to beat Mockford's hand.

That hand leaves Mockford up to 24,250.

3.07pm: Chips
A few chip counts for you: Dara O'Kearney, who's to the right of Rupinder Bedi has 16,000, on the table adjacent to them Barry McMahon has 21,000, Jude Ainsworth has 16,300 and Paul Nash is nursing a stack of 16,000.

2.57pm: Two in a row for Bedi
No one has more UKIPT main event cashes than Rupinder 'Buckaroo' Bedi and he's going the right way about adding another one to the ledger as I just saw him take down two pots in a row.

In the first he was in the small blind and four players, including Bedi, saw a [5d][3c][Jh] flop, which was checked through. The [5s] fell on the turn, Bedi led for 850 and Andrey Dimitrov was the only caller. The [2h] completed the board and Bedi fired out a bet of 2,625 which was good enough to secure him the pot.

On the very next hand Geoff Mockford opened to 350 from early positon, Anthony Forsyth-forrest made it 925 to go from middle position and Bedi then bumped it to 1,750 on the button. The original raiser folded, but Forsyth-forrest made the call.

The two players took a [6d][6c][Qd] flop and a 2,100 c-bet from Bedi took the pot down. -- NW

2.44pm: Butcher carving through the field
Tom Butcher is here representing a posse of his friends who played a tournament together - the winner of which was entered into the UKIPT, all his friends receiving a piece of any winnings.

Butcher is wearing a broad smile on his face at the moment, and the source of his beaming visage is the impressive 22,500 he has managed to accumulate thus far.

Looks like your investment is in safe hands guys! -- RS

2.39pm: Dempsey correction
An apology is due as we overestimated James Dempsey's chip stack following that earlier hand with aces. His opponent in the hand was Vicky Coren and she actually made a flush on the river to relieve Dempsey of some of his chips, and he is now down to 13,000... -- RS

2.35pm: Atherton not out yet
It's not been a good start to the day for Lee Atherton, he tweeted: "Bobbins start in #UKIPTBristol K9cc havin to pay off A3dd on 10dJc8dQd7s Down to 9.5k from 15k starting stack at break."

Meanwhile good friends Joe Roberts and David Docherty have suffered contrasting fortunes in the opening two levels. The former is down to 10,000 whilst the latter is up to 23,000. -- NW

2.28pm Channing on tilt
Neil Channing came thundering out of the blocks in the early levels, soaring up to near 20,000, but his stock has fallen somewhat latterly - much to his chagrin.

"I feel like I'm on tilt! I've been playing loads of hands but its not working out for me right now. My VPIP is extremely high - but the same can't be said of my chip stack," he revealed to us at the break - his stack down to 12,000. -- RS

2.25pm: Back from the break
Level 3 is now underway, this is the last chance for players to late reg as it closes at the end of this level. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2.05pm: Exits
The following players have all failed to make the first break: James Glossop, Romano Pizzo, Sandip Pindoria, Peter Akery, Andoni Sanchez, Adrian Gray, Paul Skipper and Mark Buckley.

Those players that are still in are now on a 20 minute break. -- NW

1.59pm: Jacobs shoots into lead
We have reports that John Jacobs has reached 30k already in the early stages, which will mean he is a probable chip leader at this stage.

Early days but a good start for Jacobs. Let's see if he can build on the solid foundations. -- RS

1.57pm: Chips
It's been a good start to the day for Christopher Brice, he's almost doubled his stack and is up to 28,000. He's in the secondary tournament area - a raised area just outside the main tournament room, where the UKIPT Online final table was played. The winner of that event, Wojtek Barzantny is also in that area, he's got 18,000 and Jason Tompkins, who's to his immediate right has 14,700.

Also in the same section are Jamie Burland (16,000), he's got the ever chatty Fintan Gavin (22,000) to his immediate left. One table over sits Team PokerStars Online Mickey Petersen, the Dane, who lives in London, has increased his stack to 15,900.

At a different table we've got Lee Atherton who's on 17,300 and sat across from him is PokerStars qualifier of the day Cassio Cominezi, he's flown all the way from Brazil to play in this event. And he certainly racks up the air miles as he played in the PokerStars Eureka tour event in Riga, Latvia last month. One table behind them sits Dom Kay, he's on 18,800. -- NW

1.49pm: "I'm bluffing Thew!"
Soon after Dempsey also won a nice pot off Julian Thew. Having reached the turn, Dempsey called a bet of 1,100 from Thew on the [Js][8h][6s][5d] board,

Come the draw-completing [Ts] river, Dempsey led for 3,200 and after some thought, Thew laid his hand down.

"I bluffed him!" claimed Dempsey, without showing down his hand to back up this claim...

That hand leaves Dempsey on 24k and Thew struggling slightly on 11.5k...
-- RS

1.42pm: Dempsey rising
He may be sat at the toughest table in the tournament, but James Dempsey is adjusting best to the conditions at the moment. He told us about a nice pot he won with pocket aces earlier.

He three-bet an opening raise to 200 after an initial 75 raise and his opponent called. A flop of [Tc][7c][3s] saw his opponent lead 200, which Dempsey now raised to 600 announcing "I need to find out where I am!"

His opponent now made it 1,700 and Dempsey made the call.

The pair checked down the [Kh] turn before his opponent led for 1k on the river, which Dempsey called to find out his aces were good. -- RS

1.35pm: More UKIPT heroes
I spotted a few more familiar UKIPT faces on my last lap of the room. Chris Dowling is here, the Irishman has made two UKIPT final tables and will be looking to make it a hat-trick here.

UKIPT Nottingham Season 1 winner Andrew Couldridge is in the building, as s Barry McMahon, he's fourth on the UKIPT Leaderboard, that's good but not as good as Lee Atherton who currently resides in second spot due to having had three deep runs already in Season 3 of the UKIPT. -- NW

1.20pm: Another deathly table
Just behind the aforementioned table of death sits another table, perhaps not quite as tough so let's call it the table of serious illness.

Dotted around this table are the talents of the the ever dangerous David Docherty, James Morris, who like Docherty has final tabled a UKIPT, Neil Rawnsley - who seemingly qualifies for every PokerStars regional tour and Keith Hawkins, who let's face it needs no introduction.

I saw the latter take down a pot, it was three-way to a [9h][Kd][8h] flop and when it was checked to Hawkins his bet of 725 was enough to take the pot. -- NW

1.10pm: Chatty Channing chips up
The early levels of tournaments tend to be quite subdued affairs as the players gradually start to wake up throughout the day.

One player who seems to never suffer from this problem is Neil Channing, capable of keeping up seemingly incessant commentary at his table - whatever the time of day.

He has chipped up slightly having called a three-bet with [Ad][Jd], he and his opponent checked down the [Qc][Qd][4h][Jh][8d] board before Channing fired out a value bet of 975 on the river.

He was called quickly - only for his opponent to muck after being shown Channing's hand. -- RS

1pm: Thew takes an early hit
I just saw Julian Thew lose a small chunk of his chips.

The pot was opened to 150 by Matt Frankland, Thew called on the button and the big blind came along too. On the [8h][4h][5c] flop the big blind led for 300, Frankland fast-folded, but Thew made the call.

The [Jd] fell on the turn, bet of 600, call from Thew, the [Jh] completed the board, it was checked to Thew, he fired out a bet of 1,000 and the big blind swiftly called and showed [7s][6d] for the flopped straight, whilst Thew flashed pocket queens.

"Julian gets away with murder early on," said James Dempsey. Their table has got even harder as Steve Watts is also at the table, the former professional footballer has a number of cashes to his name, including a fifth place finish at the Irish Open in 2012. -- NW

12.51pm: World Champion Burland ready for action
We need to double-check this fact but it has been suggested that Jamie Burland is the current world "Roshambo" champion.

Apparently the 2010 Brighton UKIPT winner also won the Roshambo world championship using the much-maligned strategy of "paper, paper, paper" or "The Accountant" as it is known to rock, paper, scissors afficianados.

We will be investigating how accurate this report is shortly... -- RS

12.43pm: Thirst for success
It is a well-known fact that camels can go for long periods without water, but a lesser-known fact is that camels cannot survive long without chips.

This explains why Mcdonald's tend not to open in deserts, as the stampedes of camels looking for french fries can prove very dangerous.

Keith "The Camel" Hawkins is a better behaved brand of camel and he will be concentrating purely on collecting chips the traditional way, through sharp, intelligent poker. -- RS

12.39pm: Dempsey in early tiny pot chop shocker
James Dempsey will doubtless be one of the noisier contingent of the casino today.

Already he has been heard complaining about his bad luck. Having reached the river of a Q-7-7-Q-7 board, he and another player checked it down, Dempsey showing down pocket Jacks and his opponent K-T suited.

THe dealer chopped up the sub 1,000 pot but Dempsey wanted it pointed out that it was a bad beat.

"I was ahead till the river!" he moaned in jest. -- RS

12.35pm: Table of death gets even harder
As if table Dempsey, Thew and Frankland wasn't tough enough already, they've just been joined by Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren.Sadly it'll be one of the first tables to break. -- NW

12.25pm: Spotted
The first lap of the room has unearthed a number of names and notables: Neil Channing, James Keys , Rupinder Bedi and Emmett Mullin were all in the queue to get their seat draw having just bought in.

James 'Flushy' Dempsey is sharing a table with Matt Frankland and Julian Thew, that should be interesting. Elsewhere UKIPT Online champion Wojtek Barzantny has direct position on the dangerous Jason Tompkins, the Irishman finished fifth at EPT San Remo recently and finished in the same position at UKIPT Dublin in September 2011. He's not to be confused with the famous dwarf actor.

There's a couple of Roberts in the field too, both Joe and Jamie could be players to look out for, the former finished third in Galway earlier this season. -- NW

12.10pm: Play is underway
Cards are in the air here in Bristol and Day 1B is underway. -- NW

11.58am: UKIPT Bristol day 1B is in effect
UKIPT Bristol is well underway, Day 1A having played out yesterday with action aplenty as Jonathon Prested soared into an impressive chip lead, with close to double that of his nearest rival by the close of play.

Whether anyone in the day 1B roster can match the 121,300 Prested accumulated remains to be seen but with a talent-packed field including the likes of Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree, Vicky Coren and Christophe De Meulder, Team PokerStars Online and Mickey Petersen and WSOP bracelet and WPT winner James Dempsey, it is more than possible.

Those players may have the established names but there will be plenty of others looking to build themselves a reputation by securing this prestigious title so we can expect a tough, uncompromising day of poker to play out today.

Hold tight, we're moments away from the start so good luck one and all! -- RS

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (in order of number of portions of sliders ordered) : Rod Stirzaker (one) and Nick Wright (none, went for the soup, the jesse). Photos by Mickey May (always has Caesar salad) .

9.20pm: Play is over for the day
Play is done for the day and Marinos Mina is the overnight chip leader with 138,300. Whilst one player lucky to still be in is Chris Dowling, on the very last hand he check-shoved a ten high flop with pocket sevens and got there against pocket aces. Bullseye. He ended up on 50,000 exactly.

A full wrap of the days play is on the way and will be posted in separate post shortly. -- NW

9.02pm: Last three hands
Tournament staff have paused the clock and announced the last three hands of play. -- NW

9pm: Chip leader
Given that he has a stack of around 130,000 in front of him Mina Marinos is one of if not the chip leader. Whilst with a stack of 125,000 in front of him Emanuele Pani is up there too. -- NW

8.55pm: Winner winner, many chicken dinners
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying exciting news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen...

The winner of UKIPT Bristol will take home £90,400, in total 72 players will win a share of the £373,450 prize pool with a min-cash being worth £1,000. We'll have the full prize pool structure up on the blog for you shortly after play finishes tonight. -- NW

8.45pm: Chip counts
Here are the counts of a few players who are still in and folding, calling and raising during the last level of the day: Ben Vinson (24,000), Scott O'Reilley (8,300), Scott Shelley (9,600), Rupinder Bedi (12,600), Mickey Petersen (15,500), Fintan Gavin (22,000) and David Docherty (23,000).

162 players remain. -- NW

8.30pm: Akery takes a pot
He's certainly one of those players who falls into the get it quietly category. But Rob Akery is also someone who falls into the 'extremely good player' category. He's a Bristol native who has form in this very casino, finishing second in a £2,500 event in 2007 and a £1,500 event in 2008.

His talent extends outside the walls of Bristol though, he took third in the £20,000 High Roller at EPT London in October last year, but all this build up to his tournament prowess is a sham as his main game is online cash games.He's one of Britain's best consistently playing high stakes on PokerStars.

But back to this tournament, I just saw him rake in a pot that took his stack to an above average 35,000 here in Bristol although the other players at his table probably have no idea who they're up against. -- NW

8.20pm: Level up!
Level 7 is in the bag, the incrementally rising nature of poker levels meaning we are now into level 8.

300-600 ante 75 blinds mean there is a juicy prize awaiting anyone wishing to pick up the blinds and an even greater prize await those who can re-steal these steal attempts and even greater prizes await those who can...well you get the picture.

In short don't be surprised to see some pretty radical 4,5 and 6-bet re-steals this level!

8.15pm: Channing policing the table
George Clyde-Smith just felt the full force of a verbal tongue-lashing from Neil Channing and as anyone who knows Neil is only too aware, this is a painful and time-consuming experience.

The problems started when Clyde-Smith allegedly berated a player who had called his raise with A-3, leading Clyde-Smith to give an extended post-mortem of the hand.

"If you want to educate players, maybe you should consider making a training video," Channing suggested.

"I don't think I was having a go. I was talking to myself more than anyone else," Clyde-Smith responded.

"Maybe you'd be better advised to do that in your head. We were having a nice, friendly game before you turned up and decided to start berating players."

"I'm sorry if that's the impression you got."

"That's the most grudging apology I think I've ever heard."

There were one or two stifled grins round the adjacent tables as the disagreement rumbled on.

Eventually the argument ran out of steam after some desperate pleas from the dealer and play continued.

Channing - 26,000; George Clyde-Smith 18,000. -- RS

8.05pm: Chips and exits
The respective talents of the Vicky Coren table have been spread around the room as that table has now broken. The Team PokerStars Pro is on 11,500 and finds herself on the same table as Andrew Teng.

Steve Watts (29,000) is on the same table as Barry McMahaon (21,000), whilst Matt Frankland has 60,000 and we're told James Dempsey is out.

Other selected chip counts include: David Vamplew (11,600), Andrew Couldridge (52,000), Emmett Mullin (24,000), Lee Atherton (55,000) and Dom Kay (27,000).

Meanwhile Jamie Roberts and Jake Cody are also out. -- NW

7.50pm: Tompkins bashes up Barzantny
Jason Tompkins just won a 65,000 chip pot and may well now be chip leader and he won it at the expense of UKIPT Online champion Wojtek Barzantny.

The latter opened under-the-gun, Tompkins three-bet from the big blind and Barzantny made the call.

The [Jd][2d][4] flop was where all hell broke loose, Tompkins bet, Barzantny raised, Tompkins re-raised, Barzantny shoved and Tompkins called all-in.
Barzantny: [As][5s]
Tompkins: [Ac][Ah]

The turn and river were both blanks and Tompkins raked a massive pot, whilst Barzantny slipped to 19,000. Also at their table is Team PokerStars Pro Christoph De Meulder who currently has 17,000. -- NW

7.34pm: Camel going through dry spell
Keith Hawkins hasn't been able to get his engine running today and is in danger territory now with just over 6k to his name. -- RS

7.26pm: Wong doing something right
It's hard to track all the stacks in play with hundreds of players filling the casino but Kin Chung Wong is a worthy contendor for the title with what is a huge, if slightly disorderly arranged.

Most recently, he boosted his chip stack by battling with Anthony Forsyth-Forrest.

The pair were heads up on a flop of [Jc][7d][6s] - Wong leading out from the small blind for 3.2k...called by Forsyth-Forrest.

The turn was the [Qh] and now Wong raised the price to play to 5.1k.

This was also called.

Finally the [Ts] appeared on the river - and now Wong quietly counted out 15k - a large bet for most of Forsyth-Forrest's stack. The stress of the decision was etched onto his face, but eventually he decided against making the call - laying his hand down, leaving the quiet assassin Wong to sweep up the pot. Forsyth takes a hit back to just under 20k. -- RS

7.20pm: Atherton bowls a googly
During the break Lee Atherton tweeted a bit of a googly. "Up to 33k at break. Avg 24k. How I got there isn't for Public consumption just yet."

Meanwhile Joe Roberts is on the up: "Hold qq vs qj on T93 all in on the flop in a 3b pot for 31k." -- NW

7.10pm: Back from the break
The 189 players who're left are now back in their seats and level seven is underway. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400 ante 50

6.50pm: Half-a-dozen done
That's the end of level six, players are now on a 20 minute break. -- NW

6.44pm: Doctor ailing
One would think holding a royal flush versus quads would be the springboard to build an impressive stack, but James "The Doctor" Dempsey's chips have sprung back into their initial starting position of 15,000.

"I bluffed them off," he announced proudly with a grin on his face, -- RS

6.41pm: Keys locked out
Sadly it looks as though we missed James Keys final hand, suffice to say he has been struggling with a shortish stack for some time and unless he has been moved recently, we have to think he has finally succumbed to the waves of variance. -- RS

6.35pm: Bullets misfire for Hutton
Holding aces on a [K][6][7] board, Joe Hutton committed the rest of his stack over the course of the [5][3] turn and river, only to discover his opponent held pocket sixes for a flopped set.

Easily covered Hutton headed to a friend to furnish him with the grisly details of his exit in classic poker fashion. -- RS

6.28pm: Channing turning up the heat
Neil Channing's early pressure looks to be paying off. The most recent hand saw him raise the river of a [Ks][Qd][8c][9h][Qc] board.

Facing a bet of 1.5k, Channing now bumped it up to 4.5k and his opponent tanked for a while before making the call, only to find Neil with the nut full house - [K][Q].

Usually one to provide ample commentary on a hand but rarely one to issue a rubdown to an unfamiliar opponent, Neil maintained a respectful silence as he swept up the chips that have bolstered his stack to an impressive 31,750. -- RS

6.40pm: Bad news tweets
Twitter is seemingly the bearer of bad news at the moment with most of the tweets of the 'I lost a pot,' variety. Two recent examples:

"Just lost a 35k pot with AK v AA Still have 20k," tweeted Chris Dowling
"Missed open ended straight flush draw on turn but played it slow to limit damage. 12k," was the tweet from Rupinder Bedi. -- NW

6.35pm: Barzantny bringing it
The good form Wojtek Barzantny displayed in the UKIPT Online event has been carried with him into the UKIPT Bristol main event. He's up to 48,000 after five-betting Christophe De Meulder off a hand in a blind versus blind battle. The Belgian Team PokerStars pro looked like he wanted to six-bet shove but ultimately folded his hand to slip to 26,000. -- NW

6.25pm: UKIPT champion Burland busts
My thanks to Fintan Gavin for telling me about UKIPT Brighton Season 1 champion Jamie Burland's exit hand.

He got it all-in with [A][Q] against Dan Morgan's pocket jacks, Morgan flopped a set, but there was also a ten on the flop meaning Burland had a re-draw to a staright. However it didn't materialise on the turn or river. After that hand Morgan is up to 30,000. - NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25

6.09pm: The nearly men
More sad music, more exits. Bad luck guys.

Barry Perkin
Stuart Kinghorn
Kevin Wright
Benjamin Senior
Steven Gray
David Kilmartin
Keith Smith
David Phelan
Tudor Purice
Daniel Haw
Brett Angell
Sam Onions
Michael Brock
Daniel Gallagher
Chris Glanville
Philip Pattende
Peter Sudnik
R Tadj-Saadat
Christopher Sly
Graham Carter
Anthony Gale
James Teirney
Daniel Kind
Thomas Butcher -- RS

6.03pm: Vinson not invincible
Ben Vinson is widely regarded as one of the best young players in the UK and has built up an enviable string of domestic results to back up this claim.

He appeared to be making serene progress up the leaderboard today, although that progress has been dramatically derailed at the hands of Jason Kemp.

The hand in question was what might be termed a standard cooler, Kemp raising the button with kings, Vinson 3-betting, before Kemp shoved all-in.
An easy call with aces for Vinson meant he was in pole position to relieve Kemp of his 13,500 stack.

We've seen before however that the status quo can shift in the blink of an eye and the [Kh][Js][7h] board that peeled off turned the respective equities of the two player's hands on their head.

Looking for an ace for salvation, Vinson turned a few more outs with the [Qd], but a brick [3d] was of no use and Vinson quietly counted out the damage to his stack and passed it over to Kemp without a fuss.

Down to 12,500, Vinson is still well in this tournament and to his credit, he looked entirely unflustered by the whole affair. -- RS

6pm: Doc Martins
As if the table containing Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren, Matt Frankland, Steve Watts and James 'The Doctor' Dempsey wasn't tough enough, the one seat is now occupied by Martins Adeniya, he finished seventh at EPT/UKIPT London in September 2011 and is a very dangerous customer. -- NW

5.55pm: Kay KO's Monroe
Dominic Kay has just taken out Kevin Monroe, although he didn't think he was ahead when he called.

Kay opened the pot to 650 and got one caller before Monroe moved all-in for 4,775, back to Kay he flicked in one blue 5,000 chip and the flat caller got out the way. "You're probably ahead," said Kay as he turned over [Ac][Jd]. "No you're ahead," said Monroe, showing [Ah][10c].

A [4c][2c][Kd][6h][5d] board kept Kay in front and sent Monroe to the rail. -- NW

5.45pm: Numbers
I've just been told that the total number of runners in UKIPT Bristol is 550. That means the 315 runners from Day 1B and the 215 from Day 1A have created a prize pool of £373,450. As soon as I get confirmation of the break down of that prize pool it'll be posted on the blog. -- NW

5.35pm: Clay suffers 999 abuse
James Hinsley and Dean Clay are two of the most recent bustees.

Clay told us following his exit that he lost a big hand with queens versus nines - a nine spiking on the river to almost bust him.

Following this, he piled in the last of his chips with K-Q and up against nines again, he managed to hit both a king and a queen, but it was all for naught as his opponent hit two nines to send him to the rail.

5.29pm: Assorted counts
Like a smattering of all-sorts, here's a few chip counts for you to chew upon.

Sunny Chattha - 27,000
Neil Channing - 19,000
Rupinder Bedi - 13,250
Jake Cody - 12,500 -- RS

5.20pm: Dempsey dents poker royalty with a royal
Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren and James Dempsey have already clashed a couple of times today and they just played a big pot in which both of them had monster hands. I didn't catch the action first hand, but twitter revealed the tale of the tape.

"I just made a bad call wIth quads, and that's not something I can say every day. Nice hand, Mr Dempsey. #UKIPTBristol."

So just what did Dempsey have to best quads?

"Made a royal, @VictoriaCoren paid me off with quads #thegamesarestillgood," chirped Dempsey, he's up to 27,000 whilst Coren slips to 7,000. -- NW

5.10pm: Angell has wings clipped
Just before the break I saw Brett Angell walking away from the card room having been eliminated from the tournament. He told me about his exit hand which was a bit of a cooler. "I raised with [5d][4d] and got three callers. The flop was a dream [6d][7d][8s], I c-bet 1,000, got one caller and then another player made it 2,500. He had a similar stack to me so I moved all-in and he called with pocket sevens. The [6h] came on the turn to fill him up. -- NW

4.59pm: Level 5 in effect
The players have cooled off, chilled out and re-stocked on ammunition, ready to cross swords on the poker battlefield once more.

The blinds continue at 150-300...

4.56pm: Blown a Thews
You may have noticed Julian Thew's name appearing in the list of busted competitors earlier.

Just to shed a little light on his exit, he departed holding pocket tens on an [8c][2c][3s] board, leading out before shoving the [4s] turn.

His opponent called both streets holding A♣9♣ for the flush draw and gutshot straight draw and made his straight on the five river.

"Bit unlucky" was the unusually terse summary from the usually verbose James Dempsey. -- RS

4.45pm: Meet John Jacobs
Whilst John Jacobs might not be a well known poker name that jumps off the page, anyone who attended VIP Club Live: London might just recognise his name.

For Jacobs, an English student at Sheffield University, won his seat at that event by correctly predicting seven out of seven outcomes in the Arsenal versus Chelsea game. But, his run good didn't end there, two other party goers had achieved the same feat, but it was his name that got pulled from the hat to give him a free seat to the Bristol leg of the UKIPT.

"This is the biggest buy-in event I've ever played in," he told me during the break. I play low stakes tournaments online and managed to satellite into a WCOOP earlier in the year. I knocked Joseph Cheong out in that and finished in the top 500 so made some money."

And Jacob has had a cracking start to the day here in Bristol as he's up to 25,000. "I had a nice hand earlier," he said. "I three-bet pocket kings and got a caller. The flop was [A][K][6] and by the river I got it all-in against ace-king to double up." He's slipped back to 25,000 since then, but he's still well above average.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (and their Superhero name) : Rod Stirzaker (The Courageous Phantom) and Nick Wright (The Magnificent Worm). Photos by Mickey May (The Awesome Mime).

UKIPT Bristol moved serenely into the second of its two opening days today. Following Day 1A, The Gala Harbourside Casino opened its doors once more today, welcoming 315 new participants to the felt to test their luck and skills as Day 1B kicked into effect and it was the unheralded but talented Marinos Mina who finished the day in the chip lead.

The day itself saw Marinos Mina rise from the pack to take the accolades, his chip total of 138,800 putting him out in front once the dust had settled on eight levels of tough, uncompromising poker. Snapping at his proverbial heels were Emanuele Pani and UKIPT Nottingham Season 1 winner Andrew Coleridge whose 127,400 and 95,200 respectively mean they are still well-placed to mount a serious challenge for the title, given favourable conditions. Wojtek Barzantny, the UKIPT online winner, continued to show his poker prowess by powering through the day with 22,000.

A flint-hard field was made even tougher by the presence of a number of Team PokerStars Pros, including Liv Boeree, who struggled once her aces got cracked early in the day, a failed coinflip the final sad footnote to her tournament.

Vicky Coren faced her own challenges throughout, including running quads into the royal flush of James Dempsey in a cooler of epic proportions. Dempsey might have won that coup but it was Coren who demonstrated greater powers of resilience, making it through the day with 29,400, whilst Dempsey was one of the throng finding themselves on the rail come the close of play.

In other news, Christophe De Meulder barely scraped through the day but will return with 9,200, whilst Mickey Petersen succumbed before the day had run its course.

In total an impressive 550 players bought, satellited or otherwise earned their way into the mix, creating a prizepool of £373,450. This will translate into an attractive £90,400 for the eventual winner with a minimum final table prize of £6,080 and £1,000 for those players who sneak into the top 72 players. The full prize pool and payouts can be found here.

That is the final word as they say. The remaining 130 players from day 1B will be back tomorrow, where they will merge with the 109 who made it through day 1A. Revitalized and full of English breakfasts, we know there will be battles aplenty breaking out across the felt.

We hope you can join us at 12:00pm sharp as we bring the action of Day 2 to your doorsteps. See you there!

