Day 1A saw a surprisingly fulsome 88-strong field arrive at the Hippodrome to take their shot at tournament glory and when the day had drawn to a close, it was Frenchman Julien Rouxel who led the 27-remaining players with a mighty stack of 174,200.

12 whip-sharp 30 minute levels ensured the 25,000 stacks the players started with were soon shredded and redistributed - players busting out with great regularity throughout the day.

Some interesting stories developed along the way. The field was largely male dominated although the two ladies who did buy-in - Spaniard Cayetana Pastor Belsue and Lithuanian Irina Nikolaidi - both made hay and ran their stacks deep into the day.

Nikolaidi would perish just short of the end of the day - a victim of the rampaging Rupom Pal, who finished up in second place on the chip counts with 153,400. Belsue however managed to stave off elimination, though her short stack means there is a tough journey ahead of her if she has designs on the title.

One man who has made a name for himself already at The Hippodrome Casino is Rapinder Cheema - winner of the UKIPT5 London Event back in January this year.

Cheema's chip graph had a generally upward trend throughout the day, although it was the final level that saw him really fly - reaching 143,400 at the close - he will be well in contention when day 2 begins.

Here's how the top 5 stacks lined up at the close of play:

Julien Rouxel France 9 8 174200
Rupom Pal United Kingdom 8 2 153400
Rapinder Cheema United Kingdom 1 3 143400
Fengzhu Yu China 7 5 129100
Sebastien Jung France 3 4 123300

Click here to see the full chip stacks for all remaining 27 players.

Day 2 starts Saturday 17th at 1.00pm but before then we have the two remaining starting days back-to-back tomorrow to play through. With Day 1B starting at 1.00pm and Day 1C starting at 7.30pm, it will be a day packed with interesting poker.

To read updates from Levels 1-8, click here.

To read updates from Levels 9-12, click here.

Join the blog at 1.00pm for this epic day of poker- you won't want to miss how this will pan out. We'll see you then.

PokerStars Blog reporting team at UKIPT5 Super Series London: Rod Stirzaker. Photos courtesy of Mickey May.