The chip distribution has been dispersed in the last 2 levels of play, and the top stacks are no longer in a distant pack ahead of the field as during the last break. Senthuran Vijayaratnam is now the biggest stack in the field with 96,300.

Pascal Lefrancois won a decent pot in the last hand before the break to put him second in chips. With showing on the board, he fired 3K into a small-ish pot, and Martin Raus raised to 11K. Pascal then moved all-in, forcing Martin into the tank. After several minutes, and long after the break had come into play, Martin regrettably vocalized “fold”, stating that he had a big hand. With not much reaction from the part of Pascal, he decided to table his hand, and showed for the wheel. “It can’t be a bluff, there’s no way you’re bluffing there” he added, hoping to get some info in return from Pascal, who gave nothing in return. “We play together too often for me to show” added Pascal.

Two more players hit the rail before the break, as Amir Babakhani and Muhyedine Fares are no longer part of the High-Roller event.

Here are the top 5 counts to start level 9:

Registration has closed for Event 15 – $10,000 + $400 High Roller – and a total of 41 players turned up for this 2-day tournament featuring a $400,000 guarantee.

Ari Engel continues to lead the field, and has increased his stack to 113,800 through 6 levels of play. Darren Elias is hot on his tail with a stack just shy of 100,000, while Senthuran Vijayaratnam rounds the top 3 with 91,000 in chips.

A considerable distance separates these three players from the rest of the field, as the next biggest stack is of 67,100, belonging to George Caragiorgas.

Eliminations since the last break include the likes of Nathan John Henry, Samuel Panzica, Kevin MacDonald, Samuel Chartier and Alexander Keating.

In a few minutes we will publish the prize-pool information, as well as the payout structure.

Through 4 levels of play, we’ve seen 3 players get eliminated from Event 15. The first to go was Ankush Mandavia, who has jumped into The Second Chance tournament running alongside. Next out was Sam Greenwood, who turned a queen-high flush versus the ace-high flush of Marc-Étienne McLaughlin for all of the potatoes.

Samuel Chartier was then moved into Sam’s seat, and from the small blind he limp-raised Marc-Étienne big blind open. Marc-Étienne clicked-it-back and Samuel responded with a shove, quickly followed by a call. Hands were tabled and it was a cooler – Samuel’s versus Marc-Étienne’s . Marc-Étienne flopped a set of kings on the board to take the lead, but Samuel found a straight on the running to double up to around 50K, leaving Marc-Étienne with roughly the same count behind.

Anastasios was the next player eliminated from the field, as his fell second-best to the of Gerald Karlic. The money went in on an ace-high flop.

As level 5 begins, it’s Ari Engel who holds the biggest stack, having run up his 30,000 starting stack up to 71,450. George Caragiorgas sits in a comfortable 2nd place with 61,400, while Samuel and Marc-Étienne occupy 3rd and 4th place with around 50,000 each.

Late registration will remain open until the end of level 6, giving players until 5:45pm to register in this the biggest buy-in of the series.

Today’s High Roller event has moved to the second blind level of the day – levels are 60 minutes long throughout the event – and with players able to register until 5:45pm today, we’re seeing quite good take-up in the tournament considering how early it is.

There are currently 19 players seated at the table, and the pattern for this tournament is to have a significant proportion of the field register late, so this number is certain to grow throughout the day.

While the Second Chance is running on one side of the room, we’re also making way for the return of an event we haven’t run since 2014 – the $10,000 + $400 NL Hold’em High Roller. This is an event we’re run several times in the past with decent-sized fields – and star-studded fields. With a $400,000 Guarantee, it’s certain to be a worthwhile event!

In the 2014 Fall Classic, the event was won by Matt Jarvis after a 3-way deal was reached between Jarvis, Darren Elias, and Pascal Lefrançois, while the 2013 edition of this event saw Govert Metaal defeat Martin Jacobson heads up.

Action is scheduled to get underway in minutes.