The chip counts are in and 66 players survived Day 1b to bag chips for Sunday's Day 2. Anders Povirk from Troy, MI leads the 1b counts with 959k which is about 100k more than the Day 1a leader bagged.

See the Chip Counts tab for a look at all the qualifying Day 1b stacks with the top ten stacks below.

There were 436 entries on the board when registration closed, though that number is still to be confirmed. If it holds, that puts $1,181,700 into the prize pool across both days.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Kytsei.

The Day 1b field is a little smaller than expected today with 416 entries on the board at dinner. There are still about 3 hours left to get into the game, but the entries will likely be slower once they return from dinner. They need another 12 entries before the end of reg to match the prize pool at the end of 1b last year, so the record may well depend on a big final flight tomorrow.

The Day 1b field is up to 404 entries now, which is still quite a bit short of last year's number of 482. The total field now for both days is 748 for total prizes of $1,133,320 at the moment with about 3.5 hours left to enter the game.

The 1b field is just shy of 400 entries now with action in Level 8, putting the 1b prize pool at $599,940. There are 242 players still with chips in the game and just over 4 hours left to enter.

The two-day prize pool is now sitting at $1,121,100 with 740 total entries so far.

The total field is up to 711 entries for a total prize pool of $1,077,165 at the moment. There are still a bit more than 5 hours left to enter 1b and the prize pool is already with $100k of last year's full two-day numbers.

The game needs 429 entries today to match the two-day prize pool numbers from last year, which seems quite doable at this stage and they are about 120 entries off the Day 1b field size from 2023. If they hit the 2023 number of 482, that would leave the two-day prizes at $1.251 million. If today's flight manages to hit the 15% increase from Day 1a, that would put the end-of-day prizes at more than $1.35 million.

The Main Event promised to be a big one, and the promise is coming true. With Day 1b action still in Level 5, the field is up to 340 for today's flight for 684 in total across both days now.

That puts the current prize pool at just over $1 million. There were 482 entries on Day 1b last January, for a total prize pool at the end of two days of play worth $1,171,095, so this year's prize pool is about $100k shy of that total already with six hours left to enter today's flight.

Day 1a was about 15% bigger than last year's 1a, and if that holds for today it should mean they get something like 550 entries for today's flight. It remains to be seen how big today will get, but the prizes are already looking pretty solid.