* CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT UPDATES
* Day 1B consists of twelve 45-minute levels, this is an archive of levels 1-7.
* Day 1B players (779 so far - a record for single day attendance in a UKIPT Main Event)
* Late registration has closed
4pm: All about the nines
Level 7: Blinds 300-600 ante 75
As the time ticked down on level seven there was a big pot brewing between three players on table 35. Matthew Willis had opened to 1,325 only to have two players shove all-in behind him.
Audrius Valancius was all-in for 10,425, whilst Georgios Sotiropoulos had 10,550 over the line.Willis got counts of the shoves, tanked and then folded the Hellmuth - two black nines.
Valancius: [Ah][7d]
Sotiropoulos [9d][9h]
A [2s][Jd][Jh][6d][3c] board kept Sotiropoulos in front, Willis is one of the chip leaders as he's sitting on a stack of roughly 90,000. --NW
3:57pm: All together now
Level 7: Blinds 300-600 ante 75
Just before the break I arrived at the table to see Cezary Szkup all in for around 6,000 with [Ac][8d] and Asif Warris trying to send him out the door with [Ks][Jh].
The [5s][6h][7h] flop was decent enough for Szkup and the [4h] turn even better. It gave Warris a flush draw though and whilst he missed it on the river, the [8c] meant they both played the board. "You know what they say," began Warris, who's been a #EPTLive Super Fan in the past. "Everyone loves a chopped pot."
He attempts to cajole the table into a sing along largely fell on deaf ears though. Party poopers. -- NW
3:55pm: Break time
The players have 20 minutes to refresh.
3:50pm: ElkY couldn't fold kings
Level 7: Blinds 300-600 ante 75
"There was a lot of action but it's hard to fold kings, even for 45 big blinds."
These were the words of Team PokerStars Pro ElkY in pressroom after he was eliminated. He went on to explain that he flatted an under the gun raise to 1,300 (from UTG+1) before a player in the next seat squeezed to 3,300. Then a player in the small blind four-bet to 7,500 and that was enough to oust the original raiser but not ElkY, who moved all in for 26,000. The player to his left re-shoved with his aces and the small blind folded. -- MC
3:30pm: Pablo Gordillo the last player in
Level 7: Blinds 300-600 ante 75
Level 7 has gotten underway which means registration has closed, with Pablo Gordillo getting a seat ticket with seconds to spare.
The board shows 779 entries for Day 1B taking the number up to 993. The four-figure sweat isn't over yet though as all the entries need to be verified and any no-shows added on to that number. -- MC
3:25pm: Sykes avoids getting flushed away
Level 6: Blinds 250-500 ante 50
Former cash game pro and UKIPT Edinburgh finalist, Jamie Sykes, has managed a double up to around 78,000 after his aces held up versus Martin Henderson.
Around 18,000 made it into the middle by time the two players and one more saw a [5d][js][2d] flop spread in front of them. The chips went in (between Sykes and Henderson) and the cards were flipped up.
Sykes: [ah][as]
Henderson: [ad][qd]
Sykes bit his nails as the board ran out [2c][jh]. -- MC
3:20pm: More exits
Level 7: Blinds 300-600 ante 75
The Poker Gods care not for reputation be you a big name or playing your first event they'll smack you down to the felt. The latest to feel their wrath are: Chris Moorman, Chance Kornuth, John Wong, Ivan Tononi, Marian Fridrich, Sanchez Alonso, Kuljinder Sidhu, Paul Skipper, Michael Wang, Lee Egan, Robbie Renehan, Darryll Fish, Mike Hill, Fabian Ortiz, Ognyan Dimov, David Hill, Fraser Macintyre, Jude Ainsworth, Dave Maudlin, Jannick Wrang and Neil Strike. --NW
3:05pm: Worley-Roberts plays a booby-shaker of a hand to double
Level 6: Blinds 250-500 ante 50
Paul Michaelis and Deborah Worley-Roberts played an interesting hand with the former almost getting the latter off the best hand. She called, doubled, and was pretty darn happy about it.
