Mario Nicolau checked the flop of with 9,000 chips in the pot. After a small aside to table-mate Tim Timotheu and a sly glance at his opponent betting 4,000, Nicolau casually put all of his chips over the line, 37,000 in total.
He carried on talking, before eventually getting a fold and decided to show his hand, .
"You're famous, now." says Timotheu, himself up to over 35,000. Nicolau smiled broadly and piled up over 50,000 chips. There is no more late registration and players will now be battling on for a Day 2 berth without the facility of re-entry, too.
With 275 total entries, we currently have 155 players still in seats at the end of Level 7.
The average chips is 44,354, which neatly equates to 44 big blinds, a very good average stack for a £220 buy-in.
With 500 entries needed to make the £100,000 guarantee for this opening event of the 2016 888Poker London Live Festival, we already have 451 entries, meaning tomorrow will surely see the guarantee more than broken. Even if we were to get the same number of entries as today, that would still mean a whopping £145,000 prize-pool. It seems well worth coming down to Aspers Casino in Stratford tomorrow afternoon at 2pm for the final Day 1 flight!
Players are on a short 15-minute break to refresh themselves and pat themselves on the back for surviving half of the Day 1 field. We'll return for the next three levels when they do.
Mihai Pop is still a big chip leader in the room even during Level 8, but he has dropped a few chips after an all-in and call on the flop. Pre-flop saw Pop make it 2,700 from early position, called by two players, including Shane Rouine on the button.
The flop of saw Mihai Pop bet 6,000, and when Rouine raised all-in for 11,700 more, it was called off. Rouine had the nut flush draw with but he'd need to hit as Pop held . the turn of saw Rouine win the hand, and the river completed the board to see him leap up to 38,000. Pop still has a massive stack, the biggest in the 888Poker Poker Room here at Aspers, totalling 166,000.
Three players seem to have plenty more than most in the room, so we found out what they were stacking up.
Yimin Yang has 221,000 and the clear chip lead. He's ahead of Paul Muehlthaler and Sav Christou, each of whom are on 171,000 exactly and sat next to each other at the same table! Who know, the chip leader at the end of Day 1b could come from that table as it looks chip-rich.
A reminder that the overnight chip lead from Day 1a was Arron Fletcher with a mammoth bag of 535,000 chips! These players will have to go some way to overtake him!
Former World Open winner Anthony 'The Booky' Hardy knows his odds, and when a short-stacked player shoved from late position, he re-shoved for around 18,000 from the button with and got folds from the table.
Up against his opponent's , Tony saw the flop of keep him ahead. The turn opened up yet more outs, but the river of meant Tony eliminated an opponent and chipped up. He only has around 23 big blinds, but that's plenty for The Booky to work with.
"I'll have doubled up again or been knocked out by the time you're back!" he announced to his tablemates as much as us. We certainly wouldn't bet against him getting right back into this £100, 000 guaranteed opening event.
Rodney French raised all-in for 34,000 total over the top of [Removed:148]'s bet of 4,000 chips on a flop of and sent [Removed:148] into the tank as it would be for 80% of his chips. Eventually he called, and turned over .... only to be shown French's leading hand of .
The turn of Qh sewed up the hand for French, the meaningless river ending the painful hand for Ahmed, who was left with just 7,000 chips. He's since doubled up once but is still extremely short.
After seeing a short-stacked player shove for 20,000, Lofti Bouganmi raised all-in pre-flop for 38,000 and after great consideration, the player who put out the original three-bet folded, declaring that he had "A-Q". This caused laughter around the table, chiefly from [Removed:148], who reminded his opponents that the same man had folded (and shown) A-Q no less than three times before that.
Bouganmi held and was flipping agains the short-stack's . The entertaining board of brought plenty of interaction on every street, especially since A-Q would have won! Bouganmi busts one and gets a vital double-up to above average chips.
with 9,000 chips in the pot. After a small aside to table-mate Tim Timotheu and a sly glance at his opponent betting 4,000, Nicolau casually put all of his chips over the line, 37,000 in total. 
. 
but he'd need to hit as Pop held 
. the turn of 
saw Rouine win the hand, and the river 
completed the board to see him leap up to 38,000. Pop still has a massive stack, the biggest in the 888Poker Poker Room here at Aspers, totalling 166,000.
and got folds from the table. 
, Tony saw the flop of 
keep him ahead. The 
turn opened up yet more outs, but the river of 
and sent [Removed:148] into the tank as it would be for 80% of his chips. Eventually he called, and turned over 
river ending the painful hand for Ahmed, who was left with just 7,000 chips. He's since doubled up once but is still extremely short.
. The entertaining board of 
