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4.40pm: Time for a break
Another two levels have been played out and it's time once more to pause for breath. We'll be back in 15 minutes for the resumption of level 5. See you then. -- RS
4.38pm: Staff of Excellence
With all the chips flying around and high calibre poker being played out, it's easy to overlook the hard work being done by Dusk Till Dawn's assorted staff.
The complex logistics of running a tournament of this size have been handled with great authority by the organisers, the waitresses are buzzing around like dervishes, taking orders and delivering food, the dealers are keeping up a brisk pace of hands and overall it's been a exemplary show of how to organise a tournament.
Congratulations all you busy bees! -- RS
4:30pm: Gray clouds gathering
Not a weather report, but an account of the almost-demise of Andrew Gray, who became embroiled in a preflop coup with Nicholas Macnaughton. The second nuts for Gray - pocket kings - was unfortunately just a smidgen behind the pocket aces of Macnaughton.
Macnaughton duly took the spoils from the cooler, rising up to 38,000 whilst Gray looked a little disconsolate with 4,500. He'll have his work cut out to recover from such an unpromising postion. -- RS
4:20pm: Nines a Crowder
Will Crowder is one of a number of recent bustouts from Day 1C of this tournament. He shoved for 2,775 with [Kd][4h] but ran into the [Ac][Ks] of Sandiep Khosa.
Liam Batey, Caicai Huang, James Mitchell and Alex Goulder are other recent casualties. -- NW
4:15pm: Gordon Blows a part of his stack
Chris Gordon got off to a rip-roaring start but just lost his biggest pot of the day to drop back to 48,000, still a tidy amount.
Peter Blow raised to 525 from first position and was called by Gordon and three other players. The flop fell [4d][3h][8c] and the action was checked to Gordon who bet 825. Only Blow called before both checked the [6h] turn. Blow led for 2,500 on the [2s] river and Gordon called before mucking upon seeing [8s][8d] appear from Blow's hand. -- MC
4:05pm: Yet more chip counts
There are so many big names in the field today that it's impossible to keep track of them all, here though are a few counts from the floor:
Craig McCorkell - 24,800
Paul Foltyn - 14,200
Richard Evans - 16,500
Roberto Romanello - 35,000
Zimnan Ziyard - 15,600
Fintan Gavin - 20,300
Daniel Stacey - 24,000
3:55pm: Orlando Blooms
Orlando Anderson has made hay during an impressive first three levels, running his stack up to an commanding 65,000 which may well be good for the chip lead at this stage. -- RS
3:50pm: Tierney dethrones King
Miguel King has been buffeted from pillar to post in the opening levels, and finally his tournament has been brought to a close.
A series of raises ended with King pushing his final 3,550 into the middle - Jim Tierney the only man brave enough to take on the King.
With pocket sevens, King was no doubt hoping for a flip to propel him back into contention but when Tierny flipped a dominating pair of nines, it looked as though he was about to lose his crown.
A board of [Qh][Td][6d][4d][6h] confirmed his deposition and Tierney was left smiling with an impressive 34,000 as King collected his belongings and departed. -- RS
3:47pm: It's Miller time
Andrew Miller is not here to mess about. He's going to be in the action, and when he plays, he plays big.
Joe Greenfield called the blog over to tell us about a funny couple of hands.
Greenfield himself opened to 450 from under the gun and the action folded around to Miller who moved his 50,000 chips over the line with pocket sevens. Greenfield had aces, called all in for 18,000, and said thank you very much to a double up.
The very next hand the action folded to Miller on the button and he moved all in with king-jack. Danny Blair was in the big blind and called once he looked down at jacks. Miller went on the make a straight and Blair's stack was decimated and he was on the rail soon after. Miller moved back up to 36,000. -- MC
3:40pm: It's for charity
UKIPT4 Nottingham 6-max champion Ben Mayhew is no stranger to prop bets, if you ever share a table with him ask him about the pineapple and sand bet. Anyway, we digress, he's also a man of his word and thanks to taking on a challenge from a friend whilst inebriated he's at Dusk Till Dawn today selling raffle tickets whilst dressed in the cocktail waitress outfit that the female valets wear.
"It's a side bet from Wednesday," he told the PokerStars Blog. "It was more of an 'I bet you won't do it' bet than a wager. I'm not making any financial gain from this," he added. But the charity Emmanuel House certainly will. There are 1,000 raffle tickets for sale at £20 each, half the proceeds are going to the charity and half towards UKIPT seats meaning nine people will win a seat to a UKIPT. And if you do win you don't even have to use it for a main event, the £1,100 can be split into portions to play side events.
Well done Ben for his part in proceedings, as he said: "It's not easy dressing up like this." -- NW
3:30pm: More chip counts
Given how packed the club is it's quite hard to access some of the tables but here are a smattering of counts from some of the tables we can get at:
Liv Boeree - 28,000
Mick Graydon - 26,500
Kevin Williams - 17,800
Thomas Ward - 43,000
Martins Adeniya - 19,000
Alex Goulder - 18,800
Liam Batey - 13,000
Devilfish - 13,400
Sunny Chattha - 16,000
Peter Barrable - 17,600
Nick Hicks - 16,300
Blinds up: 100/200 ante 25
3:25pm: Hard luck Storey (et al)
The modern day poker player plays a fast and furious brand of poker. Twenty thousand chips can disappear in pretty swift fashion - as the following players have found out during the early levels: -- RS
496 Jason Quince
497 Patrick Wharam
498 Glen Storey
499 Leszek Matonóg
500 Greg Hayles
501 Ronan Gilligan
502 Julian Thew
503 Jonathan Kalmar
504 Min Ji
505 Peter Falahee
506 Ian Simpson
507 Alan Lewis
508 Adam Harsanyi
509 Tony Gray
510 Tim Mole
511 Mohammed Istakhar Sadiq
512 Stephen Spring
513 Lautaro Guerra
514 Christopher Goodson
515 Ludovic Geilich
516 Chris Day
517 Brett Angell
518 Albert Sapiano
519 Nik Stylianou
520 Craig Dowsett
521 Carolyn Gray
522 Anthony Galloway
523 Mindaugas Bacevicius
524 Jeraint Hazan
525 Johnny Kurcaba Sorensen
526 Richard Paul
527 John Kabbaj
528 Fabio Esposito
529 Dan Gallagher
530 Tristan Churcher
3:15pm: No guardian Angell for Brett
Brett Angell was an early member of the sad-faced busted party after he found himself in a horrible pre flop spot.
Robert Malvasi raised to 350 from under the gun before an active Tom Langley three-bet to 850 from mid position. Angell flat called before Luke Diaper four-bet big to 5,850 out of a 26,000 stack.
The action folded back around to Angell who though for a while before shoving for 23,000 with pocket kings. Diaper had aces, made the call, and flopped a full house on an [a][2][2] flop. -- MC
3:05pm: Melting Snow
Karl Snow has had a rocky start to the day falling to 14,000.
Most recently, he looked to turn things round, raising to 350 from middle position, flat-called by Derek Collinson in the blinds.
The board peeled [Ad][Td][4h] - Collinson checked and Snow led for 875. Collinson now sprung into action, making a check-raise to 1650. Snow thought for a few moments before calling.
The dangerous-looking [4d] on the turn saw both players check before the [5d] appeared on the river.
Collinson checked, Snow led for 2,000 and Collinson called.
[Ah][Qd] for a cautiously-played second nut flush for Collinson and Snow could only muck, flashing the slightly-inferior [Jd] as he did.
"Ace-jack?" asked Collinson fishing for a little info. Snow merely shook his head a little glumly.
Collinson up to an impressive 38,000, Snow down to 14,500.
Karl Mahrenholz is sharing the felt with these two and has 18,000. -- RS
2:50pm: Kimber slips back, Jenkins stays snug
Jeff Kimber has had to lay down a couple of hands after being the original aggressor and is down to 18,700 as a result.
He didn't get to see his opponent's hand in the first hand but knew he made the right decision on the second one.
He opened to 400 from mid position and was called by Stephen Weatherall (cut-off) and Thomas Piccirilli (button) en route to a [ad][th][9h] flop. Kimber continued for 600 and Weatherall was the only caller.
Kimber bet 900 on the [7h] turn and Weatherall called once more. The latter bet 1,500 on the [6c] river after Kimber slowed to a check and then showed [kh][5h] for a flush when the Geordie folded.
Jenkins, meanwhile, is still folding like a boss and maintaining a 19k-stack. -- MC
2:40pm: Chip counts
A few chip counts from around the room:
James Mitchell - 11,000
Karl Mahrenholz - 14,600
Ian Simpson - 15,500
Maria Demetriou - 21,000
Matti De Meulder - 18,500
Fatima Moreira de Melo - 33,000
Ross Jarvis - 11,150
Tim Blake - 15,300
Deborah Worley-Roberts - 27,000
Ben Jenkins - 19,350
2:32pm: Kimber on the up; Jenkins playing tight
23k from 20k first break at #ukipt happy enough after the set under set accident. @FTPBenJenkins played 1 hand, raise utg, passed to 3b lol
— Jeff Kimber (@jeffkimberpoker) May 9, 20142:27pm: Nick talks to Liv
Talking about coming second in Edinburgh, happy for vicky but deep down she was a double winner, 3 Team PROs have 4 EPT titles..and general banter:
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75/150
2:00pm: Break it up!
Wow. What a start to the final Day1 of this megalith of a tournament. The players will need their 15 minutes to refresh after that hectic opening. We'll be back soon for level three. --RS
1:55pm: Julian drops a Thew
At that tricky "table of death" with Barny Boatman, Joe Grech and James Greenwood, Julian Thew hasn't got to grips with his table just yet.
Most recently he lost a few chips, raising pre-flop then firing 400, and 1,100 on flop and turn before checking the river on the [Kh][8h][7s][3c][2s] board.
His opponent called every street before checking back the river to expose [9s][8d].
Julian nodded it was good and he falls to 15,000. Boatman and Grech have also taken small dents to their stacks in the early stages, down to 16,000 and 18,000 respectively. -- RS
1:50pm: Out kicked and kicked out
Mindaugas Bacevicius is the latest player to see their hopes of UKIPT glory dashed before the first break. He committed his chips with [A][9] on the turn of an ace high, three club board. His opponent Glenn Brouwer had [A][K], neither player had a club and Bacevicius didn't hit his three outer on the river.
494 of 502 players remain. -- NW
1:40pm: Kabbaj cooked
John Kabbaj is one of those players who successfully manages to fly under the radar despite having had a lot of success! The Brit won a bracelet at the 2009 WSOP in a $10,000 pot-limit Hold'em event - that's not easy - and has over $2,500,000 in lifetime earnings. He rarely makes an appearance on the UK circuit and his dalliance with the tournament today was a brief one as he's just been eliminated.
He held pocket tens and his opponent - Paul Dixon - had [Ad][Kd] the [Ac][8d][4d][10c][Jd] board meant Kabbaj turned a set, but Dixon spiked a flush on the river. The table he was at intimated that the final chips went in on the river. -- NW
1:36pm: Demetriou back to starting stack
Maria Demetriou had dropped down to 16,000 but won a pot with two-pair to get back to around starting stack.
She raised from the cut-off and was called by Richard Harris and Fabio Sperling in the blinds.
The flop fell [3d][ad][9h] and Demetriou continued for 250. Harris called but Sperling raised to 775. Demetriou called before another raise came in, from Harris and up to 2,100. It was enough to scare off Sperling but not Demetriou, who called.
No more chips ventured to the centre of the table as both players checked the [7h][js] turn and river. Harris opened [as][qd] but lost out to Demetriou's [9d][7d] for two-pair. -- MC
1:30pm: Healthy, wealthy and wise
During a quick break in play, Chaz Chattha explained he's cottoned on in recent times to the impact of good health on your poker game:
"Long days can really affect you and you want to be fresh coming into the final levels. It can be a really good time to pick up chips if you're feeling good at the end of the day." -- RS
1:28pm: Spicy start for Chili
Maria "chili" Demetriou is a familiar face to the Dusk Till Dawn patrons, a number of impressive results on her poker CV.
She has had an unfortunate opening to the day, running her top,top into quads, though she limited the damage by check-calling every street.
Down to 16,000, Maria's beaming smile tells you she is far from perturbed by her inauspicious start. --RS
1:25pm: Spotted
It doesn't take much effort to earn your spotters badge here in Nottingham. Wherever you look in Dusk Till Dawn you spot a recognisable poker face, over on table 11 you'll find EPT Loutraki champion Zinman Ziyard, a few tables along sits UKIPT2 Newcastle runner-up Raj Verma, if you looked up and to the right you'd spot Eleanor Gudger, fresh from her third place finish in the UKIPT High Roller, she's to the right of Dean Lyall, so she could be in for a mentally tiring day.
James Greenwood - runner-up at UKIPT3 Bristol - is one of the poker 'babies' sharing the table with Julian Thew, Joe Grech, Barny Boatman and Gordon Huntly. Whilst elsewhere Jon Kalmar has taken a break from the cash game to play this tournament and is seated with Fraser McIntyre. -- NW
1:18pm: It's official! £1 million guarantee broken
Dusk Till Dawn has managed to squeeze in 468 players so far today. If you add that to the 419 entrants from yesterday and the 175 from Day 1A you end up with 1,062.
That equates to £1,062,000 in the prize pool and it's still growing! Congratulations to all involved in making this happen, especially the tireless owner of Dusk Till Dawn, Rob Yong and his team. -- MC
1:15pm: In the V.I.P and at the bar
Such is the demand for seats that if a table can fit in a space then Dusk Till Dawn are using it. That means there are four tables in the V.I.P area and three in the bar area. Among the very important persons are Jeff Kimber, Deborah Worley-Roberts and Ben Jenkins.
Whilst you'll find Kevin Williams and Brett Angell straining their eyes in the bar area trying to not misread their hand. -- NW
1:10pm: Esposito straightened out
Another exit to tell you about and Fabio Esposito was the victim of a very chilly deck. By the turn of a [8][9][X][7] board he held a straight with [6][5] but his opponent - Vincent James - had the nuts with [J][10]. "He thought about it for a while before calling it off," said another player at the table. - NW
1:05pm: An alternate chat with Chaz Chattha
Day 1C sold out a couple of days ago, so all those wanting to get it today will be alternates - only able to get in when a player busts. Kind of like a one out one out policy.
Chaz Chattha is No.50 on that list so is patiently waiting for his second chance after he busted late yesterday. He spoke with the blog about his day yesterday, being an alternate and the size of the field.
"I started off the day really well and by level 6 I had 70,000, which was double the average at the time. The last two levels went really bad for me; I lost a couple of flips, hit a set-under-set which crippled me and I busted the last level of the day.
"I don't mind how long it takes to get in today. I'm quite a tight player and I don't get too involved in early levels. Even if it takes to level 4 to get in, I'm happy with that.
"It's an amazing turnout and must be one of the biggest fields ever recorded for a 1k on the UK poker scene. The winner must be looking at a quarter-of-a-million which is amazing." -- MC
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50/100
1:00pm: Supply and demand
The massive demand for seats to the UKIPT has left DTD heaving with alternates, waiting anxiously to jump into vacated seats and start building a stack to put themselves in contention.
With 20k starting chips it could be a long wait before we see a rash of eliminations however, and Simon Trumper has announced they are opening up some additional tables to cope with the fervour created by the tournament's huge guarantee..
Four more tables in five minutes; a further four in twenty - DTD are going above and beyond to ensure they satisfy most, if not all, the players who've taken the time to travel down for their shot at glory. --RS
12:50pm: Will Irish eyes be smiling?
The number of Irish players in the field at UKIPT Nottingham has noticeably increased today. Chris Dowling, Fintan Gavin, Fergal Nealon, Ronan Gilligan and Mick Graydon are just some of the Irish cream beginning their road to potential UKIPT glory today.
