We witnessed a hand that involved Lucas Drolet who was already sitting on a decent stack before the hand.

With blinds 800/1,600 Bill Kontaratos raised from UTG to 4,000. Players folded to Lucas Drolet who called on the button, with only the blinds left to act. Small blind Richard Johansen shoved all-in for 27,500.

The big blind folded which left Bill with a decision to make. He seemed less interested in Johansen’s all-in than Drolet’s big stack. With Drolet still left to act, Bill took a few minutes and decided to fold. Drolet snap-called and tabled his hand.

Lucas Drolet:

Richard Johansen:

With the ace showing it’s head on the flop, Johansen knew he needed a miracle-induced two outer to win.

The turn: and river: sealed Richard Johansen’s fate and he was eliminated in 168th place.

Bill Kontaratos informed Lucas that Johansen’s shove had saved him, since he (Bill) had folded a better ace. Even though the pot was not huge by any standard, Lucas was very happy to add the chips to his stack.

While the players were on break after level 6 we made a quick tour of the Tournament Tent to find out if any player has managed to stack some serious chips.

The late registration period will continue until 10:45pm, at the begining of level 10. We currently have a total of 444 entries, and 305 players remaining.

Lasha Kapanadze takes the lead with 147,800 chips. But, it’s a very slight lead because Blagojce Jakovljevic is hot on his trail with a decent 134,500 stack. We spotted a few stacks above the 100,000 benchmark:

The Tournament Tent is buzzing here as players keep coming in for the Monster Stack Day 1. With the late registration period closing at around 10:45pm, there is no doubt that we can expect the 357 entries to grow still.

After witnessing 4 days of intense action in the multiple Day 1 flights of the Colossus Tournament, it is quite a change of pace today. In general play is more careful, and players know they are equipped with a lot of chips, which gives them a whole different range of possibilities.

We went around the tables and some of the players caught our eye. Here are a few photos of the players taken in levels 1 and 2.

Players are filing in and taking in the scene here at the Tournament Tent. As is the custom an impressive team is ready to greet them. From the lovely waiting staff, the chef at the buffet, the tournament personnel and, of course, the squad of black-clad dealers, everything is ready. The boards are already showing 203 entries and the number rises every time we look up. This promises to be quite the event.

This 2-day event has only one Day1 and it’s happening now. There is, however, plenty of time to make it down here and register. The registration period will be open until the end of the break following level 9 (i.e. the beginning of level 10). With blinds set at 40 minutes that gives the players more than six hours (roughly until 10:45pm) to register. This is a freezout tournament so re-entry will not be permitted.

Since this is a Monster Stack tournament the players will start with 30,000 chips. Play on Day 1 continues until the end of level 12, while play on Day 2 will continue until a winner is crowned! This tournament features a $150,000 Guaranteed prize pool.

As we are writing this the tournament director has just said the 4 magic words: “Shuffle-up and deal!”