LIVE EVENTS

Tonight’s Day 1H attracted a total of 115 entries (including 29 re-entries) which sent 16 qualifiers with a bag to Day 2. The tournament saw Ali Sabrah take an early lead and maintain the lead through the second break. He played a large stack all night long and was always in one of the top positions on the leaderboards. He put together a bag of 1,161,000 chips to close out the day in the top spot.

The tournament ended on a wild hand when action folded to Houssam Molhen in the small blind who completed his option. Matthew Witterick decided to shove his big blind, and, Molhem looked at him and said “I think you are making a move since we are on the bubble. I also think that I am way ahead of you”. Molhem tanked for close to two minutes and finally decided to make the call.

Witterick:
Molhem:

Molhem was right in thinking that it was a move that Witterick was making and that he was indeed way ahead of him. The flop came and Molhem hit his ten. All looked good until the fateful turn when the dealer put out the . The river was the and Molhem’s stack was sent to Witterick and the tournament came to an end, with Molhem being sent to the rail.

The top five stacks were:

1. Ali Sabrah, 1,651,000
2. Matthew Witterick, 1,387,000
3. David Sorgente, 1,182,000
4. Pascal Monarque, 1,100,000
5. Charles Macdonald, 850,000

To see the list of all of the remaining Day 1 flights, see the tournament structure sheet by clicking here.

To see the combined Day 1 results, click here. (NB: tonight’s results will be added to the list late in the morning on Friday).

A player may play additional Day 1s even if they have 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. Players would, however, retain the associated cash prize for every forfeited stack.

Day 2 plays out this coming Sunday, December 15 at 1:00pm.

Good luck to all of the competitors!

There are now 18 players remaining who are looking to bag for Day 2. The top 16 places will qualify so the play is about to go hand-for-hand.

The average stack is now 425,000 (27 big blinds) and after the last action packed level on table 34, Pascal Monarque has taken over the lead, becoming the first millionaire with a stack of 1,090,000 chips, equal to 68 big blinds.

Here are the leaders from the third break:

As the field is thinning out chips have been moving around and although most of the leaders from earlier on still have good stacks, we noticed that Han Xing Chen has lost a lot of ground and no longer holds a top spot.,

Chuck Levros just had a nice double-up when he called Brian Massender’s all in for exactly 200,000. Massender had been shoving quite a few hands over the last level and this time Levros felt he was ahead and therefore he made the call.

Massender:
Levros:

The flop came , giving Levros a pair of tens to better Massender’s pair of nines. The turn and river were bricks and Levros is now sitting on a healthy stack, while Massender was sent to the rail.

On the next hand Ali Sabrah , the chip leader from the first two breaks, opened from 12,000 to 25,000 and found calls from both Pascal Monarque in the small blind and Steven Taylor in the big blind. The flop fell and Sabrah continued out for 45,000, finding a call from Monarque. On the turn the action went check-check. The river brought the and Monarque check-called a bet of 100,000 by Sabrah, who responded with a “good call” comment to Monarque. Monarque had for for mid-pair on the flop and Sabrah mucked his hand, mentioning that he had pocket deuces.

A break is coming up soon and we will be publishing a new leaderboard; stay tuned.

The late registration and re-entry period has now come to a close and the total number of entries tonight reached 115 (including 29 re-entries). With one in seven players qualifying for Day 2, 16 players tonight will move forward.

The chip average is now 198,200, effectively 40 big blinds, and Ali Sabrah is still on top of the leaderboard with a cool 580,000 chips, good for 116 big blinds.

Here are the top stacks in play at the moment:

There has been a lot of action on Table 37 and chips are moving around the table.

With blinds at 1,500/3,000,  Han Xing Chen limped in as did Costa Psallidas. Marc Lebel then raised it up to 10,000. Both Chen and Psallidas made the call. The flop fell and Chen checked as did Psallidas. Lebel continued out with a bet of 10,000 and both players called. The turn came the and this time it checked all around. On the river, Chen checked and Psallidas picked up a pile of chips, making a bet of 38,000 chips. Lebel folded and at first it appeared that Chen might be folding as well, however when Psallidas started asking Chen some questions, Chen decided to make the call.

Chen opened his hand showing , and Psallidas mucked and was heard saying “good call”.

The players just returned from their first break of the evening and with 68 players still in contention out of a total of 83 entries (including 11 re-entries), the average chip stack is now 122,000 (61 big blinds), and Ali Sabrah has jumped way out in front putting together a stack of 449,500 chips, good for 225 big blinds.

Here are the current leaders:

With the blinds at 700/1,400, Chuck Levros limped in under the gun followed by a limp by Patrice Ravary. It was then raised to 4,700 by Tim Singer seated on Ravary’s immediate left. When it was Charli Azoulay’s turn to act, without hesitation he bumped it up to 9,000. The blinds folded and both Levros and Ravary made the call. Singer had all of the players covered and without hesitation he moved all in. Azoulay went deep into the tank and as much as he really seemed to want to make the call, he finally decided to let go of his hand. Levros looked down at his hand and seconds later he announced “call”.  Ravary got out of the way and the hands were tabled:

Singer:
Levros:

Levros was in deep trouble and needed some serious assistance The flop came and Singer was still way out in front. On the turn, Levros now picked up both a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. The river was magical for Levros as the dealer peeled the , giving him a flush and putting him back up over 150,000. Luckily for Singer, he had a good start to the tournament so he still is sitting on about 170,000.

The room is filling up nicely as there are already a total of 60 entries (including 4 re-entries) and players still have until the start of level seven at 10:50pm to jump in to the action with a full 100,000 starting stack (the blinds will be 2,000/5,000 in level seven).

Here are a few of the players seated on the tables in Day 1H:

Welcome to Day 1H of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada, the marquee event of the Playground 9-Year Anniversary Series. This event offers incredible value with it’s $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.  There have been 1,217 entries to date with still another seven starting flights to go between both the live and online Day 1s.

Players start the Grand Prix Canada with 100,000 chips. As tonight’s Day 1H is a turbo flight, the blind levels are 20 minutes long. The play is 10-handed on Day 1. Day 2 starts 9-handed and moves to 8-handed as soon as possible.

This is a re-entry event with unlimited re-entries permitted until the end of the late registration period on each Day 1, which is at the start of level 11 at 10:50pm. Re-entry is permitted for any player that loses all their chips or chooses to forfeit their stack (online flights do not offer the forfeit option). A player may play additional Day 1s even if they have 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. Players would, however, retain the associated cash prize for every forfeited stack. This allows for a great opportunity to see if you can qualify with a larger Day 2 stack by firing more tan one bullet.

The starting flights will play down to when one in seven players remain, at which point the players will be in the money and bag their chips for Day 2.

To see the combined Day 1 results, click here. (NB: today’s results will be added to the list late in the morning on Thursday).

Good luck to all competitors!