8.40pm: Tussles at the top
As play winds down for the day, there’s 15 minutes left the inevitable ‘last three hands’, klaxon can’t be far off, it appears that only two players have broken the six figure mark. It’s still William Champion out in front, he has around 110,000 but Marc McDonnell, who has 102,000 is hot on his heels. — NW

8.30pm: More head to the rail
There’s no easy way to say this but if you’re looking for any of the following; Surinder Sunar, Mark Coyne, Patrick Rooney, Wei Li, Adrian Tracey, Robert Elkin, Chris Dowling, David Path or Ashfaaq Taus, then you’re better trying the bar or the cash tables. Don’t head to the main event tables, they’re not there. — RD

Surinder Sunar and Liam Flood: there, there, it’s going to be all right…

8.25pm: Minimal damage
Such was the gravitas of this hand for UKIPT Cork champion Sam Razavi that he devoted two tweets to it! “WOW! I call c/o 3x raise out of BB w/A-10; flop A83 he fires flop I call; turn Q chk chk riv total brick I bet half pot he flats A8… ..I feel like I won the hand!!! Can’t believe I lost the absolute minimum.”

Razavi is definitely in a happy mood, he was overheard saying: “Not long to jagerbomb time, I feel like a kid on Christmas eve.” — NW

8.15pm: A few small skirmishes
There hasn’t been much in the way of ‘double up or go home’ fireworks that you usually associate with the last level of the night, but nonetheless there have been a few small skirmishes to report.

Three players including Timothy Boyle and Ann Tran Dinh paid 1,200 each to see a flop of [8d][Ad][9d], it checked to Boyle who bet 3,250, call from Dinh. The [Kh] fell on the turn and Dinh wasted no time in moving all-in for around 12,000, Boyle insta-mucked.

Elsewhere Andrew Laurie got two streets of value with [Ah][9s] on a [9d][Qs][3s][Ad][3d] board by betting 2,200 on the turn and 3,000 on the river.

There’s 30 minutes left in the day and 104 players remain. — NW

8.05pm: Exits
There’s no easy way to say this but: Patrick Murray, Nuno Ascensão, Charles Fabian, Milorad Dobrijevic, Rob Yong, Janos Jeszek, Dean Hutchinson, Peter Andrasi, Mark Cullumbine, Shawn Kelly, Simon Brooks, Fergal Nealon, Martin McGeough, Simon Trumper, Devron Hasselnook, Gerard Hall and Antonio Gagliano are all amongst the 44% of the field who’ve been eliminated so far today. — NW

7.55pm: Yong five-bets light?
The @PokerStarsBlog just received a tweet that we felt deserved to be aired, Yong is out after all and we did not see his elimination.

“Shout out for Bruce Jones playing the UKIPT? He says he just knocked out Rob Yong with QQ when Yong 5-bet shipped 95off” tweeted @RobLloyd91.

We hunted Jones down and indeed that had happened. Jones had opened with queens in the hijack, Yong had three-bet out of the big blind and had then tried to make Jones pass his 6,200 four-bet with an all-in of nearly 20,000. It did not work. Easy pot for Jones. — RD

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75

7.50pm: Two pots for O’Flynn
Ian O’Flynn has chipped up to 30,000 after winning back-to-back pots, both of which had been opened by a resurgent Sam Razavi. He first flatted a 2,700 three-bet from Joseph Lalor only stabbing at the pot on the river of the [kh][3h][2d][8c][8d] board. Lalor passed. The next hand he jammed the river of a [kd][5s][3s][5d][ad] board after being led into for three streets. He took the pot without showdown. – RD

7.45pm: Chip counts
News of those still alive as we head into level eight. Max Silver was covering his stack and didn’t want me to see it, 24,000 he proffered eventually which is less than the 38,000 we previously clocked him at.

He was chatting to Jason Tompkins about a hand, “I don’t want to check-raise the turn, I think you’ve got a made hand,” was all I caught, Tompkins is up to 37,000 he may well have taken some of Silver’s chips. Chipleader William Champion has increased his stack to 120,000, Fergal Nealon is at the other end of the scale as he’s hanging on with 5,700. Dara O’Kearney (14,300) and David O’Connor (14,250) seem to be stuck in neutral, whilst Richard Haile (25,000) will be hoping to increase their stack in the last level of the day.

7.35pm: Ainsworth’s boat sunk
Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is out having just busted in what he described as: “A cooler, my usual UKIPT really.”

The heavy action occurred on the river, with a full board of [9][9][5][J][9] on the felt Leonard White led for 3,500, Ainsworth moved all-in for 7,000 and White called. Ainsworth showed a jack for nines full of jacks but White had [Kd][9d] for quads.

“I could’ve just called on the river and left myself 10 big blinds,” said Ainsworth. “But I didn’t think he had the nine, I put him on a smaller pair than me. Back home to play SCOOP’s it is.” — NW

Ainsworth’s day is done

7.25pm: Numbers on the board
The board currently shows that 120 players remain from the 199 that started the day, giving an average stack of 24,875. If you’re anywhere near that then you’re doing okay. Ross Jarvis certainly seems to think so, “I’m singing M-People,” he said, doing an embarrassing little dance in his chair.

We think he’s alluding to the ‘Moving on up’? — RD

7.15pm: Razavi doubles through Ainsworth
No sooner had he doubled up, Team PokerStars pro Jude Ainsworth was knocked back down again.

I was alerted to a big pot by Sam Razavi’s booming baritone: “Don’t do it to me,” he said in the general direction of the dealer. The situation when I arrived was this: Razavi was all-in on the turn of a [9s][8s][Ah][Jd] board with [Ad][9c] up against Ainsworth who held [8h][7s].

The river card was the [6c] and Razavi said, half stupefied: “I didn’t lose, I didn’t lose, the way I’ve been running I thought it was coming.”

“You’ll have to repay the favour and double me up now,” said Ainsworth who is down to 8,000, Razavi meanwhile doubled to around 29,000. — NW
7.10pm: Zero sum game
There’s no easy way to say this but if: Paul Portelli, Kyle Johnston, Michael Kane, James Waldron, Martin Dench, Alex Scullion, Daragh Davey, Mark Buckley, Chistopher Czilinsky, Paul Romain, Frank Stevens, Nicky Power, Andrew Kelly or Kevin Killeen offered to swap a percentage with you durin the break then you’ve been had as they’re all out of this tournament. — NW

7pm: Ainsworth double
Jude Ainsworth has doubled through Chistopher Czilinsky in a battle of the blinds. Ainsworth made it 1,000 from the small blind and Czilinsky jammed from the big setting Ainsworth’s 11,500 stack all-in. Ainsworth made the call.

Ainsworth: [ad][jh]
Czilinsky: [9c][9d]

Ainsworth flopped it as the board ran out [as][6s][kh][7c][7s] to double up to 23,000. Czilinsky bust shortly afterwards. — RD

6.50pm: Chip leaders
The players are back in their seats for the final two levels of the day, these fellas are the chip leaders with 120 minutes or folds, calls and raises to go:

William Champion - 101,000
José Esteban – 66,000
Ross Hall – 64,000
Neil Raine - 56,000
Con Collins – 54,000

Ross Hall

6.35pm: Break! That calls for a montage
The players have just gone on the last break of the day so in the meantime we’ll post up a hat-based montage of some of the Day 1A players. ‘Why?’ you may ask. ‘Why not?’ we reply.

Joseph Lalor: hat, curious

Fintan Hand: hat, Kermit

Sur-in-der hat Sunar

Sur-out-the hat Sunar

6.25pm: Chip counts
We’re busy updating the chip count page as often as we can and have just done another batch. We can tell you that Thomas Hall (42,000) is among those doing well. On the next break (eight minutes) we’ll be doing a sweep of the tables to unearth the big stacks. — NW

6.18pm: Last year’s final table
UKIPT Cork runner-up David O’Connor is getting it quietly with 28,000 while UKIPT Dublin, Season 1 winner Max Silver is not, he’s gassing away at Jason Tompins who also made the final table here last season. Silver is up to 38,000, Tompkins also performing well on 30,000.

