Table 93 has also had a lot of friendly conversation throughout the night. In the hand we just witnessed we saw table neighbors Rotem Chen and Raphael Duval (sitting in seats 2 and 3) face off in a heads up battle. When we arrived at the hand, however, the flop had already been dealt , there were 11,000 chips in the pot, and 4 players in the hand.

Rotem checked utg and Raphael bet 4,200, chasing the other two players from the table. Rotem check-raised to 11,500, however. After a short period of contemplation, Raphael called.  The turn was dealt, a .

With a pained look on his face, Rotem thought for at least two minutes, then shoved all in. He was insta-called by Raphael, who threw down his , top two pair. The river was a .

If his look was any indication, Rotem’s intuition was right and his two pairs were not good enough, nor was the all in enough to scare Raphael away from the pot.

Rotem’s night was over, as he was only holding a lower two pair, , and Raphael will be well-placed to go into Day 2 – if he can hold on to his chips for one final level.

As we near the end of today’s flight, the blinds are going up, players are getting to know each other, the volume of conversations is increasing, and the busts are starting to come fast and furious. As we were covering another table, we couldn’t help notice all the jokes and laughter coming from table 100, so we approached and took a look.

What we witnessed was a battle between Rong Xu and Daniel Dubeau that took place over the course of two hands. When we first arrived the flop had already been dealt . Rong checked, Daniel raised him 6,800, then Rong came in over the top with a shove for almost 16,000. Daniel wasn’t willing to see Rong’s cards for an additional 10,000, so he folded and Rong collected all the chips.

The very next hand was another battle between the same two players. Preflop Rong raised it to 2,600, which was then re-raised by Daniel to 8,800. Again Rong shoved, but this time for 40,500, the stack he had just built pushing Daniel around in the last hand.

But although it may have been the right move, it was the wrong time, as Daniel called and flipped over his .

Rong had the , and was busted when the board came down .

With only ten minutes left in level 10, Rostyslav Kozak ended Gil Levy’s night with a showdown pocket pair versus Ace-6.

The hand began with a raise by Rostyslav to 2,200, called by Gil. The flop came down . Gil didn’t waste any time, shoving all in. But perhaps even quicker was the call by Rostyslav, showing his . When Gil flipped over his suited , he actually had quite a few outs, but in the end he didn’t pair his aces or catch any clubs on the turn or river.

Out he went, and now we’re down to 103 players.

As we crest over the hill into the final 3 levels, we thought we would share some more photos of our Day 1D competitors. With only 112 players left sitting, any one of these poker players could wind up with the most chips at the end of the night. Good luck!

After nine full 40-minute levels, our players in the WPTDeepStacks $1500 + $150 have taken their third and final break of the evening, using the opportunity to get some food or stretch their legs.

At the top of the heap ….. AND STILL heavyweight champion is Jose De La Cruz, holding 179,800 chips. However, he is not head and shoulders above the rest as he was before. As the night has progressed, more and more chips have consolidated into fewer and fewer stacks. Case in point are the six players nipping at Jose’s heels with stacks above 140,000. The full list is below.

At this point of the evening we have seen a total of 249 entries into the WPTDeepStacks Day 1D, only 135 of which remain seated. As we were scanning the room just now we heard the infamous phrase “all in!” as we passed table 105, so we zeroed in on the action.

Although the preflop betting had already gotten underway among a few players, the 25,000 chip shove by Ramesh Puradchithasan – followed by an even bigger shove by Matthew Sherman – pushed out everyone else.

Matthew:

Ramesh:

Although the odds slightly favored the pair of 7s, it wasn’t Ramesh’s day. The board came down , and Matthew scooped the chips. Now we’re down to 134, with three and a half levels to go!