4.29pm: Break Time!
Level 12 is in the bag. It's time for a short pause while everyone takes stock of how they have performed today - and bores their friends with the usual brag posts and bad beat stories.
Back in twenty!
The updates from level 13 onward will continue in a separate post...
4.26pm: Three-way pot, two all-ins, no exits
Boy am I glad I caught this hand...
From middle position Raj Verma opened to 3,500 from a stack of 180,000, next to act Kay Wookey moved all-in for 14,400 and it passed to Daniel McHugh in the small blind. who tanked before moving all-in for 48,800.
Back on Verma he got counts of both all-ins, crunched some numbers and then announced call.
Verma: [6c][6h]
Wookey: [Ad][10d]
McHugh: [Kh][Ks]
"These kids hey," said Sam Grafton tongue-in-cheek. The [4d][8d][10h] flop was good one for Wookey, the [5c] turn not bad for Verma and it left McHugh needing to fade a lot of river cards. The [Qd] completed the board meaning Wookey took the main pot of some 45,000 whilst McHugh took the side pot which was worth around 70,000. -- NW
4.24pm: Coombes slips a little
Erstwhile chip leader Adrian Coombes may possibly have given up his claim on that title, having slipped to 145,000. -- RS
4.19pm: Carter crushes Berry
Dan Carter has had a frustrating hour of poker, seeing his stack fall to 40,000, however he gained back much of the ground he had lost against the aforementioned Nicholas Berry moments ago.
When Berry limped in early position, Carter decided to isolate him with a raise holding [Kc][5c] and his wish came true - his opponent making the call and the pair going heads up to a flop.
It fell [Jd][7c][5s] to give Carter bottom pair and the two of them checked it down.
The turn was the [Kh], Carter bet out 6,000 with his turned 2 pair and his opponent called. The river was the [7s] and now Berry led for a whopping 17k.
"I'd been counterfeited but I still pretty much liked my hand so I closed my eyes and called. He told me I was good!"
It turned out his opponent had played pocket threes in unorthodox fashion so that hand brings Carter back into the reckoning with 78,000. -- RS
4.12pm: Berry river juices the pot
Nicholas Berry has a 100,000 stack and he isn't afraid to get involved.
Most recently he made a move on the turn of a board - holding ace-queen. His opponent called his stack off with ace-ten, only for Berry to spike a fortuitous queen river to send his opponent (who should have been N Applyby - if he has retained his start of day seat) to the rail. -- RS
4.10pm: Coren crashes out
Although she had an above average 90,000 just a short time ago Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren has just busted out, over three tweets she released the details saying: "Out! Scuppered, essentially, in two pots by a rogue third party who made bizarre dynamIcs. That's the kind of tournament that makes me wish I still had a poker column. Like something in a Tim Burton film: weird, fascinating hands. The good news is, two hours to discover Harvey Nichols Bristol before the highroller tournament." -- NW
4pm: Exits and counts
UKIPT Online winner Wojtek Barzantny continues to have a good week in Bristol as he's up to 105,000, he's now on the same table as Sunny Chattha who has 75,000.
Meanwhile Marinos Mina , overnight chip leader is out as are George-Clyde Smith and Ben Grafton. -- NW
3.50pm: Verma makes a fine call
I only saw the river action but Raj Verma was facing a bet of 13,500 (into a pot of about 20,000) on a board of [4s][7c][Ks][5s][9c], after tanking for a minute or so he threw the call in, but in a manner that suggested he wasn't expecting to get them back. "Good call," said his opponent.
Verma showed [6h][4h] for bottom pair and from a lowpoint of 25,000 he's now up to 130,000. "I lost 130,000 in 15 minutes in Newcastle at a similar stage," said Verma to me. -- NW
3.40pm: A couple of exits
No sooner had I bigged up David Vamplew then the EPT London winner was knocked out, sorry David.
Although from his retelling of the hand it was a standard spot, he had [As][Qs] against Ben Martin's pocket kings in a blind on blind situation for about 30 big blinds each. Whilst Vamplew hops into the High Roller that starts at 6pm, Martin now has a stack of roughly 140,000.
I also caught George Turner's exit, he shoved for 20,200 with [Qc][5c] and was looked up by Nigel Lee who held [Ad][Kh]. The [Ac][3c][4h] flop gave Turner a ton of outs but he missed them all on the [Ks] turn and [7h] river. -- NW
3.31pm: Coren torn between two loves
The latest tweet from Vicky Coren reveals her chip stack growth is causing her a few issues...
"Up to 90k in chips now, nearly double average - which is a shame, as I've just found out that Bristol has a Harvey Nichol."
Every silver lining has a cloud eh. Well the high street's loss is our gain... -- RS
3.28pm: First Ade
We think Adrian Coombes may be the chip leader with close to 170,000. It seems much of his stack was gleaned from flopping top two on an ace-jack-x board, leading out and his opponent shoving into him.