Last year’s runner-up Chuck Fabian looks like he’s got a tough couple of hours of grinding ahead of him though, he’s down to 13,000. — RD

Jason Tompkins is setting himself up for another run

6.05pm: Boatman bites the dust
A short while ago Ross Boatman was knocked out and his brother Barny has now joined him on the rail. “I had about 12,000 to start the hand and I’m in the big blind with [7][5] off-suit. It folded to the button (Ross Hall) he’s min raised and I’ve called,” explained the elder Boatman sibling.

“The flop was [9][5][4] with two diamonds, I’ve checked, he’s bet half the pot, I trebled his bet and he set me all-in. I put him on the flush draw, I knew exactly where I was and at that point it was too late to do anything apart from put the chips in and hope to hold up. He had [Ad][3d] and hit an ace on the turn.”

After claiming the scalp of the Hendon Mobster, Hall is up to 46,000. — NW

5.58pm: Fallen, busted, done and dusted
There’s no easy way to say this but if you’d had a premonition that Cormac O’Dea, John Hughes, Graham Pound, Martin Nathorst-Westfelt, John Hanaphy or Anthony Keogh would win UKIPT Dublin you are not a psychic. They are all out and, let’s face it, evidence for ESP abilities is pretty slim. — RD

5.50pm: Whiteside on the right side this time
Earlier (see post at 3.52pm) Dicky Whiteside lost a three-way all-in against Ross Boatman and Stephen McGrath which left him with around 2,000.

Well he’d spun that up to 6,000 and has just got some much-needed chips back from McGrath. It was all-in pre-flop with Whiteside holding [As][Kh] whilst McGrath had [Ah][Jh]. The board ran out [Kc][2s][10d][7d][Ks] and Whiteside is close to getting back to starting stack. — NW

5.40pm: The rollercoaster ride of Razavi
It’s been an up and down level for Sam Razavi who was down to 10,000, doubled up, then got up to 30,000 only to slide back down to 17,000. He told me about his latest hiccup. ” I raised with A-10 the flop has come [10][8] rag and I’ve bet 1,100 he (Aidan Connolly) raised to 3,100, I’ve made it 8,800 and he calls with just 14,000 back.

“The turn was a jack, the river a brick and both got checked through, he showed [J][9] meaning he’d called off a lot of his stack on a draw, if the turn is a blank I’m all-in. — NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25

5.35pm: Yong doubles with aces
Rob Yong, now on what seems like a steady stream of cigarette breaks, has doubled up with aces to around 12,000. Thomas Ward was the player that he doubled through looking more sullen than ever when he tabled pocket tens and was told by the player opposite him, Darren Kearney, that he’d passed two tens. Not exactly the news that he wanted hear. Ward mucked his hand on the turn of the [4s][5h][js][kc][6s] board. Kearney apologized shortly after.

To see the chip count page you can click here – or in the widget on the right of the page. — RD

Thomas Ward (left) and Rob Yong

5.30pm: Done in Dublin
There’s no easy way to say this but if you were relying on: Dario Festa, Owen Robinson, Ondrej Drozd, Priit Brikker, Conor O’Driscoll, Graham Parkin, Ross Boatman, Patrick Mulcaire, Chris Barclay, Barry Carson or Mateusz Warowiec to buy you a pint of Guinness with their UKIPT Dublin winnings then you’re going to be waiting a lot longer than the 119.5 seconds it takes to pour a pint of the black stuff, as they’re all out. — NW

5.20pm: Haile fail
Richard Haile has enjoyed a string of results on the UKIPT making five cashes since UKIPT Manchester in March of last year. That puts him joint third alongside Jamie Burland for number of cashes and just behind Sam Razavi (six) and Rupinder Bedi (seven). Four of those were relatively small cashes but the last one, UKIPT Galway this season, was a final table finish for €10,900. The boy is making progress.

Haile appears to have got off to a solid enough start but just lost a small chunk to John Keown after calling 675 and 1,675 on the turn and river of a [7h][3h][js][4d][4c] board. Haile looked unsure on the river but made the call. Keown’s [jc][8h] was good enough to take the pot. A small setback but Haile is still likely to have his name in the counts come the end of the day. — RD

Richard Haile

5.10pm: Razavi doubles with diamonds
UKIPT Cork winner Sam Razavi is up to 21,000 after doubling up with a flush. He tweeted: “Doubled to 21k! Call 79d from bb, flop 7 hi 2diamonds (mbn)…chk/raise/snap guys shove. He has the mighty ak off. Kd instant delivery turn.”

Meanwhile Max Silver, who has never failed to final his local UKIPT tweeted: “Swingy day so far but up to 24k from 15 and a low point of 5k.”
– NW

5pm: Chip counts
Nicky Power is one of the most consistent players on the Irish poker scene having racked up earnings of $386,005 since 2005. He’s always a danger when he gets chips and has nearly trebled his starting stack here as he’s up to 40,000.

One of the real up and coming stars of Irish Poker is Jason Tompkins, he’s been consistently cashing since 2009 and had a breakout year in 2011 including a fifth place finish at UKIPT Dublin in September 2011. He’s going the right way about repeating that success as he’s chugging along on 33,000.

Meanwhile Barny Boatman (18,000) and Dara O’Kearney (16,000) are just above starting stack whilst Fergal Nealon (13,050) and Devron Hasslenook (13,800) have slipped the wrong side of the break even line. — NW

UK legend Barny Boatman

4.50pm: Esteban eliminates two
José Esteban is the early chip leader as he’s up to 70,000 after eliminating two players, in two separate hands at two different tables. I’ll explain.

In the first he had raised to 700 from middle position, Barny Boatman flat called from the small blind before Maximilian Bassil moved all-in for 3,000 total from the big blind. Back on Esteban he made the call and Boatman got out the way.

Bassil: [Kd][Qs]
Esteban: [Qh][Js]

“Here comes the suckout,” said Bassil and he was proved right as the board ran [2d][6h][Jc][6d][Jd], that hand took him to around 50,000.

That table then broke but he soon found himself involved at his new table. I joined the action to see a board of [Ah][3c][6d][Ks] on the felt and the pot size was around 12,000. Action was on Esteban who fired out a bet of 5,550, call from Paul Doyle. The [9s] completed the board, Esteban set Doyle all-in for his last 9,000, and Doyle announced call, Esteban showed [Ad][Kc] whislt Doyle mucked his hand. — NW

4.40pm: Halfway through the day
The players have returned to their seats, the 160 of the 199 which remain anyway. This is the last level without antes, the point at which the men separate themselves from the boys and the grinders just annihilate everyone. Stay with us as the big stacks start to emerge.

Cash games and side events are also running throughout. — RD

Starting stacks are fast becoming short stacks

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Galway (in order of Danish liquorice eaten today): Rick Dacey (too much) and Nick Wright (not enough, still going). Photos by Mickey May (she supplied the stuff).

Tags: boys | dealer | festival | france poker series | lapt | micromillions | news | pokerstars | SCOOP | wcoop

Momentum can go a long way. Sure, B00mslang was one of the chip leaders going into the final table, but it wasn’t until the big elimination of Dajvey that B00mslang took a lead and became relatively unstoppable. The confidence was evident, especially in the failed deal talks, and B00mslang turned that into selective aggression that became the key to victory. Boom!

*****

Poker is known for its skill aspects, but any good player needs to possess a bit of gamble. And for some tournaments, players need to be able to trust their instincts, act quickly, and be prepared to fire another bullet should the first one miss. Those players signed up for Event 16, a second chance event that offered one chance to rebuy and a turbo structure to move things along at a rapid pace with five-minute levels.

The high buy-in of this event cost $2,100 but gave players a $750K guarantee, which was incidentally blown out of the poker water by a strong number of players and their rebuys. Here was the final tally:

Players: 474
Rebuys: 203
Guarantee: $750,000.00
Prize pool: $1,354,000.00
Paid players: 54

It only took 2.5 hours for the money bubble to burst, and most of the Team PokerStars Pros exited the field before that time. Team Online’s Randy “nanonoko” Lew kept going until just before that bubble, exiting in 59th place. Also disappointed was Mattfrankland, who busted in 55th place on the exact bubble.

TAPSS17 was the first player to cash in this event, taking home $6,770.00 for the 54th place finish. Soon after, the last Team Pro standing, Jason Mercier, was eliminated in 44th place for $7,447.00.

Play moved very quickly toward the final table. Within 15 minutes to work the field down to two tables, and with the eliminations of paulgees81 and delaney_kid in short order, it was tough to even keep up with the action. Just past the three-hour mark, DrUPSWING left in 11th place, and hand-for-hand play led to another exit. Chojjasd pushed all-in from UTG, and Pass_72 reraised all-in right behind, which prompted folds all around. Chojjasd was at risk with [7d][7c], and Pass_72 showed [Ac][Tc]. That race ended with the first card on the [Td][9s][Jd][4h][4s], and Chojjasd left in tenth place with $17,602.00.

Chip lead up for grabs

Level 33 brought the final table, with blinds of 8,000/16,000 and a 2,000 ante, and these player chip counts:

Seat 1: Dimadu (633,766 in chips)
Seat 2: Altrum Altus (624,917 in chips)
Seat 3: dirty.brasil (201,244 in chips)
Seat 4: Fred_Brink (330,149 in chips)
Seat 5: Dajvey (188,969 in chips)
Seat 6: Ky3He4uKKK (193,387 in chips)
Seat 7: B00mslang (635,891 in chips)
Seat 8: Pass_72 (314,919 in chips)
Seat 9: WushuTM (261,758 in chips)

Dirty.brasil was one of the shorter stacks and pushed all-in with [Th][Ts] from early position. Dajvey reraised all-in to isolate, which worked, with [Ah][Qs]. Another race captured viewers but it took a turn when the [Kh][5s][As] flop gave Dajvey top pair. The [Qc] on the turn brought two pair, and the [Kc] crushed straight draw hopes for dirty.brasil, who exited in ninth place with $22,476.40.

Ky3He4uKKK was the next player to make the all-in push. The 133,012 stack went all-in with [As][5h], and Altrum Altus went along from the small blind with [4s][4c]. The board came [9h][Ks][3s][Tc][4h], and the river only solidified the win for Altrum Altus. Ky3He4uKKK departed the table in eighth place with $30,465.00.

WushuTM doubled through Pass_72, which prompted the latter to move all-in soon after with [Kc][9h]. Dimadu called with [Qd][Qh], and the board came [Ac][Jh][6c][6d][4c] to eliminate Pass_72, also known to his parents as Pascal LeFrancois, in seventh place with $44,005.00.

B00mslang explodes into first place

Dajvey decided to make a move from the small blind with [Ks][4c] when it folded around. The all-in move provoked B00mslang to call from the big blind with [Ac][Tc], and that hand only got better on the [5s][8h][Th][5d][Ts] board. Dajvey couldn’t beat the full house and left in sixth place with $57,545.00.

WushuTM was the next at risk. When B00mslang raised all-in from the small blind, WushuTM called all-in from the big blind with [Ac][Th]. The hand had the [Kc][9s] of B00mslang beat, but only until the flop came [7d][6c][Kh]. The [9d] came on the turn to hurt a little further, and the [Jh] on the river simply sent WushuTM out in fifth place with $75,824.00.

When B00mslang made a preflop raise in a subsequent hand, Dimadu reraised all-in with [Ac][8s]. B00mslang called with [6c][6s], and that pair developed into two pair on the [Jc][2h][Jd] flop. The [2c] gave both players two pair but B00mslang remained ahead, and the [Ks] put an end to the hand. Dimadu departed in fourth place with $108,320.00.

Fred_Brink binks a double

This key hand put Fred_Brink in prime condition to get to heads-up action:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Three-handed play lasted a few rounds, but B00mslang again issued a challenge by raising all-in from the small blind. Altrum Altus called all-in from the big blind with [Ac][4s], but B00mslang had a dominating [As][9c]. The flop of [5d][9s][8s] paired B00mslang, and the [8h] and [Ah] finished the board and the hand, sending Altrum Altus, better known in real life as William Reynolds and winner of 2010 PCA High Roller, out in third place with $142,170.00.

Deal? Maybe. Well, no.

The final two players started their match with these chip counts:

Seat 4: Fred_Brink (861,047 in chips)
Seat 7: B00mslang (2,523,953 in chips)

They immediately paused the tournament to look at chip-chop numbers, but Fred_Brink was not pleased with the outcome. Some discussion ultimately led to a decision to play on, which they did.

It only took a total of five hands of heads-up play to decide it. B00mslang raised, Fred_Brink reraised all-in with [As][2h], and B00mslang called with [Ah][6s]. The board produced [Ac][8h][6c][3s][5s], and Fred_Brink, winner of a 2008 Sunday Million and this 2011 WCOOP event, had to accept second place in the tournament and the $192,945.00 that went with it.

B00mslang claimed SCOOP victory and $259,832.60 in cash, along with a Movado watch. Congrats!

2012 SCOOP Event #16-H ($2,100 2x NLHE Turbo) Results:

1st place: B00mslang ($259,832.60)
2nd place: Fred_Brink ($192,945.00)
3rd place: Altrum Altus ($142,170.00)
4th place: Dimadu ($108,320.00)
5th place: WushuTM ($75,824.00)
6th place: Dajvey ($57,545.00)
7th place: Pass_72 ($44,005.00)
8th place: Ky3He4uKKK ($30,465.00)
9th place: dirty.brasil ($22,476.40)

The Spring Championship of Online Poker home page contains all of the tournament results, schedule of upcoming events and their satellites, and a leaderboard for the 2012 Series.

Tags: b00mslang | Battle of the Planets | delicious | ept | festival | micromillions | online-poker | portugal | Super Tuesday | TOC | tournaments | World Series of Poker

PokerStars Qualifier Davide Biscardi won €200,000 in the early hours of Tuesday at the final table of the IPT San Remo Grand Final.

The Italian player beat a field of 418 players here at the Casino Municipale where the Italian Poker Tour generated a €810,920 prize pool.

Biscardi’s heads up opponent was Philippe Clerc, from France, who took second place for €130,000.

PokerStars Qualifier Davide Biscard

The final action saw Clerc go all-in far behind his opponent’s hand with [6c][5h]. Davide Biscardi called the all-in with [As][8s] and his hand held on the [9h][Js][8d][4h][6d] board.

Poland’s Jakub Michalak who took home €81,200 for third place.

The Italian Poker Tour’s next stop will be in Campione May 24 – 28, 2012 which is the first stop of Season 4. Oleksii Kovalchuk, a player from Ukraine, is the IPT Leader board winner for Season 3 and will be sponsored by PokerStars.it for Season 4.

Tags: 2011 | events | harrah's | napt | pca | pokerstars macau | SCOOP | season 4 | season 8 | Super Tuesday | wcoop | world cup of poker

Remember that time you won the biggest hand of your life after perfectly slowplaying a set of deuces all the way to the river? Remember how you tried to tell your friends about it? You wanted the entire world to know how it happened. You jumped on Twitter, Facebook, the forums, your blog, or your outdoor smoke signal station and begin posting the text hand history as fast as you could.

Right. It was a tad boring, wasn’t it?

