If yesterday was ladies day then today was get a seat wherever you can day. After registration closed at the end of Level 6, 337 players had made Day 1C their home for the day, or part of it. At one point, the Hippodrome Casino had tables in five separate areas on three different floors. It felt like if you opened a cupboard door you'd find a table in there. It may have been busy but everybody who wanted a seat got a seat.
Those 337 players added to the Day 1A (146) and Day 1B (161) fields helped bring the final number of players for UKIPT6 London up to 644 (Prize pool details below). The final flight was whittled all the way down to 100 payers by the end of the day, and they are led by Xiaoyang Luo who bagged up 320,900. He's the only player who passed 300k and will be overall leader heading into Day 2, where 176 players will return.
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Other players who made it through the day with big stacks and/or a reputation to preserve are: Lucas Reeves (269,400), Premysl Spacil (249,900), Usman Siddique (249,200), Frank Baston (213,000), Peter Charalambous (203,700), Antoine Saout (114,800), Felix Stephenson (113,500), Tom Hall (87,100), Vicente Delgado (77,800), Rainer Kempe (76,000) and Diego Gomez (70,500). Click for the full start of Day 2 counts and Day 2 seat draw.
Abalsteinn Karlsson set the early running today. He was the first past 100,000 and almost made it to 200,000 before the wheels came off. The Icelander is part of a group of players from his home country who love the tour and travel en mass to play. Karlsson made his mark on the tour at the recent UKIPT5 Dublin. His style and demeanour made him a favourite and he entered the final table as chip leader only to fall in fourth place. He told the blog at the beginning of the day that he really hoped for another deep run.
For a long while that looked odds-on but he lost a huge race in the latter stages to bust. He cold five-bet all in with pocket jacks and was called by Luo who held ace-king. Luo went on to make two pair and after the dust had settled on the hand, his stack had jumped up to massive 285,000, good for a clear chip lead (at the point) that he never relinquished.
Joining Karlsson on the rail today were: Lawrence Bayley and Carlo Citrone - who busted in a same hand cooler; Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody; PokerStars Live at the Hippodrome Ambassador Kelly Saxby; Ben Winsor, Richard Milner, Dara O'Kearney, Martins Adeniya, Leo McLean and JP Kelly.
The remaining players will return for Day 2 at 11am tomorrow where the levels will be extended to 60 minutes apiece. Ten of them are scheduled and all of them will be played unless we reach the final table of eight before then.
What will they be playing for though?
A £454,300 prize pool was amassed and the top 95 players will be in the money with a min cash being worth £1,300. Make the final table and £8,731 is guaranteed and will grows all to the winner who will receive £84,100. For full details of the payouts click here. We'll make the money for sure tomorrow but might not make it all the way to the final table. Either way, tomorrow promises to be an exciting day and we invite you to join the PokerStars Blog as all the action plays out.
If you've missed any of the action from the three starting flights then click the following links:
Until tomorrow, it's good night from London's West End!
PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 London: Marc Convey and Jack Stanton. Photos by Mickey May, who will turn you into her least favourite fish (anchovies) if you steal her photos. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog