Level 20 has just been completed, and we are down to 114 players left. Action tonight will play out until 27 players remain, unless the tournament floor rules otherwise. Next player eliminated will receive 275$ for his or her deep run.

Players are on a slightly extended break of 20 minutes while tournament staff chips up and races off the blue 500 tournament chips. The top 5 chip leaders at this point:

1. Mohamad Mahbouba – 775K
2. Philippe Mercier – 675K
3. Louis-Philippe Martin – 530K
4. Adam El Bied – 520K
5. Christos Zavouris – 520K

In addition to these chip leaders there are about 8-10 other players with stacks over 400K. With 139 players still alive, there’s still a lot of time for new leaders to emerge before the tournament reaches the 27 players it will stop at tonight.

The players are enjoying another break, while the tournament staff chips up the ‘500’ blue chips.

Here are a few photos taken just before the bubble burst in level 19:

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(15 Photos)

The money bubble for Event 1 was reached without a great deal of fanfare and although the pace slowed a little bit, it didn’t slow to a crawl as is often the case.

So all the players left in the tournament are in the money and quite a few of the shorter stacks are taking the opportunity to min-cash and move on to the next event.

Congratulations to all of the players remaining in the tournament!

With under 200 players left in the field, the money bubble is fast approaching. We are only about 20 eliminations away from securing a pay day for the top 162 players.

Here are some photos from level 17:

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A big hand just happened on Table 59 between Evgeni Ozadovski (BB), Ian Robillard (UTG) and Jonathan Kharmouche (CO).

Ian opened with a raise to 11.5K, and it folded to Jonathan who shoved his short stack (27.5K). Evgeni in the BB flat-called… and then Ian re-raised all-in, putting Evgeni to a decision. After about a minute of thinking, Evgeni called, putting a significant proportion of his stack at risk.

The players flipped over their hands at once: Evgeni held , Ian had and Jonathan had .

The board ran out about as safe as possible for pocket Kings: . Ian took the whole pot – 27.5K from Jonathan and 120K from Evgeni. Add another 5K for the blinds and antes and he grew his stack from 120K to about 272.5K.

During the break we did a tour of the room to find the big stacks at this point in the event.

Here’s a gallery of the big stacks…

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Players are now on a 20 minute break, and the black chips will be raced off during this time. Many players have already hit the rail so far tonight, while others are building mountains of chips. Mohamad Mahbouba has chipped his stack up from 330k to just over 500K, takin over the chip lead of the tournament. Not far behind is Philippe Chapdelaine, who is sitting on just over 400K. The avergae stands at just over 100K.

Here are some photos from level 15:

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Players have now started play in level 15 and after one full level of play, more than 50 players have already been sent to the showers. With all of the action there has been significant growth of many players’ stacks – but notably, one of the day’s chip leaders, Mohamad Mahbouba has already added around 100K to his already solid stack.

The players have taken their seats, unbagged their chips and play has begun in level 14. We’ll have photos and more news shortly.