LIVE EVENTS

François Billard keeps accreting chips. It seems like up is only way to go for him. He claimed the driver’s seat from Jouhkimainen and is now sitting on 219.4 millions chips, twice as many as Rabichow, second in chips. It will be interesting to see how his table mates react to his expected increased activity.

Here are the updated counts:

Joni Jouhkimainen was working with an average stack. Although he has lost a few feathers since break, he was still rather healthy with 75.1M chips, until a huge hand came about.

François Billard bumped the big blind to 4M from the under-the-gun position. That bet was called by Castrillon Fontan in the button before it was raised by Kevin Rabichow, the chip leader at the time. Jouhkimainen was in the small blind, and started tanking. Everybody knew at that point, considering the heavy action he was facing, that anything but an instant fold meant a huge hand. He used a time extension card and announced all-in.

The action was quickly folded to Rabichow, who called just as quickly.

Jouhkimainen:
Rabichow:

Board:

In any ordinary game, that river would have caused a commotion, but these guys are no ordinary players. Rabichow barely lifted an eyebrow and started counting 75.1M to hand over to his left. Jouhkimainen, out of respect for the game and his antagonist in the hand, celebrated internally.

This 3-outer was worth 150 millions chips, and the lead for a million-dollar first prize. Just another day.

We can see some very tough play on the final table of the Main Event, and very few showdowns. François Billard continues to do well, gaining chips every hand he plays, sizing his bets perfectly as he does.

Kevin Rabichow also plays an extremely solid game, and just orchestrated Danick Landriault’s elimination. Landriault was crushing the final 2 tables yesterday, but after being on the wrong end of a few battles, started Day 5 rather low. He was on the big blind when he lost his last chips, facing a tough decision.

Rabichow bumped the big blind to 3.2M, and the action folded to Landriault who completed. On the flop, the action was check – bet 2.4M – call. On the turn, Landriault checked again, and watched Rabichow push enough 5M chips to cover his remaining 12M.

Board:

Landriault’s holding:

A tough spot, to be sure. He finally elected to call, and saw Rabichow’s . The river came a , and the local player shook everybody’s hand and went to the cashier to receive his $250K prize.

Congratulations on a nice run and an amazing skill display!