Ireland's David Lappin has seen his stack dwindle to around the 10 big blind mark and is now firmly in the all-in or fold territory. Just now he did the former and pushed his stack into the middle from his seat under the gun.
His opponents folded one-by-one to the big blind who announced, "I have serious kicker problems" and open-folded . Lappin survived.
Adam Christian has doubled through Chris Moneymaker as Day 1a draws to a close, but Moneymaker is still nicely stacked with 200,000 chips.
Christian was all-in for 33,800 with and Moneymaker was racing against him with the . The queens remained the best hand through the five community cards, which ran , improving Christian to a full house on the river and earning him a timely double-up.
Thursday was not only the first day of October, it was also the first of two starting flights in the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Isle of Man Main Event. A total of 100 unique entrants (and 11 reentries) exchanged £400+£40 for 25,000 tournament chips and the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of former Isle of Man champions Duncan McLellan and Josh Hart, and by the time a dozen 45-minute levels were completed only 32 of those players had chips that needed bagging and tagging.
Nobody bagged up as many chips as Adrian Filiczkowski, who ended Day 1a of the UKIPT Isle of Man with a stack worth 247,600. Filiczkowski won a massive pot during Level 9 that saw him move all in on a board with the and was called by Marc Hunter and his . That hand propelled the Pole to 230,000 chips and he stayed atop the chip counts for the rest of the night.
Other players who will be happy with their performance, or at least their end-of-day chip count, include Tem PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker (188,70), Paren Arzoomanian (184,100), Phillip Corion (170,400), and Dara O’Kearney (133,500). Each of those players have got off to a great start in the Main Event and will return to the fray on Saturday afternoon for Day 2 of the tournament.
Also through to Day 2 are Daragh Davey (88,100), Senh Ung (73,900), David Lappin (33,000), Team PokerStars Sport Star Fatima Moreira de Melo (30,400), and Christin Maschmann (18,300).
One of the more well-known players who fell on Day 1a was team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano. The Italian grinder, who has cashed more times than any other player on the European Poker Tour (EPT), fell at the hands of Davey, who was the Player of the Year during UKIPT Season 4. A short-stacked Pagano was all-in with what turned out to be the and was called in three spots, one of which was Davey. The three active players checked down the board and Davey’s sent Pagano to the sidelines.
Pagano can reenter on Day 1b along with the likes of David Lloyd, Jennifer Shahade, David Clarkson, Deboarah Worley-Roberts, Kelly Saxby, Luke Staudemaier and Simon Trumper, who all fell by the wayside at various points of the day.
Should those Day 1a casualties choose to take another bite at the UKIPT Isle of Man cherry they will do so in the company of team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody and Liv Boeree, who are confirmed to start their quest for glory on Friday afternoon.
Join the PokerNews live reporting team from 12:00 p.m. UK time on Friday for all of the action from Day 1b of the UKIPT Isle of Man Main Event. While you wait, take a tour of the Isle of Man.