After eight of the ten levels on Day 1a, around half the field remains in the €1,100 EPT National. A slew of familiar faces joined the fray, including Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree Kenny Hallaert, Thomas Muehloecker, Liv Boeree, Quentin Lecomte, Xuan Liu. Gaelle Baumann and Georgios Vrakas, who won both a regular and a high roller edition of the Nationals last year. After busting out of the €10,300 8-Max, Maria Ho, Mustapha Kanit and Jack Salter also took their seats in this event.

Stack wise, none of them have made any waves thus far. One player that surely did is Andreas Iaokimedes, who amassed heaps during the day and is the presumable chipleader with 320,000 in chips. The American circuit grinder is looking for his first cash outside his home country and positioned himself in prime position to do so. Another player wielding a large stack is Sonny Franco, who's playing 285,000 as we enter the final stages of the day.

In the €10,300 No-Limit Hold'em 8 max, 12 players are left, and Timothy Adams just created some distance to solidify his position on top of the counts. In a blind on blind confrontation with Juan Pardo, Adams four-bet to 68,000 and Pardo called in position. On the flop, Adams continued with 30,000, Pardo raised to 66,000 and Adams called. Both players checked the on the turn and on the river that followed.

Adams tabled for aces and jacks and Pardo mucked, shaking his head. The sizable pot drove Adams up to 660,000, while Pardo slipped to 200,000.

Further update from the €10K: the players are on their final break of the night and are on the money bubble with 10 left. Michael Dix was eliminated when his pocket sevens fell to . Rainer Kempe moved into the chip lead with about 850,000 after eliminating Adrian Mateos with queens against but he has since lost some chips jamming fives over Pardo's tens and failing to catch up.