Pick your fantasy poker line-up before 5pm deadline

Late entrants may yet add to the list but in the interest of our fantasy poker game, here is today's roster to choose your team of three.

Remember the highest scoring team wins a prize package to the ParadisePoker Tour Season Two third leg in Vienna this January, so make your selection by posting your Paradise username/alias together with your team as a comment.

Today's deadline will be extended until 5pm to give you time to make your picks, but late entries won't make the cut so act fast!

Akenhead, James
Burland, Jamie
Butt, Philip
Caabay, Raymond
Chaing, J
Chan, Wan
D ancona, Piergiorgio
Dhinsa, Robin
Dunsford, Anthony
Fuller, Richard
Furnival, Dan
Georgiou, A
Ghazi, Javved
Grech, Joseph
Green, James
Gurnam, Harprit
Hadgiamou, Tiki
Heslin, P
Hofmans, Johannes
Ilyukhin, Victor
Ilyukhin, Victor
Irfan, Hassan
Jaromin, Krzysztof
Jenkins, Evan
Kassouf, William
Kelleher, Vera
Kubilay, Mustafa
Kyprianou, Christos
Kyracou, Georgios
Lennon, Steven
Lietuvninkas, Marius
Liu, Mia
Mackay, Anthony
Magnan, Davide
Majewski, Pawel
Malone, Martin
Mansfield, Jim
Massol, Richard
Megas, Nastos
Miah, Ashique
Michael, Michalis
Miheul, R
Mitzas, Dimitrios
Morris, James
Mostafazadeh-Asl,
Nathan, Lee
Nyskovsky, Vilem
Patrick, Phillip
Pinao, H
Pizzo, Romano
Powell, Sebastian
Price, James
Price, Oliver
Reid, James
Salnikova, Alina
Sandro, Mescola
Seden, Andrew
Segal, Miriam
Shelley, Scott
Silva, Adam
Slusarek, Patryk
Sullivan, James
Tann, Willie
Vasconcelos, Marco
Vinson, Adam
Wagner, Bodo
Welgreen, Nir
Westbury, Jason
White, Andrew
Willoughby, Tom
Winter, Mark
Wong, Tim
Yun, Sung

Blog readers may only enter one team, so anyone entering a team on Day 1a cannot enter again today.

Main Event chips are in the air on Day 1b

We're underway here at the Fox Poker Club and there's no shortage of talent from which to choose your fantasy poker team.

One time November niner James Akenhead and bracelet winner Willie Tann the biggest named pros in today's field, but ParadisePoker sponsored players like Carlos Oliveira and Łukasz Gębica will be keen to take the Brit on.

Oliveira (pictured) was delighted to see the ParadisePoker Tour attracting such well-known pros, "It's great to have players of that calibre coming to this event because it's a good tournament.

"First prize should be around £30,000 so it's a great one to win - everybody needs that sort of money, even sponsored professionals!

"I've never played against him but obviously I know the name James Akenhead and I've seen him at some other big poker events, so he's a known player and that's great news.

"In Portugal we had a number of the big name professionals locally that played, so it's good to be part of something that's growing into an established event that attracts the best players."

Update - WSOPE bracelet winner Scott Shelley is also in today's field. Full list of players to follow, so get ready to make your fantasy poker picks.

Good afternoon from London

The Fox Poker club is a little quiet an hour ahead of the first deal but along with the players arriving dribs and drabs, the sound of the North London derby is adding the tension ahead of the first deal.

Arsenal and Spurs are gracing our screens this Saturday and though the PPT blog won't reveal any allegiance in the aid of fair play, it can be said that as of 13.15 GMT, spirits are high!

We're expecting a larger slice of the field to turn up today so get ready for another instalment of Day 1 action, as today's players seek to join the likes of Pawel Chmiel in Sunday's final furlong.

Don't forget you can play our brand new game, fantasy poker, if you missed yesterday's deadline to enter a team.

