LIVE EVENTS

The players just went on break so we had a chance to count the stacks.

After the break, the pressure on the two smaller stacks was just too much and both players ended up hitting the rail.

Mehdi Badreddine was the next go, exiting in fourth place for $5,630. James Bridgeman followed in third place and collected $7,830 for his efforts.

James Cemm and Matthew Wilkins are now playing heads up for the first place money ($16,830) and the trophy and the bragging rights. Wilkins has a chip advantage over Cemm, so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Matthew White was the next to leave the final table, finishing in fifth spot for $4,160.

After Matthew exited the room, the remaining four players decided to look at the ICM chip chop numbers and the tournament staff paused the clock to count the stacks and enter the numbers into the ICM calculator. With still a total of $41,500 remaining in the prize pool, the players were informed that $4,150 (10%) would have to be left in reserve for the eventual first place winner.

Here are the chip counts and the ICM payouts as per the counts (leaving another $4,150 for the first place winner):

There was talk back and forth, but Matthew Wilkins was hesitating and asked the others to give him a minute or two as he was texting a friend to discuss the situation. He finally said to the others that he would do a deal so long as he received $9,000 instead of $8,360.

Thomas Cemm, who was in good spirits, and who had a commanding lead, offered to give up $260, but no more. The others weren’t so keen on offering any extra to Wilkins, especially since he was fourth place in chips.

In the end, the four players decided to simply play on.

Daniel Hughes was the next to go, finishing in 8th for $2,010, followed by Andrers Korn in 7th who collected $2,480.

Albert Nguyen is a local regular player who enjoys playing the events at Playground. He has good skill and is not afraid to play hands and to make moves.

He started the final table in the middle of the pack, and watched his stack take a hit or two as play moved on. James Bridgeman opened and Albert looked down at his hole cards and moved all in for 526,000, and was called by Bridgeman. Albert had 88, and Bridgeman had the Big Slick (AK).

The board ran out , and Bridgeman took almost all of Nguyen’s stack. Nguyen busted on the next hand in 6th place and collected $3,130 for his afternoon of tournament poker.

Sixth place, Albert Ngyuen, $3,130

James Bridgeman

Just before the final table was formed they lost Jimmy Setna, exiting in 9th place for $1,680.

There are a few big stacks on the table as well as a few shortys, so, we may see some fast eliminations.  Mehdi Badreddine has the top stack, sitting on 760,000.

Daune Fernandez is a solid tournament player from Ontario that shows up on a regular basis for Playground events. When he picked up an Ace (A8), he moved his chips forward to signal an all in. Matthew Wilkins made the call with .

Flop: , giving Wilkins a set and Fernandez was pretty much drawing dead. The on the turn gave him a boat to wrap it up, and the on the river didn’t mean too much at all.

Daune Fernandez, 11th place, $1,450

Matthew Wilkins

The bubble has finally burst in the $500+$50 8-Max Event #5. All of the remaining players are now in the money, and as soon as the bubble had burst, the small stacks who were holding on and hoping to at least make a min-cash started to go crazy and shove, shove, shove.There were five bustouts within the first 10 minutes once the players knew that they were assured of getting paid.

This is how the payouts have gone so far:

• 14th place: Sylvain Lessard, $1,300
• 15th place: David Burnard, $1,210
• 16th place: Andrew Boujaoude, $1,210
• 17th place: Rung Xu, $1,160
• 18th place: Irtiza Malik, $1,160
• 19th place: Shawn Daigle, bubble

The players have just returned from the third break of the day and the field has definitely thinned out. There are now only 26 players remaining, all fighting it out for the top prize of $16,830. The min-cash happens in 18th so there will be some pressure on the small stacks from the big boys sitting on piles of chips. There will be a table re-draw at 24 players, at which time the players will move from the tent area to the main tournament room.

The current chip leader is Ali Keshavarz from Scarborough, Ont, playing a 273,000 chip stack, followed closely by Matthew White from Etobicoke, Ontario, also in the Toronto region.

Chip leader: Ali Keshavarz

Second in chips, Matthew White

The field in the 8-Max is down to less than half of the original entries. Only 60 players remain after roughly four hours of play.

Some big stacks have emerged since the last break; it is now a three-horse race for the chip lead. Aidan Tiefenbach, Andres Korn and Mehdi Badreddine control the largest stacks in play, each in the vicinity of the 200,000, which puts them comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. The chip average now provides slightly more than 30 big blinds so the shorter stacks will begin to feel the pressure in the coming levels.

On one of the remaining tables in Event #5, 3 players were playing a 11K pot on the flop. Kyle Brush opened with an all-in bet, covering the pot by a little. Daniel Golea did his best to isolate his, pushing 45K forward. Christopher Turnbull pondered.

Flop:

He talked to himself for a while, then called clock on himself, claiming that he prefers to call it to himself then to hear someone else call it. At the very end of his time window, he elected to muck his king-queen hand face up, and when he saw Golea’s aces, stormed away from the table saying: “I’m so good at this game!”

Golea:
Brush:

Full board:    

One other player called Turnbull back to the table and needled him nicely: “You s%&@ at this game!” Poker is as tough as it is entertaining!

Event #5, the $550 8-Max, attracted 138 players, surpassing the guarantee by 38% and forming a juicy prize pool for all 83 players still in contention. $16,830 are waiting for the champion. Not too shabby!

Players will take a break in about 25 minutes and come back in the tent to attempt a deep run in a nice well-conditioned atmosphere. Here is the complete payout table, followed by some recent shots of the field: