9.10pm: Done for the day
Play is over for the day, it appears that roughly 46 of the 147 players made it through the day, a wrap of the day's play is on the way.
8.55pm: Last three hands
The clock has been paused and the players will play three more hands before bagging and tagging for the day.
8.50pm: Burland busts
Towards the end of the last level we lost UKIPT1 Brighton champion Jamie Burland. He told me. "I shoved for 23,000 with pocket twos from the cut-off and Charles Akadiri called with ace-queen and won the race."
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,000-2,000 ante 300
8.35pm: Lietuvninkas leaps into the lead
A big pot for Marius Lietuvninkas just now that has given hip the chip lead. He opened to 2,500 and next to act Marco Simoes three-bet to 6,000. It was at this point that the dealer realised that the minimum raise was to 3,200. So Lietuvninkas was forced to make it 3,200, Simoes then took his bet back and made it 20,000. Floor!
The TD was called and ruled that as the action hadn't changed - Lietuvninkas had raised initially as his bet was was more than half the legal raise - that Simoes bet of 6,000 stood. Went it got back to Lietuvninkas he made the call. But Simoes was still steaming about this rule as the flop fell [7][K][3], Lietuvninkas checked, Simoes shoved for 30,000 into a pot of around 16,000 and Lietvninkas snap called. Simoes showed [Ad][4d], whilst Lietvninkas had made a good call with [8s][7s]. His hand held up on the turn and river and he now has nearly 150,000.
8.25pm: Mina getting mad
"It's going to cost anyone 25,000 to see a flop," I heard from across the room. The voice belonged to Marinos Mina, who last I knew had a stack of 75,000, so I was curious as to if he'd lost it and was blind raising for a third of his stack or what.
"I lost a 100k pot," he said. "Do you want to hear about it?" he continued. I clicked my pen into scribble mode. "A guy raises to 6,500 and I flat with [Ac][Jc], the button and small blind both peel. The flop comes [5][7][3] with two clubs. The small blind (Enzo Gomez) ships for 30,000 with [4c][2c] and I call. The turn is a deuce and the river is a non club seven. I'm down to 25,000 and he's got 100k."
Mina's still in but a bit riled up.
8.15pm: Penultimate level of the day
We're into level 11 of the 12 allotted for the day. Whilst it might seem like playing for just six hours (plus breaks) is a short day and in terms of poker tournaments it is, tournament director Luca Vivaldi explained why this is the case. "If we play any more levels than this it's possible that we may make the money, or at least to very close to it as I expect the bubble to burst sometime in level 14. We ran a very similar event on the Estrellas tour where we played 14 levels on Day 1 and we were just eight players from the money at the end of Day 1."
So despite that meaning a longer day two, there's sound logic behind it, especially as no one can know for sure how many runners they'll be on Day 1B. As it stands there are 65 of the 147 players who started still in with a shot of making Day 2.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600 ante 200
8pm: Huge double up for Nagi
If you look below you'll see Sunny Nagi has a stack of 46,000, that's due to a double-through at the expense of Wing-Kou Yeung. It was all-in pre-flop with Nagi holding [Ac][Qd], Yeung with [Kh][Kc]. The [As][9c][9d] flop gave Nagi the lead and he stayed there as the board ran [3s][Qh]. A few hands later Yeung was out.
7.40pm: Chip counts
Here's a few counts of the names and notables that are left in: Seun Oluwole (18,000), Chihao Tsang (19,400), Paul Zimbler (14,000), Sunny Nagi, (46,000) and Jamie Burland (26,000).
7.30pm: The Tough gets going
As the players settle into the tenth level of the day the chip leader is Ian Tough. The PokerStars qualifier has 140,000.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 200
7.20pm: Out!
There's no easy to say this but: Salim Ghozali, Abdul Miah, Lincoln Walshe, Adebayo Odetoyinbo, Jake Powell, Man Hei Lam, Zane Collinson, Colin Bord, Willie Tann, Rahim Tadj-Saadat, David Barnes, Saulius Launikonis, Master Sherman, Davide Magnan, Stephen Bridges, Robinder Dhinsa, Daniel Bland, Joe Dennis, Glenn Watson, George Sandford, Sameer Singh, Paul Pickernell, Martin Comitti, Alfie Adam, Jason Vencata Chellum, Tony Isaac and Timothy Chung are all out.
75 players remain.
7.10pm: Watson makes the table an offer
First a disclaimer, I didn't see how this hand played out, merely the conclusion.
Ben Watson was all-in with pocket jacks (at which point in the hand I know not) and Marinos Dimitrakopoulos, had, at some point in the hand, matched or preempted Watson's all-in wager with [10c][8c]. The run out of the board was [9h][5c][8s][10s][4s], "oh jesus no, you play like a t**d," said Watson to Dimitrakopoulos. He then turned to the rest of the table and said: "My names Ben Watson, please add me on twitter, £50 to whoever knocks him (Dimitrakopoulos) out."
After that hand Dimitrakopoulos is up to around 48,000.
6.45pm: Break time
The remaining 90 players are now on a 20 minute break.
6.35pm: Till death do us part
Table one, which won't break all day, is very much the table of death, just ask Mickey Petersen (see below) who was unceremoniously booted off it a short time ago. Even without the presecene of the EPT Copenhagen champion there's a raft of poker talent (and chips) to prop it up.
In seat one is Marius Lietuvninkas, the Lithuanian, who calls London home, made three deep runs in Season 1 of the UKIPT and looks primed to make another as he's up to 93,500 and is probably the chip leader. A couple of seats along sits Deborah 'Debs the Destroyer' Worley-Roberts she's, in her own words, "just lost a big pot," is looking a little sorry herself, although still smiling, and has 13,500.
Two seats to her left sits Timothy Chung, I've seen him absolutely tear tables apart on the UKIPT and as if to illustrate my point he eliminated Salim Ghozali whilst I was observing the table. On a [6s][Qc][9h][6c] board Ghozali bet 6,000 with pocket jacks, Chung moved in for 17,225 with pocket kings and Ghozali, who had slightly less made the call. The river was the [8s] and Ghozali was eliminated.
If that wasn't enough Craig Sweden is also at the table, he's chipped up too as he's on 65,000.
6.15pm: Short day for Petersen
Mickey Petersen's day is done, although he busted in semi-exciting circumstances. He was all-in with pocket eights against Master Miah who had pocket tens. The first four cards out were all aces! There was now the possibility of a chop, any face card would do it. But, the river was low and Petersen headed to the rail.
6pm: Gone
Just 100 of the 147 starters remain, almost a third of the field are out then. The latest fallers include: Ian Woodley, Bob Drummond, Xiaohe Tan, Anthony Mackay, Philip Baker, Deborah Brown, Daniel Wood, Daniel Cariello, Tariq Ahmad, Timothy Slater, Richard Mcintyre, Yiannis Liperis, William Kassouf, Zack Foulds, Thomas Wallsgrove, Rob Lacey and Les Fenton.
5.50pm: Mina means business
When you've covered a few UKIPT's you realise that the average stack hovers around the 40 big blind mark for much of the tournament, generally from late on Day 1 to the end of the tournament.
Half way through Day 1 and the average stack is a tickle under 45 big blinds, two players who have more than that are Jamie Burland (35,000, 58 big blinds) and Marinos Mina who has 70,000.
The latter was kind enough to tell me how he got his latest boost. "I opened to 800 with [Ah][8h], the button raised to 2,300 with [Ad][Jd] and I peeled. The flop was [5h][3h][3], I checked, he bet 3,200, I raised to 8,200, he shoved for 16,000 total and I called. The turn was a heart and the river an eight.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in London:Nick Wright. Photos by Neil Stoddart