Another Day one, another sell out here at The Hippodrome Casino in London. A massive 262 players took part today, for some context consider that only 343 players played in the first UKIPT Series back in April. Those 262 combined with the 216 from yesterday mean that the total number of runners for the UKIPT Series2 is 478.
The man leading the way at the end of Day 1B was 21-year-old Callum Palfrey from Bournemouth who qualified online for £55. After 12 levels of play he bagged up 253,500, "I played pretty well and ran hot. That's a good combination," he told me at the end of play. Palfrey used to play for a living but fell out of love of the game but is now getting back into it.
A couple of friends of his from Bournemouth also played today and one of them - Phil Baker - accumulated the third highest chip stack today as he finished on 194,800, Ben Miller (205,500) and Aaron Armstrong (165,600) also enjoyed good days at the felt. Whilst Paul Zimbler (110,600) and Jeff Kimber (100,500) ran up six figure stacks.
Whilst there were no Team PokerStars Pros in the field today the Red Spade was represented by four players, two male and two female. EPT Live commentary comedy act Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan took to the felt. It'll be Hartigan who'll claim the bragging rights as he outlasted Stapleton, but both couldn't hold in coin flips when it really mattered and neither advanced to Day 2.
And it was much the same story for Friend of PokerStars Charlotte Van Brabander and EPT presenter Gaelle Garcia Diaz. The former ran pocket fours into pocket kings in the last level of the day to bust.
Just 69 players advanced from the second flight, you can catch up with all today's action here and here. They'll join the 62 who made it through Day 1A from noon as we play down to a winner. You can see combined chip counts from both days here. Tune back in from noon tomorrow to see who can claim that they are as good as Jake Cody. You can see the Day 2 seat draw here and the prizepool information here.
All photos are copyright of Neil Stoddart