Stacks were getting large, a little too large.
The floor came and started switching out fortresses of stacks for orange T25,000 chips. While their size diminished, their value and intimidation factor remained the same.
Three players are hovering around the lead with about 180,000. One of them is Team PokerStars Bryan Huang.
Huang chipped up to 110,000 after narrowly surviving a risky all-in situation. It was a three-way all-in and Huang held [as][6h] and was up against [ac][2d] and a [4c][4h]. The flop was a devastating [2c][ad][ks] for Huang, but then the jacks came running in to save him. The turn was a [js] and the [jc] came on the river to chop the pot.
One player was eliminated while Huang and his tablemate split his chips.
Huang then continued to soar and is now at about 180,000.
Also joining him are Eddie Hui and Mak Belu. They've been sharing the lead for a bit but are one pot away from falling in the red zone or soaring even further into the lead.
There are now just five tables left and only 45 players. Play will stop when we get to 32 and with blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 500 ante, we should be arriving shortly.
Alexander Villegas is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.