Sure, there are hand replayers out there that you can use to liven things up, but none that are particularly easy, or, more importantly, integrated within the PokerStars software. That’s now changed with PokerStars’ introduction of the BOOM! hand replayer.

Today, it takes only the push of one button on your PokerStars dashboard to get your hand into a video form that any of your friends can see. Here’s how it works:

There are BOOM! buttons integrated into the chat box and hand history box like you see in the graphics below. All it takes to upload your hand is to press either of those buttons.

Not only can you add your favorite hands to BOOM!, but you will also be able to see the hands of Team PokerStars Pros and some of the biggest pots from events like SCOOP and WCOOP.

To get started, check out BoomPlayer.com where you can watch, upload, and chat about the biggest and most fun hands online.

Enjoy!

Tags: 2011 | boom | delicious | entertainment | eureka poker tour | harrah's | micromillions | news | SCOOP | season 8 | wcoop

The Indians are passionate people. They know what they love, and they love what they know. Just look at their passion towards another great game in cricket. It’s a religion in India, and Sachin Tendulkar is their God.

Well, we might be starting to see the dawning of a new age in the Asian poker world. The game is starting to develop some strong roots in India, and the scary thing is, if this religion takes hold, there are over 1.2 billion reasons why it could be the home of the next poker boom.

There have been several events recently held in Goa and the Indians are starting to perform strongly in major Macau events. Take for example Sangeeth Mohan’s final table bubble at the APPT Macau late last year, or Abishek Goindi’s runner-up finish at the Macau Poker Cup in February. The signs are definitely there. PokerStars are even running qualifiers to the Casino Royale Cup – to be held from June 21-24 on a cruise ship that is India’s largest floating casino. Imagine how many entrants they will get for that event if one of the Indians is victorious here at the APPT Cebu?

We already took a closer look at overnight chip leader Amir Varma’s play earlier in the day. Whatever he’s doing, it seems to be working, as he’s the first player to crack the one million chip mark for a clear chip advantage right now. Next best is Sameer Rattonsey as the Indians are currently sitting one-two in this event and looking pretty confident.

With countrymen Abishek Goindi cheering from the rail, and Indian cult hero Sangeeth Mohan watching intently while playing in the side event on a nearby table, there is plenty of support here for Team India. They could be dancing in the streets in Mumbai come Monday night.

With just ten players to go, we’re currently playing two five-handed tables, looking to bust one more player before we call it a day. No one is really short, with Antoine Amourette aggressively pushing his short stack to stay alive while Sungsik Bae recently lost a pot to slip to the bottom rung of the ladder.

Who will break the deadlock?

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | Battle of the Planets | dancing | delicious | events | india | micromillions | napt | news | russian poker series | SCOOP | wcoop

We’re down to 18 players as the players head on their first break of the day. Poring over my table draw (rife with scratches as each successive player busts), I noticed a surprising distribution of nationalities left in the event. Take a look:

Australia – 5
Korea – 3
India – 2
Canada – 1
China – 1
Hong Kong – 1
Philippines – 1
Sweden – 1
Thailand – 1
UK – 1
Vietnam – 1

It’s not surprising that a third of the remaining field is from Australia. The Aussies have always been strong supporters of the APPT and boast the oldest, most entrenched poker culture in the Asia Pacific region. It helps when one of the “boom year” WSOP Main Event champions is from your country, I suppose, but that pays short shrift to all that Aussie poker was even before Joe Hachem’s landmark win in 2005.

More interesting to me is the rest of the spread. Three Koreans, despite the fact that Koreans can’t gamble within the borders of their own country. Two Indians, even though there has almost never been a major buy-in live poker tournament held in South Asia. And then a host of singletons, ranging from as near as Hong Kong to as far as Sweden. There’s even an American in there, disguised as a Thai. And of course one last Filipino, carrying the standard for the home team.

American-Thai-Cambodian Carter Gill

Half of the field is from East Asia; a third is from Australia. Toss in a few South Asians and this is shaping up to be a strong regional final table. Gone are the days when the Americans would come over to Asia and dominate the fields. The APPT, slowly but surely over the course of five seasons, has become a showcase for the region’s local poker talent.

It’s still too early to know who’s going to win this one. It could be Macau regular Bobo Chen. Maybe Indian newcomer Amit Varma. Perhaps Korean Sungsik Bae will continue a tradition of strong play from his home country. Or maybe Jacky Wang, an Asian-Australian, will bring the title down under.

What we do know is that this international final 18 players shouldn’t be surprising. Yesterday American Carter Gill noted that his entire table came from different countries. Carter himself now claims two countries as home. Given how things are going today, if Carter makes the final table we could have 10 countries represented tomorrow.

Tags: archives | Battle of the Planets | events | lapt | latin-america | season 5 | twitter | World Series of Poker

Play starts, with the three tables of the main event taking up a small portion of the tournament room with side events filling the rest of the playing area. On the way in to take his seat in a side event, or to watch from the rail at least, is tournament oddball Artem Litvinov, dribbling a tennis ball for a few moments before, one assumes, he realised he was a grown man.

Inside the tournament room he was among those eyeing the action in the main, a sight obscured by at least three camera teams ready to pounce on any scrap of action.

To stand between them is to live precariously, as one quick reflex pan shot is all that stands between you and some weighty travel insurance forms which may or may not cover you for your own incompetence. It’s crowded, and awkward, but the end product, which will be broadcast later this year, is typically excellent.

One player not understanding what all the fuss about is Vladimir Geshkenbein.

“This is interesting,” he said, that sardonic smile of his on his face as two players went all in, both with ace-king, forced to wait a few moments for the cameras to arrive.

A few moments later he was in a hand, facing a raise and taking a moment to consider his options. In the meantime two pike men, carrying extended boom microphones, hovered inches above him.

“Can you guys move away,” he said. “You’re not going to get anything interesting.”

As if to prove his point, or more likely to spite them, Geshkenbein folded.

The main feature at this table is not Geshkenbein though, nor is it Pratyush Buddiga who is beginning to show signs of being a likely final table candidate. It is the man next to Geshkenbein, Tomas Cibak, who is increasing his stack hand by hand.

Thomas Cibak

Cibak is a big man, a giant when seated alongside the wirey raptor Geshkenbein. What’s more he’s wearing a hooded top, which he pulls down over his face, his long hair pouring out from either side of his head. It gives him a Robbie Coltrane in Harry Potter appearance (or Rubeus Hagrid if you watch children’s films).

Watching him play is Roberto Romanello, from the rail, taking a moment from playing the €10,000 side event. He’s interested to hear about the main event but keener to find out whether Andre Vinklarek, his chief rival in the hunt for Player of the Year honours, cashed in it. He didn’t, but he may have done in the side event yesterday. Also Bryn Kenney leapfrogged a few places on the leader board after finishing second in the €2,000 event.

Romanello returned to the €10k to double his efforts.

Tags: archives | Baltic Poker Festival | belgian poker series | entertainment | france poker series | planets | poker | rio | Super Tuesday | tcoop | UKIPT

As mentioned already we have a lot of big names playing today. Here’s the seat draw that has been released to us but with late registration continuing for another hour yet we can expect some more names to be added.

There are some incredibly tough tables out there. Take a look for yourself.

Will Jonathan Duhamel’s 2012 heater continue?

1 1 The Duc Ngo
1 2 Stephan Rach
1 3 John Gale
1 4 Koray Aledmir
1 5 Jeff Hakim 
1 6 Andreas Lutz
1 7 Mihai Manole
1 8 Andreas Piesik
1 9 Russell Carson
1 10 Dmitry Stelmak

2 1 Samantha Cohen
2 2 Boris Becker
2 3 JP Kelly
2 4 Mazen Rishani
2 5 Eduard Bhaggoe
2 6 Steven Thomsen 
2 7 Erik Sturkenboom
2 8 Maksim Semisoshenko
2 9 Thorsten Bäuerle
2 10 Marcin Horecki

3 1 Antoine Nahas
3 2 Frank Sypplie
3 3 Igor Pihela
3 4 Mario Puccini
3 5 Frank Lemmer
3 6 Olaf Kadler
3 7 Mike Mcdonald
3 8 Ilias Dimitru
3 9 Andreas Puhl
3 10 Kenny Shih

4 1 Pierre Huter
4 2 David Kolmberger
4 3 Ismael Bojang
4 4 Marcel Schreiner
4 5 Alexander Eser
4 6 Nicolas Chouity 
4 7 Jörg Bartel
4 8 Selim Citak
4 9 Christopher McClung
4 10 Gerd Wandel

5 1 Kristian Verlaan
5 2 Vojtech Ruzicka
5 3 John Andress
5 4 Konstantinos Nanos
5 5 Amir Sonsino
5 6 Peter Jepsen
5 7 Sören Vöhrs
5 8 Agentur Teichmann
5 9 Christian Buse
5 10 Toni Judet

6 1 Khalil Youssafi
6 2 Ali Azabdaftar
6 3 Oleksandr Bichuch
6 4 Sascha Brombacher
6 5 Marc Radgen
6 6 Stefan Rapp
6 7 Daniel John Neilson
6 8 Heinz-Georg Geissler
6 9 Juha Helppi
6 10 Pius Heinz

7 1 Johannes Strassmann
7 2 Schahin Shad-Manfaat
7 3 Paul Knebel
7 4 Papacek Roman
7 5 Keven Stammen
7 6 Seppo Parkkinen
7 7 Florens Feenstra
7 8 Parker Talbot
7 9 Kakwan Lau
7 10 Bruno “Kool Shen” Lopes

8 1 Jacques Quaiss
8 2 Nedzib Suman
8 3 William Thorson
8 4 Albert Bernardo
8 5 Mickey Petersen
8 6 Robert Rohr
8 7 Peter Akery
8 8 Erik Scheidt
8 9 Walter Beckmann

9 1 Matt Kay
9 2 Thomas Brauner
9 3 Stefan Modde
9 4 Gerasimos Deres
9 5 Jan Bendik
9 6 Jorge Ríos Ríos
9 7 Mikhail Korotkikh
9 8 Benjamin Kang 
9 9 Norman Balla
9 10 Roland Bachmann

10 1 Alexander Meidinger
10 2 Paul Würdig
10 3 Frederic Schwarzer
10 4 Tobias Reinkemeier
10 5 Shalom Turgeman
10 6 Ori Miller
10 7 Max Leonhard
10 8 Bernd Vogelhuber
10 9 Samer Hanna
10 10 Mikhail Semin

11 1 Alessandro Laubinger
11 2 Hendrik Dürschlag
11 3 Cengiz Ulusu
11 4 Karim Abillama
11 5 Fabrice Soulier
11 6 Jonathan Duhamel
11 7 Gaetano Dell Area
11 8 Jakob Karlsson
11 9 André Mayer
11 10 Fredrik Andersson

12 1 Jason Gray
12 2 Massimiliano Bellon Bellucci
12 3 Ramil Boyazitov
12 4 Dmitry Bayramov
12 5 Tim Bettingen
12 6 Jordan Addison Lewis
12 7 Jeff Sarwer
12 8 George Danzer
12 9 Timo Pfützenreuter
12 10 Thang Duc Nguyen

13 1 Stefan Höing
13 2 Jozef Hancin Hentz
13 3 Timothy Mitchell
13 4 Sebastian Winkler
13 5 Andreas Blumenthal
13 6 Arpad Sarkezi
13 7 Dominik Nitsche
13 8 Denis Noykin
13 9 Boris Caleta

14 1 Grayson Ramage
14 2 Zahlan Nabil
14 3 Carlos Gutierrez Gonzalez
14 4 Jordi Riba Corrons
14 5 Mustafa Navruz
14 6 Jan Djerberg
14 7 Kilian Kramer
14 8 Ben Thavisin
14 9 Marc Wright
14 10 Sandra Naujoks

15 1 Jan Kasten
15 2 Andreas Vlachos
15 3 Peter Zakrent
15 4 Kim Ofverstrom
15 5 Leroy Aussems
15 6 Franz Ditz
15 7 Dan Murariu
15 8 Matas Dilpsas
15 9 Peter Andersen
15 10 Bohdan Kozhokar

16 1 Walid Bou-Habib
16 2 Reinhard Dersch
16 3 Michael Wasserman
16 4 Jimmy Simard
16 5 Siyu Sha
16 6 Martin Finger
16 7 Jonathan Dennis Karamalikis
16 8 Michael Keiner 
16 9 Rolf Eibel
16 10 Matthew Jarvis

17 1 Richard Lyndaker
17 2 Paul Vas Nunes
17 3 Stefan Wrenger
17 4 Tony Stockhecke
17 5 Salman Behbehani
17 6 Grzegorz Derkowski
17 7 Per Emil Mattsson
17 8 Michael Zammar
17 9 Enrico Etienne Rudelitz
17 10 Paul Berende 

18 1 Andreas Setz
18 2 Jan Veit
18 3 Chaya Nabil
18 4 Alexander Isenberg
18 5 Cesar Garcia Domínguez
18 6 Andrew Badecker
18 7 Kim Lindqvist
18 8 Adolfo Vaeza
18 9 Uwe Sieben
18 10 Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier

19 1 Andre Vieira Andrade
19 2 Ihar Koshal
19 3 Yevgeniyy Timoshenko
19 4 Alex Kravchenko
19 5 Herbert Otto
19 6 Daniel Rodriguez
19 7 Athanasios Polychronopoulos
19 8 Tim Gerdes
19 9 Rino Mathis
19 10 Roman Romanovskyi

20 1 Jörg Krupp
20 2 Dr. Daniel Wichmann
20 3 Adam Szabo
20 4 Martin Herb
20 5 Victor Ilyukhin
20 6 Kimmo Kurko
20 7 David Jacob Licht
20 8 Vadzim Kursevich
20 9 Johannes Hoffmann
20 10 Raik Bernhardt

21 1 Guy Bachar
21 2 Liutauras Armanavicius 
21 3 Robert Merklinger
21 4 Peter Bosen
21 5 Roberto Romanello
21 6 Sharkota Siarhei
21 7 Halil Karaca
21 8 Wilfried Härig
21 9 Oleh Okhotskyi
21 10 Rhys Jones

22 1 Arvi Vainionkulma
22 2 Spencer Hudson
22 3 Filippo Bianchini
22 4 Erich Kollmann
22 5 Janne Juutilainen
22 6 Friedrich-Carl Alexander Franz
22 7 Konstantinos Tsirakidis
22 8 Andras Tokaji
22 9 Christian Krupp
22 10 Victor Ramdin

23 1 Lewis Hunter
23 2 Stefano Locorotondo
23 3 Stefan Huppa
23 4 Michael Winzen
23 5 Maik Schrader
23 6 Joni Jouhkimainen
23 7 Tomasz Krzesiñski
23 8 Dieter Christmann
23 9 Anton Ionel
23 10 Armin Daniel Zoike

24 1 Mikael Viuff Hansen
24 2 Frederik Jensen 
24 3 Rüdiger Seidel
24 4 Haritos Kalfopulos
24 5 Ruben Visser 
24 6 Stephan Klam
24 7 Markus Wetzel
24 8 Kim Lars Theibach
24 9 Constantin Meyer
24 10 Dmitry Vitkind 

25 1 Mario Walkner
25 2 Mathias Kasek
25 3 Michael Watson
25 4 Pietro Sibione
25 5 Marc Gork
25 6 Tim Finne 
25 7 Mohsen Jalal Tayfeh Shokor
25 8 Olaf Knebel
25 9 Jimmy Pan
25 10 Phillip Huxley

