Steven Morris Leads partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships £5,300 Super High Roller
The action got underway today at the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships with the £5,300 Super High Roller attracting 40 players, exactly the amount required to meet the guaranteed prizepool of £200,000.
As expected, there were plenty of big names from the poker world, with the field predominantly made up of top British pros. The quality was evident from the outset; with ten players registered before the start of play they included 2017 bracelet winner Chris Brammer and former EPT runner-up Steven Warburton.
They were soon joined by 2017 MILLIONS runner-up Jacob Mulhern, but he was eliminated before the likes of Tom Hall and Ben Winsor joined the field.
It was Brammer who lead at the first break, after scooping a huge pot against Martyn Frey with the bracelet-winner holding the nut straight.
Shortly after the break it was some overseas talent that joined the fray, with Manig Loeser and yesterday's MILLIONS Germany €10k High Roller winner Dominik Nitsche making the trip over from Rozvadov to jump into the £5,300 High Roller here at Dusk Till Dawn.
The field continued to swell as they got closer to the magic number of 40, with several players opting to make use of their single re-entry.
By the next Brammer was still in the lead, but James Mitchell would double in a huge pot against Andreas Olympios with Mitchell rivering the nut straight to beat the rivered set of tens of his opponent. This pot helped propell Mitchell towards the chip lead, which he would take hold of over the next couple of levels.
Other players continued to join the Super High Roller field, including yesterday's €10k High Roller runner-up and partypoker Ambassador Marcel Luske, and by the final break Mitchell was still in the lead.
It looked like Nitsche might be putting the pressure on the chip leader as the levels ticked by and the field shrunk to just a couple of tables. However, a short while later Nitsche was sent to the rail after running his tens into the jacks of Mitchell.
However, by the end of the day it was Steven Morris who emerged as the overall chip leader with 562,000, good enough for 80 big blinds going into Day 2.
Morris is joined by fellow big stack Luke Marsh (446,000), Chris Sly (389,500) and Ben Jackson (361,500). Long-time chip leader Mitchell is a short way back with 359,000, with another former chip leader Brammer taking 292,000 through to Day 2.
Here is how the final two tables look going into Day 2.
| Seat | Table 1 | Chip Count | Big Blinds | Table 2 | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nishid Hindocha | 264,500 | 38 | Tom Middleton | 215,000 | 31 |
| 2 | James Mitchell | 359,000 | 51 | Luke Marsh | 446,000 | 64 |
| 3 | Ben Jackson | 361,500 | 52 | Manig Loeser | 186,000 | 27 |
| 4 | Fabio Sperling | 118,000 | 17 | Steven Morris | 562,000 | 80 |
| 5 | Marcel Luske | 155,000 | 22 | Chi Zhang | 102,000 | 15 |
| 6 | Nicholas Todd | 211,000 | 30 | Chris Sly | 389,500 | 56 |
| 7 | Chris Brammer | 292,000 | 42 | Xiaoyang Luo | 338,000 | 48 |
| 8 | Empty | Empty |
Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for continuing coverage of the £5,300 Super High Roller as we play down to a winner tomorrow. We will also be bringing you live coverage of the Main Event which gets underway later this week.