8.30pm: Day one is done
The third and final starting flight is in the books and from now on the number of entrants can only go down! It looks like roughly 123 players made it through today meaning the Day 2 field is going to be around 125 players strong.
Leading the way at the end of play today was UK poker stalwart Ross Boatman, he narrowly pipped another UK poker veteran - Nik Persaud - to that honour. Another UK verteran - Willie Tann - finished with 169,300 and is right up there too. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way. Day 2 starts tomorrow at 11am. -- NW
8pm: Last six hands
The tournament clock has been paused and players will play six more hands before they are done for the day. -- NW
7:55pm: Vying for the chip lead
There are a number of players in contention for the chip lead as play enters the final 15 minutes. Here are the contenders:
Nik Persaud - 190,000
Beyazit Zorlu - 165,000
William Ho - 155,000
Chuck Clark - 150,000
Diego Gomez - 143,000
Willie Tann - 140,000
Ross Boatman - 140,000
7:42pm: Gone
The following players have fallen one level short in their quest to make Day 2: Jakub Gora, Paul Simpkins, Elisabeth Hille, Katie Swift, Robert Hagevik, Andrew Hawksby, Craig Sewell, Michal Janczarski, Feng Tian, Grzegorz Reczko, Kane Power Owain Carey, and William Kassouf. -- NW
7:32pm: Last level of the night
Level 12 has just started and it's the final level of the day. Currently 140 of 347 players still have chips and the average stack is 62,000. -- NW
Blinds up: 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
7:22pm: Chattha: "Back to square one"
Chaz Chattha has worked hard to build his stack up and managed to reach the lofty heights of 60,000 before getting in a huge 70,000 pot.
Having peeled a raise with [Jh][4h], he saw a delicious flop with a 4 and two hearts on it appear and decided he was happy to gamble.
"I wasn't going anywhere. I kind of expected him to show me kings but it turned out he had [Ah][6h] so I was actually ahead!"
Chattha ended up losing the hand dropping him into the push shove danger zone with 20 big blinds (35k).
"Back to square one," he said with a sigh. --RS
7:20pm: More chip counts
Just four tables remain in use in Tournament Room B and here are the counts of some of the names, notables and big stacks from that room:
Beyazit Zorlu - 167,000
Matti De Meulder - 70,000
Andy Black - 55,000
Owain Carey - 42,000
Brett Angell - 50,300
Will Kassouf - 18,000
7:10pm: Saxby suffers exit
From under-the-gun Fernando Marin Diaz raised to 3,400 and he picked up three callers including Kelly Saxby, who was in the big blind. So there was roughly 18,800 in the pot as the flop came [Qh][10d][6h].
Saxby was first to act, she moved all-in for 14,900, Diaz asked for a count and then called and the other two players folded their hands. Saxby was first to show, she turned over [Kh][10h] for middle pair and the flush draw but she was behind Diaz's [Ah][Qs]. The [5c] turn and [Qc] river bought no help for the American though and she wished the table good luck before leaving. -- NW
7:01pm: Bust-a-roo
The bucking donkey of variance has sent these hapless players flailing from the saddle - their tournament hopes crash landing on the dusty road.
On the plus side, London's multitude of social hotspots are now available for their delectation. Enjoy!
