The legs on table 18 were starting to wobble due to the pressure the stacks above it were exerting on it. Adam Jerny, Laurence Houghton and Nysret Ahmeti all had pretty impressive stacks. Then in a whirlwind of a few hands Houghton grabbed most of them and with it lept into the chip lead. Here was the best of the bunch.
Team Pokerstars Sportstar Fatima Moreira De Melo opened the action making it 2,500 to play from early position. The raise didn't scare many people into folding though as she received calls from Ahmeti (Cut-Off), Jerny (Button), Houghton (Small Blind) and the Big Blind.
The dealer prepared to deliver the flop and Houghton checked in the dark. The flop was and the action was checked around to Ahmeti who bet 3,000. Everyone folded with the exception of Houghton who called from the Small Blind. The turn was the and again Houghton checked, this time after seeing the turn card. Ahmeti bet 4,000 and again Houghton called. The river brought the and this time there was no checking for Houghton as he fired 18,400 into Ahmeti. Ahmeti made the call.
Houghton:
Ahmeti:
Ahmeti turned trips on the turn but was pipped to the post by the rivered flush of Houghton.
Our chip leader with exactly 190,000 - and in fact chip leader overall going into Day 2 - is Laurence "rivermanl" Houghton. He was seated all day at our primary Table Of Death - among the folks who passed through there were Ramzi Jelassi and ElkY (both busted) and Daniel Negreanu (still in with 54,200) - but Houghton was not a big stack by any means until the latter stages of the day.
Some of the folks who, like ElkY and Jelassi, will definitely not be progressing any further in this tournament owing to their complete lack of chips are John Juanda, David Benyamine, Rob Hollink, Marcel Luske and Dario Minieri.
A happier day, though, was had by the likes of Fatima Moreira de Melo, Jan Heitmann, Nacho Barbero, reigning champion Pascal Perrault and latest-of-the-latecomers Tom "durrrr" Dwan - all will be joining the Day 1a survivors tomorrow back in the refined interior of the Kursalon for Day 2.
The bags are still being counted, but it will most likely be somewhere in the region of 160 runners who finished Day 1b with chips still remaining in their possession, meaning that the Day 2 runners will number roughly 280. The full official chip counts will magically appear here at PokerNews in an hour or so, but beyond that, until noon tomorrow, it's goodnight Vienna.
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and the action was checked around to Ahmeti who bet 3,000. Everyone folded with the exception of Houghton who called from the Small Blind. The turn was the 
and again Houghton checked, this time after seeing the turn card. Ahmeti bet 4,000 and again Houghton called. The river brought the 
and this time there was no checking for Houghton as he fired 18,400 into Ahmeti. Ahmeti made the call.
