This afternoon’s starting flight of the Strangers in the Night, Day 1B, brought out a large field of players that contributed 162 entries to this three-day event.

The crowd started out small, but new players started filing shortly after noon and the action picked up pace from there. Following the first break in the action, there was a huge uptick in re-entries, a number that climbed to reach 36 before the end of the sixth level of play. Said Michailidis and David Bonneau emerged as the big stacks early in the afternoon and maintained large stacks all the way to the end of play, bagging 193K and 174K respectively. But it proved to be the later stages that were more decisive-and provided more chips-than the earlier levels as three players-Hugh Baird, Matthew Wilkins and Christian Rho-bagged over 200K. You can see the full list of chip counts of day 2 qualifiers here.

This edition of the Strangers in the Night has attracted 364 entries so far, with the third and final starting flight running tonight at 7:00pm, this event is on pace to cruise past the $65,000 guarantee on the prize pool.

 

We are approaching the end of play on Day 1B, with 35 players left in contention. The current chip average provides fairly deep stacks-roughly 48 big blinds-for the remaining players so we are unlikely to see many players bust from here.

Some players, like David Bonneau and Said Michailidis, have managed to maintain big stacks throughout this flight, but a huge hand vaulted Hugh Baird up the leader board, putting him in contention with, if not surpassing, Bonneau and Michailidis. Stay tuned for a full list of chip counts following the end of play.

Although most of the play has been relatively cautious over the last few levels, there have still been moments of excitement and surprising pre-flop action. A series of pre-flop all ins just erupted on a few different tables, but this hand stands out among them.

With the blinds at 800/1.6K, Paul El-Khoury opened the action from early position to 3.6K. He picked up calls from Joe Gonzalez, in the cut-off, and Said Michailidis, on the button, before the action came to Anderson Frank-Graham, in the big blind. Frank-Graham quickly raised all in, splashing his 32.5K-stack across the felt before waving his arms in an attempt to conjure the poker gods. El-Khoury, the initial raiser, took the opportunity to re-raise all in for 43K, expecting to get the other two players out of the pot, however, Gonzalez also raised all in!

All this action chased Michailidis out of the pot so hands could be tabled. It was for Frank-Graham, pocket sixes for El-Khoury and pocket queens for Gonzalez. The flop gave Frank-Graham a solid lead, and the runout, , did not provide the help his opponents needed. The result was a big triple up for Frank-Graham, and a small side pot for Gonzalez that helped mitigate his loss.

Play continues in level 13 with 47 players remaining.

The players are off on their final break of this flight, and only 58 remain in contention. The friendly vibe continued in the lead up to the break, as “pot control” emerged as the new mantra for many in the field. Now that the end of the flight is in sight, expect that trend to continue as players hope to bag chips for tomorrow’s Day 2.

David Bonneau quietly made his way up the leader board in the last few levels to accumulate a stack of about 120 big blinds.

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
David	Bonneau	192,000
Jean Maurice	Lauzon	177,000
Antonio	De La Cruz	173,500
Said	Michailidis	158,900
Nick	Nickoletopoulos	136,000

Now that the field has been reduced to 61 players and the end of the flight is in sight, the pots are bigger and the stakes are higher, but the players have kept a lighthearted approach to this flight.

In between the serious moments when big pots are being decided, there is no shortage of banter going between players, from one table to another. A good number of the remaining players have some poker history between them so they have managed to strike a balance between serious competition and playful banter.

The stacks are still relatively deep, as the chip average provides roughly 55 blinds, so there is far less movement in the field than there was in the earlier levels, but the pressure of the blinds will continue to mount throughout the afternoon so expect things to change before long.

Here’s a look at some of the remaining players:

Play has just begun in level 9 with 81 players remaining on Day 1B. The lead up to the recent break was characterized by some wild action on several different tables.

For example, Chanwoo Lee managed to triple up his short stack following a three-way all on a flop. Lee held , for a straight flush draw, but he was up against a higher flush draw and a two-pair hand. He called for a black four on the turn but instead he got the ! Not quite what he asked for but enough to save his tournament life.

On other tables, there was no shortage of big pots. And one player, Mathieu Savoie-Vocino, seemed to be collecting most of them. He now holds a huge chip lead over his rivals, but with five levels of play left, there is still time for lots of chips to change hands.

 

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Mathieu	Savoie-Vocino	172,000
Vsevolod	Malamud	126,000
Nicolas	Majdalani	111,000
Said	Michailidis	105,500
Johnny	Verhoeven	99,600
Nicolas	Laliberte	93,700
Jean Maurice	Lauzon	92,000

Despite the end of the re-entry period, the remaining players in Day 1B are not shy about playing big pots. Just ask Said Michailidis and Jamie Sequeira.

A hand that just played out between Michailidis, Sequeira and Philipp Gotschy shows that the players are doing all they can to accumulate chips. With roughly 20,000 in chips in the middle, this was obviously a three-bet pot. We arrived at the table with the flop action on Sequeira, who was in position. The board read , and Sequeira put out a bet of 10K, which led to a fold from Gotschy and a call from Michailidis. The turn brought the . Michailidis spent some time in the tank before his action and eventually moved all in for 46,150. Sequeira immediately asked for a count and asked “cooler or what?” Michailidis sat frozen, offering nothing in response. Sequeira cut out calling chips, looked over his stack and made the call. It was pocket kings for Michailidis and pocket queens for Sequeira. Cooler, indeed. As neither player had a diamond re-draw, there wasn’t much of a sweat for the river, which brought a blank in the .

Thanks to that big pot, Michailidis is now among our chip leaders. Stay tuned for a leader board update.

The late registration and re-entry period has just closed on Day 1B of the Strangers in the Night. There are currently 111 players remaining in the field, out of a total of 162 entries. The total entries were helped by 36 re-entries, leaving just over 4 million in chips up for grabs in this flight.

The chip average still provides over 70 big blinds, leaving the players lots of room to maneuver. Now that players can no longer re-enter this flight, it remains to be seen whether or not the aggression from the early levels will continue or if players will focus on outlasting one another until the end of play today.

For all those that missed out on this flight, the third and final starting flight of this edition of the Strangers in the Night starts tonight at 7:00pm. This event is on pace to easily surpass the $65,000 prize pool guarantee so make sure you don’t miss out!