LIVE EVENTS

Today’s Day 1J attracted a total of 210 entries (including 40 re-entries) which sent 30 qualifiers with a bag to Day 2. The blinds were 30 minutes in length which gave the players ample time to properly pick their spots. By the time the players went into their last break of the night, three millionaires were in the room as well as many other top stacks just below the one million mark.

Where as usually play tightens up and slows down as the money bubble approaches, tonight there was a whirlwind of activity allowing some players to  double-up immediately after the break while others were sent to the rail, having lost their stack. As a matter of fact, only the leader from the last break, Christian Berthelet-Amaral, was able to stay above 1 million in chips.

The chip leader for Day 1J was Andre Faucher, bagging 1,638,000.

The top five stacks in Day 1J are:

1. Andre Faucher, 1,638,000
2. Nikolas Psaarris, 1,383,000
3. Nick Soller, 1,200,000
4. Brian Massender, 1,181,000
5. Christian Berthelet-Amaral, 1,167,000

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 Saturday).

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!

The tournament is down to the final 33 players and there are now three millionaires. Jean-Francois leads with 1,154,000 in chips.

The tournament will stop once three more eliminations take place at which point they will bag their chips for Day 2.

Here the top stacks in play from the break:

There now only 42 players still fighting it out looking to be part of the 30 Day 1 qualifiers who will bag their stacks to move on to Day 2.

Over on table 53, with the blinds at 6,000/12,000, action was opened under the gun when Martin Parent raised it up to 31,000. It folded around to Mathieu Fontaine-Raposa seated on the button who tanked for 30 seconds before making the call. The small blind moved out of the way and Kevin Dawe, seated in the big blind, moved all in for 280,000 chips. Martin Parent had a big decision to make as he only had about 400,000 chips in total. He knew if he won the hand he would be in much better shape, but if he lost, he would be close to being out of the tournament. After almost two minutes of tanking he decided to fold his hand. Fontaine-Raposa snap called the all in bet and both hands were tabled:

Fontaine-Raposa:
Dawe:

Fontaine-Raposa had a monster and Dawe was now fighting for survival. The board ran out and Fontaine-Raposa pulled in the chips while Dawe was sent to the rail, ending his tournament day.

Parent mentioned that he folded pocket jacks.

There are still 60 players in contention and with an average stack now at 350,000 (44 big blinds), Christian Berthelet-Amaral has taken over the lead with 946,000 chips (119 big blinds). The leader from the previous break, Victor Goncalves-Morgado, had a bad few levels and unfortunately has now busted out.

Here are the players with the top stacks in play:

The late registration and re-entry period has now come to a close and there are 210 total entries for Day 1J  (including 40 re-entries). With one in seven players making it to Day 2, it means that the tournament will play down to the top 30 spots at which point all remaining players will be in the money and will be returning on Sunday December 15 at 1:00pm to play Day 2.

The players have just returned from another break and with 20,800,000 chips in play and 96 players still in contention, the average chip stack is sitting at 192,500 (55 big blinds). One player has managed to pull way ahead of the others; Victor Goncalves-Morgado is playing a stack of 820,000 chips, effectively 234 big blinds. The second place runner, Matthew Olma, currently has 531,500 chips.

Here is the leaderboard from the break:

There are now 166 entries with still 135 players left in the running with another three full hours left to go in the late registration and re-entry period which comes to a close at 9:30pm.

The chip average is currently 122,900 (77 big blinds) and the leader of the pack is Jean-Francois Laramee, playing a stack of 383,200, good for 239 big blinds. Hot on his heels with just 4,900 less chips is Carl Des Granges.

Here is the first leaderboard of the day:

Two solid players were head-up on the turn. Nicola Basile, hailing from Toronto and who has a great resume including a WSOP-C ring was in a hand with Eric Leblond, another solid player who lives in New Brunswick and who is a regular at all of the Playground events were battling away.

With the blinds at 700/1,400, there was already just over 50,000 chips in the middle on a board of when Nicola Basile put in a bet of 21,000, only to be met by an all in re-raise for Basile’s tournament life from Leblond. There was both a flush draw and a straight draw showing and Basile was asking himself if he was good or not? He spent time tanking and in he end, he decided to let go of his hand and wait for the next one.

We will keep a close eye on this table for sure.

With already more than 100 entries in level two and another four and half hours to go in the late registration period, there will certainly be a ton of chips in play in this flight. late registration remains open until 9:30pm tonight, and players always start with a full 100,000 starting stack.

Here are some of the players seated in level two:

Welcome to Day 1J 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. This is your chance to play a Day 1 with 30 minute blind levels.

Players start the Grand Prix Canada with 100,000 chips. The blind levels are 30 minutes long and 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 9:30pm. 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 than 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 Saturday).

Good luck to all competitors!