Georges Hallak was our shortest stack by quite a bit, with only 132K (just over 3 blinds) to himself after folding his big blind. The very next hand, he went all-in from the small blind after everybody else went out of the way, holding . Ara Asatoorian made the 92K call from the big blind, with . When the board was opened, a round of applause was heard.

$20 per player were collected when the last 18 players started playing hand-for-hand, which gave Georges Hallak $360 for his bubble finish.

Our 17 qualifiers earn a seat into the partypoker Million, which is a $5000 + $300 buy-in, and has a 5 Million guarantee! Their full chip counts will be posted here when the tournament staff makes them available. In the meantime, here is a gallery of those qualifiers (missing Carlos Rivas and Jeremy Chandler):

Congratulations!

The last 18 players have now formed the last two tables, and are playing hand-for-hand. One elimination from now, Phase 1 will be over. The excitement is palpable.

With 4 players left to go before this day comes to a close, 4 players have over a million in chips. Maxime Théroux, our first millionaire, was sent home moments before the break. Carlos Rivas and Mario Lépine are on top of the leaderboard, while our shortest stacks are at 300K, which represents around 10 big blinds. Of our last 21 players, 17 will secure a seat into one of the partypoker Million Day 1s.

A 700K pot was just won by Noy U, who put his tournament life on the line for it. He open raised with , and Stuart Taylor went all-in with his remaining 100K, holding . Elie A called that bet with , sending Noy to the tank. He finally pushed his 300K forward, which was quickly called by Elie.

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Stuart had to leave the tournament, as Noy was stacking his newly found riches. Half of the remaining players will make it to the partypoker Million Day 1. Stay tuned!

Players have once again taken a short break, which allowed us to update the leaderboard. Maxime Théroux has climbed up to first place after his set of tens won him a lot of chips. He is now the table captain and this tournament’s chip leader and first millionaire.

This Phase 1 is moving closer to its final stint, as only 5 tables are left. Much action is still to come, and no one is stacked to the point of comfort. Even Théroux is just slightly over the eventual 17-player average stack.

We are now playing 6K/12K/a1K, and some big pots are about to be fought for. Here are the top 6 stacks, and some photos of the last segment: