Montreal’s own Kevin Rivest is the front runner in Day 1B of the Main Event following 6 levels of play. Kevin has already accumulated 225,000, and is followed closely behind by Upeshka De Silva, who has been first or second in chips since the first moments of the tournament today.
The remaining 111 entries are currently wrapping up a dinner break before the live action begins again.
Upeshka De Silva won an early hand, doubling up in the first few minutes to take the chip lead. He hasn’t looked back since, and his solid play shows that he is the chip leader today for a reason.
The most recent evidence came a few minutes ago at table 27, where he has been holding court. We joined the action with the flop already on the felt.
Flop: 
Upeshka checked utg. Samuel Tsehai, the only other player in the hand, raised him 1,000. Upeshka called.
Turn: 
Again, Upeshka checked. This time he was raised 3,000 by Samuel. After some contemplation, Upeshka called.
River: 
With two Aces on the board and three hearts, there were a number of hand combinations that could strike fear in the heart of a regular poker player – even one enjoying the chip lead.
Upeshka checked again, with Samuel betting 8,000 soon after. After some more hard thinking, Upeshka made an incredible call, one appreciated by almost everyone at the table, taking down the hand with two pair.
Samuel: 
Upeshka: 
Canadian poker player Xuan Liu , who has amassed more than $1.9 million in live earnings, battled it out with American, William Jennings, who has has also reached close to a million dollars in poker winnings.
Preflop, William raised to 4,000. Everyone else at the table folded except Xuan. After she called, the flop was dealt 
. William bet 1,200 and Xuan called. The turn card was a 
and William wagered 1,700. Xuan, regarded her opponent, then peeked at her cards before calling.
When the river card was revealed 
, both William and Xuan, who keeps herself entertained between hands with both her cell phone and tablet, checked.
When the players cards were revealed, William’s :1C :7C were not enough to better Xuan’s 
.
As today’s Main Event Day 1B continues, the list of players both entering and exiting the tournament continues to grow. The initial field has slowly quadrupled from where it started at noon, and now stands at 162.
This is one of the benefits of all-day registration: players can choose when they want to enter the action, and many have elected to do just that, enjoying the ability to arrive at their own pace. Even so, as the field grows, the list of busted players grows as well. Jonathan Bussieres recently added to that list, defeating his opponent Kurt Lichtman on table 17 in a showdown.
Jonathan opened utg with a bet of 800. Another player (in seat 5) raised to 2,800, and Kurt called, along with Jonathan. The flop was dealt 
.
Jonathan opened again with a pot-sized 9,000 chip bet, one that chased out the player in seat 5. Kurt wasn’t ready to give up on the hand, however, and decided to shove all in, quickly called by Jonathan. It was a classic showdown, with Jonathan’s Ace-King vs Kurt’s pocket Queens.
Turn: 
River:
Unfortunately for Kurt the math wasn’t in his favor today, with the coin flip going Jonathan’s way.
Shawn Buchanan, a Canadian poker player who won the World Poker Tour Mandalay Bay Poker Championship in 2007, grabbed a pot at the WPT Main Event Day 1B.
Preflop, Nabil Karrass raised to 900. Shawn, Heath Day, Richard Kirsch and Romans Voitovs all called. When the flop came down 
, Nabil bet 1,200. Shawn and Romans both called, and Heath and Richard folded.
When the dealer revealed the turn 
, Nabil wagered 2,000. Shawn called and Romans folded. The dealer flipped the river 
. Nabil pushed harder, betting 3,000. Shawn paused. The fingers of his left hand moved musically along his right bicep like the digits of a trumpet players hitting notes with a horn. After a few minutes of reflection, Shawn, whose career poker winnings exceed some 4 million dollars, called.
Nabil, who was holding ace queen, shook his head when Shawn threw down a pair of nines.
Day 1B in the Main Event has now reached the halfway point. The players have just returned from 15 minute break and the action is once again underway. There have been more than 150 entries and 120 players remain. The average stack has just reached 50,000.
Here are some of the latest photos of the action.