Simply pick three players from the list of Day 1b entrants (to be published right here on the PPT blog) as soon as it is available, and post their names along with your ParadisePoker username/alias to enter. The deadline will depend on when we can post the list, but expect it to be around 4pm.

Fantasy Poker T&Cs

1. To enter, blog readers must write their team as a comment on any London event post. Changes to your team are not allowed.
2. Readers are allowed to enter one team only.
3. Entrants must quote both their ParadisePoker username plus the name of their three players.
4. Entrants on Day 1a (Friday) of the Main Event, may select their team from the entire field, regardless of what day players are starting their tournament. Entrants on Day 1b (Saturday) may ONLY choose from the Day 1b field. Players chosen from Day 1a will ineligible. No entries will be accepted on Day 2 (Sunday).
5. The final entry deadline on both days will be 4pm. A full list of entrants and their teams will be printed shortly after the deadline. This list is final.
6. If players tie for the first prize, a private tournament will be arranged on ParadisePoker.com where the winner will be decided by playing a NL Hold'Em tournament.

Pawel grabs the headlines... and the chip lead

Here is your official chip count at the end of Day 1a:

Pawel Chmiel - 144400
Eli Heath - 115100
Jef Rogers - 101300
Stanislaw Miadzel - 84600
Julien Surbreville - 77300
Andreas Chalkiadakis - 75500
Sofianos Vergitsis - 72300
Plaen Todorov - 60600
Paul Humphrey - 60100
Lasse Frost - 58300
Guillermo Fernandez - 53800
Bastian Bluem - 50900
Alan Stearn - 48000
Louis Scriven - 31200
Jonas Olsson - 31100
Mikael Johansson - 23600
Petheo Geza - 23000

That's all for tonight intrepid blog readers. Join us for Day 1b (and if you didn't enter a team today, a little more fantasy poker) tomorrow from 2pm. There will be another freeroll password too, so make sure you log on to the PPT blog.

Night all!

Big talk = big stack?

Perhaps his table table talk paid off, perhaps it was just another instalment of the chips magnet that is Pawel Chmiel, but with just 90 seconds on the Day 1a clock the Pole claimed his latest victim.

It was no feat either, as PPT Vilamoura's fourth-place finisher Paulo Colado fell to Chmiel's AKs holding 88.

Poker's most famous match-up found favour with big slick on this occasion, with an Ace first out on top of the flop to hand the big stack a lead he wouldn't relinquish.

And with that, the day was done. Chip count on its way folks.

Image is everything

We're down to two tables and our last 19 players of Day 1a and even with under 30 minutes left to play, it seems table image is on our players' minds.

Pawel Chmiel - a popular choice in today's fantasy poker selections - sought to earn the respect of his new table by immediately warning his new foes of the sick run of cards he has seen, with kings, queens and Aces all being touted in the psychological battle.

As if the Polish professional's chip stack didn't command enough respect...

"Be careful guys," he greeted his opponents with a wry smile, "I've been running great tonight. I've had KK four times, Queens twice and plenty more so I'm just warning you, be careful."

Full chip count will follow the end of play.

Level 13 to end the night. Will it prove lucky for some?

Play will continue until the end of Level 13 as things stand in London, so our 23 survivors will maintain their duel until gone 1am.

Geoffrey Rogers (pictured) was the latest man to play executioner as he put an end to Hakan Belgin's chances with a classic beat.

Belgin raised it up from the cut-off with QQ and deep stacked Rogers quickly three-bet from the sb to over 15,000.

That gave his rival little option but to shove or fold and once he shipped, Rogers found himself pot committed and making a crying call.

The flop looked favourable for the shorter stack, coming 9-K-10, but the Ace on the turn brought the end for Hakan and his departed with no more than a dignified sigh.

Update - Level 13 is now underway, meaning blinds are 1,000-2,000 and the ante is 200.