When the final hand on table 1 began, there were nine minutes left on the Day 3 clock. By the time James Williams had folded to Patrice Brandt the level had ended and the day was complete.
Brandt raised to 300,000 from early position and Williams three-bet from the cutoff to 800,000, which Brandt called.
A continuation bet of 750,000 came from Williams on the flop, and again Germany's Brandt called.
Brandt checked once more, and Williams checked behind on the turn before Brandt led for a massive 2,340,000 on the river.
Williams thought through his decision for close to five minutes, talking himself through possible hand combinations that Brandt could hold.
"We can't see the hand after can we?!, there is no live stream here." Williams joked to himself.
With the clock down to 00:00 and the bags ready for the end of day chip count, Williams let his hand go. Several players on the table questioned Brandt and suggested possible hands that he might have held, but the German remained silent and smiled as he counted his chips for the final time in Day 3.
Heading into the final day of the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships £1,100 Main Event there are just 13 players still remaining, all vying for the £187.500 first prize, and they are led once again by Daniel Morgan with 14,320,000.
Morgan was the clear chip leader at the start of the day and he managed to hold onto it through ten 60-minute levels, despite competition from Patrice Brandt (12,280,000), £5,300 Super High Roller winner Steven Morris (11,160,000) and Daniel Charlton (10,020,000). These four are the only players over 10m and will be best placed when play resumes tomorrow at 12 midday.
Morgan steadily accumulated chips throughout the day and never looked in danger of being sucked back into any fight for survival. The back-to-back chipleader is heavily tipped to go deep in this tournament and be in the mix for the outright win after such a dominant display today.
Day 3 recap
Coming into the day it was Daniel Morgan who held the chip lead with over five million chips, and as early as the first level Morgan was in action and extending his chip lead over the other players still in the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships £1,100 Main Event.
There were several players vying to end Morgan’s hold on the chip lead including Ali Ayub, who sent Malcolm McKinlay to the rail in the first level; Alex Harrison, who came into the day second in chips; and Patrice Brandt, who eliminated 2017 bracelet-winner Chris Brammer when Brammer ran queens into Brandt’s kings.
But there was no stopping Morgan. He eliminated Matthew Eardley in the second level of the day to increase his stack to over seven million. Just when Tomasz Raniszewski appeared to be cutting the gap, Morgan moved up to eight million as the players went on the first break of the day.
By the next break he would increase that to almost eleven million, but the sharks were starting to circle. £5,300 Super High Roller winner Steven Morris was still hanging around, as was fellow Super High Roller final tablist Chris Sly.
€50,000 Super High Roller winner Michael Chi Zhang was eliminated shortly before the third break of the day, when his ace-nine was cracked by the king-nine of Brandt who, having eliminated Brammer, had failed to kick on. Nevertheless, the German was well-placed as the day went on.
There was some change at the top of the counts at the next break, with the elimination of Zhang helping Morris to overtake Morgan in the standings, with the pair the only players on eight-figure stacks.
The last woman standing Emma Tolley made it to the final three tables but was eliminated at the hands of Morris. Meanwhile, Morgan’s run was seemingly ending; handing chips to Frame among others, before the elimination of Ben Vinson in the penultimate level of the day returned him to eight-figures. It was a tussle between the Day 2 chip leader and Morris all the way to the end of the day. Eventually, Morgan emerged on top again to remain in pole position.
The 13 remaining players will return at noon local time on Sunday, February 25, and play down until the winner is crowned. Action will resume in level 31 with blinds at 80,000/160,000 and a 160,000 button ante. Follow PokerNews throughout the day for all the excitement from the Dusk till Dawn casino in Nottingham as the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships Main Event reaches its conclusion.