LIVE EVENTS

It’s become a tight race at the top as there now five millionaires in the field. It is Sebastien Prouxl in the top spot, playing a stack of 1,400,000 chips, good for 70 big blinds.

There are two more levels left to play tonight before the remaining players bag their chips to move on to Day 3.

Here is the latest leaderboard as the tournament heads into the final stretch:

The action has been slowing down, now that there are only 36 players left in contention. The current payout is now $640, still far away though from the $24,500 up top.

Alexandre Patry now has the biggest stack in play, close to 1.25M chips.

Recent eliminations include: Leo Hackenbroch, Ray Mahomed, Nicolas Laliberte, Joey Silver, Nicholas Gardam, Brian Tock, Daniel Mackay and Philippe Belley.

Steve Cordeiro just found himself a nice triple-up which he desperately had needed. Ray Mahomed had moved all in, followed by Nicolas Laliberte who had also moved all in, and Cordeiro decided to join the party.

Mahomed:
Laliberte:
Cordeiro:

It was looking good from the start for Cordeiro and it got even better on the board when he completed a straight. Cordeiro went from 130,000 to 420,000 and is now back in the running with 35 big blinds.

Only 48 players are still left in contention. There is a lot of poker left to be played over the course of the next four levels, so expect the swings to continue.

With the average stack sitting at 363,000 chips (30 big blinds), Roberto Parent is approaching the 1M mark, playing a stack of 966,000 chips, good for 80 big blinds.

Here are the top stacks in level 21:

John Pisani played a great game from start to finish. He was the overall chip leader coming into Day 2, but he has just exited the tournament room in 59th place.

On his final hand, he raised it up preflop with Big Slick (AK) and picked up one caller. He was delighted to have flopped an ace, however, his opponent turned a set, which brought Pisani’s tournament run to an end. He will collect $450 for his efforts.

With the blinds at 4,000/8,000, the action folded to Natalia Nogina, in the small blind, who completed her action. Christian Portmann, in the big blind, checked his option. The dealer fanned out a flop. Both players checked. The turn brought the . Nogina checked again, which was followed by a bet of 16,000 from Portmann. Nogina called. The river was the , and one miore time, Nogina checked. Without hesitation, Portmann moved all in. Before he could finish moving his stack forward, Nogina announced “call” and opened up her hand: for quad kings!

Nogina was all smiles as she doubled-up her stack. Her table mates all said: “Well played!”

Hand-for-hand play only lasted for three hands before the bubble burst. All players are now in the money!

The players just took their first break of the day, and Adam Strulovitch is in the top spot. He is in command with a stack of 702,000, effectively 117 big blinds. It appears that most of the chip leaders from each of the starting flights have been able to keep on building up their stacks as they also sit on the leaderbaord.

Here is the first leaderboard of Day 2:

Play is now hand-for-hand as the tournament is on the money-bubble!

Adam Strulovitch is a well known local player who has had some deep runs during Playground events. He started the day with 235,500 chips, and is now sitting on close to 870,00! He tells us that he simply could not miss on any hand that he has played. His table mates laughed and all said: “yup, that’s true!”

Jean-Paul Zeidan started the day with only 40,500 chips. When he picked up he knew that it was the time to move all in. Alberto Scuderi (209,000) had pocket nines and made the easy call. The board ran out , doubling-up Zeidan to a more comfortable 91,000 chips. He has some breathing room as he is sitting on almost 23 big blinds.

As expected, the short stacks have made their best efforts to secure a badly needed double-up, however, within the first level of play, 17 players have already been sent to the rail.