LIVE EVENTS

Since the 16-player redraw, a volley of eliminations took place, all within the last 20 minutes of the first stint:

16th: Laurence Grondin – $4,950
15th: Chanwoo Lee – $5,850
14th: Adam Cader – $5,850
13th: Samuel Roussy-Majeau – $5,850
12th: Donald Rushton – $7,360

Bill Kontaratos best took advantage of all that chip movement, and is now sitting in the driver’s seat, forcing Marc-André Yelle to leave the spot for the first time in over 24 hours.

The 11 remaining players are now playing short, and will be brought together on the Playground 1000 final table as soon as two more players run out of chips. Here are the actual counts, taken during the first break of the day:

Two consecutive eliminations lead to a 16-player redraw. Here is the latest info:

18th: Tina Frascarelli – $4,950
17th: Timothy Ulmer – $4,950

Benoit Coulombe had under a million chips left, and the big slick was one of the hands that he was definitely going all the way with. Unfortunately for him, Nirvair Sandhu was dealt aces on that hand, and despite hitting a king on the flop, Coulombe was taken out in 21st.

Benjamin Mathieu-Comtois followed in 20th, leaving just 19 players playing somewhat short-handed. Three more eliminations are needed before players are shuffled again, randomly redistributed on 2 tables of 8 and allowed some time to breathe before they are hit with another series of blinds.

21st: Benoit Coulombe – $4,160
20th: Benjamin Mathieu-Comtois – $4,160

The first 45-minute level has passed in Day 3 of the Playground 1000, and after one elimination, the event merged on 3 tables. Three more bust outs took place since the merge:

25th: Constantinos Psallidas – $3,020
24th: Denis Quirion – $3,490
23rd: James Dickinson – $3,490
22nd: Jonathan Marrie – $3,490

Here are some shots taken during level 25:

Today is the conclusion of the Playground 1000. Today, a champion will be crowned! Day 2 allowed the field to narrow down from 182 players to just 25. In this group, many serious contenders have their eye on the big prize.

All through Day 2, it seemed like both Marc-André Yelle and William Blais were unstoppable, as they increased their respective stacks without a significant step back, but chance drafted them on the same table to start Day 3! What happens when two unstoppable forces collide?

And there are many crafty experienced players on today’s seating chart. Duff Charette, Laurence Grondin and Noeung Troeung, just to name a few, are recognizable talents and may have a say in the outcome of today’s showdown.

At 12:00pm sharp, action resumes on 4 tables, and we don’t stop until one player has all the chips and put their hand on the stunning Playground 1000 trophy and the $86,750 first prize. Stay tuned for photos, leaderboard updates, bad beat stories and hopefully a few grandstand plays!

Here’s the seating arrangement: