9pm: Play is done for the day
Roughly 60 players made it through to Day 2, a wrap of the day's play is on the way.
8.40pm: Last four hands
The clock has been paused and the remaining players will play four more hands before bagging and tagging their chips.
8.35pm: Big stacks
As we approach the closing minutes of the day, these are your curent big stacks: Nikolay Ponomarev (190,000), Juan Angel Maengual Alamo (120,000), Rafael Henderson (110,000) and Mateusz Zbikowski (110,000).
8.25pm: Last level of the day
We're now into the last level of the day, according to the tournament clock 80 players remain. The average stack is currently 49,000.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,000-2,000 ante 300
8.15pm: More exits
George Achillea, Joseph McErlean, Sailajan Shritharan, Benjamin Senior, Peter Evans, Gabriel Forde, Fahd Smires, Carlos Del Vigo Gonzalez, Zachary Arama, Niall Murray, Rajesh Verma, Duncan Wilkie, Gemal Husnu, Omar Khan, Leo McClean, Thomas Drew, Nir Wellgreen, Tony Lang, Peter Ogier and Daniel Tinsley are all out.
Meanwhile, what with poker being a zero sum game and all, Shantanu Banerji is going in the opposite direction as he's up to 110,000.
8pm: Cugguda collects some chips
I joined the action to see a flop reading [2h][5c][Qh], Fouad Haghighat was all-in with [Ac][Qc], Domonic Cugudda the would be executioner with pocket kings. The [3c] turn gave Haghighat some more outs and he let out a 'come on,' but the river was the [8d] and Cugguda's hand held to boost him up to 62,500.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 800-1,600 ante 200
7.50pm: Fletcher hooked
Dexter Fletcher is out, he told me: "My kings against an opponent's jack, jack on the flop." A little investigative journalism that the Junior Gazette would've proud of reveals hsi opponent and beneficiary of the outdraw to be Jose Gaminto. He was already healthily stacked and is now up to 110,000. That's good for the chip lead as Rafael Henderson has slipped to around 70,000.
7.40pm: Exits
The number of players still in with chips has dipped below 100 all of the following are part of that statistic as they are out. In no particular order: Lala Mihail Cristinel, Bijay Parkash, two-time UKIPT winner Joeri Zandvliet, Axel Briend, Jac Arama, Dinarte Araujo De Sousa, Mark Bailey, John Lucarotti, Liam Kitchen, Sam Lunt, Yu Wang, Andrew Miles, Andrew Wraight, Richard Paul, Adam Bilcock, Christopher Thomson, Onur Dag, Thomas Pipe, Leon Louis, Robert Malvasi, Paul Murrell, Nick Mazur, James Rann and Ganesh Bathmanathan have all had their day cut short.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 200
7.20pm: Verma takes a hit
I just saw UKIPT2 Newcastle runner-up Raj Verma take a hit to drop to 10,000. He raised pre-flop from late position, both Mateusz Zbikowski (button) and Thomas Drew (small blind) made the call.
The flop fell [2d][8d][2c], it checked to Verma who bet 4,000, Zibikowski folded, Drew then moved in for 23,500 total and Verma kind of shrugged and then made the call.
Verma: [Kd][3d]
Drew: [8h][7h]
The [10s] turn and [5s] river kept Drew in front and he got a massive double up, whilst Verma is now short on chips.
7.10pm: Chip counts
A few counts from around the room: Cristiano Blanco (74,000), Duncan Wilkie (13,600), Raj Verma (10,000), Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody (26,000), Simon Trowse (26,000), Jose Gamito (50,000), Rafael Henderson (105,000 - probable chip leader) and Mateusz Zbikowski (77,000).
7pm: Prizepool
During the break I plugged the prizepool information into the blog, it can be seen by clicking here. If you're too lazy to do that (or simply don't want to) then the headline news is that the winner of the UKIPT Series 1 will take home £19,400.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000 ante 100
6.30pm: One room
All the players are now situated in the same poker room as enough players have been eliminated to enable the floor staff to collapse the tables that were in use in the 'Upper Deck' poker room.
The bad news is of course that for that to happen players have had to go out, the latest batch of heroes who've become zeros includes: Stephen Bean, Christopher Goodson, Mark Shepherd, Victor Ilyukhin, Sundeep Sangany, Sergey Chernykh, Rajesh Rughwani, Mark Hitchens, Mia Lui, George Clyde-Smith, Gabriel Tuna, Richard Fuller, Patrick Frew, Nicholas Heron, Martin Svocak, Simon Sallstrom, Timothy Gill and Andrew Hanak.
The 130 players who remain are now on a 20 minute break.
6.15pm: Fletcher giving it both barrels
A couple of the players at Dexter Fletcher's table don't look old enough to have seen Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, never mind Press Gang so might not know that the scruffy looking bloke in seat five has had a pretty interesting career.
The actor and writer who was born in Enfield got his big break in Press Gang, a series based around the activities of a newspaper run by teenage pupils of a comprehensive school. He's gone on to star in movies such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and acclaimed TV dramas such as Band of Brothers and Hotel Babylon.
When it comes to poker most of Fletcher's results have come in celebrity or charity events, but he's holding his own here as he's right about average with 26,000.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 400-800 ante 100
6pm: Time
I head the word "Clock," bellowed out from a table nearby me so wandered over to see what exactly was going on.
With the board showing [Kd][Qd][7h][8h] Jose Gamito bet 12,550 into a pot of roughly 18,000. The action was on Mihail Lala and he'd obviously taken too long as someone (not necessarily Gamito) had called the clock.
The TD arrived and explained he had one minute to make a decision or his hand would be declared dead, but before the minute was up Lala made the call. The [4d] completed the board and the flush draw, Gamito checked, Lala set him all-in for his last 13,500 and Gamito made the call, Lala was reluctant to show and said: "You're good," to Gamito who rolled over [Ks][Qc], Lala showed first the [7c] then the [Ac] as a huge pot went to Gamito, he's now up to 72,000.
5.55pm: Exits
More exits to tell you about as Andrew Abernethy, Danny Blair, Nicola Malvasi, Gladys Long, Paul Grace, Jason Velarde, Andy Spiteri, Nicholas Humphris, Pekka Karvonen, Lawrence Sanchez, Jen Chiang, Jie Li, Kavey Kiavand and Neil Robertson Mcculloch have all seen their stack reduced to zero.
5.45pm: Prizepool
Drum roll please...
The winner of the first UKIPT Series event will be presented with a novelty cheque worth £19,400 whilst the loser of the final hand will pick up £13,140. In total 40 players will get paid with a min-cash worth £520. I'll get the full prizepool and pay out structure up on the blog soon.
5.35pm: Second half kicks off
We're into level seven now here at the Hippodrome, just 160 players remain but expect that number to drop dramatically over the next three hours. Yesterday 39 of 147 (26%) made it through, meaning roughly 48 players should survive to Day 2.
Jake Cody is one of those still in, the Team PokerStars Pro is on 30,500 and the Brit has already won one tournament here in the short time it's been open. You won't find it on his database though as it was the EPT9 London Media tournament. Competitive? Just a bit.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in London:Nick Wright. Photos by Neil Stoddart.