26 1 Richard Bruning
26 2 Pierre Fehner
26 3 Patrick Sacrispeyre
26 4 Daniel Smith
26 5 Govert Metaal
26 6 Zoltan Szabo
26 7 Giuseppe Pantaleo
26 8 Thomas Graupner
26 9 Weidong Wu
26 10 Ronny Purschwitz

27 1 Robertas Vaitkevicius
27 2 Joshua Prager
27 3 Andras Stumpf
27 4 Arnaud Mattern
27 5 Wim Eduard J Neys
27 6 Christoph Weigel
27 7 Garlef Konstantin Rinne 
27 8 Xuan Liu
27 9 Artem Litvinov
27 10 Paul Michaelis

28 1 Martin Mulsow
28 2 Mike Hoffmann
28 3 Jean-Philippe Rohr
28 4 Christian Jambor
28 5 Joe Ebanks
28 6 Andras Nemeth
28 7 Stephen Chidwick
28 8 Segey Baburin
28 9 Patrick Schlegel

29 1 Mariusz Klosinski
29 2 Jan Peter Jachtmann
29 3 Jari-Pekka Juhola
29 4 Teresio Ciancanelli
29 5 Jasper Wetemans
29 6 Martin Jacobson
29 7 Alex Kell
29 8 Steffen Schulz
29 9 Andrey Pateychuk

30 1 Kathrin Elena Schwierz
30 2 Simon Ravnsbaek
30 3 Константин Сергеевич Русских
30 4 Daniele Nestola
30 5 R.H.G. Van Bergen
30 6 Georgios Karakousis
30 7 Anton Kraus
30 8 Hannu Peltola
30 9 Leon Tsoukernik
30 10 Martin Stausholm

31 1 Moritz Kranich 
31 2 Yazbeck Georges
31 3 Sean Farshid Jazayeri
31 4 Davidi Kitai
31 5 Melvyn Van Der Sleen
31 6 Thijmen Stocker
31 7 Fabian Deimann
31 8 Tuncay Tutus
31 9 Daniel Yeheskel-Hai

32 1 Tobias Wagner
32 2 Steve O’Dwyer
32 3 Nguyen Minh
32 4 Simon Boss
32 5 Tyler Reiman
32 6 Urs Kohler
32 7 Charles Serry
32 8 David Boyaciyan
32 9 Ankush Mandavia

33 1 Javier Etayo
33 2 Alexander Just
33 3 Lex Veldhuis
33 4 Martin Tonnesen
33 5 Ilya Gorodetskiy 
33 6 Stefano Puccilli
33 7 Agris Klaise
33 8 Koen De Visscher
33 9 Matthew O’Brien

34 1 Juan Manuel Pastor
34 2 Filippo Marcolini
34 3 Zachary Korik
34 4 André Morath
34 5 Deniz Artuc
34 6 Peter Turmezey
34 7 Mikalai Pobal
34 8 André Fiedler 
34 9 Gregory Gokey

35 1 Ludovic Riehl
35 2 Jan Horni
35 3 Nima Saken Shaft
35 4 Rick Streefland
35 5 Andreas Wiese 
35 6 Manig Loeser
35 7 Christopher Lovett
35 8 Norbert Hölting
35 9 Jan-Eike Wilken

36 1 David Van Der Vorst
36 2 Vincent Van Der Fluit
36 3 Gianluca Marcucci
36 4 Thomas Dolezal
36 5 Bernd Werner
36 6 Adam Hui
36 7 Denys Drobyna
36 8 Robert Werner Zipf
36 9 Ghattas Kortas

37 1 Patrick Börnicke
37 2 Mikica Mitrovic
37 3 Marco Rederer
37 4 Raoul Refos
37 5 Michael Eichhorst
37 6 Guido Kempkes
37 7 Sorel Mizzi
37 8 Martin Vallo
37 9 Bahadir Kilickeser

38 1 Laurent David
38 2 Ben Wilinofsky
38 3 Adam Levy
38 4 Guy Boscart
38 5 Andrey Zaichenko
38 6 Baris Ergün
38 7 Viktor Blom
38 8 Friedrich Räz
38 9 Chris Moorman

39 1 Taylor Paur
39 2 Guy Goossens
39 3 Dominic Hofmann
39 4 Aschkan Fayaz
39 5 Menny Ben Haim
39 6 Mircea Puica
39 7 Mick Graydon
39 8 Bahram Zohri
39 9 Fernando Cimaglia
39 10 Youssef Mallat

40 1 Danny Neess
40 2 Thomas Cibak
40 3 Ivan Todorovic
40 4 Fatima Moreira de Melo
40 5 Michiel Brummelhuis
40 6 Dieter Albrecht
40 7 Kevin Iacofano
40 8 David Vamplew
40 9 Frederic Hebette

51 1 Griffin Benger
51 2 Charlotte Van Brabander
51 3 Marcin Jerzy Grzybowksi
51 4 Isaac Schachtel
51 5 Per Mattsson
51 6 Vladislav Varlashin
51 7 Markus Ristola
51 8 Daniel-Gai Pidun
51 9 Paulo Sarmento

52 1 Jason Wheeler
52 2 Rasmus Vogt
52 3 Michael Tureniec
52 4 Anthony Picault
52 5 Ivo Pester
52 6 Jimmy Östensson
52 7 Alfonso Amendola
52 8 Liv Boeree
52 9 Michael Landmann

53 1 Joao Nunes
53 2 Johan Van Til
53 3 Joris Fontaine
53 4 Mohamed Razab
53 5 Nicolas Gottner
53 6 Ion Pavel
53 7 Jan Collado
53 8 Nicolas Amaya Sanachez-Puga
53 9 Pierre Mothes

54 1 Simon Persson
54 2 Diogo Borges
54 3 Tobias Künzli
54 4 Per Linde 
54 5 Steven Van Zadelhoff
54 6 Alex Casals
54 7 Christian Togsverd 
54 8 Jamie Rosen
54 9 Nicolas Elias Bou Sader

55 1 Ilhan Sönmez
55 2 Saar Wilf
55 3 Ismail Yetis
55 4 Ramon Demon Cserei
55 5 Erik Van Den Berg
55 6 Andre Akkari
55 7 Aleh Plauski
55 8 Nuno Coelho
55 9 Nils Mallon

56 2 Farid Chatt
56 3 Calvin Anderson
56 4 Matthias De Meulder
56 5 Stephen David Leonard
56 6 Joao Ribeiro
56 8 Kevin MacPhee

57 2 Rupert Elder
57 3 Marvin Rettenmaier
57 4 Ville Wahlbeck
57 5 Jean Marie Vandeborne
57 6 Elio Fox
57 7 Senal Egziabher
57 9 Narendra Banwari

58 1 Nikolaus Teichert 
58 2 Kristian Lunardi
58 3 Yury Kerzhapkin 
58 5 Jason Tompkins
58 6 Christophe De Meulder
58 9 Julian Herold

Tags: elky | estrellas poker tour | eureka poker tour | european | harrah's | italian | micromillions | pca | world-series

In terms of recent German history one feature dominates; a 97 mile long, 12 feet high feature that split East Berlin from West Berlin, East Germany from West Germany, and the East and West in general.

It’s more than 22 years since the Berlin Wall was at first opened, then pecked at by Ossies and Wessis with pick axes, then torn down with bulldozers, freeing millions who had spent decades living behind it.

East Germans in their Zeha sports shoes were able to swap two-cylinder Trabants* for fuel-injected Mercedes, or at least watch their Besser-Wessi cousins, wearing Levi jeans and smoking dollar bills, speed past in them, listening to Nena** on the stereo.
It was a turning point for Germany, and the world, with German unification taking place less than a year later on 3 October 1990.

The Berlin Wall passed passed in front of here, the Brandenberg Gate…

At best guess half the field at EPT Berlin weren’t born then and of those that were most were mere boys, kicking balls around and probably cleaning out Grandma in the family penny ante game on Friday night.

… and here, Potsdamer Platz

German poker though has evolved as well as the political climate in Europe over that period. Months before the guards lowered their rifles when East German citizens approached the border, young pretender Phil Hellmuth was denying Johnny Chan a third World Series main event title in a row.

Meanwhile across the Atlantic in soon to be unified Germany, the game was 7 Card Stud, a game brought into the country by American GIs. In the past decade though poker’s popularity boom swept across Germany with dramatic effect, turning the country of moustaches, mullets and other baseless stereotypes, into a nation of hold’em loving poker players, producing some of the best players in the game today, all while keeping their Zippo lighters for the next Scorpions gig***.

Thang Duc Nguyen**** was the first German to win an EPT event, taking down EPT3 Baden, followed over the years by the likes of Michael Schulze, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranich, Sandra Naujoks, Michael Eiler, Martin Schleich and Benny Spindler.

The country got its own EPT event in Season 3 when Dortmund appeared. Sure, it took a while to get to Hohensyburg, and you had to find it first, but Germany was on the poker map, more so when the event moved to the Capital, Berlin, just 100 yards from Potsdamer Platz, where all those years ago the Berlin wall used to dissect the heart of the city.

Now Germans are all over the poker scene. Two of the first three events of the year were won by Germans (Schleich and Spindler), while Philipp Gruissem won the EPT London High Roller. Martin Finger added his name to the roll call, winning in Prague. The surge of German players within poker continues to grow. Let’s not forget the current WSOP main event winner Pius Heinz.

These are the players we’ll look back on in 20 years from now, a period that will likely see a continuation of German dominance in the major casinos and card rooms of the poker world.

* For those not yet 30-years-old you may need to Google this.
** And this.
*** And this.
****And this.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | australia | facebook | family | german | harrah's | SCOOP | season 8 | sunday-million | wbcoop

1am: News in brief
-Steven Warburton is up to 150,000 he was on the right side of an aces versus queens cooler against Steven Harding in a pot worth 120,000.
- Keith Hawkins has 13,000, tablemate Jeff Kimber is on 40,000 whilst Nathan Kiely (seat one at that table) is another of the stacks with around 150,000
- Emmett Mullin has 18,400. “I’m grinding,” he told me. “Every time I chip up I get knocked down again.

Just 35 minutes left in the day. — NW

12.55am: Playing the rush
A quick word about Scott Kenyon. He was up all of last night, winning about $7,000 for taking down a $16 tournament on PokerStars. He decided to play the rush and motor up to Dusk Till Dawn to join the day 1C field of the UKIPT as an alternate.

It seemed like being a good decision as Kenyon moved up to about 100,000 earlier today. He’s slipped back again now, but is still battling. With 40 minutes left he has about 40,000 and had better start thinking about a hotel room for the night.

Scott Kenyon: the rush continues

He didn’t have time to arrange that in his haste. — HS

12.45am: Razavi coolered
Sam Razavi is down to 50,000 after losing that most classic of races: “Just lost a 60k flip ak into qq.” He’s still in good spirits though as I can hear him from where I’m sat.

Sam Razavi

Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is still in, he’s got 66,000 although the Irishman’s stack is dwarfed by Rowan Schaap. The Dutchman, who is two to Ainsworth’s left has 130,000. — NW

Rowan Schaap

12.35am: Last level
As we head into the last level of the nigh Don Campbell (167,000) appears to be the chip leader. Both Robert Parkin and Tim Clark have around 150,000.

Players are now back in their seats and cards are in the air.– NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 600-1,200 ante 100

12.23am: Break
Ten down, one to go. The players are on a final break of the evening, back in 15. — NW

12.15am: Salinkova slays aces
Alina ‘Catgirl’ Salnikova has just cracked aces with [10s][7s]. A comfortably stacked Sanders Jansen raised to 2,500 (for the second hand in a row) with what turned out to be [Ac][Ah] and Salinkova moved all-in from the big blind for 16,000, instant call – as you’d expect.

The flop of [10h][7h][9c] saw her vault into the lead and she stayed there on the [6d] turn and [Qs] river.

Sanders Jansen

Despite that dent Jansen still has 130,000. — NW

12.05am: No luck of the Irish
It’s not been a good level for former Irish Open winners as both Neil Channing and James Mitchell are out.

160 players remain. — NW

11.55pm: Frazer flounders
Ian Frazer has flown under the radar for the most part so far today but he’s chipped up to around 100,000, well that was until this hand went down.

Frazer came in for a raise, making it 2,200 to go, it passed to Adam Palethorpe who three-bet to 4,900, back on Frazer he nonchalantly threw in a blue 5k chip to call.

The flop fell [9d][As][7h] and both players checked to see the [Kh] fall on the turn. At this juncture Frazer decided to take the lead, betting 7,000, call from Palethorpe. The river was the [10h], not exactly a blank, and perhaps with this in mind both players rapped the table, Palethorpe rolled over [Ad][Jd] to claim the pot.

Despite that hiccup Frazer is still well stacked with about 80,000. — NW

11.45pm: Chopping Boeree
One suspects that if Liv Boeree wasn’t currently in the midst of an extended massage, she would be a lot more angry about this hand than she currently appears. After Veronika Pavlikova opened to 2,100 from the button, the Team PokerStars Pro shipped from the small blind for about 20,000. Pavlikova, with a stack about five times the size of that, called and Boeree was in great shape.

Boeree: [ah][qc]
Pavlikova: [ad][5d]

The board, though, had other ideas. The flop was [7d][ac][as], giving both top trips. And then the turn [7h] gave them both the same full house. Only a queen on the river would now decide it in Boeree’s favour, but instead it was the [6h]. Chop, chop. — HS

Liv Boeree: Missed the double up

11.25pm: Big stacks
A wander around the tournament room reveals that these four gentlement: Kenneth Kull (105,000), Nick Woodward (85,000), Sanders Jensen (115,000) and Huang Guoxun (99,000) appear to be the closest challengers to Veronika Pavlikova (130,000). — NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 500-1,000 100 ante

11.15pm: Prizes!
The abacus wires of Dusk Till Dawn are as tangled as a Slinky after a 9-year-old’s tantrum. That can only mean that the prize pool information has now been calculated.

The winner of this tournament will take £210,400, the lion’s share of a £1,137,500 prize pool. Click over to the prizepool page for full details of how this all breaks down. — HS

11.10pm:Piper and Dowling’s dreams over
Michael Piper is one of those to exit during level nine, he tweeted: “Aaaaaaand its gone, QTs < JJ on T55r. #gg ukipt, still yet to make a day 2!"

Chris Dowling is another to go, “Busted…. Folded around to the SB and he shoves, I’m in the BB with A2 and 9 bigs? Enough said really,” he tweeted. — NW

11pm: Pavlikova getting the cake
On the table nearest to us on media corner sit Veronika Pavlikova and Liv Boeree in seats one and two respectively. This is more than enough for us to keep our eye on that table and indeed Pavlikova just scooped another pot to take her stack to around 130,000.

I only saw the action live as she was scooping the pot but it seemed that she had [4h][3h] and had made a seven high straight to eliminate Krzysztof Nega who had turned a set of sevens and was saying. “I couldn’t get away from it.” The Czech may well now be chip leader. — NW

Veronika Pavlikova

10.55pm: Frazer the raiser and the chatterer
No one really wants to play for nine hours and then go home with nothing, but such will be the fate of about another 90 players tonight if the past two days are anything to go by. The tournament information board is currently showing that 204 players remain and the previous two days have ended with about 110 left. It’s not a precise science, but it seems likely to be repeated today.

Ian Frazer has been in this position on numerous previous occasions and knows how to profit from uncertainty. He also knows not to give anything of his own away at this late stage, and is using his experience judiciously on table 25 at the moment.

Folded to him on the button, Frazer opened to 1,600. Richard Dawson was the only caller, in the big blind, and they saw a [7h][qd][6c] flop. Dawson checked. Frazer bet 2,100 and now Dawson raised, making it 6,100.

Frazer asked the dealer to pull in the raise, meaning he had to cut down the chips into smaller denominations, and during the whole process Frazer was only actually staring at Dawson. Frazer then asked Dawson how much he had left, and even after Dawson pointed Frazer to his stack, his inquisitor actually only continued to look at Dawson’s face.

Frazer had seen enough and three bet, to 9,000. That put Dawson into the tank, but he opted to spend most of the time quizzing Frazer, with the usual “What have you got?” and “Will you call if I go all in?” half questions that don’t really seem to expect a response.

Frazer is always up for a chat, and his replies included, among others: “I don’t really want to go out.” “I’d have to re-evaluate.” “I’ve got a better hand than you.” And then, eventually, “Clock!”

A tournament official duly arrived, counted Dawson all the way down (during which the chatter continued) and then Dawson folded. That’s how it goes in these late stages. — HS

10.50pm: Big stacks
Both Kristian Linnell (90,000) and Huang Guoxun (99,000) are playing themselves into contention here on Day 1C. They’re two of the biggest stacks we’ve seen so far. — NW

10.40pm: Four-way pot, no action
I was hopeful I’d stumbled on a potentially explosive pot when four players on table 22 all put in 1,700 to see a flop of [4s][10s][8s]. But that was the heaviest action there was as the flop and [2c] turn were checked through, before Rowan Schaap (original raiser) bet 3,100 on the [Jd] river. Matthew Buckland decided to give him a spin, Schapp showed [Jc][6c] which was good. — NW

10.30pm: Always an ace
There’s always an ace on the flop when you don’t want one, that’s what we imagine David Gunter was thinking after he tussled in a pot with Shaun Conning.

Pre-flop Gunter made it 1,700 to go from the hi-jack, Conning raised to 4,000, Gunter made it 9,000 and Conning flat called.

The flop fell [As][3c][Qs] and Gunter bet small in comparison to the pot, just 5,800, Conning quickly moved in for about 25,000 and Gunter folded in frustration and showed [Kd][Kh] as he did so. — NW

BLINDS UP. PLAYING 400-800 IN LEVEL 9

10pm: Busting at the seams
There’s no easy way to say this, but there are so many people who have just busted in the last level that we’re going to let them tell you who they are themselves. They did, however, include: Rob Yong, David Tighe, Toby Lewis and Oliver Schaffmann.

Players are now going on a 20-minute break while the tournament officials race off the green, 25 denomination chips. They’ll return to a one-chip ante (worth 100) and blinds of 400-800.– HS

9.50pm: Dowling gets a double
According to the twitterverse, Chris Dowling has just doubled up through Jude Ainsworth. It’s always good to get both sides of the coup. Dowling said: “Doubled through @Jainsworthpoker shoved 11bb from btn with 94o which easily deals with his A9.”

The Team PokerStars Pro didn’t even dip his toes in bad beat waters simply saying. “Just doubled up @ballymorechris (Dowling). Was up to 44k got 35k now av is 31k.” — NW

9.45pm: In and out of the lead
Sanders Jansen just flickered onto our radar as a man with possibly a tournament leading stack – about 130,000. And then as we waited to watch him play a pot, he duly did. And lost about 12,000 or so.

There was about 5,000 in the pot when we arrived, and a flop of [jc][10h][8s] spread on the board. Leonidas Maroulis checked it, Jansen bet 3,200 and David Thor Runarsson ran away. Maroulis called.

The two of them check the [9d] turn, taking them to a [3d] river. Maroulis bet 5,500 and Jansen contented himself with a call. Perhaps he smelled what lurked in Maroulis’s hand: he turned over [ks][qs] for the nut straight to the king.

Jansen flipped his [ac][qc] for the smaller straight. Jansen still has about 100,000 but it’s not as good as it was a few moments before. — HS

9.35pm: Chips
Sanders Jansen with 130,000 appears to be the chip leader right now and Richard Young has 110,000.

Here’s the counts of some of the other players still plugging away on Day 1C: Paul McTaggart (76,000), Veronika Pavlikova (85,000), Paul Foltyn (17,600), Jack Ellwood (28,000), Rob Yong (19,000), Chris Brammer (36,000), Rob Angood (67,000), Keith Hawkins (37,000) and Neil Channing (12,000)
— NW

Rob Yong, owner of Dusk Till Dawn, playing today

9.20pm: A couple of exits
I caught two hands and two exits on my last lap of the cardroom that suggest pre-flop all-ins are becoming more common.

Hand One: Markus Garberg open ripped the button all-in for 15,000 with [9c][2c] and looked pretty unhappy that Daniel Robertson decided to call him with [Ac][Jh]. A board of [Ad][10d][2h][Ks][Qh] later and his day was done.

Hand Two: James Morris opened to 1,600, Gudjon Heidar Valgardsson then moved all-in for 18,100 and Morris called off the extra.

Valgardsson: [Jd][Jc]
Morris: [Ad][Kh]

The board was a cruel [6h][7s][8d][8h][Ah], it’s never nice to get done on the river. — NW

9.10pm: Spitfire display
Ever since the poker boom ignited, those folk who had taken the brave career choice to make a living out of embroidering clothing have been in clover. Previously they had to scrap it out for the honor to stitch “Raging Roy” or “The Force” into the shiny short-sleeved shirts of darts players. But these days there are any number of poker teams drawn from any number of player pools, who all need their affiliation stitched on their livery. “My House Poker Club 2009 – Team Pro” and the like.

One player in the field tonight has a somewhat more impressive bit of stitching going on. The white block capitals on the side of Lee Townsend’s cap declare him to be a member of a “Spitfire Display Team”. This conjures charming images of my colleague Stephen Bartley (a real fan of the war, like all dads) standing holding his son’s hand in a cold Farnborough field staring at Townsend buzzing overhead. (Young Master Bartley, one suspects, would likely be staring at an ice cream van.)

Lee Townsend

Townsend is clearly enjoying his afternoon on solid ground at the moment. He has about 25,000, which is OK for this stage. That said, he just lost a pot to Fraser Bellamy, who is chipping up nicely on table one.

Bellamy opened to 1,200 from under the gun and Townsend called in mid-position. Dominik Dimitrovic also called from the big blind and it was three of them to a flop of [8h][2h][4s]. Dimitrovic checked, Bellamy bet 2,000 and Townsend made it 4,000. Only Bellamy called.

That took them to a [3s] turn and after Bellamy checked, Townsend bet 3,000. Bellamy didn’t think too long before moving all in for about 20,800. Townsend snap-folded.

Bellamy will need to be careful. Townsend will be strafing his house. Or at least performing a somersault over it. — HS

9.05pm: News in brief
Here’s a few snippets for you courtesy of twitter…

- Michael Piper is up to 46,500

Chris Dowling is clinging on with 11 big blinds (6,600)

- UKIPT Dublin finalist David Docherty is on 19,000

- Jeff Kimber is on 45,000

- The average stack is 29,250

8.55pm: Back to it
And another break is in the books as players return to the fray. The tournament information board tells us that 281 are still remaining from today’s starting field of 536.

The bean counters and number crunchers are currently busy finalising, verifying, ratifying and shallowfrying the figures and we expect to have full prize pool and payout information shortly. A little bird tells me that second place this year could end up being worth more than first place was last.

This has been quite some tournament. And day one is not even over yet.

Righto, all focus. That’s means you too Jude Ainsworth.

Jude Ainsworth: focused

Reporting team in Nottingham: Howard Swains and Nick Wright. Photos by Mark Gregory.

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