Blue Square's Jonathan Raab posts the second of his diaries from Newcastle

Leg 5, Newcastle, Day 2

Just 59 players made it through to day two of the tournament and it was James Akenhead who led the field on 106,000 chips. Pete Linton and Mick McCloskey were not far behind on 93,000 and 89,000 respectively. Other player making a day two appearance included 2007 WSOP final tablist Jon 'Skalie' Kalmar and Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins. Keith exited early on in the day while Jon made it about half way through the day. Mick McCloskey took an early chip lead after taking out exuberant local Paul Donaghey, but Mick did not last until the dinner break after a series of hands that saw his stack depleted.

Still in the hunt today were two players who had qualified online through freerolls. Cheryl Routledge won the Inside Poker magazine freeroll, while Dave Allan won the Poker Player magazine freeroll. Both defeated over 700 players to win their seat in this event and with two tables left, both were still there.

Peter Smithson was the unfortunate player to hit the bubble, exiting in 19th place, just one place short of the money. Pete Linton, who finished in ninth place in Manchester went on a veritable roller coaster ride throughout the day, but his challenge was derailed by James Akenhead whose A-Q was too good for Pete's pocket deuces.

There are no players left who have previously won GUKPT main events and only Ganesh Rao has previously made a final table on the tour. At the time of writing there are just ten players left and James Akenhead is the chip leader with a monster stack of 470,000, almost a quarter of the chips in play. Tomorrow's final table should be good.

Jonathan Raab
Saturday 17th May, 2007

Other Entries for Newcastle 2008

Newcastle 08 day 1 Please click here
Newcastle 08 Final Day Please click here