The two biggest stacks that emerged from Day 1B have just clashed in a big pot.

Hendrik Latz opened to 9K, and Jean-Pascal Savard flat-called the bet before Michel-Claude Baroud 3-bet all-in for a little over 150K. Hendrik tanked for a moment before letting go of his cards, and this was followed by a snap-call by Jean-Pascal.

Jean-Pascal:
Michel-Claude:

Michel-Claude picked up a gut-shot on the flop, but fell short on the board to go down near the money-bubble. Jean-Pascal climbed up above 450K with that hand, and is now amongst the top stacks in the field.

Short-stacked James Yang moved all-in with 13K from middle position, and when action folded around to Max Silver in the small blind, he moved all-in himself for just under 60K. Hendrik Latz, who had both players covered by a margin, made the call from the big blind to close the action 3-way.

James:
Max:
Hendrik:

Board:

James managed to triple up by turning a straight to win the main pot. Max’s turned two-pair was counterfeited by the river leading to his elimination, as Hendrik ended the hand with a higher two-pair to win the side pot.

Hand-for-hand will begin once 10 more eliminations take place.

We missed the exact action, but when we arrived at the table Tony Dunst had  tabled in front of him and was heads-up versus the of Carter Swidler. The run-out was , and Carter was awarded the pot, stacking Tony for around 80K.

The tournament has just entered level 16 and the field is down to 8 tables. The biggest stack in the room still belongs to Eric Afriat, who is now above 600K and almost 4 times the current average stack. Following this level is a 45-minute dinner break, where the players can enjoy a buffet offered by the house. We will bring a detailed update on the leaderboard when the players go on break.

Photographs from level 15:

The WPT Playground has just come back from break, and the T100 chips have been removed from play. Eric Afriat continues to separate himself from the rest of the field. At the start of level 15, his 545K stack is over 200K larger than second in chips Nghi Van Tran. Below is a table with the top counts at the break leading into level 15.

The field is down to 79 players, and with 48 players scheduled to be paid, we are slowly approaching the money-bubble.

Photographs from level 14: