1.40pm: Aido reassumes lead in personal Spanish duel
Sergio Aido began today as chip leader, but by the end of the first level, he wasn't even the Spaniard with the most chips in the field. That was mainly because of Cesar Garcia's excellent start, rather than anything Aido had done.
Anyhow, Aido has now retaken the lead in both the tournament and the duel between the two Spaniards, and has sent Jonathon Prested to the rail. This was another case of aces cracked, among the cruellest ways to be banished from a tournament.
As related by other players at the table, Aido opened from the hijack and Prested three bet from the big blind. Aido called. The flop came [4h][9h][7d] and Prested bet 65,000. Aido called.
The [2h] turned and all the money went in. It was a check from Prested, a bet of 185,000 from Aido, then a jam from Prested and a call. Prested's aces had been out-flopped by Aido's [7s][9s] and the [3c] didn't help him.
Aido now has a stack of about 1.7m, which is probably just ahead of Wim Neys'. -- HS
1.50pm: Exits
276k after a reshove gets through. Down to four tables now (32 left, average 550k) #ukiptlondon
— Dara O'Kearney (@daraokearney) March 9, 2013
We're down to four tables because these players have been eliminated...
33rd. Thomas Hall, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,610
34th. Tomasz Kolodziejski, Poland, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,610
35th. Onur Dag, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £2,610
36th. Vilius Urbaitis, Lithuania, PokerStars Player, £2,610
37th. Jeremy Wray, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,610
38th. Marco Conti, Italy, £2,610
1.45pm: Hall busts, leader board quest continues
Good news now for Neil Raine as Tom Hall has just busted out of the main event. He was down to 161,000 and moved all-in with [Kc][6h] when it folded to him on the button. Pretty standard, but his timing was off as Anthony Jacobs was waiting in the small blind with aces.
The [8s][6c][3c] flop gave him a sweat but Hall missed the [3h] turn and [9c] river, he's picked up some valuable leader board points, but has gone to late-reg the high roller in search of more. -- NW
1.40pm: Trowse trousers chunk from Busquet
Olivier Busquet is not having the best of times today and he has just doubled up Simon Trowse, who now sits with the best part of 500,000. Trowse opened to 25,000 from early position and it was folded to Busquet in the big blind. He announced that he was all in, covering Trowse, but the young Brit quickly called.
Trowse: [qc][qd]
Busquet: [ad][jc]
The board ran [6d][jd][6s][4c][2h] and the pocket pair held up. Trowse counted his stack -- 235,000 -- and Busquet counted out that much to hand over. Busquet has about 430,000 still, so no real time for panic. -- HS
1.20pm: Exits
Here's the players who have exited so far today...
39th. William Beauchamp, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, £2,240
40th. Jason Duval, Canada, PokerStars Player, £2,240
41st. Ryan Spittles, United Kingdom, £2,240
42nd. Jeffrey Hakim, Lebanon, PokerStars Player, £2,240
43rd. Roar Aspas, Norway, £2,240
44th. Jack Young, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,240
45th. Damian Mularczyk, Poland, PokerStars Qualifier, £2,240
46th. Tomas Pleticha, Czech Republic, PokerStars Player, £2,240
47th. Daniel Laming, United Kingdom, £2,240
48th. Maciej Stachniuk, Poland, PokerStars Player, £2,240
49th. Vincent Gabel, Belgium, PokerStars Qualifier, £1,870
1.10pm: Tens again
There was a hint of deja vu about this hand as, for the second time already today, Cesar Garcia Dominguez found pocket tens in late position and a short stack moving all in before him. This time it was Ryan Spittles who had already jammed, moving in over an open by Anthony Jacobs.
Spittles was all in for 166,000 and Garcia over-jammed to isolate. Jacobs folded. Spittles had [qh][10h], which was only one over card to Garcia's [10c][10s]. Spittles picked up a flush draw on the [2h][kh][8c] flop, but it didn't come in on the [2s] turn and the [jc] river.
Spittles departs and the Spanish player adds about couple of hundred thousand to his stack. -- HS
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 6,000-12,000 ante 1,000
1pm: Bink for Bart Besselink
Like a golfer with only 12 sticks in his bag, Luke Bird was left one club short...
He opened to 35,000 from early position, Bart Besselink put out 45,000 but said call, there was some confusion over whether he meant to raise or call, but as 45,000 was an under-raise, regardless of Besselink's intentions it went as a call. Next to act William Beauchump moved all-in for 161,000, Bird also moved in and Besselink snap called all-in too. It was a three way...
Bird: [6d][6c]
Besselink: [As][Ad]
Beauchump: [Ah][Jd]
The [3c][9c][2c] flop gave Bird a flush draw, "find the club, find the club," he started saying repeatedly, the [2s] hit the turn and the [3s] completed the board, and the aces held up. Besselink had 173,000 to start the hand so there was no side pot between Bird and Beauchump. -- NW
12.45pm: He did it his Neys
We have a new chip leader - and then some. It's Wim Neys, who has gone from his overnight stack of 304,000 to at least 1.2m. "This used to be a table of medium stacks," said Jeremy Wray, two seats to his right. "Now he has them all."
Most recently, Neys sent Jason Duval to the rail. Duval apparently lost a lot of his huge stack to Neys earlier, and then got unlucky when his pocket queens lost to Neys' [as][jh] through a board of [7c][8c][10d][9c][kc]. Duval would have had serious intentions of making the final table today, and now he's out.
Tristan Taylor, sitting to Neys left, said, "There's something about you just makes me want to call" by way of explaining how come Neys has been paid off with almost all of his big hands today.
Neys is now a hot favourite for the final table, especially if this streak continues. -- HS
12.35pm: Aces in hold up shocker
Three hands that went to showdown to tell you about...
Tomas Pleticha was eliminated in 46th place when he shoved with [Ah][Kh] and got called by Wim Neys with [As][Ac]. The bullets held up on a [10s][9h][2s][3c][2d] board in a pot worth around 450,000.
Next to feel the wrath of aces was Damian Mularczyk, he moved all-in for 120,000 with [Ac][Qd] when it folded to Guy Goossens in the big blind so quick was his call that his chips left scorch marks on the felt, no surprise then to see him turn over [Ah][Ad]. A [Qc][10h][8d] flop gave Mularczyk a glimmer of hope, but he missed his outs on the [6d] turn and [10h] river.
Meanwhile... after Luke Bird had raised to 22,000, Jack Young moved all-in for around 120,000, Georgios Zisimopoulos then asked for a count of Bird's stack (about 330,000), before moving all-in, Bird got out the way to leave them heads-up
Young: [As][4d]
Zisimopoulos: [Ah][10h]
The [jc][3h][2h] flop was an interesting one, the [9h] turn bought the flush draw in and left Young drawing dead before the [4d] river rolled off. With that pot Zisimopoulos moves towards the million chip mark. -- NW
12.25pm: Straight from the horse's mouth
Dara O'Kearney is one of the most prolific Irish players, both in terms of tournament cashes and on social media. He is tweeting almost every hand he is playing, so be sure to follow @daraokearney for latest updates from him. We'll obviously do our best to follow him too, but you can't beat Twitter for instant updates. (You could also follow @pokerstarsblog too.)
O'Kearney has about 245,000 at the moment - and a lot of pedigree to take it through the day. -- HS
12.20pm: Busquet pays off
Olivier Busquet has just lost two pretty big pots. On the first, there was about 110,000 in the middle and they were all the way to the river: [4d][10d][8s][jh][8h]. Florian Bussmann bet 45,000 and Busquet called. Bussmann tabled [ks][10h] and Busquet mucked.
There are equally few details about the second hand, but again it was Busquet who lost it. With a board of [qh][js][3d][10c][8c] revealed, Simon Trowse had [ac][9s] exposed in front of him and was counting out his full stack of 147,000, which Busquet was expected to pay. I'm afraid I don't know how any of the money went in, or when, and Busquet's expression is equanimous at all times. But there was just the whiff of an outdraw about this one. -- HS
12.10pm: One man down
When you return with a relatively short stack, as Maciej Stachniuk did today, and then lose some of it, your open shoving range is pretty wide. Any pair, any ace, and possibly a whole lot more in position. Within the first couple of orbits, Stachniuk found pocket twos and shoved, but when he heard Cesar Garcia Dominguez re-shove from the button, he must have known he was in trouble.
Garcia tabled [10d][10c] and Stachniuk's [2d][2c] didn't find any help on the [qc][qh][ac][jc][kd] board. He is our first player out today. -- HS
12.05pm: Raine brings the pain
We've been reporting that Tom Hall needed to finish 35th or higher to win the UKIPT Season 3 leader board, but whilst Hall has been busy going deep in the main event, Neil Raine has been getting busy in the side events, in which you can also earn points towards the leader board.
A 7th place finish in a £100 turbo event earned him another 22.5 points, meaning that Hall, as it stands, need seventh or better to win the leader board. He can't do that today of course as we play to the final eight.
It's Day 3 of UKIPT London and our plans no longer depend on the levels we will play. Today's action will end only when we have reached our final table of eight players, no matter how long that takes.
We return with 49 players, which means 41 need to be eliminated before the day is done. That could take anything between about five and 15 levels. (Smart money is on something like eight.)
Can some of the biggest names of the game -- the likes of Olivier Busquet, Jeff Hakim and Dara O'Kearney -- make it? Or will some of the first timers, like Luke Bird, go all the way?
What about the UKIPT stalwarts Tom Hall, Jamie Burland, Chris Dowling or Richard Trigg? Or the overnight chip leader, Sergio Aido? Stick with us as we find out.
Play begins at noon. You can find updated chip-counts on the chip-count page, and eliminations as they happen on the payouts page. All the hands fit to print (read: all the hands we manage to observe) will be described in this post.
Reporting team in London: Howard Swains and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May