Vincent Meli raised from early position and Longmao Fan moved all in from the small blind. Meli made the call and had Fan covered as players flipped their cards.
Longmao Fan: A♠10♣
Vincent Meli: 8♦8♥
The board ran out 4♣6♣Q♦5♠3♦. Meli held with his pocket eights. Fan was eliminated from the tournament in 15th place for £9,950.
Teodor Evstratiev moved all in for 1,100,000 from under the gun and Matthew Bonham called in early position as the big stack. The cards were turned on their backs.
Teodor Evstratiev: A♣K♦
Matthew Bonham: A♠Q♦
The board ran out 9♦6♥3♥Q♥3♣. Bonham paired his queen on the turn and made two pair with the threes on board. He won the pot and shook Evstratiev's hand as his opponent got up to leave the table.
Evstratiev was eliminated from the tournament in 14th place for £9,950.
Action folded around to Samuel Goodman, who shoved all in from the small blind. Niall Murray called in the big blind for around 960,000 and was the player at risk as the cards were turned.
Niall Murray: K♠9♥
Samuel Goodman: Q♠J♠
The board ran out 5♣3♦A♥4♥6♦. Neither player improved their hand and so Murray held with his king high to double up his stack. That left Goodman with just 400,000 behind.
Hand 2
A few hands later, having successfully stolen a few blinds, Goodman moved all in from under the gun for around 600,000. Alessandro Spina pushed all in over the top and the rest of the table folded, leaving two players to flip their cards.
Samuel Goodman: K♥10♦
Alessandro Spina: Q♣Q♠
The board ran out 8♥5♣A♠4♣2♦. Spina held with his pocket queens to win the pot. Goodman was eliminated from the tournament in 13th place for £11,940.
Patrice Brandt raised to 200,000 from the cutoff and Paul Tait three-bet to 1,500,000, leaving just 225,000 behind. Brandt four-bet all in with the bigger stack and Tait called for his remaining chips. Players flipped their cards, with Tait at risk.
Paul Tait: A♥9♥
Patrice Brandt: J♠J♦
The board ran out 6♦3♠Q♠8♠K♦. Brandt held with his pocket jacks to win the pot. Tait was eliminated from the tournament in 12th place for £11,940.
Action was on the turn on a board of Q♦7♠2♥9♣. Martin Donoghue shoved all in and was called by Thomas Middleton.
Martin Donoghue: Q♣5♣
Thomas Middleton: A♠Q♠
The river came the 8♥. Both players had paired their queen, but Middleton had the ace kicker to win the pot. Donogue was eliminated from the tournament in 10th place for £14,350.
Day 2 of the UK and Ireland Poker Tour 2023 Season Finale, running at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, has now concluded.
A total of 1,227 entries were made to the event across five starting flights, which gave a prize pool of £1,177,920. Of those, 185 players returned for Day 2. The field has now been whittled down to just 10 players who will return for the Final Day and compete for the top prize of £201,700.
Matthew Bonham finished as the Day 2 chip leader with 10,050,000. Bonham is a recreational player, a car trader from Peterborough who has played at Dusk Till Dawn for many years and is now looking to lock up his biggest ever cash. He's had one bullet and could potentially convert that into a six figure score.
Bonham has a 2-1 chip lead over second place Thomas Middleton, who bagged in second place with 4,835,000. Niall Murray is close behind in third place with 4,780,000.
Although the majority of UKIPT players hail from the UK, the final players in contention are a good mix of nationalities. Among them are Vincent Meli of France, Alessandro Spina of Italy, Patrice Brandt of Germany, and John Farrell of Ireland.
John Farrell
End of Day 2 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chips
1
Matthew Bonham
United Kingdom
10,050,000
2
Thomas Middleton
United Kingdom
4,835,000
3
Niall Murray
United Kingdom
4,780,000
4
Vincent Meli
France
3,460,000
5
Alessandro Spina
Italy
3,240,000
6
Patrice Brandt
Germany
2,945,000
7
John Farrell
Ireland
2,615,000
8
Jack Nolan
United Kingdom
2,250,000
9
Andrew Tuxworth
United Kingdom
1,710,000
10
Guillermo Nuez
Spain
920,000
Action resumes with the Final Day of the event, kicking off at 12 p.m. local time. Blinds resume at the 40,000/80,000 with an 80,000 big blind ante. The tournament will play down to a winner and a new UKIPT champion will be crowned by the evening.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates of the final table as the event plays down to a winner.
