The end of level 8 means it’s time for a 45-minute long dinner break. The final number of entries today crept up to 524 and of that number, 349 remain alive in Day 1b.
When players return from break, they’ll be playing level 9 and the blinds will be 400/800/a100. The average stack is up to 45 K though there are quite a few very large stacks being built throughout the room.