Sam MacDonald leads UKIPT Edinburgh

Sam MacDonald has taken the Day 1 lead in a UKIPT Main Event for the third time this year, and is hoping that Edinburgh proves “third time lucky” for the player who led in Nottingham and Cork only to finish 26th and 14th respectively in each event.

Sam´s overnight stack of 225,000 eclipses that of Day 1a leader, Haitao “Colin” Wu, and sets him up nicely for Day 2 – with a 50,000 chip advantage over other Edinburgh Day 1b achievers Alan Barnes (172,000) and Brazilian professional poker player Bernardo Da Silveira Dias (144,000).

Following “Risky´s” Footsteps

Sam will be hoping that history repeats itself in Edinburgh, as last year´s winner – Nick Abu Risk – was also the chip leader at this stage. Nick was unable to repeat that feat this year due to constantly being drawn on tough tables (at one point against both Neil Channing and Jesse May), but remains in a good shape to challenge for what will be his third UKIPT crown in this short series.

Both players will face strong challenges over the weekend from other previous UKIPT Main Event winners Max Silver (who last year won UKIPT Dublin and made the final table at UKIPT Edinburgh), Richard Sinclair (who won UKIPT Newcastle in June) and Sam Razavi (winner of UKIPT Cork in May), as well as UKIPT Leadboard “leader” Chris Dowling and the poker player with the most UKIPT cashes in the event´s history – Rupinder Bedi.

A Bigger Field for Day 1b

As is usual with UKIPT Main Events, a larger number of players joined the fray on Day 1b. 273 players had qualified or paid the £500.00 + £60.00 buy-in to take their seats in Friday´s action – joining the 246 who played on Thursday – and creating a prize pool of £251,715. 63 of the 147 players who remain in the event which concludes on Sunday, with the lucky winner taking home a first prize of £61,500.

Among those who we will not be seeing over the weekend are Neil Channing, Jude Ainsworth, Victoria Coren and JP Kelly, who all endured a miserable day, but 33 PokerStars qualifiers remain in contention and will be dreaming of catching Sam MacDonald when Day 2 starts later today. Sam may have his own plans about that!

Chip Leaders and Selected Stacks UKIPT Edinburgh Day 1b