The two were heads up to the turn with a board reading [5c][kh][3h][9s] and 15,500 chips were looking for an owner. Michaelis was in the big blind and set Worley-Roberts all in for her remaining 14,000-or-so. The American went into the tank and talked the hand through to herself as the table watched. Then she picked up her stack and banged them over the line.
She made a good call with [kc][jh] as Michaelis could only muster the [ac][jd].
Worley-Roberts stood up and said, "Yeah baby, pay the lady!" Then she acted out the line, "That's a booby shaker!" before she sat back down adding, "Nice try sweetheart."
"At least I tried," Michaelis responded
"That you did, but that smirking preflop gave you away."
"What's smirking?" asked the German.
"Smirking. It's like twerking but you do it with your face!"
The whole table erupted with laughter. Classic Worley-Roberts. -- MC
3pm: Doubling in Dublin
Level 6: Blinds 250-500 ante 50
Some players just seem to do well in certain cities. Maybe it's a confidence thing after one big result that makes another follow. Maybe it's just variance, maybe it's...well who knows. One player for who there's certainly something in the water in Dublin is Ian Simpson.
The Geordie, who finished runner-up at UKIPT4 London, has recorded two of his three biggest results in this city. In 2012 he finished fourth in the Irish Open and came back in 2013 to finish what he'd started and won the whole thing. Oh and he also proposed to his girlfriend as soon as he'd won it. What a guy!
He's got a smile on his face today and no wonder, he's doubled his starting stack and is playing around 50,000. --NW
2:50pm: Geilich gives us the run down
Level 6: Blinds 250-500 ante 50
A three-way pot involving Tom Hall was playing out at the table where Ludovic Geilich was sat. The Scot, who won UKIPT Marbella in Season 4 somehow wasn't involved in the hand, and stepped away to get a drink of water.
When he returned he gave us his assessment of the table: "Tough table this," he began. "You've got Jabra (Tom Hall) and Thomas Butzhammer. Also the guy in seat two (Tyler Longo) is good and the guy to Tom's left (Jelcides Monteiro) is decent.
Monteiro was actually one of the players involved in the hand against Hall, those two and Patrick Vincent (small blind) were looking at a [7c][9s][7d] flop, Vincent checked, Hall (big blind) bet 1,400 into a pot of ~4,000 and Monteiro (under-the-gun) was the only caller.
The two players then checked it down on the [Kd] turn and [Td] river and Monteiro's pocket jacks were good. --NW
2:30pm: Not everyone can have the luck of the Irish!
Level 6: Blinds 250-500, 50 ante
So long, farewell to: Ari Engel, Martin Guth, Hak-Mann Lee, Uri Gilboa, Thomas Patridge, James O'Callaghan, Ilan Boujenah, Richard Hawes, Mikael Koistinen, Miguel Silva, Darren Willis, David Greene, Stephen Pearce, Caroline Harris, Aaron Spence, Anthony Lynn, Victor Ilyukhin, Sean McCarthy, Scott Montgomery, Georges Yazbeck, Michal Rudnik, Martin Brader, Damien Scott, Majid Iqbal, Amanda Sidark, Simon Brooks and Peter Roche. -- MC
Want to start your own UKIPT campaign? Sign up for PokerStars and start your journey. Click here to get an account.
2:15pm: Two more EPT champions in the house
Level 5: Blinds 200-400, 50 ante
A short time ago ElkY took the total number of EPT champions who've entered this event to eight. You can now up that figure to ten as we just spied Jannick Wrang picking up his seat allocation. The Dane won EPT8 Campione in 2012 where he picked up a winners' cheque of €640,000.
And shortly before that Dominik Panka entered the fray. --NW
2pm: Chip leaders
Level 5: Blinds 200-400, 50 ante
After four levels of play Andreas Wuerger has managed to spin his stack up to an impressive 80,500. Notables who've been moving in the right direction include: Thomas Finneran (73,000), Diego Gomez (64,000), Sebastian Pauli (56,000), Dean Hutchison (50,000) and Max Silver (50,000).
| Name | Country | Status | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andreas Wuerger | Switzerland | 80,500 | |
| Yung Hwang | USA | PokerStars player | 75,600 |
| Thomas Finneran | Ireland | PokerStars qualifier | 73,000 |
| Augusto Evangelisti | Italy | 67,500 | |
| Diego Gomez | Spain | PokerStars qualifier | 64,000 |
| Alban Juen | France | 63,000 | |
| Marco Niederdeppe | Germany | PokerStars qualifier | 61,000 |
| Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | PokerStars player | 59,250 |
| Andrew Hawksby | UK | 59,000 | |
| Dex De Jong | Netherlands | 58,000 | |
| Tomas Geleziunas | Lithuania | PokerStars qualifier | 57,000 |
| Brett Kennedy | Canada | 57,000 | |
| Sebastian Pauli | Germany | PokerStars player | 56,000 |
| Patrick Leitner | Austria | PokerStars qualifier | 56,000 |
| Kuhls Julian | Ireland | 54,000 | |
| Georgios Mavroulias | Greece | 54,000 | |
| Carter Swidler | Canada | PokerStars qualifier | 53,000 |
| Didier Obigand | France | 51,400 | |
| Asif Warris | UK | PokerStars qualifier | 51,000 |
| Paul Byrne | UK | PokerStars qualifier | 51,000 |
| Dean Hutchison | UK | 50,000 | |
| Max Silver | UK | 50,000 |
1:50pm: We got a record!
Level 5: Blinds 200-400, 50 ante
Late registration doesn't close until 3.15pm but already we've broken a record. The official number of entrants so far in Day 1B is 740 which breaks the figure for the highest ever single day attendance on in a UKIPT Main Event. The previous record was 736, set at UKIPT4 London 2. --NW
1:42pm: Play resumes; ElkY in the house!
Level 5: Blinds 200-400, 50 ante
Here we go : @PokerStarsEPT #UKIPTDublin Day1b ! Green #Mau5 is out for the occasion to match the Irish colours 👍🇮🇷 pic.twitter.com/hU02BfeADk
— Bertrand Grospellier (@elkypoker) February 11, 2016
1:22pm: Break time
Level 4: Blinds 150-300 ante 25
The players have reached the end of level four and are now on a 20 minute break.
1:20pm: All out
Level 4: Blinds 150-300 ante 25
The pace of exits has picked up in levels three and four with: Michael Farrelly, Mudasser Hussain, Liam Chevalier, Tomas Pleticha, Lars Jurgens, Gustave Fayard, Sai Chung, Tim Reilly, Joey Lovelady, Cathal Young, Davide Marchi, Richard Jones, Gareth Caldwell, Daniel Karacic, Dmitry Zotov, Alexander Tikhoniouk and Paul McTaggart all exiting the tournament. --NW
1:15pm: More counts from the main room
Level 4: Blinds 150-300 ante 25
Despite the main room being absolutely rammed, it's very easy to move between tables and there are no 'out of reach' tables like there can be at some events. That means we've been able to weave our way through the room getting a bunch of chip counts for you:
Dean Hutchison, 52,000
Thiago Nishijima, 44,000
James Akenhead , 43,000
Jamie Sykes, 38,000
Ari Engel, 33,300
Tim Chung, 31,000
Gareth Chantler, 29,000
Alex Goulder, 27,700
David Vamplew, 27,300
Tomasz Raniszewski, 25,400
Adam Owen, 22,400
Matti De Meulder, 22,050
Vicente Delgado, 21,800
Mike Hill, 21,000
Keith Johnson, 19,300
Daniel Stacey, 19,000
Victor Ilyukhin, 12,500
1pm: Bouncebackability from Macintyre
Level 4: Blinds 150-300 ante 25
"This is heaps," said Fraser Macintyre to me as I eyed up his stack of 9,500. Doesn't seem like heaps given the starting stack is 25,000 but Macintyre went on to explain his statement. "First hand I played I had aces cracked by kings all-in pre-flop. I was down to 1,200 so this is a spin up."
