The players are on a well-earned 40-minute dinner at the 888Live Main Event after eight 30-minute levels. There are 163 entries and 122 players remain.

The entertainment started early when an 888 Bad Beat can with a miniature of vodka inside was broken out as one unlucky player had his aces cracked by a pair of eights that flopped a set.

A rather more enjoyable spot prize, a pair of wireless Sony speakers, was won at the end of level 2 when Adrian Nunez Paradelo made a full house with 8s5s on a final board of 4d5c8cks8h.

In the middle of the third level Kara Scott’s husband, poker pro Giovanni Rizzo, entered the tournament and drew the seat directly to Kara’s right to her delight and horror in equal measure. The fun would only last for a level though as new tables filled up and Scott was moved with instructions from Rizzo to, “Take it down.”

Rizzo appeared to be running over the table in the early levels but lost a few pots and faced a tough decision right at the break, letting his hand and a big pot go to end on around 35,000 chips.

Scott got to the break on a similar stack of 35,000 while UK poker pro Rupert Elder has dipped just below starting stack and has 20,000.

Martin White, one of the 888poker qualifier’s guests, has got off to a storming start and has 170,000 while the average is 33,471. “I hit three sets and a full house in five hands, easy game.” White said with a modest grin on his face as he headed off to the complimentary buffet.

When play resumes there will be another six levels to go before the surviving players bag up their chips at close to 2am.

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