9.15pm: Done for the day
Players have bagged and tagged. A full wrap of the day's play is on the way. -- NW
9pm: Last three hands
The clock has been paused with 12 minutes remaining, each table will play three more hands before play concludes for the night. -- MC
8.55pm: Twitch saves Trigg some chips
David Trigg is cruising on around 55,000 chips and just had to fold in a hand he was grateful he didn't lose more.
As he went to open he noticed Paulius Anilionis make a little move to his right. Suspecting something was up Trigg changed his raise to a min raise, and sure enough, Anilionis moved all in behind him. The action was over there though as Darren Sweeney four-bet all in from one more seat along. Trigg was animated but ultimately folded.
Anilionis' pocket fives held against the ace-king of his opponent on the [7d][js][th][8d][4s] board. -- MC
8.40pm: One room
All the players are now on the same floor, with 30 minutes to go 198 players remain and the average stack is 27,600. -- NW
8.35pm: Fintan fails to fade it
And another UKIPT champion has been sent to the rail. Lovable Irishman Fintan Gavin the man to feel the icy breath of tournament death on his neck. He filled me in on his exit hand: "Me and another player (Ben Price) had been battling for a while - he's a good player - he was in the big blind so I've raised from a stack of 18,000 with [7c][5c], another player (Guido Braye) flat calls and Price then calls from the big blind.
'The flop comes down [K][6][3] with two clubs, Price leads out, I raise with my gutshot and flush draw then the other fella (Braye) goes all-in for 13,000, Price got out the way and I called. He's got pocket sixes, I made my flush on the turn, but he filled up on the river.'
That hand left Gavin with just 3,000 and he was out soon afterwards. -- NW
8.30pm: Late fallers
David Docherty, James Keys, Phil Toogood, Richard George, Kevin Frame, Raymond Slater, Daniel Kind, Kristian Linnell, Stanley Kock, Paul Williams, Adebayo Odetoyinbo, Paul Ruddy, Dale Gerrard. -- MC
8.20pm: Flip-flop
Anastasios Mastroudis and Jack McKenna got it all-in on a [6h][5h][4h] flop, with Mastroudis all-in for his final 8,050. When the cards were turned over it was a virtual flip:
Mastroudis: [Jh][10h] - 48.08% equity
McKenna: [7d][7h] - 51.91% equity
The [Kd] turn changed nothing but the [Jd] river gave the pot to Mastroudis and kept him in the tournament. -- NW
8.15pm: Cody busted; Walsh dents Razavi
Former UKIPT High-Roller champion Jake Cody is out. We caught up with him as he was heading out of the tournament floor and he said he re-shipped pocket three's into an opponent's pocket tens.
Sam Razavi is down to 21,000 after getting unlucky versus James Walsh. The former told us that he got it in with pocket queens to the Irishman's ace-queen and a ace hit the board. -- MC
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600, 75
8pm: Blog by Twitter
Dan "@danielelder" Elder: "Bounced around upto 22k then down to 10k and now just busted a guy to clean double back to 20k. #yoyo #UKIPTNewcastle."
Alex "@AlexFergielive" Ferguson: "Moved table. Up to 49k-ish after bluff raising river on a 4d board." -- MC
7.55pm: Wealthall wamboozled
"You're in the wrong room," quipped a member of staff as Nick Wealthall wandered into the media room, this could only mean one thing - he was out. "An active player made it 800 to go, the button flat called from the button and I'm in the big blind with [A][K] and from a stack of 16,000 decide to three-bet to 2,300," he explained to me. "The original raiser then makes it 6,000 total, the button folds and I move all-in, he calls it off with pocket eights and holds. -- NW
7.50pm: Walsh didn't pull the trigger
James Walsh is in the danger zone after a hand versus Lee Atherton.
The flop was out and read [qh][5d][jh] and Walsh bet 3,000 from mid position, check-called by Atherton in the small blind. Atherton took up the reigns on the [th] turn when he led for 6,000. Walsh seemed not to like the situation he was in and stood out of his chair to survey the situation. Sam Razavi is sat in the next chair to Walsh and he had the chance to run two errands before Walsh decided to call.
