9pm: Done for the day
Day 1A is in the books and Ken Lennaard has leapfrogged Christian Bauer to bag up the overnight chip lead.
The Swede won a huge 120,000 chip pot against Julian Stuer on the penultimate hand of the night. On the turn of a [7c][Qs][10h][9c] board Stuer three-bet all-in with pocket jacks and Lennaard snap called with [Kd][Jh]. The river was a brick and he scooped the monster pot.
A full recap of the day's play is on the way. -- NW
8:40pm: Last four hands
The clock has been paused and each table will play four more hands before bagging up for the night.
8.30pm: Gone but not forgotten
These players came oh so close to making Day 2 but have fallen during the final level: Juan Roselló Ojeda, Jimmy Cinquemani, Huw Bell, Mario Peñalver, Jose Javier Patiño, Fabio Scepi, Juan Escrig, Anders Dahlin, Thomas Dunwoodie, Clive Saxby, Michal Casnocha, Josep Galindo, Eduardo De Las Rivas , Erik Loschan,Roberto Diaz, Sergio Antunez, Mariano Maldonaldo, Miguel Abellán, Meelis Jogi, Robert Wirth, Marcel Schmidt, John Burberry, Alejandro Rodrigo, Gregory Beaufait, Bonifacio Martinez, Vlad Lache and Borja Domingo. -- NW
8.15pm: Geilich down but far from out
At the start of level seven Ludovic Geilich told the PokerStars Blog that he'd be delighted if he could make it through the day with the 60,000 stack that he had at the time, well he's got some work to do as he's down to 45,000 after a three barrel salvo went awry.
He raised under-the gun to 1,600 and Tom Bedell, who was in the small blind was the only caller. On the [Jh][5s][5h][Js][5d] board Geilich bet 1,800, 4,100 and 14,200 respectively with the final bet setting Bedell all-in. The Norwegian called all three bets including the all-in. "I play the board," said Geilich after Bedell called his river shove, Bedell rolled over [Jc][9c] for a bigger boat. -- NW
8pm: Poker gods answer Godino's prayers
Gabriel Godino just got a much needed reprieve to double his very short stack to a still short, but no longer quite as short stack.
The Spaniard shoved for 1,450 (less than two big blinds) with [Qs][7s] and Richard Milne Snr isolated all-in for roughly 12,000 with [As][9h]. The others left them to it and the dealer burned and turned a [2s][9s][Qh] flop, "that's bad," said Milne Snr who had gone from first to worst in the blink of an eye. The board ran out [2c][8s] and Milne Snr quipped "I'm still here," as he counted his remaining 10,000 or so chips. -- NW
7:50pm: Top 5 counts
With one level left to play these are the top five stacks in the room:
Ken Lennaard - 94,000
Christian Bauer - 87,000
Paul Kristoffersson - 86,000
Terry Carter - 85,000
Elias Miguel - 72,000
End of day chip leader is up for grabs! -- MC
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800, ante 100
7:45pm: Beachy!
If you're a PokerStars Qualifier and are wondering what you're going to get in your player bag then the wait is over thanks to Team PokerStars Online's Dale Philip who posted its contents on twitter. The PokerStars Blog is incredibly jealous of the beach ball!
UKIPT Marbella players bag. http://t.co/io4WUVdoC0 pic.twitter.com/sDxjja7DEr
— Dale Philip (@Daleroxxu) June 11, 20147:40pm: Six figure club
The six-figure club is an exclusive club of one at the moment as Christian Bauer, with 110,000, is the only man to breach that figure. His closest challenger appears to be Paul Kristoffersson who has 92,000. -- NW
7:30pm: Elliot not dancing anymore
UKIPT Nottingham finalist Willie Elliot won't be returning to a Main Event final table this week after he busted to Ian Holmes.
He raised to 1,200 before Holmes tried to open the pot to 1,600 as he hadn't see Elliot's raise. The dealer tried to enforce a raise to 2,400 but the players called the floor who ruled a min raise to 1,800 would suffice.
Once that confusion was sorted, Elliot jammed 12,500 with pocket nines and was called by Holmes, holding big-slick. Holmes flopped an ace and rivered a king to oust the popular Elliot. -- MC
7:18pm: Poker face
How's good your poker face (and Spanish)? And do you recognise your own poker face in this collection?
7:08pm: It's Ludo time
Defending champion Ludivic Geilich's amazing start was documented in the blog earlier and since then his day had evolved in typical Geilch fashion - swingy! He spoke to the blog in the break about his day.
"I started off well today, from 20k straight to 40k before getting up to 60k and after that I probably played a bit badly. I went down to about 26k about two and a half hours ago and now I'm back up to 60k!
"I had kings against jacks. I opened early position, got three-bet from the small blind, I four-bet click it back and just five-bet jammed for about 20,000. I call and hold.
"I keep saying to myself I'm going to relax but I keep playing like my usual self. I'm going to have to calm myself down a bit; I'll be over the moon if I can get to the end of the day with the stack I have now!" -- MC
7pm: Drip, drip, drop
Over the first six levels 95 of the 293 players have been eliminated from the tournament, those who exited during level six included: Nils Neubauer, Vitaly Shepitko, Fernando Marín Díaz, David Hernandez, David Lasierra, Stefan Schillhabel, Borja Chavet, Pedro De Miranda, Alejandro Clemente, Zbigniew Wieczorek, Patrick Schulze, Krzysztof Gajek and Amilcar Helstone. -- NW
Blinds up: 300/600 ante 75
6:37pm: Break time
That's the end of the third quarter, players are now on a 15 minute break. -- NW
6:35pm: Casnocha chips up
Michal Casnocha just added almost 50% to his stack without going to showdown. The action was started by Pawel Kapczynski, who raised to 800 from under-the-gun, he got no fewer than four callers including Graham Phipps (button) and Casnocha (big blind).
On the [Qh][9s][7h] flop it checked to Phipps who bet 1,650 into a pot of roughly 4,900, Casnocha then moved all-in for 9,700 and it folded back to Phipps. He tanked for about 30 seconds before folding what he said was a straight draw. -- NW
6:32pm: Heaney to the double
Ciaran Heaney found a lovely spot to get ace-king in and more than double up his 3,625 stack.
After an under-the-gun open to 850 and a call from Roberto Ruiz on the button, Heaney squeezed all in from the big blind. The original raiser folded but Ruiz called.
Heaney: [as][ks]
Ruiz: [8c][8d]
The board ran [9s][6s][ad][3d][7c] to pair Heaney's ace. -- MC
6:25pm: Pab treading water
Some people are forced to grind it out....
Starting stack after 5 and a half levels of UKIPT marbella, how grimly predictable #nit
— Paul Foltyn (@Pab09) June 11, 20146:15pm: The aces in Spain fall mainly on Raine
Some people get all the luck...
Playing ukipt Marbella had aces 3 times in half a a hour!! won every time @daraokearney @UKIPT #UKIPTMarbella
— Heffs976 (@neilraine) June 11, 2014However despite that fact Raine is down to 16,000. -- NW
6:10pm: There are worse tournaments to bust
UKIPT Marbella has to be up there with the best places to bust a tournament. Okay, no one really wants to bust but when you realise where you are and the fact the biggest football tournament on the planet is about to start, the smile comes back.
Those smiling, sort of, include: Ignacio Romera, Chris Fraser, Divijay Sadarangani, James Bridgewater, Mikołaj Zawadzki, Julian Lange, Carlos Sanchez, Daniel Tighe, Jokin Ruiz, Jesus Garrido, Paul Testud, Neil Strike, Ivan Asensio, Luis Cayuela, Gonzalo Agueros, Jorge Vaquero, Majid Iqbal, Rory Macdonald and Dragan Kostic. -- MC
5:50pm: Leonard loses flip to bust
The stunning online form of Patrick Leonard has, for today at least, not transferred itself to the live arena. He three-bet all-in over a raise and a call for his last 20 big blinds with pocket tens and got a call from Bernat Terre, who was the original raiser. The Spaniard held [Ac][Qc] and after flopping a club he hit two more on the turn and river to eliminate Leonard. -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200/400, ante 50
5:40pm: Chip counts
The current chip leader looks to be Ken Lennaard, the Swede is up to 88,000 and looking like he's in the zone. Here's how some of the other notables are getting on:
Carsten Joh - 18,000
Dean Hutchison - 16,300
Juan Benito - 5,100
Lewis Swift - 13,000
Ludovic Geilich - 20,000
Miguel Abellán - 55,000
Paul Foltyn - 29,000
Peter Barrable - 19,000
Richard Milne Snr - 29,000
Thomas Dunwoodie - 11,000
Tomasz Raniszewski - 16,000
Vlad Lache - 6,400
Willie Eilliot - 18,000
Sonia Padavani - 30,000
Christopher Howden - 58,000
Graham Phipps - 60,000
Paxti Salinas - 41,000
5:35pm: No rebuild for Goulder
Alex Goulder didn't manage the rebuild from the 6,000 he was left with at the last break.
He told the blog that there were a couple of limps and an isolation raise before he shoved 6,400 with pocket sixes. The raiser called with eight and held to bust the Brit.
Goulder wasn't downhearted and will enjoy some holiday time before playing the High Roller in a couple of days. -- MC
5:20pm: Kane feels the pain
UKIPT Edinburgh finalist Michael Kane has dropped to 23,000 after Anders Dahlin forced him off a hand.
Both players were in early position and went heads-up to a [7d][qd][js] flop. Kane bet 1,000 and called after his Swedish opponent check-raised to 3,200.
On the [3d] turn Dahlin led for 6,200 and Kane called after staring down his opponent. The board completed with the [tc] and Dahlin wasted little time in betting 14,175. Kane went into the tank, gave Dahlin another look up and down, went a little red in the face but ultimately folded to hand the pot to the Swede. -- MC
5:10pm: The numbers are in
The start of level five means that too late is the cry if you want to buy-in today. That means we can confirm that 293 players entered the fray on Day 1A. Over the opening four levels we lost 17% of the field as 243 players still have a stack to play with.
However, Michael McKevith, Richard Cashman, Pedro Garcia, Curtis Watson, Antonio Ivars, María del Rosario Velazquez Garzón, Aitor Martinez, Lander Bereciartua, Daniel Gutierrez, Antonio Lopez del Alamo, Sergio Martinez, Jesus Reina, Paul Coughlan and Alf Martinsson are all out. -- NW
5pm: Goulder at halftime
Alex Goulder is one of the rising stars of the UK poker scene. He's here in Marbella for Day 1A and the blog caught up with him in the tunnel about his day so far.
"I wish you'd have asked he half an hour ago as it was going really well then but I just lost two pots, one of them really big. I lost queens versus king-jack all in pre against a short stack.
"In the really big pot I peeled a three-bet with [qc][tc] and the flop came king-jack-three, one club and two spades. I check-raised to get it in with this guy and he jammed with nines, which was kind of optimistic! I tuned the flush draw and then bricked off - too many outs and all that! I have 6k now so we'll see."
-- MC
4.50pm: The main attraction?
There's more poker than just the main event taking place today here in Marbella as there are two other tournaments to get your teeth into this Wednesday.
At 6pm local time there's a €150 + €15 freezeout satellite to the Main Event and then at 8pm local time there's a €200 + €20 NL Hold'em freezeout. Come on down. -- NW
4.40pm: Welcome to Spain
Although yesterday's temperature was 24 degrees it was mild for this time of year in Marbella. But, the Spanish know how to welcome people warmly, with a welcome drinks party of course.
So last night, despite a light sprinkling of rain, everyone gathered outside in the pool area at the hotel to enjoy one of many free bars that the UKIPT/ESPT are laying on over the course of the festival.
PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT4 Marbella2: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Danny Maxwell and Rene Velli.