Most over/under lines on the £3,000 High Roller were south of 30 but the players have turned out in their droves and completely obliterated those who claim to be able to predict these things. Late registration is now closed and the total number of entries in the £3,000 + £250 UKIPT5 High Roller is 49, with 46 of those being unique entries.
When you total that all up in means a prize pool of £142,590 will be split seven ways. The winner will take home £44,900 whilst a min-cash in this event is worth £7,480. The full payout structure is below:
1st. £44,900
2nd. £32,420
3rd. £20,700
4th. £15,700
5th. £12,100
6th. £9,290
7th. £7,480.
Currently just 23 players remain and the man who currently looks most likely to take the lion's share of the prize pool is Christos Kyprianou (106,000). His advantage is substantial as Sergio Aguilar (76,000) and Rhys Jones (71,000) complete the top three. As level 10 (600/1,200 ante 200) gets under way these are how the other players who're still in stack up.
Chip counts:
Victor Ilyukhin - 69,700
Elior Diun - 69,000
Alberto Gomez - 55,000
Christopher Kyriacou - 49,000
Vasile Stancu - 48,000
Gareth Teatum - 46,200
Charles Carrel - 45,000
Jon Carsten - 40,000
Sergio Aido - 35,000
Viktor Katzenberger - 34,400
Richard Cashman - 33,200
Philip Long - 31,000
Jonathan Wong - 29,300
David Phelan - 28,200
Rokas Asipauskas - 28,100
Victoria Coren Mitchell - 28,000
Morten Klein - 27,400
Ariel Adda - 22,300
Philip Carey - 16,400
Morten Mortensen - 13,300
Of course poker is a zero sum game so whilst some have gone up, others have come crashing down. These are some of the players who fallen by the wayside on Day 1: Enzo Gomez, Jordan Kaplan, Francis O'Foord, Pancios Ellinas, Paul Byrne, Team Pro Online's Mickey Petersen, Oliver Price, Jesse Chambers, Billy Chattaway, Arvydas Merfeldas, Michael Aron, Seth Davies, Pierre Nadim, Christopher Brammer and Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody who busted out right at the end of level nine.
The PokerStars Blog caught Brammer's exit first hand. He three-bet shoved with pocket nines but ran into the pocket kings of David Phelan.
The remaining players will now play three more levels before play ends for the night and then return for Day 2 at midday. The PokerStars Blog will be back at 11am for Day 1 of the UKIPT Main Event and we'll catch up on what happens in the final three levels of the High Roller before play restarts at noon. We'll then provide frequent updates on High Roller alongside the Main Event before ramping up the coverage when it gets to the business end of the tournament.
Until tomorrow though, it's good night.
PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 London: Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May