Chen Wenbin
Chao Xia
Gregory Neal
Lee Taylor
Timothy Farrelly
Neil Bernardout
Slawomir Andrzej Grzechowiak
Rohan Marwaha
Johnny Franse
Philip John Marcu
Adam Kelly
Adam Forsyth
Lee Ball
Yoeri Van Erp
Stefan Belgasmi Blendulf
Frode Oesterboe Fmid
Bartosz Piesiewicz
Robert Cowen
Rapinder Cheema
Matz Åke Lindman
Nicholas Green
Michael Hawkins
Mark Wates
Guy Beiruty
Anthony Georgiou
Dara Davey
Niall James Duffy
Dimitrios Patroklou
Ruben Tack
Vicente Delgado
Lee Hanlon -- RS
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600-200
6:45pm: Chip counts
Willie Tann got in as the 72nd alternate earlier today but it's not done 'the diceman' any harm as he's boosted his stack to 60,000 since he's been at the felt. He's at the same table as James Dempsey, the Brit has completed two legs of the triple crown and just needs an EPT win to complete the set. He's dropped to around 53,000 from a high point of 90,000. Other stacks of names and notables in Tournament Room A are:
Diego Gomez - 135,000
Jamie O'Connor - 108,000
Nik Persaud - 92,000
James Tomlin - 70,000
Fraser Macintyre - 57,000
Andrew Sweeney - 48,000
Steve Watts - 46,000
Ross Boatman - 45,000
Jonathan Weekes - 27,500
Ciaran Heaney - 20,000
Gary Clarke 17,400
Mark Wagstaff - 12,000
6:38pm: Lindman ship sunk
Matz Lindman had been working a smallish stack for much of the day and his tournament hopes finally fizzled out when a 14BB squeeze shove with [Kh][Qs] was reluctantly called by Thomas Hemming holding [Ah][6c].
Hemming's slim equity advantage held over the [Th][3d][2d][5s][7s] board.
"I had the right stack to do it," Lindman consoled himself with before thanking his tablemates graciously and taking leave of the arena. --RS
6:30pm: Not five alive
Coming into this event Team PokerStars SportStar had four cashes from four UKIPT Main Events. Not just cashes either she'd finished: 2nd, 96th, 38th and 59th on those four occasions.
So, hope was that she could make it five from five here in London but it's not to be as she's out. She intimated earlier that she may well play the ladies event though which takes place on Sunday at 3pm. -- NW
6:20pm: Come on down
As we're down to just 210 players the tables that were in use upstairs on The Poker Deck are no longer needed. Ross Boatman was one of the players to be moved downstairs during the last break. The former London's Burning star is chugging along on 37,000.
That's 37,000 more than a lot of players including this bunch who've all been eliminated: Gleb Krochmalis, Timothy Wright, John Bradley, Cosimo Sabatini, Rhys Ellis, Dirk Thijssen, Graham Farbrace, Sam Miller, Terence Owens, Marius Wolmarans, Alex Wharton, Angelos Megas, Nicholas Crozer, Mohammed Himedan, Paul Campbell, David Weir, Cathal Shine, Richard Lawlor, David Greene, Mateuisz Malinowski, Narinder Gill and Paul Mallett. -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200
6:10pm: Back for the final furlong!
Three levels remain and with the blinds at a hefty 600/1,200/200 we can expect the going to be fast and furious from here on out.
Wars are going to be fought over the chunky preflop additions to the pots and the casualty list will be rising exponentially. Watch this space... -- RS
5:55pm: Level 9 is caput
Time for another break as level 9 has drawn to a close. The players are 3/4 of the way through the day although some of the alternates have only just joined the felt so should be feeling a lot fresher than others.
Can they take advantage of those extra energy levels when they return? We'll be back in 15 minutes -- RS
5:45pm: "I'm doing chunks!"
James Dempsey was complaining about his bad luck, but it wasn't at the poker table. Chinese poker on his phone was costing him dear, although the compensatory factor of this is his chip stack continues to rise in the tournament, up to 90k. -- RS
5:35pm: Watts on the comeback trail
There are still two tables out on the first floor balcony area here at The Hippodrome Casino. Former Leyton Orient striker Steve Watts, who is now a professional poker player, is one of those and 'Watto' as is he is known is making a good comeback.
Earlier he dipped as low as 11,000 but the experienced live player has grinded his way out of the malaise and is now up to 40,000 which is above the average stack of 37,700. -- NW
5:25pm: Kerplunk!
Remember that 80's board game involving sticks and balls?
Well the following players have pulled their showdown sticks out of the poker tube only to find all their run-good balls sent crashing to earth: (Apologies for that tortured metaphor.)
