Welcome to Day 1b of the Unibet UK Poker Tour London £220 Main Event at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City.
The event features a generous £50,000 guarantee, which will likely be smashed today after yesterday's Day 1a attracted a big field of 164 entrants to get nearly two-thirds the way there.
Day 1a witnessed a total of 28 survivors or about 17 percent of the field. United Kingdom's James Mitchell (390,000) and Nicholas Secker (385,000) were neck and neck on the top of yesterday's leaderboard.
Also bagging more than 300,000 yesterday were Mark O'Callaghan (351,000) and Artan Dedusha (329,000).
The Main Event is a deep-stacked affair with players starting off with 30,000 in chips and blinds increasing every 30 minutes during the first three opening flights on March 5-7 and increase every 15 minutes during the turbo Day 1d on March 7.
| Date | Time | Tournament |
|---|---|---|
| March 5 | 6:00 p.m. | £220 Main Event Day 1a |
| March 6 | 6:00 p.m. | £220 Main Event Day 1b |
| March 7 | 1:00 p.m. | £220 Main Event Day 1c |
| 6:00 p.m. | £220 Main Event Day 1d Turbo | |
| March 8 | 1:00 p.m. | £220 Main Event Final Day |
| 4:00 p.m. | Deep Stack Turbo Side Event |
Players are entitled to two re-entries during the first 12 blind levels of each flight, giving them plenty of chances to build a monster stack. In addition, players can continue to play additional opening flights after bagging chips with the tournament allowing players to move their best stack forward to Day 2.
Players bagging chips during the opening flights will return for one final day on March 8 when a winner will be eventually crowned.
Each opening flight will play 16 blind levels starting at 100/100 with 15-minute breaks scheduled after every four blind levels.
| Level | Big Blind | Small Blind | Big Blind Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 100 | |
| 2 | 100 | 200 | |
| 3 | 100 | 200 | 200 |
| 4 | 200 | 300 | 300 |
| 5 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 6 | 300 | 500 | 500 |
| 7 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 8 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 9 | 500 | 1000 | 1000 |
| 10 | 600 | 1200 | 1200 |
| 11 | 800 | 1600 | 1600 |
| 12 | 1000 | 2000 | 2000 |
| 13 | 1500 | 2500 | 2500 |
| 14 | 1500 | 3000 | 3000 |
| 15 | 2000 | 4000 | 4000 |
| 16 | 2500 | 5000 | 5000 |
Three Unibet Poker Ambassadors in Dara O'Kearney, David Lappin, and Espen Jorstad (pictured below) are in London for the event. O'Kearney and Lappin were both in action yesterday but failed to find a bag. Jorstad shared that he will likely play his first bullet on Saturday's Day 1c, while it is up in the air whether O'Kearney or Lappin get back into action today or tomorrow.
Cards will be in the air for Day 1b of the Main Event at 6 p.m. GMT. Stay tuned at PokerNews as we provide you all the action from the beginning to the end of the Unibet UK Poker Tour London £220 Main Event.
