It was another marathon day, 12 full hours of poker pugnacity.

With 243 entries on the day (including 52 re-entries) the competition remained fierce until the very end. The 47 players still seated will join yesterday’s Day 1A survivors on Day 2. There, they will battle it out on their way to Day 3 and a share of the $750,000 prize pool.

Congratulations to everyone who made it all the way through!

Below are some photos of our chip leaders. A comprehensive list of chip amounts have been posted under the Results tab. Tomorrow at 11:00am is Day 1C, and Day 2 begins at noon, this Monday February 4th.

See you all at the tables.

It looked like it was going to be another great hand for David Zhang. There were a lot of chips in the pot, he had read his opponent correctly, he got his chips in and was ahead… all except for one thing: the river.

The hand began with an UTG raise by Marc Etienne McLaughlin to 7,000. David Zhang re-raise it to 22,000 from mid-position, and the table folded back around the Marc Etienne. He thought for a minute and then called. It would later turn out that Marc Etienne had pocket Aces, and that any hesitation on his part was pure posturing.

The flop was dealt and Marc Etienne checked, hoping David would bet. He did, 15,000. Unsurprisingly Marc Etienne called. The turn was a , which totally changed the calculus. With flush and straight possibilities on the board now, any conservative behavior on Marc Etienne’s part was conceivably very real. He checked.

This time David bet 25,000. Marc Etienne threw caution to the wind and jammed for his stack, which was larger than David’s. His bet was called, and the players flipped their cards.

David:

Marc Etienne:

David had made another great call! His flush dominated the board, and there was nothing that could stop him from doubling up once again, this time late in the game. Well, almost nothing.

Unfortunately for him a dropped like a stone, smashing his celebration to pieces. Marc Etienne had made his boat and David’ night was done. With Day 1B now only 10 minutes away from its conclusion, Dave was so close!

Oh well, that’s poker. With 50 players remaining, the tournament director has just announced that the remaining players have only four hands left. Good luck to them all as they make their way across the finish line and onto Day 2.

David Zhang thought about his options for a full five minutes.

While there was only about 25,000 in the pot with the board showing , the reason his choice was so agonizing was because if he guessed wrong his night was over. His opponent, Simon Despres-Bellavance, had raised more than David had on the river.

At times David simply stared down at his chips, deep in thought. At others he looked over at Simon searching for a read. David tried it all – he talked himself through the hand, guessed about the possibility of a bluff, asked Simon if he would show him his cards after a potential fold. But in the end the decision he made was based on Simon’s checked turn. He made the call.

Flipping over his , David’s flush turned out to be good. His double-up put him right back at the chip average and likely boosted his confidence in his poker acumen as well.

There remains just under an hour in tonight’s flight.

 

 

Players have just returned from their final break of the day, now entering level 13. They will play this and two other 40-minute levels. Whoever still has chips in front of them at the end of level 15 will bag them up in preparation for Day 2, which begins Monday at noon.

The top-5 players are listed below, but for now the top player in today’s Day 1B flight is Denis Cyr, boasting a pile of chips nearing a quarter million.

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Denis	Cyr	238,500
Mike	Leah	227,000
Danny	Boyaci	209,500
Adam	Lamers	209,000
Matthew	Wilkins	197,000

Today’s $1,500 + $150 WPTDeepStacks Day 1B had a total of 243 participants enter throughout the day (including 52 re-entries). As we move towards the end of a long day of poker we find ourselves with less than 100. At the moment there are only 92 players in fact!

Below are some photos of those players still in the hunt and busy stacking chips.

Badri Abboud just took down Daune Fernandez’s Queens with his suited 10-9, making a set on the river.

Badri (in the photo below on the right) saw a flop of before he jammed. His left him with middle pair and a flush draw. Daune had and was ahead at that point, but as happens so often in poker there was a surprise waiting on the river.

The last two cards were dealt and and Daune headed home for the night.

With four and a half levels to go (or just over three hours of play) we still have more than 100 players in the mix. But that number is dropping fast, and we don’t expect to see more than 40 players still alive by the time we finish level 15. Then again, it’s poker – anything can happen!

Over on table 25 we noticed that an all-in card had been placed in front of Carla Sabini so we took a closer look. It appeared that the hand had begun with a preflop raise to 2,200 by Adam Lamers, a raise that had been called by Simon Despres-Bellavance before Carla had jammed for her remaining chips.

Her shove was able to push out Adam, but Simon was game. He called.

Simon was in seat 6, and flipped over . Carla in seat 8 flipped over . The dealer dealt the board out and Carla doubled up to stay alive. And while she only found her stack back near what she started with at the beginning of the day, she is surely happy to be moving forward with that rather than not at all.

 

Srinivas Gottiparthi, back again today to take a second crack at making Day 2 in the WPTDeepStacks event, raised to 2,000 in late position preflop. It led to a re-raise all in from Michael Korovine on the button, which pushed everyone else out of the hand even though the amount he shoved with was relatively small.

As happens often here at Playground, a preflop shove call often leads to someone flipping over pocket Aces. In this case Srinivas had exactly that, as his faced off against Michael’s . The matchup was a near slamdunk for Srinivas, and Michael had his coat on before the dealer could even start dealing out the board.

There was a slight pause in Michael’s movements as the first couple of cards looked like they might give him a chance at a low straight, but in the end the board of didn’t offer that possibility.

Srinivas collected the small amount offered by Michael, adding them to his stack. Play continues.