With the blinds at 7K/14K in level 4, Jeffrey Kostyniuk found himself in a dream spot.

The action was opened by Christopher Annouza, immediately to his right, with a raise to 42K. Kostyniuk made it 110K to go and the action folded around to David Sorgente, in the small blind, who made the cold call. When the action made it back to Annouza, he moved all-in for roughly 600k. Annouza’s raise drew an immediate re-shove for significantly more from Kostyniuk, which forced Sorgente out of the pot.

Annouza:

Kostyniuk:

Board:

The aces stood, sending Annouza to the rail and helping build an imposing stack for Kostyniuk.

Flopping the nuts is nice, but cracking it is nicer. When we got to the table, Nicholas Alan Maimone had bet 150K on the turn, and was getting check raised to 325K by Roberto Alberro. Maimone, having scored a seemingly dreamy turn, went all-in for a total turn bet of 759K. Alberro snap called, all too happy to get it in with the nuts.

Maimone:
Alberro:

Board:

A serious run out. Alberro got crippled, while Maimone, from a desperate situation on the flop, got an unlikely double-up.

Jeremy White open raised to 32K, and after Jonathan G. decided to tag along, Nipun Java, sitting in the blinds, turned it up to 155K. White reflected on his options, and finally 4bet to 532K, or about half his stack, which instantly sent Jon’s cards into the muck.

Java was in the tank. He knew that he was facing a very strong hand, but was trying to determine his opponent’s range and figure out where he stood. After some deliberation that included a lot of eye-balling, he announced all-in, and was quickly called.

White:
Java:

Board:

Java faded a jack, and is now enjoying a top 10 stack.

There is a huge field here for Day 1D of the Main Event, with more than 500 entries so far. The players have just returned from their first break of the day, and there are already some big stacks in play. The action appears to be more loose and aggressive than the previous flights, as indicated by the 60 eliminations at this early stage.

Here are the current chip leaders:

Day 1D of the Main Event is turning out to be as crazy as everyone expected, with 500 entries so far and hours of late registration and re-entries still to go. While some players are playing this event for the first time today, lots of players are firing multiple bullets with the hope of running up a bigger stack to bring forward to Day 2.

The Main Event offers players lots of opportunities to get their part of the gargantuan guaranteed prize pool. If a player qualifies with multiple Day 1 stacks, they may be used to enter or re-enter one or more Day 2s. If a player uses a Day 1 stack to start Day 2 and is eliminated then they retain the option to enter and re-enter using another option. So it comes as no surprise that many players are playing multiple flights. With 500,000,000 chips already in play, there are sure to be some huge stacks going in the bag at the end of the day.

The final Day 1 flight, Day 1E, starts tonight at 8:00pm, running at the same time as a Step 2 satellite so there are still lots of ways to take your shot at the MILLIONS. This is one you don’t want to miss!

The ever growing Day 1D field is about to breach 500 entries, with nearly 20 tables spilling into the giant tent set-up for the event. Below are a few photos taken during level 2, including some shots taken inside the tent.

Photographs from level 2: