LIVE EVENTS

The tournament is now down to the final 30 players and is approaching the money bubble. Dsouza and Hargreaves remain in the lead but have slowed down their pace as two big stacks never like to clash with each other.

The smaller stacks are feeling the pressure and there have now been many all ins taking place as they are looking for badly needed double-ups. Bernadette Burgess-Steges picked up a pair and when Shijaudin Daud She opened with a min-raise, she jammed her stack and was called by Daud She.

Burgess-Steges:
Daud She:

Burgess-Steges felt pretty good when she saw Daud She’s cards, but when the dealer fanned out the flop she realized that she was in trouble. She was now on a 1-outer and she begged the dealer for the case nine. The turn came the which was of no help. The river however was magical as the dealer peeled the , and Burgess-Steges got up and did a happy dance as she thanked the dealer. She is still alive to see another flop and hoping to run it up.

The players just returned from their second break of the night and with the average stack hovering just over 100,000, Jonathan Dsouza has amassed almost four times the average and maintains his lead with 367,000 chips.

Jennifer Hargreaves is hot on his tail with 293,000, although while writing up this post, she just knocked out Jeffrey Cormier and added a lot more chips to her healthy stack so she is closing in on Dsouza. Hargreaves was just moved to Dsouza’s table so we will definitely be keeping an eye on both of these players.

The field has started to thin and is now down to 73 players. Jonathan Dsouza is having a great tournament. He is playing well and running good, a great combination for sure. While watching the action, Joshua Hopkins took him all in holding ace-six, and Dsouza made the call with ace-ten. The board ran out which let his Hopkins hit the six, but the turn was turn was the , and the river came the , and one more player exited the room.

Five minutes later Tianhong Zhao hit 2 pair on a ten-eight-six flop, and one more time Dsouza went runner-runner, this time with ten-nine making a straight when the seven turned followed by an eight on the river.

The player’s at his table have commented “it’s good to be you”, “are you taking notes of all of your runner-runner hands?”. Dsouza replied “no, I’m just taking notes of all of the comments”, as he had a big smile on his face.

He is sitting on the dominant stack for sure.  Shijaudin Daud She who was close behind at the last break seems to have lost some ground over the last few levels.

There will be a break in a few moments and the leaderboard will be updated right after that.

The players have just returned from the first break of the evening and the field keeps growing. There are now 186 entries with still almost 40 minutes left in the late registration period. We will know shortly if it passes the 200 mark, and once the floor announces the prize pool it will be posted here.

With the average stack sitting just under 40,000 chips, two players have managed to go north of 100,000. Jonathan Dsouza, a regular tournament and cash grinder here at Playground is in the lead, with a whopping 127,100 chips. Following closely is Shijaudin “Afghan Bruce Lee” Daud She with 122,600 chips.

Here is the first leaderboard of the evening:

Jean-Pascal Gauthier raised it up in late position and was called by Lisa Powell. The flop came and Gauthier continued out, only to have Powell shake her head to signal “nope”as she mucked her hand.

On the very next hand, he raised it up again. This time there were no callers, and Gauthier showed that he had the goods, a nice looking pair of aces.

On table 81 Alexandre Mongrain raised it up to 2,000 in the low jack position and it folded to Hicham Hamoud, seated in big blind, who three bet to 6,500. Mongrain thought it about for a little bit before deciding to let go of his hand.

A break is coming up which will allow us to put together the first leaderboard of the night.

The turnout has been nothing short of fantastic for this one day event. There are currently 154 players battling it out on the felt from the 161 total entries. Players have until the start of level nine to jump in, meaning there is still a little more than 90 minutes to enter. The $30,000 guaranteed prize pool was easily surpassed tonight, and it looks like it could even get doubled if the pace of the entries keeps up.

There are a lot of familiar faces from both near and far, here are just some of them:

Event #2, the $300 + $30 Freeze, starts shortly as the cards will be in the air at 7:00pm. This is the first single day event of the WPT Montreal and it promises to be a great action packed evening of poker. Players who enjoy tighter play will appreciate the freeze out format as the play tends to be more conservative in the opening levels since there are no re-buys permitted, making for some really good poker.

Players start with 30,000 chips and play on 10-handed tables through 20-minute blind levels. As the tournament progresses, play will then change to 9-handed tables. Late registration will be open until the start of level nine, which is at 9:55pm, with blinds at 800/1,600. Players receive a full 30,000 chip starting stack regardless of when they buy in.

There is a $30,000 guaranteed prize pool and judging from past festivals, the prize pool may in fact climb much higher than the guarantee.

Come join the action and see if you can build yourself a nice bankroll to help finance some of the other upcoming WPT Events.

Good luck to all of the players!

Event #2: $300 + $30 Freeze

$30,000 Guaranteed

• Friday, October 25 at 7:00pm