Level 12 has been and gone, and we therefore declare Day 1b officially over in the Main Event.
Fifty-one players have survived from a total field of 171 entries. Chip leader is Ronald Zapantis on a stack so big we annoyed the TD by making him double check it (sorry!). His 296,000 is well over three times the average, and currently good enough for the overall lead.
Other uberstacks include Yasen Dichev – his 278,000 only a shade behind the chip lead – and Michael Sklenicka on 250,000. Some other stacks of note include Nils Linden who doubled up with pocket aces against Dan Jackson’s T9 on an 8-T-5-3-3 board just a few hands before the end of play. He was a middling stack before the hand, but will go into Day 2 on Saturday on 170k. (Thanks to our esteemed colleague Jason Glatzer for that little gem – be sure to check out his Pokerlistings blog for a more hand-heavy history of today’s Main Event action.) Also shout out to late entry Mateusz Moolhuizen – the Netherlands’ finest is also up there on 163k. Full chip counts are being posted right now.
Today’s 171 entries added to Day 1a’s 134 make 305 in total – so there’s a long way to go yet if we’re going to make that €500,000 guarantee. However, tomorrow is another Day 1, and we expect those numbers to swell exponentially as we work through four more starting flights and approach the weekend.
We’re not going to call this a wrap, exactly – the night is yet young, and a blogger’s work is never done. Please stay tuned for further bulletins from such events as the Roulette, the 8-Game, and what’s going on in the bar. Do buy us a drink if you see us down there.
