Everyone likes a good old-fashioned summer holiday, right? Spain has long been a place where the British and Irish descend for their annual time in the sun. Marbella had always been a popular spot and had evolved over the years. Bars showing Only Fools and Horses repeats while serving up a full English/Irish breakfast are slowly being replaced by poolside day clubs serving sushi over ice. One consistent trend over the past few years has been the UKIPT coming out mid June to meet up with its Estrellas cousin, and together they host the PokerStars Marbella festival.

The Main Event kicked off today with Day 1A and attracted 284 players. It played out over twelve 45-minute levels and after all the bagging up took place, Tinlay Tsontu amassed the most chips with 281,800. He's closely followed by Grzegorz Idziak (260,700), Bob Janssens (254,700) and Alexander Voytko (229,100).

The last of these players could actually have ended the day as chip leader but for a controversial last hand of the night. Voytko was forced to pay an opponent almost 60,000 after the dealer accidentally mucked his hand. He had raised and picked up two callers before a player in the blinds squeezed all-in for just under 60,000. Voytko called and that prompted the two callers to fold their hands but the dealer thought all three players had folded and dragged all cards into the muck. It was an extremely unfortunate situation for Voytko but the rules state it's his responsibility to protect his hand even though the dealer made a mistake. It may well have cost him the chips lead but at least he'll be back on Day 2 to fight another day.

Other players though to Day 2 are: Milos Skrbic (218,100), Jon Gonzalez (209,200), Seun Oluwole (201,800), Neil Raine (114,600), Guy Taylor (100,900) and Will Davies (96,200). A total of 70 players made it through to Day, and the full counts can be read here.

Vicente Delgado may now live in the UK but he's still one of Spain's hottest young poker talents and crushed the online satellites leading up to this event. He came 20th in this event two years ago and was looking on course to go deep in this event. He shot to an early chip lead with 80,000 but not long after he was out with Tomasz Wrobel looking like his executioner.

Tom Holke's first ever tournament cash was a win. The colourful player from Hamburg, who's a walking, talking German flag took down the inaugural Eureka in his hometown just over a year ago but he couldn't repeat the same success here. Noelia Ivars Rico and Sabina Hiatullah were two of several females in the field today but suffered bad beats to bust though. Each of them got their stack in good with sets but neither could hold to the river and will be trying their luck in Day 1C tomorrow.

Day 1C tomorrow I hear you ask? Isn't it supposed to be Day 1B tomorrow? Day 1B will play out tomorrow just as Day 1A played out today, but then at 10pm, they'll be a third, turbo flight. It's something that's been tried out on the Eureka Poker tour and proven very popular. It's only open to those who have already busted from either Day 1A or Day 1B, no players will be able to enter it as their first entry. The levels will be 20 minutes long and it should last a little over four hours.

Day 1B will start at midday CET and Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira De Melo will be in the house! She's here with good friend and Spanish star Leo Margets. They'll be joined by the likes of Asif "Poker Tourist" Warris, Dave "I literally won all the buttons last night" Clarkson, Diego "I am a gentleman" Gomez, Chris Dowling, Tudor Purice, Rasmus Agerskov and Kjell Lindqvist.

Join the PokerStars Blog team back here tomorrow where we'll bring you all the major talking points we witness, except when the England vs Wales game in on the TV, then the blog may be a little bit light. Until then it's good night from a baking Spain. Catch up on all today's action by clicking here.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May and Rene Velli. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog