Day 2 of the UKIPT5 Super Series held the promise of a rich day of poker full of incident and so it proved - a classic day's poker unfolding before our eyes as Dale Garrad, friend of PokerStars LIVE! at The Hippodrome Casino, translated his start of day chip lead into an an end of day chip lead - an impressively consistent performance.

92 players returned to The Hippodrome Casino's poker arena with hope in their heart, a glint in their eye and swagger in their step but precious few would survive the frenzied start that saw a third of the field perish in the wake of the first few levels.

With the waters of variance frothing like a group of frenzied sharks feeding in a bubble bath, player after player was sent flying to the rail, the field shorn apart in quicksmart fashion during this tumultuous period.

39 players would receive monetary compensation for surviving the carnage the players became naturally more reluctant to commit their chips as the payment cut-off point approached.

Eventually Ergo Kalamees was the man to miss out on payment by the slenderest of margins - one of Julien Rouxel's many victims of the day. Once the unfortunate Estonian had claimed the bubble for his own, the shackles were off and all-out war was resumed once more.

Jake Cody had come into the day with a shortish stack, but with the help of some useful cards and his usual high calibre of play, he began to look like a threat for the title.

His charge up the leaderboard took him well into the money but faltered prior to the latter stages. EPT commentator James Hartigan was another to make hay during the day and he too earned a berth within the cashspots before busting with a smile on his face.

"I thoroughly enjoyed it," he beamed as he sauntered over to collect his hard-earned payday.

It was a less enjoyable experience for Chaz Chattha, the hitsquad member looking like making a run at the chip lead before a flush versus flush cooler against Julien Rouxel stopped him in his tracks 2 spots off the money.

Once the payments were assured, the earlier high attrition rate continued unchecked and in no time, the players found themselves nine-handed.

With the official final table just one elimination away, Kai Brown was the man to miss out - Russian Andrey Veselov polishing him off with aces.

That left the remaining eight players lined up as follows, Dale Garrad snatching the lead from fellow big stack Julien Rouxel right at the death:

The final table will play out tomorrow at 1.00pm. The players will have the luxury of 50 minute levels to engage in and it should be an absorbing tussle for the title.

A UKIPT champion will be crowned and we can't wait to see who it is. Join us as we find out who the latest man to taste UKIPT glory will be.

To read updates from levels 13-17, click here.

To read updates from level 17 onwards, click here.

For all the confirmed payouts and the final prize structure, click here.

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

4:25pm: Rowshanei scalped by Cody
Hamid Rowshanei saw the busy Jake Cody raise and saw an opportunity to potentially double-through with pocket threes, jamming all-in.

Cody made the call with [Ah][6h] and duly won the flip over the [As][2c][5h][Jd][Js] board to end Rowshanei's participation agonisingly short of the money.

Cody moves to 260,000.

42 players left. So close!

4.20pm: Back for the bubble
Just 43 players remain as the players retake their seats for level 17 and beyond.

It's tense out there and there will be 5 unhappy players before we breach those payout spots.

Who will be first to blink?

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

One for the history books.

The ANZPT staff here were quietly confident that the tour's player and prize pool records would be broken this afternoon, and that's exactly what happened before the tournament was locked out earlier today.

Ultimately it was a total of 520 players who registered across both Day 1 flights to best the previous record of 516. In turn so too we saw the prize pool eclipse the previous $1,032,000 with this week's $1,066,000 up for grabs.

Much like yesterday's field, today was no walk in the park.

Another tough line up was in store today as players had their work cut out for them. Surviving the seven levels of play were WSOP APAC bracelet winner Luke Brabin with 94,200, and Australian Poker Hall of Famer David Gorr on 30,100. Joining those two for a return tomorrow include Minh Nguyen (73,000), Dean Blatt (43,800), James Obst (22,100), Raiden Kan (17,300) and Jackie Glazier (10,100).

On top of the chip counts for Day 1B is South Korea's Hyeong Wook Choi who climbed to 131,100 before the day was done. Choi's finished just ahead of Day 1A chip leader Min Jae Park so he finds himself leading the charge for Day 2 tomorrow.

The South Korean steamrolled the competition and sealed his lead by eliminating last year's runner-up Corey Kempson in the final level. The two got all the money in the middle on a flop of [3s][2c][As].

Choi: [7s][8s]
Kempson: [Ad][5h]

Choi was chasing a spade to send Kempson packing and the [Ks] turn delivered. The inconsequential [7c] rolled off and Choi advanced to around 130,000 in chips.

He clearly had a great day at the tables, but 166 players found the exit here this afternoon. Matthew Wakeman, Jono Bredin and Kahle Burns all faced elimination, as did Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang.

Huang moved all in for his remaining 4,000 in chips and after the move was met with a call the cards were turned on their backs.

Huang: [4d][4s]
Opponent: [8c][8d]

Seeing the bad news Huang was up from his seat until he spiked a set on the [4h][3d][Jh] flop. The turn, however, dashed his tournament hopes with the [8h] rolling off leaving only the case four to save him. It wasn't to be on the [Qs] river Huang made his way to the exit.

ANZPT7 Melbourne Top Ten Chip Counts
Hyeong Wook Choi (South Korea) - 131,100
Danny Boxell (Australia) - 107,100
Seyed Hosseininasab (Australia) - 103,800
Aik-Chuan Nee (Malaysia) - 98,600
Mark Schmelcher (Australia) - 98,300
Patrick Hanrahan (Australia) - 95,800
Luke Brabin (Australia) - 94,200
Ivan Zalac (Australia) - 92,800
Benjamin Savage (Australia) - 87,200
Chu Kheng Ong (Australia) - 84,000

For now that's the tournament poker action done for the night. The survivors will be back tomorrow from 12:30pm as we edge closer to the money and the final ANZPT Main Event title. Join us then for all the updates and information from here at Crown Melbourne!

