After almost nine hours of Day 1B action, 38 players have survived to face their competition on Day 2. Of those 38, the 10 players pictured below seem to have accumulated the most chips. While exact numbers are not yet official, they are each well-positioned to enter Day 2 action tomorrow, starting at noon.

There they will join the other 26 surviving players from Day 1A and play will begin at level 17, where the blinds will be at 2,500/5,000. With the chip average at 140,000, they will have their work cut out for them.

See the complete list of Day 1 Qualifiers

We’ll see you all tomorrow, bright and early!

Some players thrive through excellent play, others by luck, and most through a combination of both. Others sometimes throw a third element into the mix – a lucky charm.

We have seen our share of bejeweled card covers, brilliant bling and even some pajamas-clad poker players here at Playground Poker Club during the World Cup of Cards. Today we saw our first stuffed turtle.

Appropriately named “Turtle”, this lucky charm has kept Nicholas Haddad alive deep into this Day 1B of the Card Players Poker Tour event. Undeniable proof of the power of the half-shell was offered just now on table 28 when Nicholas found himself heads up against Jonathan Camara.

Nicholas had run the rest of the players off the table with his 7,500 opener, although Jonathan was keen to stick around to see the flop. When it came down , Jonathan checked over to Nicholas. A quick pow-wow with Turtle resulted in a bet of 5,000, which chased Jonathan from the felt.

Was it Nicholas’ solid betting that won the hand? His reputation? His tiny stuffed turtle? We may never know.

Play continues…

Vsevolod Malamud likes to take his time.

In the small blind this hand, it was his turn to make a decision. He faced two limpers in for the minimum of 2,000, and he also had the big blind to his left to think about. He retreated into his fortress of solitude, his hoodie.

After a solid minute of checking and re-checking his cards, he flicked both wrists twice, quikly, like the paddles on a pin ball machine. His all in led to quick folds around the table, although it was only for about 40,000.

As he collected the 6,000 chips one of the players asked if he would show this time (indicating this was not his first shove today). He obliged them, tossing both cards in the air so they landed face up on the felt.

We are now smack-dab in the middle of level 13. With the blinds up at 1,000/2,000 a large begins to be more and more valuable. Among other things, a healthy chip stack provides players with the breathing room necessary in order for them to pick their spots. And the player who has the most breathing room at the moment is Nimer Ltaif, with nearly 200,000. The rest of the top five is listed below.

We are currently down to 68 players remaining, and there are only two hours left before those still alive will bag their chips and join the other Day 1A survivors for Day 2, which begins tomorrow at noon. Good luck!

On table 24 just now we saw a nice back and forth in a hand that was ultimately won by Michael Khan. Holding the short end of the stick was Daniel Hughes. In this case his opponent caught a flush on the river and Daniel wasn’t able to push him out early enough with his superior hand.

When we approached table the flop was already down, . Michael was UTG and checked, so did his neighbor to the left. Daniel Hughes led out with a bet of 5,000. This pushed out Jessie Wheatley on the button, Michael called, and his neighbor on the left got out of the way. It was now a heads up affair.

An came down on the turn, and both players checked the paired board. He didn’t know it then, but Daniel’s check sealed his fate for the day. The river was an and Michael looked serious for two minutes, contemplating his bet size. He chose 22,000 chips. He played it perfectly, as Daniel jammed and Michael called right away.

Michael turned over a suited and Daniel’s pocket couldn’t compete, although they were ahead on the turn. Too bad for Daniel, but that’s poker.

We found 4 players in the field with 6-figure stacks, led by none other than Danny Ibrahim. Xin Qi, leader at the first break, appears in 4th. Here is a look at the current board:

Karim-Olivier Kamal, after finishing in 6th position on this afternoon’s WPTDeepStacks final table for $36,940, jumped into Day 1B of the $1,100 CPPT tournament. When you just love poker…

A few other notables were spotted in the field, including Samuel Chartier, all-around solid player, tournament grinder and local cash game terror, and Mike Leah from Ontario, who finished 2nd on the Player of the Year Canadian list behind Kristen Bicknell.

The 3 players pictured above, all very skilled, are sharing the same table. Rough draw!

Xin Qi had an amazing first 4 levels. His stack started to grow early, and although Danny Ibrahim took the lead for a while, thanks to his very lucrative rockets, Qi ended the the first stint with the biggest amount in the room. Here is a list of the 6 Day 1B players who managed to double their initial stack: