Alexander Kravchenko doubled up shortly before the dinner break. He earned something in the region of 25,000 when his pocket jacks stayed good through a board of 5♥8♦3♦9♣4♦. That, though, is merely around about the average stack at the moment as plenty of players have taken advantage of some wild chip swings to put together some very sizeable stacks.
A third of the field remains on their dinner break, leaving their stacks without any formal means of identification. Some are clearly northward of about 60,000 though and once everyone has returned to the room, sated, our next plan is to scoot around and match those big stacks to their rightful owners.
In the meantime, kick back and enjoy some of Neil Stoddart's photography from around the day 1a tournament area.
Mark Gork
Jason Mercier
Jonas Klausen
Tom McEvoy
Dario Alioto
Mike McDonald
Juha Helppi
Almira Skripchenko
Johannes Strassmann
Brandy and chips
