4.20pm: News in brief
• Last year's WSOP November niner Sam Holden is still in, he's short though having just 20,000. He's on the same table as Andrew Robson who has 155,000
• With Emmett Mullin's elimination it means Ricahrd Evans is the only former winner still in. The man from Portmeirion is trundling along on 33,100, about half the average.
• Steven Warburton is on 110,000
The players are now on a 15 minute break you'll find level 13 updates in a new post. -- NW
4.15pm: Falling like flies
We're down to 144 players already, mainly because these players were eliminated:
William Elliot (aces cracked by sixes), Garis Alexandrou, Dara O'Kearney, Emett Mullin, Shifaaz Taus, David Kilmartin, Dean Raymond Wnder, David Neil Rawnsley, Jason Williams, Ian Modder, David Nuth, Seamus Devlin, Keith Summers, Timothy O'Neill, John Mcauley, Iftikhar Ali, Domonic Cugudda, Chris Wood, Renee Yuchen Xie, Ian Russell Burdon, Jonathan Beck, Vikram Vankayalapati, Barry Foley, John Bousfield, Joseph Maitz, Andrew Dwyer, Thomas Getgood, Vilius Urbaitis and Gary Roberts. -- MC
4.05pm: Grafton bluffs, busts
Sam Grafton would prefer to go out bluffing than to blind away, and that's exactly how he busted.
His brother, Ben, informed us that he bluffed into the new chip leader, Saulius Tumosa (210k now), on the turn in a three-way pot; the latter called with top pair.
Sam explained himself on Twitter: "Pittsed it off pretty bad in a spewey/slash annoying spot. Great town tho, won't miss this leg again. #UKIPT." -- MC
3.50pm: Chip counts
Some chip counts from around the room: Jamie Ellwood (27,000), Neil Rawnsley (40,000), Ben Grafton (35,000), Anders Hansson (80,000), Oliver Prior (100,000), Francis Lacken (62,000), Jussi Hakkanen (70,000), Khadir Khoshawy (60,000), Lee Atherton (90,000), Alan Tinlin (120,000), Brett Angell (200,000), Dara O'Kearney (17,000), Saulius Tumosa (1200,000), Willian Cheung (130,000) and Ross Jarvis (27,000). -- NW
3.40pm: Your time's up, you got to go
Jeff Kimber, Robert Mercer, Oliver Bibby, John Rigolli, Oliver Justin Prior, David Maudlin, Ben Jackson, Jonathan David Rees, Luke Haward, Paul Housam, Marc Grand, Jarl Sigve Wetteland, Martin Foord, Mark Wagstaff, Daniel Tully, Jonathan Osborne, Jack Mckenna, Alan Brown, Gregory Laurence Chambers, Michael Jones, Ronald Patrick Lawton, Adam MacGuinness and Bart Besselink. -- MC
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600 ante 200
3.25pm: Results orientated comedy gold from Asif Warris
Asif Warris was involved in a hand that he ultimately folded in, but his following commentary had me and some of his table mates in hysterics.
Warris opened to 2,600 from mid position and saw a player move all-in behind for 26,000 from the cut-off, and another player snap cold-call for 60% of his stack from the small blind. Warris procrastinated for a while but admitted he gave so much away about his hand that he had to fold. He threw his ace-queen down on the table and saw his opponent's open [as][jc] and [ah][9s] respectively.
"Oh, f##k-off, will you?" he semi-vented in his broad Midlands accent.
The board then ran out [td][8h][js][jh][6s] to make trips for the all in player.
Warris, who had and was still stood out of his seat, piped up again with, "Oh, how clever am I? What a great fold by me!" He sat back down, smiling, as if he had won the hand himself. -- MC
3.15pm: Frustration for Lappin
One poker skill that you can't teach is winning flips, and unfortunately for David Lappin, he doesn't seem to be winning his fair share today. "This is getting dumb. AQ<99 versus another <20bb stack. 38k. 0/4 in 145k worth of flips today," he tweeted. -- NW
3.05pm: Atherton on the slide
Things aren't going so great for Lee Atherton this level. The Mancunian is having a great UKIPT season though having finished 15th in Nottingham and 8th in Dublin. Two tweets tell the tale: "Down to 90k, missed a big draw...Make that 80k. One of tourney leaders, being a thorn in the side."
Despite those couple of hiccups Atherton is still above the average which is 49,400, 189 players remain. -- NW
2.55pm: Squid loses some ink
I just saw Sam 'The Squid' Grafton lose a chunk of chips to Gary Phillips. There was an open to 2,600, Grafton three-bet to 5,800 and Phillips then moved all-in for 23,000. The initial raiser got out the way, but after getting a count Grafton made the call.
Phillips: [As][Qc]
Grafton: [Ad][Jc]
The board ran [10c][2s][Qs][4d][8d] to give Phillips a double up, whilst Grafton slipped to 60,000. -- NW
2.45pm: The tournament's six-figure stacks
Brett Angell, 174,000
Rajesh Verma, 155,000
David Reed, 142,000
Kevin Killeen, 130,000
Willian Cheung, 130,000
Stephen Odysseas, 1250,00
Kevin Monroe, 1200,00
Steven Warburton, 120,000
David Knight, 115,000
Neil Walker, 105,000
2.40pm: The demise of Timotheou
I figured the demise of overnight chip leader Timotheos Timotheou and Raj Verma's ascent to second in the chip counts were linked, given that Verma was sat to the left of Timotheou today. The UKIPT2 Newcastle runner-up told me: "I took him out, but he was down to 25,000 by that point. He shoved with [5][4] and I called with [A][8] and held.
Dan Edler is also out, he only had 4,000 coming back from the break though so his demise is not as unexpected. -- NW
2.35pm: These players failed to make it to level 11:
Overnight chip leader Timotheos Timotheou along with Dean Lyall, Sean Eden, Kerry Taylor, Richard Haile, Dwayne Stacey Arron W, Dariusz Ciemała, Hafpor Sigmundsson, Andrew Hall, Kevin Wibberley, Russell Skivington, Paul Hempseed, Alex Zeligman, Sunil Mistri, Anthony Fox, John Littewood, Erik Sturkenboom, Rupinder Bedi, Robert Bull, Dave Penman, Stephen Lacey and Michael Ainsworth. -- MC
2.30pm: Mullin takes a hit
Just before the break I saw Emmett Mullin take a hit. He fired out a bet of 6,500 on the river of a [Ad][Kh][9d][Jh][6h] board holding [Ah][10d], his opponent Benjamin Senior, made the call with [As][Js]. After that hand Mullin is down to 23,000. -- NW
2.20pm: Chip leaders
The current chip leader is Brett Angell who has 174,000, his closest challenger is Raj Verma who has 155,000. Both Angell and Verma have finished runner-up in a UKIPT main event but are going the right way about going one better. -- NW
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 100
2.05pm: Fancy a breather?
We all do, let's take 15 minutes.
2pm: Walsh wastes away
The tournament is a sadder place after the elimination on the ever-smiley, James Walsh.
He three-bet all in for his last 8,600 after Paul McTaggart opened to 2,000. Call.
Walsh: [as][8c]
McTaggart: [qc][jh]
The board ran [2s][qs][4s][4d][kd] to pair the Scotsman's queen. McTaggart up to 51,000 or thereabouts. -- MC
1.45pm: Ainsworth gets paid
I joined the action at Table 15 to see Team PokerStars pro Jude Ainsworth involved in a big pot. He informed me after the hand that he had raised pre-flop from middle position, his opponent Andrew Hall had called and both players had checked the flop. I caught the action live from the turn - the board was [9d][6s][Qh][Jc], Hall led for 3,100 into a pot of 6,100 and Ainsworth smooth called.
The [Qs] completed the board, Hall fired again, this time for 5,400, after getting confirmation of the bet Ainsworth made it 13,000, Hall then moved all-in for around 35,000 total and Ainsworth made the call and showed [Jh][Jd] for jacks full. A couple of seconds later Hall turned his hand over to reveal [9s][9c] for a smaller full house and a pretty brutal cooler to end his tournament.
Afte that hand Ainsworth has climbed to around 100,000. -- NW
1.35pm: So long, farewell
Day 2 dreams over for: Stephen Dunnett, James Kerrane, Ian Keltie, J Fenwick, Dave Penman, Robert Charlton, Stephen Dunnett, Daniel Robertson, Daniel Charlton, Magyar István, Neil Raine, Richard Dalberg, Andrew Wilson, Jonathan Lundy, Niels Meibom-Larsen, Chris Hawking, Colin Eric Lovelock, Daniel Blake, Jarmo Muru, KK Verma, Lukas Zimakoff, Gary Thompson, Ben Jenkins, Owen Fenwick, Spyros Mouzoura, Robert Malvasi, Darren Sweeney, Stuart Schabram, Lukasz Robert Roczniak, Graeme Crozier, Nicholas Weaver, Sebastian Saffari, Mike Panteli, Luke Grant, Owen Shiels, Joe Hindry, Barrie Aspinall, Martin Mulsow, Terry Plummer, Oluwashola Bolawole Akindele, Jack Ellwood, Ryan Tadhg, Rik Kamminga, Gregory Cooke, Dominic Mahoney, Sajevics Peter, David O'Meara, Don Visser, Dave Hulmes, Paul Conway, Lee Cockroft and Michael Taylor. -- MC
1.20pm: One Ellwood down
Everyone's EV just went up a bit as Jack Ellwood has just busted out from UKIPT Newcastle, he tweeted: "Dream is over, 66 could not get there v JJ. Gl to all the heroes still in."
225 players still in though, average stack is 41,600.-- NW
1.15pm: News from upstairs
There's four make that three tables still in use upstairs. Brett Angell - who's had a small uptick to 125,000 - was busy racking his chips as Rupinder Bedi was involved in a hand one table along.
On a flop of [10c][5d][Qh] Bedi had checked to Neil Walker, he fired out a bet of 3,000, Bedi check-raised to 6,500, Walker made it 15,000, Bedi moved all-in and after stacking up his chips Walker called all-in for 40,600 total.
Bedi: [Kc][Jc]
Walker: [Ks][Qs]
Turn: [Qd]
River: [5s]
Walker's hand held and Bedi is down to around 13,000. -- NW
1.10pm: Twitter News
Alex "@AlexFergieLive" Ferguson: "Busto! Lost massive flip. C/o v BB for 110bb pot aipf! AQs v TT. The Ts held! Sigh!"
Dara "@daraokearney" O'Kearney: "Slow first level. Got moved to new table featuring @keiththecamel. Just under 30k/30 bigs #UKIPTGeordieShore." -- MC
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1000, 100
1.02pm: Edler Slipping
Dan Edler has the size of stack that needs to be played with care and attention, and that is even more true after he lost a pot to Gavin Kan.
Edler opened to 1,800 and bet 1,800 on the flop, 2,800 on the turn before both checked the river. The final board read [8h][3h][2c][7s][td] and Elder opened [6s][6c]. It was no good though as Kan bettered him with [9h][7h] for a turned pair. Edler is down to 14,000. -- MC
12.55pm: McTaggart at the double
An early double up for Paul McTaggart here in Newcastle, he tweeted: "Doubled to 32k JJ v 42hh, 4 in the window for sweats." -- NW
12.45pm: Grafton gets one through
As if table 10 wasn't already tough enough, UKIPT2 Newcastle runner-up Raj Verma has been plonked to the left of chip leader Timotheos Timotheou. The two of them wasted no time in getting involved in a hand. From under-the-gun Timotheou raised to 1,700, Verma three-bet to 3,800 and action passed to Sam Grafton.
After a brief dwell Grafton moved all-in for 21,100, Timotheou fast folded, Verma took his time but he too eventually pitched his hand into the muck. -- NW
12.40pm: Bowden Busts
Poker journalist Alun Bowden popped by the press room to inform us of his demise.
Steven Warburton just joined his table with around 80,000 chips and the two of them took a [2][3][5] flop where all the chips went in. Bowden had 36,000 at the start of the hand so the pot had swelled to more than 70,000. Bowden opened pocket fours for a pair and opened ended straight draw. He was in trouble though as Warburton had pocket fives for a set and improved to a full house as the board paired. Warburton is up with the chip leaders now. -- MC
12.27pm: Tough tables
Here's some of the choice line-ups that the random table draw has created:
Table 4 - Lee Atherton, Dean Lyall and Kevin Monroe
Table 10 - Jon Lundy, Sam Grafton, Ben Grafton and Timotheos Timotheou
Table 12 - Emmett Mullin, Dan Edler and Devron Hasslenook
Table 27 - Scott Shelley, Richard Evans, Paul McTaggart and Alun Bowden
We suggest the other players at table 10 might want to stick their headphones in! -- NW
12.23pm: May's lost his tournament voice
Jesse May didn't last too long today. He came back with 13,500 and he opened shoved most of that amount with pocket sevens. Scott Shelley was in the next seat and re-shoved with pocket nines, which held. -- MC
12.15pm: Money money money
Want to know how much the winner of UKIPT3 Newcastle will be getting his or her mitts on? Of course you do, the winner is going to pocket a wallet busting £105,900. In total 72 players will get paid with a min-cash good for £1,100. To see the entire payout structure click here. -- NW
12.05pm: Cards are in the air
Most of the players are in their seats and action is under way. -- MC
11.40pm: All remaining players gather for UKIPT Newcastle, Day 2
For many the tournament starts here. The remaining 273 players have navigated the equivalent of getting through the tricky first round of major tennis championship, are more settled, and focused on the task ahead.
For the first time all the players are under the same roof, but again they'll be spread over two or three different floors until we lose enough players to all be in the main room. Timotheos Timotheou finished Day 1A as chips leader and he saw off all Day 1B pretenders to come into today as the man to catch still. Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth had a rock-solid first day and comes back with 47,100.
Play is due to start at 12pm local time and the plan, for now, is to play eight one-hour levels with no dinner break.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Newcastle Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May.