As we walked by table 25 we noticed that there were quite a few chips in the pot, and most of the cards were on the table. The board was showing  .

Upon closer inspection it was evident that the only two players left in the hand, Gabriel Attiave and Frederic Normand, were heads up. Gabriel had just bet 27,500 on the river, only to be re-raised 86,000 by Normand.

After some introspection, Gabriel threw away his cards, forfeiting the possibility of winning the hand. Frederic scooped up the chips, which must have numbered at least 60,000.

After two 60-minute rounds in today’s WPTDeepStacks Day 2, Francois Sauve sits comfortably at the top of the leaderboard with 558,000 chips. There are also several other players with over 400,000, enumerated in the list below.

Considering the fact that we have lost more than 70 players over the first two of today’s levels, the next chip leader promises to have an even bigger stack!

As we passed by table 21 it was hard not to notice that the (usually) formidable pile of chips in front of Trevor Argue was conspicuously absent. Instead of having over 300,000, he had closer to 30,000. Although we were not at the table at the time, we learned that Trevor had come down on the wrong side of an all in.

According to one of the players at his table, the hand that crippled Trevor was dealt 10-9-4, with Trevor and Mathyeu Provost battling it out, going all in on the flop. Trevor was holding a Q-4, but his opponent had a set of 10s.

That said, as this post was being written it appears that Trevor has begun his comeback. We’ll see if he can stay in the hunt!

The chips are flying on Day 2 of the WPTDeepStacks, as less than 200 players remain in contention and every one of them is taking every opportunity to add to their stacks; a hand that just played out between Simon Belzile and Martin Raus shows just how quickly those chips are being put into play.

Raus and Belzile, both seasoned players, tangled in a huge heads up pot that crowned a new table captain. Both players had stacks that were well above the 138K chip average to start the hand. Raus raised the 2.5K big blind to 6K from early position, only to have Belzile, immediately to his left, put out a cold three-bet to 18K. The other players got out of the way, and Raus made the call. The flop fell , and Raus checked to the aggressor, who continued his line with a bet of 15K. Raus made the call and checked once again when the appeared on the turn. This time, Belzile set the price of poker at 60K, sending Raus into the tank. After considering his action for a few seconds and cutting out calling chips, Raus made eye contact with the dealer and quietly said “all in.” Belzile’s expression revealed that he did not want to, but after investing so many chips already, there was no turning back on this hand. Belzile made the call, and hands were tabled. It was for a flopped full house for Raus and for Belzile, who was drawing dead. The river brought out the , giving Raus four of a kind! So the dealer go to work counting down Raus’s 140K stack. The result crippled Belzile, but he still has chips in front of him.

The action continues in level 14, only a few minutes away from a break in the action. Stay tuned for a leaderboard update.

There are plenty of competitors, and thus plenty of photos to share. Here are some more that sat down to start the WPTDeepStacks Day 2.

At table 36 there was another short stack shoving for his tournament life. Unfortunately for him, there was no double up, but an early exit. The player in question was Gregory Katayama, who shoved preflop for 31,000. He found a caller in Amir Shami.

Gregory:

Amir:

The board was dealt , and Katayama grabbed his jacket and headed for the exit, losing to Amir’s pocket Kings.