LIVE EVENTS

Eric Nomberg limped his small blind and Christain Barbeau checked his option. The flop came and Nomberg checked again, followed by a bet of 300,000 by Barbeau. The turn came the , and one more time Nomberg checked. This time Barbeau fired 500,000, only to be met by an all in shove by Nomberg. Barbeau made the call and the hands were opened:

Nomberg:
Barbeau:

Nomberg had limped his pocket jacks and Barbeau had flopped the flush draw. The river was a brick and Barbeau left the room in third place for $7,900, plus 17 bounty chips.

The play is now heads up between Eric Nomberg and Gianpaolo Bini.

There have been bustouts happening left and right.

• 8th place: Christopher Tavares, $2,035
• 7th place: Yan Neiman, $2,600

Then Christian Barbeau opened to 150,000, and Phillip Vera made the call. Mathieau Boulanger-Vaugeois shoved his big blind, Barbeau called, and Vera decided to fold. Barbeau had the Big Slick (AK) and Boulanger-Vaugeois had pocket queens. There was a king on the flop, and Boulanger-Vaugeois finished in sixth place for $3,370.

After Boulanger-Vaugeois left the table, Phillip Vera got it in with and was called by Erik Nomberg holding .. Unfortunately for Vera, the board ran out and Vera was sent to the rail in fifth place with an extra $4,420 in his pocket.

Then it was Cedric Myer who fell when he got it in with and was called by Christian Barbeau holding . The board ran out Myer was out in fourth, collecting $5,870

There were a few more bustouts but then over the last hour the play had slowed down and as much as players tried to knock each other out, it seemed like no one was ready to go home. Finally a hand took place that saw Xiao Ming Liang get all of his chips in with a call from Phillip Vera that ended up sending Liang to the rail in 11th place.
Liang:
Vera:

As much as Liang was way ahead, the board ran out v and that was the end of the day for Liang, who collected $1,300 (plus bounties) for his day of poker.

A few hands later, there was the crucial hand that brought the rest of the field to the final table. Jesse Johnston, the tournament chip leader from the previous break had run into a few bad hands over the last 30 minutes and his stack had taken a big hit. He was also exhausted and when he saw , he decided a suited ace was good enough to pull the trigger. Gianpaolo Bini, a fun player to have on your table, had been asking to have his picture taken for the better part of a few hours. He finally had his wish granted when he called with and when the board ran out , he stood up to celebrate the win and posed for the photo op. The other players were also thrilled to finally start the final table, that’s for sure.

Jesse Johnston collected $1,615 (plus bounties) for his tenth place finish.

These are the payouts on the final table:

Earlier bustouts were:

• 12th place: Frederic Robert, $1,300
• 13th place: Jean-Simon Giguere, $1,060
• 14th place: Francis Fortin Chevalier, $1,060
• 15th place: Frederick Boisjoly, $$875
• 16th place: Franco Casarcia, $875

The players just had another break and the chips have definitely been moving around the tables. The new leader is Jesse Johnston with 1,338,000 chips (53 BB’s) and in second is the chip leader from the first eight to ten levels of play, Frederic Robert with 1,156,000 chips (46 BB’s) . The pay jumps become quite large on the final table so some of the players will be shoving to double-up over the next level, and others will be thinking about the ICM considerations.

Here is the newest leaderboard:

The short stacks have been shoving away and looking for badly needed double-ups and the bustouts have been happening in rapid succession.

Here are the latest payouts:

• 17th place: Kanna Vaccaro, $735
• 18th place: Daniel Fortier, $735
• 19th place: Natasha Tatta, $735
• 20th place: Alexandre Mongrain, $735
• 21st place: Constantinos Psallidas, $625
• 22nd place, Louis-Charles Levros: $625
• 23rd place: Aaron Quon, $625
• 24th place: Adam Haight, $625
• 25th place: Rostyslav Kozak, $540

Now that the tournament is down to four tables it has moved from the auxiliary tent to the main tournament room to finish off the evening.

Here are the bustouts that have taken place over the last 30 minutes:

• Rami Hammoud, 26th place, $540
• Yannick Labattaglia, 27th place, $540
• David Dineen, 28th place, $5450
• Howard Feingold, 29th place, $540
• Raphael Clayette, 30th place, $540
• I. Tang, 31st place, $540
• Stephen Smith, 32nd place, $540
• Stephane Blouin-Verroeulst, 33rd place, $475
• Monica Du, 34th place, $475
• Mounzar Awada, 35th place, $475
• Joey Myre-Boyer, 36th place, $475

The money bubble burst just before the break and then we saw a few fast bustouts. A player who has had a good tournament all day long but was always just below the top stacks on the leaderboard is now at the top of the list and smiling away as he is glad to be there; Christian Barbeau is playing a stack of 613,000 chips (61 BB’s). There are also quite a few stacks in the 500’s, here are the newest leaders:

Recent bustouts include:

• Shaan Siddiqui, 37th place, $475
• Matthew Wilkins, 38th place, $475
• Francois Bergeron, 39th place, $475
• David Larson, 40th place, $475
• Renaud Conti, 41st place, $475
• Nick Nickoletopoulos 42nd place

The tournament is now down to 43 players which means the money bubble is approaching as the top 41 players will be in the money. here the photos of the players with the biggest stacks in the room:

With the average stack hovering around 135,000, Yannick “Labatt” Labattaglia has become the new chip leader with a mega stack of 541,000 chips (135 BB’s), well ahead of the second place runner, Cedric Meyer, who is playing 431,500 chips (108 BB’s).

Frederic Robert, who was leading through the first two levels is still in contention but his stack has dropped just below the leaderboard, hopefully for him that is only a temporary situation.

Some of the recent bustouts include: Sydney Barnier, Hicham Hammoud, Rosario Denaro, Norman Doucette, Bruno St-Pierre, Bill Kontaratos, Denis Giguere, Noy U., Ben Mencahe, and Carlos Gerones.

Here are the top stacks in play:

With 327 players, the prize pool swelled to $76,845 in position payouts plus another $81,750 in bounties (these amounts are after the 3% staff gratuity was removed). The min-cash in 41st will pay $475, and the 1st prize champion will take home $16,145, plus all of the $250 bounties collected throughout the day.

Event #7 of the WPT Montreal is a great success with a total of 327 entries (including 92 re-entries) to more than triple the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool. Wowza! As soon as the floor announces the prize pool we will post it here. Needless to say, the players are enjoying the structure of this tournament and love the fact that you can almost be freerolling the tourney by knocking out just two opponents, while there will also be amazing payouts on the final table. Sweet.

The chip average is now just over 70,000 and Frederic Robert, the chip leader from the first break, is still in the lead and is the only player to have broken the 300,000 mark, playing a stack of 309,300 chips (193 BB’s), which more than four times the average. He is followed in second place by Shaan Siddiqui with 295,500 chips (185 BB’s) and in third by Cedric Meyer with 280,700 (175 BB’s).

Here is the newest leaderboard: