7.34pm: End of Day 1B - Dimitrov leads
Day 1B has drawn to a close and there is a furious exchange now as the remaining 37 (to be confirmed) players bag their chips up while the new tranche of players arrive to play out Day 1C.
It looks as though Bulgarian Andrey Dimitrov will be confirmed as the chip leader in due course - his 189,400 putting him firmly at the top of the tree.
Full chip counts can be found by clicking here but for now thanks for following. We'll be moving to a new page for Day 1C and we'll have a wrap-up of both days once all 12 levels of Day 1C are done and dusted.
7.30pm: Chattha "Live gangster" ends with a bang
Chaz Chattha has had a very productive last level of the day, the final hand seeing him effectively jam over the top of a Chris Yong raise and flat call.
Yong and opponent folded leaving Chaz to sweep up the pot.
"Online gangster!" he was called.
"Online?" he said quizzically.
"LIVE gangster!" Chaz looked happier about this as he bagged up 137,400 - in the upper echelons of the chip counts.
7:13pm: Slipping on banana skins
As we enter the last level of Day 1B, Yue Tu and Dimitrios Leventis are the latest players to slip up just shy of the end of the day.
It's a minefield out there. You can't get away from the destiny fated for you.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1000-2000-300
6.55pm: End of days
We saw yesterday that the final level of the day can be a brutal affair with the blinds large - the stakes high and some aggressive players at the felt.
There are 41 players remaining as we head into the final level of Day 1B and we anticipate a fiery end - not least because some players will look at the potential of re-registering for Day 1C (beginning immediately after the end of this level) as a useful safety net should they fall afoul of the poker gods during this 30 minute period.
Hold tight - a storm may be brewing.
6:40pm: Top of the tree
Here are some of the players with big stacks at this stage -
| Andrey Dimitrov | Bulgaria | 155000 |
|---|---|---|
| Yin Ohn | United Kingdom | 98000 |
| Nicholas Trattou | United Kingdom | 88000 |
| Xiaoyang Luo | China | 82000 |
| Chaz Chattha | United Kingdom | 75000 |
| Andrew Purser | United Kingdom | 75000 |
| Kelly Saxby | USA | 70000 |
| Christopher Yong | United Kingdom | 67000 |
| Dominic Wells | United Kingdom | 54000 |
6:22pm: Heroes at the felt
Kelly Saxby - Kelly goes from strength to strength - she's up to 73,500 now, having sent David Wellings to the rail.
Wellings found himself short and jammed on Saxby's big blind - Saxby calling with [As][6s].
"Oh that's not good," she pointed out as Wellings flipped queens, before a flop of [Ad][Th][3s][Ac][Ah] saw her make quads to send a laughing Wellings on his way with a rueful smile.
Andrey Dimitrov is the man everyone is chasing right now, the Bulgarian having accumulated a gargantuan 142,000 in chips - roughly three times average.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1600-200
6.03pm: All that glitters....
...is not Gould-en. Alex Goulder has just departed - his tale of woe delivered in typically upbeat fashion by the young British Pro.
Having lost a chunk of his stack with eights versus Queens, he found kings on the button and a sweet spot to increase his 10,000 stack.
The cut-off raised, Goulder re-raised and a player in the blinds now found ace-king, committing his chips.
Goulder made the call but on this occasion his luck didn't hold, his opponent winning the 30% showdown to leave Goulder high and dry.
"No problem!" he cheerily noted as he melted into the cold October air.
5.45pm: Recent fallers
The following horses have all been gently shepherded toward the entrance of the glue factory.
Good game all.
Benjamin Heath
Jonas Ferrut
Benjamin Morrison
Vincent Pritchard
David Clarkson
Alejandro Perez Torres
Javier Gomez Zapatero
Philip Gregg
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1000-100
Welcome back to the Hippodrome Casino for level 9 of the UKIPT Super Series Event.
There is a neat symmetry to the day, we are 2/3 of the way through and 1/3 of the players have been eliminated with 64 of the initial 100 starters still in contention.
Numbered amongst those still in contention are Jake Cody with a slightly sub-average stack of 28,000, Dominic Wells, who is showing why he has a string of results ehre at The Hippodrome Casino - he has 62,000.
Also going well is UKIPT regular Kelly Saxby - her 51,000 chips giving her a well above average stack at this point.
To read updates from levels 1-8, click here.
PokerStars Blog reporting team at PokerStars UKIPT5 Series 2: Rod Stirzaker. Photos courtesy of Mickey May.