It was mentioned earlier in the day that the UKIPT is the most sociable poker tour in the United Kingdom. One can delve further and say that the Newcastle leg is the most sociable of all the stops on the British Isles (The Irish stops play by different rules). This helped attract a very friendly bunch to this, the fourth stop of season of Season 3. The festival kicked off in traditional style last night with the popular 6-max event, which attracted nearly 150 players that sunk just as many pints.
Today was the real deal though, the £770 Main Event. A total of 246 players packed into two rooms of Aspers Newcastle Casino. After eight one-hour levels of play Timotheos Timotheou rose to the summit with an impressive 134,000 chips. He's closely followed by Kevin Killeen (126,600), then a little further back are Francis Laken (92,000), Khadir Khoshawy (86,300) and Steven Warburton (84,800).
There were no Team PokerStars Pros in attendance today but many big-name players showed off their skills. Sam Grafton (39,600), Ben Jenkins (24,600), and Ben Jackson (69,600) all played at the same table for the entire day, seeing off all comers looking to take their chips and reputation. WSOP bracelet winner Scott Shelley (28,600) saw the funny side of being moved to their table for the last couple of levels, and held his own. Safe enough a distance away were Jeff Kimber (55,400), Jack Ellwood (20,600), Dean Lyall (44,900), Sam Holden (30,300) and Keith Hawkins (13,300); all of whom safely navigated their paths through to Day 2.
Not so lucky were the likes of: defending champion Richard Sinclair, Maximilian Heinzelmann, former UKIPT Nottingham winner Gareth Walker, Jeffrey Burke, and double UKIPT winner Joeri Zandvliet. Luckily the schedule has many side events to keep them busy, if the Newcastle nightlife isn't their thing.
That's all for today's poker action. The Team PokerStars blog will naturally be weaving its way through town centre streets, avoiding all temptation, and heading back to the hotel to be well rested to do the same all over again tomorrow.
We will welcome Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree, Vicky Coren, and Jude Ainworth tomorrow but they won't be alone. Already qualified, paid in, or expected are: former champions Jamie Burland, Max Silver, and Nick Abourisk, David Docherty, our very own Nick Wealthall, and Sam Razavi who's flown in from Melbourne where he took down the APPT event just last week. It'll be a bumper field with more than 300 players expected.
Join us back here from 12pm local time where eight fun-filled levels of poker action await. If you'd like to catch up on today's action, please click the links below:
Level 1 - 4 updates.
Level 5 - 8 updates.
All photos are copyright of Mickey May. She's got deep heat spray and is not afraid to use it.