"Why does this still seem like gambling to you? I mean, why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker every single year? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas? It's a skill game, Jo."
The above is a classic quote from the cult poker movie Rounders and if you replaced World Series of Poker with UKIPT Dublin then you could very well be talking about Max Silver. For the Brit has made the final table of the UKIPT Dublin Main Event in two out of his three attempts, winning it in Season 1 and finishing fourth in Season 2. On the solitary occasion he didn't final table, he busted out during Day 2 last season, he put his unexpected free time to good use by finishing runner-up in the High Roller side event.
Tonight Silver finds himself in a familiar position staring down on the field from the summit of the chip counts. Silver was also in the lead at the conclusion of Day 1 of UKIPT2 Dublin and at the end of play today he bagged up a monstrous 311,700 chips, some 207,300 more than Day 1A chip leader Noel McMahon. His stack is, as far as we can tell, a UKIPT Main Event record for the end of a Day 1. All the more impressive when you consider that he had just eight levels to amass his, whereas Marcin Milde (278,700, UKIPT3 Nottingham) and Sam MacDonald (260,100, UKIPT2 Nottingham) had 11 levels to build their impressive hauls.
As to how Silver got his chips today, "I played well and ran better," he told PokerStars Blog. It's a potent combination in the hands of someone as skilled as Silver. He was down to 8,000 after two levels but had over 80,000 by level five. He coolered an opponent with aces against eights, on a [9][8][8][A][4] board, with most of the chips going in on the river.
But it was late in the day when Silver really went to town, going from that stack to over 300,000 in less than two hours. He got one boost by eliminating David Lappin in a four-bet pot. Silver flopped a set of jacks on an all heart flop, Lappin held the [Ah] but missed his draw on the turn and river. Silver then took Thomas Dunwoodie's six-figure stack in short order over a triumvirate of hands. The denouement is that Silver has nearly eight times the current average stack and if he maintained his stack he'd still have the average with 44 players remaining. His lead of 167,800 over Marc Kennedy (143,900), who is second in chips, is bigger than Kennedy's stack!
The second starting flight of UKIPT4 Dublin was a sell out and by the time over 80 alternates had been seated the field topped out at 456. Add them to the 226 who played Day 1A and you get a total field of 682, creating a prize pool of €463,078. From that pot, a total of €87,700 is reserved for the winner, anyone making Monday's final table will be guaranteed €8,748 and 103 players will cash for a minimum of €1,250. You can see the entire payout structure here.
And Silver wasn't the only one to amass more than the Day 1A chip leader as: Ludovic Geilich (138,900), James Young (129,400), Deborah Worley-Roberts (108,800), Ilmari Sukanen, (133,800) and Robert Schulz, (141,200) all proved B stood for bigger.
A number of members from Team PokerStars Pro, Team PokerStars Online and Full Tilt Poker Ambassadors took to the felt today, with mixed results. All three Full Tilt Poker Ambassadors made it through, Sin Melin ended the day with 37,400, Martins Adeniya bagged up 50,300, whilst Dermot Blain has the most work to do tomorrow as he'll start on 22,500.
However, for those wearing the Red Spade the day was not so profitable. Only Dale Philip progressed and the fact that the Scotsman's head was on the felt at the end of the day tells its own story. At least the Scotsman will be back, but he's got a below average 26,775. A profit is a profit though and what Liv Boeree, Jake Cody, and Mickey Petersen would give for that stack right now.
Petersen and Cody busted early on. Cody called off his stack on an ace high board with ace-jack, despite sensing he was beat. He was right as his opponent - Kasper Linneman - had ace-king. He'll be back for the High Roller tomorrow and you suspect Petersen and Boeree might well join him.
Numerous Rational Group employees took advantage of the fact that they were, for only the second time ever, allowed to play in a UKIPT Main Event. PokerStars Head of Poker Communications Lee Jones was one such person who temporarily gave up the day job for a shot at a poker title.
Wait, what? That's right, I'm playing #ukipt Dublin tomorrow. My first @PokerStars event ever. pic.twitter.com/MCRMhp9MqG
— Lee Jones (@leehjones) February 27, 2014And despite running pocket kings into Cody's quad sevens early on he recovered and ended the day on a very healthy 95,800. Among the employees who'll be joining him on Day 2 will be PokerStars Head of PR Michael Josem (61,600) and PokerStars Blog Staff Writer Rick Dacey (38,600).
Other big names to progress to Day 2 include:
Kevin Killeen - 61,200
Owen Robinson - 43,300
Jack Salter - 65,700
Mick McCloskey - 68,700
Tom Hall - 62,700
Duncan McLellan - 21,300
Sam Holden, 15,900
Whilst the likes of Joe Grech, Nick Abou Risk, Jude Ainsworth and Richard Evans will all have to wait until UKIPT4 Nottingham for another shot at a UKIPT Main Event. Everyone else left in, including Silver, will have to negotiate Day 2 and 3 before they can even think about winning the title.
To catch up with all today's explosive action click here and here. The Day 2 seat draw can be viewed here, whilst the start of Day 2 chip counts can be perused by clicking right here. We'll be back tomorrow from noon as will UKIPT Host Nick Wealthall who was 'multi-tabling' today by playing and doing his usual gig of recording some UKIPT videos. He finished the day on 55,400 and below you can see one such video, in which Wealthall takes you through his Day 1.
All photos are copyright of Danny Maxwell. You can see his Day 1B gallery here.