4:10pm: End of the level
That's the end of level five and the players are now on a 15 minute break. You'll find updates from level six and beyond in a new post shortly. --NW
4:05pm: More exits
Late registration has now close which means the number of players in this tournament can only go one way from now on. It's bad news for fans of: Enzo Del Pero, Efstaphios Inglezos and Joe Laming who are the latest exits. -- NW
3:55pm: Double up for Zermon
David Zermon is back up to around 12,000 after doubling through James Noonan. The Irishman, who currently calls Malta home, opened to 900 and called after Zermon moved all-in for 5,800.
Noonan: [Ad][Qd]
Zermon: [Ts][Td]
A [Ks][3d][8h][Tc][3h] board improved Zermon to a full house and he doubled his stack. -- NW
3:45pm: Dobson races away
Ben Dobson has been eliminated.
According to his table he was down to 4,400 when he made his move with pocket eights. An opponent called with ace-king and flopped an ace. -- MC
3:40pm: Big Sam not happy
Sam Acheampong is not a happy bunny after losing a pot to drop to 4,400.
On the river of a [5h][7s][jh][3c][9c] board he led for 1,700 and called after Neil Van Der Merwe raised to 4,200. The latter opened [3h][3d] for a turned set and Acheampong mucked.
This game stinks!!! How do you float a c bet on a 9J8 flop with 33 and turn a set vs AJ??? #UKIPTBristol
— Sam Acheampong (@HackneyPoorBoy) August 7, 20153:30pm: McTaggart tank folds
Paul McTaggart is down to around 9,000 after tank folding the river in a hand against Sergio Cabrera. The latter opened to 800 from middle position and picked up calls from Tomas Geleziunas (hijack) and McTaggart (big blind).
On the [4h][6s][Ts] flop Cabrera c-bet 1,250 and both players called to see the [8d] fall on the turn. This didn't slow Cabrera down, he bet 4,300 and this time only McTaggart stuck around. The [Td] completed the board and McTaggart once again checked it over to Cabrera who didn't take too long before moving all-in.
McTaggart understandably took his time over the decision for his tournament life but eventually he elected to fold and preserve his remaining chips. --NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200/400, ante 50
3:20pm: Saxby double and details of MacDonald's exit
Kelly Saxby was sat behind 4,050 and told the blog, "I flopped a set and he (looks at Luke Warren) made a bigger set with an over pair."
She had a disgruntled look on her face but that soon turned to a smile. Andrew Fleming had opened to 725 and then called after Saxby shoved.
Saxby: [ac][kd]
Fleming: [8d][8s]
The board ran [4d][5c][ks][tc][th] to double her up.
Benjamin Morrison, it turns out, was the player who eliminated Sam MacDonald. He informed the blog that MacDonald five-bet all in with ace-king but ran into Morrison's aces. -- MC
3pm: Geilich doing what Geilich does
Some players are known as 'plodders' meaning they generally have very few fluctuations to their stack during the opening levels of tournaments, it's fair to say that's not a reputation that Ludovic Geilich has.
The Scottish pro is usually one of the most active players at the table and he's already up to 48,000 and just took a small pot from Gerwyn Davies. The pre-flop action is unknown but the two players checked all the way to the river on a [8c][9c][5d][7s][Qh] board after Davies checked for a third time Geilich bet 1,500 and Davies looked him up. Geilich rolled over [Qs][Th] and it was good enough to claim the pot. --NW
2:50pm: Mrs Deadman back above starting stack
Shola Akindele, who married her fiancé Simon Deadman this summer, has got back above starting stack (31k) after making a straight versus Anh-Tuan Hoang.
The flop was out and read [6d][5h][6h]. Akindele (middle position) had 1,250 out on front of her and Hoang (big blind) raised to 3,100. Akindele called and went on to call 3,000 and 5,000 on the [7s][9d] turn and river.
"Six," declared Hoang as he opened [6c][3h]. It was no good though as Akindele opened [8h][8c] for a straight. -- MC
2:40pm: Gone
A few exits to tell you about as: Samurle Grassi, David Robson, Sam MacDonald, Ross Mannion, Mudasser Hussain, Foyzul Hussein, Hassan Hussain and Matthew Stitt are all out. -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150/300, ante 25
2:17pm: Break Time
Have yourselves a 15-minute break everyone.
2:10pm: Big stack for Smallman
It's hard to call all in preflop in the early levels of a UKIPT with anything less than aces. Daniel Smallman did it - with pocket kings for 23,850 - and is glad he did.
He was in a raising war with Hassan Hussain and tanked when shoved on. His call was good though as Hussain opened [ac][kh] and failed to connect on the [2h][8c][3h][jd][jc] board.
Hussain was left with 2,950 and open shoved the very next hand with ace-king again. An opponent called with pocket nines and the board ran [tc][4h][6h][5s][as]. -- MC
1:55pm: Cody slips a little
Jake Cody dropped down to 21,100 after he lost a small pot from the big blind.
He called a min raise to see a [ah][qs][jd] flop that was checked through. Cody led for 500 on the [qh] turn and was called before both players checked the [kc] river. Cody opened [ks][2d] and lost out to his opponent's [ad][3d]. -- MC
1:40pm: Chip counts
As level three gets under way there's not been a ton of movement in the chip counts but nonetheless below are the counts of some of the names and notables:
Brett Angell, 36,200
Ben Jenkins, 36,000
Paul Zimbler, 33,000
Raj Verma, 29,500
Joe Grech, 29,500
Duncan McLellan, 29,000
Robbie Bull, 27,775
Richard Hawes, 27,000
Lee Taylor, 25,500
Kevin Killeen, 24,800
Niall Farrell, 24,800
Shola Akindele, 24,300
Alex Millar, 24,300
Dean Hutchison, 23,800
Kelly Saxby, 23,000
Dara Davey, 21,600
Tomasz Raniszewski, 21,500
Simon Deadman, 21,350
Rapinder Cheema, 21,300
Ben Dobson, 21,000
Marc McCluskey, 19,000
Luke Perrott, 18,500
Deboarh Worley-Roberts, 14,500
Caicai Huang, 14,000
Paul McTaggart, 13,000
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100/200 ante 25
1:23pm: Getting the job done
Deborah Worley-Roberts and Albert Sapiano had the goods on hands they played out.
Brighton-based Worley-Roberts' stack pointed to her having a bad start before she bet 1,250 on the turn of a [ts][6d][8h][7h] board. He opponent folded and she flashed jack-nine for the nuts. The pot helped her recover to 14,000.
Soon after, Albert Sapiano led for 1,800 into four players with a board reading [qh][jh][8h][kd]. He was called in one spot and then bet another 2,000 on the [2s] river. His opponent raised to 6,400 and immediately mucked when Sapiano called. That meant the latter didn't have to show and he moved up to 42,000. -- MC
1:10pm: Liquid lunch
From his current seat Niall Farrell has a decent view of the Ashes cricket match that's currently taking place at Trent Bridge. Whilst they've just gone for lunch and are probably tucking into cucumber sandwiches right now Farrell was after sustenance of a different kind. "Can we get some drinks to the table?" he asked of a member of staff. "I haven't had one for a while and I'm starting to shake!" -- NW
1pm: Jake and Daniel
Daniel Stacey is one of the latecomers on Day 1B as he's just taken his seat in this tournament. The youngster has already had two deep runs on the UKIPT, finishing 11th at UKIPT4 London and 6th and UKIPT4 Isle of Man.
His chances of making a third deep run suffered a bit of a dent as he's to the direct right of Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, which is definitely not the easiest seat in the house. --NW
12:50pm: The 400 club
The tournament clock is showing that 260 players have entered so far on Day 1B that takes the total number of runners to 400 as 140 played yesterday. With late registration open until the start of level five it looks as if Day 1B will have more than double the runners of Day 1A. -- NW
Blinds up: 75/150
12:40pm: John Gale makes his UKIPT Debut
John Gale is playing his first ever UKIPT today and he told the PokerStars blog that he very happy to be here.
Gale's first ever-recorded cash was at the 2005 PCA, which he won for $890,600! That result was no one-off though as he went on to achieve enormous success for the following few years, racking up six more six-figure cashes (including a WSOP bracelet).
Unfortunately for Gale, illness struck him down for a good while and he was forced into the shadows. Thankfully his illness was temporary and he's been able to show in 2015 that class in permanent. He cashed five times over the summer in Las Vegas, including winning his second career bracelet and another $298,290.
A poker resume is not worth the paper it's written on though without a UKIPT cash, so Gale is in Bristol to try and settle that one. -- MC
12:30pm: In for a penny but not in for a pound
The direct buy-in for this event is £770 but thanks to the satellite system there are plenty of players in for far less today. One of those is Marcell Gottshalk and his journey to this tournament is quite remarkable.
He played the six-max side event here on Wednesday night and having busted that went home and found he had some loose change in his PokerStars account. So, he entered a £0.77 UKIPT Bristol satellite feeder and won his way into a £27 re-buy satellite that had at least one seat guaranteed to the Main Event. A few hours later he'd won that as well and had qualified to the Main Event for the princely sum of £0.77. -- NW
12:15pm: Name dropping
Play is split over two rooms here currently in Bristol with most players in the cardroom/River View Suite and around five tables in use in another area, which is to the left of the bar. Rapinder Cheema, who won UKIPT5 London, is one of those players in the secondary area and there are more tables there which aren't in use right now.
There are more familiar faces in the main cardroom, Robbie Bull - another UKIPT London winner - and Mark McCluskey are sharing a table. The former has form here too having finished third when the UKIPT was last in town in 2012. Paul McTaggart walked past McCluskey and said hello as he took his seat at an adjoining table.
Elsewhere you'll find two more UKIPT winners as Duncan McLellan and Brett Angell are playing and there's a slew of players who've made a UKIPT final table but couldn't quite get over the line. They include: Deborah Worley-Roberts, Raj Verma and Luke Perrott. And just to round things off two of the UK's best tournament players - Simon Deadman and Ben Jenkins - are down the far end of the room, albeit at separate tables. --NW
12:05pm: Shuffle up and deal
Play is under way here in Bristol, 180 players are already in their seats. -- NW
11:40am: The hoards arrive for Day 1B
The sun is out and shining in Bristol - and for a city commonly known as Brizzle - that's a big deal. So what better way to spend it than in a windowless casino! There's not many other places we'd rather be though. The sun will always shine another day, good luck finding another UKIPT Bristol to enter this year.
At least double the 140 that played yesterday are expected today with many of the UK and Ireland's top pros expected to be in attendance. A total of 39 players made it through - a high casualty rate due to the twelve 45-minute levels played - and a similar percentage will fall today.
Cards will be in the air at midday and players already seen include double bracelet winner John Gale; newly-married Simon Dedman; top Scots Ludovic Geilich, Dean Huchinson and Niall Farrell; Sin Melin and Team Pros Jake Cody and Alex Millar.
