UKIPT Edinburgh started with nearly 50 tables across both day ones, and by Sunday evening, just one table remains. Eight players are still in with a chance of being the fourth ever champion north of the border, seven spots away from a trophy and £93,900. Who will follow in the footsteps of Nick Abou-Risk, Fintan Gavin and Nicolau Villa-Lobos?
The mathematical favourite heading into tomorrow is Jason Beazley, who bagged up 2,300,000 for the chip lead. He secured his place at the top of the leader board by bursting the final table bubble. Jon Lundy moved all in with ace-king and Beazley found jacks behind him, made the call, and survived a ten-high board. Yet again, the beginning of day chip leader failed to make it to the end of the day. Will the same fate await Beazley tomorrow?
One player who will try and seal that fate is a certain Liv Boeree. The Team PokerStars Pro had a difficult 2013 before finding renewed confidence in 2014 after her 50th place finish at the recent PCA Main Event. She'll enter the final table second in chips by just 71,000 and looks in a dangerous mood.
She was short for a day and a half but showed gritty determination and patience until fortunes turned her way. One standard, and one lucky, double up saw her get back to average, and from there she took off and bossed proceedings until the day's end.
Here's how the final table will line up:
Seat 1. Jason Beazley, United Kingdom - 2,300,000
Seat 2. Jacobus Visser , Netherlands, PokerStars Qualifier - 265,000
Seat 3. Ciaran Heaney, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier - 363,000
Seat 4. Tomasz Raniszewski , Poland, PokerStars Qualifier - 490,000
Seat 5. Dean Hutchinson, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player - 1,290,000
Seat 6. Liv Boeree, United Kingdom, Team PokerStars Pro - 2,229,000
Seat 7. Michael Kane, United Kingdom - 505,000
Seat 8. Eldon Orr, Northern Ireland - 1,136,000
Mickey Petersen was the other representative from Team PokerStars today and he too dug his heels in and played a patient game. It took a very unlucky turn of events to ruin his day. He and Jacobus Visser both held ace-queen and played out an all in pot worth more than the average at the time. Visser's holding was both diamonds though and found three friends on the board to flush away the Dane's hopes.
Ace-queen was also good for Ciaran Heaney to bust the dangerous Tim Finne, who had made his move with ace-seven. Chris Gordon, Sam Grafton, James Williams and Tom Hall are other players that the finalists will be very glad busted before they could show off their recognised skills tomorrow.
The show resumes at midday on Monday and although Beazley and Boeree start as favourites, they won't have it all their own way. The chip lead changed hands multiple times today and may well do so tomorrow. The UKIPT Edinburgh trophy could still find a home in Holland, Poland, Northern Ireland, Rep. of Ireland or could even up here in Scotland as Michael Kane carries the host nation's hope. We think it's a final table that could blow the bloody doors off!
For now, click on the links below to catch up on all the day's action and to see who's won what, so far.
Levels 17-20.
Levels 21-24.
Prize pool and payouts.
All photos are copyright of Rene Velli. He's had a beard since he was eight so be careful of stealing his photos