blonde poker

day1b report from www.pokerstarsblog.com

Day two always seems to be a tougher field yet players always clamour to sign themselves up for it. Is it that rest day inbetween that they don't want? The extra day of expenses? Whatever it is we he had 143 players enter today, some 27 more than day 1a, making a total of 259 runners for this inaugural £1,000 UKIPT Brighton main event. The young guns and pros turned up in their droves creating some absolutely filthy table draws with the likes of Team PokerStars Pros Jude Ainsworth, Vicky Coren and Julian Thew, well known faces such as Neil Channing, Liam Flood, Fintan Gavin, Joe Grech, as well as the online brigade of Toby Lewis, Chris Brammer, John Eames and EPT Deauville winner Jake Cody. Not all were destined to make it through the day though.


Julian Thew was crippled halfway through the day in a set over set situation while Jude Ainsworth's Kings met their demise at the hands of Chris Brammer's pocket Aces. Their remaining team mate, Vicky Coren, finished the day on 27,300. It was a little below average but considering her recent return from Las Vegas, and the fact that she was bumped from table to table more times than can be healthy, her day end finish was a very credible one. Fellow Vic regular Neil Channing fared a little better though and on a high from his second place finish in a WSOP event stateside he finished the day on 74,500 and is a definite threat in this live setting.


Our day 1b chipleader is Oliver Schaffmann (109,900), a German national that lives in Aberdeen, who is used to the UKIPT limelight having finished runner-up to Andrew Couldridge in Nottingham. Schaffmann, a man with perhaps the widest smile in the poker world, couldn't quite top Joe Drummy's 117,500 stack from day 1a. Following Schaffmann were Amir Zahir (79,200), Waseem Ahmed (79,100), Daniel Rudd (77,000) and Sam El Sayed (76,500). Couldridge is also still in but is dragging his feet with just 8,000 but has the support of his son, Nicholas Couldridge, who is also in with 24,000. It's the first UKIPT day two father and son act we're aware of.


Joe Drummy will come back tomorrow as the overall chipleader but the 20-year old has a hoard of solid players on his tail. Some who have proved themselves here on the PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour others from further afield. Liam Flood comes back with 72,800 and will be keen to put memories of Killarney far behind him where he lost a huge tournament shifting flip against eventual winner Femi Fakinle.

The UKIPT Leaderboard has also been thrown wide open with frontrunner Mike Hill (141.5 points) taking a fall towards the end of the day leaving second place Chris Brammer (128.75), fourth place Marius Lietuvninkas (122), fifth place Owen Robinson (111.1) and eighth place Rupinder Bedi (95.1) all very much in the hunt for precious points as well as a cash finish. The top three UKIPT Leaderboard finishers will all bag juicy prizes with the champ winning buy-ins and accommodation to all UKIPT Season 2 events. This may have made been a major factor in Lietuvninkas' thoughts when he folded kings face-up to Malte Prosse after being four-bet in a cut-off/button battle. Lietuvninkas had three-bet to 1,750 from the button and Prosse re-popped it to just over 5,000. Lietuvninkas passed to many astounded looks.

Join us on Saturday from noon where the remaining 104 players will battle through towards the money and the very first UKIPT Brighton final table.