Scouting the Big Stacks, Continued

"Is he the chip leader?"

So asked Will Failla, jerking a thumb toward Danny Johnson sitting beside him. Johnson had a smile on his face, probably caused by a combination of Failla's funny stories and the big stacks of chips sitting in front of him.

Johnson's 145,000 was one of the biggest stacks we saw in the Gold section, although Donald Vogel appeared to have nudged ahead of him during a final pass of his table. 2011 November Niner Sam Holden also was sitting behind a healthy stack of about 105,000 as the last hands of the night were playing out.

And Joe Urgo was smiling with about 92,000, too, as Level 11 came to a close. There are others in the room with stacks approaching or exceeding 100,000, but anyone in that vicinity has reason to smile after bagging up and leaving tonight.