The late registration and re-entry period has now closed and the total entries reached 124 (including 32 re-entries). This means that the tournament has well surpassed the guarantee (the prize pool will be published tomorrow late in the morning).
The top 18 finishers in Day 1J will move forward with their stacks to day 2.
The average chip stack is 187,800 and one player has already built a stack at the first break that is actually more than the average stack going into Day 2. Frederick Watson has a commanding lead at the first break running away from the rest of the pack, playing a stack of 955,000 chips, equal to 191 big blinds.
Here are the top stacks in play:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Frederick | Watson | 955,000 |
| Sutharsan | Sivakumar | 691,000 |
| Stephane | Boisvert | 492,000 |
| Charles | Gauthier | 402,000 |
| Michael | Carrington | 384,000 |
The average chip stack is a little under 400K and there are now two millionaires in the room. Duy Tan Pham has jumped into the lead with 1,140,000 chips, good for 142.5 big blinds, followed in second place by Sebastien Labbe, sitting on 1,065,000 chips (133 big blinds).
The top stacks on the leaderboard are:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Duy Tan | Pham | 1,140,000 |
| Sebastien | Labbe | 1,065,000 |
| Alexandre | Nadeau-Lévesque | 920,000 |
| Manolis | Garoufalis | 905,000 |
| Patrick | St-Onge | 890,000 |
| Jishant | Sapra | 840,000 |
| George | Stocker | 815,000 |
| Stephen | Searle | 780,000 |
There are now 65 entries in the final starting flight of the Grand Prix Canada with still 90 minutes left to go in the late registration period which closes at 12:45am. The prize pool for this event will be huge, so if you still want to have another shot at fame and fortune, come join in the action now!
Here are some of the players seated on the felt:
The late registration and re-entry period has come to a close in Day 1I. In the end it attracted a total of 404 entries (including 121 re-entries!). The tournament will play down to the final 58 players at which point they will bag their stacks for Day 2 along with being assured of a guaranteed min-cash of at least $400.
Day 1H of the Grand Prix Canada was by far the largest of all of the starting flights, attracting a total of 528 runners. This brought the marquee event of the 2020 World Cup of Cards just shy of the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool, which was then well surpassed in the 5:00pm flight (Day 1I).
With over 52 million chips in play, large stacks were built throughput the day. The top 75 players were scheduled to bag and tag for Day 2 and as play approached the bubble, there were a lot of aggressive moves taking place as everyone wanted to bag as much as possible.
When play was two players off of the bubble, Christine Park picked up pocket aces and sent Andre Vezina packing when she bested his pocket kings (click here to read the details).
As fate would have it, the bubble bustout hand was also pocket kings (held by Ricky Campanelli) vs. the pocket aces of Grant Guevremont. As Campanelli busted out at the same time as Maxime Jutras who was seated on another table, both players chopped the $400 min-cash, walking away with $200 each.
The chip leader from Day 1H was Christian Berthelet who bagged an impressive 2,568,000 chips. He is followed in second place by Rene Fortin, bagging 2,353,000, and by Dave Bonneau with 2,119,000 chips.
To see the combined Day 2 qualifying stacks, click here.
The Day 2 seating draw will be posted later this evening once the turbo flight Day 1J comes to a close.
Day 2 takes place tomorrow, Sunday, at 1:00pm.
The last starting flight of the partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Canada, the marquee event of the 2020 World Cup of Cards starts now! The 5:00pm flight (Day 1I) has already brought the tournament north of the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool and every additional entry will just keep adding to the juicy payouts.
Players start with 100,000 chips and since this last flight is a turbo flight, the blind levels are 15 minutes in length. There are unlimited re-entries available right up until the start of level 11 at 12:45am.
Keep in mind that if you already qualified but still would like to increase the size of the stack you bagged, you can always try to bag a bigger one right now; should you send more than one stack to Day 2, you will resume play with your largest stack, while the forfeited one(s) will net you a cool min-cash of $400.
Good luck to all runners today, and stay tuned for photos, leaderboards, and more!
The 5:00pm flight just took a break, and we were able to scout the room for stacks upwards of 500K. Six of them were identified, led by Tu Tran’s 793,500. Here’ the top of the leaderboard:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Tu | Tran | 793,500 |
| Curtis | Mcmillan | 777,000 |
| Richard | Sysko | 701,500 |
| Armik | Dumont | 639,500 |
| Alexandre | Nadeau-Lévesque | 617,500 |
| Dan | Vigderhous | 541,500 |
The tension across the room was super high as the tournament was two away from the money bubble and bagging and tagging for the night. Action was opened by Christine Park who raised it up from 25,000 to 55,000, only to be met by an all in shove by Andre Vezina who was sitting on a stack of 480,000. It folded to Marc-Andre Senecal who went deep into the tank. He tanked, and tanked, and tanked, from what seemed like an eternity, until finally he let go of his hand. Park then smiled as she snap-called and the hands were tabled:
Vezina: 
Park: 
The board ran out 
and Park sent Vezina to the rail bringing Day 1H to the bubble. Marc-Andre Senecal was heard saying “I’m so happy that I folded, I’m so happy!”. When asked what he had, he said that he folded ace-king from the small blind, and since he was nursing a below average stack, the fold was very painful at the time. It ended up being the right for him for sure.
Day 1H is now one away from the money.
Entries in Day 1I are piling up at a rapid pace – 348 so far, with another 2 hours to the registration period. Most players, when eliminated, re-enter the event, knowing that today is their last chance to make Day 2.
A few shots from level 7:
The players have just returned from their last break of the night and with an average stack sitting at just over 600,000 chips, Rene Fortin is in the lead with 1,850,000 chips, good for 92.5 big blinds. The bigger stacks will certainly be putting pressure on to the smaller ones as the bubble is fast approaching so it will be interesting to see where this all ends up.
Here are the leaders in level 17:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Rene | Fortin | 1,850,000 |
| Gregory | Bell | 1,513,000 |
| Robert | Delcourt | 1,260,000 |
| Sourasay | Souvanh | 1,200,000 |
| Dave | Bonneau | 1,191,000 |
| Victor | Beaudin | 1,119,000 |
| Wafic | Fala | 1,038,000 |
| Shailesh | Patel | 1,007,000 |
Play is approaching the the final stretch and everyone is fighting to bag a big stack. On table 60, Simon Tabah bumped it up from 12,000 to 30,000 and received a call from Said Michailidis seated on the button, while both blinds folded. The flop came 
and Tabah continued out for 44,000, only to be met by a raise to 130,000 by Michailidis. Tabah gave it some thought and then announced that he was all in. Michailidis shook his head and folded. The pressure is on as play will stop once the field is reduced to the last 75 players standing.
