Mark Lane leads at the end of Day 1b of the UKIPT Isle of Man with a stack of 165,300. He is followed by Simon Fuller in second place (127,100) and Sam Grafton who made a late surge to end up third with 127,000.
There were 267 players who entered today bringing the total number of players for the first ever PokerStars event on the Isle of Man to 381. This was the day that the Team PokerStars Pros came out in force making it a tough field, possibly one of the toughest the UKIPT has ever seen over the last four seasons.
There were nervous glances as one by one the Team Pros entered and went in search of their tables. For some of the qualifiers it’s a dream to have the likes of two-time player of the year Daniel Negreanu sit at your table, for others a nightmare.
It wasn’t to be Negreanu’s day though, missing a succession of draws and coming up against stronger hands, by the start of level 3 he had just over five big blinds. He managed to double up but was unluckily dispatched several minutes later when he got it in with 
against Stephen Woodhead's 
. A nine sealed his fate and Kid Poker made an unusually early exit.
One table looked particularly tough, featuring PokerStars Pro Fatima De Melo, PokerStars Team Online Pro Ike Haxton, Full Tilt Ambssador Sin Melin and John Eames. A PokerStars qualifier from Ireland, Tomasz Raniszewski, was the meat in that particular sandwich and though he initially held his own they gradually whittled him down.
Overall it was a good showing from Team PokerStars but many did not make it through the day, including Haxton, his fellow Team Online player Felix Schneiders as well as Team Pros David Williams and Vanessa Rousso. Unfortunately Jason Mercier, who hadn’t been feeling well all day, couldn’t carry on playing after a few hours and had to retire.
Those who will be back for day 2 though include Liv Boeree (59,400), Fatima De Melo (31,100), Leo Margets (30,700), Jake Cody (14,300), Dale Philip (7,700) and Full Tilt Poker Tour Ambassadors Sin Melin (47,300) and Ben Jenkins (26,100).
Barry Greenstein played a patient game and was getting short stacked when his patience paid off getting a double up with aces. Greenstein finished the day on 53,600.
The other Full Tilt Poker Tour Ambassador here today, Martins Adeniya, got fortunate when he took an aggressive line against Chihao Tsang’s nines but survived and ended the day on 30,300.
The prize pool has now been confirmed with 55 places being paid and the winner walking away with the title and a cool £94,090.
The players will be dressing up and making a bee line for the Official Halloween Party at Tahiko Nightclub to dance the night away before returning tomorrow promptly at noon when the action kicks off again. Be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team for all the latest developments, up to date chip counts and exclusive interviews.