Wuyong Xu
Ellie Biessek
Ross Elliott
Frank Matthijs Van Der Geest
Kjetil Håland
Charles Denton
Samuel Pye
Sergio Lazaro
Ruizi Lin
Jack Loraine
Raymond Caabay
Guerman Vladimirov
George Achillea
Thomas Gallagher
Lawrence Penfold
Tomasz Pięta
Neil Barron
Massimo Derico Sculco
Ganapathy Samiappan
Julian Thew
Bad luck to any of their supporters, and our special commiserations to Julian Thew who remains one of the politest and friendliest guys you'll meet on or off the felt. -- RS
5:15pm: Fallers everywhere
Almost 100 players have been eliminated so far on Day 1C and these unlucky cardsmiths were amongst them: Andrew Abernethy, Asif Rajah, Conor Smyth, Shahid Hussain, Ryan Straub, Andrew Hedley, Andrew Ferguson, Achim Prinzing, Jonathan Proudfoot, Knut Berntsen, Joshua Green, Henry Wride, Samuel Newman, Andrew Newson, Richard Pullen, William Alexander, Andrew Young, Tomasz Graczyk, Andreas Corneliusson, Tai Tran and Alan Stearn. -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000-100
5:05pm: Quick stack snapshot
Here's a quick look at some of the haves and have nots in the tournament right now.
Bayazit Zorlu - 100,000
Diego Gomez - 62,000
Chaz Chattha - 16,000
Fatima Moreira de Melo - 10,000 --RS
5:00pm: Surfeit of riches for Kassouf
"The rich get richer."
That has been the phrase oft-used at William Kassouf's table today, his inexorable rise to the top of the chip counts causing maybe a touch of green-eyed envy from some of his tablemates.
The latest coup that swung in his favour saw Ellie Biessek commit the last of her chips on a [5c][Ad][8c][8d][4c] board with [Tc][7c] for a flush, only to get the bad news that Mr Wonderful had [Kc][Qc] for a superior flush.
"Come on," laughed tablemate Pablo Rojas, still battling gamely on with a short-stack.
"Hey I was winning anyway with king-high!" pointed out Kassouf, defending himself verbally, though with his neatly ordered towers of chips continuing their growth, the mild ribbing he's getting will be water off a well-stacked duck's back.
Biessek out then and Kassouf is up to 140,000. -- RS
4:55pm: Chattha chatter
Chaz Chattha hasn't been able to get his tournament going today but he isn't letting his paucity of cards spoil his mood. "I've only got twenty bigs now, it's all about shoving ranges at this point. I know my ranges pretty well."
Even if it doesn't work out for him, he's upbeat about his prospects. "If I get knocked out, well it's Friday night in London isn't it!" -- RS
4:55pm: Matti on fire!
It's been a good Day 1 for Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Meulder, by the looks of this photo he's up to around 50,000 (click on image to see entire tweet). -- NW
Made two casualties already ... Building slowly. Yellow is good, blue is the nuts! #UKIPTLondon #poker pic.twitter.com/jSD00Oty1R
— Matthias De Meulder (@mattionfire) January 23, 20154:50pm: Hemming gets lucky
Yet again the floor was called to table one and this time it was to put the clock on Gleb Krochmalis. The Lithuanian was involved in a hand against Thomas Hemming that had reached the flop. On the [3d][10c][2c] flop Krochmalis had bet 4,700, Hemming had check-raised all-in for 15,000 more and Krochmalis was in the tank.
He needed only around 15 seconds of his allotted minute before he elected to call the all-in bet and it was time for showdown:
Krochmalis: [Kh][10d]
Hemming: [10h][9s]
The turn was the [As] and the river the [2s] Hemming got out of his seat to leave but the dealer pointed out it was a split pot and Hemming survived. -- NW
4:40pm: Floor!
At the very end of level seven a curious hand just played out at table one and it's one that needed the floor to provide a ruling. The action was started by Antonis Poulengeris, he raised to 1,200 from middle position, one seat along Neil Bernardout three-bet to 3,200 and action passed to Matz Åke Lindman who was on the button. He evidently hadn't seen Bernardout's raise as he said. "Raise to 2,500."