A full fat guide as to how day 1B played out can be visited by clicking here for levels 1-4 and here for levels 5-8. The official chip counts of all 239 survivors can be found here.

All photos are copyright of Mickey May. She kicked a cigarette out of a grown man's hand yesterday - watch out, she's a ninja.

4.29pm: Break Time!
Level 12 is in the bag. It's time for a short pause while everyone takes stock of how they have performed today - and bores their friends with the usual brag posts and bad beat stories.

Back in twenty!

The updates from level 13 onward will continue in a separate post...

4.26pm: Three-way pot, two all-ins, no exits
Boy am I glad I caught this hand...

From middle position Raj Verma opened to 3,500 from a stack of 180,000, next to act Kay Wookey moved all-in for 14,400 and it passed to Daniel McHugh in the small blind. who tanked before moving all-in for 48,800.

Back on Verma he got counts of both all-ins, crunched some numbers and then announced call.

Verma: [6c][6h]
Wookey: [Ad][10d]
McHugh: [Kh][Ks]

"These kids hey," said Sam Grafton tongue-in-cheek. The [4d][8d][10h] flop was good one for Wookey, the [5c] turn not bad for Verma and it left McHugh needing to fade a lot of river cards. The [Qd] completed the board meaning Wookey took the main pot of some 45,000 whilst McHugh took the side pot which was worth around 70,000. -- NW

4.24pm: Coombes slips a little
Erstwhile chip leader Adrian Coombes may possibly have given up his claim on that title, having slipped to 145,000. -- RS

4.19pm: Carter crushes Berry
Dan Carter has had a frustrating hour of poker, seeing his stack fall to 40,000, however he gained back much of the ground he had lost against the aforementioned Nicholas Berry moments ago.

When Berry limped in early position, Carter decided to isolate him with a raise holding [Kc][5c] and his wish came true - his opponent making the call and the pair going heads up to a flop.

It fell [Jd][7c][5s] to give Carter bottom pair and the two of them checked it down.

The turn was the [Kh], Carter bet out 6,000 with his turned 2 pair and his opponent called. The river was the [7s] and now Berry led for a whopping 17k.

"I'd been counterfeited but I still pretty much liked my hand so I closed my eyes and called. He told me I was good!"

It turned out his opponent had played pocket threes in unorthodox fashion so that hand brings Carter back into the reckoning with 78,000. -- RS

4.12pm: Berry river juices the pot
Nicholas Berry has a 100,000 stack and he isn't afraid to get involved.

Most recently he made a move on the turn of a board - holding ace-queen. His opponent called his stack off with ace-ten, only for Berry to spike a fortuitous queen river to send his opponent (who should have been N Applyby - if he has retained his start of day seat) to the rail. -- RS

4.10pm: Coren crashes out
Although she had an above average 90,000 just a short time ago Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren has just busted out, over three tweets she released the details saying: "Out! Scuppered, essentially, in two pots by a rogue third party who made bizarre dynamIcs. That's the kind of tournament that makes me wish I still had a poker column. Like something in a Tim Burton film: weird, fascinating hands. The good news is, two hours to discover Harvey Nichols Bristol before the highroller tournament." -- NW

4pm: Exits and counts
UKIPT Online winner Wojtek Barzantny continues to have a good week in Bristol as he's up to 105,000, he's now on the same table as Sunny Chattha who has 75,000.

Meanwhile Marinos Mina , overnight chip leader is out as are George-Clyde Smith and Ben Grafton. -- NW

3.50pm: Verma makes a fine call
I only saw the river action but Raj Verma was facing a bet of 13,500 (into a pot of about 20,000) on a board of [4s][7c][Ks][5s][9c], after tanking for a minute or so he threw the call in, but in a manner that suggested he wasn't expecting to get them back. "Good call," said his opponent.

Verma showed [6h][4h] for bottom pair and from a lowpoint of 25,000 he's now up to 130,000. "I lost 130,000 in 15 minutes in Newcastle at a similar stage," said Verma to me. -- NW

3.40pm: A couple of exits
No sooner had I bigged up David Vamplew then the EPT London winner was knocked out, sorry David.

Although from his retelling of the hand it was a standard spot, he had [As][Qs] against Ben Martin's pocket kings in a blind on blind situation for about 30 big blinds each. Whilst Vamplew hops into the High Roller that starts at 6pm, Martin now has a stack of roughly 140,000.

I also caught George Turner's exit, he shoved for 20,200 with [Qc][5c] and was looked up by Nigel Lee who held [Ad][Kh]. The [Ac][3c][4h] flop gave Turner a ton of outs but he missed them all on the [Ks] turn and [7h] river. -- NW

3.31pm: Coren torn between two loves
The latest tweet from Vicky Coren reveals her chip stack growth is causing her a few issues...

"Up to 90k in chips now, nearly double average - which is a shame, as I've just found out that Bristol has a Harvey Nichol."

Every silver lining has a cloud eh. Well the high street's loss is our gain... -- RS

3.28pm: First Ade
We think Adrian Coombes may be the chip leader with close to 170,000. It seems much of his stack was gleaned from flopping top two on an ace-jack-x board, leading out and his opponent shoving into him.

"I keep getting paid off!" he revealed, a strategy which is working out just fine for him... -- RS

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600 ante 200

3.23pm: No Swede success for Vinson
Ben Vinson is another name that has been cutting through the field like a hot scythe through butter but he met his match for now in the form of the young Swedish lady Amanda Sidark.

The pair contested a flop of [Kc][Js][2h] and once Vinson had led out for 4,100, Sidark raised it to 11,000, leaving Vinson with a decision.

He eventually decided to call, although when Sidark led for 15,000 on the [6d] Vinson laid his hand down.

Vinson down to a still highly respectable 120,000 whilst Sidark has chipped up to 45,000. -- RS

3.20pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but if you've got a percentage of: Rob Akery, Jodie Evans, Ewan Brown, Mark McCluskey, Joe Grech and Jack Sambrook then better luck next time as they're all out. -- NW

3.10pm: Chip counts
It's been a good day so far for UKIPT Nottingam Season One champion Andrew Couldridge, he's up to 110,000 and was having a conversation with Scott Shelley (55,000) who' also had a good start to the day. Elsewhere Jonathon Prested is down to 81,000, he's got a chipped up Bambos Xanthos to his left, their respective chip counts might be down to a battle or two we suspect. Elsewhere EPT London champion David Vamplew has 43,000.

A couple of Irish players who've lost ground in the opening two and a bit levels are Jason Tompkins (36,000) and Chris Dowling (46,000) the latter is to the left of Craig Burke and Ben Vinson who both have a mountain of chips. Dan Carter has also taken a hit or two as he's slipped to 35,000. -- NW

3pm: Williams wiped out
I saw Kevin Williams walking away from his table with an expression that suggested he'd just been eliminated and he was kind enough to tell me what happened. "I lost pocket sixes to pocket fives to take me down to 10,000," he told me. "I then got a couple of shoves through to get up to about 14,000. Then a player opened to 2,500, got two callers and I look down at [A][8] I move in, hoping to get past the original raiser and then the last guy will have to stick it in with the worst hand, which is what happened. He had [7][6] and the flop had two sixes on it."

We're sure we'll see Williams back at the UKIPT soon. -- NW

2.55pm: Lenz likes the ladies
A double up just now for UKIPT Online finalist David Lenz in a hand that left Deborah Worley-Roberts cursing her luck.

From under-the-gun Lenz made it 2,500 to go, Worley-Roberts popped it to 5,000, it folded back to Lenz who moved in for 26,000 and after getting a count Worley-Roberts made the call.

Lenz: [Qs][Qh]
Worley-Roberts: [Kc][Ks]

The [6h][Qc][9s] flop elicited some very unlady like words from Worley-Roberts and the [4d] turn and [4c] river kept the German in front much to the chargrin of a dejected looking Worley-Roberts. -- NW

2.43pm: Miles away
Andrew Miles' tournament has come to an abrupt halt - his move for the blinds with A-6 running into the imposing form of pocket jacks.

He couldn't find that elusive ace from space and his day is done. -- RS

2.36pm: Adeniya jacks it in
Sam Grafton has had a fantastic day 2 so far, and his day just got even better as he dealt a fatal blow to the previously resurgent Martins Adeniya.

"Tell everyone I took him down the streets and outplayed him!" Grafton joked before revising his account to the more succinct, "I 3-bet, he 4-bet and I shoved."

Filling in the missing details, Grafton had pocket kings, Adeniya pocket jacks and the board brought no surprises.

150,000 now for Grafton, he looks to have snatched the chip lead. -- RS

2.32pm: Big stacks
Here are the top 10 stacks as level 11 gets underway:

Bambos Xanthos - 135,000
Craig Burke - 125,000
Marinos Mina - 113,000
Ben Vinxon - 112,000
Matthew Moss - 112,000
Emmett Mullin - 110,000
Sam Grafton - 110,000
Jonathon Slater - 100,000
Emanuele Pani - 98,000
Malte Moennig - 94,000

Although news of a big pot for Sam Grafton coming right up. -- NW

2.22pm: Back from the break
The players are now back from the break for the third level of the day. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 100

2.02pm: First break of the day
We've had two levels whizz by this morning. It's been a day full of action so far but now the players get a chance to take stock of the new state of play and indulge themselves in a chat, cigarette or other such activity for twenty minutes.

We'll be back soon! -- RS

1.58pm: Adeniya deflects Parry to double up
This morning has been the tale of bustouts and double-throughs - and Martins Adeniya just faced both of those options in a big hand.

The hand in question saw Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren open to 2,200, picking up a call from Steve Parry on the button, before Adeniya made it 7,000 in a suspicious squeezy type-looking move.

Coren looked a little perturbed but eventually sigh-folded, before Steve Parry decided this looked too squeezy for him to pass [As][Qs]. He moved in, only for Adeniya to snap-call with a perfectly played pair of aces - the [Ah][Ad].

He still needed to swerve some spades and broadway combos, but a board of low cards gave no cause for concern - Adeniya chipping up to 53,000 at the end of the hand whilst Parry was left with a giant dent in his stack and a pressing urgency to augment that stack or risk blinding out. -- RS

1.55pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but: James Mitchell, Alexey Kozlovsky, Lee Dixon, John Jacobs and Lee Atherton are all now free to take a tour of the SS Great Britain. -- NW

1.47pm: Chip counts
It's been a good couple of levels for Sam Grafton he's more than doubled his start of day stack to around 120,000. He's at the same table as Vicky Coren, The TeamPokerStars Pro is up to 44,000 from her start of day 29,400. Also at that table are Martins Adeniya (27,000), Wojtek Barzantny (35,000) and Jack Sambrook (55,000).

Elsewhere Sunny Chattha has 120,000, Matt Frankland is up to 65,000, Thomas Ward has ran his stack up to 50,000, he's to the left of Nik Persaud who has 60,000. Two Irish players who've not had a great start to the day are Kevin Killeen (35,000) and Barry McMahon (37,000) whilst Raj Verma is down to 25,000. -- NW

1.36pm: Burke flushes Tsang's chances away
Craig Burke just received a fortunate boon to his stack, shoving from the small blind for around 25,000 with [Ts][Js], only for Chihao Tsang to eventually make the call with the dominating [Ac][Td].

"Nit-rolled again!" Burke said, though when the board peeled off [7s][5s][4c][9s][4h], he had made a flush and won the day.

"Make sure you tell them he just got 25 big blinds in with jack-high," a friend at the table joked.

"Crystal ball poker!" Burke quipped as he stacked up his newly-won 50,000.

Tsang meanwhile was left with the proverbial bowl of rice and will face an uphill struggle getting himself back into contention. -- RS

1.27pm: Carter gets fruity
Dan Carter is up to 80,000 at the moment but he suggested I check his latest tweet to get an idea of how his day 2 has gone so far. Here it is in all its glory!

"Sketchy first level but quickly back up to 76k as young asian kid tries to rep a grapefruit and a banana on the river"

Carter is second to none in his fruit-reading ability so this was clearly a bad idea.

1.25pm: Aherns puts P.H.D (pretty huge dent) into Masters
Michael Masters is another early casualty in this tournament as he's just been knocked out by Christopher Aherns.

The former was all-in for 24,900 with pocket tens but found Aherns held the superior pocket jacks. An eight high board was all she wrote for Masters. -- NW

1.17pm: Beck and call
Over on table two Jonathan Beck just won a decent pot from David Docherty although the young Scotsman put him through the wringer in the process.

The action was started by Beck who raised to 2,200 from under-the-gun, overnight chip leader Marinos Mina, who's on around 140,000 passed as did everyone else, including Joe Roberts (30,000) from the small blind, but Docherty, who's good friends with Roberts made the call from the big blind.

The two of them saw a [10c][3d][9h] flop, Docherty led for 2,200 and Beck made the call. The [Qs] fell on the turn, Docherty checked to Beck who fired out a bet of 5,200 after taking his time Docherty check-raised to 12,000 total. Now it was Beck's turn to tank, he ultimately elected to smooth call. The [8d] completed the board, both players elected to check. "Ace high," announced Docherty, whilst Beck showed [Ah][As] to take the pot. -- NW

1.14pm: Garden of Eden destroyed by the ladies
When Matt Dale opened off his relative short stack, he can't have been overjoyed at seeing Vlad Teodorescu move all-in for 25,500 and Sean Eden also call for most of his stack.

Dale sigh-folded, but Teodorescu and Eden turned over their hands, the latter disappointed that, having made the call with pocket tens, he found himself in big trouble versus pocket queens.

No ten arrived to save his bacon, and by the time the river had been dealt he found himself carving a large chunk out of his stack and handing it over to Teodorescu, who was doing his best to repress a smile as he counted his new 55,000 in chips.

Eden meanwhile is close to the edge with less than 10,000 and Matt Dale is not far ahead of this either... -- RS

1.10pm: Worley-Roberts fends off stalker but not Fields
Deborah Worley-Roberts was just heads up with Luke Fields in a pot, though her attention was somewhat distracted by the close attentions of a rail lurker who was very much worse the wear (despite it being just after midday!)

She dealt decisively with the railer, sending him away from the table with a stern rebuke though she found it a little tougher to deal with Fields who had led out 3,800 into the 11,000 pot - a board of [Td][Tc][5h] showing.

Eventually she made the laydown, suggesting she had folded pocket sixes. "You had too many chips to shove there," commented Fields.

Worley-Roberts down to 28k - still well in contention - if a little off the average.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000 ante 100

1pm: Exits
In the opening 45 minutes 44 players have hit the rail that's a pretty impressive busts to minutes ratio. Those who've had a short day include: Team PokerStars Pro Christoph De Meulder, Fintan Gavin, James Morris and Chris Moorman.

Gavin tweeted his exit saying: Short & sweet, A high flop I get in all in with AJ, guys slow played KK pre and flopped a set. -- NW

12.55pm: More tough tables
Table nine has a few interesting faces at the table, including Raj Verma, John Jacobs, who won his seat at VIP Live: London and Chris Dowling. The latter is sat in the same seat he ended Day 1B in, at which on the last hand of the night he cracked aces with pocket sevens.
"It didn't do me any harm yesterday," he said. "But I don't believe in superstitions and all that."

One table along David Vamplew and Rob Akery are separated by just one seat. -- NW

12.45pm: Berry nice hand for Prested
Michael Berry started short with just 12,000 chips and when he picked up [Ad][Qs] there was really only one option open to him. The timing of his shove proved awry however as big stack Jonathon Prested was lurking behind him with the dominating [A][K].

Living on a prayer, Berry's circa 30% outdraw chance never came to pass, the board running out with low cards consigning him to the rail of early casualties.. -- NW

12.40pm: Missing big blind causes carnage
The tournament has opened in fast and furious fashion - a number of players looking to chip up or go spend their day elsewhere and the presence of a missing big blind on table 19 resulted in a huge pot breaking out with two relative weak hands.

Thomas Hall on the button saw the big blind sitting out and he felt like he should make a play for the blinds, raising it up with [Kd][6d] before seeing Barry McMahon make a three-bet from the small blind.

Hall obviously felt he could get him off it and so moved all-in. He must have felt the flutter of a butterfly or two when Barry Mcmahon now started fiddling with his chips and tanking over the decision.

Eventually his concerns materialised into something tangible - Mcmahon made a very brave call off his 85,000 stack with [Ac][2c] - ahead, but only just of Hall's hand.

Facing elimination, Hall saw the board come to his rescue, peeling off [Kc][8s][6h][5h][6c] to give him a decisive double-through to 52k. Mcmahon down to 57k... -- RS

12.35pm: Prostakov on the march
Sergey Prostakov has had an interesting start, having started the day on 8,100.

He shoved [Kc][6d] in a blind steal attempt that worked out as well as could be expected when David Harris made the call with [9s][6h]. Delighted to find himself dominating his opponent, the board peeled off [2d][4h][3s][2h][3d] and Prostakov happily mounted up his new 17,000 stack. Since then he has increased his stack even further... -- RS

12.25pm: Table troubles
Both the Team PokerStars Pros left in the field today have been handed interesting table draws.

Let's start with Victoria Coren, she's in the five seat at her table, to her right sits Martin Adeniya and to the left is UKIPT Online champion Wojtek Barzantny. That's some sandwich. But to top it all off, Sam Grafton is in the nine seat.

Meanwhile a short stacked Christoph De Meulder has Sunny Chattha and big stack Matthew Moss for company. -- NW

12.15pm: Ward wards off the exit for now
Thomas Ward just doubled up his micro stack into a still very short stack, he got the last of his chips in with [Jh][10c] and was in bad shape against Sven Smith's pocket aces.

The [8s][9d][3c] flop was a decent one though, so much so that table mate Nik Persaud said that there was now no way that Ward was losing this hand. The [9s] turn was a blank but the [7h] river gave Ward a straight and kept him in it. --NW

12.07pm: Good luck clarion call of the day
"Who's got their lucky pants on then!" -- RS

12.05pm: Cards in the air
Cards are in the air here in Bristol. The plan for the day is much the same as previous days, they'll be eight one hour levels today. Here at the PokerStars blog we've done some rudimentary maths and we expect the bubble to burst late on in the day, level 15 or 16 is our guess. -- NW

12pm: Day 2 carnage about to start
Welcome to Day 2 of UKIPT Bristol, in total 239 of the 550 entrants have made it through to Day 2 of UKIPT Bristol, all of them hoping to pick up the £90,400 first prize.

Overnight chip leader is Marinos Mina with 138,300, whilst Jonathon Prested topped the Day 1A field with 121,300. They'll likely be spared the usual carange that occurs at the start of Day 2 as those stacks that clung on at the end of Day 1 try to get that elusive double up.

Amongst the notables who need a double up are Chris Moorman (9,600) and Team PokerStars Pro Christoph De Meulder (9,200), with 29,400 Victoria Coren is also in the mix today.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (in order of how much they like coleslaw sandwiches) : Rod Stirzaker (nom nom) and Nick Wright (nom). Photos by Mickey May (no).

9.07pm: End of day two
That dramatic confrontation was one of the last acts of note on day 2 here at UKIPT Bristol. Come the close of play, 45 players had negotiated their way through the day with Robert Bull heading the field courtesy of that monstrous last pot.

He has several players hot on his heels, the closest being Simon Randall with 438,000 and the winner of the UKIPT Bristol Online Wojtek Barzantny also putting in an impressive attempt to do a remarkable double here in Bristol.

The final chip counts and re-cap of the day will be posted shortly but for now, thanks for following the coverage. It has been a compulsive day with all the drama we have come to expect from the UKIPT.

We hope to see you back here at 12.00pm sharp for the playdown to the final. -- RS

9.03pm: Grafton gored by Bull
It's been an almost flawless rise to the top by Sam Grafton today, but right at the death he saw much of his stack disappear in the biggest pot of the day.

He hasn't shown a propensity to back down when he's been able to use his stack as leverage and once again, he wielded it like a club, engaging in a 5-bet preflop with [Ad][Qd] versus fellow bigstack Robert Bull (he held about 260,000).

This time however, the cards were not to fall his way. Bull held [As][Ah] and had the easy decision to call Grafton's shove.

There were no nasty surprises as the dealer laid out flop, turn and river and a small headshake was the only slight sign of negativity from an otherwise cheerful Grafton at having seen so much of his stack disappear.

That hand propels Robert Bull right to the head of the chipcounts with 538,000, where he remained till the final few hands played out. Sam Grafton however has just around 100,000 to his name... -- RS

8.55pm: Final 4 hands!
We have reached the cusp of the end of day 2. Just four hands remain until we know who will go into day 3 in pole position as the chip leader... -- RS

8.48pm: Greenwood dodges slick obstacle
Callum Smith on the button, James Greenwood in the big blind, the pair holding [As][Kd] and [Jd][Jh] respectively, there was always likely to be a brutal confrontation and so it proved.

Tha pair went to war preflop, Greenwood making a big raise over Smith's initial button raise and Smith took him on for his 120,000 stack..

"Come on!" bellowed Smith, desperate to win this crucial coinflip.

A board of [9s][2h][7c][5s][3c] however did nothing useful for his chances and with the river dealt, he joined the increasingly-thickening rail to bemoan his misfortune.

Meanwhile Greenwood chips up to 320,000... -- RS

8.38pm: Smith crushes Berry
We can't help but feel a bit sorry for Nicholas Berry, who has won plenty of chips today, but always seems to feature in losing pots in the updates.

Just bad luck on timing there Mr Berry!

The latest hand to see Berry fall on the wrong side of the pun headline saw him making a big bet - around 75,000 on the river of a [As][8s][7d][9c][Qd] board, only for Callum Smith to make the call with [A][Q] for top two, which was good.

That hand sees Berry down to around 100k whilst Smith is up to 230,000... -- RS

8.34pm: Bambos missing home comforts
Bambos Xanthos may find himself deep in this UKIPT but he can't help wondering if one of the plethora of screens on the back wall of the casino couldn't be put to better use.

"Why don't they show some tennis or something? We don't need 15 screens about blinds!" -- RS

8.30pm: Big stacks
With just 40 minutes left in the day, these guys are the big stacks:

Sam Grafton: 350,000
Matthew Moss: 360,000
Tom Hall: 320,000
Wojtek Barzantny: 280,000

8.15pm: Somewhere to be
We know the players party has started and there's a free bar, but the players continue to dropping faster than Felix Baumgartner. -- NW

8pm: Falling like flies
In the 30 minutes since the bubble burst, the floodgates have opened and the 72 player field has shrunk to just 58, in an pressure release of epic proportions.

I caught one of those exits first hand and Raj Verma was very unlucky to be heading to the payouts desk.

The pot was opened to 8,000 by Ed Ash, Verma made it 18,000 from the big blind, Ash jammed for an effective 90,000 and Verma snap called.

Verma: [Ah][Ac]
Ash: [3h][3c]

The [8d][7c][10d] flop was safe enough, but the [3s] turn gave Ash a set and the [Js] river sent Verma tumbling out of the tournament.

Other players to have cashed but crashed include: Sunny Chattha, Spencer Lawrence, Ben Martin and Marc McDonnell. -- NW

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

7.54pm: Cowboys bring it home for Randall
Marc Macdonnell just lost a very large pot to Simon Randall in what we assume was a pre-flop coup.

Holding [As][Kc] he walked straight into the pocket kings of Simon Randall, failed to improve and left Randall sweeping up a huge pot that sees him move over 270,000. -- RS

7.45pm: Spencer feels the Burn
Spencer Lawrence was another to squeeze into the money, and buoyed by that achievement he looked to increase his stock yet further, moving all-in with [Kd][Qd], only to run into the [A][K] of David Burn.

He picked up outs along the way, in particular a flush draw and a gutshot, but ultimately these came to naught as the dominating hand held sway leaving Lawrence to quietly pack up and vacate the playing arena. -- RS

7.35pm: Prested can't fade sick freeroll
The poker gods are a fickle bunch, we know that much. One minute they are cosying up to you, dealing you aces and giving you action as Jonathon Prested found, moving all-in under the gun for around 14 big blinds with the bullets and picking up action from (we think) Liam O'Donoghue. Happy days!

What they giveth they taketh away however, as Prested's opponent also flipped the bullets - two black to Prested's two red - and the pair were about to chop up the blinds.

Was this the end? Oh no. An all club flop of [Kc][Tc][Qc] gave O'Donoghue a big freeroll and it duly dropped in on the [3c] leaving Prested, the Day 1A chipleader high and dry and the crowd oohing at that painful spectacle.

The silver lining is he squeezed into the money just prior to that hand occurring... -- RS

7.30pm: Christopher Nicholas bubbles UKIPT Bristol
After double ups for Owen Lock and Emanuele Pani on the bubble, three truly was the magic number for the other 72 players still in UKIPT Bristol as the third time there was an all-in and call the bubble burst.

Ed Ash min-raised to 6,000, Christopher Nicholas moved all-in for 18,400 and Ash made a swift call, there was then a wait whilst all the other hands played out - including Pani's all in double up where he rivered a straight to stay alive - until they eventually could turn their cards over.

Nicholas: [Kh][Kd]
Ash: [As][Jc]

The [9c][Ah][3s] was a cruel flop for Nicholas to see and he had all but left the card room by the time the [8c] and [10c] completed the board.

Everyone else is now guaranteed at least £1,000. -- NW

7.25pm: The bubble has burst
Everyone is in the money here in Bristol, details on the bubble hand coming right up. -- NW

7.09pm: Official bubble
That elimination means we are now on the official bubble, playing hand for hand. The atmosphere is thick and tense out there, with more than a few sweaty palms on show...

7.06pm: Rudling suffers cruel exit in 74th
Holding a big stack means you can apply pressure without ever feeling it yourself and Sam Grafton illustrated that moments ago, raising it up to 6,300, only to watch David Rudling make it 18,000 to go.

He knew he could use his stack to try and lever Rudling off the pot, so four-bet all-in with [9][7], though Rudling was not to be pushed off, making the call with pocket jacks for his 90,000 stack and looking well placed to double up.

Not so quick - a board of [Q][9][5][7][A] turned things round in Grafton's favour, his two pair scuppering Rudling's jacks and leaving the player heading disconsolately to the rail without any recompense for his efforts over the last two days.

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

7.06pm:End of break time
The players are back in action for level 15... -- RS

6.46pm: Break time
Players are now on a 15 minute break. -- NW

6.45pm: Tompkins gives Vinson a tumble
When you have three aggressive competent and fearless players in a row, all with chips near the bubble, it's bound to get a little aggro.

And that's just what happened in a pot involving Jason Tompkins, Ben Vinson and Wojtek Barzantny. It folded to Tompkins on the button, he made it 4,800 to go, Vinson three-bet to 12,100, Barzantny four-bet to 28,500 and it was back on Tompkins. After a minute or so Tompkins moved all-in for 102,700, Vinson quickly announced that he too was all-in (for around 170,000) and the action was no on Barzantny who had both covered. After at least three or four minutes in the tank Barzantny folded his hand.

Tompkins: [7d][7h]
Vinson: [As][Kc]

The [7c][9c][Ks] flop hit both, but hit Tompkins harder and he stayed in front on the [3d] turn and [4h] river. -- NW

6.40pm: Shelley loses flip to bust
We're down to 74 players as Scott Shelley has just been sent packing in 75th spot. In a blind on blind battle with Ben Young, the former was all-in with [As][Kh] against Young's pocket queens. "Can we just chop it now?" asked Shelley but as this was a tournament the dealer was obliged to deal the five community cards. Unfortunately for Shelley no aces or kings were forthcoming and he wished everyone good luck as he left the table. -- NW

6.32pm: Dusted off
These players have all been denied the chance to cash, having busted just prior to the money.

Nicholas Lynn
Chris Dowling
Jason Kemp
Benjamin Jenkins
Kieran Plater
David Lenz
Christopher Mcnicholls
Daniel Thomas -- RS

6.27pm: Show me the money!
With 75 left in, three more players need to go and then everyone still remaining will be getting paid. -- RS

6.18pm: They think it's all Dover!
Swede Michael Doverklint is entertaining his table right now with some comical banter.

Heads up with Welshman Michael Jones , the pair saw a board of [Kd][9h][3d] and Doverklint had bet 20k into the pot with 7k back.

"I'm ahead," he told Jones, who nonetheless moved all-in, receiving a quick call from Doverklint.

The Swede showed the veracity of his statement, flipping up [As][Kc] to Jones' dominated [Kh][Qs].

"Where are you from?" Doverklint asked Jones.
"Wales," came the reply.
"Yes I love Wales," joked Doverklint.
"You think all us Swedes are crazy but I'm the tightest player in Sweden."

After the exchange, Doverklint was up to 65k and Jones down to 45k. -- RS

6.15pm: Chips
As we approach the bubble here are the chip counts of some of those left in: Raj Verma (210,000), Dan Carter (54,000), Paul McTaggart (45,000), Andrew Couldridge (180,000) and Jason Tompkins (55,000). -- NW

6.10pm: Grafton gobbles up more chips
Sam Grafton is up to 230,000, his latest boost coming courtesy of eliminating Oliver Prior. The latter was all-in for 20,000 with [Js][8s] and in bad shape against Grafton's pocket queens.

The [5h][10d][8h] flop helped Prior a touch, the [7s] turn added another possible method of outdraw, but the [Ac] river sent him to the rail and his stack to Grafton.

81 remain. -- NW

6pm: Fun time Franky
Matt Frankland is having a good time at UKIPT Bristol if his latest tweet is anything to go by: "Over 100k :) tables incred winning most hands uncontested and with the bubble 17 away can't see them growing a backbone any time soon." -- NW

5.55pm: Bubble gets ever closer
With just 89 players left the bubble is looming into view here at UKIPT Bristol. In all 72 players will make the money, however: Chung Hoang, Andrew Garland, Craig Burke, Emmett Mullin, Darren Fuller, Ronald Lawton, Kristian Linnell and Karen Arthur will not be amongst them as they're all out. -- NW

5.45pm: Martin piles it on
Benjamin Martin was contesting a flop of [Td][7h][2d] with a tablemate, leading out for 7,000 (called) and the pair went heads up to the [9s] turn.

He now reached into his stack and pulled out a hefty 22.200, which he bet, leaving his opponent to mull it over for some time, before again making the call, with just 47,000 back.

The river fell a seemingly inconsequential [3d] and Martin now quietly announced all-in, effectively around a 3/4 pot bet.

Much sighing and tanking ensued, but ultimately this third bullet did the trick, his opponent folding, leaving Martin to sweep up a very juicy pot, boosting him up to 150,000 whilst his opponent was left licking his wounds with 47,000.

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

5.40pm: Xanthos applies the afterburners
Bambos Xanthos is a seasoned campaigner on the poker circuit, with several decades of poker results to back up his credentials and he is using all of that experience wisely at the moment, his stack an impressive 180,000.

5.30pm: David doubles through Dale
David Gassian just got a much needed double up and has switched chip positions with Matt Dale, the man who doubled him up.

It was Dale who got the action started, he made it 4,400 from under-the-gun, it folded all the way round to Gassian in the big blind and after asking Dale for a count (despite Dale covering him) he made the call.

The [Qd][3c][4d] flop was checked to Dale, he c-bet 5,400, Gassian moved all-in for 11,400 more and Dale shrugged and said: "Ah I suppose I have to call then," and put in the extra.

Dale: [10c][10d]
Gassian: [Qh][10s]

Dale had been outflopped and it would stay that way as the [9s] and [8d] completed the board, Gassian doubled up to around 43,000 whilst Dale slipped to 19,000. -- NW

5.15pm: Chips
We've been busy slacking flowing the chip counts into the chip count page. It now contains the count of everyone who was in at the last break.

There are currently 99 players remaining, 72 of whom will make the money. -- NW

5.05pm: More on the Mina exit
We reported earlier that start of day chip leader Marinos Mina busted during the last level, Joe Roberts who was sat at the same table as him gave me some information on just how he dusted off his chips. "He went to war on a [A][10][9] flop with [10][9]," Roberts told me. "There was a four-bet and a five-bet on the flop, about 100 big blinds went in and it was a spot where his hand was never going to be good. Sure enough his opponent (Benjamin Bogren) had flopped bottom set." -- NW

4.55pm: Randall doubles up
With pocket jacks and 22k in his stack, Simon Randall had an easy decision facing an opening raise.

He re-shipped it into the middle, and was looked up by pocket fives, leaving him in great shape to double through.

His hand held and that propels him back into the middle of the chipcounts with 48k to his name. -- RS

4.45pm: Chip leader!
Thanks to the lovely tournament staff doing a full chip count on the break, we can tell you that Thomas Hall with 275,000 is currently the man to catch. -- NW

4.32pm: Break over - level 13 in effect
We're halfway through the day and already the leaderboard is taking on an interesting shape. Marinos Mina the overnight chipleader has slid all the way off the leaderboard - a late exit from level 12 whilst rising stars include Ben Vinson - 117,000, Adrian Coombes - 149,000 and Sam Grafton 155,000.

Level 13 has just started, let's see how if the final four levels of the day can match the drama of the first four.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (and their Medieval name) : Rod Stirzaker (Nina, the servant) and Nick Wright (Baron James the Blue). Photos by Mickey May (King Leopold the Insane).

As is always the case on Day 2 of the UKIPT, it was moving day as over eight levels of play a field of 239 was reduced to just 45, that's one elimination every two and a half minutes!

The player who moved most serenely of all and sits atop the chip counts tonight is Robert Bull who bagged up 581,600, not bad considering he started with a below average 18,900. A huge pot right near the end where his aces held up against Sam Grafton's [Ad][Qd] propelled the 20-year-old maths and statistics student into the chip lead. "I also got dealt ace-king six or seven times and won big pots with them," the Edinburgh native told me.

The PokerStars qualifier who won his way here for £77 also credited good table draws with his rise up the leader board, but won't have all his own way tomorrow though as he's followed by Simon Randall (438,000) and Wojtek Barzantny (411,000). The latter is therefore well placed to make a run at a unique double having won the UKIPT Online title on Wednesday here in Bristol.

And whilst many players fell by the wayside, outdrawn, out lucked or outplayed many dangerous players such as Bambos Xanthos (235,500), Jason Tompkins (248,500), Nik Persaud (167,500) and a wounded Sam Grafton (109,500) will also return tomorrow. They'll be intent on making their first UKIPT final table or second in the case of Tompkins. And Andrew Couldridge (106,000) has a shot at his second UKIPT title, having won UKIPT Nottingham in Season One.

Whilst 45 players will be dreaming of what might happen over the next two days, many had their dreams dashed today, chief amongst them the bubble boy Christopher Nicholas. The names he shares might not be the only saintly thing about him as he took his bubble outdraw in good grace, just quietly walking away from the table when his pocket kings were cracked by the ace flopping [As][Jc] of Ed Ash.

Sadly there was no Team PokerStars Pros to sweat come bubble time (unless you wanted to watch them in the High Roller) as both Victoria Coren and Christophe De Meulder had long since departed.

The latter came back chronically short on chips and was out within the first hour due to a lack of timing: "Shoved 2 strong hands - no call. Shove a mediocre hand and get slowrolled," he tweeted.

As for Coren she found herself on a tough table to start with, one featuring Martins Adeniya, Sam Grafton and UKIPT Online winner Wojtek Barzantny, still she had no trouble tripling her start of day stack to an above average 90,000, despite the lure of Harvey Nicholls.

Then when her tough table broke to a seemingly softer one it all went wrong and in the space of a few hands she was out: ""Out! Scuppered, essentially, in two pots by a rogue third party who made bizarre dynamIcs. That's the kind of tournament that makes me wish I still had a poker column. Like something in a Tim Burton film: weird, fascinating hands. The good news is, two hours to discover Harvey Nichols Bristol before the highroller tournament."

They weren't the only big names to hit the rail today. Some like James Mitchell, overnight chip leader Marinos Mina, EPT London winner David Vamplew and UKIPT Galway Season 3 champion Emmett Mullin left empty handed. Whilst Raj Verma (60th) Sunny Chattha (59th) and Matt Frankland (52nd) at least left with something to show for their efforts. To find out who's won what so far click here.

The 45 remaining players will return at noon and will play until just eight remain and the UKIPT final table is set, join us here to follow the action tomorrow. Meanwhile to catch up on all today's action click the links below. UKIPT Cork champion Sam Razavi has had more success on the APPT, winning a side event. The final table of the main event of APPT Macau is tomorrow, find out who's made it here.

Levels 9-12
Levels 13-16

But for now that's all from UKIPT Bristol, we're off to play catch up at the UKIPT players party.

All photos are copyright of Mickey May, she's got a wonderful singing voice so please don't make the same mistake as we did and criticize it.

4.43pm:Break Time!
A dramatic moment caps the first four levels of the day and with that we take a short recess.

Back in 15 minutes for the playdown to the final!

The updates from level 21 onwards will continue in a new post.

4.40pm:Tournament enters no Joe area
Wojtek Barzantny is simply unstoppable and he has just taken yet another scalp in the form of Joe Roberts.

The latter got rather unlucky, having reshoved for around 16 big blinds over Barzantny's opening raise to 25,000 from under the gun.

Wojtek eventually shrugged and made the call with [Kd][Jd] and found himself slightly behind Roberts' move with [Ad][9s].

A flop of [Jh][4h][2c][Js][Qc] left Roberts deeply upset and bounced out of contention whilst Barzantny heads into the break head of the counts.

4.35pm: Down to two tables
We missed it but Bambos Xanthos exited in 17th place, which means that we're down to the final two tables. There's been a re-draw, we'll bring that to you imminently. -- NW

4.25pm: Bull breaks the million chip mark
Is Robert Bull an oracle or something? He predicted that there might be carnage on his table and so it came to pass.

From the button Craig Goddard raised to 22,000, Ben Young three-bet to 57,000 from the small blind, Robert Bull was in the big blind and slid out a four-bet making it 118,000 total.

Back on Goddard he passed, but after peering at Bull's stack Young moved all-in for around 450,000, he was snap called by Bull and Goddard gave a look of frustration as he threw his [Ad][Kh] face-up on the felt. That was because he knew he was in deep trouble and indeed he was as Bull turned over aces, the [kd][2s][Qs][5c][3d] board kept Bull on top and his stack is now around 1,100,000, which is already an above average stack for the final table. -- NW

4.10pm: Persaud exits 19th
Craig Goddard has put that hand versus Ben Young behind him to send Nik Persaud crashing out.

Two hands saw him destroy Persaud's chances.

We joined the first hand on the turn of a [Jc][5c][Th][Ah] board, with what looked like a check-raise from Goddard all-in. With 360,000 in the pot, it was 280,000 more for Persaud to call - most of his remaining stack.

"I can't help but think you've got lucky somewhere here," he said.

Eventually he folded adding, "I couldn't work that one out, usually I call when I can't work it out."

The very next hand saw Persaud raise from the cutoff, and his nemesis Goddard three-bet, Persaud calling..

The flop fell [Jc][5c][Th] - both players checked. The turn was the [Ah] and now Goddard led for 65,000. Persaud called and the two players went to a bricky [2s] river.

Goddard checked, Persaud moved all-in and Goddard called.

"Yep you're good," Persaud said as Goddard showed a sneakily played pair of kings, Persaud handing over all his chips.

"If I move in on the turn you've got a tricky decision," he said.

"Yeh, but I think after that last hand your range is pretty wide. I'd have probably called rightly or wrongly.

It's been good playing with you. I had J-7 in that earlier hand by the way."

So Persaud crashes out in 19th spot collecting £2,550, whilst Goddard is up to 700,000 or so, in good shape with the run in to the final table rapidly approaching.

4pm: Carnage?
We're down to the final three tables here, but one is top heavy with chips. Robbie Bull is still the chip leader and he tweeted: "Hovering around 700k, 3 tables left. Our table has 50% of chips in play on it. Could be some carnage soon."

3.48pm: Greenwood offers medical advice
James Greenwood is sat next to Bambos Xanthos and they have been discussing the change in play as you get older.

"As you get older you lose interest in all these 5-3 type hands," Bambos revealed.

"Well, it's bad for your heart. You've got to look after your heart," Greenwood added. -- RS

3.36pm: Movers and shakers
Nik Persaud is up to 390,000 - "[A][4] versus [J][Q]," he told us. "Pretty nice!"

Bambos Xanthos meanwhile has recovered from that big flip lost earlier, winning 8s v [A][5] to catapult him up the standings with now 480,000.

"You've got piles!" someone suggested(referring to his chip stack not his stance.) -- RS

3.28pm: Pwning the Goddard, Young
Craig Goddard was just put in a tough position by Ben Young. The hand saw him raise from the cut-off pre-flop for 16,000, called by Young and a player in the blinds.

The [9c][5d][4s] saw Goddard lead for 28,000 with Young the sole caller.

The turn was the [Ks] and again Goddard bet out - 32,000 this time. Again Young called.

A final bet of 52,000 from Goddard now saw Young quietly shift into gear, raising all-in.

Goddard tanked for some time before electing to throw his hand away, "I can't call. It's too likely you've got a monster" he added sadly as he folded.

Young sweeps up the pot to move to 550,000 whilst Goddard falls to 260,000. -- RS

3.25pm: Tompkins tumbles out
I reached the table to see a flop of [2c][Qh][10s] and Jason Tompkins almost all-in with pocket jacks, up against Anthony Forsyth-Forrest who had pocket aces. The [2h] turn and [Ac] river only strengthened Forsyth-Forrest's position and doubled him to around 425,000 whilst Tompkins was left with just 14,000.

The rest of his chips went in the very next hand with [5s][4d] but Jonathan Prince's pocket sixes started and stayed in front to send Tompkins out in 22nd place. A very dangerous opponent has just been dispatched. -- NW

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

3.10pm: Focus, focus, focus
You can almost smell the concentration in there at the moment. Everyone is well aware that this is a key part of the tournament and a slip up here could easily cost the players a spot at the final table.

It's all up for grabs and the players know that. -- RS

3pm: Persaud trundles up the leaderboard
Nik Persaud has managed to chip up most effectively over the last twenty minutes or so, picking up several pots without confrontation.

The latest of these saw him call a raise preflop in position and fire two barrells at a [Jc][4s][4d][4h] board, picking up a fold on the turn.

Persaud is starting to look a little dangerous with 310,000. -- RS

2.50pm: Pastides faces nightmare flop
Bambos Xanthos picked up pocket nines from the cut-off and raised it up to 22,000, only to find Owen Lock raising the price to pay to 57,000 from the button.

Xanthos took a few moments to decide his hand had to play well against Lock's range and moved all-in, Lock making a quick call for his 222,000 with the [Ad][Kd].

What was a 50/50-ish coin toss preflop, changed dramatically as a board of [As][Qd][Jd] peeled off.

"Look at that flop," exclaimed Xanthos. "I'm drawing dead!"

Very nearly, Xanthos had just one out to rescue the pot, but it was a slim hope that never came to fruition as the [3s][6d] finished the board to leave Lock sitting pretty on 450,000 and Xanthos hurt but still in contention with 165,000. -- RS

2.45pm: Danko's day is done
Slovakian Michael Danko had been rocking a short stack for quite some time when he finally found a good spot to get his last 98,000 over the line with [Ad][Qh]. But he ran smack into Paul McTaggart's pocket jacks and unfortunately for Danko the only face card on the board was a king. The pair held up to boost McTaggart to 307,000.

25 players left. -- NW

2.40pm: Chip counts
During the break PokerStars staff were busy beavering away to get 100% accurate chip counts of the players left in. We've now uploaded them to the blog and they can be seen here.

Your current top five are:

Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 830,000
Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 500,000
Kevin Steward, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 470,000
James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 400,000
Charalambos Xanthos, United Kingdom, 400,000

2.30pm: Couldridge cooked
UKIPT Nottingham Season one winner Andrew Couldridge is out. Short stacked he made a move on the button with [8][7], there was no small blind, but Amanda Sidark made the call from the big blind with [A][J] and in Couldridge's own words. "I missed everything." Whilst he heads to the payout desk, Sidark is up to 300,000. -- NW

2.20pm: Back from the break
The 29 remaining players are now back in their seats, with 830,000 Robert Bull is still the chip leader. To find out who's cashed for what so far click here. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 4,000-8,000 ante 500

2pm: Break it up guys
The end of level 18 means the players are now taking their first 15 minute break of the day following what has been a fast, frantic start full of bustouts.

We'll be back in 15 minutes to continue from level 19.

See you there! -- RS

1.55pm: Bull still top dog
Just to clarify Robert Bull is still eking out a chip lead at this stage with 740,000 with Wojtek Barzantny his closest pursuer with 630,000 or so.

The break is fast approaching where we will be able to furnish you lucky people with precise counts for the remaining 30 or so players. -- RS

1.51pm: No Steward's inquiry as Berry crushed
Nicholas Berry was just put in an awkward spot preflop - holding jacks, he called a min raise from early position, called in one other spot, before seeing Kevin Steward make what looked like a potentially squeezy raise to 41,000 from the button.

Berry uhmmed and ahhed then decided that jacks were too good to lay down, moving all-in and getting snap-called at lightning pace by Steward, whose little trap with kings had worked to perfection.

The board peeled off [Qd][9s][5h][4c][8h] to leave Berry's tournament washed up and Steward pushing forward effectively with 350,000... -- RS

1.50pm: Tompkins teasing Bull
Some good natured twitter banter between Jason Tompkins and Robert Bull on twitter just now, both of course still involved in this tournament, the latter the chip leader. "So we're all trying to catch a Bull to win #UKIPTBristol watch out @Robbie_Bull I've played poker with a matador before," tweeted Tompkins. -- NW

1.40pm: News in brief
Here's a few snapshots of what's been happening on the tournament floor:

- Nik Persaud was complaining to Ben Vinson that he had an absolute 'bowl' and hadn't won a pot in ages. Seems he moaned it in as whilst this conversation was going on Persaud promptly won a pot, he did it with a sneaky river min-raise too.

- Andrew Couldridge - who could become the third person to become a double UKIPT champion - is still in, but on a below average 125,000

- Overnight chip leader Robert Bull is most likely still the top dog, when I asked him if he had around 700,000 he replied. "It's closer to 800,000. That's a lot of wedge.

- The latest exits include Tom Hall (35th), David Burn (34th), Sam Grafton (33rd), Adrian Coombes (32nd) and Hak-Hyun Lee (31st). -- NW

1.25pm: Not even aces can stop Wojtek
Wojtek Barzantny is hotter than the sun right now. Fresh from victory over Chris Moorman in the UKIPT Online tournament, he is showing himself to be no one-hit wonder, standing as the likely current chip leader in the main event.

His latest coup did owe a fair bit to fortune however, 3-betting the shorter stacked Adrian Coombes with pocket tens before calling his shove.

Coombes held pocket aces and for once looked to have the German in a tight spot, but a board of [6c][6h][2h][Td][5d] peeled to leave the table gasping, Barzantny stacking and Coombes packing.

"That's how you win tournaments then?" someone somewhat uncharitably observed, and although there was a measure of luck in that hand, there's no denying Barzantny is blending this fortune with a healthy measure of talent, his stack now a fulsome 660,000. -- RS

1.15pm: Grafton grinds to a halt
Sam Grafton's run of near misses on the UKIPT continues as he's just been knocked out of the tournament by Nik Persaud.

There was an under-the-gun open, Grafton piled his 195,000 with [Kd][Qd] and Persaud moved all-in next to act with pocket nines. The [A][9][3] flop left Grafton drawing slim and he didn't get there on the turn or river. He's out in 33rd for £1,690. -- NW

1.05pm: Fallers
It's been a frantic start to the day here's who exited during the opening level.

36th. Hak-Mann Lee, Sweden, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,690
37th. Neil Wyatt, United Kingdom, £1,500
38th. David Harris, United Kingdom, £1,500
39th. Tom Halsey, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £1,500
40th. Kay Wookey, United Kingdom, £1,500
41st. Benjamin Bogren, Sweden, PokerStars Player, £1,500
42nd. Callum Smith, United Kingdom, £1,500
43rd. Jonathan Slater, United Kingdom, £1,500
44th. David Gould, United Kingdom, £1,500
45th. Danny McHugh, Ireland, £1,500

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

12.58pm: Sidark wins prince-ly sum
Amanda Sidark had the perfect spot to shove all-in with [Ac][Qc] holding around 50,000 and having seen a min-raise from Jonathan Prince, called in one spot.

She did just that and Prince re-shoved to leave the pair heads up.

When Prince showed down [Ah][Qh] it looked like the pair were set to chop the pot, however a flop of [Ks][Th][3c] meant both players have a shot at a runner-runner outdraw.

The [7c] on the turn caused Prince to start sweating as Sidark had suddenly picked up a freeroll - one which came in triumphantly on the [4c] river.

A deathly silence hung over the table as Sidark cashed in her bonanza, stacking up her newly acquired 125,000 stack whilst Prince was left with a less-than-regal 75,000.

12.55pm: Wyatt usurped
With just over ten bigs Neil Wyatt was another player with urgency pressing his resolve and when he found [Jh][Qs] in late position, he moved all-in to try and take down the blinds.

The instant re-shove from Anthony Forsyth-Forrest would have concerned him and when both players revealed their cards, he discovered the awful truth that he was up against aces.

A [Ah][Qc][9d] flop looked pretty decisive, though with Nik Persaud helpfully explaining the various permutations that could see this beaten the [Td] arrived on the turn to open up the chance of a straight for Wyatt.

"Always a sweat," laughed Forsyth-Forrest, though he needed have worried as the [Qh] on the river, whilst improving Wyatt's hands to trips, saw him sweep home the 190,000 pot with a full house.

Wyatt out in 37th place, collects £1,500.

12.52pm: Roberts eliminates another
Earlier we reported that Joe Roberts had eliminated a player with pocket jacks against ace-king, the player on the wrong side of that flip was Benjamin Bogren. And Roberts has been busy as he's also eliminated Kay Wookey, his [A][K] versus her [A][J]. He's up to 530,000 and amongst the chip leaders. Whilst Amanda Sidark is now the only woman left in the tournament. -- NW

12.45pm: Roberts rising
Joe Roberts is up to 425,000 he tweeted: "Maannnn dowwwn jj more than ak with jason (Tompkins) folding another ak pre. 425k." -- NW

12.35pm: Three double ups
Three double ups in quick succession on three different tables:

Hand One: Hak mann Lee doubled through Nik Persaud, his pocket fives holding against Persaud's [As][Qd], he was all-in for 53,500 so doubled to around 115,000.

Hand Two: Jason Tompkins opened to 10,000 from early position, Kay Wookey moved all-in for 38,000 more and after a long think Tompkins made the call and said: "How dead am I?" Turned out he was very much live as his [10h][9c] was behind but in ok shape against Wookey's [Ah][Jd]. The board stayed low though as it came [4d][2h][6d][4h][5h].

Hand Three: Adrian Coombes shipped his last 57,000 in from the cut-off with [As][2s] and found a willing caller in Connor Hogarty, unsurprising as he had pocket kings. But a [5c][Ac][10c][Ah][2d] board gave Coombes a double up. -- NW

12.26pm: Mr Smith gains anonymity
It's been a brave challenge from Callum Smith but he too is a casualty of the early levels, making a move to bolster his stack. -- RS

12.18pm: See you Slater
Jonathon Slater and Nik Persaud had a preflop war, resulting in both stacks being all-in preflop.

Persaud had Slater covered, but it would have been a big blow if he had lost the pot, which turned out to be a coin-flip once Slater turned up [Jc][Qd] and Persaud [8c][8h].

A flop of [7c][6s][6d] looked good for Persaud and this remained the case over the [7s] turn and [Ad] river.

One handshake later and Slater bows out whilst Persaud is up to 300,000. -- RS

12.08pm: Gould's sweet spot turns sour
Returning with 52,500 and the blinds 2,500 and 5,000, David Gould needed to move fast to swing himself back into contention and when he found pocket jacks, moved in and was called by Craig Goddard with pocket fours, he had the rosy prospect of a double-up in his sights.

It took one flop to shoot down his ambitions however - the board peeling off [3s][4c][5d].

"That's not good is it," he said with a sigh as he stood up ready to depart.

The [9h] on the turn failed to shift the direction of the bad beat juggernaut and once the [8s] had arrived to change nothing on the river, Gould was on the rail wishing his erstwhile tablemates good luck.

Godddard up to 255,000 -- RS

12pm: UKIPT Bristol just got serious
Just 45 players remain in UKIPT Bristol, the money jumps, the pressure, the prestige and the pots will all get progressively bigger as those 45 are reduced to the final eight, over what we reckon will be five or six levels of play.

There may be some sore heads today as the PokerStars players party was in full effect last night. The shot taking last night was not of the Sunday Million variety but of the 25ml kind. Whilst choosing red or black was to do with what colour sambuca you'd like.

I have to say though that most of the 45 chose to keep business and pleasure separate with those still involved at the business end of the tournament opting for bed rather than bedlam. The seat draw for the final six tables is below and can also be found here.

Robert Bull is the man to catch, he leads with 581,600.

Table one

1.Jonathan Prince, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 151,500
2. Henning Wendlandt, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 326,500
3. Andrew Couldridge, United Kingdom, 106,000
4. Matthew Moss, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 203,000
5. David Gould, United Kingdom, 52,500
6. Paul Mctaggart, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 151,000
7. Andrew Abernethy, United Kingdom  PokerStars Qualifier, 124,500
8. Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 219,000

Table two

1. Vincent Meli, France, PokerStars Player, 113,000
2. Kay Wookey, United Kingdom, 48,000
3. Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 411,000
4. Benjamin Bogren, Sweden, PokerStars Player, 127,500
5. Callum Smith, United Kingdom, 103,000
6. Rod Albright, United Kingdom, 216,000
7. Joe Roberts, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 205,500
8. Jason Tompkins, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier, 248,500

Table three

1. Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 83,500
2. Majid Ejlal Noubarian, Iran, 176,500
3. Nicholas Berry, United Kingdom , 129,000
4. Kevin Steward, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 228,500
5. Hak-Mann Lee, Sweden, PokerStars Qualifier, 40,500
6. Jonathon Slater, United Kingdom, 132,000
7. Nik Persaud, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 167, 500
8. Neil Wyatt, United Kingdom, 77,000

Table four

1.Thomas Hall, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 242,500
2. Charalambos Xanthos, United Kingdom, 253,500
3. Owen Lock, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 114,000
4. Hak-Hyun Lee, Sweden, 94,500
5. Malte Moennig, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 282,000
6. David Burn, United Kingdom, 166,500
7. Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 581,600

Table five:

1. Ben Young, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 178,500
2. James Greenwood, United Kingdom , 383,000
3. Tom Halsey, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 180,500
4. Daniel McHugh, Ireland, 265,000
5. Niall Murray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 68,500
6.Simon Randall, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 438,000
7. Nathan Hodges, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 179,500

Table six

1. Connor Hogarty, United Kingdom, 364,500
2. Michael Danko, Slovakia, PokerStars Qualifier, 99,500
3. Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 57, 500
4. Sam Grafton, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 109,500
5. Michael Doverklint, Sweden, PokerStars Qualifier, 73,500
6. David Harris, United Kingdom, 137,000
7. Adrian Coombes, United Kingdom, 57,000

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.

7.02pm: End of day 3
That was a breathtakingly swift day. 45 players took to the felt but within 6 levels there were just 8 remaining still vying for the title.

Possibilities abound for potentially historic stories tomorrow.

Could Swede Amanda Sidark become the first female UKIPT winner?

Will Wojtek Barzantny continue his scintillating form and take down both the UKIPT online tournament and the Bristol Main Event in the space of a few days?

Or will a different champion rise gloriously from the pack to claim their place in the annals of UKIPT history?

We expect it will be exciting whatever happens. Below are our finalists and their chip stacks but for now thanks for following our coverage. We'll be back tomorrow at 12.00pm sharp as will you for the playdown to the champion.

See you there! -- RS

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 523,000

2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,342,000

3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 744,000

4 - Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 1,039,000

5 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player 2,880,000

6 - Jonathan Prince, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 407,000

7 - Niall Murray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 343,000

8 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 691,000

6.51pm: UKIPT Bristol Final Table Determined! Randall out 9th - £6,080
That didn't take too long did it?

No surprise really it was the unstoppable force that is Wojtek Barzantny who brought proceedings to a halt for the day.

The final hand saw Simon Randall raise to 39,000 from UTG+2, picking up a call in the cut-off from Barzantny.

A flop of [8c][6s][5d] saw an explosive series of raises, starting with a 71,000 lead from Randall, which Barzantny "clicked back" to 142,000.

Randall now went into overdrive, moving all-in for his close to a million stack, only for Wojtech to make a quick call with [8d][6d] for top two. Randall flipped up his strongly played - though behind - pocket aces and could only look on aghast as the turn and river brought him no succour, coming [4h] and [2s] respectively to consign his hopes of winning this tournament to the dustbin.

He finishes up in 9th spot, collecting £6,080 and we have our final table!

6.42pm: And they're off again...
The remaining 8 players are back in effect, ready to do battle to see who will make it through to the UKIPT Bristol final table.

Good luck guys!

6.26pm: Final table - well, almost
The players have been aggregated on one table thanks to that elimination.
They are on a 15 minute break before we play to the final eight who will comprise the actual final table and here is their seat order and chip counts..

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 543,000

2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,319,000

3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 748,000

4 - Simon Randall, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 948,000

5 - Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 1,043,000

6 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player 1,856,000

7 - Jonathan Prince, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 421,000

8 - Niall Murray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 355,000

9 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 719,000

6.36pm: Lock out: Owen Lock eliminated in tenth place (£4,450)
After a period of inaction, during which no showdowns occurred for at least 20 minutes, it was inevitable that silence would soon be shattered.

Robert Bull opened from under-the-gun to 32,000, this was into Wojtek Barzantny's big blind no less. Next to act Owen Lock made it 94,000 total, it folded back to Bull who slid out a four-bet, Lock then moved all-in for 645,000 and was swiftly called by Bull. It was Bull at risk, all-in for 638,000.

Bull: [As][Ac]
Lock: [Ah][Ks]

The board came [8c][8s][5c][3s][6c] and Lock was left with just 7,000. Despite trebling up on the next hand, he couldn't repeat the trick on the next hand as his [9s][6c] lost to Barzantny's [jh][8h].

The remaining nine players have condensed to one table, there's been a re-draw and players are now a 15 minute break. We'll bring you the re-draw and chip counts very shortly. -- NW

Level up: Blinds 8,000-16,000 ante 2,000

6.16pm: More barrells than Donkey Kong
Next up it was Owen Lock who faced the Barzantny hammer.

The pair contested a [Js][9h][3s][9d][5h] board, Barzantny leading for 79,000, 119,000 and finally a whopping 320,000 on the river which Lock sweated hard over before laying his hand down finally.

Barzantny consolidates his lead up to 1,650,000... -- RS

6.02pm: Barzantny piles on the pressure
Wojtech Barzantny has a big stack, a cool temperament and is causing carnage for his table as he continues to chip up.

Hand 1 saw him raise the cut-off to 27,000, defended with a call from Amanda Sidark in the big blind.

The flop fell [Ad][Tc][3h], Sidark checked and Barzantny followed suit.

Come the [Th] on the turn, Sidark checked again and now Barzantny fired out 32,000. Sidark called.

The [Ks] saw another check from Sidark, only for Barzantny to push out 65,000. Sidark called with [Ah][2s] only to get the bad news.

[9d][Td] was the unpredictable hand Barzantny showed down for the winner, his trips pushing his stack up to 1,400,000 with Sidark down to 650,000. -- RS

5.45pm: Connor Hogarty eliminated in 11th place (£4,450)
Connor Hogarty just got very unlucky to exit this tournament in 11th place.

He lost 200,000 of his 250,000 stick when his [As][Kh] was outdrawn by Niall Murray's [Ad][Qs]. The money went in pre-flop, a queen on the flop swinging the pendulum and the pot Murray's way.

The shrapnel then went in the next hand with [Ah][6h], both Murray and Anthony Forsyth-Forrest called, then checked until the river of a [9h][Qh][9d][2c][9s] board, at which point Forsyth-Forrest bet 55,000 and took the pot with [Qd][4c].

When one more player is eliminated they'll be a re-draw for the final nine and then with one more elimination the final table of eight will be set. -- NW

5.35pm: Nathan Hodges eliminated in 12th place (£3,775)
The pot was opened by Simon Randall and he picked up two callers before Nathan Hodges moved all-in for just over 100,000. Back on Randall he made the call and although both flat callers dwelled they left the two of them heads-up.

Randall: [K][Q]
Hodges: [5][4]

The flop had both a king and a queen on it, giving Randall a lock on the hand, another king came on the river just to rub it in. -- NW

5.30pm: Michael Doverklint eliminated in 13th place
No details I'm afraid, but the Swede collects £3,775 for his deep run. -- NW

5.25pm: Abernethy runs into dangerous forest - 14th
Andrew Abernethy has never managed to run up a big stack all day and finally his hopes have evaporated. Desperate times call for desperate measures and he looked to boost his chip stack with [Th][7h], moving in, only for Anthony Forsyth-forrest to make the call with the dominating [Ts][Js].

A convincing flop of [As][9s][3s] meant Abernethy was drawing dead and he was half way out of the room before the dealer had peeled the meaningless turn and river.

£3,155 is Abernethy's reward for an impressively deep run. Well played sir. -- RS

5.15pm: No moaning from Moenig - 15th
Malte Moenig was just eliminated in 15th place. His exit in his own words: "I played it pretty badly maybe. I had 20 big blinds and shoved with [K][Q] and ran into [A][K]."

No fortuitous outdraw for Moenig and he leaves the tournament with £3,155. -- RS

5pm: Final two tables
So just two tables remain in UKIPT Bristol as we head into level 21. Leading the way is none other than Wojtech Barzantny who has 1,261,000, he's closely followed by Craig Goddard (1,023,000) and Robert Bull (979,000) they're all on the same table so if two of them clase someone will have roughly 25% of the chips in play.

Table One:

1.Owen Lock, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 708,000
2. Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 767,000
3. Michael Doverklint, Sweden, PokerStars Qualifier, 137,000
4. --Empty--
5. Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 1,023,000
6. James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 599,000
7. Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,261,000
8. Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 979,000

Table Two

1. Anthony Forsyth-forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 710,000
2. Jonathan Prince United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 491,000
3. Andrew Abernethy, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 50,000
4. Nathan Hodges, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 153,000
5. Connor Hogarty, United Kingdom, 281,000
6. Malte Moennig, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 248,000
7. Simon Randall, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 334,000
8. Niall Murray United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 201,000

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.

I don't think even in Wojtek Barzantny's wildest dreams he could've imagined how his week would've turned out when he set out from Kaiserslautern to play UKIPT Online and UKIPT Bristol. Not content with beating UK poker legend Chris Moorman heads-up to win UKIPT Online here in Bristol on Wednesday, he's unceremoniously set about bashing up this tournament too.

And bash is the right word, today we saw him exercise relentless aggression, six-betting all-in at one point and generally using the field as his play thing. The final hand of the day neatly illustrates this. Having called a raise in position with [8d][6d] he flopped top two pair and got Simon Randall to make a massive re-raise all-in with pocket aces. The German's two pair held-up to knock Randall out in ninth. The German's stack of 2,880,000 is more than double his nearest challenger and accounts for 36% of the chips in play.

Start of day chip leader Robert Bull managed to stay near the top of the chip counts throughout the day and with 1,342,000 will start in second place tomorrow. He pulled off a neat trick today, twice getting people to re-raise all-in when he held pocket aces. Both Owen Lock and Ben Young held ace-king and couldn't outdraw his pocket rockets.

The only other player to break the million-chip mark today was Craig Goddard. The Bognor Regis native who now lives in Bristol, eliminated the dangerous Nik Persaud, taking his chips in back to back hands to climb towards the top of the leaderboard.

The boys won't have it all their own way tomorrow as Amanda Sidark has become the first woman to make a UKIPT final table since Sinem Melin finished fifth at UKIPT Brighton Season 2 in July 2011. She'll be sixth in chips with 523,000 when play starts tomorrow and the Swede will be looking to become the first lady ever to win a UKIPT. She's already bettered her best UKIPT finish, 61st at UKIPT Dublin in Season 2.

James Greenwood started the day fourth in chips and that's the position he'll find himself in tomorrow. He had a tough table draw as he had Barzantny to his left for much of the day, but picked his spots carefully and ended the day on 744,000.

He's just a few big blinds ahead of Anthony Forsyth-Forrest (691,000) whilst even the two shortest stacks Jonathan Prince (407,000) and Niall Murray (343,000) will have over 20 big blinds when play starts tomorrow and will be in no rush to have to risk their chips.

Of course to reach the final of eight, we had to lose a number of high profile and talented players along the way. Among the 37 who fell play to the variance stick today were: Joe Roberts (16th), Bambos Xanthos (17th) ,Nik Persaud (19th), Jason Tompkins (22nd), Paul McTaggart (23rd) and Andrew Couldridge (28th). To see a list of everyone who's cashed so far click here.

The final table starts at noon and Wojtek Barzantny goes for a unique UKIPT double. The seat draw and chip counts are as below. To catch up on all of today's frantic action click on the links below. We'll be back to bring you all the raises, re-raises and bluffs as eight plays down to one and someone will take home £90,400.

UKIPT Bristol Final Table

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 523,000
2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,342,000
3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 744,000
4 - Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 1,039,000
5 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player, 2,880,000
6 - Jonathan Prince, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 407,000
7 - Niall Murray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 343,000
8 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 691,000

Levels 17-20
Levels 21-22

We leave you with a scene from last night's party.

All photos are copyright of Mickey May, she's had a rubbish song stuck in her head all day, so she's already angry and you won't like her when she's very angry.

2.50pm: Break!
That's the end of the level. The players will be taking a 20 minute break to freshen up then war will begin again as they continue six-handed.

See you in a moment.

Updates from level 25 onwards will be shown in a new post.

2.37pm: Sidark and Barzantny go to war
They had a battle or two yesterday and the Swede and German are at it again.

Amanda Sidark suffered in the first hand, raising from middle position to 52,000 and picking up a call from Barzantny in the blinds.

The flop fell [5d][5h][3d], Barzantny checking, Sidark leading for 100,000 and Barzantny now making it 210,000. Sidark reached deep into her stack and put in the third big bet of the hand, 320,000, though a fourth raise from Barzantny saw the Swede back down - a big hole made in her stack.

She recovered somewhat soon after however, calling one of Barzantny's frequent 50,000 raises preflop from the big blind and check-calling his 75,000 c-bet on the [9s][7h][6h] board.

The pair checked through the [3d] on the turn, and come the [Ts] river, Sidark led for two big blue stacks totalling 200k. Barzantny made the call only for Sidark to showdown [Jd][8h] for the nuts!

Sidark up to 1,100,000 million, Barzantny down to a still mammoth 3,300,000. -- RS

2.32pm: Murray flips out - 7th (£11,600)

Niall Murray has exited the tournament in a classic coin flip situation. The hand started with Wojtek Barzantny making his usual opening raise to 50,000, and Murray with around 300,000 - a perfectly-sized shoving stack - moving all-in.

Barzanty had a genuine hand and made a call with pocket tens, racing versus Murray's [Ah][Qs].

The flop fell a decisive [Td][2d][2c], Barzantny making a full house to scupper any serious intention Murray had of winning the pot. A [4c] on the turn and [6h] on the river completed the board, Murray departs in 7th place for £11,600 and we are down to 6 handed. -- RS

2.30pm: Rivalry developing
There's still some definite needle between Craig Goddard and Anthony Forsyth-Forrest after that earlier hand. Just now Goddard made it 50,000 to go but folded when Forsyth-Forrest made it 125,000 on the button, the latter showed [Js][9d] as he took the pot. -- NW

2.25pm:Craig Goddard doubles through Niall Murray
Just two hands after losing that big pot to Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, Craig Goddard got a much needed double up.

He open-shoved for 234,000 with [As][10h] and Niall Murray looked him up with [Ac][Ks], the board came a montone [Kh][2h][6h][Ah][Qh] and Goddard doubled to around 500,000 whilst Murray slipped to 400,000. -- NW

2.20pm: Anthony Forsyth-Forrest doubles through Craig Goddard
A big pot had been brewing between these two for some time and sure enough one exploded into life and there was quite a bit of needle after it too.

Forsyth-Forrest made it 50,000 to go from under-the-gun and Goddard called from the button. On the [Jh][Kd][Ad] flop Forrest led for 57,000, swift call from Forrest.

The [Ah] landed on the turn and Forrest slid out a bet of 144,000 leaving about 300,000 back. After a short dwell Goddard moved all-in, but grimaced as he did so. After a quick glance at his cards Forsyth-Forrest announced call.

Goddard: [Kc][9h]
Forsyth-Forrest: [As][Qh]

When Goddard saw his opponent's hand he said: "Why did you umm and ahh? That's such a slowroll."

"That's a little harsh, sorry if you feel that way, I didn't think it was," said Forsyth-Forrest.

The dealer burned and turned the [4c] and Forsyth-Forrest doubled up to 1,050,000 whilst Goddard slipped to 250,000.

"Keep your head Craig," said a railer of local-boy Goddard as he handed over the requisite chips. -- NW

2.12pm: Murray fights back
Craig Goddard raised to 50,000 for the third pot in a row, Wojtek Barzantny flat called, only for Niall Murray to move all-in for 490,000. Both Goddard and Barzantny gave it up. -- NW

2.02pm: Greenwood halts rampaging Bull
Once again Greenwood showed his mettle, calling a min-raise from the small blind Robert Bull, leaving the pair to contest a [9s][9d][7c] board.

The fireworks kicked off now, Bull leading for 36,000, Greenwood making it 72,000 and Bull thinking hard before putting in the 123,000 three bet.

Greenwood had a think then moved his stack all-in once more, a disconsolate Bull making a quick fold and a determined-looking Greenwood sweeping up another chunky pot that sees him breach the 750,000 mark.

Bull's countenance quickly changed however as he raised the button to 50,000 and picked up the blinds - his first successful pot in some time - causing a big smile to break out across his face.

1.58pm: Greenwood shows his muscle
He's had a relatively quiet final table so far, but Greenwood has shown when he gets in a pot, he is loathe to back down to aggression.

The first signs of this saw him raise the cut-off to 41,000, only for the active Craig Goddard to re-pop him from the button to 76,000.

Greenwood ran his hand through his hair before pushing his 407,000 stack over the line, leaving Goddard with a decision for a big chunk of his stack.

He mulled it over, doing various mental calculations before folding his hand.

"It was close," he revealed, "If that had been 307,000 instead I'd have called."

1.52pm: Sidark deposes Prince - 8th £8,800
With 16 big blinds or so in the cut-off, Jonathan Prince decided [Kd][Jc] was too strong a hand not to make a play for the blinds and moved all-in.

He can't have felt too confident when Amanda Sidark in the big blind made a snap-call, suggesting a strong hand and when she flipped up [As][Kh] he was staring elimination in the face.

A board of [3h][5c][5h][4d][Th] was good enough to seal the deal, and Prince is our first elimination of the day in 8th spot, collecting £8,800.

Amanda Sidark meawhile soars to over the million chip mark, her claims on becoming the first female UKIPT winner gaining a massive boost.

1.45pm: Chip counts
It's still Wojtek Barzantny who leads, although Robert Bull has had the best start to the final table, increasing his stack to 1,800,000.

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 600,000
2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,800,000
3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 475,000
4 - Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 880,000
5 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player, 2,600,000
6 - Jonathan Prince, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 400,000
7 - Niall Murray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 500,000
8 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 440,000

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

1.35pm: Slow down, no show downs
A bit of a lull in action here as over the past 10 hands there have been zero showdowns and zero big pots.

James Greenwood won his first pot of the final table with a simple raise and take and Jonathan Prince has twiced moved all-in but got no takers.

Eight handed play continues. -- NW

1.22pm: Bull charges into Forrest
Anthony Forsyth-Forrest tried the Sidark trick, raising his button to 45,000 as well, but he met strong resistance in the form of Robbie Bull, who had his opponent well-covered and moved all-in.

No histrionics from Forsyth-Forrest, who quickly passed. He is starting to be in danger territory now however, his stack falling below the 400,000 mark...

1.17pm: Sidark chipping up
In the early stages, Amanda Sidark is more than holding her own.

She has already taken a few chips off Wojtek Barzantny, calling one of his min-raise opens on the button before calling his 37,000 c-bet on a [Jh][3d][3h] board - the pair checking down the [9d] on the turn before a final 65,000 bullet from Barzantny on the river was picked off by Sidark to boost her stack by over 100,000.

Most recently she check-raised a c-bet from Niall Murray on an [As][Td][5s] board raising his 42,000 bet to 85,000 eliciting a fold before raising her button to 45,000 and picking up the blinds.

Very effective stack building from the young Swede at the moment, she's up to 750,000.

1.15pm: Rowdy rails
There's a few railers in today, including UKIPT Brighton Season 2 champion Chris O'Donnell. They appear to be cheering on Anthony Forsyth-Forrest and Jonathan Prince. After Craig Goddard, who's wearing a blue and white striped t-shirt, took a pot from Forsyth-Forrest he turned to his rail and cheekily said: "You can go have dinner now lads, your boy doesn't play many pots."

The rail quipped back, "That's rich coming from a sailor," it was all good natured though and is contributing to a relaxed atmosphere at the final table. -- NW

1pm: Murray likes to move it move it
It's not only Robert Bull who's been moving all-in, Niall Murray has now been all-in three times without getting a call.

Having already moved in on the first hand (see 12.32pm) he's got two more shoves through. The first of these was a button shove, with both blinds folding.

The second time he had more of a sweat, Wojtek Barzantny opened to 40,000 and Murray then moved in over the top for 385,000. The German wanted a count and after he got one he considered calling for around two minutes before folding his hand. -- NW

Level up. Blinds 10,000-20,000 ante 3,000

12.45pm: Six-bet jam
The players are not hanging around here, no bedding in period at this final table.

From the cut-off Robert Bull min-raised to 32,000. To his immediate left James Greenwood riffled some chips before sliding out a bet of 73,000, although Wojtek Barzantny looked interested he let his hand go and it was back on Bull.

After asking Greenwood how much he started the hand with (about 725,000) he slid out a re-raise, making it 131,000 in total. This sent Greenwood into pensive mode, he looked down at the felt, riffled chips for a while, mentally totted up his own stack then slid out a five-bet of 195,000 total.

After chewing over this new development for about 20 seconds, Bull then announced he was all-in and Greenwood instantly mucked his cards. -- NW

12.40pm: Wojtek in aggressive mode
Wojtek is here to play some poker, although so far, his chip stack is heading in the wrong direction.

First up he raised to 32,000 from UTG+1, only for fellow big stack Robbie Bull to re-pop the German to 88,000.

Wojtek deliberated, then made the call.

The dealer laid out a [Td][5d][3h] board and Bull made the obligatory 64,000 c-bet.

Call from Wojtek and the pair moved to a [4c] turn card.

Check, check.

The river fell the [4d] and again the pair checked it down, Bull showing [Ac][Ks] to claim the pot as Barzantny flashed the narrowly-pipped A-Q. -- RS

12.32pm: First hand ship!
No hanging around for Niall Murray as he moves in first hand. "I had a hand!" he laughs, showing down pocket tens when everyone folds. -- RS

12.30pm: Play is underway
Cards are now in the air here in Bristol, there's just over 15 minutes left in the current levels. -- NW

12.20pm: Play is about to start
A short delay whilst the players conduct their interviews and have their photos taken and we are about to start. The players are riffling chips and are fired up and ready to go.

Can anyone stop Wojtek Barzantny's charge on the title?

Stay tuned to find out... -- RS

11.50am: UKIPT Bristol final table: Wojtek goes for the double
Hello and welcome to the final table of UKIPT Bristol. It will be contested by six Brits, a Swede and a German. If you'd like to know a bit more about them all click here for our final table profiles.

It's safe to say that all eyes will be on the German, as Wojtek Barzantny goes for a unique double. Earlier this week he took down UKIPT Online and could win his second UKIPT title in five days should he triumph today. And he's the overwhelming favourite to do just that as with 2,880,000 he has 36% of the chips in play and starts with double the stack of second placed Robert Bull.

Play is scheduled to start at noon, so stay right with us as we play down to a winner here in Bristol. Here's how the final table stacks up.

UKIPT Bristol final table

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 523,000
2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,342,000
3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 744,000
4 - Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 1,039,000
5 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player, 2,880,000
6 - Jonathan Prince, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 407,000
7 - Niall Murray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 343,000
8 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 691,000

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Briistol : Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.

7.45pm: End of the level
That's the end of level 28, you'll find level 29 updates in a new post shortly. -- NW

7.35pm: Greenwood makes good call down
James Greenwood just made a great call on the river to once more close the gap on Wojtek Barzantny.

From the button Greenwood made it 130,000 to go and Barzantny made the call. Both players checked the [3d][Jc][8c] flop and Barzantny then fired out a bet of 125,000 on the [5s] turn, call from Greenwood. The [8d] completed the board and Barzantny bet 280,000. Greenwood mulled it over for a couple of minutes before sliding out a call. "Queen high," announced Barzantny, Greenwood showed [Kh][7h] for just king high, but it was good. -- NW

7.25pm: Barzantny fights back
He's not about to just let this opportunity to make history and become a double UKIPT winner slip away from him, and Wojtek Barzantny just fired a few salvos of his own to ensure the flow of chips to Greenwood would end.

The hand saw Greenwood limp the button and the pair see a flop of [Jc][5c][2d].
Check, 85,000 from Greenwood and a check-raise to 200,000 from Barzantny. Greenwood looked less than happy but made the call.

The turn saw Barzantny lead out 215,000, Greenwood again making what looked like a painful call.

The [8c] on the river was met with a third barrel from Barzantny and this one did the trick, Greenwood pulling a face before pushing his hand over the line and conceding the pot to the German.

That leaves the chip standings as you were at the start of heads-up.

James Greenwood 3,300,000
Wojtek Barzantny 4,600,000

7.15pm: Greenwood edging back
He began this heads up with a deficit, but in the early stages, James Greenwood has closed the gap a little, winning two early pots.

The first saw him call a 125,000 open from Barzantny's button in the big blind, check raising the German's 140,000 continuation bet to 340,000 and picking up a fold.

Next up he again peeled a raise from the big blind, again Barzantny making it 125,000 on the button.

This time the pair checked back the [Qc][Th][8d] board, though the [4h] turn card elicited a 145,000 probe from Greenwood.

Barzantny called and the pair checked down the [7c] river, leaving Greenwood to expose [Ac][Td] for second pair - good for the pot.

7.05pm: Heads-up begins
Just two players from a field of 550 remain, first prize is £90,400, whilst the loser of the final hand will bank £54,500.

In the blue corner we have James Greenwood who has 3,300,000.

And in the red corner sits Wojtek Barzantny, going for two UKIPT titles in a week. He's got 4,600,000.

6.50pm: Robert Bull eliminated in third place (£33,300)
No matter what poker skills you work on and improve, you can't teach winning flips and Robert Bull has just been knocked out of this tournament in a 4,500,000 chip coin-flip.

From the button Wojtek Barzantny opened to 120,000, Bull made it 290,000 from the small blind, Barazntny moved all-in for 2,310,000 and Bull, who had 2,230,000 made the call.

Barzantny: [Ah][Kh]
Bull: [10h][10c]

This was effectively a £20,000 coin-flip (the difference between second and third) and the [6d][9d][Kc] flop tilted it in the German's favour. And Barzantny stayed in front on the [8c] turn and [3d] river.

From being one card away from elimination Barzantny is now the chip leader with 4,600,000 versus James Greenwood's 3,300,000.

The players are taking a quick 10 minute break before heads-up commences. -- NW

6.41pm: Barzantny slips Greenwood's clutches
The shortstack with a million chips, Wojtek Barzantny made a move for the blinds on the button with [8d][7d] pushing his stack all-in, and after a little thought James Greenwood made a good call with [Ac][5d].

Ahead but only just, the pair saw a dangerous flop of [Qc][6d][3d] peel off, Barzantny picking up a flush draw as well as his two live cards being active.

The [Tc] on the turn was a safe card, though it did give Barzantny extra outs in the form of a gutshot and these proved crucial as the [9s] arrived to complete Barzantny's straight draw.

In the nick of time, he survives to double through to around 2,000,000 chips whilst Greenwood takes a hit down to 3,600,000. -- RS

6.32pm: Bull pulls out the cold four
We've seen plenty of pre-flop tussles today but rarely have these involved a cold four bet.

That just happened moments with James Greenwood opening to 100,000, Wojtek Barzantny re-popping him to 240,000 and suddenly Robbie Bull sprung out of nowhere to throw a cold four-bet to 385,000 into the mix.

This show of strength was enough to take down the pot... -- RS

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 30,000-60,000 ante 10,000

6.25pm: Greenwood takes big pot from Barzantny
James Greenwood now has over half the chips in play and is the clear chip leader here in Bristol after winning a big pot against Wojtech Barzantny, which given play is three-handed can be described as a bit of a cooler.

Pref-flop Greenwood made it 100,000 to go on the button and both Barzantny and Robert Bull made the call.

The board came [2d][2h][5c][6h][8d] and Greenwood fired bets of 140,000, 330,000 and 620,000 respectively and whilst Bull got out the way on flop, Barzantny called him down. Greenwood showed pocket jacks and Barzantny sighed and showed pocket nines.

After that hand Greenwood has 4,700,000, Barzantny has 1,800,000 and Bull has 1,450,000. -- NW

6.15pm: One for Barzantny, one for Bull and one for Greenwood
The stacks are still somewhat deep for this stage of the tournament and the final three are seeing plenty of flops. And, the players are seemingly taking it in turn to win post-flop pots here.

First it was Barzantny's turn, he defended his big blind to a 100,000 button raise from Robert Bull. On the [As][7c][Ah] flop Bull c-bet 65,000, call from Barzantny. The [Kh] hit the turn, check again to Bull who fired out a bet of 120,000. Back on Barzantny he bumped it to 400,000 and Bull folded.

Next Bull took a pot, he defended his big blind to a 100,000 button raise from James Greenwood. The two of them saw a [Ah][Ks][5c] flop, c-bet of 115,000 from Greenwood, call from the Bull.

The [5d] turn was checked through, and a bet of 140,000 on the [Qd] river was enough for Bull to take the pot.

The pattern of lose one, win one, was repeated again on the next hand as Barzantny made it 100,000 to go on the button and Greenwood called from the big blind. The [6h][As][7s] flop elicited a 105,000 chip c-bet from Barzantny and a call from Greenwood. The [2c] turn checked through and the [9s] completed the board. Both players checked again and Greenwood showed [8s][7h] to win the pot. -- NW

6.05pm: Forrest chopped down - out 4th (£24,400).
The blinds are so big now that every pre-flop some sort of war erupts over their ownership.

The latest battle saw Wojtek Barzantny raise it up to 100,000 from the button, only for Anthony Forsyth-Forrest move all-in for close to a million chips.

Barzantny made minimum fuss before calling, though his [As][9s] was behind to Forsyth-Forrest's pocket nines and it looked like his tournament might be close to its conclusion.

Instead a board of [8d][2h][3s][Ah][Td] saw a crucial ace spike on the turn and instead it was Forsyth-Forrest who was heading to the rail in 4th spot.

He took his elimination in good grace, telling Byzantny he had played well and shaking the tables hand, so he bows out graciously in 4th spot for £24,400 and now we are three-handed for the title!

Rough chip counts are:

Bull 1,800,000
Greenwood 3,400,000
Wojtek 2,600,000

5.50pm: Greenwood sticks it in the Bull's eye
James Greenwood just peeled a raise from Robbie Bull, calling 125,000 on the [9c][6s][2d] board before peeling a further 165,000 on the [8c] turn card.

Come the [2c] on the river, Bull slowed down checking it, only for Greenwood to measure out a 380,000 bet.

Bull had to think long and hard about this but eventually called, only to get an instant flip from Greenwood, who showed him the [Ac][Tc] for a flush.

It was good and Greenwood moves even further into the lead...

5.40pm: Amanda Sidark eliminated in fifth place (£19,000)
Down to just 11 big blinds Amanda Sidark moved all-in for 550,000 from the small blind with [Kc][Qh] and quick as a flash Robert Bull called from the big blind with pocket nines.

A [Qd][9h][10s] saw Sidark hoping for a jack to appear on the turn or river, but the [Ac] and [3h] completed the board. The wait for a female UKIPT winner goes on and won't be happening in 2012 as the next leg is Edinburgh in January 2013. Still, a great effort by Sidark and £19,000 will go a long way to helping with her studies at Hull University. -- NW

5.25pm: Chip counts
Tournament staff did a full chip count at the break, here's what their survey said:

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 620,000
2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,800,000
3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 2,755,000
5 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player, 1,155,000
8 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 1,605,000

Level Up: Blinds 25,000-50,000 ante 5,000

5.05pm: Them's the breaks
The players are just taking a 20 minute break to relax. We'll be back in a moment.

5.02pm: Ain't goin' out like that
The German may have been struggling but he looks unruffled, refusing to go quietly into the night.

Firstly he made an inventive play blind on blind versus James Greenwood, where he floated the turn of a board with three clubs, only to raise the fourth club on the river, gaining a fold from his opponent and showing down 4-6 offsuit.

Next up, he made a more standard blind steal which worked out for him and he picked up the 84,000 in chips preflop...

4.52pm: Giant coinflip cripples Barzantny
It seems the only enemy capable of stopping Barzantny is variance. He's played well but run terribly at showdown today and once again he failed to win a crucial hand.

When Forsyth-Forrest made it 80,000 and Barzantny three-bet to 220,000, Forrest now shrugged and moved all-in for his 847,000, and a snap-call followed.

Pocket fives for Forsyth-Forrest and ace-jack for Barzantny, a huge coinflip was in the offing for 1,600,000 chips.

Barzantny however continued his lean run of showdown wins by missing the flop, turn and river of a [Kh][Qc][8s][7c][2d] board and a smiling Forsyth-Forrest leapfrogs him in the chip counts whilst Barzantny now sits under one million chips, a startling fall from grace given his lofty chip position throughout this final.

4.55pm: Craig Goddard eliminated in sixth place (£15,100)
And just like that James Greenwood has gone from short stack to chip leader in less than a level.

From under-the-gun Craig Goddard opened to 80,000, Greenwood three-bet to 215,000 and before his chips hit the felt Goddard moved all-in for 1,250,000, Greenwood's cards left scorch makes on the felt as he made an insta-call.

Goddard: [Ah][Qh]
Greenwood: [As][Ac]

A [Jc][9s][4c][Qc][Ks] board saw Goodard sent to the rail, whilst Greenwood is up to 3,000,000 and the new chip leader. -- NW

4.45pm: Chip counts
Here's how it stands right now

1 - Amanda Sidark, Sweden, 750,000
2 - Robert Bull, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,575,000
3 - James Greenwood, United Kingdom, 1,675,000
4 - Craig Goddard, United Kingdom, 1,250,000
5 - Wojtek Barzantny, Germany, PokerStars Player, 1,750,000
8 - Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, 860,000

It's still Wojtek Barzantny who leads, but only just. -- NW

4.35pm: Greenwood wins big pot from Barzantny
It's not been a good level for the runaway chip leader Wojtek Barzantny, so much so that his chip lead is now very slender.

That's mostly down to James Greenwood, he doubled up through Barzantny (see 4.12pm) and just took a huge chunk of change from the German.

The action was started by Robert Bull who made it 80,000 to go from under-the-gun, he was called by both Greenwood and Barzantny. The dealer fanned a [9s][4s][9h] flop, it was checked to Greenwood and he bet 117,000, Barzantny was the only caller.

The [8d] fell on the turn, bet of 235,000 from Greenwood, call from Barzantny. There was almost a million chips in the pot before the dealer put the [Ah] river card on the felt. After about 10 seconds thought Greenwood moved all-in for 621,000.

After getting a count Barzantny started riffling his chips, interestingly he started off by riffling his large denomination chips - the turquoise 25,000 denomination ones - before then switching to the blue ones that are worth 5,000 each. It was clear he had a genuinely tough borderline decision, he had around 1,675,000 back so the call was for around a third of his chips.

Eventually after a good five minute think he released his hand. The German has been dragged back into the pack and is only just ahead of Greenwood and Bull. -- NW
4.22pm: Bull and Forsyth-Forrest at it again
These two are starting to form their very own rivalry outside of the universe that gravitates around Wojtek Barzantny.

Their most recent tete-a-tete saw Forsyth-Forrest call a raise from Bull to 60,000 in the big blind, check-calling the [Kc][Jc][5s] flop.

The [2h] on the turn saw Forsyth-Forrest check once again, this time seeing Bull cut out 136,000. After a small pause, he called this as well.

The potentially dangerous [5c] on the river was checked once more by Forsyth-Forrest and this time Bull dragged a huge stack of 25,000 chips into play, his bet now a frighteningly large 387,000.

It was good enough, as Forsyth-Forrest laid his hand down to leave Bull smiling with close to 1,700,000 again.

4.12pm: Barzantny loses a pot! Greenwood double
He is human after all. James Greenwood proved that Wojtek Barzantny is not infallible moments ago, moving in for 549,000, leaving the German mulling over his decision in the big blind.

"It's close," he told everyone before making the call with [Ks][Qc], leaving Greenwood to showdown [Ad][Jd] for the better hand.

Only a small favourite, Greenwood's hand nonetheless held over the [9c][7d][3c][Js][9s] flop, turn and river and a loud cheer from his contingent of fans on the rail saw Greenwood's stack rise over the million mark for the first time today, whilst Barzantny takes a non-fatal hit - down to just under 2,600,000.

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

4.05pm: Craig Goddard doubles through Wojtek Barzantny
If rails won poker tournaments then Craig Goddard is a dead cert to win UKIPT Bristol going by what happened when he just doubled up.

He moved all-in for 435,000 with pocket threes but found Wojtek Barzantny waiting with pocket kings.

"Come on the three," shouted the local boys fans as the dealer prepared to reveal the flop. It came [4d][3c][8h], "Get in Craigy," and "Yes," were just two of the more audible reactions to the flop.

There was no re-suck on the turn or river and Goddard doubled to around 900,000 whilst Barzantny slipped to 2,850,000, so just a bit of a flesh wound really. -- NW

3.55pm: The Brunson is good for Bull
Robert Bull just won a tidy pot with the hand made famous by Doyle Brunson. Pre-flop Amanda Sidark completed from the small blind and Bull checked his option. On the [10c][4c][7h] flop Bull bet 35,000 and Sidark made the call. Both players checked the [Kc] turn to see the [2h] fall on the river.

It was checked to Bull and he overbet the pot, firing out 182,000, after tanking for a couple of minutes, Sidark made the call but mucked when Bull rolled over [10d][2d]. -- NW

3.45pm: All-ins but no calls
Both Craig Goddard and James Greenwood have moved all-in over the last two hands but neither has found a caller, you sense that might soon change if they keep doing it. -- NW

3.34pm: Forrest makes small inroads into Barzantny
Forsyth-Forrest has struggled against Barzantny today (as have all the final tablists) - the German's stack getting so big it is starting to invade the central part of the table.

He did manage to put the breaks on the UKIPT Online winner temporarily though, raising from the cut-off with [Kc][Ts] - Barzantny defending his big blind.

The pair checked down the [8c][3d][3s][5c][2d] board and Forsyth-Forrest's hand was good at showdown.

He then managed to get a three-bet through, raising Barzantny's 60,000 open to 135,000 and eliciting a rare fold from the German.

Riding a wave of fresh confidence, Forsyth-Forrest made another raise to 60,000, although this time Robert Bull was in the mood to slow him down, re-raising to 157,000.

Forsyth-Forrest wasn't strong enough to engage in combat this time and he folded, leaving Bull to collect the pot.

As it stands, Craig Goddard and James Greenwood are the men most in danger of elimination - it's likely one or other will make a move fairly soon... -- RS

3.25pm: Barzantny continues to bulldoze Bristol final table
Yet more chips have gravitated towards Wojtek Barzantny's stack as he continues to run over this final table.

This time Robert Bull was the victim, he defended his big blind after Barzantny min-raised from middle position and the two of them saw a [9d][3s][2s] flop. It checked to Barzantny and he bet 64,000, call from Bull.

The [Jh] fell on the turn, check from Bull, barrel of 116,000 from Barzantny, call from Bull. The [6c] completed the board and Bull checked for a third time, Barzantny emptied the clip, firing out a bet of 190,000 and Bull mucked his cards. -- NW

3.15pm: Barzantny pressure too great for Forest
Wojtek Barzantny certainly doesn't pull his punches when he gets in a pot, and once again his aggression has won him the day.

The hand in question saw Anthony Forsyth-Forrest raise it up to 60,000 from the cut-off - Barzantny making the call from the big blind.

The flop fell [Ks][8h][3h] and Barzantny check-called 65,000 before leading for 132,000 on the potentially flush-completing [Qh] turn, Forsyth-Forrest made the call dubiously eyeing his opponent.

The river was the [7c] and now Barzantny cut out a huge 361,000, which threw his opponent into the tank.

A long dwell followed for which he apologised, but ultimately Forsyth-Forrest could not make the call and the bulldozing German consolidates his already mighty lead. -- RS

3.05pm: Half-a-dozen remain in UKIPT Bristol main event

With the elimination of Jonathan Prince and Niall Murray in the opening two levels, just six players remain in the UKIPT Bristol main event.

It's still Wojtek Barzantny who leads the way with 2,961,000 but behind him there's two very distinct groups taking shape. There's a triumvirate of players clustered between 1,000,000 and 1,600,000, Robert Bull (1,571,000), Anthony Forsyth-Forrest (1,306,000) and Amanda Sidark (1,032,000) are just one double up through Barzantny from taking the chip lead.

Whilst James Greenwood (607,000) and Craig Goddard (400,000) have slipped into that awkward 20 big blind area and short stack territory respectively.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.

10pm: Wojtek Barzantny wins UKIPT Bristol (£90,400); James Greenwood eliminated in second place (£54,500)
It's all over here in Bristol and Wotjek Barzantny has done the unthinkable and pulled off an amazing UKIPT double, winning UKIPT Bristol to add to the UKIPT Online title he won on Wednesday.

In the final hand James Greenwood raised to 200,000 and Barzantny made the call. The flop fell [2d][10c][6c], Barzantny bet 200,000, Greenwood moved all-in for 1,725,000 and Barzantny made the call.

Greenwood: [7s][7d]
Barzantny: [10s][8c]

Barzantny had outflopped Greenwood and was two cards away from his second UKIPT title. The [5d] fell on the turn and the crowds moved ever closer to the table. The [9c] fell on the river to give the German the title and he let out a cry of "Come on," and high fived his rail as the magnitude of what he had just achieved set in. He takes the title and £90,400, whilst runner-up James Greenwood battle gamely but will have to settle for the not inconsiderable runners-up cheque of £54,500.

A full re-cap of the final table is on its way shortly. - NW

9.55pm: Magnificent seven
Wojtek Barzantny has won the last seven pots, he's knocked James Greenwood down to around 1,925,000.

9.44pm: "Come on!"
Barzantny is a pretty laid back character so you know any exultations on his part are truly ffrom the heart.

We witnessed one of these rare moments in the last hand. An unraised pot witnessed Barzantny check-raise Greenwood's opening bet of 130,000 to 280,000 on a [9h][5c][2d] board.

Greenwood called and the pair saw the [7c] materialise on the turn.
The German cut out a stack of 25,000 chips, removed one single chip and added a 5,000 chip, 480,000 the price Greenwood must pay.

Pay it he did and the dealer burnt and turned the [Jc] on the river.

Barzantny now tanked and riffled for a long time - the tension palpable in the air as he pondered his decision.

Finally he bet out 525,000 and Greenwood again made the call quickly - only to be shown [9][2] in the German's hand for a flopped two pair.

"Come on!" yelled Barzantny and although he didn't punctuate his exclamation with a physical fist-pump, there's no doubt he was fist-pumping mentally at this point. -- RS

9.37pm: Greenwood starting to pull away
Following that double through the pair found themselves pretty much neck and neck with 4 million chips apiece, and Greenwood suggested doing a deal based on a chip split.

Barzantny however didn't fancy this idea.

"Let's play on," he said and that's just what happened.

However he may have started to regret this, losing two pots in quick succession, the first in an unraised pot where his 100,000 bet on the turn of a [Ad][Qh][5s][8s] board was called and when the pair checked the [As] river, Greenwood's [4][5] was clear of Barzantny's announcement of ten high.

Next up Barzantny raised the button to 200,000, only for Greenwood to put in a three-bet to 515,000.

Barzantny might have been tempted to pull the trigger but he backed down this time... -- RS

9.25pm: James Greenwood doubles through Wojtek Barzantny
You've got to hand it to James Greenwood, he's got gumption and he's also got the chip lead after doubling through Wojtek Barzantny.

He'd already jammed over a Barzantny button raise once and when he did it again with [Ks][5c], Barzantny made the call with [As][Jh].

It looked bleak for Greenwood, even more so when the flop fell [9s][8h][3h], but the [5d] turn card gave him the lead and the [Kc] river gave him an unnecessary two-pair.

After that hand stacks are almost even but with 4,120,000 to Barzantny's 3,815,000 it's the Brit who has the lead. -- NW

9.12pm: No deal
There was a delay of about 10 minutes whilst the players discussed a deal, however an agreement couldn't be reached and play continues. -- NW

9.02pm: Players back in their seats
The final two combatants are back in their seats with blinds now a chunky 50,000 - 100,000 ante 10,000. The stacks as they stand are 5,460,000 to Wojtek Barzantny and 2,475,000 to James Greenwood. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50,000-100,000 ante 10,000

8.47pm: Break time again. End of level 29
It's the end of the level and the players have requested a ten minute break.

We'll be back shortly. Au revoir. -- RS

8.45pm: Barzantny gets some back
In the last hand of the level Wojtek Barzantny further dented James Greenwood's chances of winning this title.

The German opened to 160,000 on the button and Greenwood defended. The flop fell [5h][Qh][3c], c-bet of 175,000, call from Greenwood. The [8c] hit the turn, both players checked to see the [10d] complete the board. Check from Greenwood, bet of 280,000 from Barzantny and a quick call from Greenwood.

The German showed [Ks][10s] and Greenwood mucked his hand with the face of someone who was ahead to the river. -- NW

8.32pm: They think it's all over! - (but it isn't)
Having ground Greenwood down to 1,450,000 - leaving Barzantny with a healthy advantage, the German moved all-in - and a shrugging Greenwood said "Yeh i call."

Barzantny turned over [Kd][Jd] and Greenwood [Ac][9d] and suddenly we were close to crowning our champion.

A flop of [7d][5d][3h] gave Barzantny a flush draw to go with his overcards, and one enthusiastic railer yelled out "It's all over!)

He did have a plethora of outs to hit, but they never arrived as the bricky [2c] and [9s] were the turn and river and Greenwood chipped back up to close to 3,000,000 - Barzantny close to 5 million. -- RS

8.25pm: Barzantny stretches chip lead
Wojtek Barzantny now has over 70% of the chips in play after winning a big pot that went to showdown.

James Greenwood made his standard raise to 160,000 from the button and Barzantny made the call from the big blind. So far so standard. The [Ac][Jc][Ah] certainly seemed to open up some possibilities, it checked to Greenwood, he bet 130,000, Barzantny check-raised to 325,000 and after getting a count Greenwood made the call.

The [4c] fell on the turn and Barzantny slowed down, checking it to Greenwood who bet 330,000. This time it was Barzantny's turn to ask for a count, after he'd received it he made the call.

The [Qd] completed the board and both players checked, Greenwood shrugged and showed just the [8h] whilst Barzantny revealed [As][6c] for trip aces.

After that hand the rough counts are 6,500,000 for Barzantny and 1,400,000 for Greenwood. -- NW

8.10pm: Greenwood forced to back down to power shove
Button raise from Wojtek to 160,000, three-bet from Greenwood to 395,000.

No surprise so far. However a call from Barzantny broke the consistent pattern of raise or fold.

A flop of [Kc][Qh][6d] saw Greenwood lead for 415,000, only for Barzantny to now move all-in!

A big bet and Greenwood couldn't make the call - so Barzantny re-takes the chip lead once more.

It's a real back and forth battle at the moment. The crowd are not whooping wildly but they seem very engaged in this focused, aggressive confrontation... -- RS

7.59pm: Button Barzantny has a fight on his hands
Barzantny is from the school of heads up play that will never see a button they don't like, and he is proving this by min-raising every button so far.

It has worked sporadically for him, although James Greenwood has started to combat this relentless button aggression by three-betting from the big blind.

The first time Greenwood pulled this trick (125,000 button raise from Barzantny, 290,000 reraise from Greenwood) Barzantny just folded.

The second time however (same action as previously) Barzantny wanted to put a marker down and now four-bet to 640,000.

It seemed as though Greenwood was ready for him though, or perhaps just had an impressive hand, pushing two big 25,000 chip stacks out with a smattering of 5,000 chips like icing on the top - a gargantuan 1,115,000 bet that saw Barzantny insta-fold and concede the chip lead to Greenwood for the first time. -- RS

7.50pm: Barzantny still in the lead
There's not a lot in it, but Wojtek Barzantny still has a slender lead over James Greenwood in his quest to beat odds of 317,000-1 and win back to back UKIPT titles against fields of 587 and 550 respectively.

His heads-up match against Chris Moorman on Wednesday lasted four hours, during which the only all-in and call was the final hand. Small ball indeed. That mean folks that this could go long, though with the average stack now dipping under 50 big blinds, it could conversely, all be over very swiftly. That's the beauty of No Limit Hold'em.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.

4.22pm: Break it up in there
We've reached halfway point of the day and it's time for another break. Updates from here on in will be in new post. -- MC

4.15pm: More chip counts
Some more counts for you now: Brett Angell (34,000), Jamie Burland (21,000), Andrew Teng (17,600), Richard Sinclair (26,500), Thomas Hall (27,500) and Dara O'Kearney (12,250). -- NW

4.05pm: Chip counts
A few chip counts from around the tables: Thomas Ward (16,200), Fergal Nealon (29,000), Wojtek Barzantny (8,225) and Jamie Burland (12,900). -- NW

3.55pm: Numbers confirmed
Late registration closed at the end of level three and we've just had it confirmed that the total number of runners for Day 1A is 254. -- NW

3.52pm: The contract doesn't guarantee success or a nearby toilet
Dale "@Daleroxxu" Philip just tweeted: "Down to 10k at bb200. Bursting for a pee but toilets are miles away. Tablemate suggested using a bottle, he must be an online grinder #UKIPT"

The PokerStars Team Online member still has his sense of humour even if his stack is in the red. -- MC

3.45pm: Docherty downed by David
Yet another tough spot has ended David Docherty's UKIPT Edinburgh main event. I joined the table only for the dénouement but from that action and the post-hand analysis from Docherty and David Lappin I can tell you what happened.

On the river a full board of [5s][7h][3d][9h][2d] was on the felt, there was 3,475 in the pot and Docherty, who had around 6,000 total, had led for 1,500 and had then been set all-in by Lappin. "You know exactly what I have," said Docherty. "Do you have a big overpair," shot back Lappin. "If so it's a pretty sick spot."

A bit more friendly banter followed, during which Docherty talked more to himself than Lappin, saying he'd had three or four similar spots like this and folded them all, that he was sick of folding, but also that he should fold in this spot.

After further deliberation, Docherty flicked the rest of his chips in, Lappin rolled over [9d][7d] for two pair and Docherty showed pocket aces. "Sorry dude, that's a bit sick," said Lappin. The two then talked about the hand and if Lappin would've bet with a pair of tens had Docherty checked the river, with Lappin saying he could have turned a pair and a straight draw into a bluf.

"You know what's really sick?," added Lappin. "I hadn't noticed that you'd raised under-the-gun and thought I was opening."

Either way, Lappin wished him well and opined that the best player at the table (Docherty) had been very unlucky in Edinburgh. - NW

3.40pm: Those we have liked
The following didn't hang around long enough to be loved by us:

Garry Porteous, Lesley Devine, Apostolos Vatselis, Fraser Bellamy, Gary Bertram, Andrew McKenzie, David L'Honore, Danny McHugh, Claas Eyke Segebrecht, Fintan Hand, Edward Marley, Jack Sambrook, Siu Fai Chan, John Paul Clements and Grigory Livshits. -- MC

3.30pm: Nick Wealthyhall
Nick Wealthall seemed to get full value from big-slick in a hand versus is neighbour Antonio Crolla.

We only approached the table on the river where the final board rested as [2c][as][5d][4h][6s]. Wealthall led into Crollo for 3,700 and then revealed [ac][kd] after a tank-call. Crollo mucked and Wealthall stacked up and admired his stack worth around 34,000. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.20pm: Lacken at the double
I joined the action at table 24 to see four players taking in a [6h][3d][9d] flop, it was checked to Francis Lacken who fired out a bet of 625 into the roughly 1,500 chip pot. Both David L'Honore and Andreas Aristotelous called and the [Kc] fell on turn.

This didn't slow Lacken down, he bet 1,550, L'Honore was the only caller and the two of them saw the flush completing [2d] hit the river. Unperturbed, Lacken moved in for his final 4,075, sending L'Honore into the tank. "I have no idea what you have or what you're thinking of calling me with," admitted Lacken. "I have one pair," said L'Honore.

Eventually he announced call, Lacken showed [6c][6d] for the flopped set and L'Honore, true to his word, did indeed have one pair as he showed [Qd][9s]. -- NW

3.10pm: Third barrel shakes of Farrell
Niall Farrell was a very stubborn opponent in a heads up pot versus Manuel Zapf but finally admitted defeat on the river to drop to below his starting stack.

Zapf opened from the hijack and bet 450, 950 and 2,650 on each street of a [kh][ah][2d][7d][8s] board. Farrell was on the button and called all the way to the river where he snap-mucked to the bet. -- MC

3pm: Late arrivals
Andrew Teng and Jamie Burland are two players who have turned up and taken their seats for the beginning of level 3. Burland was sat in the seat vacated by Gordon Huntly, on a tricky table that includes Champion of Champions Richard Sinclair and online pro Niall Farrell.

Burland opened to 375 from under the gun but folded to a three-bet to 800 from Sinclair. "I haven't played a hand in more than two hours!" joked Burland. -- MC

2.50pm: Angell spreading wings
It's been a good start to the day for UKIPT Nottingham Season 2 runner-up Brett Angell, he's up to 25,000. -- NW

2.40pm: Rees exits with a little disbelief
Jonathan David Rees just busted with a full house but he seemed more perplexed by how the river action played out between himself and Patrick Murray, than his exit.

The two players had made it to the river of a [2d][7d][ah][7c][qs] board where Rees checked to face a 3,200 bet from his Irish opponent. Rees wasted little time in shoving for 4,700 as he must've thought the call would be automatic and quick in coming. That wasn't the case though as Murray took between 20 to 30 seconds to call. By this point Rees must've thought he was way ahead with [2s][2c] for a full house. That wasn't the case though as Murray opened [ad][7h] for a bigger full house.

Rees was shocked and there were mumblings from table mates who offered sympathy and surprise in equal measure. Murray seemed oblivious to his river actions which make us think there was no menace in his actions. -- MC

2.20pm: Back from the break
Players are back in their seats, including Manig Loeser (24,000) and and PokerStars Team Online's Dale Phillip (17,000). -- NW

2pm: Break time
That's the first two levels done and dusted, players are now on a 20 minute break. -- NW

1.55pm: Exits
Joining Gordon Huntley in passing through the revolving door marked exit are: Simon Brooks, Thomas Partridge, Daniel Charlton and Richard Doonan. -- NW

1.45pm: Easy come, easy go for Rawnsley
Neil Rawnsley is a UKIPT regular and is a chap who seems to love to play and just be in the action. We witnessed him play two pots on the trot; one he won and the other he lost.

The first hand was four handed after his open to 300 was called in three spots on the way to an [as][ah][6s] flop. The action was checked to Nadeem Younas on the button who bet 750. Both blinds moved out of the way before Rawnsley called. Both players checked the [8h] turn before Rawnsley led for 1,200 on the [jh] river. Fold.

The next hand it was Rawnsley who was folding. He had made it to the turn of a [qh][qs][9d][2d] board where he check-called a 1,200 bet from Mark McCluskey. The final card came [6s] and McCluskey's 3,000 bet was enough to force a check-fold from Rawnsley, who's back to his starting stack. -- MC

1.30pm: Two rooms
No not an ode to Elton John and Bernie Taupin's songwriting abilities, but more to emphasize that players are split into two rooms here at The Balmoral. There's 15 tables in the secondary rooms and there's quite a few interesting table draws.

At table two it's a tale of two David's - Docherty and Lappin. The former hasn't had much luck in UKIPT Main Event's and he's down to 8,300 early on here. He tweeted: "Fun start, got 9k after 40 minutes! Might have been able to save 600 of it?." Whilst Lappin is chugging along on starting stack.

On table three sit Thomas Ward (16,800), Fergal Nealon (18,000) and Paul McTaggart (16,000), whilst a couple of tables along is Nick Rainey. Whilst UKIPT champions Richard Sinclair (13,000) and Wojtek Barzantny (11,000) are not off to the best of starts. -- NW

1.15pm: Bloggers curse
As I was writing that post about Gordon Huntly, he was busy exiting the tournament. We noticed his seat was empty and Niall Farrrell informed us that he put 300 big blinds in with pocket queens only to run into the rockets of James Gavaghan.

At least he'll have time to see family and friends, as well as play the many side events on offer this week. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

1.02pm: Who's here?
Some of the familiar names we've spotted during the first level include: Andrew Ferguson, Brett Angell, Dara O'Kearney, David Lappin, Fergal Nealon, Dean Lyall, Paul McTaggart, Jeff Kimber, Manig Loeser, Neil Rawnsley, Thomas Hall and Thomas Ward. -- NW

12.55pm: Welcome home, wee lady
Gordon Huntly left his native Scotland many moons ago to seek his fortune in far-flung places. He settled in Asia and retired to Thailand after working hard for many years in that region. We write, "retired" but Huntly swapped the office environment for the poker room more than the golden beaches of his new home. He quickly found the same success he enjoyed during his working career.

His first big score came at an APPT event in Manilla in 2010 where he finished second for a cool $166,800. That was just the warm up as he claimed his first major title when he took down the ANZPT Sydney title less than a year ago for $238,832.

Huntly hails from Edinburgh and has come home to try his luck on home soil. He's sat at Niall Farrell's table today and we'll be keeping an eye on his progress today. -- MC

12.40pm: That man off the telly
UKIPT host Nick Wealthall is wearing tracksuit bottoms and a polo shirt. Hardly stop the presses, earth-shattering news, but much like if Marcel Luske was spotted in similar attire - which he was earlier today when I saw him checking in - you kind of do a double take as you're so used to seeing them smartly dressed.

The TV and Radio presenter is taking a break from those duties to play in a UKIPT event, he played UKIPT Newcastle earlier this season and he'll be hoping to go a bit better than he did there. "I really like Edinburgh," explained Wealthall. "I spend some time here each year for SCOOP and WCOOP radio, it's my favourite city in the UK."

He then asked if there were any big names playing in the event today, I pointed to the adjacent table at two-time UKIPT winner Wojtek Barzantny. "Oh," said Wealthall. "No one else has got a chance then!" And sat to Wealthall's immediate right is Jack Sambrook, seventh place finisher at UKIP Newcastle back in September. -- NW

12.30pm: Don't mess with a jet-lagged Farrell
There are many tired looking faces around the room (including yours truly) as a lot of us have made the long trek back from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that concluded in the Bahamas two days ago.

PokerStars qualifier Niall Farrell is one of those who made the trip but it hasn't numbed his instincts so far. He opened with a raise from mid position and was called by the big blind en route to a [9h][tc][7s] flop. Farrell continued for 225 and called when his opponent check-raised up to 600. The turn fell as [8c] and the big blind led for 800 only to face a raise to 2,100. He didn't take too long to muck his hand whilst shaking his head. -- MC

12.10pm: UKIPT Edinburgh is go
Cards are in the air here in Edinburgh, 223 players so far, but expect that number to rise. -- NW

12pm: Welcome to UKIPT Edinburgh
Happy New Year to all the loyal UKIPT Blog followers, the tour has moved more than 370 miles north from Bristol to Edinburgh for the only Scottish stop of Season 3. There's also been a change of venue as we're now ensconced in the Balmoral Hotel, slap bang in the centre of Edinburgh.

If the past two seasons are anything to go by the cream will rise as Nick Abou Risk and Fintan Gavin took down the title in Seasons 1 and 2 respectively. They'll be plenty of players amongst the 550 who are expected who fit that description.

Hoping to keep the title in Scotland will be (among others): EPT London champion David Vamplew, David Docherty, UKIPT Champion of Champions Richard Sinclair, and Alex Ferguson (not that one).

However, can anyone stop Wojtek Barzantny from the three-peat? The back-to-back UKIPT Bristol champion is playing today as is UKIPT Brighton Season 1 champion Jamie Burland and PokerStars Team Online's Dale Phillip.

The players are in their seats here at the sumptuous Balmoral Hotel and whilst it might be Edinbrrrrrugh outside (it's 0 degrees) stay right here for some hot poker action over the next five days.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinburgh (and their favourite type of whiskey) : Marc Convey (Irish) and Nick Wright (Rye). Photos by Mickey May (Hot).

9.05pm: Done for the day
Play has ended for the day, a wrap of the day's play is on the way. Day 1B starts at noon tomorrow. -- NW

8.50pm: Last three hands
The tournament clock has been paused and each table will play three more hands before bagging up for the night. -- MC

8.47pm: Those doing worse than Burland this last level...
Shaun Bennett, Michael McNelis, Robbie Renehan, Roberto Morelli, Andrea La Monica, Eamon Saryazdi, Christopher Ferguson, Ben Farrell, Mark McCluskey, Vlad Teodorescu, Patrick Murray, Jaye Renehan, Andrew Brown, Andrew Taylor, Paul Johnson, Jim Mclean and Kevin Spencer will not see day 2. -- MC

8.40pm:Bad times for Burland
Jamie Burland's not out but he's not flipping well. He Tweeted:

"Damn, lose flip for 60k pot. Got J9ss in on 8xx ss vs A8o. 20bigs w 20 mins left of the day #ukiptedinburgh." -- MC

8.30pm: Nealon a little frustrated
It seems to have been an up and down day for Fergal Nealon, the Irishman has built a stack up a number of times, only to have to surrender a portion of it in pots where he's been either a small favourite or a small underdog - in short he's not flipped well.

His latest setback came in the following hand. He'd opened from under-the-gun+2 and Alexander Robertson flat called on the button. The two of them saw a [9c][3h][8h] flop, Nealon led for 2,000, only for Robertson to raise to 5,000 total.

"How much have you got left behind," asked Nealon. "About 23,000 back," came the reply. After a bit of a think Nealon set Robertson all-in and Robertson made the call.

Nealon: [Qd][Qs]
Robertson: [6h][7h]

It was the made hand against the monster draw, the [5s] turn gave Robertson instance service and the meaningless [7d] completed the board. After that hand Robertson is up to around 62,000, whilst Nealon slips to 31,000. -- NW

8.15pm: Dream river for Vamplew
David Vamplew's stack is approaching 60,000 after he found a very tasty river in a hand versus Shaun Bennett.

The pot had swelled to around 17,000 by the time the board had concluded as [ks][4c][6s][2h][jh]. Vamplew was heads up with Shaun Bennett and led into him for 12,000. Bennett called and was shown [jh][jc] for a rivered set. He mucked and showed a touch of class by saying, "Nice hand." -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600, ante 75

8pm: Angell gets a gift of biblical proportions
"Yes Nick, that really did just happen," said UKIPT Brighton champion Jamie Burland to me.

I've obviously got to work on my poker face as he obviously clocked that my face was a mixture of disbelief and if I'm honest, it was searching for the media ID card of the player who'd just busted. But let's rewind...

The action was started by Ewan Rae who made it 900 under-the-gun, Manig Loeser three-bet to 2,225 from middle position, Brett Angell flat called from the small blind as did Jim Mclean from the big blind and Rae also put in the extra.

The flop fell [6d][2d][3d] and Angell simply moved all-in, he was the big stack, so it was for an effective 18,000 or so. Almost immediately Mclean announced call and moved his stack of 18,000 into the middle. Now Rae went into the tank, before eventually folding what he said was [4d][4c] and Loeser folded what he later said was pocket jacks.

"Have you got it already?" asked Angell as he shoed [Qd][Qc], Mclean turned over [Qs][Jd] and said: "F%%@ me, I thought I had [Qd][Jd]."

The [8h] and [3h] turn and river changed nothing and Mclean exited, still in disbelief that he'd misread his hand. Meanwhile, Angell is now up to 70,000. -- NW

7.50pm: Game's up for...
Shaun Farrell, Derek Leach, Anthony Bragg, Daniel Coll, Kevin Killeen, Campbell Foggo, Gavin Mcguire, David Preston, Luciana Manolea, Steven Bartley, Joel Beverley, Francis Lacken, Christopher Jones, Gerard Martin, Fredrik Nordqvist, Wes Farrell, Oleksandr Sharapov, Iain Brassell and Mark Conibeere. -- MC

7.45pm: Cushnie frustrates Ferguson
Alex Ferguson flopped huge but had to concede defeat to table chip leader, Greig Cushnie. The latter has broken through the six-figure mark as a result.

Cushnie opened the pot with a raise from the mid position and was called in three spot en route to a [2s][tc][5s] flop. The action was checked around to Colin Croal in the hijack who bet 2,000. Ferguson check-raised this up to 4,900 from the small blind and was only called by Cushnie.

Both players checked the [9d] turn to head to the [8h] river. Ferguson checked once more and was soon faced with a 6,500 bet. He opened folded [ks][ts] for top pair and flopped flush draw and verbally berated his bad luck. Cushnie stayed quiet and stacked more chips on top of his burgeoning pile. Ferguson dropped to around 22,000 chips. -- MC

7.40pm: Dale done
I think we just cursed Dale Philip. The bloggers curse has struck again as just minutes after speaking to him, he's busted out of this tournament.

"I had queens against jacks, all-in pre," he told me. "Jack in the window." But that only tells half the story. The Team PokerStars Online grinder went on to tell me that he hadn't noticed that his opponent had min-raised to 800 under-the-gun, Philip therefore thought he was opening to 1,050. But infact, it was ruled that this bet would have to go as a min-raise as Philip had raised by more than 50% of the legal raise size. So Philip was forced to make it 1,200 total, his opponent then jammed and Philip called.

"Some people at the table thought it was an angle shoot. But I'm not that clever, it was just the mistake of an online player, playing live. - NW

7.30pm: Cushtie pot for Cushnie
We saw Greig Cushnie rake in a massive pot so we had to find out more.

It turned out he cracked the aces of Joel Beverley but to be fair to him he committed most of his chips when he turned quad twos! After Beverley called all in and saw he was drawing dead fate rubbed salt into his gaping wound by dropping an ace on the river. Ouch. Cushnie has around 90,000 chips now. -- MC

7.20pm: Pad Thai
Today is Team PokerStars Online's Dale Philip's birthday. I'd love to tell you how old he is, but he wouldn't tell me. Fortunately the Edinburgh native, who now calls Thailand home, was more forthcoming on other subjects.

"In 2010 I went travelling intending to visit 52 countries in 52 weeks, I'd done 12 in 11 weeks and then went to Thailand. I fell in love with the place and never left."
However Dale, who grinds sit and gos and Zoom poker online is planning a trip to rival his previous one. "I'm saving up loads of FPP's (frequent player points) and am trying to do a trip where everything is paid for in FPP's through PokerStars concierge. For instance my flight from Thailand to here cost me 85,000 FPP's."

A combination of his birthday and a tournament in the city he was born in has seen Dale make a rare foray into live poker. "This is the first live tournament I've played for 15 months," he told me. But the birthday boy isn't paying for his travel to the tournament in Scotland by FPP's. "I'm staying with my parents who live 12km away, I got the bus here this morning, it stops right outside and cost me £1.40."

All this is part of Dale's quest to keep a better poker and health balance, "I used to be addicted to coke zero I was drinking like 14 bottles a day," he said. "On 1st January 2012 I weighed 95kg, at the end of the year I was 75kg, I even went on a raw vegan food diet for five weeks and was running every day." That fitness regime has given him a boost at the tables too. "It was like a haze disappeared right in front of my eyes," he told me. "My concentration levels are much better."

And despite not getting a cake yet he says he got his best birthday present in the tournament. "I got it all-in with A-7 against aces and I made runner-runner straight." He's still got some work to do though as he's currently got 8,800. -- NW

7.12pm: 30k Club
It's not exclusive, but for now is frequented by Jamie Burland (30,000), Alex Ferguson (31,175) and Andrew Ferguson (34,000). -- MC

7.07pm: All aboard the side event bus
Stuart Wedge, Matthaios Armeftis, Jack Graham, Andrew Mackenzie, Mark Simpkin, Alan Brown, Rytis Praninkias, Timothy Slater, Mudasser Hussain, Niall Murray, Barrie Dear, Plamen Nikolov, Paul Adams, Ewan Brown, Jan Mueller, Alan Clark, David Telfer, Gavin Smith, Timotei Ioan Caba, Alexander Rib, Ross Johnson, James Wightman, Rory Andrews, Vijay Ramanand, Andrew Taylor, Mariusz Czech, Alexander Rosie, David Kilmartin, Elliott Panyi, Brent Burnett, William Wright and Ho Yin Lee have all departed the main event bus. -- MC

7.03pm: Cards in the air
The players are now back in their seats and level seven is underway. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400 ante 50

6.43pm: Final break of the day
The remaining players are on a 20-minute break before they play the last two levels of the day. -- MC

6.40pm: Johnson left with a bowl
Paul Johnson feels like he should've folded his pocket jacks but we feel like he's being a little hard on himself.

The pot that left him with just 650 chips started with a hijack raise to 650 from Derek Chisholm. Mateusz Żbikowski was in the cut-off and three-bet to 1,650 before Johnson four-bet to 3,200. Chisholm knew there was no place for him at the inn and folded but Żbikowski was going for a suite and five-bet to 3,200. Johnson wanted the honeymoon suite and jammed just over 17,000. Żbikowski had the keys to the inn though and snap called.

Żbikowski: [ad][ac]
Johnson: [jd][jh]

The board ran [8h][ah][4c][2d][ks] to make the Polish PokerStars qualifier to set. -- MC

6.25pm: Vamplew pays off La Monica
I just saw David Vamplew take a hit at the hands of Andrea La Monica. I only caught the river action but there was roughly 13,000 in the pot and the full board was [6s][4d][9d][Ac][8c].

Action was on La Monica, he moved all-in for 10,025, after getting a count Vamplew called, but mucked when La Monica showed [Ad][8d]. The Scot slipped to 35,000 after that hand. UKIPT host Nick Wealthall as been moved to that table. -- NW

6.15pm: Crolla flips for his life
Don't worry, the players here aren't playing the poker equivalent of the Russian Roulette scene in the Deer Hunter movie, Antonio Crolla was just flipping for his tournament life.

David Preston opened from early position before Christopher Pearson three-bet from the hijack and Crolla four-bet all in from the cut-off for 6,125. Preston folded (a pocket pair he later said) but Pearson called.

Crolla: [ad][ks]
Pearson: [jh][jd]

The board ran an Italian flavoured [4h][as][6h][qd][8h]. -- MC

6.10pm: Delaney doubles through Nealon
A much needed double up for Paul Delaney just now, and it came at the expense of UKIPT regular Fergal Nealon.

The pot was opened by Delaney, Nealon three-bet, Delaney four-bet all-in for 11,650 and Nealon made the call.

Delaney: [Qs][Qd]
Nealon: [Ah][Kh]

It was a classic race and it would be one that Delaney would win as the board ran [5d][2d][9s][Jc][5c] to double him up. Despite the dent Nealon is still going strong, he's got around 43,000. -- NW

6pm: Eldon Orr has more than everyone else
Huge 95,000 pot to tell you about, well the outcome of it as I didn't catch it first hand.
However, I can tell you that Eldon Orr now has a 95,000 stack after eliminating two players on the same hand, one of whom was David Lappin.

All the chips went in pre-flop, Lappin held aces, Orr had kings and the third player also held aces. The flop changed nothing, but a king on the turn sent the pot Orr's way. His 95,000 stack dwarfing everyone else, not just at his table, but in the tournament. -- NW

5.50pm: Everyone wants to be in Edinburgh really
That even applies to superstars such as PokerStars Team Online's Mickey Petersen. He Tweeted:

"Bit sad to miss out on #UKIPT Edinburgh, but really excited to play my first online session in a month. #TCOOP grind for the next two weeks!" -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, 25

5.40pm: False hope for Wright
What's worse than busting? Busting after you take a massive lead on the flop only for it to be a false hope is what.

William Wright was down to his last 5,275 and he three-bet them all in after an open to 1,125 from Samuel Rocha Diaz. The rest of the table folded before Diaz made a very quick call.

Diaz: [qh][qs]
Wright: [ts][th]

The board ran [4s][td][2s][qd][9s]. Wright flopped a set but his hopes were quickly dashed upon seeing the turn. -- MC

5.25pm: Set over set shocker for Slater
I noticed Tim Slater was multi-tabling - that is playing on PokerStars on his Ipad whilst also playing live - he was down to about 2,150 here in Edinburgh, considerably less than he had a short time ago. "I had a set over set situation," he explained. "Flop was Q-4-2, I had fours, but he (Kevin Killeen) had queens."

That pot was worth around 43,400 according to Killeen, but Slater's not playing online to qualify to UKIPT Cork. "I'm going to spin it up," he said pointing to his meagre chip stack. -- NW

5.15pm: 17 busted in level five so far
The following are famous for being the first bunch to bust in level 5: Ross Hamilton, Adam Mackay, Radoslaw Wielewicki and Charles Lamont, Gordon Wood, Dean Lyall, Kenneth McMaihin, Dag Alse, Paul Corrigan, Jonathan Peacock, Manuel Zapf, Esben Günther, Steven Rinaldi, Joe Mortimer, Todd Cairns, David Rowley and Sean Dempsey. More will be sure to follow. -- MC

5pm: How about a UKIPT Edinburgh Title to add to your EPT title, David?
David Vamplew rocketed to fame and to the top of Scotland all-time money list after he won EPT London in Season 7 for a massive £900,000. He'd love to add a UKIPT Edinburgh title to his list of achievements, especially as this is where he resides.

Flopping sets whilst an opponent flops a smaller set is a good way of getting closer to that goal. Vamplew got a full double up to 44,000 after his pocket tens crushed the pocket sevens of Jason Barton on a [qs][ts][7d] flop. All the chips went in and Vamplew's hand held up. -- MC

4.40pm: No three-peat for Barzantny
One of the players to bust just before the break was double UKIPT champion Wojtek Barzantny. Seems the German has decided it's time he let someone else win one of these. As well as Barzantny, Peter Donoghue, Thomas Dunwoodie, Paul McAuley, Jonathan Gray, Terry Plummer, Allan Rennie, Rachael Costa, John Stirling, Rafael Alkhouri, Laurence Paisley, Alain Bauer, Ian Morris and Michal Wesolowski are among the 35 players who've been eliminated so far.

If you'd like to check on the status of those still in then we've also been busy updating the chip count page.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinburgh (in order of how jetlagged they are): Marc Convey (fairly - it's coming in waves) and Nick Wright (fresh as a daisy). Photos by Mickey May (hvad der er jetlag).

Over the near three seasons of the UKIPT it's hard to think of a stop that's taken place in a more picturesque venue than The Princes suite here at The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh. Chandeliers - check, Corinthian columns - check, delicate carvings in the ceiling - check.

Of course, regardless of the grandeur of the venue the game is the same, the options to fold, check, bet, raise, check-raise and so on don't change. Despite that it'd be nice to think that the surroundings, be they indoor in the card room or outdoor in the bustling city of Edinburgh had a role to play in creating the 254 strong field who turned up to play Day 1A.

After eight levels of play that number was reduced to 114 and top of the pile overnight is former pro BMX rider Liam Batey who pulled off a trick or two to get to the dizzying heights of 115,400. He's closely followed by UKIPT London Season 1 champion David Vamplew (106,200) and Greig Cushnie (94,300) all of whom will be well placed going into Day 2.

For Vamplew, one of four UKIPT champions in action today, it was a last level rush that saw him increase his stack to six figures. A rivered set of jacks and a 60,000 flip, won with ace-king suited against queens, doing the business for him. Fellow Scot Richard Sinclair (30,900) also advanced and Jamie Burland (11,600) will be in the mix come Day 2.

But, perhaps the biggest shock of the day came with the elimination of Wojtek Barzantny. The German had been an unstoppable force in Bristol defeating Chris Moorman to win the UKIPT Online title and then besting a 550 strong field to take down UKIPT Bristol. He exited early on today though, nice of him to let someone else have a go though.

He wasn't the only big name to bust though; Dale Philip represented PokerStars Team Online, on his birthday no less! However, despite getting what he described to us as 'the best birthday present,' during the tournament when his A-7 cracked pocket aces, the Scotsman was short stacked for most of the day. Ironic then that had he won his final hand he'd have been right back in it, but Philip's pocket queens were out flopped by an opponent's pocket jacks and he was back on the bus home (see 7.20pm post).

With 330 players already registered for tomorrow this is already guaranteed to be the biggest ever UKIPT Edinburgh main event. Tomorrow the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro, Jake Cody will take to the felt. He'll be joined by fellow Team Pros Marcel Luske and Belgian brothers Christophe and Matthias De Meulder. Whilst Grzegorz 'DaWarsaw' Mikielewicz of PokerStars Team Online will also try his luck.

It all starts again at 12pm local time, chip counts of the remaining players from Day 1A will be available overnight. Meanwhile to catch up with all today's action click on the links below, but for now it's goodnight from Edinburgh.

Levels 1-4
Levels 5-8

All photos are copyright of Mickey May. She'll stink bomb your house if you steal her photos.

4.20pm: Half-time break
Oranges for all. You'll find new updates in a brand new post. -- MC

4.15pm: Final number is in
We have the final numbers for UKIPT Edinburgh and we've broken through the 600-mark! After checking the numbers the powers that be informed us that 357 players sat down today, taking the total to 611. This is now the biggest UKIPT Edinburgh ever held in the three season of the tour. -- MC

4.10pm: One out
UKIPT Bristol runner-up James Greenwood wandered over to a mate and said: "I'm out queens against queens against aces. I had one live flush card!"

Further investigation revealed that Ben Price raised with the aces, a short stacked Greenwood shoved for 5,000 with queens, he was then flat called by Connor Hogarty, Price then shoved for around 16,000 and Hogarty called it off. No miracle outdraw for either player and now Price is up to 47,000. -- NW

4.05pm: Hulme doubles through Zawadowicz
I reached the table to see a bet of 450 in front of the original raiser and a bet of 1,100 in front of Andrew Hulme (button). The action had passed to Paweł Zawadowicz in the big blind, he took a look at Hulme's stack (roughly 6,800) and then four-bet to 2,525. The original raiser mucked his hand, but after a think of roughly 20 seconds Hulme moved all-in and Zawadowicz made the call.

Hulme: [Qh][Qs]
Zawadowicz: [As][Qd]

The [Js][2s][Qc] flop seemed to have ended things, but the [10h] turn gave Zawadowicz a straight draw. But, the [7d] fell on the river and Hulme doubled to 14,350. -- NW

4pm: Patience pays off for Kay
Dominic Kay has played a patient game today (so he says), and that patience has paid off with a double up to 20,000.

He was on the button and called a late position raise whilst sat on the button. The flop fanned [6][5][5] and Kay treated a 700 c-bet with a raise to 1,650. His opponent insta-jammed queen-nine off suit and Kay called with pocket sixes! The turn bricked and the hand was over. -- MC

3.50pm: Luske can't shake off Richard Milne
Marcel Luske open folded top two pair on the river when a third diamond fell, and his stack has dropped to 8,000 as a result.

The Team PokerStars Pro raised from mid position and was called in three spots en route to a [qc][5d][td] flop. He continued for 1,200 and was only called by Richard Milne to head to the [3s] turn. Luske quickly bet 3,000 and was called even quicker by Milne. The last card on show was the [8d] and when Luske bet 3,000 again Milne snap-shoved for 8,000.

Luske wasn't happy and threw [qs][ts] face up in to the muck, -- MC

3.30pm: Williams folds but is doing well
Kevin Williams is a regular on the UKIPT and has done well in the tour's previous high roller events winning more than £17,000 on the last two stops alone. He has 21,500 at the moment despite having to fold in a hand versus Roddy Davidson.

Williams was on the button and called an under the gun raise whilst sat on the button. The flop fell [jh][js][8c] and Williams saw his 500 bet check-called. Both players checked the [ks] turn to head to [4h] river where Davidson led for 1,525. Fold. -- MC

3.20pm: 600?
Ladies and Gentlemen we have a sweat on. Yesterday 254 players entered this event, today the tournament board is showing that 345 have entered. That takes the total to 599. Late registration has now closed, but of course the tournament board could be wrong and this tournament might reach 600 runners.

I'll bring you details on the final number of runners as soon as I get it. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.10pm: Exits
What comes up, must come down and the following players chips stacks have come all the way down to zero: Edward Egre, Jan Wawryluk, Gerald Karlic, John Angus, Eamonn Blake, Daniel Rout, Felix Haeusler, Doverklint Nils Leif Michael, Mark Morgan, Daniel Samson, Kjetil Myhr, Deborah Worley-Roberts and Raine Hilson -- NW

3pm: Chip counts
Here's some chip counts of the names and notables: Ben Jenkins (19,625), Chaz Chattha (20,200), Chris Dowling (20,200), Rob Yong (17,750), Dowling and Yong are having a conversation about Mulit-Prize Pool poker, a concept developed by Roberto Romanello and being trialled at Yong's Dusk Till Dawn club.

Elsewhere Dominik Nitsche, has 21,500, should the young German win an EPT before October this year then he'll break Jake Cody's record for the youngest ever Triple Crown winner. Speaking of Cody the Team PokerStars Pro is holding steady on 25,000, whilst Marcel Luske is on 16,000.

There's a number of Irish pros in the field today, Jason Tompkins has 17,000, Fintan Gavin has 19,000 and Emmett Mullin is on 18,500. It's not going so well for some players who know what it's like to make a UKIPT final table, Jack Ellwood has 8,000, UKIPT Bristol runner-up James Greenwood is down to 5,400, Robbie Bull, third in Bristol, has 14,800 and Lee Atherton has slipped to 12,000.

Whilst, Kevin Williams has 14,500, Sam Ravazi has doubled to 14,000 and Geroge-Clyde-Smith, fresh off a deep run in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, has 19,500. -- NW

2.47pm: Mikielewicz binks a double
Grzegorz Mikielewicz is back in the game after fading a diamond and a four on the river to more than double up.

The action was four-handed to the turn of a [8s][3d][9c][2d] board. William Cheung led for 1,000 before Stephan Schreitl put in a raise and Mikielewicz shoved for 5,300. Cheung moved out of the way to let Schreitl call with [ad][4d] for flush and straight draw. The PokerStars Team Online member opened [th][td] and was happy to see a [qc] appear on the river. -- MC

2.35pm: Cody gets played back at
Jake Cody had a fruitful first two levels where he seemed to win most of the medium sized pots on offer. His opponents are catching on to his style of play though and fighting back.

The Team PokerStars Pro opened to 325 from under the gun and was called in the next seat before Andy Grant three-bet to 850 from mid position. Both players called to the [2d][4h][4s] flop where they check-folded to Grant's 1,700 c-bet.

The very next hand David Blacklaw completed from the small blind and Cody checked his option before he bet 150 on the [jc][ac][jh] flop. Blacklaw check-called and bet 250 on the [5c] river after both players checked the [6h] turn. Cody folded quickly. The "newbie" sits on 25,000 chips and is sipping Redbull to stay alert. -- MC

2.20pm: A couple of chip counts heading into level 3
Ian LeBruce - 19,000.
Jame Dale - 16,025
Matthias De Meulder - 15,000 after finally getting out of bed.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2pm: Break time
Two levels down and time for a break we think. --MC

1.50pm: Online star finding it tough going live
Grzegorz Mikielewicz has swapped his PC screen for the baize of a poker table this week. The PokerStars Team Online member hasn't transferred the same level of success so far though.

His raise was called in two spots on the way to a [qd][kd][2d] flop. The Pole continued for 275 and was only called by Warren Malcolm. Both players checked the [7d] turn before Mikielewicz led for 250 on the [jh] river. Call.

Mikielewicz opened [qh][jc] for two-pair but lost out to his opponent's straight with [as][ts]. With that loss he dropped to 6,050. -- MC

1.35pm: It's not getting any easier for Razavi
When you've lost half your stack already you probably don't want to see Jason Topkins sit down at your table. "Late regged #UKIPTEdinburgh @Sam_Razavi still smiling with a half stack, he must know something I don't," tweeted the Irisman, who final tabled EPT San Remo in 2012. -- NW

1.25pm: Three more sent out into the cold
Craig Burke, John McAnulty and Antonis Poulengeris have all fallen in the second level of the day.

Sebastiaan Heijnen was close to being at risk as well but somehow managed to get his shove through. Kevin Monroe opened to 300 from under the gun and was three-bet to 725 from Heijnen. Stewart McFarlane was in the small blind and put in four-bet to 3,200 which was enough to oust Monroe but not Heijnen, who five-bet jammed for 6,100.

Instead of calling McFarlane tank-open-folded [7d][7h]. Monroe questioned his fold and McFarlane sort of admitted he should have called.

Sam Grafton was sat and the table and he needled by saying, "I'm just saying, when he mucked I saw a six flash!" -- MC

1.15pm: News from around the room
After one hour of play here's a few snippets of what's been happening around the two very packed rooms.

- Chris Dowling and Dominik Nitsche have just taken their seats. The latter tweeted, "just sat down at #ukiptedinburgh . went for a nice long walk outside and now I'm feeling great" Whilst Dowling is seated at the same table as Rob Yong.

- Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske has had a slight uptick to 16,000 from his 15,000 starting stack. He's merrily chatting away to a table mate.

- Ian LeBruce, who's hoping to make it three UKIPT main event cashes in a row in Edinburgh, is up to 17,000.

- UKIPT Dublin champion Richard Evans is playing he's had a slight dip to 14,600, whilst Steve Watts is down to 11,000 and Jeff Kimber has 16,000. -- NW

1.05pm: Cool hand Jake
Jake Cody has had a great start and is already up to 27,000 chips. "Just been getting some cool hands," was how he described his start. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

12.55pm: Bad start for Razavi
Despite the snowfall Sam Razavi managed to get to Edinburgh on time, although he's probably wishing he hadn't. "Double already in first 40 mins of #UKIPT Edinburgh! #DoubledDown 😪 need to spin back or spin off home... 8k," tweeted the UKIPT Cork champion. -- NW

12.45pm: First lady down
It didn't take long to lose our first player today. The unfortunate soul was Melanie Finan and her hand? You guessed it, pocket aces.

She made it to the river [k][q][7][t][3] board and was up against Kieran St Clair. Both players had around 6,500 chips left and St Clair bet all of them. Finan took her time and made the call only to be shown pocket kings by St Clair for top set. -- MC

12.30pm:Big field, big names
With 297 players already in their seats here on Day 1B, there are obviously a few big names dotted around the tables. Among the players that the others won't want to see to their left are: Dominik Nitsche, Sam Razavi, Sunny Chattha, Chaz Chattha, Simon Deadman, Jack Ellwood, Ben Jenkins, James Greenwood, Fintan Gavin, Chris Dowling, Jon Spinks and Sam Grafton. -- NW

12.20pm: Honeybone off to a good start
James Honeybone will be unknown to most in this field but the talented New Zealander has been plying his trade all over the globe these past six years. He now resides in Brazil and won a package to leave those warm shores for the sub-zero temperatures of bonny Scotland.

He's sat to the right of Steve Watts and the two played out a three-bet pot with another player. Honeybone raised to 150 from the button and was called by Watts before the big blind three-bet to 475. Both players called to the [8s][2s][7s] flop where the big blind continued for 775. Honeybone raised to 1,900 and took the pot as both opponents folded. -- MC

12.02pm: Welcome, Jake Cody
Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody entered the room a fashionable two minutes late, was announced to the room, and received a generous round of applause. -- MC

12pm: Shuffle up and deal
Cards are promptly in the air for Day 1B. -- MC

11.50am: More of the same at UKIPT Edinburgh
We enjoyed yesterday's helping so much that we're back for more of the same today. We have another eight levels of play for you today and a brand new line up for Day 1B.

Also brand new is Jake Cody. He's a familiar face on the tour but today is a special day as he is making his UKIPT debut as the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro. Poker's youngest ever Triple Crown winner is a fantastic addition to the squad.

Joining Cody will be a host of other familiar faces including three of his Benelux team cousins: Marcel Luske and the De Meulder twins, Christophe and Matthias. Team Online will also be represented by Grzegorz Mikielewicz of Poland.

Play is due to get underway very shortly and we expect a much bigger field to be sat down today.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinbrugh: and their favourite type of snow Marc Convey (Snowmen) and Nick Wright (Snowcones). Photos by Mickey May (Snow Angels).

9.20pm: Done for the day
That's the second starting day of UKIPT Edinburgh in the books, 358 players took to the felt today to swell the total number of runners to 612. A full wrap of what transpired over eight levels of play is on it's way and will be posted shortly. -- NW

9.10pm: De Meulder and Luske fall at the last
Both Marcel Luske and Christophe De Meulder were eliminated right near the end of the day. Here's what happened...

"I had 13,000 and tried to make a steal with position and A-8," said Luske to me. "I made it 1,800, another player made a small raise to 3,200 and I called. The flop was 8-9-5, I checked and he bet big, 6,500, I moved all-in for 9,500 and he called with queens. I'm fine with my play though, I think he does the same thing with Ace-Queen, Ace-King and King-Queen.

Whilst Jeff Kimber told me that Christophe De Meulder raised with A-9 and got one caller in the shape of left hand neighbour Vladislav Donchev. The Belgian Team Pro bet the flop and was called.The ace on the turn saw him fire again and Donchev called once more. He then moved all-in on the blank river and Donchev called with Ace-King and eliminated him. -- NW

9pm: Play done for the day
Play is over, in the last four hands two Team PokerStars Pros were eliminated, news on Marcel Luske and Christophe De Meulder's exits coming right up. -- NW

8.45pm: Last four hands
The clock has been paused and each table will play four more hands for tonight. -- MC

8.35pm: Kay gets paid
Dom Kay is up to 60,000, he told me: I three-bet from the big blind with A-10 against an active button raiser, hoping he'd jam on me, he obliged and moved all-in for 22,000 with K-J. I called, first card out was a king, but I flopped an ace and the turn and river were both bricks. -- NW

8.25pm: Nitsche and Grafton both out
Two of poker's bright young things have both exited this tournament in the last few minutes. I caught Dominik Nitsche's exit hand with my own eyes, he moved in for his last 5,850 with [Kc][7d] and got called by an opponent with [As][6s] and despite turning a flush draw, Nitsche didn't get there.

And, Sam Grafton is also out, unable to recover from a big hit earlier. He told me: "I played well today, I didn't punt it off for once." -- NW

8.15pm: Chip counts
Check out the chip count page as we've just updated a lot of the stacks of the names and notables.

For instance you can see that Jamie Dale is still in and on 35,000. -- NW

8.10pm: Over in a flash for Gordon
Chris Gordon's tournament had come to an end. The London City trader, who is also a talented amateur poker player, told us of his exit on his way out of the room.

He hadn't played a hand for a long time before he open-shoved king-queen in from under the gun. Another player re-shoved with pocket nines and a third player called with ace-king. Gordon was surprised, due to his image, that he got so much action. The river was a king and the third player scooped the lot. Gordon's going hand around and play some events over the weekend as he has travelled so far. -- MC

8pm: No come back for Matthias De Meulder
The first Team PokerStars Pro to fall today is Matthias De Meulder. He was down to just 3,600 and moved all-in over the top of Chaz Chattha's open, the latter called the extra off.

De Meulder: [As][6s]
Chattha: [Ah][Qd]

The board ran [3d][Ks][2d][Ad][Qc] and after a quick chat with his brother De Meulder left the tournament area. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75

8pm: Never Bluff a local
Rob Yong was up to 100,000 but is already back down to 70,000 after, "Playing like a fish and getting caught."

Some went to Paul Romain who needs the money after he told us, "Virgin cut off my phone today as I haven't paid my bill. It means I can't Tweet." He's up to 55,000.

The other chunk when to Benjamin Burnhill who Yong couldn't believe would call all in for his tournament life with jack-ten; that was until he found out he was a local. It's fair to say Yong's antics are keeping all amused at his table. -- MC

7.43pm: Yong likes to mix it up
Rob Yong is up to around 100,000 chips after forcing Nicholas Jamieson off pocket aces in a big three-way pot.

We caught up with the action on the turn when the board read [8h][3d][2h][ks]. Jamieson was under the gun and led for 6,400, called by both Robert Boon (mid position) and Yong (button). The river fell [4c] and Jamieson fired again, for 5,600. Boon folded to leave Yong to dwell. His cut the calling chips from his stack and threw them in, whilst announcing he was all in. It caught Jamieson by surprise as he was about to reveal his [ad][ac]. Instead he gave it 20 seconds thought and opened folded. Yong flashed the [as] and mucked. -- MC

7.40pm: UKIPT Edinburgh winner will take home £101,000
We've had the prize pool through from the powers that be and the headline news is that the winner of UKIPT Edinburgh will pocket £101,000.

Of the 612 players, 72 players will get paid with a min-cash worth £1,050, a final table appearance will earn the elite eight at least £9,750 and should you lose the final hand of UKIPT Edinburgh you can console yourself with £61,000. We'll get the full payout structure up on the blog at the conclusion of play today. -- NW

7.30pm: Thompson (almost) twins his stack with another stack
Patrick Thompson just won a huge pot and almost doubled up, although it's entirely his fault that he was 1,800 light on the double up.

There was about 3,000 in the pot pre-flop - indicating a pre-flop raise from Thompson (under-the-gun) and a flat call from David Campbell in the big blind. Either way the two of them saw a [Jc][5c][9d] flop, it was checked to Thompson who bet 1,500, Campbell check-raised to 4,500 and Thompson went into the tank. When he emerged he moved all his big chips over the line - around 15,500 - leaving just 1,800 in green and blacks behind.

Now this is where it got interesting, Campbell made the call, but Thompson thought he had raised to set him in and so turned over his hand - pocket aces - however Campbell had only called. The floor was called and it was ruled that Thompson could take no more aggressive action in the hand and could only call bets from Campbell. The latter checked down the [3h][10h] turn and river and showed pocket queens.

Players often wonder how much they leave on the table when they play a hand, in this case Thompson knows the exact amount - 1,800. -- NW

7.16pm: Kimber Climbing
Jeff "@jeffkimberpoker" Kimber is enjoying a fruitful day. He just Tweeted: "Got 65k at 200 400, despatched a few shorties n flopped a set on the table livewire #UKIPTEdinburgh." -- MC

7.12pm: Those who failed to make it around the last bend
Algirdas Matas, Robbie Fisher-O'Brien, Robert Gregory, Francis Prewett, James Lafferty, Paul Gerrard Davies, Timothy Chung, Colin Myott, Lee West, Olof Sundin, Christoffer Svensson, Edward Lundon, Nicholas Lynn, Calin Ciufudean, Barry McMahon, Lee Atherton...

And... Andrew Leitch McAllister, Tor Gammelgård, Chris Hendry, David Somerville, Kris Pillay, KK Verma, Ben Jenkins, Jordan Allan, Richard Milne, Stewart McFarlane, Raymond Morris, Mateusz Warowiec, Terence Owens, Jamie Rhind, Brendan Ruane, Jurij Kolesnikov, Ryan Green, William Bennet, Wesley Oudshoorn, David Price, Renee Xie and David Johnstone. -- MC

7pm: Sam has to graft now
Sam Grafton seemed to be cruising today but lost a big chunk of his stack just before break and will have to rebuild in the last portion of the day's play.

He opened from mid position and Mark Ellis peeled from the big blind to look at the [ks][3d][8h] flop. Grafton continued for 625 and called when Ellis check-raised to 1,600. The turn was [as] and Grafton called his opponent's 2,000 lead. On the [qh] river Ellis slowed to a check and snap-called, and declared two-pair with [kd][8s], after Grafton bet 7,800. Grafton quietly mucked and is down to 13,000 or thereabouts. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400, ante 50

6.38pm: Last Break of the day
Quick 20-minute snowball fight for the players before the last two levels of the night. -- MC

6.35pm: Clyde-Smith takes a hit
Sajid Munir just put a big dent in George Clyde-Smith's stack, but got lucky to do so. Five players put in 600 a piece to see a [5d][2c][9h] flop, the original raiser, who was under-the-gun, continued for 1,100 and Clyde-Smith and Munir were the only callers.

The [Jc] turn was checked to Clyde-Smith, he bet 2,500, Munir moved all-in for 10,200, and after the other player folded, Clyde-Smith swiftly called.

Clyde-Smith: [Jh][Jd]
Munir: [4c][3c]

The [7c] river completed Munir's flush and kept him alive. -- NW

6.30pm: The woes of Team PokerStars Pro
Team PokerStars Pro is four strong today, but with the exception of Jake Cody, none of them currently have more than they started with.

The aforementioned Cody is chugging along on 23,500, although his stack is almost half that of the chip leader at this table, that privilege belongs to Liam Horgan who has 45,000.

A few tables behind Cody sits Marcel Luske, it's quite interesting to see that a number of players have stood up from their tables to take photos of him today on what is a rare appearance in the British Isles for the Flying Dutchman. He saw me eyeing up his stack, and ever the pro (and an old hand at this too no doubt) he cut it down for me and told me he had 14,000.

Neither of the De Meulder brother - Christophe and Matthias - are having a good time of it. The latter is down to 7,900 and filling times between hands to play a game on his IPad, some sort of Farmville type game unless my eyes deceive me. His brother is fairing only slightly better, as he's down to 8,700.

It's often said you can't win a tournament on Day 1, but that you can lose it. Whilst none of the Team Pros is setting this tournament alight, the fact of the matter is that at least they're all still in with a chance of doing so. -- NW

6.22pm: Kings can't always be cracked
Dom Kay is up to 27,000 after cracking an opponent's pocket kings with queen-jack. He three-bet an early position open and then called a four-bet jam for 7,000 from the small blind after the original raiser folded. Kay was in bad shape until the board ran [8][10][7][9][2]!

James Honeybone is out after failing to crack kings. He popped by the press desk to tell us that called off his last 10,000 with pocket tens. It's a long way back to Brazil for him. -- MC

6.10pm: Lucky and good
Kevin Williams saw us eyeing him stacking up his chips, now worth around 35,000, and said, "Better be lucky than good!"

He went on to explain how he busted Ben Jenkins and Nicholas Lynn in quick succession. Jenkins was the first one to go when he squeezed all in for 8,000 after a raise to 700 and a bunch of calls. Williams re-shoved with pocket nines and flopped a third to beat Jenkins' king-queen.

Lynn was a touch unlucky after his aces were cracked by William's flush draw. The chips went in on the flop and Williams hit his flush on the turn and faded the re-draw that card offered Lynn. -- MC

6.05pm: Chip counts
Here's another bunch of chip counts for you, keep an eye on the chip counts page as we're updating it throughout the day: Jamie Sykes (27,000), Dominik Nitsche (7,600), Richard Evans (21,000), Steve Watts (15,600), Chaz Chattha (29,500), Chris Dowling (34,000), Fintan Gavin (12,000), George Clyde-Smith (30,000) and Rob Yong (48,000). -- NW

5.50pm: Stacks are a melting
Edinburgh has finally caught up with the rest of the country as it has started to snow heavily outside. This message must have got through to the following players who dumped their chips to go and build snowmen (probably not the real reason for busting):

John Currie, Mike Panteli, David Knight, Tom Henning, Pablo Fernández Campo, Dennis Wilke, Jean-Pierre Gazian, Mikhail Tsernishev, Samuel Wardlaw, Jim Pallas, Martyn Frey, Wai Kwan Yuen, Mark Wagstaff, Kaida Zhao, Jason Glatzer, Osman Mustanoglu, Michael Whealon, James Howard, Lasse Oevre, Jonathan Nash, Jack Ellwood, Sam Razavi, David Phelan, Tom Gill, Kevin Monroe, Lydia Cugudda, Trond Tjontveit, Charles Denton, Matthew Mckenzie Ireland, Craig Matthew Goddard, and Edmund Catt. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, 25

5.30pm: LeBruce LeChipless
"Seat open, table two," was the cry from the far room and before we new it the diminutive, sad looking figure of Ian LeBruce walked past.

The local lad, who had cashed in the two previous main events, told us that his pocket kings couldn't stay ahead of an opponent's ace-jack. "We had 40 big blinds each so it was an 80 big blind pot!" explained LeBruce. -- MC

5.15pm: Jenkins jettisons some chips
I missed the pre-flop action but joined the table to see Ben Jenkins (under-the-gun) betting 1,200 on a [Qc][9s][3s] flop, to his direct left, Richard Blacklock made the call, the other player in the pot got out the way and left those two to it.

The [As] hit the turn, both players checked to see the [10d] complete the board, Jenkins led for what looked like 900, Blacklock made a swift call and showed [Kh][Ks], which was ahead of Jenkins [Ks][Qd]. After that hand Jenkins slips to 19,000 whilst Blacklock is back up to starting stack. -- NW

5pm: Romain has a hand as flimsy as lettuce
Paul Romain made a play. It didn't work. He is still going well on about 31,000.

He opened to 675 from mid position and was called by Alan Wilde in the next seat and Jamie Sykes in the big blind. The flop was revealed as [5d][4s][6d] and it was Wilde who went wild with a 1,200 bet. Sykes stayed away but Romain made a crisp call to see the [4d] turn. He check-raised Wilde's 1,200 bet up to 3,800. Wilde wasn't to be budged and called to the [9h] river where both players checked. Wilde opened [7h][7d] and it was good as Romain folded. -- MC

4.50pm: Cody slipping
The last level wasn't the best of levels for Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, he tweeted: "20k at the second break had to make some frustrating folds #UKIPT." -- NW

4.40pm: Halfway through the day
Approximately 50 players who entered Day 1B have been eliminated in the opening four levels. Some of those to have had their tournament ended earlier than they'd have liked are: UKIPT third placed finisher Robbie Bull, Sergi Lloveras, Simon Deadman, John Wilson, Daniel Kind, Euan Cameron, Mark James, Serhan Cimen, Milorad Dobrijevic, Kirsty Anne Mcarthur, Matt Heap and Anthony Gray.

Of course one way to ensure that you're still in come level five is to show up late. That's the tactic that jet lagged Team PokerStars Pro Matthias De Meulder has used today, his late entry boosted the numbers to 357 today and a record breaking 611 in total. The Belgian is now sat next to Sam Grafton, perhaps he should've stayed in bed. -- NW

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinburgh (and their Snowman name) : Marc Convey (Squiggles Carrot-Nose) and Nick Wright (Old-Man Sexy-Lips). Photos by Mickey May (Fluffy Frosty-Buns)

A total of 358 players turned up to play Day 1B of the UKIPT Edinburgh in the Balmoral Hotel, making the final number a record breaking 612, beating last year's 519. That means someone will walk away from Monday's final table with a huge £101,000, not a bad way to start the year (Full payouts can be seen here). Best placed to achieve that goal is Liam Horgan who bagged up 119,800 chips, good to take the overall lead heading into Day 2 tomorrow.

Hot on his heals include: Rob Yong (119,100), Chris Derrick (104,000), Matthew Holliday (97,000), Jeff Kimber (72,500), Dominic Kay (77,900), Kevin Williams (57,000) and defending champion Fintan Gavin (45,500).

Yong played like a man without a care in the world today and had the very clear intention of having a big stack or no stack. He managed the former, just missing out on the chip lead. He terrorised his table getting opponents off big hands and also donated at times, he said. Kimber's stack rose steadily today. He busted short stacks and managed to flop a set to win a bigger pot off the table "live wire" as he described him. Williams managed to win a flip to bust the talented Ben Jenkins and cracked aces with a flush draw. Kay managed to crack kings with queen-jack and was also helped when he flopped a full house and watched an opponent donate to him with queen-high.

The big news at the start of the day was the UKIPT debut of the newest member of Team Poker Stars Pro, Jake Cody. Fresh from the PCA but not fresh from jet-lag, the Rochdale man needed several energy drinks to grind out a finishing stack of 15,500. He was not the lone team member to make the long journey from Paradise to the sub-zero temperatures north of the border. Marcel Luske donned a three-piece suit and had a somewhat swingy day. The swing came to a stop when he busted late on. Then there were the bad fortunes of the De Meulder twins. Matthias never managed to get much going today, Charles Chattha dealing the final blow when his [ah][qd] held against the Belgian's [as][6s] on a [3d][ks][2d][ad][qc] board. Christophe lasted longer but busted in the last level of the night. PokerStars Team Online's Grzegorz Mikielewicz scraped through with 12,600 and has a lot of work to do tomorrow.

The tournament will be an easier, and quieter, environment tomorrow after Sam Grafton fell during the last level of the day. He was cruising for long periods but three blows cost him his tournament life. The online star says he really enjoyed himself though and is constantly adjusting his game to the live environment thanks to help from Cody. He was joined on the rail by such luminaries as Dominik Nitsche, Sam Razavi, Simon Deadman, Alun Bowden and Joeri Zandvliet.

The remaining 267 players from both Days 1A and 1B will combine tomorrow for another eight levels of play. After that we'll all be donning our dancing shoes and paintig Edinburgh red as the official PokerStars party will take place at the Opal Lounge. Until then we bid you goodnight.

Full chip counts can be seen on our chipcount page here . To catch up on the day's action click on the links below:

Levels 1 - 4.
Levels 5 - 8.

All photos are copyright of Mikey May. Her Sorceress Viking powers peak when the snow falls so beware as Edinburgh is coated white this evening.

4.22pm: Break time
The players are on a 15-minute break. The next level updates will appear in a new post.

4.20pm: Kay firing blanks
Dominic Kay's day has taken a dramatic downward turn after he "emptied the clip" on Christopher Derrick in a huge pot.

We picked up the action on the [2d][7h][2c] flop where Derrick check-called a 6,600 bet. Kay faced another check on the [5c] turn and Kay bet 18,000 after having an animated look at his opponent's stack. Call.

The final card came [qh] and Derrick checked for a third time. Once more Kay paid a lot of attention to his opponent's stack before elected to slide forward two 20k towers. Derrick got a count of the bet and called with [ah][qc] for rivered two-pair. Kay could only muster [ad][jc] and dropped to around 70,000. Derrick had a mess of chips in front of him but a rough estinate put him up to 175,000. We'll verify his count in the upcoming break, -- MC

4.15pm: Tompkins toppled
The EV of everyone left in this tournament just went up a notch as the dangerous Jason Tompkins has been eliminated.

I joined the action to see a [3c][5c][9h] flop on the felt, there was roughly 10,000 in the pot, indicating that Tompkins (mid position) had raised and Chihao Tsang had flat called on the button. First to act Tompkins bet 3,600, Tsang made it 9,200, Tompkins got a count of Tsang's stack, then moved all-in for around 46,000 total. Now it was Tsang's turn to dwell, but after perhaps 10 seconds he made the call.

Tompkins: [Js][Jd]
Tsang: [Qh][Qd]

The [3h] turn and [6d] river bricked off and after a count of Tsang's stack it was established that he just had Tompkins covered. -- NW

4.10pm:Just not Wealthall's Dale
UKIPT Host Nick Wealthall is not going to get to present himself with the trophy or do a one on one interview with himself as he's just been eliminated here in Edinburgh. The action was started by Jason Tompkins who opened to 3,300, Jamie Dale flatted with pocket tens on the button, Wealthall moved all-in for 10 big blinds with pocket nines and after Tompkins folded, Dale made the call.

The community cards changed nothing and Wealthall exited the tournament. -- NW

4pm: Williams has seen worse flops
Kevin Williams is up to 120,000 chips after busting Lee Hanlon.

The action folded around to Hanlon on the button and he moved all in for his last 13,000. Williams was in the big blind and made a very quick call.

Hanlon: [9d][7d]
Williams: [ad][js]

Hanlon had live cards but not after the flop fell [ah][2c][ac]. "Not a terrible flop," jested Williams.

The board ran out [6d][kh]. -- MC

3.50pm: Chip counts
With 144 players remaining exactly half the field will make the money, to see how some of those still in are fairing check out the chip count page. -- NW

3.45pm: Rawnsley out kicked
One of the names in the list of exits below is Neil Rawnsley, he told me that in his exit hand he made it 3,000 to go (this was at the end of Level 11), an opponent raised to 16,000. He told me this bet size threw him a bit, but nonetheless he moved all-in for 36,000 with Ace-Queen, only to find that his opponent hand Ace-King. No queen or straight hit the board and Rawnsley was out. -- NW

3.35pm: Your time here has passed
Pascal Pflock, John Bousfield, Tudor Purice, Philip Jackson, Stephen Woodhead, David McNeally, Richard Evans, Sajid Munir, Douglas Findlay, Kevin O'Connell, Neil Rawnsley, Björn Egertz, Patrick Thompson, Andrew Hall, Nicholas Jamieson, Andreas Aristotelous, John Little, Ben Price, Kieran St Clair, Ryen Winton, Kenneth Coote, Simon Appleby, Niall Anderson, Benjamin Burnhill, George Stewart, Michael Finan, Christopher Pearson, Andrew Booth, Barry Blackwood, Martin Gallagher, Adrian Gray, Benjamin Dixon, Matthew Franklin, Kenneth Fong, David Peer, Duncan Taylor, James Rann and Eldon Orr. -- MC

3.25pm: You only live Weis
Oliver Weis just got very lucky indeed to stay alive in this tournament. The pot was opened to 3,000 by Samuel Rocha Diaz, Nick Wealthall flat called and Weis then moved all-in for 31,000. Back on Diaz he called and Wealthall passed pocket tens. Good pass as Diaz showed pocket queens, whilst Weis had pocket threes. But a three on the flop swung the pot Weis's way and he now has around 70,000. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600, ante 200

3.15pm: Yong man, there's no need to be afraid
Rob Yong continues to mix it up on Day 2. If you're not going to have fun, why play the game?

Manig Loeser is having a great day (150,000) and it was he who opened to 2,400 from the button. Yong was in the big blind and asked his German opponent, "What is my range to cal with then?"

"Top 98%!" came the reply.

Yong did call and no more money ventured into the middle until the board rested as [6d][9c][3h][td][4s]. Yong threw out 1,200 and Loeser said he was thinking about raising but he probably knew Yong is a live-wire and elected to fold.

The next hand Carolyn Gray and Yong played out an almost identical hand. Yong called a raise and both players checked to the river where the board read [as][kh][[jh][ah][3c]. "How much can I tax you for?" asked Yong. He elected to throw in 5,000 and it was enough to get Gray to fold. Yong showed [qc][tc] for a straight. Yong sits on 140,000. -- MC

3.05pm: On the up
Both Kevin Williams and Alex Ferguson have had a good start to level 11...

"Up to 57,800. Picked up KK & got 3 streets of value from table big stack," tweeted Ferguson. Whilst Williams tweeted: "Won some small pots to crack 100k barrier. 112k." -- NW

3pm: News in brief
A few snippets from around the room...

- UKIPT Champion of Champions Richard Sinclair is going well, he's up to 115,000
- PokerStars Team Online's Grzegorz Mikielewicz is on 55,000 that's up from a start of day 12,600.
- The table containing Jamie Bulrand and David Vamplew has now broken. The former has been plonked to the left of Brett Angell, Burland in on 30,000, Angell 80,000. --- NW

2.50pm: The Sunny goes down on Chattha's tournament
Eliminating Jake Cody was the last thing that went right for Sunny Chattha today.

Lewis Hunter had raise-folded the hand before he raised into Chattha's big blind. Chattha shoved for around 10,000 over his open to 2,400. Snap call.

Hunter: [ac][as]
Chattha: [qs][4s]

The board ran [th][tc][9s][kd][2c]. -- MC

2.35pm: You're ahead, no you're ahead
James Gray opened to 3,000 only for Andreas Aristotelous to move all-in for his last 11,900. Back on Gray he tanked, called and then said: "You're ahead," to which Aristotelous replied: "No you're ahead." The reveal revealed that Gray - with [Ah][2h] - was in fact ahead of Aristotelous who held [Qs][Js]. By the turn the board of [6s][9c][4d][3s] gave Aristotelous a lot of outs, but he missed them all on the [8h] river. -- NW

2.25pm: Six-figure stacks
Liam Horgan, 210,000
David Vamplew, 180,000
Luan Beciri, 175,000
Liam Batey, 170,000
Gary Whipp, 168,000
Rob Yong, 155,000
Manig Loeser, 150,000
Dominic Kay, 140,000
Christopher Ahrens, 130,000
John Wallace, 115,000
Jakub Kyrian, 110,000
William Champion, 105,000
Andreas Schmitt, 105,000
Grant Kinnear, 100,000
Meenakshi Sundaram Subramaniam, 100,000
Kevin Williams, 100,000
Richard Sinclair, 100,000
Paweł Boruta, 100,000
Mikel Villaescusa,100,000
-- MC

2.22pm: Play resumes
Cards are back in the air for the third level of the day.

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

2.02pm: Break time
The players are now on a 20-minute break. -- NW

2pm: Wealthall now more wealthy
UKIPT Host Nick Wealthall just doubled up and now has a stack of around 45,000.

Under-the-gun Samuel Rocha Diaz opened to 2,000, Wealthall piled for 23,300 two seats along and after a tank Diaz made the call.

Wealthall: [9d][9s]
Diaz: [7d][7h]

The board ran [Jh][Ac][3d][5s][2s] to keep Wealthall in it. -- NW

1.50pm: Re-squeeze from Kay
Dom Kay is on around 135,000 after doubling up a short stack before winning pre flop raising war the very next hand.

He opened to 2,000 from mid position and was called by the short-stacked Simon Appleby in the big blind. The flop fell [kc][9s][7s] and Appleby moved all in for his last 5,100 with [jc][9d]. Kay called with [ac][6c] but failed to catch up enough on the [6s][8d] turn and river.

The very next hand Kevin Williams opened to 2,000 from early position and Kay called before Andrew Ferguson squeezed to 4,700 from the button. Williams called but Kay had other ideas and four-bet to 11,400. The raise did the trick as both players folded. -- MC

1.35pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but: Alan Richardson, Thomas Blair, Grzegorz Reczko, Andrzej Kozikowski, Rory Macdonald, Joe Laming, Niall Farrell, Sam Onions, Joseph Chattaway, Derek Chisholm, Paul Irvine, Andrew Teng, Hasmukh Khodiyara, Alexander Robertson, John Durkin, John Burns, Graham Clarkson, Andrew Allen, , Matthew Holliday, Stephen Dunnett, Chris Dowling...

And...Tom Wiesner, Cheng Wei Yin, Dara O'Kearney, Kevin Killeen, Mark Goodchild, Christopher Khabir, Matthew Dickie, Paweł Zawadowicz, Martin Smith, David Docherty, Marc Radgen, Stefan Wittmoss, Gerald Cochlan, Tom Noble, Andy Beuken, Gordon Hannay, Nick Ramsey and Xia Ke have all been eliminated during level 10.

1.25pm: Farrell gets creative; busts
Niall Farrell was annoyed at himself after his exit hand, feeling he shouldn't have opened with [js][8s] off 17 big blinds from under the gun.

He did though and picked up a couple of callers who were keen to see the [2d][ks][as] flop come down. Farrell continued for 3,200 and then three-bet shoved for 16,000 when raised to 8,000 by William Champion. The third player folded in between and Champion called with [kh][jc].

Farrell just giggled as the board ran out [7c][9c]. -- MC

1.15pm: Big names depart
Fintan Gavin and Jake Cody both fell towards the end of the first level.

Gavin, the reigning champion, had hopes of making it to lunch, but fell early enough to go out and have lunch somewhere.

Cody, as we had written before, was looking for a spot but when he found one he was soon out the door. David Docherty opened to 1,700 from the cut-off before Cody three-bet to 3,800 from the small blind. Sunny Chattha was in the small blind and moved all in for around 25,000. Docherty folded and Cody called off.

Cody: [kd][js]
Chattha: [ad][ac]

The board ran [5d][ks][8d][3h][7d].

"I was waiting for that spot!" said Cody as he got up from his chair. -- MC

1.10pm: Cody looking for a spot
I just spent an orbit following the progress of Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody. It was a fairly quiet orbit for the youngster from Rochdale, he's clearly looking for a spot to get his 10 big blinds in, but puffed out his cheeks a couple of times when he was forced to fold unopened pots.

However, he did move his chips on once, shoving for 9,400 over the top of a 1,800 open from David Docherty, the latter mucked his hand though. With Cody's style it can't be long before he finds a spot he likes and gets them in again. -- NW

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

1pm: Burland doubles up
A much needed double up just now for Jamie Burland. He opened to 1,600 from under-the-gun and got three callers, including the two players to his immediate left - Alisdair Macrae and David Vamplew.

The flop fell [As][9d][Qc], it checked to Macrae who bet 3,600, Burland was the only caller. The [8h] fell on the turn, Macrae set Burland in for his last 8,100 and Burland called swiftly called.

Burland: [Qh][Qd]
Macrae: [Ah][Js]

Although the [Ac] fell on river Burland had a lock on the hand and is now up to around 30,000. -- NW

12.58pm: First level fallers
Alexander Rib, Wim Neys, Peter Mccormick, Paul Connor, Saifon Lambe, Paul Gupta, Andrew Thomson, Nicholas Crozer, Colin McGowan, Paul Byrne, Stuart Bee, Alexander Knight, Michael Hawkins, Jonathon Prested, Andrew Abernethy, Allan Goldie, Tom Clark, Richard Charles Blacklock, Antonio Crolla, Paul Dixon, Andy Grant, Reeve Hicks, Majid Iqbal, Bernhard Sværen, Gregory Cooke, Mark Southwood, Stuart Walker, Peter Stephen, William Cheung, John Willoughby, Leon Louis, Adam Jaguścik, Sebastiaan Heijnen, Ewan Corsie, Bart Besselink, Craig Sweden, Steven Raeside, Raymond Irving and Craig Sayers. -- MC

12.50pm: Kay wriggles out of bad spot
Dominic Kay is accumulating chips the same way he did yesterday: handing out bad beats.

There was a raise to 1,700 that was flat called by Kevin Williams before Kay three-bet to 6,400 off the button with king-five off-suit. Steven Raeside was in the small blind with jacks and jammed for 11,400. The action folded back to Kay who was priced in by this point. He called and hit king on the river.

Pot gained for Kay, table reputation ruined though. -- MC

12.42pm: Two steps forward, one step back
Grzegorz Mikielewicz is making progress today but it's not easy. The PokerStars Team Online member managed to get up to 20,000 before dropping back to 15,000. -- MC

12.40pm: Fraser Falls
We caught up with Fraser Macintyre on his way out of the tournament room after his exit. He felt he made a couple of errors that contributed towards his downfall.

Macintyre opened to 1,700 from early position and was called in two spots before Kevin O'Connell squeezed to 3,700 from the big blind. Macintyre put in a four-bet to 6,100 and was only called by O'Connell to see a [js][5s][2d] flop. O'Connell came out firing for 7,000 and called off his remaining 20,000 when Macintyre shoved.

It turned out to be a good call as Macintyre only had [ah][7h] to his pocket eights. The board ran out bricks and Macintyre was left with ten big blinds.

Moments later Macintyre shoved them in with eight-five thinking he was opening the pot. There had a been a limper though who called with king-jack to finish him off. -- MC

12.35pm: Blacklock downed, back in for the side event
A bit of a sickener for Richard Blacklock, who was just eliminated by Gary Lindsay and he described the hand to me.

The pot was opened by Michele Galatola, who made it 1,900 to go, Gary Lindsay then three-bet to 4,600 from the small blind and Blacklock moved all-in for 12,600 from the big blind with Ace-King. The original raiser folded and Lindsay tank called it off with Jack-Two.

A two on the flop and a jack on the turn bumped Blacklock from this tournament, but he told me he'll be back for the £300 side event later today. -- NW

12.25pm: Calm before the storm?
It's fairly quiet in the main tournament room at the moment, the main sounds being the repetitive riffling of chips prevalent at all poker tournaments. This is only punctuated by the occasional cry of "seat open".

Meanwhile Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody sits impassive, not riffling his chips as his stack, still static at around 15,000, contains too few chips to do so. That's not the case for his right hand neighbour though, Liam Batey was the chip leader from Day 1A and he started play with 115,400.

On the table adjacent to 'Table Cody' sit two UKIPT winners, Jamie Burland and David Vamplew. Again their stacks are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Local boy Vamplew - who was featured in a newspaper spread yesterday about this tournament - came in to today with a top ten stack, whilst Burland will be looking for a double up given he came into today with 11,100.

Before play started Nick Wealthall told us that no one on his table had any chips! Indeed only two players on his table had an above average stack to start the day. Still players of the quality of Jason Tompkins (31,200) don't necessarily need a big stack to play. Those two also have Richard Haile for company, in a sea of hoodie's he stands out as the UKIPT3 Galway eighth place finisher always wears a suit at the table. -- NW

12.15pm: Power Out for Watts
A cooler of a hand took care of cheeky chappy, Steve Watts.

The hand was folded to him in the small blind and he looked down at [ad][qd]. With only 16,000 remaining he only had one move: to shove. Duncan Taylor was in the big with 18,000 and made an easy call after looking down at [as][kh]. The board ran out [ts][kc][9s][ks][2c] to seal Watts' fate. -- MC

12.05pm: Cards in the air
Play has begun here in Edinburgh, expect the usual start of Day 2 carnage.

Before the start of play Tournament Director Toby Stone took to the microphone to tell players that the plan today was to play eight levels. However, if the bubble hasn't burst by the end of level 16, then play will continue until it has. But, the powers that be expect the bubble to burst during level 15 or 16. -- NW

Welcome back to Day 2
Day 2 will combine the best of Days 1A and 1B as 267 return with the eventual aim of winning a cool £101,000. Before that though, they will have to position themselves to have a good run at the money. The top 72 players will receive a minimum of £1,050 and we expect to make the money before play finishes today. The plan, we're told is to play another eight levels.

Liam Horgan accumulated 119,800 chips yesterday and enters today as the chip leader. He's closely followed by Rob Yong (119,100) and Liam Batey (115,400).

Team PokerStars is still being represented today but they have work to do. Jake Cody returns with 15,500 and Grzegorz Mikielewicz has even less with 12,600.

Play is due to begin at midday so join us back here soon. Click here to see today's seat draw. -- MC

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinburgh (in order of number of hats they're wearing today) : Marc Convey (one) and Nick Wright (none). Photos by Mickey May.

9.10pm: Play has ended
Play has now finished for the day, we think 49 players in total made it through, news on the chip leader and the rest of today's action coming up in a wrap shortly. -- NW

8.55pm: Last four hands
Each table will play four more hands before the action concludes for the night. -- MC

8.50pm: Derrick extends lead; Sykes does his best to catch him
Chris Derrick has 510,000 chips now after he forced Grzegorz Mikielewicz off a hand while we were out of the room. The PokerStars Team Online member is very short as the day comes to a close.

While we were there this action table continued to throw hands to blog. Jamie Skyes wanted to coast but he could hardly fold [qs][qc] to a short-stack shove. Darren Sweeney was the player and he held [3s][3c]. The board ran [5h][2d][ks][7s][4s]. Sykes up to 360,000 as a result. -- MC

8.40pm: Derrick cracks aces; jumps into chip lead
Chris Derrick has claimed the chip lead (375,000) after he busted Charalampos Lappas.

Lappas had just moved to the table when the two took to a [5c][qd][jc] flop. Derrick checked to Lappas who bet 11,000 before he check-raised all in for an effective 155,000. Lappas snap-called off that amount with [as][ah].

Derrick had flopped a huge draw with [8c][9c] and got there on the river as the board ran out [2h][td] to make him a straight. -- MC

8.25pm: Ferguson takes another scalp
Sometimes these young kids do have it. Having already eliminated a player with kings just before the bubble, Andrew Ferguson took another scalp with a legitimate hand. He opened to 8,000 from the cut-off with [Ac][Qh], Samuel Rocha Diaz three-bet jammed [Kh][8c] from the small blind for 72,000 from the small blind and Ferguson made the call.

The window card was the [Ks] but the rest of the board came [Ad][5s][Ah][2h] and Ferguson's hand held to take him to 220,000. Just 64 remain. -- NW

8.15pm: Coast into Day 3 my #@%, Mr Sykes
Jamie "@gotdeuces" Sykes was very happy at his table pre bubble and was sad to see it break. He Tweeted: "Bubble's burst and my incredible table got broke :( now just trying to coast into day 3 with my 300k."

He got moved to a tricky table that included Kevin Williams, PokerStars Team Online's Grzegorz Mikielewicz and Andrew Ferguson. Best to follow your own advice then Jamie, right? Wrong!

No longer had he sat down and he five-bet the latter of these players! Ferguson opened to 6,000 from the hijack to face a Sykes three-bet to 13,700 from the cut-off. The action folded back to the Scot who put in a four-bet to 27,000. Sykes wasn't finished though and five-bet to 46,000.

It got the job done as Ferguson relinquished his hand to drop to 150,000 chips. Now that Sykes has around 340,000 he might follow his own advice. -- MC

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

8pm: One in, one out
Two hands to tell you about, both at risk players got it in behind, one sucked out, one didn't.

Guido Braye was all-in and at risk with [Kc][Jh], Lewis Hunter the would be executioner with pocket nines. Both would make a full house on the [5c][Jc][4d][4h][4s] board, but Braye's was the better one and he survived.

But, Stephen Eames is out his [9h][6s] way behind Christopher Johnston's pocket nines, 68 remain. -- NW

7.50pm: Liam Spence is the UKIPT Edinburgh bubble boy
Liam Spence was the unfortunate player to have the tag of, "bubble boy" in the main event here in Edinburgh. The hand happened before hand for hand play could begin.

He made an aggressive play with a big hand but walked into a monster held by Michael Kemp. The major action happened on the turn when the board read [6d][9d][5s][4h]. Kemp led for 25,000 and called when Spence shoved for 68,000.

Spence: [9c][7c] for top pair and open ended straight draw.
Kemp: [7d][8s] for a turned straight.

The river came [ah] and all of a sudden 72 faces relaxed around the room knowing they were all in the money. Spence, understandably, dashed out of the room before we could get a photo of him. -- MC

7.45pm: Bubble time in Edinburgh
We're now on the bubble here in Edinburgh with Keith Douglas the player who's out in 74th. He moved all-in for 24,000 over the top of a 6,000 open from Andrew Ferguson. The latter snap called the all-in.

Ferguson: [Kc][Ks]
Douglas: [6d][6c]

Flop: [2d][7c][Qs] - No change
Turn: [6h] - all change
River: [Kd] - all change again

"That's pretty brutal," said Ferguson as he took the pot. One more out then everyone else is in the money. -- NW

7.35pm: Having a Wilde old time, not
Alan Wilde and Przemysław Dajer have been sat together all day. You would think they'd care about each other by this late stage. Well you'd be wrong, the latter just took the former out of the tournament.

Dajer opened from under the gun with [ah][qs] and called when a short-stacked Wilde shoved from the button with [ts][th]. The board ran [6c][3c][ks][qh][7h] to pair the Pole's queen.

Also to fall this level were: Luan Beciri, Arjan Textor, Brenda Sheerins, Ewan Rae, Daniel Mountford and Michael McNelis.

Just three more players will leave with no money. Can you feel the tension? -- MC

7.25pm: Burland wins a curious pot
A curious hand just played out on Jamie Burland's table. The UKIPT Brighton Season 1 winner made it 6,600 to go under-the-gun, it passed to Greig Cushnie, who put in two blue 5,000 chips without saying anything. It was clear it was meant to go as a call, but Lukasz Roczniak wanted confirmation before he took any action.

So the floor was called and ruled that as Cushnie's bet totalled more than 50% of the legal minimum raise that it would have to go as a raise, so Cushnie was forced to make it 10,200 total. With that sorted, Roczniak called on the button and when it got back to Burland, he too made the call.

The flop fell [Kd][5h][Jc], first to act Burland fired out a bet of 15,700 and he took the pot down. -- NW

7.15pm: Chip counts
We've just flowed the chip counts into the blog, you can see the count of everyone left in the tournament at the start of level 15 right here. -- NW

7pm: Dejected Kay exits tournament
We bumped into Dominic Kay in the break and he told us how busted the last hand of level 14.

Kevin Williams opened from late position before Kay shoved 16 big blinds in from the button with pocket nines. The small blind shoved behind with ace-king and rivered a straight after Williams folded (an ace too). -- MC

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

6.45pm: Close but no cigar for...
Stephan Schreitl, Kuljinder Singh, Jakub Kyrian, Stephen Ng, Dara Fitzgerald, Christophe Stammet, Richard Haile, Lindsay McGregor, Johan Lendenius, Christopher Thomson, Mark Ellis, Tim Davie, Huy Hang, James Gray, Charles Chattha, Jonathan Slater, Nie Jianhui and Grant Kinnear. -- MC

6.40pm: Break timel
That's the end of level 14 and players are now on a break. Will level 15 be the level when the bubble bursts? -- NW

6.35pm: Mikielewicz makes a good call
PokerStars Team Online's Grzegorz Mikielewicz is back up to something approaching an average stack after making a good call against Darren Knaggs. I missed the pre-flop action (but pot size suggested raise from Knaggs, call from Mikielewicz) but the two of them saw a [3h][Jh][6h] flop.

It was checked through and the [Ad] fell on the turn, again it checked through. The [9s] completed the board and Knaggs bet 12,000, Mikielewicz swiftly called, "king high," said Knaggs, showing [Ks][10c] Mikielewicz showed [As][5c] to claim the pot and is now up to 80,000. -- NW

6.33pm: Yong Loeser all his chips
Rob Yong's UKIPT Edinburgh ride has come to an end after he lost a flip to Manig Loeser.

Loeser had been opening more pots than anybody and player like Yong had been playing back at him. The German kept calmly folding until he found a hand he wanted to call with. He opened to his usual 4,800 and called when Yong shoved for around 40,000.

Loeser: [as][kh]
Yong: [9s][9c]

The board ran [2d][td][qc][4s][jd] to make Broadway for Loeser.

Yong said he didn't like the flop but still seemed a little shocked at the river. His chips got a good old shove across the table before he wished everyone luck at the table and thanked the floor staff for a great tournament. Loeser needed that pot to halt his slide. It put him back up to 130,000. -- MC

6.20pm: On the slide
Both Jamie Dale and Kevin Williams have taken hits in the last few minutes and thanks to Twitter we can tell you about them.

"Took a gross beat in a 130k pot. 70k @ 1200/2400(300)," tweeted Williams, whilst Dale said: "75kish approaching the money. Lost TT v AK down the streets value betting ten high flush into the king." -- NW

6.10pm: Three-way pot gets to the river
Three players saw a [Qs][10s][10h] flop, first to act Brett Angell checked, Michael Huber followed suit and Lukasz Roczniak decided he wanted to see a free turn card. The [Kc] popped out on the turn, it checked to Huber, he bet 6,800 and both players called.

The [Ah] completed the board and the three players reverted to their flop tactic of checking, Huber showed [Ac][7d], Roczniak tabled [Qc][Jh] for the rivered straight and Angell - who had a perplexed look on his face - mucked his cards face down. -- NW

6.03pm: Nice river trick from Batey
Liam Batey found a much needed river card to save a lot of chips in a hand versus Vladislav Donchev.

There was a raise to 4,900 and two calls before Batey squeezed to 11,300 from the big blind. Donchev was the only caller from the button. The flop came down [5c][4c][2h] and Batey continued for 16,000. Call.

Batey fired again, for 24,700, on the [5s] turn and was called once again before both players checked the [3s] river. Batey had made a BMW wheel with [ac][td]. His Bulgarian PokerStars qualifier opponent shook his head and open mucked [8s][8h]. Batey was stacking his mess of chips but seemed to have around 180,000. Donchev dropped to 65,000. -- MC

5.55pm: The 100 club
As level 14 gets underway just 98 players remain, that means 17 players were eliminated in the last hour. If that pace continues then the bubble will be firmly in sight as level 15 gets underway and 'should' burst sometime during level 15. -- NW

5.50pm: Cahal has Heapes more chips
Cahal Heapes just doubled through Greig Cushnie and is now right back in it here in Edinburgh.

I joined the action to see a [2h][8d][5s] flop on the felt, Cushnie c-bet 3,500, Heapes check-raised to 9,000, Cushnie set Heapes all-in and the latter called all-in for 43,500 total.

Cushnie: [Ah][Qd]
Heapes: [8s][7d]

The [Js] turn and [8c] river only strengthened Heapes grip on the hand and he's now up to around 95,000, right on average. -- NW

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

5.38pm: Gray day for Carolyn
Pocket nines have been Carolyn Gray's best friend and biggest enemy this last level. She doubled up with them not long before she busted with them.

Manig Loeser helped her double up when his [kh][qh] couldn't connect with multiple draws on an [ah][td][6d][4h][4d] board. He dropped to 140,000 chips.

Those chips soon ended up in the lap of Lukasz Roczniak after he raise-called her shove with pocket jacks. The Pole's stack rose to 160,000. -- MC

5.25pm: David Vamplew is sick
Both in the poker sense and the actual feeling unwell sense. "Quick lemsip to keep me going. 280k at 1k/2k bubble coming fairly soon #ukiptedinburgh," he tweeted. If he keeps this up no one will be able to or want to get close to him. -- NW

5.15pm: Billy the Kid
Kevin "@kevish47" Williams is enjoying life right now. He Tweeted: "5bet DaWarsaw and got a cbet through in a 3bet pot. 178k @ 1k/2k #UKIPTEdinburgh." -- MC

5.10pm: A tale of two kings
Two pre-flop all-ins for you, both involving kings, but did they hold up?

Hand One: Lewis Hunter was all-in pre-flop for 45,100 with [Ad][2c] and in deep trouble against René Gisbertz's pocket kings.

But the [Ah][Js][Jc] flop vaulted him from worst to first and he stayed there on the [7h] turn and [7h] river.

Hand Two: At the same time as Hunter was doubling up, on the adjacent table, Rob Yong made it 4,000 to play, Lukasz Roczniak flat called only for Manig Loeser to make it 23,000 to go from the small blind. Back on Yong he folded quickly, but Roczniak moved all-in for 43,300 and Loeser made the call.

Loeser: [Ah][Qh]
Roczniak: [Kh][Kc]

The board ran [10d][4d][8h][Js][5h] and Loeser, who had 200,000 to start the hand, took a hit to his stack. -- NW

4.55pm: Chip counts updated
We did a full sweep of the chip counts in the break. You can see the list by clicking here. -- MC

4.45pm: High Roller underway
The £2,150 UKIPT Edinburgh High Roller is underway, we've spotted Sam Razavi, Wojtek Barzantny, Dominik Nitsche and Simon Deadman in the field of 13. So small but packed with talent, we'll keep you updated on how that plays out over the next two days. -- NW

4.40pm: Bubble coming into sight
Just 115 players now remain in the UKIPT Edinburgh main event. Of those who remain, 72 will get paid. Whilst the actual bubble is still 43 players and probably a couple of levels away, it's around this sort of times that it'll start to pray on the minds of some players.

Of course we started today with 267, these are the latest to fall short of the money: Richard Brown, Antonis Nikolaou, Esa Strandman, Jeff Kimber, Johan Lindqvist, Colin Croal, William Champion, Robert Paterson, Robert Molloy, Richard Sinclair, Jaroslaw Trzcinka, David Clarkson, John Thain, Nicholas Wealthall, Jason Tompkins, Ronnie Gustafsson, Adrian Ko, Robert Bulman, Lee Hanlon, Julien Monfort, Iain Mapherson, Marcus Richardson, Martin Míšek, Peter Wigglesworth, Paul McTaggart and Neil Raine. -- NW

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinburgh (and how they've been drinking their tea today) : Marc Convey (through the mouth like normal) and Nick Wright (through a grape vine twizzler). Photos by Mickey May (doesn't drink tea, but drinks coffee with cool detachment whilst smoking).