The river fell [4h] and Walsh grabbed his stack in readiness to push it forward, all the time with a big smirk on his face. Atherton checked and Walsh opened [as][qd] for top pair, no good against the straight of Atherton with [ac][kd].
Atherton, who's up to 70,000 chips added, "Good job you checked, I'm folding to a shove." -- MC
7.35pm: It's a struggle
Those were the words from Jesse May's lips when I asked him how he was faring. The poker personality is slightly below average with a stack of 21,500, it's better than Dan Edler, who two seats to May's left, is nursing a stack of 15,000, back where he started some six and a bit levels ago.
Table one was the source of much entertainment yesterday, situated there right now are UKIPT Nottingham runner-up Brett Angell (70,000) and Dara O'Kearney (38,000). Last year's runner-up Raj Verma is going well he's up to 41,000 and Emmett Mullin, winner of UKIPT3 Galway has a similar stack size.
Sandwiched either side of those two - chip wise - are Fintan Gavin (18,000) and David Lappin (60,000) whilst UKIPT3 Dublin winner Ricahrd Evans has 30,275. -- NW
7.25pm: Who's got the Keys to the door of frustration?
The answer to that would be Jarl Wetteland, and the man frustrated was James Keys.
The two were heads up to the turn of a [3d][8c][5d][5h] board. Wetteland led for 2,100 and was called by Keys. The river brought the [qc] and Wetteland fired again, for 3,600. Keys flicked in the call and was shown [qd][7d].
Keys mucked and sort of laugh/grunted, either at his opponent or the way his day has gone. Even if it was the former he can't be too happy at the latter as he's down to around 5,000 chips. -- MC
7.10pm: Last two levels of the day
Play is back underway, players have to navigate two more levels to make it to Day 2. Currently 243 players are in with a shot of doing just that, the average stack is 22,500. -- NW
6.48pm: Break down
The last break of the day is upon us. See you back here soon.
6.47pm: Chung chipping up
I just saw Timothy Chung get four streets of value with one pair. The action was started by Daniel Tully who made it 600 to go, Chung three-bet to 1,700 and Tully made the call.
The flop fell [10c][Kd][2s] and Tully check-called a bet of 1,600. The [6s] hit the turn, check-call again, this time for 2,700. The [7s] completed the board and the pattern repeated itself, as Tully check-called a bet of 5,700 from Chung, the latter showed [Qh][Qd] and Tully mucked his hand. After that hand Chung is up to 45,000. --NW
6.45pm: Hope you didn't have money on these to win
The recently departed included: Trond Nordeo, Filip Hanusek, Pawel Boruta, Donald Elliot, Matti Hautanen, David Gallagher, Kevin Finnie, Ebrahim Razavi, Luke Josephs, Alex Evans, Steven Hamlani. -- MC
6.40pm: Tough times for Docherty
David Docherty is happy with the standard of play around him, just not the way he's running.
He opened to 700 and called when Stanley Kock three-bet to 1,350 from the small blind. The flop came down [4s][9h][qs] and Docherty snap folded when faced with a c-bet to drop to 6,000 in chips.
Kevin Monroe is sat at the same table and is loving life. He has a beer in his hand and a 75,000-chip stack. -- MC
6.30pm: Bedi buckarooing
A few stops ago the PokerStars blog bestowed the moniker 'buckaroo' on Rupinder Bedi such is the propensity for his chip stack to fluctuate up and down. Bedi, who has more cashes in UKIPT main events than anyone else, is at it again here in Newcastle. He was seen grinding a stack of 11,000 a short time ago but is now up to 28,000.
"I won the minimum with aces versus kings," me. "I opened, my opponent three-bet and he'd been doing it a lot so I just flatted. The flop came ace-high and I check-called the flop. He had 12,000 to start the hand and I think I got like three of it."
Despite that 'set back' he's back in the black. -- NW
6.20pm: Lovatt loving it
Sorry David Lappin (see 5.55pm post) we wrote too soon, the chip leader is actually Stephen Lovatt, he has a stack of 93,000. To put that into context that would've been good for third place overall at the end of Day 1A. He's still got two and a bit levels to spin it higher. -- NW
6.10pm: Coren canned
Vicki Coren has hit the rail but found it hard to leave the tournament room as she was stuck in the corner where many never return from.
