UKIPT London Day 1C: Levels 1-6 updates (150-300 ante 25)

6.40pm: Dinner break
The players are now on a one hour dinner break. You'll find level seven updates in a new post. -- NW

6.35pm: Lots of chips
There's lots of chips on Liv Boeree's table, unfortunately not many of them belong to her. She's struggling on just 5,400 whilst there's towers being constructed all around her. Fintan Gavin has 29,000, Onur Dag has almost 70,000 and Anton Wigg has 60,000. -- NW

6.25pm: There's no easy way to say this...
...etc. Arnór Freyr Guðmundsson, Lee Atherton, Sotirios Koutoupas, Alex Zeligman, Stavros Kalfas, Julien Sitbon, Daniel Laidlaw, Simen Birkelund, Alain Graff, Julian Stuer, Antonis Poulengeris, Iain Brassell, Martin Wainsztein, Jonathan Prince, Mikal Blomlie, Yury Gulyy, Luke Reeves, Thomas Finneran, Alan Gold, Christopher Ferguson, Ali Iftikharali, Lian Pettman, Simon Mikek and Walter Buss are also out.

Roughly 330 of 491 players remain, although the total number of entrants for today is still unconfirmed -- HS

6.15pm: Look on the bright side
At least Kai Hong Lui, Dave Penman, Richard Lord, Jen-Yue Chiang, Luciana Manolea, Mark Segal, Sander Jansen, Ricky Lawson, Hui-Chen Kuo, Knut Ekvardt, Sam Greenwood, Kenneth Coote, Steffan Tveit, Michael Schneider, Neils Van Alphen, Andries Swart, Charles Clark, Nick Abou Risk, Jay Coshan, Nigel East, Jeffrey Rossiter, Karl Rudwall, Irenijus Daukantas, Oliver Weis, Miltiadis Kyriakides, Ales Marcic, Joe Hindry, Anika Johannsdottir, Rudy Blondeau, William Morrison, Aleksandar Abutovic, Weikang Wang, Cina Farazdaghi, Jason Wheeler, Mattia Tagliavini, Paul Mallett, Faraz Iqbal, Saoud Al-Azba, Panayiotis Theodoulou, Frank Jean de Busscher, Mathew Ace, Alexander Mark Rhys-Davies, Mats Rosén, Ivo Frans Hermans and Harprit Gurnam can beat the rush to the surrounding restaurants.

There's a one-hour dinner break at the end of this level. -- NW

6pm: Tureniec found, hidden behind chips
Michael Tureniec moves in mysterious ways. They are highly successful mysterious ways, but mysterious nonetheless. No one saw him arrive, no one saw him move when his table broke, and he's been missing in action all afternoon. Now he's been found, and he has a stack of 75,000. That's probably the chip lead.

He is also now on the same table as Mattias De Meulder, although the Belgian Team PokerStars Pro has only 6,500 chips at this stage. He's going to need to get busy. Christophe, over the other side of the room, has 17,000. -- HS

5.50pm: We've lost Lodden
Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden has been eliminated, his conqueror was Nick Hicks and he filled me in on the Norwegian's exit hand. "He opened 8-9 under-the-gun and I defended with 8-4 suited on the button. The flop came Q-8-4, he bet, I raised and he called. The turn was a blank, he check-raised all-in and I called. The pot was roughly 25,000." -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25

5.40pm: Jude jettisoned
Having lost half his stack early on Jude Ainsworth had worked his way back up to 11,600 only to bust in a flip.

5.35pm: Five-bet shove
After an open to 700 and a flat call, David Sonelin made it 2,000 to go from the button. It passed to Christopher Brown in the big blind, he made it 4,600 total, only for Sonelin to ship all-in for 17,825 once it had passed back to him. This sent Brown into the tank, he eventually decided he didn't want to play anymore and mucked his hand. -- NW

5.25pm: Highs and lows
Thomas Pettersson has a stack of about 64,000, which I'd say is close to the lead at this stage. Gordon Huntly, meanwhile, is sitting in the bar having run ace-king into kings. He's now looking to overcome jet lag and get into some more tournaments in this festival. -- HS

5.15pm: Roothlus is ruthless
More chips for Adam Levy who just finished off Jussi Häkkänen after taking the majority of them moments earlier (see 5pm post). Down to just under 4,000, Häkkänen moved all-in pre-flop with [Ah][10d] and Levy made the call with [Ac][Qd]. The [2h][2c][6s][9c][As] board kept Levy in front and he now has almost 45,000. With that exit the field dips under 400 for the first time today. - NW

5pm: Häkkänen pays Levy
I was over by table three to check on the progress of Grzegorz Mikielewicz, otherwise known as Team Online's "DaWarsaw". But a pot was brewing between Jussi Häkkänen and Adam Levy, which quickly took centre stage.