"I keep getting paid off!" he revealed, a strategy which is working out just fine for him... -- RS
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600 ante 200
3.23pm: No Swede success for Vinson
Ben Vinson is another name that has been cutting through the field like a hot scythe through butter but he met his match for now in the form of the young Swedish lady Amanda Sidark.
The pair contested a flop of [Kc][Js][2h] and once Vinson had led out for 4,100, Sidark raised it to 11,000, leaving Vinson with a decision.
He eventually decided to call, although when Sidark led for 15,000 on the [6d] Vinson laid his hand down.
Vinson down to a still highly respectable 120,000 whilst Sidark has chipped up to 45,000. -- RS
3.20pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but if you've got a percentage of: Rob Akery, Jodie Evans, Ewan Brown, Mark McCluskey, Joe Grech and Jack Sambrook then better luck next time as they're all out. -- NW
3.10pm: Chip counts
It's been a good day so far for UKIPT Nottingam Season One champion Andrew Couldridge, he's up to 110,000 and was having a conversation with Scott Shelley (55,000) who' also had a good start to the day. Elsewhere Jonathon Prested is down to 81,000, he's got a chipped up Bambos Xanthos to his left, their respective chip counts might be down to a battle or two we suspect. Elsewhere EPT London champion David Vamplew has 43,000.
A couple of Irish players who've lost ground in the opening two and a bit levels are Jason Tompkins (36,000) and Chris Dowling (46,000) the latter is to the left of Craig Burke and Ben Vinson who both have a mountain of chips. Dan Carter has also taken a hit or two as he's slipped to 35,000. -- NW
3pm: Williams wiped out
I saw Kevin Williams walking away from his table with an expression that suggested he'd just been eliminated and he was kind enough to tell me what happened. "I lost pocket sixes to pocket fives to take me down to 10,000," he told me. "I then got a couple of shoves through to get up to about 14,000. Then a player opened to 2,500, got two callers and I look down at [A][8] I move in, hoping to get past the original raiser and then the last guy will have to stick it in with the worst hand, which is what happened. He had [7][6] and the flop had two sixes on it."
We're sure we'll see Williams back at the UKIPT soon. -- NW
2.55pm: Lenz likes the ladies
A double up just now for UKIPT Online finalist David Lenz in a hand that left Deborah Worley-Roberts cursing her luck.
From under-the-gun Lenz made it 2,500 to go, Worley-Roberts popped it to 5,000, it folded back to Lenz who moved in for 26,000 and after getting a count Worley-Roberts made the call.
Lenz: [Qs][Qh]
Worley-Roberts: [Kc][Ks]
The [6h][Qc][9s] flop elicited some very unlady like words from Worley-Roberts and the [4d] turn and [4c] river kept the German in front much to the chargrin of a dejected looking Worley-Roberts. -- NW
2.43pm: Miles away
Andrew Miles' tournament has come to an abrupt halt - his move for the blinds with A-6 running into the imposing form of pocket jacks.
He couldn't find that elusive ace from space and his day is done. -- RS
2.36pm: Adeniya jacks it in
Sam Grafton has had a fantastic day 2 so far, and his day just got even better as he dealt a fatal blow to the previously resurgent Martins Adeniya.
"Tell everyone I took him down the streets and outplayed him!" Grafton joked before revising his account to the more succinct, "I 3-bet, he 4-bet and I shoved."
Filling in the missing details, Grafton had pocket kings, Adeniya pocket jacks and the board brought no surprises.
150,000 now for Grafton, he looks to have snatched the chip lead. -- RS
2.32pm: Big stacks
Here are the top 10 stacks as level 11 gets underway:
Bambos Xanthos - 135,000
Craig Burke - 125,000
Marinos Mina - 113,000
Ben Vinxon - 112,000
Matthew Moss - 112,000
Emmett Mullin - 110,000
Sam Grafton - 110,000
Jonathon Slater - 100,000
Emanuele Pani - 98,000
Malte Moennig - 94,000
Although news of a big pot for Sam Grafton coming right up. -- NW
2.22pm: Back from the break
The players are now back from the break for the third level of the day. -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 100
2.02pm: First break of the day
We've had two levels whizz by this morning. It's been a day full of action so far but now the players get a chance to take stock of the new state of play and indulge themselves in a chat, cigarette or other such activity for twenty minutes.
We'll be back soon! -- RS
1.58pm: Adeniya deflects Parry to double up
This morning has been the tale of bustouts and double-throughs - and Martins Adeniya just faced both of those options in a big hand.
The hand in question saw Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren open to 2,200, picking up a call from Steve Parry on the button, before Adeniya made it 7,000 in a suspicious squeezy type-looking move.
