Level 8 ticks away, 154 remain

Just to keep you up to date with the blind structure, we're closing in on the end of Level 8, with blinds of 300-600 plus a 75 ante.

154 players, less than half the PPT record starting field, are left in play and the average stack now stands at little over 39,000 chips.

Day 1 will conclude at the end of Level 9 and a complete chip count will be published on the PPT blog before the players return to action on Saturday.