£1,100 Main Event
Day 1a Completed
£1,100 Main Event
Day 1a Completed
The return of the PokerStars United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) to London is off to an excellent start. After 153 entries in the £2,200 High Roller set a new record for the iconic Hippodrome Casino in the English capital the day prior, the marquee £1,100 Main Event followed right into the footsteps with a solid turnout on the first of three starting days.
A total of 191 entries on Day 1a generated a prize pool so far and an even bigger field is expected for the second regular starting day, which follows on Friday, April 8, as of noon local time. Upon completion of 13 levels of 50 minutes each, it was Ben Slack who topped the leaderboard. He was certainly not slacking in the last two levels as he scored a double through Antoine Saout before knocking out Shay Salih to bag and tag 479,500.
Close behind on the leaderboard is Alberto Speranzoni with 465,000 while London resident Alexios Zervos (425,000) follows in third place. Above average stacks also belong to Ori Hasson, Youness Barakat, Alex Jennings and Gary Miller.
Four PokerStars ambassadors also entered Day 1a and two of them made it through in Sam Grafton and Parker Talbot. After he found no joy on the first bullet, Talbot re-entered and became a short stack before securing multiple double-ups to advance with 198,000. The start for Grafton was much better but he needed a late surge to follow just behind Talbot on the leaderboard with 193,000 in chips.
Steve Enriquez and Benjamin Spragg were not as fortunate, as both were among the many notable casualties throughout the day. Enriquez was caught bluffing while Spragg's flopped trips sevens was no good when he ran into the full house of Denas Pranaitis. Both of them are expected to join the action once more on either Day 1b or the Turbo Heat 1c, in which Ramon Colillas shall also appear as well. The Spaniard was on the final table of the £2,200 High Roller and didn't jump into the £1,100 High Roller after his elimination.
As far as notable casualties on Day 1a were concerned, they included the likes of Alex Goulder, Kully Sidhu, Andy Wilson, David Lopez Llacer, Dan Wilson, Antoine Labat, Brandon Sheils, PokerStars Live at the Hippodrome Pro Chris Da-Silva, David Docherty, Matthew Davenport, and poker commentator Joe Stapleton, among others.
Most of them will very likely be back in action in the remaining two starting flights. Day 1b with 50-minute levels kicks off at noon local time while the Turbo Day 1c with 30-minute levels follows as of 6pm local time. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide as many of the key hands as possible for the first UKIPT stop since November 2016.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Ben Slack
|
479,500 | |
Alberto Speranzoni | 465,000 | -25,000 |
Alexios Zervos | 425,000 | 10,000 |
Jen-Yue Chiang | 418,500 | 198,500 |
Ori Hasson
|
318,000 | 108,000 |
Youness Barakat | 272,500 | |
Alex Jennings | 245,000 | 40,000 |
Danny Pyke | 226,000 | 1,000 |
Joseph Lalor | 212,000 | -33,000 |
Gary Miller | 209,500 | 34,500 |
Parker Talbot | 198,000 | -32,000 |
Sam Grafton | 193,000 | 123,000 |
Thomas Rauhut | 177,500 | 127,500 |
Sandro Burkhard | 171,000 | |
Mauricio Ferreira Pais | 169,000 | 44,000 |
Denas Pranaitis | 166,500 | 26,500 |
Conor O'Driscoll | 150,000 | |
Victor Ilyukhin Sr | 130,000 | |
Nikolay Ponomarev | 110,500 | -29,500 |
Dongze Hao | 109,500 | 54,500 |
Tal Afek
|
107,500 | |
Benjamin Lehrer | 106,000 | 88,000 |
Dean Clay | 105,000 | 62,000 |
Yucel Eminoglu | 104,000 | |
Hon Ban Lee | 86,000 | 31,000 |
Ben Slack soared to the top of the leaderboard when he scored a knockout in the final hands of the night. In the meanwhile, Savvas Mitsikouridis, Oliver Price and Emrah Yildiz all departed to reduce the field to the last 31 contenders.
In the last hand of the night, Tal Afek raised to 6,500 and Yucel Eminoglu three-bet to 22,000. Afek then jammed for 79,500 and Eminoglu went into the tank. He mentioned in chat he held pocket jacks and folded the face up. "I would hate if you showed nines or tens," Eminoglu had said during his monologue and Alex Jennings then joked to Afek to show his cards.
"I can't show," Afek replied with a big grin, hinting at his very specific holdings.
The final chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Ben Slack
|
479,500 | 199,500 |
Tal Afek
|
107,500 | 45,500 |
Yucel Eminoglu | 104,000 | 9,000 |
Savvas Mitsikouridis | Busted | |
Emrah Yildiz | Busted | |
Oliver Price | Busted |
During the final hands of the night, Youness Barakat check-raised the flop from 6,500 to 17,000 and Conor O'Driscoll then clicked it back to 35,000 for Barakat to call. The turn was checked and Barakat bet the on the river for 58,000.
O'Driscoll went deep into the tank and Danny Pyke called the clock on him eventually. The floor staff arrived and asked if there had been sufficient time, to which Pyke joked "yeah he had 50 minutes." The thirty seconds ran down and O'Driscoll called within the last two seconds to get shown the for a set, which ended up as the winning hand.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Youness Barakat | 272,500 | 122,500 |
Conor O'Driscoll | 150,000 | -225,000 |
Former chip leader Danny Pyke stopped the bleeding and recovered some chips when he knocked out David Sakhai. They got it in after the turn on which Pyke tabled while Sakhai had a flush draw with . The river brought no help to Sakhai and he was ousted in the final stages of the night.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Danny Pyke | 225,000 | 50,000 |
David Sakhai
|
Busted |
The Day 1a field is down to the last 35 players and the latest trio to run out of chips included Makoto Yoshimichi, Mantas Urbonas, and Patrick Beuter. All of them were left with shorter stacks as of lately and will have to return for one of the remaining two flights if they wish to advance to Day 2.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Makoto Yoshimichi | Busted | |
Mantas Urbonas | Busted | |
Patrick Beuter | Busted |
Denas Pranaitis is no longer the chip leader but he recovered some chips after winning a flip against Adam Miller. The latest showdown saw Miller at risk with the while Pranaitis had the . No paint appeared on the board and that spelled the end for Miller.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Alberto Speranzoni | 490,000 | 330,000 |
Denas Pranaitis | 140,000 | -120,000 |
Adam Miller | Busted |
Shay Salih raised and then called all-in for the last 51,000 when Joseph Lalor pushed all-in with the far bigger stack from one seat over.
Shay Salih:
Joseph Lalor:
The flop propelled Salih into the lead, which he kept throughout the turn and river.
Soon after, Antoine Saout was all-in for very few chips and earned three callers. On the flop, Salih checked and so did Lalor. Alexios Zervos bet 7,500 and Salih folded, Lalor check-raised to 30,000 and Zervos came along.
The turn and river were checked for Zervos to flip over . Lalor had that beat with and Saout's were only briefly exposed. Zervos was left with the head shaking after seeing the cards of Lalor but remains the biggest stack at the table, which no longer contains Alex Goulder.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Alexios Zervos | 415,000 | 160,000 |
Joseph Lalor | 245,000 | -85,000 |
Shay Salih
|
110,000 | -35,000 |
Alex Goulder | Busted | |
Antoine Saout
|
Busted |
Chipped down to very few blinds, Dan Wagner got it in with the and was looked up by fellow short stack Patrick Beuter with the . The board improved Beuter to queens and deuces, ending Wagner's run in the last level of the night.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Patrick Beuter | 45,000 | 12,500 |
Dan Wagner | Busted |