Häkkänen opened from the hijack, making it 600; Levy three bet the cut-off, making it 1,600 and Häkkänen four bet to 3,200. Levy now flat called.

The flop was [jh][6d][7c] and Häkkänen led for 3,100. Levy called. Then the [5h] turned. Häkkänen bet 13,000, leaving himself only shrapnel behind, and Levy under-called. (Levy, it turned out, had about 4,000 less than Häkkänen.)

Levy tabled [as][ah] and Häkkänen was behind, but had outs, with his [7h][9h]. But the [ks] was a blank, giving Roothlus the full double up, to close to 40,000.

DaWarsaw, by the way, has about 31,300. -- HS

4.50pm: Latest casualties
There's really no easy way to say this, but if you hear from Paul Berende, Alex Evans, Caicai Huang, Mateusz Matla, Calvin Anderson, Romain Chauvassagne, Samuel Ducoin, Jeremy Pantin, Nicolau Pacheco Villa-Lobos, Mariusz Filosek, Mark Miller, Patrick Fortin, Hung-Tu Wang, George Trigioris, Chung Hoang, Nasrulla Babayev, Emmett Mullin, Hugo Severino Loureiro, Jan Petersen, Jakub Groblewski, Giuseppe Sammartino, Javier Gomez Zapatero, Pawel Brzeski, Hasan Anter, Seyed Moussavi, Waheed Ashraf, Dirk Wenkemann, Egidijus Stasiulaitis, Richard Evans, Steven Warburton, Ami Barer, Ludovic Lacay, Andreas Alexandrou, Mantas Bagocius, David La Ronde, Sam Macdonald, Aleksandras Rusinovas, Ankush Mandavia, Luke Martens, Euan Cameron, George Meitanis, Gianluca Mattia, Antony Osborn, Timothy Frans Alofs, Andrew King, Alejandro Perez Torres and Pierre Neuville in the next few minutes, they're only likely to tell you a bad beat story. They're all out. -- HS

4.40pm: More chip counts
More counts, this time from the upper level of the tournament room: Chris Dowling (18,300), Chris Ferguson (11,500), Jason Wheeler (5,000), John Eames (14,000), Kevin Iacofano (12,800), Thomas Finneran (6,700) and Liv Boeree (18,825). -- NW

Liv Boeree

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300

4.20pm: Break time
The players are now on a 20 minute break. -- NW

4.05pm: Beauchamp notches one for the smart set
William Beauchamp has come dressed in his best bib and tucker, a lovely suit and tie with slicked down hair. He just got involved in a pot against Carlo Savinelli, who is instead rocking the hoodie stylings of the modern pro.

In this instance, it was the suit and tie that won the day, but it was quite an odd hand. Savinelli made it 400 from under the gun and Beauchamp three bet to 1,100 a couple of seats to his left. Savinelli four bet to 2,400 and Beauchamp called.

The flop came [9d][3h][6h] and Savinelli led for 1,200. Beauchamp then shoved all in, which was 23,000. But it was Savinelli who had the effective stack, about 9,000.

Savinelli looked perplexed, but also looked crestfallen. He folded. -- HS

4pm: Guerra on the offensive
Although James Akenhead has been eliminated, the table he vacated still features Fintan Gavin, John Eames and Jakub Michalak, the latter of whom finished second at IPT Sanremo not so long ago. It's was always likely to be full of action with that line-up, although from a sample size of two hands, it's Borja Guerra who is proving to be the most active.

Michalak opened one pot from early position, making it 450, and Milorad Dobrijevic three-bet to 1,150. Guerra, in the small blind, made it 2,325 and both others folded.

Next hand out, Guerra was at it again. Dobrijevic opened this time, making it 500 to play. Guerra three bet again from the button, to 1,125. Dobrijevic called.

The flop came [kd][7s][4d] and Dobrijevic bet 1,850, which Guerra called, taking them to a [2s] turn. Check, check. The [2c] came on the river and it went check, check again.

Dobrijevic turned over his [9c][9d], with which he had good reason to think might be a winner. It wasn't. Guerra had [ks][qh] which was better. --HS

3.55pm: Chip counts
Although some of the tables on the lower tournament floor are fiendishly difficult to reach nothing stops me getting a chip count, here's a bunch of them: Adam Levy (29,000), Ben Vinson (14,200), Calvin Anderson (3,600), David Docherty (20,000), Grzegorz Mikielewicz (34,000), Joep van den Bijgaart (24,800), Marius Lietuvninkas (17,600), Nick Abou Risk (9,000), Paul Berende (10,500), Rupinder Bedi (30,000), Russell Carson (15,300), Simon Deadman (9,800) and Joao Nunes (12,000). -- NW

Three time? Abou Risk has two UKIPT titles to his name

3.45pm: Evans above
I saw UKIPT3 Dublin champion Richard Evans standing on the rail and sensing a story ambled over for a chat. "No good," he told me. "I ran kings into the aces of Anton Wigg." It wasn't a pre-fop wham bam thank you Mam kind of cooler though, there was betting on all three streets on a low board, Evans told me. Before adding, "That's the fourth tournament in a row that I've ran kings into aces. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100-200

3.30pm: Billy Chattaway, chip magnet
Billy Chattaway got his stack up to more than 25,000 after eliminating Charlotte Van Brabander earlier (see 2.25pm update). And he continues to collect chips of all varieties.

In a recent pot, Dirk Wenkemann opened to 300 from early position and Chattaway made it 750 from the button. Kelly Peters called from the big blind, and Wenkemann also called.

They were three way to a flop of [kc][8h][6c] and it was checked to Chattaway. He bet 1,750 and both others folded.

"Does anyone want some chips?" said Jonathan Prince, suddenly, to the rest of the table. "I'm not going to eat them." He then proffered a plate of French fries, previously accompanying a burger, to all comers.

"I'll have them," said Chattaway and collected a new load of chips, potato-style, to add to the plastic/clay mix he had already accumulated.

"Did she give you any sauce?" Chattaway asked.

3.25pm: Atherton not out
It's been a good season on the UKIPT for Lee Atherton, he's had three deep runs, finishing 15th in Nottingham, 8th in Dublin and 30th in Newcastle. However, he's going to have his work cut out in London as his tough starting table just got even tougher.

Literally surrounded by Floppinell, Livb & now Mad Marvin..Had easier table draws..#LowestFormOfWit #UKIPTLondon

— Lee Atherton (@leeavy) March 7, 2013

3.20pm: Akenhead ousted with aces
The ROI of everyone left in the field has just gone up a notch as the dangerous James Akenhead has busted: "Busted the last 3 tournaments with As, you think the poker gods are trying to tell me something?" he tweeted upon his exit. -- NW

3.10pm: Romanello flush with chips
EPT winner Roberto Romanello is on the 'feature' table - well what will become the EPT Live Webcast table from Sunday and he just put on a bit of a show.

He and Peter Veale saw a monotone [10c][5c][4c] flop, Romanello bet 400 and Veale made the call. The [3c] further increased the likelihood of a flush, but both players checked to see the [Ac] complete the board. First to act, Romanello bet a chunky 1,625 and after tanking for a while Veale folded the [Jc] face up, Romanello just mucked his cards as he took the pot. The Welsh wizard is up to 16,000. -- NW

2.55pm: Chip counts
Here's how some of the names and notables have fared over the first two and a half levels: Emmett Mullin has dropped to 13,175, Jamie Sykes is up to 20,350, Martin Mulsow (17,500) and Fintan Gavin (14,900) are to the direct left of the Eames/Akenhead combo meaning that's a nasty corner to have to navigate for the rest of the table.

Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden is down to 13,400, fellow Team Pro Christophe De Meulder has 13,450, Max Silver is up to 23,600, he's two seats to the left of Sam Holden (14,700) and Jack Ellwood has 12,200. The dangerous players on table 34 have all chipped up, Rhys Jones is on 27,000, Lee Atherton has 19,000 and Olivier Busquet is on 26,750, he's taken a break from reading his book (Quiet by Susan Cain in case you were wondering). -- NW

2.45pm: Cody and Boeree hanging tough
It must be somewhat unnerving to be playing poker with a huge hop-up banner of yourself staring back at you, but that's the situation Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody finds himself in as there's a massive picture of him right in his eye line.

It's not affecting his game right now as he's up to 17,300, which is a little more than Liv Boeree, she's currently getting a massage and is down to around 13,175. -- NW

2.35pm: Out, out, out
No messing: Kevin Monroe, Amir Mozaffarian, Jesus Javier Sanchez Blanco, Steven Harding, Alexander Clark, Michael Hoerl, Roberto Spagnuolo and out. -- HS

2.25pm: Worst-case scenario for Van Brabander
Poker is a cruel game. Just ask Charlotte Van Brabander, who is already out of this tournament. (Just ask us, actually. We don't get to see her play anymore. It was all too brief.)

I arrived to the table to find a pot suggesting some pre-flop action and flop already peeled out on the felt: [5d][9d][2s]. Van Brabander bet 900 at it and Billy Chattaway raised to 2,250. After a moment's deliberation, Van Brabander called.

The [2c] turned and Van Brabander checked. "How much do you have?" said Chattaway and Van Brabander sorted her chips into neat piles, totalling about 10,000. Chattaway had something very similar in his stack and announced a bet of 2,800.

Charlotte Van Brabander: heading to Victoria's Secret

Van Brabander wasn't frightened by that. Indeed, she raised to 6,600. Chattaway shoved and it was a pretty straightforward call now for Van Brabander. She tabled [ks][kc].

Chattaway had [7d][8d] for a flush draw and an inside straight draw--a 23% shot at this stage. And he hit it. The river was [qd] which left Van Brabander tapping the table and walking away.

Van Brabander tweeted earlier that her worst-case scenario was to go shopping at Victoria's Secret in London. If you're a store assistant in London today, prepare for Charlotte's arrival. -- HS

2.15pm: Umbrellas please...
London is a beautiful place when it's rainy and overcast. Lucky for Wojciech Lozowski, Menikos Panagiotou, William Kassouf, Olof Haglund, Anthony Long, Fergal Cawley, Philippe Barouk and Raphael Dubost that they now have all afternoon to explore it. They are among the early fallers from action so far. -- HS

BLINDS UP: PLAYING 75-150 IN LEVEL 3

2pm: Break
That's two of the 11 allotted levels done and dusted, see you in 15. -- NW

1.55pm: Second times the charm?
There are a few players in the lower tournament area who are looking to make their second UKIPT final table of season three. On table nine is Joe Roberts, the youngster finished third at UKIPT3 Galway back in February 2012, he's up to 20,500 here in London. One table over is Barry McMahon, the fourth place finisher at UKIPT3 Nottingham is on the Bedi/Berende table and is up to 20,000 early doors.

Lastly we have Wojtek Barzantny, he hasn't just made final tables this season, he's won two of the things, taking down UKIPT Online and UKIPT Bristol back to back in a memorable week in November 2012. He's up to 19,900 after the first two levels. -- NW

1.40pm: And still they keep coming
As we observed earlier, Olivier Busquet has now been spotted in today's field. I can't think of the last time he must have played a tournament with a buy-in of £700. But he has now been joined by Martin Finger, Anton Wigg and Michael Tureniec, all of whom have been spotted around the tables on the upper floor.

Diego Gomez, last seen dressed as a lion at the final table of EPT Prague, is also here. Today, his wacky accessory is a single-pane, plastic ski-mask. It's relatively mundane given his previous get-ups. -- HS

Diego Gomez, avec ski-mask

1.30pm: The curse of table 31
About this time yesterday afternoon, table 31 was the temporary home of John Duthie and Barny Boatman - "temporary" being the operative word. Neither of them lasted very long. Indeed Duthie bust on the first hand he played, later observing: "It couldn't have been briefer."

Poker's Bermuda Triangle is having its mysterious way again today: Louis Manson has already busted from there, with Akshay Reddy apparently the beneficiary. "Seat open, table 31!" bellowed the dealer, as a list of alternates shuddered at the prospect of sitting around the cursed table. -- HS

1.20pm: Field just got tougher
As if the field wasn't loaded enough already, another of the late comers is none other than Olivier Busquet, famed high stakes online player and purveyor of poker commentary that is almost universally praised. Expect to hear him on the live EPT webcast at some point during EPT London.

He's sharing a table with Rhys Jones, Lee Atherton and Tudor Purice. -- NW

Jones - will have to 'keep up' with the Busquet

1.15pm: First and last
Back In December 2012 I had the pleasure of covering the PokerStars Eureka Prague event and watched on as Menikos Panagiotou was the last man standing from a field of 644.
Today I witnessed what I believe people would term 'extreme variance' as he became the first player to exit Day 1C of UKIPT London.

There was a limp from under-the-gun, then it folded to Jose Lopez in the cut-off and he raised it up to 450, was flat called by Hasan Anter and Panagiotou made it 2,075 to go from a stack of around 5,500. It folded back to Lopez, he moved all-in for around 8,000 and when it came back to Panagiotou he shrugged and called all-in.

Panagiotou: [10c][10s]
Lopez: [Qs][Qc]

The [6h][7s][6c][9c][As] board kept the Spaniard in front and Panagiotou tapped the table as he left. -- NW

1.10pm: Table chat
Most noise on the lower level of the tournament room today is coming from the aforementioned table 10, where Paul Berende is sitting next to Rupinder Bedi. Those two are getting on like a house on fire, but the conversation also includes Eshed Esh Hadaya and Berende's German neighbour (whose identity is as yet unknown). The subject is the German tax laws and whether poker winnings are subject to a government levy. As a self-confessed "losing player", even the man who lives there doesn't seem to know.

The conversation ended, however, when a pot started brewing just a couple of hands into level 2. Spencer Lawrence opened to 225, Samuel Ducoin called to his left, Bedi called in late position and the big blind called too.

All of them checked the [9c][jh][9h] flop and then Lawrence bet 500 on the [8s] turn. Ducoin and Bedi called. The river was [2s] and Lawrence bet 1,000. Only Ducoin called this time and Lawrence showed [jc][ks], which was good.

Re-commence the chatting. --HS

BLINDS UP: PLAYING 50-100 IN LEVEL 2

1pm: Mutual respect
There's a bit of a love-in going on over on table 26...

Still with over five million in live winnings between them and probably more online then it's a mutual respect based on solid reasoning. -- NW

12.55pm: Luck of the Irish
A fortuitous turn of events just now for Chris Dowling

12.45pm: Small time, big time
As previously mentioned it really is a star-studded field today as players in town with EPT as their main priority rub shoulders with players who 'grind' the UKIPT.

Nowehere is this better encapsulated than on table 10. In seat six sits Rupinder Bedi. The part-time player (although serious hobbyist is more accurate) holds the record for most cashes in UKIPT main events - seven at the last count - and is, when work allows, a permanent fixture on this tour.

To his immediate left sits Paul Berende and it wouldn't surprise me if this was the Dutchman's first ever UKIPT main event (barring the EPT/UKIPT London mash up that occurred at the end of Season 1). The Dutchman is though a regular fixture on the EPT and events of that ilk. In fact his biggest result to date is a fifth place finish in the €25,000 High-Roller event at the 2010 EPT Grand Final, he's got another four six-figure cashes to back that up though. -- NW

Bedi will be battling with Berende

12.30pm: The EPT is just a wannabe UKIPT
As we get closer to the start of the European Poker Tour event in London, which is shamelessly piggy-backing on the success of the UKIPT, the tournament floor is beginning to resemble that of the pan-European jamboree. Indeed, there are at least five EPT champions in our midst today: Ludovic Lacay, Roberto Romanello, Liv Boeree, Jake Cody and Toby Lewis. Yesterday, David Vamplew and Kevin MacPhee made it through to day two (even if Vicky Coren couldn't). And Anton Wigg and Michael Tureniec are also on our list today, even though I haven't spotted either of them yet.

There are also at least two players in the field who have previously been at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table: Sam Holden and James Akenhead.

And the ranks of Team PokerStars Pro has yielded another couple of familiar faces: Joao Nunes and Juan Manuel Pastor, from Portugal and Spain respectively. -- HS

12.15pm: All star cast
Right about now, we usually list the stars we have spotted in the crowd to give you an idea of the field playing today. But there's not enough space. It's a star-studded field and no mistake. Head on over to the chip-count page to get a flavour.

The starting stack is 15,000 and they'll play 11 one-hour levels, the same as has happened on the two previous opening flights. The UKIPT main event tournament structure page will tell you all you need to know about that.

12 noon: And it just gets bigger
For the past two days, the Grosvenor Victoria casino in Edgware Road has been filled to the rafters with poker players, anteing up £700 for their seat at UKIPT London season three. Today we are attempting the impossible: to cram in even more.

It is the final opening flight of this event, Day 1C. And there will likely be significantly more than yesterday's 414 players at least attempting to join the party. The official capacity is 450, but that would mean 10-handed play on all of the 45 tables. It is highly likely. And then there will be alternates for the first three levels.

Team PokerStars Pro will be swelling the ranks: Jake Cody, Liv Boeree, Chris De Meulder and Mattias De Meulder are here. Two more Belgians: Charlotte van Brabander and Pierre Neuville are also in London. There are a wealth of Team Online coming too. We'll catch up with all of those later.

Stick around as we assess the field. It will likely represent that rarest commodity: quality and quantity. -- HS

There's nothing tournament staff like more than a sell out day

Reporting team in London: Howard Swains and Nick Wright. Pictures by Mickey May.