LIVE EVENTS

The Day 3 action has picked up without hesitation, as there have already been six eliminations this afternoon. One recent elimination saw pocket aces cracked by following a pre-flop all in when a miraculous gut-shot straight draw came in on the turn. It goes to show that a good luck can help as much as good cards!

The remaining players are each assured of a cash of at least $1,170, but you can be sure that all eyes are on the five-figure prizes at the top of the money list. The current chip average provides slightly more than 23 big blinds, which means that the pressure will begin to mount on the shorter stacks and each hand is taking on greater and greater importance.

Here’s a look at some of the remaining players:

The marquee event of the June Power Weekend, the Playground 200, attracted 745 entries. The great turnout allowed this event to easily surpass its prize pool guarantee of $100,000 and created some huge prizes at the top of the money list. The 26 finalists will retake their seats at noon to compete for the first-place prize of $26,230.

The current chip leader, Wayne Derouchie, holds a healthy lead over his rivals, but everyone still in contention has a legitimate shot at taking this one down. Day 3 action will play through 40-minute levels until heads-up play begins when the levels will be reduced to 20 minutes in length.

Good luck to all!

To see the full list of chip counts and Day 3 seating draw, click here.

Event #1 of the June Power Weekend, the Playground 200, will play to its conclusion this afternoon.

The massive starting field of 745 entries has been reduced to the last 26 players, and they will play through as many 40-minute levels as it takes to crown a champion. There are some huge prizes up for grabs, with five-figure payouts waiting for the top three finalists. The eventual champion will take home a cool $26,230 and the bragging rights that come with being a Playground 200 champion.

When play resumes for Day 3 at noon today, the players will be seated according to the following table.

If we were allowed only one word to describe the events today, it would be “action!”  For the major part of the day, the eliminations were happening at a constant and steady pace.  The money bubble broke halfway through the day and that’s when the flood gates of chips were thrown open.  Chips were flying everywhere and the players were out for blood.

Early on, the prize pool was announced and promised almost $90,000 to the final table.  That got the players going and they all had their eyes on the prizes.  Coming into Day 2, Michel Gariepy was the overall chip leader with 339,000 chips.  But after only three levels, the balance of power had completely shifted, and now Pascal Fournier was the leader.  This is right about the time when the bubble hit, confirming that the remaining players were officially in the money.

A few hours later, it was Steve Pouliot who seemed to be riding a freight train to success.  Things were going his way and he was taking full advantage of it.  A few minutes into the 22nd level, Jean-René Lafleur got a huge break when he cracked Etienne Sorel’s aces, scooping major chips towards him.  He didn’t really look back after that point.  A few levels before the end of play, it was François Gagné’s turn to hit a great streak.  A few back-to-back important pots catapulted him to the top of the leaderboard, where he cruised for the remainder of the tournament before losing a few pots just before the end, but still ending up in great position.

After all was said and done, Wayne Derouchie, who flew under the radar all day, sprinted into the first spot of the leaderboard with 1,830,000 chips.  Jean-René Lafleur comes in second with 1,500,000.  Peter Liakopoulos bagged 1,375,000 chips and Marcello Simonetti dumped 1,110,000 chips in the bag.  François Gagne is the last of the millionaire club, with 1,095,000 chips.

Now the bags are sealed and it’s time for the players to unwind and get ready for Day 3 action tomorrow.  The tournament is scheduled to get going at 12:00pm for the remaining 26 players.  The blinds will be 15K/30K+30K, on eight-handed tables, and play will continue until a winner is crowned.

We arrived at table #19 where there seemed to be some serious action.  With a little more than half the average, Steven Tran was all-in for 374,000 chips.  Jonathan James Rothman had shoved on top and the action was on François Gagné.  Gagné seemed really undecided about what to do.  With barely one level left before the bags come out, players with decent stacks are often a little more cautious about when and where they gamble their chips.  After tanking a bit, Gagné made a hard fold and showed his hand: .  A quick survey of the faces around the table confirmed that everyone thought that was a really tight fold.

Gagné’s fold was the last action, so the dealer instructed Tran and Rothman to table their hands.

Rothman:

Tran:

The board was revealed: and Rothman’s cowboys held their ground.  And Gagné had mad a great fold.

Tran was left with 23,000 chips after this hand.  In the next hand he was all-in with and faced Steve Pouliot holding .  The board was of no help at all for Tran, and that was it for him.

So Tran heads to the rail in 28th position, claiming a prize of $680 for his trouble.

The tournament is about to go into hand-per-hand action as the timer dwindles down on the last level of the evening.

The players just enjoyed their last break of the evening, which allowed us to update the leaderboard.

After enjoying a few quick winning hands just prior to the break, François Gagné is now leading the pack and sitting on 1,235,000 chips.  The only other millionaire in the field is Peter Liakopoulos who’s the owner of 1,063,000 chips.

The action is fast-paced, unforgiving and showing no signs of slowing down at all.  The field is shrinking at a regular pace as the players head into the last two levels of the evening.  The bags come out after level 24, and the remaining players will head home for some much needed rest before Day 3 tomorrow.

Until then, anything can happen.

François Gagné, chip leader – 1,235,000

If you hang around a poker room long enough, there are some sounds that tell a story so clearly, you don’t even need to see the action to know what’s going on.  Our attention was attracted by a resounding and familiar pairing of words: “All-in”, followed by a resounding and immediate “call!”  Every poker player knows this song: someone has aces up their sleeve.

We got to the table in time to see two aces land on the table in front of Etienne Sorel: .  His opponent, Jean-René Lafleur, slumped his shoulder and tabled his own hand: .  His all-in was worth 315,000 and had obviously been meant to make everyone fold.  Then lady luck decided to prove, once again, how fickle she can be, as the dealer revealed the flop.  .  Now it was Sorel’s turn to slump his shoulders.  Just like that, Lafleur had gone from underdog to top dog by hitting his nut flush right out of the gate.  Two bricks followed on the turn and river: and Sorel sighed as he sat back down to count out his chips.

He pushed out what he thought was the right amount, but the dealer informed him that he was still missing 100,000.  Sorel looked down at his remaining chips and sadly realized that he was covered.  When the dust settled both gentlemen knuckle-punched and all was good.  If this has never happened to you, you’re either very lucky, or very new to the game; cracked aces are the bane of every poker player’s existence.  “Don’t sweat it man, it happens”, were Sorel’s parting words as he left the tournament area to go claim his $490 prize for finishing in 44th position.

Things are moving along and there is just under one hour of play left.

With four levels of play left, the players took a short break and we hit the felts.

One thing was noticed right away; there seems to be a certain equity between the tables in terms of chips.  Most of the chip leaders stand alone on their respective tables and seem to be guarding their chips with a fierce determination.

Day 1B top runner Steve Pouliot is a freight train pulling out all the stops.  Even five minutes into the break he was still seen stacking his chips after his latest victory.  From Terrebonne Quebec, Pouliot can be seen sporting the bracelet he won last year during the WPT National Canadian Spring Championship $135+$15 NLHE Re-entry tournament, where he pocketed his largest win by finishing first and earning over $32,000.  The friendly player was more than eager to let us snap his picture, a clear sign for any player that he is the chip leader when they come back from a break.  Right now he is sitting on a comfortable lead with almost a million chips (954,000).  His closest rivals are Fadi Haddad (828,000) and Yannick Harvey (764,000).  Naveen Thorati, Louis Ouellet, and Steven Tran complete the leaderboard after 20 levels.

The players are back and play has just resumed.

Steve Pouliot, chip leader – 954,000

There are now 53 players left.  To put things in perspective, this means that there is approximately one elimination every two minutes.  To say that the action is in full throttle would be putting it mildly.  One cannot walk around the tables without hearing a dealer saying “all-in” at every corner.

Steven Tran was just involved in particularly important hand for him.  When we arrived at the table, he had just shoved all-in and the dealer was counting his stack, at the request of Pascal Gauthier.  Stephen Langlois was already all-in for 30,000.  Tran’s all-in amount was announced: 182,000, and Gauthier made the call.  The three players then tabled their hands:

Langlois:

Tran:

Gauthier:

Tran didn’t like Langlois’ jack but seemed confident, holding the best hand.  The board was an uneventful affair: and Tran’s pair held up.  This effectively eliminated Stephen Langlois and made a big dent in Gauthier’s stack.  A few hands prior, Gauthier had lost a chunk of his stack when he isolated the action holding pocket three’s and came up short against his opponent’s pair of queens, so this latest loss put him in a bad spot.

So Tran more than doubles up, with a welcome win which propels him above the average.

Being a bubble is never fun, but someone has to be in that spot.  Today it was Alexander Bain’s turn.

After declaring that the play would proceed in the hand-per-hand format, the tournament director paused the clock and instructed the dealers to follow the usual procedure.  This would allow the players an even chance to advance into the money positions, regardless of the pace at each table.  But in the last hand prior to the actual onset of this modified style of play, a few back to back eliminations made this procedure unnecessary and Alexander Bain was seen exiting the tournament hall in 95th place, thus leaving the remaining 94 players in the money.

A few seconds after the bubble broke, a break was announced, which allowed us to obtain the first leaderboard of the day.  Pascal Fournier has inflated his stack to a point where he is not only the chip leader, but alone in the 500K+ club.  With 579,000 chips in front of him and the average stack hovering at 220K, the young player is definitely in good shape.

Pascal Fournier – chip leader after 17 levels – 579,000 chips

Here are a few photos of the players, from levels 16 and 17.

The prize pool is on the boards, and as expected, it smashed the $100,000 guarantee.  In total, $144,530 of prize money will be distributed among the top 94 players, with over $87,000 on the final table alone.  The 1st prize is set at $26,230 and is sure to catch the eye of the whole field today.

A few minutes were given to the players to take their loot out of their bags, then tournament director said the magic words: “Dealers! Shuffle-up and deal!”, and it was game on.

The field of 745 players has now been reduced to 155 for Day 2.  Today, 10 levels of 40 minutes will be played.  The battle will continue tomorrow, Sunday June 30th at 12:00pm when play will continue until a winner is crowned.  There has been a full seating redraw, which can be found here.

Coming into Day 2,  Michel Gariepy is the chipleader, with a respectable 339,000 chips in his bag.  Gariepy set the bar early, qualifying during Day 1A, and remained unseated through the remaining Day 1 flights.  Five other players have managed to bag over 300K chips: Steve Pouliot,, Anthony Riley, Pascal Fournier, Dominic Tossings, and David Lanthier, with stacks ranging from 313,500 to 302,000 chips.

This promises to be an exciting day and the action will undoubtedly be unrelenting as the players ease into their mid-game strategy.

Michel Gariepy – current chip leader 339,000

Steve Pouliot – 313,500

Anthony Riley – 309,000

Pascal Fournier – 306,000

Dominic Tossings – 305,000

David Lanthier – 302,000