Day 1E of the Grand Prix Canada brought out a large field that contributed a total of 165 entries. The action got off to a fast start and maintained a high pace all the way to the end. Before the late registration and re-entry period came to a close at the beginning of level 11, there were 50 re-entries, which put a massive number of chips in play for the remaining players to go get. The large number of re-entries helped maintain significant depth of play throughout the flight, which took 17 levels of play.

The story for the early part of the flight was Claude Perrault’s incredible start. Perrault built up a massive chip lead before the first break, one that he would maintain for some time. But it turned out to be Jean-Pascal Gauthier’s day. As Perrault fell off the pace, Gauthier rose to the fore and used his big stack to his advantage in the late stages of play to not only maintain but actually extend his chip lead with each passing level. By the time play concluded, Gauthier emerged with 2,082,000 in chips. But Gauthier is not the only player to survive Day 1E with an impressive stack. Mathieu Lavigne went on a hot streak in the late stages of play to build a stack of 1,959,000.

There are still nine starting flights left in the Grand Prix Canada. Check out the full schedule here.