Normally by the 2nd break we tend see as many as 7 or 8 really large stacks.  Today the word in play is “caution”; players are guarding their stacks and not spewing off chips unnecessarily. Consequently, we have only seen 3 stacks that have surpassed the 100K mark, although there are still many other stacks throughout the room in the 70K-100K range. In addition, with the great structure in this weekend event, and with six more 30 minute levels to play, a well timed double or triple up can still bolt any of the smaller stacks to the top of the leaderboard.

Here are the 3 chip leaders as we head into level 9:

The tournament registration is now closed, there are a total of 135 entries, which include 20 re-entries.  We have now just started level 8 and play will continue until the end of level 14. If you weren’t able to join the action this afternoon, there is still another opportunity to fire a bullet tonight at 7 PM in Day 1D, and since we normally see our largest fields on a Friday night, there is always a chance to bag an extra large stack when there will be so many chips in play.

Here are some more photos of players that have joined the field:

The players in Day 1C have just taken their first break of the day and we did a quick survey of the room to see if anyone had managed to take a solid lead after just 4 levels. We found that one player – Sebastien Vezina – has already managed to put together a stack of over 100K!

Behind him on the leaderboard are two players with just about double the chip average – but after only 4 levels, there has hardly been enough time for many players to build a big stack!

We have been walking from table to table and the action around the room is slow and steady. The structure of this tournament allows for players to wait for the proper spot to make some moves and with the slow 30 minute blind structure, players have been in no rush to inflate the pot. On many of the tables we are seeing a typical “BSB” (button-sb-bb) hand take place where action folds to the button, the button makes a min-raise, and, both blinds come along for the ride to see a flop.

As the action starts to heat up, we will be giving you some details of some of the more exciting hands. We are now approaching the 1st break, and we will be looking around the room to see if there are any stacks pulling away from the pack and leading the way.

The morning flight is turning out to have a strong start, there are many local regs as well a lot of Playground’s out of town friends who drove a few hours in today’s sunshine to be part of the action.  There are also a few past event champions in the field, and many others who are well known to go deep in past Playground events, so, needless to say, we are expecting a lot of aggressive poker action as the day progresses.

Here are a few shots of the field in level 3:

Action is underway as the tournament floor has just announced, “dealers, shuffle up and deal”.  Players are steadily filling the tournament room and we are now already at 59 entries, which is the strongest start so far in the series for a Day 1!

Players have until 2:15 PM to jump into the action, so there is plenty of time to make your way down here.  This is also a re-entry tournament, so just in case the poker God isn’t friendly to you in the early levels, you can always jump right back in to the action.  We are expecting today’s turnout to be quite strong, and, there is still one more flight tonight at 7 PM (Day 1D).