There are 26 players left alive at the end of Day 1a play after they went the distance and finished two off the early exit point for the night. Hasan Al Ghunaim, who was runner-up in the Main Event at WSOP-C Calgary last month, bagged the biggest stack from today by a mile.

He has close to 800k in his bag while the next closest player, Eric Wasylenko (who won two events at Casino Yellowhead in Nov and was fourth in the last two Main Events on the PPT), is playing 340k to start Day 2 on Sunday. Benson Westwood also bagged more than 300k while 7 players bagged in the 200k range including half of the Team runner-up Kim Graham, PLO winner David Ko, 6-Max winner Thomas Taylor, and PLO runner-up Mal "Puppies" Hagan.

Day 1a Chips

There are 31 players left alive at the start of the final level of play tonight. If they lose 7 players before the end of this levels they'll bag early, but no matter what the bags will come out within 40 minutes.

There are about 20 minutes left in Level 13 and the field is down to 33 players left. They'll bag up at the end of Level 14, or at 24 players, whichever comes first so it still looks like an even bet right now.

Hasan Al Ghunaim has chipped up even more since I last looked and is now sitting on about 570k, the clear big stack in the room. His table is pretty deep, however, as Colten Yamagishi is sitting to his right with about 350k right now, which looks to be the second biggest in the room. Pete Fylyma looks to have just under 300k while PLO winner David Ko is playing 218k and Kris Steinbach has just under 200k.

There are 37 players left alive as they head out for the final break of the night. There are two levels left in the night once they return from the break, but they might end sooner than that if they hit 24 players first. At this point, it looks like an even bet either way.

It looks like Hasan Al Ghunaim, who was runner-up in the Main Event in Calgary last month, is the chip leader right now with around 450k in front of him. Pete Fylyma has about 300k while Colten Yamagishi is playing about 280k. Last Night's PLO winner, David Ko, has about 250k while Kris Steinbach and Kijoon Nam look to be playing about 190k each.

The satellite game is up to 14 tickets now with 97 entries on the board. That also leaves $266 left over for 15th place with about 25 minutes left to register for the final Main Event satellite of the series. There is another satellite on the schedule tomorrow night, but it's for entry to the High Roller, which starts Day 1 on Sunday.

The remaining field tonight is, of course, still full of familiar players. Among the players still fighting for a bag are Steve Azizi, Pete Fylyma, Pam MacNaughton, George Broumas, Kris Steinbach, Abe Shawile, Thomas Taylor, Eric Wasylenko, Colten Yamagishi, Weston Pring, Leonard Siebenga, Glenn Tarasoff, Mal Hagan, Justin Pennell, David Ko, DJ Sharma, Deven Lane, Michael Bernstein, Kyle Bonanzo, Andy Truong, Brett Worton, Karim Chatur, Johnny Yu, and Daniel Lefebvre.

They are down to 63 players left in Day 1a with Level 11 just underway. The average stack right now is about 80k, or 40 big blinds.

The field for Day 1a is now confirmed at 169 entries and 69 players are still alive hiping for a bag in a few hours. They have about 3.5 hours left to play in the scheduled day, but if they play to 24 before then they'll bag things up early.

Meanwhile, there are 70 entries in the final Main Event satellite with action in Level 3 and entries open for more than an hour. That puts 10 tickets in the pool now with $305 left over for 11th place.

Level 10 is just underway with 169 entries on the board at the end of the dinner break. That puts the 1a prizes just shy of $160k and means that they'll either bag up at the end of Level 14 or with 24 players left in the game, whichever comes first.

The dinner break has just kicked off and entries will be closed in just under 45 minutes. With 167 on the board now, the prizes for 1a are at $157,064.

The registration desk is still open until the end of the dinner break, and it's likely we will see a surrender or two and a few more entries before they sit back down for Level 10.  At this point, the early end for tonight would come at 24 players, but that could change depending on entries over dinner.

For players looking for a cheap shot at tomorrow's flight, however, the final Main Event satellite is about to get underway in the Poker room right now with 45 entries on the board currently. There were 17 tickets to be won in last night's game, so quite a few people have already gotten some cheap seats to what looks to be a pretty big prize pool.

There is just over an hour left to get into the opening flight for the Main Event with about 20 minutes to play in Level 9. The field is up to 162 with 78 players still at the felt.

The prizes for today are up to $152,361 but it's likely we'll still see a few more entries before the end of the dinner break.

The final level of registration has just begun with 160 entries on the board and prizes of $150,480. There is still about an hour and 20 minutes left to get into this flight with entries open through the dinner break following this level.

