LIVE EVENTS

The players just had their final break of the evening and are now heading down the home stretch, with three levels of play before the remaining players bag and tag.

Joseph Abou Khalil, our massive chip leader at the previous break, remains in the lead, after increasing his stack to 266,200. The average stack is around 75,000, so this is still very healthy and has the potential to grow into the largest stack of all of the flights; we will be watching him closely.

Richard Book is now in second place with 170,700.  Here the top seven stacks in play:

As we are now in the last four levels of play, stacks are being built as more and more players hit the rail. A break will be coming up in just a few minutes and we will then get a chance to see where the biggest stacks are among the remaining 149 players.

Some recent bustouts include: Thomas Penza, Geng Chen, Paul Brunet, Robert Gariepy, Hagay Brener, Bill Kontaratos, Jonathan Poissant, Jean-Claude Salame, and Kevin Javier.

Here are few photos taken over the last couple of levels:

The tournament is now down to just less than half the field with 177 players still in the running. The average stack is in the vicinity of 55,000, but one player has been on fire tonight and is now sitting on almost five times the average: Joseph Abou Khalil, with an incredible 245,000 in chips. No other player is even close; the second place spot is tied between Grant Ellis and Maxime Theroux, both who have 107,000.

Here are the top five stacks in play:

The players have not stopped joining the action and the tournament is now up to 350 entries (with 51 re-entries). There is still another half-hour to late register or re-enter this flight so expect more than a few more entries before then. This edition of the Playground 200 has already gathered 1,067 players! Wowzah!

Two players are neck and neck for the lead in this flight, with almost three times the average. Xavier Goupil-Lapointe from Quebec City is currently in the lead with a stack of 86,200. The player in second place, Jason Harned from Union City, Pennsylvania (USA) is sitting just two big blinds behind Xavier, with 85,600, only 600 in chips less than Xavier.

Here are the top six stacks in play:

The number of entries has just passed the 300 mark, so far there are 311 entries (including 22 re-entries), which now takes the total entries to a whopping 1,027 players, growing the prize pool to over $200,000! There is still another 90 minutes left in the late registration period, so there are still many more entries and re-entries expected to join in on the action.

With such a large field, there are so many familiar faces who like to come to the events here at Playground; Reuben Percival, Isabelle Trembley, Richard Figial, Brigitte Metivier, Prosper Azoulay, Terry Caulcutt, Dat Doan, Walter Asatoorian, Brigitte Korak, Linda Huard, Debra Ann Holman, Yannick Labattaglia, and Mohammadamin Khalilian, just to name a few.

Here’s a look at some of the players from the early levels:

The partypoker Live staff are here onsite at Playground to help players who want to use their PPLive$ to register for an event, to help you claim travel expenses, or, to sign up for a new partypoker account. They are located just beside the cage/cashier and can assist with any issues.

The Playground 200 Day 1D is off to an amazing start, and there are now 260 players who have entered.  Late registration is open until the end of the break after level six, at 10:15pm.

We will be posting some photos shortly of some of the players fighting it out on the felt.

The tournament director has just announced, “Dealers… shuffle up and deal“, and the cards are now in the air! There were well over 100 entries as the first hand was dealt, and now that we are almost 20 minutes into level one, there are now more than 200 players who have taken their seats and are here to try to bag at the end of level 14.

The turnout has been nothing other than spectacular in the first three flights, and with a such a strong start this evening for the final Day 1 flight, we can only expect that the prize pool may even grow to double the guarantee, so, that means, double the payouts and double the amount of players who get paid.

Late registration is open right up until the end of the first break after level 6 (10:15pm), and, just in case you suffer a cooler, there are also unlimited re-entries available until the start of level 7.

Come join the action and see if you can bag the biggest stack for Day 2.

Tonight is the last flight (Day 1D) of Event #1 of the MILLIONS North America Playground 200, and although there was a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000, that was smashed in the second flight last night, and after this afternoon’s Day 1C, there have been a total of 716 players who have entered so far, so every entry tonight will just keep adding to the amazing prize pool!

The $200 + $20 buy-in is the most affordable of all of the events. It also offers the players a chance to cash early on during the festival, and with a deep run, it can boost a player’s bankroll and help to finance the other events over the next two weeks.

The event offers a starting stack of 25,000 chips, blind levels are 30 minutes on Day 1 and 40 minutes on Day 2 and Day 3. Just in case you run into a cooler, there are unlimited re-entries available right up until the end of the late registration period, which is at the end of the break after level 6 at 10:15pm.

Day 1D starts at 7:00pm.

• Day 2 is Thursday night at 7:00pm
• Day 3 final table takes place on Friday at 7:00pm

There is also a $150 + $15 Montreal Open Satellite Turbo Re-entry tonight at 8:00pm, offering a guaranteed 10 seats to the $1,000 + $100 Montreal Open taking place later this week, which offers a guaranteed prize pool of $1,154,500 ($1,000,000 in cash prizes plus the top 15 finishers receive a $10,300 buy-in to the Millions North America Main Event, the marquee event of the entire festival).

The MILLIONS North America festival offers many of events of both Texas NL Hold’em and PLO over the next two weeks, ranging in price from $200 + $20 all the way up to the Super High Roller $25,000 + $300! For the full event schedule, click here

Don’t forget, drinks are always free during tournament play and supper is available at your table from The Rail Coal Fire Bistro, offering a full menu plus daily specials for as little as $10, served by one of Playground’s lovely waitresses.

Jump into your car and come join the action which get’s off the ground at 7:00pm.

To follow the action, go to the PLAYGROUND website, and then go to MILLIONS North America, and EVENT COVERAGE, or, click here