Ivan Chuvyrov leads the way out of Day 1b with 1.87 million chips, one of seven players to bag a million or more. Among the players with more than 1.5 million is Ring winner Dylan Ellis from Winnipeg with 1.53 million.

The Day 1b prizes are confirmed, though there was a double bust on the final hand, leaving them with just 29 players remaining, instead of the expected 30. That meant Doug Lee got paid 30th place from the 1b prize pool, but I'm uncertain right now exactly how much that was. I'll confirm the figure tomorrow and update, but the rest of the prizes should be in order below.

Stay tuned for a look at the 1b chips shortly, and for a Day 2 post with full seat assignments to follow in an hour or so.

Place	Player	Home	Prize
1-29			Day 2
C">30	C)">Douglas Lee	C">Calgary, Ab	#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-formula="=RC">$939
31	Tim Chen	Calgary, Ab	$939
32	Michael Malm	Mississauga, On	$939
33	Wei Hou	Surrey, Bc	$939
34	Mark Aylward	Vancouver, Bc	$844
35	Ryan Teixeira	Calgary, Ab	$844
36	Lawrence Chartrand	Gatineau, Qc	$844
37	Nicholas Andreas	Medicine Hat, Ab	$770
38	Dhiraj Sharma	Edmonton, Ab	$770
39	Xiang Yu	Richmond, Bc	$770
40	Jack Benjamin	Calgary, Ab	$770
41	Phillip Lickers	Smithers, Bc	$770
42	Garrett Birch	Prince George, Bc	$770
43	Frederick Parsons	Kamloops, Bc	$770
44	Derek Vanloon	Calgary, Ab	$770
45	Amir Khan	Vancouver, Bc	$770
46	Dayton Mulawyshyn	Calgary, Ab	$713
47	Richard Mullen	Surrey, Bc	$713
48	Terrel Gaskin	Edmonton, Ab	$713
49	Srinivas Gottiparthi	Mississauga, On	$713
50	Joshua Mitchell	Calgary, Ab	$713
51	Jacob Johnston	Mississauga, On	$713
52	Jody Brett	Strathmore, Ab	$713
53	Du Chau	Ontario	$713
54	Louis Collete	New Brunswick	$713
55	Nicholas Lee	Calgary, Ab	$669
56	Leizel Castro	Edmonton, Ab	$669
57	Peter Vyrobik	Slovakia	$669
58	Dongwoo Ko	Burnaby, Bc	$669
59	Yonatan Basin	Manitoba	$669
60	Melanie Gervais	Quebec	$669
61	Ben Locker	London	$669
62	Weituoxin Wu	Burnaby, Bc	$669
63	Tommy Nguyen	Toronto, On	$669
64	Declan Murphy	Calgary, Ab	$638
65	Spencer Grigull	Aurora, On	$638
66	Christian Mirkovic	Calgary, Ab	$638
67	Jeffrey Groulx	Calgary, Ab	$638
68	Marcus Culver	Whistler, Bc	$638
69	Thi Ngo	Surrey, Bc	$638
70	Michael Smith	Saskatoon, Sk	$638
71	Matthew Clark	Edmonton, Ab	$638
72	Anthony Casten	Calgary	$638
73	Farokh Alipour	North Vancouver	$617
74	Kaan Becer	Richmond Bc	$617
75	Kimberley Kilroy	Stouffville, On	$617
76	Daniel O'Leary	Edmonton	$617
77	Ying Wong	Abbotsford, Bc	$617
78	Ferida Balic	Airdrie	$617
79	Jordon Johnstone	Chestermere	$617
80	Charles Schwalm	Calgary	$617
81	Jason Tran	Edmonton, Ab	$617
82	Dennis Didow	Sherwood Park	$606
83	David Siong-Raicar	Calgary	$606
84	Kim Pham	Calgary	$606
85	Christopher Watson	Abbotsford, Bc	$606
86	Hong (Annie)Li	Calgary	$606
87	Anthony Read	Calgary	$606
88	Phil Wright	Calgary	$606
89	Ning Zhuang	Calgary	$606
90	Dale Folyle	Trail, Bc	$303
91	Jason Ross	Edmonton	$303

The bags are out but they may have played down to 29 players tonight with a double-bust on the final hand of play. Players are now bagging up their chips and I'll have an accurate count of qualifiers shortly when I post the Day 1b chip counts.

Stay tuned for the full Day 1b payouts as well shortly.

They are dow to 36 players left now in 1b with the bags set to come out when they hit 30 players. There are still a bit more than 10 minutes left in Level 21, so it looks likely they'll play into Level 22 at least tonight, but it seems unlikely they'll make it as far as Level 23.

There are 43 players left in the game at the final break. That puts them just 13 away from the bags coming out early at 30 players, so it seems nearly impossible tonight will go the distance to the end of Level 24.

It looks like Dylan Ellis is among the leaders with a bit more than 1.2 million now. I saw one other similar looking stack when I wandered around at the break, but I'm not sure who it belongs to at the moment.

Level 20 has just begun and the field is down to 53 players left. They'll take their final break of the night following this level, then return for four more levels, at most, before the bags come out. That said, with just 53 players left alive now and the bags coming out at 30 players left, it seems very unlikely they will play until Level 24.

1b is down to 64 players left with a bit more than 20 minutes to go in Level 19. There is one more level after this one before the final break of the night, then four more levels before the hard stop, but it's still looking like it won't go that far.

They are down to 72 players left in 1b now with less than 10 minutes to play in Level 18. With the current pace, it looks pretty likely that they'll make it 30 players before the end of Level 24, but things could slow down as they approach the 5% number.

The field is dropping fast now that the bubble has burst with just 79 players left now. There are still 2 minutes to play in Level 18.

They are now in the money with 89 players left after a double-bustout burst the bubble. Jason Ross and Dale Foyle split the $606 min-cash for $303 each. There is 1 minute left in Level 17.

The clock is paused with 91 players on the board. They are waiting for hands to finish on all tables before proceeding so the money is very near.

There are 92 players left alive now, two off the 1b money spots with just under 15 minutes to play in Level 17.

They are five off the money spots with Level 17 just beginning and 95 players left alive today. Among the players still in action are Stephen Dauphinais, Weston Pring, DJ Sharma, Kyle Ho, Dale Foyle, Dylan Ellis, David Ko, Pete Fylyma, Leo Zhang, Amir Khan, Kaan Becer, Wei Hou, Ben Locker, Haven Taylor, Jason Tran, Doug Lee, and Phil Wright.

Level 16 has just finished and the players are out for their penultimate break of the day. There are 96 players still alive, 6 off the money spots when they return for Level 17.

There are just under 15 minutes to play in Level 16 and they are down to 102 players left. It's possible they'll hit the bubble before the break, but it seems almost certain that by the end of Level 17, players will be leaving the room with money in hand.

Level 16 has just begun and they are now 27 players off the money spots with 117 left in 1b. They'll take a break following this level, and the bubble will likely burst during Level 17 after they return from the break.

There are 135 players left in 1b now, 45 players away from the payouts with about 10 minutes to play in Level 15. The action is moving pretty quickly at this point with near constant calls of "Seat Open" around the room so it looks likely the bubble will burst sometime in Level 17 after the next break.

Here is a look at the Day 1b prizes. Just as a reminder, the system doesn't allow me to use the backend for Day 1 payouts as it messes up Day 2. As a result, I'll be posting the payouts today here in table form, but all the payouts for Day 1s go to Hendon and they consolidate the results there, so while Day 1 pay won't be in the backend here, they WILL be updated to Hendon profiles at the end of the series.

The final tally for entries on this Monster Stack game was 1,050, so the four-digit field was pretty much always guaranteed. But with the numbers now confirmed, this edition of the Monster will have $346,500 in total prizes with at least 53 players returning for Day 2 on Thursday.

There are 171 players left in 1b now with money starting to be handed out at 90th place. I'll have the Day 1b prizes up shortly, and while I have eyes on the Day 2 prizes, I'll wait to post those until later tonight, as they may change if today doesn't play down to 30 players.

If they hit 30 at the end of today, however, it will mean that the winner tomorrow will be pocketing $58,109 for their troubles. For today's flight, 90th place can expect to make $606 while the player who bubbles Day 2 in 31st place tonight will make $939.

Stay tuned for a new post shortly with the full 1b payouts, and look for the Day 2 payouts to be posted later tonight.

The 1b field is down to 189 with Level 13 just finishing. That puts them less than 100 off the paid spots for tonight.

Entries are now closed for the Monster stack, and the final number on the board at the end of entries is 600. If that holds it will mean a total field of 1,050 for prizes of $346,500.

With 600 entries, the 1b field will start getting paid at 90 players, and they'll bag up at least 30 players at the end of the night. I'll confirm all the numbers when the prizes are posted.

They are now playing the final few minutes of Level 12 and they'll head out for their dinner break following this level. The total entries are now approaching 1,030 with nearly $340k in prizes, but that will still likely grow a bit before the end of dinner.

When they return from dinner for Level 13 entries will be closed and they'll have 12 more levels to play on the 1b schedule before the bags come out for sure. Of course, they could end earlier if they hit 5% of the field before then, which happened in Day 1a with about 19 minutes remaining in Level 22. Day 2 action will begin at the earliest blind level that either Day 1 ended at with 30-minute levels through the end of Level 24, and the 45-minute Day 2 levels kicking in for Level 25.

The Monster field just hit four digits with 1,007 total across both days. There are 557 entries for 1b now as the final level of entries kicks off. Players have the rest of Level 12, plus the dinner break, to get into the game, so it's likely there will be a few more entries before it all shuts down for the night at about 6:15.

It's looking like a lock for the Monster field to hit four digits now with the combined field at 992 and more than an hour left to enter. The 1b field is flirting with 550 entries now as well, so the Monster has certainly awoken today!

The 1b field is up to 528 now with Level 11 just beginning. That puts the two-day total at 978, just 22 entries away from 1,000. Prizes are now approaching $325k with about one hour and 40 minutes left to get into this one.

The 1b field is now over 500 entries for 966 in total across both starting days. That puts the prize pool close to $320k with a couple of hours left to enter the game still.

The final four levels of entry for Day 1b are now underway with the combined field now at 925 entries for prizes of a bit more than $305k. There are now 475 entries for 1b, so a 500+ field for today looks very possible.

The players are just heading out for their second break of the day with 462 entries on the board for Day 1b. That pushes the combined prizes slightly higher than $300k now with about three hours left to enter the game. That puts the 2024 Monster stack ahead of both previous editions from the May series with the 2024 field more than 100 ahead of 2022, and nearly 100 ahead of 2023.

The combined prize pool is now just shy of $300k with 454 entries on the board for 1b and less than 5 minutes to play until the second break of the day. There are still four more levels of entry following the next break so there's a good chance that today's field will cap 500, though 1,000 total seems like it might be a stretch.

That still means this year is ahead of the May 2023 totals for this event already, so everything from here is just gravy on top.

Action is now in Level 6 and the Day 1b field is at 370 now for 820 across both starting days. That puts the prizes a bit more than $270k with four hours left to get into today's fight.

The 1b field is such a monster that it doesn't even fit in a single room. Several 1b tables are already playing out in Chrome to supplement the full Sundabce room at the moment.

Event #9: $400 Monster Stack ($330 + $70)

Date: Day 1a/b: May 7/8, 2024, 11 AM
Start Stack: 40,000
Blinds: 30 Min
Late Entry: 12 Levels (~6:15 PM)
Day 1: 24 Levels or 5% of the field (~12:45 AM)

Day 1a Entries: 450
Day 1a Prizes: $148,500

Day 1a was a Monster with 450 entries, 120 above the Day 1a figure for May 2023 in this event. That bodes well for the final tally to beat 2023, but this may well be one of the unusual cases where 1b isn't that much bigger than 1a as there is a $10k WSOP Main Event satellite running on Wednesday as well.

It remains to be seen how big 1b will be and how many players opt for the satellite instead of this one, but regardless, a 500+ field should be easily within reach. Last year, 512 entries were recorded on Day 1b for a total of 842. Given that a 1b field that equals this year's 1a will crack that total, it seems a pretty safe bet to guess this year will cap last year regardless of the side event.

Players will start with 40k in chips with the first hands being dealt at 11 AM. Entries are open for more than 7 hours, so there will be plenty of time for the field to swell. Day 1 plays for 24 levels or until the field hits 5%, whichever comes first, and while Day 1a bagged with a bit less than 19 minutes remaining in Level 22, 1b will keep playing until 5% or Level 24 with Day 2 beginning at the earliest stop time for either Day 1.

Ring winner and 2023 API Player of the Year, Joon "Huge Hammer" Park is the stack to beat with more than 2 million bagged on Day 1a and there were six other 1a players who bagged a million or more. While I will likely be late to the game tomorrow, Day 1b of the Monster will be my focus for the day.