In Nottingham playing day 1c today of the £1m guaranteed #UKIPTDTD gonna be a big field.
— Mick graydon (@BIGMICKG1) May 9, 2014Ukipt Notts a go-go, just 1 bullet in the chamber is all I need
— Fergal Nealon (@midnitekowby) May 9, 201412:45pm: Roberts settles for good start
Full Tilt Poker Tour Ambassador Martins Adeniya is back for more, as is his table mate Jamie Roberts.
Roberts is up to 26,000 after flopping a set versus an opponent. He open raised to 150 and was called in one spot before a player on the button squeezed up to 525.
Roberts was the only caller to a [tc][6d][2h] flop where he check-called an 850 bet. Both checked the [as] turn before Roberts led for 1,675 on the [3c] river. His opponent tank called but mucked upon seeing Roberts' [2d][2c] for a baby set. -- MC
12:30pm: Stars in our midst
Amongst the notable faces here to vie for the title are PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira De Melo, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott and Jeff "jaffacake" Kimber.
De Melo was a highly decorated hockey player for Holland, winning Gold, Silver and Bronze at the Olympics in her time. She has done a good job of transferring her array of skills from the hockey field to the poker tables, having already racked up $345,975 in winnings during her time at the felt.
Ulliott is one of the true legends of the game. "Devilfish" is 2nd on the England all-time money list with $6,200,000 in live winnings. Whether cracking bawdy jokes or gathering chips with aplomb, Ulliott is an entertaining figure whenever he's at the tables.
2007 World Heads-Up Champion Kimber is one of the UK's form players with a series of impressive results over the last two years leaving no one in the poker world with any doubts as to the qualities of his game. He'll be another man to watch closely as the day pans out. -- RS
12:30pm: One out
It took less than 30 minutes for the first exit of the day and that ignominious award goes to Tristin Churcher. He'd already lost around 5,000 to Jonathan O'Brien when he got involved in a three-bet pot with Alan Kenny. The latter held queens and bet the king high flop, call from Churcher. Kenny turned a set of queens and the chips flew in with Churcher's ace-king drawing dead. Kenny is the early chip leader. -- NW
12:15pm :Three men and a bunch of poker babies
Barny Boatman, Gordon Huntly and Julian Thew have all entered once before this week. Their luck was out on previous days so they're back today to try again and all have been sat at the same table.
The latter two of these tangled in a pot that saw Thew win with a straight. He and Huntly made it to the river of a [qd][7s][6d][5h][8c] board with 3,050 already in the middle. Huntly check-called 1,500 and mucked upon seeing Thew's [9d][7d] for a straight. -- MC
12pm: The calm before the storm
If Day 1B was a tropical cyclone then Day 1C is set to be a hurricane of epic proportions. Yesterday 419 players began and just 113 were left when the winds died down. The final starting day usually attracts more players, if that happens today then the £1,000,000 guarantee should be eclipsed given that 175 players took their shot on Day 1A.
This is the first ever UKIPT Main Event that has allowed a re-entry, the Day 1B field was bolstered by a number of players taking their second shot at this event. We expect the same to occur today as a number of those vanquished on Day 1B will be back for more today, amongst them are Jack Salter, Matti De Meulder and Ben Jenkins.
Whilst players of the caliber of Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott, Liv Boeree and Roberto Romanello are taking their first shot at UKIPT glory today. Despite the heaving numbers play is underway on time here at Dusk Till Dawn.
Key UKIPT Nottingham Facts:
- 20,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 25/50 for 400 big blinds
- One hour levels and we'll play ten today.
- This is the final Day 1 then on Saturday survivors will merge for Days 2, 3 and 4 until a winner is crowned (cue winner's photo, trophy swinging around, celebrations in the bar).
- The £330 UKIPT Nottingham Cup starts at 19.00, it carries a £100,000 guarantee and there are two start days.
- Full UKIPT schedule here
PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT Nottingham2: Marc Convey, Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Danny Maxwell.