GUKPT Brighton Day 1B  -  By Poker Boss

A fullsome group of 147 players gatherered together to fight it out for the right to make the latter stages of the first leg of this year's GUKPT, held at the Brighton Grosvenor Casino. Last year's champion and dedicated hat wearer Dave Smith was in attendance, although he wasn't able to emulate his achievement this year, as he was eliminated in the early stages.

The mercurial Alli Mallu made the early running for the chip lead, although his tilt at the title ended when his straight couldn't hold versus a set. Flamboyant high stakes pro Dave "Dubai" Shallow accumulated chips steadily, holding the chip lead for much of the tournament, and was in close touch with the leaders when play ended for the day. Roberts Cowen and Michael Fletcher stayed close to the top of the leaderboard all day and a big final push from both propelled them into the first two spots once the dust had settled with 108k and 97k apiece.

Still present are former winner and UK poker luminary Dave 'ElBlondie' Colclough, who despite passing under the radar most of the day, was left bubbling over nicely at the finish on just over 30k. Things are heating up nicely and day 2 promises to contain some scintillating poker as the players vie for the right to appear at the final table and compete for the tantalising prize money of close to £300,000. Only time will tell who will be crowned the new Brighton Champion.

Updates courtesy of the blonde live Update Team