LIVE EVENTS

Tonight’s flight, Day 1D, saw the largest field of all four starting flights and in the end, 63 players have bagged and tagged to advance to Day 2. The action was steady throughout the evening, and as expected, when the last three levels played out, there were many casualties as short stacks shoved and big stacks hammered away.

The chip leader for tonight’s flight was Anthony Riley, who had a massive double-up late in the evening, and while holding on to the chips that he picked up, he bagged an impressive 309,000, putting him in third place overall heading into Day 2. Other large stacks include:

• Pascal Fournier, 306,000
• Dominic Tossings, 305,000
• Kenny McGuire, 291,000
• Norman Gauthier, 256,000
• Loai El Ayday, 250,000
• Bin Shen, 210,500
• Nancy Query, 205,500

The combined chip stacks from all Day 1 flights will be available in the morning, click here to see them.

Here are a few photos of some of the players who bagged larger than average stacks tonight:

A massive hand just took place on table 35. Anthony Riley, who has been very active and raising many pots, opened the action with just a little more than a min-raise (4,500) and found flat calls by both Andre Landry in the cutoff and Hamed Roshan on the button.

The flop came and it checked around by all three players.

The turn brought the and Riley led out for 6,500, and found a call by Landry. Roshan then raised it up to 27,000, and Riley tanked for a bit before then announcing that he was all in. Landry hesitated but finally let go of his hand, and, Roshan thought about it for only a short moment before making the call. The hands were then tabled.

Roshan:
Riley:

Roshan had turned his set of Queens but to his dismay, Riley hit his open ended straight draw and Roshan needed either another Queen to make quads or the board to pair on the river to boat up. Unfortunately for him, the river was a brick, and Roshan’s large stack of almost 150,000 was sent to Riley who is now the big stack in play.

Landry then said to Riley “it’s a good thing that you shoved, I had KJ and would have made the higher straight”. The table also commented that Roshan chose to just flat call pre-flop and then check his over pair on the flop, a move that proved in the end to be very costly to him.

Anthony Riley

Here are a few more photos of some the remaining players grinding it out and looking to bag at the end of level 14.

As the tournament heads in to the final three levels of the night, the field has thinned out considerably and what we typically see happen at this stage is an attempt by the short stacks to double their stacks in order to have a playable Day 2 stack, while at the same, there is usually aggressive play by the chip leaders who will be putting a lot of pressure on the smaller stacks in play.

A  new chip leader has appeared; Pascal Fournier is now in the clear lead with more than three times the average, sitting on a healthy 244,400, followed in second place by Bin Shen, with 177,200. Here is the leader board showing the top eight stacks in play:

The stacks are growing as players keep falling and heading to the rail. With the average sitting just below 50,000, the new chip leader, Hamed Roshan, is leading the field with more than three times the average, playing a stack of 158,700. He is followed by Hassan Mohammad in second place with 141,100. Here are the top 7 stacks that are all north of 100,000:

Once the registration period closed at the start of level 7, a total of 295 players entered tonight’s flight (including 64 re-entries), bringing the total to 745 entries for all four of the live flights and the one online flight, well exceeding the guarantee and creating a prize pool of just under $150,000. As soon as the floor staff post the payouts, they will be posted here on the blog

Table 37 has been seeing some action. Richard Tossings opened for 2,000, and Ben Menache, seated directly to his left, raised all in for 10,450. John Karatambias on Ben’s left then also went all in for less (6,775). Tossings looked like he wasn’t sure if he should join the party or not, but since he had a decent sized stack and the two all ins were for relatively small amounts, he made the call.

Ben: 
John:
Richard:

The flop came , giving Richard a chance with a gut shot draw, but the on the turn and on the river were blanks and John had a nice triple up with his pocket Kings, while Ben took the side pot with his Ace high.

On the next hand, Ben shoved his stack of 7,150, and once again, Richard made the call.

Ben:
Richard:

The board ran out and Ben doubled his stack and is now back in the game.

The players have just returned from their first break of the evening and action has been heating up on the felt. Tables keep opening up and there are now 256 entries (including 42 re-entries) and there still remains 40 minutes left in the late registration period, so, those numbers will continue to climb for sure.

With an average stack hovering around 33,000, five players have so far amassed chips stacks that are two to two and half times the average. Stephen Langlois leads the pack with 78,200, and Lily Kornik is hot on his tail sitting on 74,300.

Here are the top stacks in play:

Whoa, it’s going to be a big one! There are now 221 entries (including 30 re-entries) and with another 90 minutes left to go in late registration, who knows what the final player tally will be? The one thing that is known for sure is the prize pool will be amazing, with tremendous value for all of the players.

Here are some of the tournament grinders seated for tonight’s flight:

Level three has just began and the tournament is now up to 180 entries (including 12 re-entries) and with still another two full hours left to go in late registration, this marquee event is going to offer a tremendous prize pool, well above the $100,000 guarantee!

Lily Kornik, known here at Playground as “The Big Salami”, and recently the champion of the Playground1000 during the MILLIONS North America last month, just doubled up for the second time tonight as she was taken all in by Eric Ranger who was looking for a miracle double up after having lost some chips. Lily was holding a pair of Jacks and Eric had made his move with 5-3 off suit. Lily did a double take when the dealer flopped both a 6 and a 4, but the board stayed clean on the turn and river to send the chips her way. Lily has already qualified for Day 2 in this event but decided to to jump in to the last flight tonight since her husband Steve is seated on the next table. Let’s see if she can continue her run good and bag an even larger stack tonight.

The tournament director has just announced “dealers…shuffle up and deal!“, meaning that the final flight (Day 1D) of Event #1 of the $200 + $20 PG200 has just started. The Playground 200 provides players with a starting stack of 25,000 in chips to start their journey to get a part of the $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. Between the online Day 1 and the three previous live starting flights, this event has already gathered 450 entries, and 98 players have so far advanced to Day 2. With already more than 110 players in their seats for tonight’s flight, the $100,000 guarantee has already been smashed and the prize pool will continue to grow until the late registration period closes at the start of level 7, at 10:15pm.

Each Day 1 plays through 14 30-minute levels before the levels increase to 40 minutes in length on Days 2 and 3. Players who have already played a Day 1 and who have bagged chips may enter tonight’s flight as well, with the hopes of building an even bigger chip stack to take to Day 2. Players who qualify more than once for Day 2 will resume play on Day 2 with their largest qualifying stack.

For a list of players who have already qualified for Day 2, along with their chip stacks, click here