Mid-way through level 8 the action continues in today’s DeepStacks Day 1B. The field is slowly growing, now up to 73 entrants since the beginning of Day 1B, which started at 6pm.

Over at table 71 there were no cards on the table, but as we walked by the tension was in the air. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that a large showdown was brewing.

Khalid Popal had opened with a raise of 1,800, which was re-raised to 7,500 by the player next to him, Qi Hu. As the other players at the table folded, the action eventually found its way to Chen Turjeman. He three-bet up to 18,800, which pushed Khalid out of the hand and fast.

Qi thought about it for a minute or two, not sure of where he stood. He asked Chen for a chip count, but Chen assured him that Qi had him covered. That was true. Qi appeared to have at least triple, if not quadruple the number of chips Chen currently had. Qi tried in vain to get a clue from Chen, but nothing was reflected in Chen’s glasses but an impassive stare and the reflection of the growing pile of chips in the middle.

And although the call wouldn’t have put much of a dent in Qi’s large stack, he decided to fold anyway, not willing to get caught up in a hand he didn’t have enough confidence in. Patience is the key in these multi-day tournaments, and Qi has it in spades (no pun intended). Indeed, we didn’t find out what he folded. Chen was happy to flip over his pocket however, and raked in the chips.

On table 87 Noy U’s pocket jacks just cracked Irtiza Malik’s pocket kings in a heads up all in play preflop.

Irtiza opened utg with a bet of 1,000. This was raised to 4,500 by Noy, and Irtiza immediately re-raised all in with his short stack, a little less than 10,000. As Noy called Irtiza flipped over his , dominating Noy’s .

In the battle of the black kings versus the red jacks, the jacks came out on top, as the board was dealt . Irtiza was putting on his coat even before all the cards were down, proceeding to take a quick photo of the nightmare board on his phone before he left.

Although we missed the majority of the hand, the sheer rarity of it was worth a mention.

Although Nicolas Vincent had less than 10,000 chips left at table 71, he made the most of it with his J-5, matching the three 5s on the board. His fives helped him stay alive!

He was clearly happy to have made the ever-elusive quads, his tablemates, however, were markedly less enthusiastic than he.

We are now int level 7 of 12, just passing the halfway point of today’s WPT DeepStacks evening tournament. Here are some additional photos of the competitors that have arrived since we last posted photos earlier tonight.

After six 40-minute rounds, we are now up to a total of 68 entries (including 4 re-entries) in the second Day 1 flight of our WPT DeepStacks tournament. At this point there remain 47 players still at their seats, all vying for the $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

So far the chip leader remains Trevor Argue, joined only by one other player at the top of the heap, Ian Tang. Don’t forget, there is still plenty of time left to register for this tournament, as registration only closes at 12:30am tonight!

On table 87 we just witnessed an all in by Martin Dyotte. When we arrived at the table, the cards had already been dealt, and the only thing we were waiting for was his oponent’s Noy U’s decision.

Board:

The decision was easy for Noy, and when Martin flipped over his , it was easy to see why. Noy had caught the nut flush on the river , and he doubled up to 65,000.