Initially, through table discussion only, it was ruled by the players more than anyone else that Lindman should raise the minimum so he put out a bet of 5,200. Robert Cowen, who was the big blind then said: "Shouldn't it have to be 5,700 and he said 'raise 2,500?'
At this point the floor was called and the dealer explained what had happened. Crucially the dealer explained to the floor staff that the exact words that Lindman had used were: 'raise to 2,500.' So the floor ruled that Lindman must put 2,500 into the pot and he then had the option to call the 3,200 or surrender his chips. Unsurprisingly he elected to call and Poulengeris said: "You've priced me in," before he too made the call. "You might have saved yourself 2,000," quipped Mark Lane to Lindman.
So it was three-way to a [6d][8s][Kh] flop, action was checked to Berandout, he bet 6,500 and it was enough to win the pot. "I can't work it out," said Poulengeris as he folded. "If you can't work it out then it's probably best to fold," said Bernadout. -- NW
4:30pm: Mullin mauled
UKIPT3 Galway champion Emmett Mullin is one of the players who've been eliminated during level seven. Others to have hit the rail include: Atilla Efeturk, Hicham Anbry, Kim-Erik Pedersen, Terence Cotter, Mike Panteli, Nuno Duarte, Patrick Thompson, Philip Petersen, Raz Alon, Adrian Constantin and Jack Stovell. -- NW
Blinds up: 400/800 ante 100
4:20pm: Angell gets aces
UKIPT4 London champion Brett Angell is going for back to back UKIPT wins and he just found aces and played a bit pot. He opened from early position to 600, Christopher McCall three-bet to 1,300, Tomasz Wrobel flat called the 1,300 and action was back on Angell. He asked McCall for a count of his stack - the lighting is not the best at that table - and then four-bet to 4,100 total. Mcall swiftly got out the way but Wrobel jammed for 17,000 and Angell - who was playing around 27,000 - made the call.
Angell: [Ad][Ah]
Wrobel: [As][Ac]
Both players had the bullets but it was Angell who was freerolling as the flop fell [6d][Jd][3s] the [2s] turn extinguished any hope of a bad beat and the [6c] completed the board. "That's pretty unlucky," said Angell to Wrobel as the next hand started. -- NW
4:20pm: Abernethy gets regal dismissal
Neil Bernardout has had a good day and it's just got a smidgin better as his pocket kings got the better of Andrew Abernethy's sixes after a preflop struggle.
Bernardout rises to around 60,000 and Abernethy is off to enjoy the rest of his Friday elsewhere. -- RS
4:10pm: In Black
Andy Black can stop disturbing players already playing the tournament now as the Irish poker legend has finally got his own seat in the UKIPT Main Event. He's got his own fresh 40 big blind+ stack. Although those getting it during level seven have missed over half of the action and not had the chance to chip up yet, the average stack is only 28,400 so they aren't at that much of a disadvantage chips wise. -- NW
4:00pm: Field of broken dreams
Not everyone can be a winner and the following players have seen their chances burn away:
Dean Clay, James Elliot, Sung Hee Yun, Georg Anton Giæver Beiske, Simon Hemsworth, Ylva Thorsrud, Terence Thomas Schofield, Neophytos Neophytou, Fintan Gavin, Jerome O'Shea, Jack Germaine and Philip Petersen are all gone. Good game all! -- RS
3:45pm: It's kick off!
The half time oranges have all been sucked, boots relaced and team talks given and we're back for the second half of the final of the three Day 1's.
Confused? Don't be, all you need to know is that we've had some great poker played out in levels 1-6, which you can find here and we anticipate more drama as the huge numbers that have descended on London's Hippodrome Casino to do battle are whittled down by ill-fortune, great play, variance and rising blinds.
The players are just returning from their post level 6 break to resume level 7. Good luck all!
PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT London: Rod Stirzaker and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May