Day 2 is coming to a close, as only 2 more 30-minutes levels remain before the surviving players bag their chips onto Day 3.

As play enters level 25, it is local hero Anesti Kocini who is in the chip lead, however his 1,450,000 in chips is closely followed by a handful of players.

Here is a look at the current top stacks:

The players just came off a short break, and during this time we made an update to the leaderboard. Two players have already breached the 7-figures mark, as both Karyn Gemmil and Chico are a hair above the 1-million in chips. Others are quickly catching up, and we should see a few more join the millionaires club before long.

Here is a look at the top stacks as play enters level 22:

With 137 players left the TD announced to the players that the dealers were to pause after the current hand was finished because the tournament was going hand for hand. Despite this fact, two players busted in the hands already in progress and just like that the money bubble has burst.

There are quite a few short stacks who are relieved there will be no protracted period of hand for hand play – these players are now lined up at the tournament desk to receive min-cash payout coupons!

Congratulations to everyone in the money… and play continues in level 20.

Play in Event 1 is still 37 places from the bubble as play continues in level 18 of the tournament. That’s not to say the pace has been slow, however, the tournament is still very deep overall and the steady pace of eliminations suggest that the bubble will arrive within the next couple of levels.

Some of the recent eliminations: Duy Toan Pham, Isham Yamani, Roman Ouvarov, Rodney Ramalho, Vanessa Kade, and Bill Kontaratos.

After losing practically his whole stack to Mathieu Boulanger-Vaugeois he managed to hang in there and even chipped back up to around 140K… only to be eliminated shortly after. That table – which featured some crazy action to start the day – has now broken.

Vanessa Kade’s bad luck hand:

And bust. Shove the flop on top pair, called by middle pair + gutshot. Hits second pair…. GG. @PlaygroundPoker @WPT

— Vanessa Kade (@VanessaKade) November 5, 2015

Mathieu Boulanger-Vaugeois and Duy Toan Pham were the two chip leaders entering Day 2, and interestingly enough the random seating draw placed them on the same starting table. After a few levels of play, they found themselves playing for stacks preflop.

The action started with a raise to 10,000 by Mathieu, from utg+1, which was called by the button, and then 3bet by Pham in the big bind, who made it 44,000 to go. Mathieu replied with a 4bet to 96,000, leading the button player to fold. Pham quickly came over the top with an all-in, which was snap-called by Mathieu.

Mathieu:
Pham:

Board:

The kings held for Mathieu, who doubled up his 353,000 stack and propelled him into the overwhelming chip lead, crippling Pham along the way.

Duy Toan Pham started the day as the chip leader but in the early going tonight he managed to lose about a quarter of his stack while other players chipped up and moved past him into the chip lead in the tournament. A recent hand played against Simon Assouline (who also started with a healthy stack) was another step in the right direction and then some for Pham – while seeing Simon exit the event.

Pham made a big open raise preflop and action folded around to Simon, who thought for a few seconds before declaring “all-in”. The others in the hand folded and Pham instantly threw a chip to indicate his call.

Pham:
Simon:

Simon was dominated and found no help on the flop of . The on the turn may have lifted his spirits a little bit, but any hope he had was dashed by the on the river. Simon was eliminated while Pham chipped up to 390K (approximately).

Players are now on a break while tournament staff removes the black T100 chips from play.