A collective hangover lingers over the room this afternoon.

Players are fighting it, but it's clear the ANZPT Melbourne Welcome Party has left a few of them a little worse for wear.

The fun kicked off just after the poker action concluded last night. The chips were bagged up and players headed to the lavish cocktail bar Lumia to unwind away from the tables.

Greeted by ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh with a wristband for free food and bottomless drinks, we made our way to the bar.

Aussies Stevan Chew and Anthony Legg were there enjoying a celebratory drink, as was Team PokerStars Pro Chen-an Lin. They all planned ahead and played the first Main Event flight so they'll have all of today to recover. The three of them qualified for Day 2 and will be back to the action tomorrow.

Media and Events Manager Sam Dawson, Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang and one of Australia's finest poker writers Joshua Bell were all in attendance too.

As the weak fell by the wayside later into the night, the true warriors partied on. Moving to the next venue a sea of young and old danced to the throwback tunes of a live band. McDonagh was still handing out drinks as players and staff reminisced on past ANZPT tour stops.

Then it was time for the third and final location for the night - another bar by the casino floor. Having clearly not had enough action on the felt this week, Didier Guerin was posing some strange prop bets to anyone willing to gamble. The bartender seemed somewhat taken aback when McDonagh asked what date her father was born, but when she finally answered, money exchanged hands between the degens.

Finally it was time to depart as everyone went their separate ways. A few of those party-goers look a little weary in the poker room here, but hopefully last night doesn't affect their poker decisions too much.

We'll be watching to see how the second half of Day 1B unfolds here, we hope you can stay with us!

"Where's the TAB?"

That's been the question from more than one punter at the registration booth and the reporting desk this afternoon. And it's no surprise with the Caufield Cup taking place not far from Crown Melbourne here.

Poker players are renowned for being fond of a bet, and while those playing Day 1B here might not be able to make it to the race in person, they can still catch all the action from the tables on Crown's jumbo screen that overlooks the tournament floor.

For the others who played yesterday and don't mind a bit of horse racing, it's a beautiful day for it with the sun shining in the heart of the city.

Perhaps the biggest thing that poker and racing have in common is the wealth they can bring.

Described as the world's richest handicap race on turf over 2,400 metres, the $3,000,000 Caufield Cup is one of the biggest events of the Spring Racing Carnival.

And boasting an impressive prize pool of its own is our very own ANZPT Melbourne event. Latest reports indicate that we are closing in on a new record for the tour, and it looks like we've already eclipsed one million dollars in prize money here this week.

ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh took to Twitter with an update.

"We are at 500 players at #anzptmelbourne with over 2hrs of late reg. remaining, very close to record prize pool and player numbers" read the Tweet.

We're now into Level 3 for the final flight of Day 1 and here's hoping a few more make the most of late registration. We'll have confirmation of the official numbers when the tournament locks out at the conclusion of Level 4.

For now though it's back to the action for the first half of Day 1B in this ANZPT Melbourne Main Event. Hopefully players aren't too distracted by cheering punters and those enjoying the racing action on the big screen.

We'll watch chips stacks rise and fall but for those who make an early exit here today - they could always head to Caufield!

We're chasing history today.

Here for Day 1B of the ANZPT7 Melbourne Main Event there are some watchful eyes on the registration booth.

Will Melbourne be able to go back-to-back with another record-breaking ANZPT field? That's the question on everyone's minds as the action gets underway this afternoon.

Season 6 brought 516 runners to Crown Melbourne for a monstrous $1,032,000 in the prize pool. It was the first and only to reach the million dollar mark, and with this being the last ANZPT stop ever, we have one last chance to go one better.

After yesterday saw 206 in the hunt for the Main Event title the prize pool record looks in danger of being surpassed. Final Day 1 flights are notorious for drawing the biggest fields and the poker room here is filling up fast.

Those joining the action today will be chasing yesterday's end-of-day chip leader Min Jae Park. The South Korean claimed a resounding lead after clashing in a huge pot with Tony 'Unique' Tartaglia. Park almost saw his aces cracked by Tartaglia's set until a miracle two-outer on the river saw Tartaglia find the rail and Park climb to over 100,000 in chips. In the end he bagged up 118,500 as one of only two players to hit six figures.

Cards are now in the air as the room is filled with the sound of shuffling chips. We've already spotted a number of notables across the tournament floor. 2012 ANZPT Melbourne champion Paul Hockin is at the table, as is 2011 ANZPT Sydney winner Michael Kanaan, 2013 ANZPT Queenstown top finisher Jono Bredin and 2014 ANZPT Perth runner up Dean Blatt.

Also spotted at the felt are familiar faces Raiden Kan, Bruno Portaro, Rory Young, Kahle Burns, Paul Birman and Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang (pictured below).

We're in for another seven hours of play today. Hour-long levels and 10 minute breaks after every two means the action is set to conclude at 8pm.

Will someone be able to grab the chip lead from Park and will the last-ever ANZPT break another record? We'll find out here on Day 1B. Stay with us for all the action from on and off the felt!

12:20pm: Hartigan the poker genius It's been a tough day's grind for James Hartigan but his patience is being rewarded.

He just played a pot of immense skill, doubling up with aces in the big blind versus the small blind's kings.

"It's an underrated skill waking up with aces versus kings in the blinds," he said, a nugget of poker wisdom that will surely echo through the ages.

12.15pm: Battle to the finish
The 72 players remaining have sat themselves down at the felt - chip shuffling and riffling as they are wont to do.

The game is on, the stakes are high and the stage is set. Bring it on!

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

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