After eight quick 15-minute levels, Pawan Braich sits atop the leaderboard with almost 90,000 chips after the first break. His chip stack is almost triple the size of the average, so he’s extremely well positioned moving forward, particularly with respect to the format of this tournament.

The speed of Turbos can surprise players with the relative speed of the blind increases. If you don’t make moves or catch cards early, those pesky, fast-rising blinds can eat into your stack in a hurry, depleting your ability to use patience to your advantage, increasing the pressure on players to make due with more marginal card combinations.

Good luck to Pawan as he makes his way into level 10 and beyond, and good luck to all the rest of the Colossus Turbo players – you’re going to need it!