by Simon Young

PokerStars qualifier Jack Han is making a late charge and has managed to build up from just 75,000 an hour or so before dinner to more than 900,000 in the first level since players came back. Three hands made all the difference to the online-pro New Yorker, who is being cheered on here by his girlfriend Amanda Gurr.

Jack Han: makes another raise
She watched from the rail, which is becoming an ever-smaller rectangle as the tables are broken and done away with, as first Jack found himself all in with K-Q v Q-Q on a 9-4-K flop - and his pair held up. Then, just a few hands later he was at it again, making a great call for most of his chips when, holding 8-8, the board read 2-Q-10-6. Again, the pair held.

Good things come in threes, and a short while later he busted Joe Brandenberg. Jack, 25, raised pre-flop to 40,000 holding 4-5 spades, Brandenberg called with A-9. The flop came Q-7-4 and Brandenberg moved all in for his remaining chips - Jack called with bottom pair, and a second queen appeared before another 4 on the river for his full house.

"At dinner Jack was very relaxed," said Amanda. "He is obviously delighted to have made this far, especially when he was so low on chips just a short while ago. But he thinks he can now push on. We've been here for a week or so and both been enjoying the cash games in the local hotels. It's been a lot of fun and he has made quite a bit.

"Jack's been play cards since he was little, but when he was at college he really started playing more, and has been concentrating on it for three or for years despite graduating in economics!"

Three PokerStars players have joined Humberto Brenes' table (he has about 500,000), which is perched by the rail and described as the "Second Feature Table". Wolbert Bautlema (340,000), Thomas Koo (750,000) and Ryan Lawrence (1.1 million) find themselves in tough company that also includes England's Neil Channing, who has stuck a nice little Union Jack flag in his chip stack, and Willie Tann.

Meanwhile PokerStars players Josh Evans (1.8 million) and Nicolas Atalan (1.1 million) from France continue to amass chips.

But as many of our players flourish, others who prospered early have now fallen by the wayside. One we had been following, PokerStars qualifier Daniel Elizondo from Mexico, has bitten the dust in 157th place, winning $58,570.

The blinds are now 8,000-16,000 with a 2,000 running ante.