It continued the very next hand as holding [7c][5d] Macintyre got in cheap from the big blind, flopped three sevens and rivered a full house. He's up to 12,000 as a result. --NW
12:51pm: Tricky table and some counts
Level 4: Blinds 150-300 ante 25
Table 43 is the one that stands out as one of the trickier in the room. Sat there you'll find: Richard Hawes (25,500), Ben Jenkins (26,000), Daragh Davey (24,000), Charlie Carrel (23,000) and Padraig O'Neill (22,000), with the last four names taking up the last four seats on the table.
Other counts from that side of the room:
Eugene Katchalov, 24,500
Tom Kitt, 23,500
Filipe Ramos, 28,000
Andrew Chen, 16,000
Chris Gordon, 34,000
Max Silver, 43,000
Chance Cornuth, 17,500
Sebastian Pauli, 36,000
Brett Angell, 19,200
Kevin MacPhee, 10,400
-- MC
A phone charger, a cup of tea and lots of chips. Life is good #pslive #goodlife #UKIPTDublin pic.twitter.com/5XoykLHMBX
— Chris Gordon (@CCG_85) February 11, 2016
12:40pm: EPT champs trying to claim a UKIPT title
Level 4: Blinds 150-300 ante 25
There are a number of EPT champions in the Day 1B field all hoping to win another major PokerStars title. Sebastian Pauli is the latest of those to take his seat, the EPT11 London champion took his seat a short time ago, as did the man he beat heads-up to win the title. He denied Kevin MacPhee the EPT double.
Also in are Anton Wigg, Ognyan Dimov, Mickey Petersen and David Vamplew. There are a ton of plain old UKIPT winners knocking about too. Ludovic Geilich has just turned up he joins the like of Brett Angell, Thomas Finneran, Max Silver, Dan Stacey, Dean Hutchison and Fintan Gavin.
Fancy a shot at winning your own UKIPT title? Sign up for PokerStars and start your journey. Click here to get an account.
12:25pm: One in, one out
Level 3: Blinds 100-200 ante 25
Whilst there's a snaking line of people waiting to get into the tournament, for some the UKIPT Dublin dream is already over. It's been a short tournament for: Cristinel Sandu, Ahmed Al Barwani, Sacha Le Breton, Thomas O'Shea, Balazs Botond, Fayad Ghassan, Miguel Monton, Lee Wai Kiat, Thierry Morel, Antti Marttinen and EPT12 Malta champion Niall Farrell. --NW
Was forced to bust the UKIPT immediately in protest of the late bar opening. Stand with me brothers.
— Niall Farrell (@Firaldo87poker) February 11, 2016
12:15pm: Two rooms
Level 3: Blinds 100-200 ante 25
As mentioned below there's a queue of players waiting to get into this event. Such is the demand for seats today that play has spilled over into the area of the building reserved for cash games.
There are 10 tables in use there - and more are being opened - and the linkes of Phillip Baker, Thomas Butzhammer, Ian Simpson, Mickey Petersen and Paul Delaney can be found dotted around that room. -NW
12:10pm: What so you mean it started at 10am?
Level 3: Blinds 100-200, 25 ante
Around 668 players have now taken their seats including 46 alternates from a line that's snaking out the door. Anyone would think that poker tournaments normally start at midday. The total number is looking good to pass the 1,000-player mark, which is great for the prizepool.
There's some amount of talent in that alternate line as well. UKIPT champions Dan Stacey and Fintan Gavin are joined by: Matthias de Meulder, Jasper Wetemans, Scott Montgomery, Neil Strike, Andrea Dato and online legend Chris Moorman. -- MC
11:55am: You pay your money, you take your chance...
Level 3: Blinds 100-200, 25 ante
You hope you don't run kings into aces...
