The players took a break between levels 8 and 9, which allowed the tournament personnel to remove the green 25 chips from play. It also gave us the opportunity to update the leaderboard.

With almost half the field gone, we went searching for stacks above 120,000. Five players managed to grab that many chips, and sure enough, some familiar names made a second appearance among the leaders. Ernest Kelly has taken over the lead with 162,300 chips, and a new addition to the leaderboard is right behind him: Sarvesh Pershad, who is sitting on 158,800 chips and is breathing down Kelly’s neck. Nghi Van Tran is still on the board, but has dropped to fourth place with 128,200.

The eliminations are happening at a fast and steady pace, as the number of tables shrink and the hall quiets down. There are still 5 more levels to play after this one, and anything can happen. One thing is certain; with 6.3 million chips in play, expect the top bags to have sizable amounts at the end of the night.