The action started with a cutoff raise to 40,000 by Julien Sitbon and Henrik Hecklen pushed for the last 240,000 in the small blind. Sitbon asked for a count and came along.
Henrik Hecklen:
Julien Sitbon:
The flop came and Sitbon said "that's a good start" to which Hecklen asked for a nine on the turn. Instead, the appeared but Hecklen still had plenty of outs at his disposal. The river was another blank as the paired the board to eliminate Hecklen in 19th place for £4,477.
The action commenced with an open raise by Lorenc Boci and Paul Trotter then shipped it in for the 290,000 he had behind from two seats over. Boci went into the tank for one and a half minutes and then made the call.
Paul Trotter:
Lorenc Boci:
The kicker played a pivotal role on the board to end Trotter's run in 18th place. He collects £4,477 for the efforts and all remaining 17 players will aim to play another 50 minutes until bagging and tagging for the night.
Alexander Zeligman slow-played a big hand and that back-fired in a big way. With just a medium-sized pot to the river, he checked and then snap-called a bet worth 330,000 by Joshua Boulton. The latter tabled the for a flush and Zeligman mucked the for aces and sixes.
One hand later, James Rann raised to 50,000 in the cutoff and Dongze Hao called on the button, Zeligman called all-in out of the small blind for 35,000.
Rann led the flop for 60,000 and Hao called. The turn and river were checked and Rann turned over for a straight. Zeligman was ousted with the and Hao's were exposed only briefly.
The remaining 16 players will now redraw to the final two tables and some 26 minutes remain at the current blinds.
Out of a field of 645 entries, only 16 players from seven different countries are still in contention to become the 2022 PokerStars UKIPT London £1,100 Main Event champion. The lion's share of the £619,200 prize pool will be up for grabs when a winner is crowned on Sunday, April 10, 2022.
Best positioned to win the first UKIPT Main Event in nearly five and a half years is the UK's Joshua Boulton with a stack of 3,350,000. He is well ahead of the next contender after pulling away of the pack once the final two tables were set. Julien Sitbon sits in second place with 2,385,000 in chips followed by fellow Frenchman Antoine Saout with 2,185,000.
London resident Alexios Zervos also resides in the overnight top five with 1,580,000 and Dongze Hao follows right behind with 1,535,000. According to the table chat, Hao mentioned that he has been playing cash games for many years but this event is just his second tournament ever.
Most of the hopefuls are hailing from the UK and that also includes the former EPT Main Event finalist Kully Sidhu and PokerStars ambassador Ben Spragg. They navigated through the final stages with shorter stacks and finished with 840,000 and 540,000 respectively.
Ben Spragg is among the 16 finalists
Seat Assignments for the Final Day
Seat
Table 1
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Rickie Vedhara
United Kingdom
1,315,000
44
2
Alexios Zervos
Greece
1,580,000
53
3
Liudas Didenka
Lithuania
345,000
12
4
Ben Spragg
United Kingdom
540,000
18
5
Lukas Dimsa
Lithuania
890,000
30
6
Lorenc Boci
Albania
810,000
27
7
Julien Sitbon
France
2,385,000
80
8
Antoine Saout
France
2,185,000
73
Seat
Table 2
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
James Rann
United Kingdom
905,000
30
2
Joshua Boulton
United Kingdom
3,350,000
112
3
Kully Sidhu
United Kingdom
840,000
28
4
Dongze Hao
China
1,535,000
51
5
Ben Slack
United Kingdom
970,000
32
6
Sorin Pruteanu
Romania
735,000
25
7
Michael Ramiro
United Kingdom
320,000
11
8
Robert Boon
United Kingdom
590,000
20
The penultimate tournament day started with 128 hopefuls all aiming to secure a min-cash of at least £1,684 for their efforts. It didn't take long to get to the money as the bubble was reached within the first two levels. Among those to bow out until then were the £2,200 High Roller champion Jack O'Neill, Sylvain Loosli, Kevin Allen, David Docherty, and Antoine Labat.
For team PokerStars, the bad fortune struck several times as four of the six red spade representatives came up short of the payouts. Parker Talbot ran bad early on and bowed out against Alexios Zervos when his dominated ace was only good on the flop. Steve Enriquez followed shortly after and PokerStars Senior Twitch & Ambassadors Associate failed to get there when nursing a short stack. Two away from the money, Ido Alon ran with queens into the kings of Alexander Zeligman.
On the money bubble itself, local regular Antonis "Tony" Poulengeris stuck his last three and a half blinds in from the cutoff with ten-nine suited and ended up second-best to the queen-nine of initial raiser Antoine Saout. This set the stage for a frantic period in which the all-in showdowns kept coming every other minute.
Notable casualties in the final stages of the night included Yucel "Mad Turk" Eminoglu, Ori Hasson, and Henrik Hecklen. Zeligman then came up short of the final two tables when his slow-played aces were flushed away by Joshua Boulton's king-nine suited and he bowed out in the next hand. No more elimination took place and the sweet sixteen then wrapped up for the night.
The action on the final day will continue at noon local time with blinds of 15,000-30,000 and a big blind ante of 30,000. Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who will lift the title at the iconic Hippodrome Casino in the heart of London.
and Sitbon said "that's a good start" to which Hecklen asked for a nine on the turn. Instead, the 
appeared but Hecklen still had plenty of outs at his disposal. The river was another blank as the 
paired the board to eliminate Hecklen in 19th place for £4,477.
board to end Trotter's run in 18th place. He collects £4,477 for the efforts and all remaining 17 players will aim to play another 50 minutes until bagging and tagging for the night.
for a flush and Zeligman mucked the 
flop for 60,000 and Hao called. The 
turn and 
were exposed only briefly.