Get KK vs AA. Comes AQ high n I still lose the maximum. Oops
— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) February 11, 2016
11:52am: Practice makes perfect for Ari Engel
Level 3: Blinds 100-200, 25 ante
The APPT Aussie Millions is one of poker's majors. It's the biggest tournament the southern hemisphere has to offer and it's a real feather in the cap for any player that's good, and lucky, enough to win it. The 2016 edition came to a conclusion fewer than two weeks ago and Ari Engel, who's playing today, walked away with the trophy and AU$1.6million.
Engel made his name in the poker world back in the days when online poker was freely available in the United States. The hours he put in and the results he achieved earned him cult status amongst online railbirds. He had a scattering of live results but nothing to write home about. When the online game was taken away from him, he didn't get down about it, he just applied himself to the live poker circuit in the same way he used to online.
Fast-forward almost five years and Engel has cashed a staggering 130 times since "Black Friday." A look through the timeline on his Hendon Mob page highlights just how hard he's worked - cash after cash - often just days apart in locations across the US (mostly) and the globe. Until the Aussie Millions result, his biggest cash was for $177,000. It just shows that hard work does pay off and can result in the greatest day of your poker career, something that Engel confirmed happened to him down under. -- MC
11:30am: Break time
Level 2: Blinds 75-150
Two levels are in the books and the players are now on a 20 minute break. --NW
11:15am: Side event focus: Two final tables for McDonald; wins for Vieira, Bendik and others
Level 2: Blinds 75-150
There was plenty of side event action yesterday with four events playing to a conclusion. The biggest of those was the €5,000 Hold'em event, which attracted a stellar field of 15 runners. It was won by Portugal's Joao Vieira, he collected € 36,370 and defeated Mike McDonald heads-up. The Canadian then hopped into the €1k NL Turbo event and proceeded to finish fifth! Steve O'Dwyer went three better than McDonald but was denied another EPT trophy by Jasper Wetemans. The Dutch pro pocketed €24,725 for defeating the 96 strong field.
The other hold'em event on the schedule yesterday was a 500 NL Hyper Turbo event, it attracted 50 entrants. The final three were all from Portugal, and it was won by David Abreu after he defeated Fernando Brito heads-up.
It wasn't all hold'em yesterday though as there was a €500 H.O.R.S.E event on the schedule for the mixed game gurus. It was a strong field of 21 players and Jan Bendik beat David Vamplew heads-up to win the title. The 50-year-old from Slovakia has now won six EPT events in six different countries.
Want to start your own UKIPT campaign? Sign up for PokerStars and start your journey. Click here to get an account.
11:14am: Aces and faces
Level 2: Blinds 75-150
As you would expect plenty more known faces have joined the party and they include: Kevin MacPhee (fresh in from the other side of the planet), Joey Lovelady, Anton Wigg, Anton Saout, Seth Webber and Ian Simpson.
Simpson had a few extra cups of coffee this morning hoping it would help him with the early start time, but he hasn't gotten off to the best of starts. Maybe the caffeine has made his calling hands a little twitchy.
He and Robert Beer were heads up to the river of a [qd][7s][jd][5d][9d] board and around 4,500 lay in the centre of the table. Simpson checked from under the gun and tank called when Beer bet 5,000. He was shown [ad][ac] for a flush and mucked his hand to dropped to 15,300. -- MC
11am: Keep 'em coming
Level 2: Blinds 75-150
Over 515 players have now taken their seats on this bumper Day 1b and the big names just keep on coming. Due to the bigger buy-in events on the schedule - there's a €25,000 event tomorrow for instance - there are some well known players here that you'd never normally see on this tour. Like Chance Kornuth and Andrew Chen. Regulars on the EPT yes, the UKIPT, not so much.
A player who battles against them on the EPT regularly, but is a UKIPT regular, is Max Silver. He's also a Dublin native but due to a tram strike he drove to the venue today. He had to park someway from the venue though and was delighted to learn that the first break was 20 minutes long, rather than 15, as it gives him more time to move his car. If Silver has a Day 1 anything like he did last time the tour was in town, he'll likely be the chip leader.
