Here are the final chip counts for Day 1a. A total of 95 players have made it through to Day 2 on Friday. Players may also choose to enter a second day one on Wednesday or Thursday – only a player’s largest stack will go to Day 2.

After a gruelling 14 levels of play the tournament desk announced three more hands and then players will bag their chips to take to Day 2 on Friday.

Just as the announcement was being made we arrived at Table 53 as a big hand was developing between two medium stacks – one of which had been a big stack until just a level or two ago.

Blinds were 1.5K/3K/a300 and there was a middle position min-raise. It folded around to the cutoff and Steven Saab insta-shoved. The big blind thought for 2 seconds and called. The cards were flipped and the cutoff showed while the big blind held .

The flop came giving Saab some extra outs. The turn helped him even more: . So now Steve was drawing to the A, K, J, or the Q – basically any paint or the one-card would do the trick. Saab has never been known as the quietest player at any table and he called out for the Q… and sure enough the dealer dropped the on the river.

Final chip counts for the day will be posted in a few minutes.

The players still have 6 levels to go tonight, but at the beginning of Level 9 there are 233 players remaining and some big stacks are starting to emerge. The chip average is now 39K with blinds at 500/1000/a100, and a quick tour of the room during the last break found one player approaching 150K and several more over 100K.

The tournament is 15 minutes into Level 7 (Blinds 400/800/a100) and there are 290 players remaining. Chip average is 31.4K (from starting stacks of 20K) and there are a grand total of 9.1M chips in play tonight.

It’s the first break and the final count of players today (including alternates) is 454!

After four levels, 373 players remain in the tournament. The average stack is 24.5K and blinds will be 200/400/a50 when players return from the break.

Among the players today are Players Club members Jean-Philippe Piquette and Christopher McClung.