Once Level 10 begins at about 8:15, entries for 1a will be closed, but players will have another full day to shoot for a bag tomorrow in Day 1b.

Level 8 is about halfway finished, and the pace of entries is understandably slowing a bit as the blinds get bigger. Players buying in during Level 8 still have 30 big blinds, and will have 25 bigs for Level 9 and 20 bigs after dinner in Level 10 so there is still a reasonable amount of play in a starting stack.

That said, many of the players who bust now may well wait until tomorrow to get into Day 1b with 300 big blinds to start the day, though we may see today's field creep up to 160 or so before it all closes in about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

There are still about 2 hours to get into the opening flight for the Main Event today and the field just hit 150 entries for prizes of more than $140k. With another full flight to play tomorrow, total entries of 350 or more seems like a decent bet given that Day 1b is traditionally bigger than 1a.

The side game tonight is another satellite game for tickets to the Main Event. The satellites this week have been very well attended with 17 tickets given away last night.

For $190 players get a 1 in 7 shot at Main Event tickets in a game with 20-minute blinds and a 15k starting stack. Action on the game kicks off at 7:30 pm in the Poker Room.

The field is approaching 150 entries now with Level 7 just beginning. There are about 2 hours and 40 minutes left to enter today's flight, so it seems almost certain today's field will be bigger than 150.

The players are now on their second break of Day 1a with 139 entries on the board. There are just under 3 hours left to enter the game today, but there is also another full Day 1 flight tomorrow.

It seems pretty likely the field will be 150 or more by the end of entries today, which bodes well for a 300+ entry field by the end of entries tomorrow.

There are 136 entries in the game now with just over 10 minutes left in Level 6. They'll head out for their second break of the day following this level then return for three more levels of poker before the dinner break and the end of entries following dinner.

They are nearing 130 entries today with just over five minutes to play in Level 5. There are about 3 hours and 45 minutes left to enter today's flight, so a Day 1a field approaching 150 seems pretty likely at this point.

The early rush has slowed somewhat, but the numbers are continuing to tick upward regularly. The field is now at 124 entries with 97 players alive and prizes of $116,622 with about 30 minutes to play in Level 5.

The prizes are now up to $111,920 with 119 entries on the board and about 5 minutes to play in Level 4. Entries remain open for a bit less than 4.5 hours so it seems likely today's field will have 140ish in it at least.

It's already a pretty big field for Day 1a today and some of that might be down to a few new faces I've spotted in the field for the time. Weston Pring is in for his first event of the series today, as is Clint Cockburn from Saskatchewan and Johnny "WowWow" Yu from BC. Holly Berry and Pam MacNaughton also appear to be here playing their first event this series.

The players are on their first break of Day 1a now with 112 entries on the board of prizes of $105,336. There are just over 5 hours left in entries for today's flight and a full flight to go tomorrow, so this is looking like it will easily be the biggest event of the series. That was always going to be true for the prize pool, given the $1,100 buy-in, but it looks like this one will top out the field size for the series as well.

They are about 5 minutes from the first break of Day 1a and the prize pool is already over $100k. There are 110 entries on the board for current prizes of $103,455 with more than 5 hours left in today's entries, and a full Day 1b to play tomorrow.

As expected, it's a big field here on the opening day of the Main Event. Level 3 has just begun, and there are already 95 entries on the board with 89 players still in action. That puts the prizes just shy of $90k right now and it seems pretty likely it will top $100k before entries close today.

Event #12: $1,100 Main Event ($990 + $110)
Day 1a: Feb 23 - 1 pm
Day 1b: Feb 24 - 1 pm
Day 2: Feb 25 - 1 pm
Day 3: Feb 26 - noon
Blinds: 40 Min
Start Stack: 30,000
Late Entry: 9 Levels (~8:15 pm)
Day 1 Ends: Level 14 (~11:50 pm)

It's time for the big show ... the $1,100 Main Event. With two starting flights, the Main Event is likely to be the biggest field of the series.

Day 1 action kicks off at 1 pm on both starting days and players will sit down with 30k in chips. Levels increase every 40 minutes on Day 1 and there are 9 levels of late entry. Including breaks, that will put the final chance to enter Day 1 play at about 8:15 pm on each starting day.

Day 1 play continues for 14 levels at most. If the opening flights go the distance, that will bring the bags out just before midnight on Day 1, but there is always the chance for an early exit if they play to 12.5% of the field plus one before then.

I will be late to the floor for Day 1a but I should be ready to roll before the first break.