The Main Event of the TonyBet Winter Festival is now hand-for-hand, as a few quick eliminations since the break have lead us to one spot away from the money.

A few stacks are dangerously low, and are virtually racing against one another. The most recent casualty was Andre Pelletier, who virtually blinded out of the tournament. Bill Kontaratos ran QQ into KK a few hands ago and has been on life support since, but is still around at the moment. Rayan Chamas was also crippled on the bubble, as his call with top-pair on the flop was outdrawn by the second pair of his opponent, leaving him with only a few blinds to his name.

As level 16 gets underway, the leaders in the tournament are approaching – or in one case, surpassing – the half-million chips mark.

Interestingly, although two of the most experienced players in the field have been seated at the same table for much of today – and both have healthy stacks for this point in the tournament – the current chip leader is also on that table, so their presence isn’t hindering him in any way.

There are just 99 players remaining as play has been completed through 2 60-minute levels to begin Day 2 of the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event. The bubble will be reached when a player is eliminated in 64th place – 63 places pay in the event – but with play expected to slow down from the furious pace of the first two levels, it may take a while to get there yet.

Over the years we have had many requests for larger buy-in tournaments that nevertheless run on weekday evenings – that don’t require players to take time off work in order to play. Well, those players’ wish is our command!

Tonight at 7pm is the beginning of Day 1 of Event 10, a $500 + $50 NL Hold’em Freezeout that will begin tonight and conclude with Day 2 tomorrow night. Late registration is open for more than 2 hours tonight – you can register in the event any time until 9:15.

Players have continued to be eliminated at a very fast pace, and the other side of the coin is that there are several players who have made big moves so far today. Some of the players who have significantly increased their holdings so far:

• Rodney Ramalho – started with approximately 44K, now up over 240K
• Rayan Chamas – started with under 80K, now over 200K
• Matthew Wilkins – started the day 92K, now playing around 280K
• Joseph Abou Khalil – started with a healthy 170K but now among the leaders with about 340K
• Maxime Lejeune Hebert – another player who started with a solid stack of around 200K, he has still managed to double it to over 400K

The first level played today has not even ended and already more than 25 players have been eliminated from the Main Event. Among the eliminated players so far are many of the short-stacked players – Steven Kerr, Jason Guiley, and Shawn Martell, for example – but just as many of them have doubled or more to stay alive and possibly have a viable future in the tourney.

The pace of play will most likely begin to slow as the field approaches 100 players remaining and then turns the corner towards the money bubble.