MILLIONS General News

The cards are in the air!

Level: 1
Small Blind: 2K
Big Blind: 5K
BB Ante: 5K
Chip Average: 1M
Remaining: 29
Entries: 29

May 17, 2019 | 5:07pm | Playground

Event #2 of the MILLIONS North America, the $1,000 + $100 Montreal Open, continues this evening with the second of seven starting flights, Day 1B. Day 1A had a robust turnout of 173 entries to get this event off to a solid start, and Day 1B is sure to draw another large crowd.

The Montreal Open offers a huge prize pool guarantee: at least $1,000,000 in cash will be awarded as well as $10,000 + $300 seats to the Main Event given to the top 15 finishers when Day 3 play concludes on May 21.

Players will start each Day 1 with a starting stack of 1,000,000 in tournament chips and grind through 16 30-minute levels of 9-handed play before bagging chips for Day 2. This is a re-entry event with unlimited re-entries permitted until the end of the late registration period at the beginning of level 9 on each Day 1. A player may play additional Day 1s even if he/she has survived a previous Day 1 with chips. Players who qualify for Day 2 more than once will resume play on Day 2 with their largest qualifying stack; all other qualifying stacks will be forfeited.

Good luck to all!

The Montreal Open is about to begin!

May 17, 2019 | 12:02pm | Playground

Event #2 of the MILLIONS North America, the $1,000 + $100 Montreal Open, is set to take this already popular series to the next level when Day 1A kicks off at noon today. This will be the first of seven starting flights for the Montreal Open, an event that boasts a whopping seven-figure guarantee! There will be at least $1,000,000 in cash awarded as well as $10,000 + $300 seats to the Main Event given to the top 15 finishers when Day 3 play concludes on May 21.

This event has shown its popularity even before the first card has been pitched, as the $150 + $15 turbo re-entry satellites for the Montreal Open have gathered large fields and consistently surpassed their guarantees to qualify 82 players. With two more satellites ahead-one this evening at 8:00pm and another tomorrow at 8:00pm-many more players will get the opportunity to qualify for the Montreal Open at a fraction of the buy-in cost.

The players are now making their way into the tournament hall, and the cards will be in the air soon. Good luck to all!

Playground 200 – Day 3 seating draw

May 17, 2019May 17, 2019 | 11:07am | Playground

Event #1 of the MILLIONS North America, the Playground 200, attracted 1,102 entries and more than doubled the guaranteed prize pool in the process. From the four starting flights, 282 players advanced stacks and returned to play on Day 2. The Day 2 field reached the money when 138 players remained. Following ten levels of play on Day 2, 37 players remained in contention and bagged chips for Day 3. The remaining players are now each assured a prize of at least $800, while a prize of $36,128 awaits the champion of this event.

When play resumes at 7:00pm, the Day 3 qualifiers will be seated according to the following table:

First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Seat \| Siège	Stack \| Tapis
George	Caragiorgas	Table 19 - Seat 3	1,130,000
Dean	Nerbonne	Table 19 - Seat 4	310,000
Paul	Manoian	Table 19 - Seat 5	1,200,000
Marc	Bourgeois	Table 19 - Seat 6	670,000
Rasvan	Rimniceanu	Table 19 - Seat 7	825,000
Jose Nirranjan	Cruze	Table 19 - Seat 8	475,000
Shijaudin	Daud Sha	Table 19 - Seat 9	600,000
Raymond Joshua	Macdonald	Table 20 - Seat 1	1,045,000
Martin	Borras	Table 20 - Seat 3	565,000
Yirui	Zhang	Table 20 - Seat 5	885,000
Tony	Lei	Table 20 - Seat 6	605,000
Elie	Abdallah	Table 20 - Seat 7	415,000
Mike	Mirand	Table 20 - Seat 8	835,000
Matthew	Wilkins	Table 20 - Seat 9	960,000
Adam	Bogach	Table 24 - Seat 1	340,000
Steven Kenneth	Terry	Table 24 - Seat 2	435,000
Aaron Roy	Parsons	Table 24 - Seat 4	1,505,000
Jean-Francois	Lescadres	Table 24 - Seat 5	1,095,000
Philippe	Boucher	Table 24 - Seat 6	445,000
Earl	Levett	Table 24 - Seat 7	275,000
Chawki	Fawaz	Table 24 - Seat 8	257,000
Moucheghe	Bamboukian	Table 24 - Seat 9	1,070,000
Richard	Hamelin	Table 28 - Seat 1	260,000
Michelle	Reyes	Table 28 - Seat 3	375,000
Marouane	Tijani	Table 28 - Seat 4	545,000
Brenda	Blackburn	Table 28 - Seat 5	410,000
Po Lien	Taing	Table 28 - Seat 6	515,000
Joshua	Gauder	Table 28 - Seat 7	1,290,000
Joselyn	Arseneau	Table 28 - Seat 8	375,000
Tyrone	Baskin	Table 28 - Seat 9	235,000
Carlos	Gerones	Table 32 - Seat 1	2,995,000
Marc	Saddik	Table 32 - Seat 3	310,000
Jimmy	Setina	Table 32 - Seat 4	1,585,000
Olivier	Lamarre	Table 32 - Seat 5	280,000
Christopher	Pietrzak	Table 32 - Seat 7	380,000
Kevin	Rousselle	Table 32 - Seat 8	820,000
Fred	Robitaille	Table 32 - Seat 9	330,000

Gerones bags 2,995,000 heading into Day 3

Level: 24
Small Blind: 12K
Big Blind: 24K
BB Ante: 24K
Chip Average: 744K
Remaining: 37
Entries: 1102

May 17, 2019May 17, 2019 | 4:05am | Playground

37 players bag chips to advance to day 3

After four Day 1 starting flights, with 1,102 entries in total, 277 players came back tonight to play Day 2, with the top 138 spots placing in the money. It took close to three hours to approach the money bubble, and almost another hour until the bubble burst. Once the players were in the money, the bustouts happened one after the other, with short stacks shoving away, trying to double their stacks so that they could have a chance of making it to Day 3.

It took some time until the first player made it over the 1 million mark, until finally the chip leader from Day 1A, Marc Bourgeois, was back in the lead with the first million+ stack. The lead started to change hands quite a few times, as there were some battles of the big stacks taking place. As the tournament went into the last hour of play, the action became more cautious, as everyone wanted to come back for Day 3.

On table 32, one player, Carlos Gerones, started to chip up nicely, and then after making a double elimination, he became the massive chip leader, and, the only player to go north of 2 million chips. He maintained the lead and ended up bagging the top stack, an impressive 2,995,000, double the second place finisher. Marc Bourgeois was able to bag 670,000, and Day 2 chip leader Shijaudin Daud Sha finished the evening with exactly 600,000.

Here is the list of all players who bagged 1 million+:

Carlos Gerones 2,995,000
Jimmy Setina 1,585,000
Aaron Roy Parsons 1,585,000
Joshua Gauder 1,290,000
Paul Manoian 1,200,000
George Caragiorgas 1,130,000
Jean-Francois Lescadres 1,095,000
Moucheghe Bamboukian 1,070,000
Raymond Joshua Macdonald 1,045,000

The full updated chip stacks and table and seating draw will be published here on Friday morning.

Day 3 gets underway tomorrow, Friday, at 7:00pm.

Here is a photo of the Day 3 chip leader, Carlos Gerones:

A few of the other players who will be returning for Day 3:

After a dramatic final hand, ten more players qualify for the Montreal Open

May 16, 2019 | 5:29pm | Playground

The latest $150 + $15 turbo re-entry satellite for the $1,000 + $100 Montreal Open drew another impressive field this afternoon. The large turnout contributed 74 entries, enough to double the guarantee and award ten seats. The eleventh place finisher received a modest $100 payout, a small consolation considering the dramatic finish.

After nearly a level of hand-for-hand play, the bubble was burst following a shocking four-way hand. The short-stacked player at the table was down to just under two big blinds. After a couple of limps, the short stack made its way into the middle from the small blind. The big blind put forward calling chips, as did the other two players, creating the possibility of a three-way side pot. But that side pot never materialized; the players checked their way to the river so hands could be tabled. When the cards were finally turned over, the players could not contain their shock. The short stack had finally found the hand he was waiting for-pocket aces!-but he had too few chips to avoid a multi-way pot. In the end, a suited gapper, , turned a flush to crack the aces and put ten more qualifiers in the Montreal Open!

Last hand of play:

Some of this afternoon’s qualifiers:

Play your way in to the Montreal Open

Level: 2
Small Blind: 100
Big Blind: 200
BB Ante: 200
Chip Average: 20K
Remaining: 41
Entries: 41

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019 | 12:26pm | Playground

This afternoon at Playground, players will find a great way to participate in Event #2 of the MILLIONS North America, the $1,000 + $100 Montreal Open, at a substantial discount- if they play their cards right. Playground is offering another $150 + $15 turbo re-entry satellite that guarantees at least five seats to the Montreal Open. This satellite kicked off at noon and, thanks to the strong early turnout, is likely to surpass the five-seat guarantee. Late registration (and unlimited re-entries) will be available until 1:45pm.

For anyone who misses out on this afternoon’s satellite, there will be a $150 + $15 turbo re-entry satellite tonight at 8:00pm that boasts a massive 15 seat guarantee! Earlier satellites proved to be very popular, as 42 players have already won their seats, and they will be joined by many more after today’s satellites.

The first starting flight of the Montreal Open starts tomorrow at noon so don’t miss your chance to qualify!

Playground 200 – Day 2 seating draw

May 16, 2019 | 11:51am | Playground

Event #1 of the MILLIONS North America, the Playground 200, kicked this festival off with a bang, attracting 1,102 entries across four starting flights. A total of 277 players bagged chips from various Day 1s, and they will return this evening at 7:00pm to compete for a share of the $213,788 prize pool. For the full prize pool breakdown, click here.

When play resumes, the Day 2 qualifiers will be seated according to the following table:

First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Seat \| Siège	Stack \| Tapis
Shijaudin	Daud Sha	Table 31 - Seat 9	460,000
Marc	Bourgeois	Table 23 - Seat 4	366,000
Lucas	Braga	Table 28 - Seat 5	355,000
Yirui	Zhang	Table 30 - Seat 4	311,000
Scott David	Hite	Table 28 - Seat 4	288,000
Christopher	Pietrzak	Table 25 - Seat 1	261,500
Joseph	Abou Khalil	Table 64 - Seat 1	245,000
Aaron Roy	Parsons	Table 59 - Seat 7	235,000
Rasvan	Rimniceanu	Table 22 - Seat 2	233,000
Michael	Malouin	Table 21 - Seat 3	232,000
Michael	Carrington	Table 20 - Seat 6	231,000
Yves	Grenon	Table 33 - Seat 6	230,000
Tony	Lei	Table 59 - Seat 3	224,000
Jonathan	Jette-Prince	Table 22 - Seat 4	219,000
Albert	Nguyen	Table 22 - Seat 1	217,000
Michael	Khan	Table 23 - Seat 1	216,000
Tyrone	Baskin	Table 37 - Seat 2	215,500
Line	Desjardins	Table 33 - Seat 5	212,000
Miguel	Goncalo	Table 32 - Seat 2	206,000
Elie	Abdallah	Table 35 - Seat 1	204,000
Gregory	Flood	Table 20 - Seat 8	195,000
Jacques	Briere	Table 24 - Seat 3	195,000
Francis	Larose	Table 27 - Seat 8	193,500
Richard	Book	Table 30 - Seat 2	192,000
Matthew	Monteschio	Table 64 - Seat 3	190,500
Tae	Cha	Table 34 - Seat 1	190,000
Edet	Umoh	Table 38 - Seat 3	183,000
Grant	Pazarka	Table 62 - Seat 8	180,000
Daniel	Golea	Table 21 - Seat 8	178,000
James	Cooke	Table 27 - Seat 4	178,000
Alon	Messica	Table 57 - Seat 6	175,500
Etienne	Leduc	Table 34 - Seat 7	167,000
Jason	Harned	Table 58 - Seat 3	166,500
Eric	Miron	Table 34 - Seat 9	161,500
Dave	Dupont-Rivard	Table 29 - Seat 8	161,000
Carlos	Gerones	Table 60 - Seat 6	161,000
Maxime	Argento	Table 17 - Seat 5	160,500
Frederic	Beaudry	Table 22 - Seat 9	158,000
Nghi Van	Tran	Table 29 - Seat 9	157,500
Jimmy	Setna	Table 59 - Seat 1	157,500
Jose Nirranjan	Cruze	Table 20 - Seat 1	157,000
Harry	Chaimowiz	Table 60 - Seat 3	156,000
Costa	Babalis	Table 24 - Seat 2	155,000
Anh Dung	Nguyen	Table 37 - Seat 4	153,000
James	Pillon	Table 64 - Seat 8	150,000
Richard	Figiel	Table 38 - Seat 1	149,000
Corey	Matticks	Table 55 - Seat 5	148,000
Nicolas	Majdalani	Table 17 - Seat 6	147,500
Eric Jc	Ylagan	Table 34 - Seat 3	147,500
William Henry	Munn	Table 55 - Seat 3	145,000
Antoine	Sankari	Table 32 - Seat 6	144,500
Arkadi	Karakhanov	Table 25 - Seat 3	144,000
Neal	Freeman	Table 31 - Seat 2	144,000
Peter	Liakopoulos	Table 36 - Seat 7	143,000
Kristopher	Chartier	Table 30 - Seat 7	139,000
Paul	Manoian	Table 55 - Seat 6	138,000
Adam	Bogach	Table 56 - Seat 2	137,500
Wayne	Derouchie	Table 26 - Seat 4	135,500
Gianfranco	Giordano	Table 55 - Seat 1	135,500
Mingzhe	Zhang	Table 57 - Seat 2	135,500
Dave	Jeanneau-Cyr	Table 33 - Seat 4	133,000
Joel	Malo	Table 36 - Seat 6	131,500
Gaetan	Perreault	Table 29 - Seat 3	131,000
Christine	Park	Table 36 - Seat 4	128,500
Peter	Asskandar	Table 25 - Seat 6	127,000
Ben	Menache	Table 35 - Seat 2	126,000
Jemot Gregory	Ochoa	Table 63 - Seat 5	125,000
Kathy	Sawers	Table 62 - Seat 2	124,000
Olivier	Legendre	Table 61 - Seat 6	122,500
Sarvesh	Pershad	Table 25 - Seat 8	122,000
Shane	Gallant	Table 23 - Seat 6	121,000
Gary Allison	Irvine	Table 21 - Seat 4	120,000
Jason	Clarke	Table 63 - Seat 2	120,000
Jean-Francois	Lescadres	Table 30 - Seat 1	119,500
Matthew Graeme	Witterick	Table 58 - Seat 9	118,500
William	Couillard-Olczyk	Table 35 - Seat 9	118,000
Marc	Petit	Table 20 - Seat 2	117,000
Pascal	Gregoire	Table 20 - Seat 9	117,000
Andrii	Grynechko	Table 19 - Seat 2	116,000
Louis-Patrick	Levros	Table 33 - Seat 7	116,000
Olivier	Boyer	Table 62 - Seat 5	115,000
Kevin	Rousselle	Table 31 - Seat 4	114,000
Marc	Senechal	Table 28 - Seat 7	113,500
Marc-Olivier	Beauregard	Table 34 - Seat 5	113,000
David	Bolduc Hamel	Table 38 - Seat 9	111,000
Eric	Massie	Table 55 - Seat 9	110,500
Richard	Hamelin	Table 25 - Seat 4	109,500
Albert	Wong	Table 56 - Seat 6	109,500
Kaylen	Nichol	Table 22 - Seat 3	108,500
Sebastien	Laviolette	Table 32 - Seat 3	108,000
Brenda	Blackburn	Table 27 - Seat 1	107,000
Adam	Hamaoui	Table 63 - Seat 4	107,000
Gilbert	Charles	Table 32 - Seat 8	106,000
Steven	Martin	Table 56 - Seat 1	106,000
Raphael	Tran Dinh	Table 60 - Seat 4	105,500
Po Lien	Taing	Table 20 - Seat 3	105,000
Olivier	Lamarre	Table 25 - Seat 7	104,500
George	Caragiorgas	Table 55 - Seat 8	104,500
Marc	Saddik	Table 61 - Seat 4	103,000
Charles	Roy	Table 61 - Seat 3	102,000
Kenneth Myles	Budd	Table 59 - Seat 4	101,500
Earl	Levett	Table 31 - Seat 8	100,500
Gerard	Doire	Table 61 - Seat 7	100,500
Tai	Sum	Table 23 - Seat 7	100,000
Samuel	Charpentier	Table 32 - Seat 5	100,000
Alexis	P-Laroche	Table 62 - Seat 9	100,000
Andre	Larocque	Table 33 - Seat 9	99,500
Danielle	Bracy	Table 58 - Seat 1	99,500
Raphael	Duval	Table 26 - Seat 8	98,000
Joseph	Dadoun	Table 19 - Seat 6	97,000
Bryan	Robitaille Fequet	Table 21 - Seat 5	97,000
Grant	Ellis	Table 24 - Seat 8	97,000
Michael	Malm	Table 17 - Seat 1	95,500
Gael	Dauphinais	Table 28 - Seat 1	95,500
Arnold	Yaxley	Table 35 - Seat 3	94,500
Joshua	Gauder	Table 33 - Seat 1	93,500
Jean-Francois	Stoycheff	Table 34 - Seat 8	93,000
Derek	Hinchliffe	Table 57 - Seat 9	93,000
Marouane	Tijani	Table 29 - Seat 1	92,500
Fred	Robitaille	Table 28 - Seat 2	92,000
Ernest	Kelly	Table 28 - Seat 6	92,000
Galvin	Van Brussel	Table 28 - Seat 8	92,000
Dat	Doan	Table 35 - Seat 8	92,000
Jonathan	Bardier	Table 59 - Seat 2	92,000
Mihail	Cojocaru	Table 27 - Seat 6	91,000
Ian	Armorer	Table 34 - Seat 6	90,500
Adam	Cader	Table 60 - Seat 5	90,500
Nabil	Nahoul	Table 33 - Seat 8	90,000
Greg	Steen	Table 60 - Seat 9	90,000
Laurence-Alexis	Cote	Table 56 - Seat 7	89,500
Brandon	Quick	Table 22 - Seat 5	89,000
Christopher	Taylor	Table 37 - Seat 3	89,000
Charanjeev	Malhotra	Table 30 - Seat 3	88,000
Andrew	Molotchko	Table 17 - Seat 8	87,000
Hung	Ha	Table 36 - Seat 9	87,000
Cole Ryan	Quick	Table 28 - Seat 9	86,000
Mitchell	Besharah	Table 61 - Seat 1	86,000
Nancy	Query	Table 25 - Seat 2	85,500
Shane	Rawlins	Table 55 - Seat 2	85,000
Joshua	Frazer James	Table 56 - Seat 9	85,000
Tamlyn	Campbell	Table 57 - Seat 7	85,000
Maxime	Theroux	Table 58 - Seat 5	84,000
Atbin	Abbasianafrapoli	Table 24 - Seat 4	82,500
Andy	D' Alessandro	Table 31 - Seat 5	82,500
Karim-Olivier	Kamal	Table 58 - Seat 8	82,500
Alexandre	Bergeron-Cyr	Table 34 - Seat 4	82,000
Mitchell	Dredge	Table 38 - Seat 2	82,000
Roch	Labelle	Table 59 - Seat 6	81,500
Ghislain	Pigeon	Table 38 - Seat 6	81,000
Jonathan	Levert	Table 62 - Seat 7	81,000
William Cornelius	Johnston	Table 20 - Seat 5	80,500
Patrick	Azevedo	Table 24 - Seat 5	80,500
Brian	Flood	Table 24 - Seat 6	80,500
Joselyn	Arseneau	Table 19 - Seat 1	79,000
Breyer	Calvert	Table 63 - Seat 9	78,500
Maxime	Chartrand	Table 17 - Seat 3	77,500
Dayaly	Lim	Table 22 - Seat 6	77,500
Stephane	Arbour	Table 19 - Seat 7	77,000
Nick	Nickoletopoulos	Table 20 - Seat 4	76,000
Mike	Mirand	Table 56 - Seat 5	76,000
Eric	Richer	Table 61 - Seat 2	75,000
Daniel	Le	Table 29 - Seat 2	74,000
Bradley	Phee	Table 36 - Seat 3	74,000
Colton John	Nichol	Table 32 - Seat 1	73,500
Fady	Habashi	Table 63 - Seat 7	73,500
Simon	Marciano	Table 23 - Seat 8	73,000
Philippe	Boucher	Table 26 - Seat 5	73,000
Chawki	Fawaz	Table 37 - Seat 7	73,000
Michelle	Reyes	Table 57 - Seat 8	72,500
Matthew	Wilkins	Table 25 - Seat 9	71,500
Danny	Lauzon	Table 37 - Seat 8	71,000
Aaron	Grayer	Table 27 - Seat 7	70,500
Elaine	Rawn	Table 17 - Seat 9	70,000
Goran	Brestovac	Table 28 - Seat 3	69,500
Marc-Andre	Bisson	Table 56 - Seat 3	69,500
Joel Alain	Bisson	Table 63 - Seat 1	69,500
Moucheghe	Bamboukian	Table 19 - Seat 3	69,000
Xavier	Chayer-St-Germain	Table 64 - Seat 6	68,500
Yibiao	Liang	Table 62 - Seat 1	68,000
Daniel	Fortier	Table 24 - Seat 1	67,500
Marcel	Basset	Table 26 - Seat 3	67,000
Cindy	Campbell	Table 55 - Seat 4	66,500
Galal	Tadros	Table 57 - Seat 1	66,500
Roger	Thibault	Table 64 - Seat 2	66,500
Timmy	Richard	Table 32 - Seat 7	66,000
Enrico	Prata	Table 35 - Seat 6	65,500
Mina	Mourad	Table 37 - Seat 1	65,500
Jean-Guy	Larosiliere	Table 29 - Seat 6	64,500
Roberto	Buonocore	Table 36 - Seat 2	64,000
Duane	Sirr	Table 56 - Seat 8	64,000
Martin	Borras	Table 57 - Seat 4	64,000
Andre	Bilodeau	Table 22 - Seat 8	63,500
Adam	Strulovitch	Table 29 - Seat 7	63,500
Robert	Gosselin	Table 58 - Seat 2	63,500
Chanwoo	Lee	Table 61 - Seat 9	63,500
Lily	De Ascentiis	Table 26 - Seat 2	63,000
Dmitry	Glubochansky	Table 23 - Seat 3	62,000
Martin	Nguyen	Table 26 - Seat 9	62,000
Borislav	Angelov	Table 58 - Seat 7	62,000
Steven Kenneth	Terry	Table 60 - Seat 2	61,500
Eric	Al Halaby	Table 23 - Seat 5	61,000
John	Palmer	Table 36 - Seat 8	61,000
Gabriel	Beliveau	Table 21 - Seat 1	60,000
Tina	S	Table 64 - Seat 9	60,000
Vincent	Tremblay	Table 59 - Seat 8	59,500
Yuanli	Shi	Table 63 - Seat 8	59,500
Ian	Tang	Table 62 - Seat 6	59,000
Shawn	Daigle	Table 29 - Seat 5	58,000
Jonathan	Marrie	Table 57 - Seat 5	58,000
Abrahim	Wadhai	Table 62 - Seat 4	58,000
Sai	Lee	Table 30 - Seat 6	57,000
Christa Mae	Backlund	Table 19 - Seat 5	56,500
Fariborz	Zojaji	Table 56 - Seat 4	56,500
Andrew	Lalonde	Table 59 - Seat 5	56,500
Mustafa	Hassanzada	Table 26 - Seat 1	55,500
Tomislav	Pavkovic	Table 59 - Seat 9	55,000
Raymond Joshua	Macdonald	Table 17 - Seat 7	54,500
Patrick	Slight	Table 21 - Seat 6	54,000
Yvan	Waltzing	Table 31 - Seat 6	54,000
Alexis	Staub	Table 38 - Seat 4	54,000
Igor	Gamayunov	Table 31 - Seat 3	53,000
Jason	Guiley	Table 19 - Seat 8	52,000
Armry	Senat	Table 32 - Seat 9	52,000
Patrick	Gatfalvi	Table 55 - Seat 7	52,000
Cameron	Battikha	Table 32 - Seat 4	51,500
Michel	Bergeron	Table 26 - Seat 7	51,000
Cory	Murphy	Table 61 - Seat 8	51,000
Ronnie	Revizada	Table 24 - Seat 9	50,500
Anderson	F.	Table 35 - Seat 5	50,000
Kauvsegan	Ehamparam	Table 60 - Seat 8	49,500
Francis	Bouchard	Table 21 - Seat 7	49,000
Andrei	Gulko	Table 27 - Seat 5	49,000
Scott	Shein	Table 33 - Seat 2	49,000
Ely Jose	De Paula Filho	Table 33 - Seat 3	48,000
Sydney	Barnier	Table 60 - Seat 7	48,000
Jean Daniel	Touzin	Table 27 - Seat 2	47,500
Patrick	Braga	Table 24 - Seat 7	47,000
Michael	Korovine	Table 35 - Seat 7	47,000
Alexandre	Paquette-Leduc	Table 17 - Seat 4	46,500
Alex	Nigoghossian	Table 35 - Seat 4	46,500
Terence	Caulcutt	Table 36 - Seat 5	45,000
Alexandre	Fournier	Table 64 - Seat 5	45,000
Patrick	Dattilo	Table 21 - Seat 9	44,000
Pierre	Sirois	Table 38 - Seat 8	43,500
Robert	Turcotte	Table 17 - Seat 2	42,500
Michael	Tremblay	Table 38 - Seat 7	42,500
Kenan	Davidson	Table 25 - Seat 5	41,500
James	Bridgeman	Table 37 - Seat 9	41,500
Martin	Rombach	Table 38 - Seat 5	41,500
Sebastien	Drolet-Poitras	Table 23 - Seat 9	40,000
Sylviane	Cassini	Table 21 - Seat 2	39,500
Duy	Nguyen	Table 27 - Seat 9	39,000
David	Williams	Table 22 - Seat 7	38,500
James	Flowers	Table 29 - Seat 4	38,500
Tania Marie	Stephan	Table 19 - Seat 4	38,000
Robert Jason	Bernais	Table 34 - Seat 2	38,000
Danny	Larivee	Table 20 - Seat 7	37,000
Stephane	Faucher	Table 23 - Seat 2	36,500
Mitcheal	Ferguson	Table 58 - Seat 6	36,000
Emile	H	Table 30 - Seat 8	35,500
Louis-Philippe	Mondoux	Table 58 - Seat 4	35,000
Steven	Rosen	Table 62 - Seat 3	35,000
Dean	Nerbonne	Table 63 - Seat 6	33,500
Joseph	Sookrah	Table 64 - Seat 7	32,500
Mykyta	Kurilenko	Table 30 - Seat 9	32,000
Benjamin	Croteau	Table 64 - Seat 4	32,000
Robert	Cicchelli	Table 27 - Seat 3	31,000
Jean Luc	Joseph	Table 31 - Seat 1	30,500
Naveen	Tiruvalluri	Table 31 - Seat 7	30,500
Kim	Renaud	Table 19 - Seat 9	30,000
Sebastien	Soares	Table 30 - Seat 5	29,500
Louis	Lam	Table 26 - Seat 6	28,500
Lam	Nguyen	Table 36 - Seat 1	28,000
Jonathan	Brown	Table 57 - Seat 3	25,500
Jesse	Grill	Table 37 - Seat 6	20,500
Jamie	Baker	Table 61 - Seat 5	15,500
Mark	Kteily	Table 60 - Seat 1	14,000

12 more satellite winners to the Montreal Open

May 16, 2019 | 2:26am | Playground

Tonight’s $150 + $15 satellite to Event #2, the Montreal Open, a $1000 + $100 NL event with an outstanding guaranteed prize pool of $1,154,500 has just concluded. There were 89 entries in tonight’s satellite that had a guaranteed 10 seats to be awarded; with the large field, the prize pool grew to 12 seats (+ $150 for the 13th place finisher).

Here are the names of the 12 winners:

Placide Junior Sanon
Miguel Goncalo
Adam Cader
Breyer Calvert
Raymond Macdonald
John Kedziora
Jean-Francois Stoycheff
Jean-Francois Langevin
Brandon Quick
Peer Rower
Lucas Braga
Ben Menache

There are still many other opportunities to play a satellite over the next few days:

Thursday May 16, at 12:00PM – 5 Seats Guaranteed
Thursday May 16, at 8:00PM – 15 Seats Guaranteed
Friday May 17, at 8:00PM – 15 Seats Guaranteed
Saturday May 18, at 8:00PM – 15 Seats Guaranteed

Congratulations to tonight’s 12 winners of a seat for the Montreal Open, which gets underway Friday, May 17th, at 12:00pm. Get the complete schedule here.

Here are 10 of the 12 happy winners:

65 players advance from Day 1C

May 15, 2019May 15, 2019 | 5:08pm | Playground

Day 1C, the turbo starting flight of the Playground 200, brought out yet another large field and put the players through their paces in a whirlwind of action that wrapped up in only four hours.

The early levels were full of fast action and re-entries that helped this flight gather 189 entries. The strong turnout pushed the total number of entries for the first three Day 1s to 716, already smashing the $100,000 guarantee with another starting flight yet to come.

By the end of the flight, there were 65 players left sitting to bag chips for tomorrow’s Day 2. These players were led by Alon Messica, who will carry forward 175,500 in chips. Messica jumped out to the early chip lead this afternoon, and, despite traversing a rough patch following the break, was able to maintain a big stack through the late stages and emerge as this flight’s chip leader. But he is closely followed by several players from Day 1C and still has a long way to go to catch up to some of the bigger stacks that advanced from Day 1A and Day 1B. In all, 195 players have advanced stacks to Day 2. For the full list of Day 1 chip counts, click here.

Tonight is your last chance to take part in the Playground 200. The final starting flight, Day 1D, starts tonight at 7:00pm. This is one you don’t want to miss!

First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Stack \| Tapis
Alon	Messica	175,500
Carlos	Gerones	161,000
Jimmy	Setna	157,500
James	Pillon	150,000
Jemot Gregory	Ochoa	125,000

Day 1B is in the bag

May 15, 2019May 15, 2019 | 3:25am | Playground

It’s been a long night for the 66 players that have managed to hang on to their seats throughout 14 levels of play tonight. They will join the 65 players who have already qualified for Day 2 in yesterday’s Day 1A.

It was a grueling evening of unforgiving and aggressive poker. The players meant business and were hungry to bag as many chips as possible for what promises to be a huge turnout for this first tournament of the MILLIONS North America Event.

When the clock stopped and all was said and done, the boards were showing an average stack of 95K. This makes chip leader Yirui Zhang’s 311,000 stack a pretty impressive achievement. Zhang is also the only player to have bagged more than 300,000 chips tonight. Behind Yirui, there are three players above the 200K mark: Scott David Hite (288,000), Rasvan Rimniceanu (233,000) and Michael Khan (216,000). Nghi Van Tran, who was among the chip leaders all night, bagged a respectable 157,500 chips.

Players have two more chances to fire bullets in Day 1 flights for this event, both of which are tomorrow:

Day 1C (Turbo): Wednesday May 15th, at 12:00pm
Day 1D: Wednesday May 15th, at 7:00pm

Day 2 gets underway this Thursday, May 16th at 7:00pm for 10 levels. Day 3 is on Friday May 17th, at 7:00pm.

A combined list of all qualified players for Day 2 of the Playground 200 can be found here.

10 Lucky winners are off to the Montreal Open

May 15, 2019May 15, 2019 | 1:28am | Playground

The MILLIONS North America $150 + $15 Montreal Open Satellite Turbo Re-entry has just come to a close. In total, 62 entries were logged, including 5 re-entries. With ten seats guaranteed, the odds were great for the players.

With eleven players left, and ten seats to be awarded, the tournament clock was stopped and entered the hand-for-hand mode. In the end it only took a few hands to put an end to it all.

In the last hand of play, Pierre Marquette shoved all-in for approximately 11,000 chips. This didn’t look big, but there was at least 75,000 in the pot too. Winning this hand would change everything for him. Nicolas Majdalani wasted no time making the call and both men tabled their hands:
Pierre:
Nicolas:
The flop was all Nicolas needed: ; he flopped a straight. At this point only an ace or runner-runner clubs could save Pierre, but it was not to be. An came on the turn, and a on the river sealed his fate.

So Pierre Marquette is eliminated in 11th position on the bubble, leaving 10 happy players behind. If you didn’t make it down tonight to get into the satellite action, don’t worry. There are five more satellites before the target event:

Wednesday May 15, at 8:00PM- 10 Seats Guaranteed
Thursday May 16, at 12:00PM – 5 Seats Guaranteed
Thursday May 16, at 8:00PM – 15 Seats Guaranteed
Friday May 17, at 8:00PM – 15 Seats Guaranteed
Saturday May 18, at 8:00PM – 15 Seats Guaranteed

Congratulations to tonight’s ten winners of a seat for the Montreal Open, which gets underway Friday, May 17th, at 12:00pm. Get the complete schedule here.

Constantinos Psallidas
Jan Zeuschner
François Tarrab
Goran Brestovac
Gregory Flood
Vera G.
Karim-Olivier Kamal
Yannick Labattaglia
Nicolas Majdalani
David Cadoch

Four of the winners were happy to playfully pose for our camera:

Bourgeois finishes up top, bagging 366K in Day 1A

Level: 14
Small Blind: 1200
Big Blind: 2400
BB Ante: 2400
Chip Average: 105.8K
Remaining: 65
Entries: 275

May 14, 2019May 15, 2019 | 3:55am | Playground

65 players bag chips to move on to Day 2

Day 1A started off with a strong presence, and instead of the players slowly making it into the tournament throughout the first few levels, tonight we saw over 90 players for the first hand of tournament, and by midway through the first level, there were already 169 entries. By the time late registration ended after the 1st break, 275 had bought into Event #1 of the MILLIONS North America, the Playground 200. At the end of 14 levels, a total of 65 players bagged chips to head into Day 2.

Play throughout the evening was steady, with no massive blowouts whatsoever. The lead changed as the night progressed, with many of the leaders making it to the end. The last few levels played out as expected, players with smaller stacks took chances and shoved for a double up, some were successful, some were not.

At the end of 14 levels of play, the chip leader is Marc Bourgeois, bagging an impressive 366,000. Lucas Braga from NJ, USA had the second largest bag and is right behind Marc with 355,000.

Here are the top stacks from Day 1A:

Marc Bourgeois (366,000)
Lucas Braga (355,000)
Michael Malouin (232,000)
Jonathan Jette-Prince (219,000)
Albert Nguyen (217,000)
Tyrone Baskin (215,500)
Line Desjardins (212,000)
Miguel Goncalo (206,000)
Elie Abdallah (204,000)

The rest of the field bagged less than 200,000, but with blinds at 1500/3000 for Day 2 on Thursday night, even the lowest stack (Kim Renaud, 30,000) is still starting off with 10 BB’s, and with a little bit of luck, it is enough to make a comeback. The average chip stack tonight ended at 105,769, or, 35.5 BB’s.