The players’ final break has come and gone and the new leaderboard shows a few players with stacks already “Day 2 Worthy” – stacks that would fit right in on Day 2 tomorrow. Everyone still has just under 3 levels left to go, however – at least one of these top players will get unlucky and not make it through – while someone who has gone unnoticed until now will vault to (near) the top of the leaderboard.

Through to level 11 now and some of the stacks in this final starting flight in The $250 Frenzy are starting to grow and take on an impressive look as chips are stacked and organized player by player.

Here are some photos of some of the larger stacks to this point in the tournament.

This is the final starting flight in the event, and many players have participated in at least one – if not more – starting flight before tonight. So there’s a little feeling of anxiety – “can I make Day 2 this time?”

But it’s almost – not quite, but almost – counter-balanced by the “been there, done that” attitude of experienced players who may have played countless Day 1s in their poker ‘career’.

Going into level 9 there is only one player with over 100K in his stack – but there are several others knocking on the door, and there’s a ton of poker yet to be played tonight. Here is a current leaderboard for Day 1F with chip leader Miguel Goncalo standing atop the list.

Pots sometimes get exaggerated on Day 1s and, in blind on blind action on a Day 1 it’s probably even more likely, which at least partly accounts for what we just witnessed between Paul Scott and Alain Jobin on table 60.

The two players were in the blinds – Scott was sb, Jobin was bb – and we arrived to find Scott 4-bet shoving all-in for around 34K to Alain’s oversized (approx 12K) 3-bet. Alain made the call and the hands were revealed.

Jobin:
Scott:

It’s easy to see how a 70bb (effective) hand can develop with those hands, but it all happened very quickly even considering the relative strength of the hands.

In any case, Scott ended up binking his Ace right away on the flop: and there was no miracle for Jobin as the rest of the board was dealt: .

Scott and Jobin have effectively flipped stacks with Scott now playing upwards of 60K.

The players have returned from their first break of the day and as usual, very few have taken a big lead to this point. There are 4 players over the 50K mark, however, and quite a few seemingly trailing by just a little bit.

The final participation number in Day 1F is 175 entries, adding up to a total of 803 entries and meaning that there is indeed an overlay. Prizing information will be released shortly.

As level 4 dwindles to a close, here are a few more shots of the action tonight. Day 1F has turned out to be the largest starting flight in the event by a small margin – we’ll have the exact numbers after the break – but nevertheless there is an overlay in the event and the final payout list will reflect this.

Photos from level 4