He ran up a stack of 311,700 in Season 4, slightly more than Vladimir Velikov (301,500) managed yesterday, but in four fewer levels, unbelievable! Silver went on to finish runner-up to Kevin Killeen, almost adding to the UKIPT title he won here in 2010. Another UKIPT champion who's come close to a double is Brett Angell, he's also playing today as are:
Richard Hawes
Ben Winsor
Andrew Sweeney
David Clarkson
Neil Rawnsley
Jon Wong
10:40am: Earphones needed for Saxby?
Level 1: Blinds 50-100
Deborah Worley-Roberts and Kelly Saxby are great friends and hang out at many UKIPTs. The table they normally share is close to a bar but today, chips and cards have replaced the glasses and wine bottles as they have been drawn together.
Worley-Roberts is known for her quiet and shy demeanour at the table.....not! Her vocal ability is already being tested to its limits and Saxby, looked up at the blog and said in jest, "All day. All day!" -- MC
Want to start your own UKIPT campaign? Sign up for PokerStars and start your journey. Click here to get an account.
10:25am: Who's about? Part two
Level 1: Blinds 50-100
Forgive us, but we're about to do some more name dropping. Those spotted in t'other half of the room include:
Jamie Sykes
James Akenhead
Tom Hall
David Hills
Nick Newport
Andrew Hulme
Gareth Chantler
Keith Johnson
Mike Hill
Ari Engel
Alex Goulder
10:15am: Who's about? Part one
The tournament is growing minute by minute and smoke must be coming off the ticket machines at registration desk. The day has swelled to almost 500 entries players at the time of publishing.
Confirmed sightings in one half of the tournament room: PokerStars' Filipe Ramos, Mickey Petersen and Jen Shahade; Dan Charlton, Dara O'Kearney (after he faked playing Day 1A), Chris Gordon, Dan Charlton, Fergal Nealon, Vojtech Ruzicka, Tim Reilly, Kerryjane Craigie and Balazs Botond. --MC
Me and most of my fellow players at #UKIPTDublin today, gl all! https://t.co/gtBI6nCqym
— Mickey Petersen (@mickeydp) February 11, 2016
10am: Cards are in the air!
Level 1: Blinds 50-100
Day 1B has gotten underway.
9:45am: Bumper Day 1B about to commence
Day 1A attracted 214 players yesterday and today promises to be a lot bigger. The first ever champion here, back in Season 1, was Max Silver, and he'll be in attendance today. He tried to come and play yesterday but getting out of one's own bed (Silver lives in Dublin) tends to be a lot harder than a strange hotel bed. Back in 2010 Silver had a day job working for Full Tilt Poker, but the €72,000 he won was partially behind his decision to go pro, and what a good decision that's been - the Brit has more than £2.3 million in winnings on his poker resume now! Will another Silver-type case be born in Dublin this week?
Team Online's Mickey Peterson has been spotted in the RDS over the last 24 hours and is expected to be in the field today. Social media had also been flooded with photos of players making - or trying - to make their way to Dublin. Many added holidays on to the PCA and a fair few have made/are making the long trip back from the Aussie Millions, including the champion Ari Engel.
Cards will be in the air at 10am.
Key UKIPT5 Dublin Facts:
- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 50/100 for 250 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be 12 of them. From Day 2 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes.
- Day 1B takes place today, the field will then combine for the first time on Friday. We'll reach the money during the 10 levels of play on Day 2 and then play down to a final table on Saturday. Sunday is a rest day, and then on Monday the final table will play out on the TV table on EPTLive with cards-up coverage and bring Season 5 of the UKIPT to a close. Cue mad celebrations and swigging of champagne from the trophy (possibly).
- Full UKIPT5 Dublin schedule here.
- It's not all about the poker here in Dublin. There are plenty of #StarsFun activities including Dodgeball Trampolining. Yes, you read that right Dodgeball Trampolining.
PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT5 Dublin: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog