8:55pm: Leon Louis leads Day 1A field
Leon Louis bagged up 122,700 to lead the 55 remaining players from the 116 starters on Day 1A. A full wrap of the day's play coming up on the blog shortly. -- MC
8:40pm: Final four
The clock has been paused and the word is that players will be dealt four more hands before they're done for the night. -- NW
8:35pm: Ward bakes Phil to pass 100k
Thomas Ward may well have moved into the chip lead after he eliminated Phil Baker whilst holding pocket aces.
Baker opened to 2,000 from under the gun and called after Ward three-bet to 5,200 from the hijack. Both players checked the [Kh][Ad][3s] flop before Baker check-called a 6,400 bet on the [Qd] turn.
That left Baker with only 9,000 back and after he checked the [Qs] river, Ward asked him a question for the lot. He tanked for a minute before he called only to be shown pocket aces for top full house. Ward moved up to around 105,000. -- MC
8:20pm: What goes up must come down the Tannerhill
Brian Tannerhill has been sat on table one in seat one all day, and has also been leading Day 1A of late. His stack has fallen to around 102,000 after he lost a couple of small pots.
One was in a battle of blinds, the other was when he was caught bluffing against Tomasz Raniszewski, also in a blind battle.
Raniszewski completed from the small blind and Tannerhill checked his option to see a [6c][9c][Kh] flop. Both players checked to the [4d] turn where Tannerhill raised Raniszewski's 1,600 bet up to 3,500. Call.
On the [9h] river Raniszewski check-called Tannerhill's 4,600 bet. The latter could only muster a bluffing [Jd][Tc] and lost out to Raniszewski's [Kd][3h]. -- MC
8.05pm: Everyone loves a chopped pot.....not!
Andrew Teng and Dean Lyall got entangled in a four-betting shoving pot but it ended in an anti-climax.
After a 1,600 open from the hijack, Teng three-bet to 3,050 from the button and Lyall four-bet all in from the small blind. The original raiser folded but Teng made an immediate call. Both opened aces and chopped the pot.
Teng's stack rose a little 27,000 and Lyall's to 15,000. -- MC
7:55pm: Brian Tannerhill leads the field
As level eight begins the chip leader appears to be Brian Tannerhill. The Scotsman, who has $3,220 in live earnings, all of which came in Edinburgh, has a stack of around 110,000.
Blinds up: 400/800, 100 ante
7:45pm:I'll show you mine, if you show me yours!
It was an offer that Niclos Cardyn could hardly refuse. "I show one, you also?" asked Sven Wendt before he folded to a turn bet after previous aggression.
The pot started with a Cardyn raise to 1,500 from hijack and a Wendt big blind defend from Wendt. The flop fell [Ts][Jc][6s] and Wendt led for 1,000 and called when Cardyn raised to 3,500. On the [Qd] turn Wendt checked to Cardyn who bet 7,650.
Wendt tanked, had a joke around, made his offer and folded showing the [3d]. Cardyn allowed him to pick one and the [7d] was exposed. Cardyn moved back up to 29,000. -- MC
7:35pm: Gone
There's no easy way to say this, but If you had a betting slip with the name of: Enzo Gomez, Amit Patni, William Cheung, Daniel Brook, Keith Christie, Matas Cimbolas, Kyle Maguire, Christopher Matthews, Emran Hussain, Ian Walker, Robert Gregory, Vitezslav Filip, Morten Mortensen, Ronnie Ballantyne, Kia Ross, Paul Dixon, Mark Baxter, Pawel Swenarek, Callum Richardson, Antonio Crolla or John Boyle on it then you can tear it up as they're are all out. -- NW
7:20pm: Davie done for
A recent Day 1A casualty is Tim Davie, his former tablemate, David Lappin, gave me the details. "He lost a big one with aces against queens, all-in pre-flop. A queen came on the turn, That left him with about one big blind, he spun it up to around eight big blinds and then he busted. -- NW
7:10pm: More chip counts
A delve into the field has unearthed the following chip counts:
Andrew Hulme - 19,800
Jamie Sykes - 29,500
Phil Baker - 23,000
Ian LeBruce - 44,500
Andrew Ferguson - 16,000
Ben Jenkins - 29,400
Leon Louis - 51,000
Chris Derrick - 59,800
David Lappin - 9,250
Dean Lyall - 12,500
David Docherty - 29,000
Thomas Ward - 53,000
Thomas Partridge - 11,000
Nick Newport - 45,000
Nicholas Cardyn - 29,000
Rupert Elder - 17,700
Andrew Teng - 16,500
7:00pm: Jamie Sykes talks to the blog about his last two levels
The PokerStars Blog had lined up Jake Cody for a quick word in the break, but he was coolered and left the building. That left us with the next best thing, his roommate from last night and finalist last season here in Edinburgh, Jamie Sykes.
"It's been a rough couple of levels where I've lost two 20k pots; one jacks against ace-queen and then ace-queen versus three-four off on a ace-deuce-three flop. He bet-called the flop like a huge hero and I never begrudge anyone who shows that much heart. I felt like he deserved to win as he showed the most heart! I've only got top pair where he was really creative there!"
"I've got a pretty good table and I'm going to continue to play like I have done and hope to get in some good spots. You can't win it on day one, I'm going to try and steadily accumulate chips rather than try and run the table. I have an aggro-image from earlier so I think I'll get paid if I hit something."
6.50pm: Chip counts
As we enter the last two levels these are the top 10 chip stacks:
Patrick Weifels - 89,000
Brian Tannerhill - 85,000
Vytenis Salickas - 73,250
Andrew Moore - 66,250
Erdim Koz - 61,800
Daniiar Bakchiev - 61,000
Ondrej Drozd - 59,000
Leon Louis - 53,000
Colin Gillon - 50,325
Stephen Docherty - 46,850
Blinds up: 300/600, 75 ante
6.32pm: Break time
The remaining players are now on their final 15 minute break of the day. -- NW
6.25pm: Cody cut down
There was a Jake Cody shaped hole in the seat he'd previously occupied. I made the universal sign for 'gone' to Morten Mortensen and he nodded. "He got it in with aces against jack-ten on a 10-7-3 rainbow flop. His opponent (Daniiar Bakchiev) turned a jack. It was a big pot."
Indeed it was as Bakchiev is up to 52,600. As for Mortensen he's struggling along on 8,825 but that's better than it has been. "I got down to 3,500 on about the fifth hand of the day. So it's been a grind and a boring one at that." -- NW
6.15pm: Ace on the river
No, the poker book written by Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein, it actually happened in between Philip Baker and Kovacs Gergo to stop the pot swelling more than it might've.
Baker opened from the button and just flat called when his Hungarian opponent three-bet from the big blind. The flop fanned [Jc][Jd][Th] and Gergo checked to Baker who wasted little time in betting 3,200. Call.
The turn fell as the [3s] and Baker bet 3,400 when the action was checked to him once more. Gergo called again before he checked for a third time on the [As] river.
"Terrible card for me!" said Baker as he checked behind and opened [Qd][Qc].
"No, great card for you!" responded Gergo as he showed [Kc][Kh]. Baker dropped to 25,500. -- MC
6:00pm: McTaggart busts
With six UKIPT Main Event cashes to his name it's fair to say the Paul McTaggart knows a thing or two about making a deep run. However, he'll have to wait until Dublin to make another one in a UKIPT Main Event as he's just busted.
Andrew Ferguson told me that McTaggart jammed Q-10 into the pocket kings of Paul Reaney for about 3,000 chips and got no help.
5:50pm: Ellwood has no choice but to settle for defeat
News reached us that Jack Ellwood busted in the last level in a strange hand recounted for the blog by Rupert Elder and Andrew Hulme.
Hulme opened to 700 before Andrew Moore misclick raised to 1,100, the consensus was he probably meant to make it 2,100 (Moore was away from the table as the story was being told).
Ellwood then four-bet to 2,150 and was called by Moore after Hulme folded. The rest of the chips went in on the flop containing a four, which had connected with Moore's pocket fours. Ellwood had aces and failed to catch up. -- MC
5:45pm: Exits
We're still at the stage of the day where the exits are a trickle rather than a torrent. Renzo Huerzeler, Sam Onions, Jack Ellwood (see above), Marc Hunter and Niall Farrell
are all out.
Blinds up: 200/400, 50 ante
5:35pm: Cardyn can't call
Nicolas Cardyn and Nicholas Newport tangled in a big pot that ended with the former laying down trip jacks.
The two had made it to the river with around 15,000 in the middle and a board that rested as [2h][Jd][Js][6h][Td].
Newport was under the gun and checked to face a 8,800 from his French opponent. He responded by moving all in for 19,225. Cardyn tanked for an age before he open-folded [as][Jc] face up. He begged Newport to show but the Irishman smiled and slid his cards to the dealer. Cardyn was left with 27,000, a healthy stack that may have affected his decision. -- MC
5.25pm: Barber cuts Cody's chips
Four players, including Lewis Barber (small blind) and Jake Cody (big blind) all put in 1,900 pre-flop, which suggested it was a three-bet pot and watched on as the dealer spread a [10s][5s][9c] flop, first to act Barber led for 3,600 and Cody was the only caller.
On the [9h] turn Barber bet 8,500 into a pot of roughly 15,000 leaving himself just 18,000 back. With action on Cody he began riffling a stack of black T100 chips that he'd removed from his stack of roughly 31,000. He then placed them to one side and took the red T500 chips from his stack. Another minute or so passed during which the bespectacled Cody cut a confused figure. Evidently someone at the table - although it wasn't Barber - had waited long enough for the Team PokerStars Pro to make his decision and called the clock.
As his countdown reached 15 seconds Cody pushed his cards towards the muck, pot to Barber. -- NW
5:20pm: Gomez gets there versus Rawnsley
Neil Rawnsley's good start was halted by Enzo Gomez after the latter turned a straight and engineered a full double up.
Rawnsley opened to 650 from mid position and was only called by Gomez in the small blind en route to a [Kd][8s][6s] flop. Rawnsley continued for 725 and was check-called to the [9h] turn. There, Gomez treated his opponent's second bullet for 1,300, to a raise to 3,500. Rawnsley stared at the board and made on the call.
On the [3d] river Gomez shoved for his remaining 9,200. Rawnsley went deep into the tank and went a darker shade of red as he pressurised himself into making a decision. He came and calling and was shown [7s][5h] for a straight by Gomez.
"Nice catch," said Rawnsley who dropped to 26,500. -- MC
5.05pm: LeBruce wins with ace high
They say home advantage is a tangible thing when it comes to poker and UKIPT Edinburgh is going pretty well for local boy Ian LeBruce thus far. The local lad, who when he's not playing poker is part of a business called Cappuccino Ads, recently won a UK entrepreneurs award and he had to get quite creative to win a pot Paul Dixon.
The latter hand fired 1,100 on the turn of a [4h][9s][3s][3c] board and Lebruce called to created a pot of around 6,200 as they went to a [10d] river. Dixon led out of 1,650 and after tanking for some time LeBruce made the call. Dixon was hesitant to show so LeBruce did the honours, rolling over his [Ah][Qd], which was good. Some call that.
4.50pm: Operating room or Assembly Rooms, with Rupert Elder
The saying, "Break a leg!" is something one would say to another person when they want to wish them luck on a venture about to be embarked.
At the WSOP in 2012 former EPT San Remo winner Rupert Elder actually did break a leg and had to have screws inserted into his leg. Elder was due to have those screws out today, but he's playing here instead.
PokerStars Blog caught up with him in the break to get to the bottom of the story, and this is what he had to say:
"I thought I had a hospital appointment at 7:30am to have the screws taken out of my leg but it turned out I was due in three days ago to have a pre-op assessment. I misread the letter though and they had actually rescheduled it. I went to the hospital and they told me my operation had been cancelled and they booked me in for a new one."
"I didn't sleep last night as well as I must've been nervous. I got home at 9:00am and decided to come and play this and it's going well so far; I've only played 50 minutes of a level and have 32,000!"
Break a leg, Rupert! (Not literally). -- MC
4:35pm: Halfway home
Four levels down, four more to go before the Day 1A players can bag their chips. If that process were taking place right now the player with the most to bag would be Vytenis Salickas. He's got 77,000 after getting mighty lucky to eliminate Paul Davies. I didn't see the hand but Tim Davie told me that Davies flopped a set of fives on an [A][5][3] flop, Salickas set him in with [A][K] and hit running cards to make a bigger full-house. Ouch.
Here's a look at some other chip leaders and the stacks of the notables in the field today:
Patrick Weifels - 65,000
Erdim Koz - 43,000
Jake Cody - 32,000
Phil Baker - 18,000
Ian LeBruce - 25,000
Jack Ellwood - 9,500
Leon Louis - 43,000
Andrew Ferguson - 24,600
Ben Jenkins - 25,000
Paul McTaggart - 3,350
Tim Davie - 47,000
Dean Lyall - 5,600
Rupert Elder - 32,000
Neil Ranwnsley - 38,000
Chris Derrick - 20,500
David Lappin - 23,600
Thomas Ward - 35,600
David Docherty - 17,000
Late registration is now closed, the board shows that 101 of 116 entrants remain although we'll bring you confirmation of the total numbers for today shortly. -- NW
PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT Edinburgh: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Rene Velli.