LIVE EVENTS

With a total of 222 entries, the prize pool grew to $20,868, with a cool $4,698 up top for the first place champion, and a min-cash of $150 in 28th position. This is of course in addition to each $100 boubnty chip collected each time a player gets knocked out.

Most players would be pretty happy to river a full house. Well, that wasn’t the case for Alain Lavoie tonight.

We missed the action but we are told that Alain Lavoie, Christopher Doyle, and Fayez Assouad had all gone all in pre-flop, and what a flop it was.

Lavoie:
Assouad:
Doyle:

Flop: …giving Doyle quad fives! The turn was the , and just to add some salt to the wound for Lavoie, the river was the , giving him a boat, which of course was useless after Lavoie flopped quads. A whole lot of chips and two x $100 bounty chips for Doyle. As poker players like to say, “so sick”.

Christopher Doyle

The players just had the first break of the evening and are back in their seats, which means, late registration has now come to a close. A total of 222 players entered tonight’s Event #5, bringing the prize pool just north of the $20,000 guarantee; there is a total of $20,868 to be divided up (a breakdown of the prize pool will be published shortly).

The race for the chip lead is tight, with three players neck and neck for the lead. Kevin Klun is currently in the top spot, with a cool 116,400. He is followed closely by Playground tournament regular Nabil Nahoul, who has 112,700, and Nicolas Cyr with 111,900.

As half of the prize pool is made up of $100 bounty chips, there are many players with lessor stacks but who have now accumulated three or four (or more…) $100 bounties, so, tonight, it is not just the chip stack that will tell the tale, aggressive play with a little bit of run good will definitely do players well.

Here are the players currently on the leader board:

Kevin Klun

Nabil Nahoul

Nicolas Cyr

On table 34, there was a limp before Marc-Antoine Plaisance raised it up to 4200, which was met by a flat call by Fayez Assouad. When action reached Jerry Kim in late position, he moved his chips forward signalling an all-in. There were snap calls by both Plaisance and Assouad.

The cards were tabled and it was a classic bounty tournament race:

Kim:
Plaisance:
Assouad:

The flop came and Plaisance moved into the lead, flopping a Queen. The turn was the and the river was the , and since Plaisance covered Kim’s stack, he picked up a bounty chip along with a whole bunch of chips. Assouad lucklily had chipped up earlier so he is still in the game with a playable stack. A classic example of the best hand(s) not winning the race.

Marc-Antoine Plaisance

Players are steadily filtering in to the tournament hall and there are already 190 players who have been seated at their table. Looking at the numbers this afternoon and yesterday evening, tonight’s $100 + $20 + $100 bounty is going to have a huge turnout, generating a huge prize pool for sure. Late registration is open until the start of level 7, so you have until 9:15pm to jump into the action.

Here are a few shots of some of the players grinding away:

Calling all bounty hunters! It’s time for Event #5, the $100 + $20 + $100 50/50 Bounty! Starting at 7:00pm, this tournament guarantees a huge prize pool of $20,000. Late registration will be available until the beginning of the seventh level of play at 9:15pm. This is a freezeout tournament so players will have to weigh the consequences before they go chasing bounties, but with so much value locked up in those bounty chips the temptation will likely prove to be irresistible. This format usually brings out the players in droves, and tonight should be no exception.

This afternoon’s freezeout tournament attracted 191 players; traditionally, the night time bounty usually attracts even more players, so a large crowd is expected for sure on this long holiday weekend.

The tournament director has just announced “dealers, shuffle up and deal”….so the cards are in the air and the action is underway! 

Good luck to all!

Event #5: $100 + $20 + $100 50/50 Bounty

$20,000 Guaranteed