The Team PokerStars Pro told us that she saw a [kh][9c][3c] with her [kc][8c]. It was almost a perfect flop except for the fact that her opponent had [kh][3c] for two pair. The board bricked out and that was that.
Jude Ainsworth is the only Team PokerStars Pro remaining now, on 27,000 chips. -MC
5.55pm: Chip leaders
The PokerStars blog received a tweet from David Lappin informing us that he had 55,000 and wondering if he was chip leader.
Well Mr Lappin I can tell you that as it stands yes you're. Other big stacks include: David Knight (52,000), Jussi Hakkanen (48,000) and Jonathan Gray (45,000). -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, 25
5.45pm: Short and not so sweet for Perrins
I was starting to think that Matt Perrins was in for a good day when I approached the table to see him open [ks][kc] in a pre flop showdown versus Dara O'Kearney and his [ah][qd]. Then the board ran [ac][3d][3s][th][7h] to bust him.
As he was leaving he told me he ran pocket queens in to an opponent's ace-queen less than ten minutes before. An ace appeared on the river that time! -- MC
5.30pm: More ins and outs
And we're one more UKIPT champion down, Max Silver the latest to fall: "Busto got up to 18k then flipped out JJ < AK." Meanwhile Fintan Gavin has dropped to 18,000, whilst Ross Jarvis is on 26,000 and Dan Edler has 13,000.
And David Lappin is potentially the chip leader as he has climbed to the dizzy heights of 55,000. -- NW
5.25pm: Chipped up and chipped out
Jake Cody's stack (9,000) is sliding down, Max Silver is chatting away not worrying too much about his stack (17,000), and Sam Razavi tried to trick us his stack (28,000) was in fact at the 100,000 level.
All are doing better that these poor fellows: Lars Torngren, Daniel Nutt, Cory Desmond, Fred Payne, Anthony Long, Denis Modic, Thomas High, Xia Ke, Dahe Liu, Adam Bilcock, Patrick Mcluskey, Kevin Asquith, Martin Stausholm, Daniel Hardy, Chris Murtagh, Simon Deadman, Chris Howden, Uros Krivec, Wayne Eustace, Karel Kratochvil, Mykhaylo Rashkovskiy, Fergal Nealon, Hamid reza rajabi Montazeri, Colette Murpy, William Quinonez and Christopher Whitnall. -- MC
5.10pm: Another UKIPT champion bites the dust
I noticed UKIPT Brighton winner Jamie Burland standing near the registration desk perusing a leaflet detailing the UKIPT Online schedule. He gave me the look that suggested he was out. "Fintan Gavin opened, he opens a lot," he told me. "The small blind (David Nuth) flat called and I look down at [10s][9s]. I've got 21 big blinds and move all-in. Fintan got out the way and I'm like 'great I'm wining this hand.
'The small blind thought for a while and then called with pocket tens, I was open-ended after the turn, but missed the river." -- NW
5pm: The voice of poker says he's all in
Jesse May was all in for his tournament life versus Daniel Tully, the latter couldn't find a call though.
Tully opened to 650 from mid position and called when May three-bet to 1,500 from the small bind. The flop fanned [ac][5c][8s] and May continued for 1,700. Tully tried his luck with a raise to 3,500 before admitting defeat when May shoved for 12,000. May up to around 19,000. -- MC
4.45pm: Let the second half begin
These are some of the players who will not be returning to play: Anthony Mcguckin, Dan Morgan, Robert Parkin, Fearghal Keane, Kostas Kallinitou, Suzanne Pyefinch, Nathan Horsley, Michael Hawkins, Chris Dowling, Craig Bennett, John Mitchell, Robert Csire, Ronnie Ballantyne, Alexander Goulding. -- MC
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle and the Nandos heat level of choice Marc Convey (Extra hot, with regret) and Nick Wright (Mango-lime). Photos by Mickey May (Medium heat).