It’s been quite a roller coaster ride today in the Montreal Open Day 2.  The day started with 473 players seated at tables across the entire tournament hall.  The action was swift and unforgiving.

The top baggers from the previous Day 1 flights had imposing stacks of chips to play with.  Starting today, David Bolduc Hamel was the overall Day 1 chip leader, with 13,865,000 chips. He was in good company with five additional  players who had managed to bag more than ten million chips themselves.  With 1.5 billion chips in play anything could happen.

The $1,494,555 prize pool was announced today as well.  This event boasted a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 but that was exceeded after the second flight of Day 1’s.  On top of the prize money, the top 15 players will receive a MILLIONS Main Event seat, worth $10,300.  The players needed no more incentive to dive in and take no prisoners today.

Adil Morkos took an early lead and kept it that way for half of the evening, and by level 23 he had more than four times the average.  Then the winds changed and two new leaders emerged.  Scott Ahonen and Danny Kalpakis took the lead and remained in good shape for the remainder of the evening. Kalpakis bagged a respectable 51,400,000 chips, and Ahonen dropped 49,375,000 in his bag.

All in all, 62 players received a bag to put their chips in for safe keeping until Day 3, which starts tomorrow at 12:00pm.  Topping the chart with 72,075,000 chips is Tyler Smillie.  Scott Montgomery is close behind with 67,650,000 chips.  Montgomery is no stranger to big tournaments and got his biggest live cash payout in 2008 when he claimed 5th place in the WSOP main event in Las Vegas, for over $3,000,000.  The only other player above the 60 million mark is Martin Robert Marthis, who bagged 62,125,000 chips.

The 62 players will be back at the felts tomorrow at noon when Day 3 kicks-off.