Both Yuval Bronshtein and Ryan Riess were back today after busting Day 1a, and both players found themselves having gotten short as the night wore on, then were eliminated before reaching the last level of the evening.
Leif Force hadn't played Day 1a as he had been busy playing the second day of Event #9, the $580 buy-in no-limit hold'em event in which he eventually finished 16th. (Jimmy Kelly of Knoxville, Tennessee won the ring in that one, by the way, earning $46,533 for topping a field of 423.)
But like Riess and Bronshtein, Force also was knocked out in Level 14, leaving about 150 players left from the starting field on Day 1b.
We were passing by one of the outer tables just now when a player suddenly held out a waving arm and called to get our attention.
"Hey, hey... come over here. Do you have a medical kit over there?"
Our concern was heightened. But before we could respond, he continued his plea.
"The fellow in the 7 seat has been getting hit hard in the head with the deck...!"
We sheepishly looked over to see Ben Armstrong, none the worse for wear. Indeed, he's about as healthy as it gets, chip-wise, right now, having moved up over 180,000 as Level 14 comes to a close.
A couple of Level 14 eliminations to report, as DJ MacKinnon has seen his Main Event run come to a close after battling with a below average stack for the last couple of hours. And Five-time WSOP Circuit ring Mark "Pegasus" Smith has been cut down as well, despite having had a few more chips to work with as we move into the latter stages of Day 1b.
Rick Hensley opened from under the gun, a player in middle position three-bet jammed for 18,300, and Jeremy Menard cold four-bet to 38,200 from the big blind. Hensley quickly called.
Both players checked it down as the board ran out .
"Kings," Menard announced, showing .
Hensley instantly mucked, and the all-in player showed for a winning pair of aces, doubling up.
A player with about 15,000 left limped in from under the gun, then another short stack raised from the button to 4,100, leaving himself about 17,000 behind.
The action was then on William Looper in the small blind. With considerably more in his stack than either of the other two players, Looper pushed out a reraise to 15,500. The big blind quickly folded, and with much disgust the limper let his hand go, too. The action back on the button player, he thought about a half-minute before finally releasing his hand, also less than pleased for having been forced to do so.
Looper's current stack of 58,000 is just over the average right now, but from the perspective of those with less, he's making it hard for others at the table to make any moves.
A player opened to 7,200 from early position, Matt Silva moved all inf or 29,500 from middle position, and Matthew Chang called all-in on the button. The original raiser sighed, then called, committing the majority of his stack.
Original Raiser:
Silva:
Chang:
The dealer spread , giving Chang a pair of tens, but Silva took a commanding lead with a set of tens. It was all over when the turned, and a meaningless completed the board.
Chang was eliminated, while Silva nearly tripled up to 80,000 chips.
Four limpers entered a hand, and just two were left battling for it by fourth street with the board showing .
Mark Smith was one of them, but when he fired a bet of 1,600 into the middle his lone opponent pushed all in for about 20,000, forcing Smith to let his hand go.
Smith still sits with more than 60,000, about 10k ahead of the average stack in the room at the moment.
.
.
for a winning pair of aces, doubling up.
, giving Chang a pair of tens, but Silva took a commanding lead with a set of tens. It was all over when the 
turned, and a meaningless 
completed the board.
.