LIVE EVENTS

Carlo Nini was down to his last 5,000 chip coin when we walked by his table, so we decided to spend a few moments to watch the end of his tournament. With 51 players left alive, he was due to take home $10,250 for his efforts – a nice score to be sure, although probably not what he wanted, given the massive $500,000 prize waiting for the eventual winner.

But we didn’t see Carlo bust out that hand. Or the next one. Or the next one.

In fact, as Carlo plunked down one of his several remaining time cards to extend his time, hoping that someone on one of the other tables would bust before him and help him come away with a slightly better payout, nobody expected he would last more than a few hands at the most. After all, the chip average was up near 1,000,000 chips. How could he possibly survive?

But survive he did. Carlo won the hand he played against Christine Do, and did it in style.

He called her all-in blind, and when she flipped over a pocket pair of nines, he didn’t expect much. But he flipped over his first card, which was a 10, which was not a bad start. The real surprise came when he flipped over his second card, which was another 10! His surprise pocket pair held, and he moved up from 20,000 to 55,000.

Next he shoved from the button with an , winning against his opponent’s and moving up from 55,000 up to 140,000, as the blinds and ante equal 40,000 per hand at this point. Carlo shoved from the cut-off on the next hand and found no callers, which meant he collected the blinds once again, moving up to 190,000.

Although he skipped the next hand, the hand after that Carlo shoved again. Finding no callers, he collected the blinds once more and moved up to 230,000. This time he showed the table a pocket pair of eights.

Every so often Carlo would steal a glance at the tournament clock, and every time it still showed that there were 51 players remaining. But at least he was safer than he was five hands ago! In just a matter of minutes, Carlo was able to multiply his chip stack by ten, and is still seated at this very moment.

In fact, a quick glance at the tournament clock now (approximately 20 minutes later) tells us that there are only 43 players remaining, with the next player ousted due to collect $11,725. Carlo is a strong player, and so anything is possible. Either way, even if he busts in the next hand, his efforts, luck and skill have earned him $1,500 more than he would have had he lost that fateful hand against Christine.

How high will he finish? Only time will tell!

Because the average chip stack is 778,245 chips, we were on the lookout for stacks at or above 1,500,000 to include in our list of chip leaders. Only six players can claim that accomplishment at this stage of the game, the richest of whom is Jack Salter.

With an impressive 2,270,000 chips, Jack is now the chip leader of this group of 57 players still vying for the main prize in the WPT Main Event. Today’s plan is to play down to a final nine, and based on the pace of play so far, we will almost certainly reach it.

Players have now returned from their break and will continue their journey to the final table. Keep it up!

Halfway through level 21, with the blinds at 6,000/12,000 and the average stack up above 600,000, players are picking their battles more and more. Evidence of that was apparent at table 19 just now, as Toby Lewis (below, on the left) found himself up against the constant raises of Louis Salter.

When we joined the hand the flop was already on the table. Toby checked to Louis, who raised to 22,000. Toby called. A came down, and this time Toby checked again. Louis raised it to 75,000 this time, and again Toby called. The river was a which led to another check from Toby.

Either he wasn’t concerned that Toby was slow-playing a monster, or Louis was confident enough in his cards (or bluffing ability) to go this distance. In any case, when Louis raised it again, this time to 200,000, Toby needed to use one of his 30-second time chips to make his decision. Ultimately, he decided to fold, and Louis scooped the pot. No one was willing to show a hole card in this battle of wills, lest they give their opponent a possible future advantage.

Play continues…

Over on table 20 we just saw Roger Lamia double up, and boy does he look excited about it. Proving that poker is serious business -especially in the Main Event – the expression you see in the picture below is what Roger looked like after he won the hand. We wonder what he looks like when he’s mad!

The hand began with a mid-position raise from the always dangerous Mike Leah to 25,000. That was re-raised by Giuseppe Corapi to his left to 75,000, which was when Roger shoved for his remaining 590,000. Mike beat a hasty retreat from the hand, but Giuseppe was happy to gamble. He called and flipped over his , running head-first into Roger’s .

The board was no help, coming down , and Roger doubled up, instantly moving up to over 1,000,000 chips. Hopefully Roger will find reason to smile as we move forward and he makes his way closer to a birth in the final table.

Samuel Gagnon is the player at the top of the pile at the moment, having collected 1,370,000 chips so far. Close behind him are six other players with more than a million chips in front of them, and several players (not listed below) are also close to seven figures, but not quite there yet.

Players have just returned from break, and with blinds now at 5,000/10,000, we’re sure to see a few more exits before our next chip count, which occurs in two hours.

We started the day with 159 players, but the number has dropped dramatically in the first 90 minutes of play. We’re at the 100-player mark at the moment, and the field will no doubt continue to shrink at a rapid pace until we reach a temporary equilibrium point, one where the average stack size allows the majority of players to wait for their respective moments, getting their chips in when it counts. We’re not there yet, as a few more players have been eliminated while writing this post.

Below are just a few of our players making their way through level 19. Good luck!

Day 3 of the $3,000 + $300 WPT Montreal Main Event has just kicked off.

After multiple days of action-packed poker and thousands of entries, the remaining 159 players are now making the push towards the final table, all of them dreaming of that healthy half-million-dollar prize.

Players will play eight-handed until the reach the final nine players, with a full redraw at 16 and nine players remaining. This is what poker is all about – lots of talented players, a growing sense of pressure, and huge payout at the end of this long, dark poker tunnel.

Good luck to all our competitors – go get it!

The remaining players in the WPT Montreal Main Event are now all in the money, and the stage is set to play down to the final table.

This afternoon, the Day 3 qualifiers will be joined by the players who advanced from the Online Day 1 & 2 for an exciting day of action. The Main Event surpassed its prize pool guarantee to create some huge payouts at the top of the prize list. Everyone involved in today’s flight is guaranteed to walk away with at least $6,000, but all eyes are set on the six-figure prizes for the top six finalists, including the $500,000 prize for the eventual champion.

When play resumes at 12:00pm, the players will be seated according to the following table.

At the start of the Main Event Day 2, 432 bags were on the tables. However, many players had registered directly into Day 2, and many more did that during the first four levels of play. At the start of level 13, registration was closed, and the final number of entries for the Main Event was 1,109, including the 101 that played Online Day 1 & 2.

From level 13 on, play was lively and very few players were playing overly tight. Even with the bubble in sight and the Action Clocks on the tables, eliminations were coming in at a regular pace, as if all players had one thing in mind: the $500,000 first prize. When it got to just three players from the end of day, however, things changed. Short stacks were using their time extension chips, while most pots were fought by players with a lot of ammunition. Mike Leah, in particular, took advantage of this period. Approaching the bubble and during hand-for-hand play, it seemed like every time we walked by his table he was 3-betting someone. He was sitting on over a million chips and fighting every battle as if it was the last, which made it very unappealing for others to get involved.

Meanwhile, the few pots that had a player fully invested at showdown ended in a double-up. We counted at least five such instances. In by far the most flamboyant one, ultra short stack Ruben Perceval put it in with and was facing . The flop came !! There were three rows of players from other tables watching as the flop came out, and a giant roar filled the room, then everybody went back to their seat with a story to tell.

In the end, it was Nadir Lalji who busted last with . He could not spike a jack and stood tall. When the dust settled, Mike Leah was bagging the largest stack, the only player sending seven figures to Day 3. Kelly Minkin follows with just under a million. The full chip counts and seating draw will be published in the morning.

Day 3 resumes play at 12:00pm sharp. Don’t be late!

The prize pool was broken down into individual prizes, and the table shows some really nice numbers. The winner of the WPT Main Event will take home half a million dollars, the WPT Montreal Main Event trophy, and some well-earned bragging rights! Fourteen players already cashed by finishing the Online Day 1 & 2 and will be joined by the 145 players who bag chips today, for a total of 159 prizes.

Here is the prize pool breakdown:

At 160 players, play is paused to allow Playground and partypoker staff to introduce the Action Clock, a very useful tool to protect players from abusive tanking when approaching the payouts of a major tournament. The Action Clock is a tablet kept and managed by the dealer.

Players have 30 seconds for every action. If they fail to act within those 30 seconds, their hand is declared dead. However, they each have two time extension chips to use when they have a tough decision and wish to extend the allotted time by another 30 seconds. At the start of Day 3 tomorrow, players will see their extension chips reset to nine. This number is reset to six when the field is reduced to 24 players, and eight when the official 6-handed table is reached.