With 5 minutes to go in level 9, there are 142 players remaining out of the 283 who started today. Blinds are at 400/800/a100 and the average stack is 59.8K – though there are a few stacks that are very significantly bigger than that.

Some of the players to be eliminated recently include Erik Cajelais, Phil Laak, and Gavin Smith.

There are several members of Playground Poker’s Players Club in Day 1b. Some of them have already been eliminated from the tournament, but there are still 7 members at the tables.

Some very rough chip counts:

• Ben Leblond: 64K
• George Caragiorgas: 65K
• Valerie Ross: 28K
• Gavin Smith: 60K +
• Christopher McClung: 73K
• Phil Laak: 40K
• Derek Lerner: 120K

Players Club member Derek Lerner has been chipping up steadily since the beginning of the tournament, and word is that he has busted yet another player. This time it was noted pro Samuel Chartier that Derek eliminated.

Derek has been chipping up all day on a tough table that included Matt Salsberg and Samuel Chartier.

The number of entries in Day 1b of the WPT Canadian Spring Championship did bump slightly over dinner – the final number is 283. 193 of them are still in the tournament. A few of the 90 who are no longer in are playing in Sit’n Go satellites to win another bullet for tomorrow, and there’s a multi-table satellite to be played tonight for players who would like another shot.

We’ve reached the 45-minute dinner break – buffet provided for all players – and of the 281 who registered so far today there are 198 remaining in the tournament. Late registration is allowed until the end of this break so it’s likely that numbers will still climb a little bit.

Half-way through level 5 (blinds 150/300/a50) some of the stacks are starting to grow. There’s still a long way to go today, but based on a quick tour of the room, here are some of the larger stacks we’ve found. By table order (not relative size):

• Derek Lerner
• Alan James Percal
• Martin Leblanc
• Jakub Drag
• Jino Veizi
• Sarah Brochu
• Andre Leclair
• Denis Gnidash
• Christopher McClung
• Carla Sabini

Throughout the day we’re going to be adding photos to the Day 1b Facebook Album. Since the WPT Live Updates site and Canada Poker are both doing such a good job, the focus here will be partly on well-known players but also on some of our local players of note who might not grab their attention.

Here’s a sample:

From PPSC – WPT Canadian Spring Championship – Day 1b, posted by Playground Poker Club on 5/04/2013 (Showing 16 of 31 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher 2
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Day 1b is most of the way through level 2 of the 10 that will be played today and the number of entries continues to edge upwards. We just passed 250 for the day (the current number is 254) and registration is still open for another 4 levels following this one (plus the dinner break).

It’s a beautiful day in Montreal and a beautiful day for Day 1b of the PartyPoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship! Action is set to go in a few minutes as players are filing in and taking their seats. Yesterday there were 194 players who registered and today will see more new entries plus a lot of players who won their seats in satellites plus a good number of re-entries by players who didn’t make it to the end of level 10 on Day 1a.

Good luck to everyone playing today!

Mike Sexton gives his opening remarks prior to Day 1b