Roaming the room, we managed to catch a hand that put a stack on the rise. John Pisani’s went up against Jacques Paré’s and Clifford Neiman’s . Jacques and Clifford had about 40K each went they committed all, and stood as the dealer revealed the board: . John flopped the top pair, and went on to dodge his opponents’ combined 5 outs for the double knockout. His stack is now quite healthy, about 140K high, going into the last level.

With just over a hundred players left, the last segment of this flight is now underway. 5 of those players stand out from the field, with Imran Hussain and Martin Demondehare sitting way on top, more than 200K strong. Blinds are now quite high, and it is to be expected that at about half of the remaining players will bag chips. Future will tell if the top dogs will manage to hold on to their status.

In a few moments, players will take their last break of the day, after which they will battle for three more levels, with a Day 2 seat in mind.

Here are photos of some of the big stacks, taken during level 10:

Out of the 14 levels that will be played today, 8 have passed, and 3 players have managed to get passed the 100K mark. Our top 2 stacks have more than three times the average. There is a lot of poker left to play, but if anyone is in a position to hope for a Day 2 seat, it’s Marc-André Racine and Kelvin Tang.

Here is a look at our current top 10:

Day 1a’s number of participants is now officially at 338. As expected, all alternates have been seated, and some of them were joking that it was the best way to get past the first break. Players are approaching the half-way mark of this starting flight, and some players are starting to stand out. We will bring you a chip count leaderboard soon. For now, have a look at some of our competitors. Photos were taken during levels 5 and 6.