9.05pm: Play is over
Day 1B of the UKIPT Series2 is over, roughly 75 players have made it through. They and the 62 players who advanced from Day 1A will be back tomorrow at noon as we play to a winner. A full wrap of today's play is on the way.
8.45pm: Six more hands
The clock has been paused and players will play six more hands before bagging and tagging for the night.
8.35pm: Van Brabander busts
With just 20 minutes to go in the day Friend of PokerStars Charlotte Van Brabander has been knocked out. She told me: "I shoved for 12 big blinds from middle position with pocket fours and the lady (Raygon Egan) called with pocket kings."
8.35pm: Goubert gets going
If you look below you'll see Erwin Goubert's name among the recent bust outs and I happened to catch it live. He shoved for around 28,000 with [Ks][9s] and Will Kassouf re-shoved for 40,000 with [Ad][Qc]. The [2d][Jd][Ac] flop all but killed it, the [Kd] flop resurrected the hand but only briefly as the [8d] filled Kassouf's flush.
8.25pm: Last level of the day
Just 95 players remain as we enter the last level of the day, recent exits include: Aaron Armstrong, Erwin Goubert, Arnoud Van Der Werf, Jonathan Huckle, Ferhad Seyadi, Max Johnson, Rafael Henderson, Raymond Caabay, Terence Simpson, Brian Hartigan, Nikolajs Saveljevs, Peter Mccann, Simon Hemsworth, Jonathan Barusta, Andrew Newson, Paul Brennan and Francis Hepburn.
BLINDS UP: 800-1,600 ante 300
8.15pm: Chip counts
I did a lap of the room and here are some chip counts of the names and notables still in the field: Paul Zimbler (53,000), Alfie Baldwin (62,000), Alex Martin (48,000), Charlotte Van Brabander (48,000) and Callum Palfrey (97,000).
8pm: Hartigan busts
"It was one of those boring hands I'm afraid," said James Hartigan to me as he wandered over to me following his exit. "I shoved ten big blinds with pocket sixes, ran into ace-jack and he flopped an ace."
7.50pm: Snoopy shoves peanuts, gets unlucky
Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding was eliminated right at the end of level 10 but at least he can say he got it in good.
He shoved for 15,500 (around 13 big blinds) with [As][2c] and the runaway train that is Gana Sam damn near snapped him off from the big blind with [10s][8s]. The [2d][8d][9d][Kc][Qd] board gave Sam the best hand and Goulding wished everyone at the table good luck as he left.
BLINDS UP: 600-1,200 ante 200
7.35pm: Exits
There are just two tables in use in the upstairs Poker Deck as the remaining players are being moved downstairs as players are eliminated. Among the many to exit recently are: Philip Butt, Delyan Ruskov, Paul Upfold, Siegfried Hodgson, Sean Farrar, Timotheos Timotheou, Nikki Cole, Matt Rickard, Pedro Luis Uzcategui Felipe, William Whicher, Stuart Noyce, Eleftherios Sergidis, Stephen Elias, Lewis Barber, Jose Tarouca, Alaistair Hill, Robert Malvasi, Ashley Lippitt, Meenakshi Subramaniam, Alan Mansbridge, Gerald Ringe, Miho Aishima, Asif Warris, Andrew Berkecz, Jason Symonds, Alisdair Macrae, Steve Hall, Harijs Broza and Karun Dewan.
7.15pm: Chip counts
Two-time UKIPT winner Joeri Zandvliet is still in, "Forty," he said to me when he saw me eyeing up his chip stack. UKIPT3 Newcastle runner-up Alex Jobling is up to 55,000, Friend of PokerStars Charlotte Van Brabander is chugging along on 44,000 she's at the same table as Peter Ki Yuen Mok (95,000).
BLINDS UP: 600-1,200 ante 200
7.15pm: Clay baked
It's been a slow steady decline today for Dean Clay, not helped by having Gana Sam on his direct left all day. So, it was not a surprise that it was Sam who eliminated Clay. On his exit hand Clay moved all-in for around 8,000 with [Ac][Kh] and Sam made the call with pocket eights. The [Jd][3c][Ts][6s][6c] board kept the pocket pair on top. Clay, who satellites into a lot of PokerStars events, will be heading for Bulgaria and the Eureka Poker Tour in July.
7pm: Lam leads
Coming back from the break Jason Lam was in the top five chip stacks (see below) he's now the chip leader after eliminating two players in the same hand.
Chawdhury Shumon was all-in for around 20,000 with pocket kings, Lam had called with pocket jacks and Jacob Brocklehurst was all-in for his last 7,000 with [As][7s]. "He's live, he's very live," said Brocklehurst when the hands were turned over.
The [jh][6s][9h][7c][6c] board gave Lam the whole pot and he now has over 100,000.
6.50pm: Chip counts
Here's some of the chip leaders as level nine gets underway:
Simon Griffin: - 94,000
Nicholas Berry - 87,000
Callum Palfrey - 79,000
Jason Lam - 77,000
Craig O'Neill - 73,000
BLINDS UP: 500-1,000 ante 100
6.30pm: End of the level
The remaining players are now on a 20 minute break.
6.25pm: Stapleton shipped out
PokerStars Live commentator Joe Stapleton has been eliminated from the tournament but he was kind enough to tell me about his demise.
"I lost two flips, sixes against king-jack and sevens against king-queen. That took me down to 3,000 and I got it in with A-7 against A-K, flopped a seven but he rivered a king. To win poker tournament you have to learn to flip like a 15-year-old Romanian girl."
6.15pm: Kimber still crushing
Every time I've wandered past Jeff Kimber's table, which given he's still at one of seven tables in use in the Poker Deck, isn't that often he is stacking chips. He's up to around 68,000 and is definitely one of the chip leaders.
Friend of PokerStars Charlotte Van Brabander is also still playing in The Poker Deck and is on 19,000.
6pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this so I'll get straight to the point, the following players have all been eliminated from the tournament: Alan Gibney, Mark Baker, Tony Isaac, Wesley Oudshoorn, Steven Cheeke, Wayne Hemmings, Carl Poulman, John Stokes, Platen Ilias Tserliagkos, Paul Allen, Henry Wride, Samuel Basalian, Manuel Bardon Oshea, Christopher Richards, Andrew Waldron, Jamal Gormati, Andrew Francis, Ben Homer, Stephen Williams, Tarek Allam Jr, Luke Diaper, Lee Barrett, Anthony Wong, David Fletcher and Gregory Tytens.
BLINDS UP: 400-800 ante 100
5.45pm: Hartigan gets one through
"I'm requesting the red triangle," said James Hartigan and he duly moved his stack of 10,875 over the betting line from the big blind.
But this is only half the story of the hand, there had been a raise to 1,200 from under-the-gun, Paul Zimbler (who is one of the chip leaders with around 54,000) then put two red 1k chips over the line, his intention was clearly to raise but the dealer and then floor ruled it as a call. Zimbler wasn't happy about the rule, but after a bit of back and forth between him and the tournament director he accepted the ruling and play proceeded.
There was then another call from the player on the button before Hartigan moved his stack in, one by one his opponents folded and he took the pot.
5.35pm: Hand of the day
Despite only being halfway through proceedings I'm calling it now, this is the hand of the day.
The action was started by Gana Sam, he min-raised to 1,200, two seats along Richard Ball made it 2,000 total, this bet was then flat called by Dan Blake. Next to act John McGrane moved in for 4,100 total from the button. When it folded back to Gana he re-raised making it 10,000 total and Ball then moved all-in for 10,125. This sent Blake into a tailspin, he tanked then eventually folded pocket queens face-up, Sam put in the extra 125 and it was reveal time.
Sam: [8c][6c]
Ball: [Ac][Ah]
McGrane: [9c][9d]
Flop: [7s][5h][9s] - ok aces get cracked but to get cracked by both opponents hands on the same flop was unfortunate, Sam meanwhile had gone from way behind to way in front. The [Kh] turn and [4s] river bricked out and Sam scooped a huge pot to eliminate two players and climb to 55,000.
5.25pm: Keep em coming
The numbers just keep on rising here at the sold out UKIPT Series2. The tournament board is showing that 225 players have been seated, but just 210 of those seats still have bums on them.
Expect the spate of exits to vastly increase in the second half of the day as stacks get swallowed up by the increasing blinds and antes.
Photos copyright of Neil Stoddart.