As the today’s WPT DeepStacks Day 1B continues, players continue to test each others’ mettle, pushing and prodding to see what kind of pressures delivers the best results.

On table 77, the battle has continued in this fashion, with the result being that very often a player will win the hand without having to expose their cards. The most recent example of that occurred just a few minutes ago, as Steven Martin successfully pushed out Ajay Chabra.

With a pot of about 8,000 in play and the board showing , Steven shoved all in for 25,000, winning himself the hand. And just a few hands prior to that at the same table, it was Bradley Coultas that pulled the same trick on Steven and another player, Richard Blom.

In that case, the board showed a , leading to an initial bet of 1,500 by Bradley. It was called by Steven and Richard, and a came down on the turn. The table proceeded to check all the way around and the river came a . All it took was a sizeable bet of 6,000 by Bradley to push Steven and Richard out of the hand.

Once again, no one had an opportunity to see the winner’s cards. Perhaps next hand we will!

After three 40-minute levels one player’s stack stands out from the rest, Mr. Trevor Argue. His 98,000 is significantly higher than his three closest competitors, enumerated below.

There is still plenty of time left before registration closes to join the tournament, which closes in just over four hours, around 12:30am.

Halfway through level 3, we have reached 47 players, 45 of which are still alive and kicking. Here are some shots of those that chose to join us so far for Day 1B.

As we made the rounds we noticed a nice showdown brewing on table 82 between Michael Ma in seat 9 and Ian Tang in seat 1. When we joined the hand the flop had just been dealt , and there was 800 in the pot.

The table checked, and the turn came down a , at which point Michael led out with a bet of 1,000. He was called by Ian heads up. The river was a , and Michael made a 3,700 bet, larger than the pot. Ian took a full five minutes to decide, but the wait was worth it.

He called and Michael emphatically exposed his . He had either been chasing a flush or trying to connect his straight, neither of which occured. Ian had made an excellent call, exposing his own cards even more emphatically, slapping down his with a big smaile, having won the hand with only a pair of 9’s.

Tournaments can begin in any number of different ways, but one commonality is typically that the play in the early going is usually conservative. That’s why it was a surprise to have seen a large pot brewing in one of the early hands of the day’s play.

We joined the action on table 77 when the board was already showing , with 6200 in the pot. Patrick Stacey bet 5,000 utg, and the only other player in the hand, local player Jason Harned, had a tough decision to make.

Considering the fact that the starting stack was 30,000 chips and that the blinds were only at 100/200, 5,000 was a significant bet to call. After a few minutes thinking it through, Jason called. Patrick flipped over his , Jason mucked, and Patrick raked in his winnings.