When Mike Leah rolls into town, it's a pretty safe bet he'll find some success. Last time he was here in January, he cashed the Main Event and followed that up with 5th place in the High Roller. This time around, he bagged the big stack for Day 1b of the Main Event, enough for him to also eclipse the Day 1a chip leader for the full lead so far. Sunny Lubana, Kyle Ho, Vincent Lam and John Scalise round out the top five ranging from just over 900k for Lubana down to almost 740k for Scalise.

Full 1b stacks are under the Chip Counts tab.

Day 1b Payouts to 24th Place

The clock is paused with 10 minutes left in Level 18 and they are playing the final few hands before the bags come out. There are 25 players remaining now, but it's possible they will lose some before the end.

They've played about 10 minutes into Level 18 and they are down to 27 players remaining on the final three tables.

Main Event Day 1b Prizes to 28th Place

I've just moved over to the Main Event, and they've already started paying out the 39 paid spots for tonight. There are about 25 minutes to play in Level 17, and one more level to play after this one before the hard stop. They could stop earlier if they hit 13 players before the end of Level 18, but with 35 players still in the game right now, it seems more likely they'll bag more than 13 at the end of Level 18.

The Day 1b players are on their 45-minute dinner break now with the total field at 432 and 250 for 1b. That puts the combined prizes over $650k with three more levels of entry once they return from dinner.

With Level 7 about to start in 1b of the Main Event, the combined field is up to 402 entries for prizes of more than $600k. There are 220 entries on the board for 1b alone with six levels left to enter today's flight.

Note that my previous prize pool info today was inaccurate, as I just noticed I was working out 1b prizes with the wrong buy-in amount. That has been corrected now, and the accurate prize pool at the moment is $609,030 and climbing.

The action is still in Level 4 in Day 1b of the Main Event, but the field for 1b is already ahead of the opening flight. There are 188 entries on the board now for total prizes of almost $340k now, but I expect today's field to approach 250 at least before entries close later today.

Event #11: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185)

Day 1: May 9-11, 2024, 11 AM
Day 2: May 12, 2024, Noon
Day 3: May 13, 2024, Noon
Start Stack: 40k
Blinds: 40/60 Min
Late Entry: 12 Levels (~8:30 PM)
Day 1: 18 Levels (~1 AM)

Day 1 Entries: 182
Day 1 Qualifiers: 16
Day 1 Prizes: $275,730

16 players made it through to Day 2 from the opening flight of the Main, and only one player bagged more than a million chips, Toronto's Tommy Nguyen. Zeyu 'Skytrain' Huang bagged up the second stack worth 880k, and the red-hot Eric Wasylenko, winner of two other Main Events already this year, also bagged a top-five stack in 1a.

Players start Day 1 play with 40k in chips for 40-minute levels, with blinds jumping to 60 minutes on Day 2 and 3. There will be 12 levels of late entry, meaning that players can enter Day 1 as late as 8:30 PM each day. Day 1 plays for 18 levels at most, and will do Day 1 payouts if they hit 15% of the field before the end of 18. At least 5% of the field from each Day 1 will bag for Day 2 and play will end early if they hit that number.

Friday's second flight likely won't get much of my attention as I'll be focused on Day 2 of the Flip & Go, but I'll move to the Main when Event #12 is complete to finish off the day there. Saturday's Day 1c should get my full attention.