Alex Luz Leads After partypoker UK Poker Championships Starting Days
It was a jam-packed day of action at Dusk Till Dawn Casino as a total of 389 players came together for Day 1c of the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships £1,100 Main Event, eclipsing the total for both of yesterday's flights. Day 1d started yesterday as well and saw 375 entries made, making for a massive day in Nottingham.
Day 1c Action
By the time the first level of the day was barely halfway done, there were already more players than in either of yesterday's flights. It was a sign of things to come, with several big names either entering or trying another time to make it through to Day 2 and lock up a share of the £1,000,000 GTD prize pool.
The likes of Christian Thiry, Martyn Frey, Tom Middleton, Andrew Garland and Guy Taylor were back for more, with Nicolas Le Floch, Kelly Saxby, Tobias Mathaess, and partypoker Ladies Ambassador Louise Butler joining for the first time.
Just like yesterday, there was early action. Gary Spinks got in Kings against the Aces of Tyler Goatcher on the very first hand and was eliminated. Tom Middleton's stack was also booming after eliminating a player, but after faltering both Goatcher and Middleton were sent to the rail.
They were joined by Thiry, Saxby, Sander van Wesemael and Ben Winsor on the rail. 2017 MILLIONS UK winner Maria Lampropoulos visited but was eliminated before she could make more than a fleeting impression on this particular Main Event.
As is customary, the big stacks did begin to emerge, but there were no huge confrontations to "create" a chip leader such was the case with Adam Neal at the end of Day 1a.
In the end, it was Laurie who saw off competition from a cluster of players to grab the outright chip lead with 891,000. He will still have some ground to make up on others on Day 2, but from the 98 players advancing from Day 1c, he is best placed.
Day 1d Action
With play concluded on Day 1d of the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships £1,100 Main Event it brings to an end all of the starting flights over the last two days. Tomorrow, the players will take their stacks into Day 2 here at Dusk Till Dawn Cardroom and Casino.
The 5 pm flight was the fourth and final opportunity for players to qualify for Day 2 and the popularity of the flight showed in its entry total.
Day 1d produced a total of 375 registrations and combined with Day 1c's 389 there was a total of 764 entries into the Main Event today. A full total and prize pool information will be posted before the start of play tomorrow.
109 players have progressed from Day 1d with the unofficial Day 2 chip-leader Alex Luz bagging a considerable stack of, 1,181,500. He overtakes Day 1b leader Ludovic Geilich (1,028,000). Paul Skipper (863,000), Andrew Garland (845,000) and Steven Adleigh (719,500) are also amongst the biggest stacks to emerge from Day 1d.
Kelly Saxby (370,000), Maria Lampropulos (301,000), Luke Marsh (575,000), Daniel Clark (362,000), and Michael Chi Zhang (251,000) are other notable names to make it through.
Phil Mighall, Charlie Godwin, Sander van Wesemael, Hannah Swales, Ben Shannon and Russell Betts were just a few names to be eliminated during the 12 40-minute levels.
Regarding action, Kelly Saxby's stack came largely down to her winning an all in with pocket-jacks against the ace-king of Nathan Farnaby. The players got all of their chips into the middle preflop after Saxby had called a five-bet jam from Farnaby. The queen-three-six-deuce-ten board was enough for her to hold and propel her chip-count.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships beginning with Day 2 starting tomorrow at 12 pm. You can find all the live updates in the PokerNews Live Reporting section.
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
