After 14 exciting 30-minute levels, Day 1A of the $500 + $50 Playground 500 has officially wrapped. From a total of 56 entries (including 8 re-entries), the field was reduced to only 14, all of whom will return to compete on Day 2, beginning this Saturday at 12:00pm.
The last 20 minutes were particularly eventful, with at least a dozen all ins occurring during the last few hands. On one table Ricky Campanelli agonized for five full minutes over his decision, even pulling out his phone to do some quick math on the calculator app. He eventually folded AK, choosing not to join the four players that had already shoved. It was a good choice, as the winner was the player holding a 6-9, with the 9 making a straight (and quadrupling up his short stack).
In the end, the average chip stack for the group was 200,000 chips, with Ruben Perceval coming out on top with almost half a million chips. The top few players are listed below, and an exhaustive list with all player chip counts will be available shortly on the results page.
However, since players are allowed to enter as many Day 1 flights as they want, some that finished the day may end up trying their luck and skill again in one of the other two Day 1 flights happening tomorrow, Friday July 19th. If they are successful, they’ll begin their Day 2 journeys with a larger stack. If you want to join them, be sure to sign up for either the 11:00am Day 1B or 7:00pm Day 1C.
Below are some pictures of the players that ended the day with significant chip stacks. Congratulations go out to all for a fantastic start to the July Power Weekend. We’ll see you tomorrow for more poker action!
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Ruben | Perceval | 489,000 |
| Remi | Blanc | 340,000 |
| Vivo | L. | 312,000 |
July Power Weekend – Playground 500 Day 1A – A solid first day comes to a close #PowerWeekend #PlaygroundPoker #Montreal #Kahnawake #PokerTournament #MontrealFestival #Playground100 #Playground500
and Paul Nakhle had nothing more than a 
. With the board showing 
, it looked to be all over for Paul. But as the dealer dropped the last two cards (
) Chanracy’s luck quickly ran out as Paul made his two pair. With Chanracy’s exit, the group was reduced to only 18 players. With a full 40 minutes remaining, the number is likely to drop further still.
), and he looked to be sailing towards a victory. Unfortunately for him, the last card was also a diamond (
) and Remi took down the hand with a higher flush.
Mark relunctantly paid out 57,900, and Franco breathed a sigh of relief. Now sitting above 100,000 chips, his push to the end of level 14 will be a little easier.
, and for a moment it looked like Robert’s sailboats would take it, as the two other players’ aces battled it out. However, Robert ended up sailing away into the night as the final two cards came down 
with Jonathan’s kicker taking the hand.
flop on the board.
was dealt on the turn, both players checked. The river was a 
, and that’s when things started to heat up. Mingzhe checked, and Ben bet 6,500. Mingzhe looked like he was going to fold, spending two expressionless minutes thinking. But instead, he re-raised to 22,500!