Coren looked a little perturbed but eventually sigh-folded, before Steve Parry decided this looked too squeezy for him to pass [As][Qs]. He moved in, only for Adeniya to snap-call with a perfectly played pair of aces - the [Ah][Ad].
He still needed to swerve some spades and broadway combos, but a board of low cards gave no cause for concern - Adeniya chipping up to 53,000 at the end of the hand whilst Parry was left with a giant dent in his stack and a pressing urgency to augment that stack or risk blinding out. -- RS
1.55pm: Exits
There's no easy way to say this but: James Mitchell, Alexey Kozlovsky, Lee Dixon, John Jacobs and Lee Atherton are all now free to take a tour of the SS Great Britain. -- NW
1.47pm: Chip counts
It's been a good couple of levels for Sam Grafton he's more than doubled his start of day stack to around 120,000. He's at the same table as Vicky Coren, The TeamPokerStars Pro is up to 44,000 from her start of day 29,400. Also at that table are Martins Adeniya (27,000), Wojtek Barzantny (35,000) and Jack Sambrook (55,000).
Elsewhere Sunny Chattha has 120,000, Matt Frankland is up to 65,000, Thomas Ward has ran his stack up to 50,000, he's to the left of Nik Persaud who has 60,000. Two Irish players who've not had a great start to the day are Kevin Killeen (35,000) and Barry McMahon (37,000) whilst Raj Verma is down to 25,000. -- NW
1.36pm: Burke flushes Tsang's chances away
Craig Burke just received a fortunate boon to his stack, shoving from the small blind for around 25,000 with [Ts][Js], only for Chihao Tsang to eventually make the call with the dominating [Ac][Td].
"Nit-rolled again!" Burke said, though when the board peeled off [7s][5s][4c][9s][4h], he had made a flush and won the day.
"Make sure you tell them he just got 25 big blinds in with jack-high," a friend at the table joked.
"Crystal ball poker!" Burke quipped as he stacked up his newly-won 50,000.
Tsang meanwhile was left with the proverbial bowl of rice and will face an uphill struggle getting himself back into contention. -- RS
1.27pm: Carter gets fruity
Dan Carter is up to 80,000 at the moment but he suggested I check his latest tweet to get an idea of how his day 2 has gone so far. Here it is in all its glory!
"Sketchy first level but quickly back up to 76k as young asian kid tries to rep a grapefruit and a banana on the river"
Carter is second to none in his fruit-reading ability so this was clearly a bad idea.
1.25pm: Aherns puts P.H.D (pretty huge dent) into Masters
Michael Masters is another early casualty in this tournament as he's just been knocked out by Christopher Aherns.
The former was all-in for 24,900 with pocket tens but found Aherns held the superior pocket jacks. An eight high board was all she wrote for Masters. -- NW
1.17pm: Beck and call
Over on table two Jonathan Beck just won a decent pot from David Docherty although the young Scotsman put him through the wringer in the process.
The action was started by Beck who raised to 2,200 from under-the-gun, overnight chip leader Marinos Mina, who's on around 140,000 passed as did everyone else, including Joe Roberts (30,000) from the small blind, but Docherty, who's good friends with Roberts made the call from the big blind.
The two of them saw a [10c][3d][9h] flop, Docherty led for 2,200 and Beck made the call. The [Qs] fell on the turn, Docherty checked to Beck who fired out a bet of 5,200 after taking his time Docherty check-raised to 12,000 total. Now it was Beck's turn to tank, he ultimately elected to smooth call. The [8d] completed the board, both players elected to check. "Ace high," announced Docherty, whilst Beck showed [Ah][As] to take the pot. -- NW
1.14pm: Garden of Eden destroyed by the ladies
When Matt Dale opened off his relative short stack, he can't have been overjoyed at seeing Vlad Teodorescu move all-in for 25,500 and Sean Eden also call for most of his stack.
Dale sigh-folded, but Teodorescu and Eden turned over their hands, the latter disappointed that, having made the call with pocket tens, he found himself in big trouble versus pocket queens.
No ten arrived to save his bacon, and by the time the river had been dealt he found himself carving a large chunk out of his stack and handing it over to Teodorescu, who was doing his best to repress a smile as he counted his new 55,000 in chips.
Eden meanwhile is close to the edge with less than 10,000 and Matt Dale is not far ahead of this either... -- RS
1.10pm: Worley-Roberts fends off stalker but not Fields
Deborah Worley-Roberts was just heads up with Luke Fields in a pot, though her attention was somewhat distracted by the close attentions of a rail lurker who was very much worse the wear (despite it being just after midday!)
She dealt decisively with the railer, sending him away from the table with a stern rebuke though she found it a little tougher to deal with Fields who had led out 3,800 into the 11,000 pot - a board of [Td][Tc][5h] showing.
Eventually she made the laydown, suggesting she had folded pocket sixes. "You had too many chips to shove there," commented Fields.
Worley-Roberts down to 28k - still well in contention - if a little off the average.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000 ante 100
1pm: Exits
In the opening 45 minutes 44 players have hit the rail that's a pretty impressive busts to minutes ratio. Those who've had a short day include: Team PokerStars Pro Christoph De Meulder, Fintan Gavin, James Morris and Chris Moorman.
Gavin tweeted his exit saying: Short & sweet, A high flop I get in all in with AJ, guys slow played KK pre and flopped a set. -- NW
12.55pm: More tough tables
Table nine has a few interesting faces at the table, including Raj Verma, John Jacobs, who won his seat at VIP Live: London and Chris Dowling. The latter is sat in the same seat he ended Day 1B in, at which on the last hand of the night he cracked aces with pocket sevens.
"It didn't do me any harm yesterday," he said. "But I don't believe in superstitions and all that."
One table along David Vamplew and Rob Akery are separated by just one seat. -- NW
12.45pm: Berry nice hand for Prested
Michael Berry started short with just 12,000 chips and when he picked up [Ad][Qs] there was really only one option open to him. The timing of his shove proved awry however as big stack Jonathon Prested was lurking behind him with the dominating [A][K].
Living on a prayer, Berry's circa 30% outdraw chance never came to pass, the board running out with low cards consigning him to the rail of early casualties.. -- NW
12.40pm: Missing big blind causes carnage
The tournament has opened in fast and furious fashion - a number of players looking to chip up or go spend their day elsewhere and the presence of a missing big blind on table 19 resulted in a huge pot breaking out with two relative weak hands.
Thomas Hall on the button saw the big blind sitting out and he felt like he should make a play for the blinds, raising it up with [Kd][6d] before seeing Barry McMahon make a three-bet from the small blind.
Hall obviously felt he could get him off it and so moved all-in. He must have felt the flutter of a butterfly or two when Barry Mcmahon now started fiddling with his chips and tanking over the decision.
Eventually his concerns materialised into something tangible - Mcmahon made a very brave call off his 85,000 stack with [Ac][2c] - ahead, but only just of Hall's hand.
Facing elimination, Hall saw the board come to his rescue, peeling off [Kc][8s][6h][5h][6c] to give him a decisive double-through to 52k. Mcmahon down to 57k... -- RS
12.35pm: Prostakov on the march
Sergey Prostakov has had an interesting start, having started the day on 8,100.
He shoved [Kc][6d] in a blind steal attempt that worked out as well as could be expected when David Harris made the call with [9s][6h]. Delighted to find himself dominating his opponent, the board peeled off [2d][4h][3s][2h][3d] and Prostakov happily mounted up his new 17,000 stack. Since then he has increased his stack even further... -- RS
12.25pm: Table troubles
Both the Team PokerStars Pros left in the field today have been handed interesting table draws.
Let's start with Victoria Coren, she's in the five seat at her table, to her right sits Martin Adeniya and to the left is UKIPT Online champion Wojtek Barzantny. That's some sandwich. But to top it all off, Sam Grafton is in the nine seat.
Meanwhile a short stacked Christoph De Meulder has Sunny Chattha and big stack Matthew Moss for company. -- NW
12.15pm: Ward wards off the exit for now
Thomas Ward just doubled up his micro stack into a still very short stack, he got the last of his chips in with [Jh][10c] and was in bad shape against Sven Smith's pocket aces.
The [8s][9d][3c] flop was a decent one though, so much so that table mate Nik Persaud said that there was now no way that Ward was losing this hand. The [9s] turn was a blank but the [7h] river gave Ward a straight and kept him in it. --NW
12.07pm: Good luck clarion call of the day
"Who's got their lucky pants on then!" -- RS
12.05pm: Cards in the air
Cards are in the air here in Bristol. The plan for the day is much the same as previous days, they'll be eight one hour levels today. Here at the PokerStars blog we've done some rudimentary maths and we expect the bubble to burst late on in the day, level 15 or 16 is our guess. -- NW
12pm: Day 2 carnage about to start
Welcome to Day 2 of UKIPT Bristol, in total 239 of the 550 entrants have made it through to Day 2 of UKIPT Bristol, all of them hoping to pick up the £90,400 first prize.
Overnight chip leader is Marinos Mina with 138,300, whilst Jonathon Prested topped the Day 1A field with 121,300. They'll likely be spared the usual carange that occurs at the start of Day 2 as those stacks that clung on at the end of Day 1 try to get that elusive double up.
Amongst the notables who need a double up are Chris Moorman (9,600) and Team PokerStars Pro Christoph De Meulder (9,200), with 29,400 Victoria Coren is also in the mix today.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Bristol (in order of how much they like coleslaw sandwiches) : Rod Stirzaker (nom nom) and Nick Wright (nom). Photos by Mickey May (no).