LIVE EVENTS

The second live flight of the $300 + $30 Colossus has just come to a close, and at the top of the leaderboard is Arthur W., holding an impressive 361,000 chips, the third highest of all the qualifiers to date. Well done! His hat and chip stack are pictured below, along with a few other players holding a significant amount of chips.

This evening’s flight had a total of 173 entries (including 27 re-entries), and only the top 15% (or 26 players) made the cut to earn a spot on Day 2. The lucky (and skilled) 26 players, along with their chip counts, are listed here in the combined results page. The last hand of the night was won by Alex Blanc, whose quasi-heroic call on the last hand of play before the final break eliminated his opponent, Brian Flood. Alex’s Ace-Ten (making a pair of tens) bested Brian’s (pairless) Ace-Jack shove.

The final 26 players will join the other 80 online qualifiers as well as the 34 qualifiers from Day 1A on Day 2, scheduled for Monday August 26 at noon. And with seven more live flights due to begin between now and Sunday evening, there is plenty of poker action to come, along with plenty of opportunity to join the Day 2 qualifying group.

The next live flight (Day 1C) begins tomorrow, Friday August 24 at noon, with Day 1D kicking off at 4:30pm. Come join the action, and take your shot at getting your piece of the guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pool!

Ronald Lei’s pocket fours just reduced the field to only 34 players, putting the end of Day 1B within striking distance for the remaining competitors. The hand was a classic pre-flop shove, with Ron’s sailing right past Maxime Chabot’s .

The board was dealt and that was the end of Max’s night.

When we joined the hand on table 56, Francis Labonte was in the middle of a battle with Van Nguy, one that had been defined up to that point by Francis raising, and Van calling. Having chased everyone else out of the hand, it was heads up between the two.

The flop was dealt and Van led out with a bet of 5,400. Not to be outdone, Francis raised to 12,800. As it was in the preflop action, Van reflected briefly, then called. This time a came down on the turn, and Van checked. Francis casually tossed in 14,900 – a relatively odd-sized bet. Perhaps making his flush, or perhaps noticing that Francis was down to his last 30,000 chips, Van check-raised to 35,000.

It didn’t take long for Francis to realize he wasn’t willing to risk his tournament life on this hand, and he laid it down. At this stage in the tournament, with only 13 eliminations separating the winners from the losers, it was the cautious move. But without seeing what Van was holding, there’s no way to tell if it was the right one.

When we heard the dealer announce “All in” at table 59 just now, we witnessed Nick Nickoletopoulos take out a fellow competitor with some nasty boat-on-boat action. When we arrived, the board was showing .

Nick’s was just enough to take out his rival, who was holding a . Nick’s face says it all.

As Day 1B of the $300 + $30 Colossus lumbers slowly towards its conclusion, only 56 players remain, now on break.  So far, the player with the best statistical chance of making it through to the end of the night is our chip leader Costa Babalis, currently sporting sunglasses.

One of only several players with more than 100,000 in chips, he is well positioned to go deep.  Good luck to him, and all the others chasing him as we move towards the final 26!

When we arrived at table 56 just now, Playground regular Nick Soller had just shoved for his tournament life. Circumstances had forced him to wager his last several thousand chips chasing a flush, and initially things were looking up … until the weren’t.

With the board showing , Nick went all in and found a caller in Francis Chevalier. Nick’s looked good against Francis’ at first, especially when the turn was dealt a . Unfortunately the came the river card was a , washing away Nick’s chances and giving Francis the boat.

Francis didn’t exactly make a huge score with the win, but every elimination brings you closer to a birth in Day 2. With Nick’s ouster, 69 players remain at the tables. Only 43 more eliminations to go!

David Assouline is the new chip leader, having amassed almost 100,000 chips so far.

Not far behind him is the former chip leader Danick Landriault, still sitting comfortably in third place. With registration officially closed at 173 total entries, play in this flight of the $300 + $30 Colossus will continue until only 26 players (15% of the total) remain.

Each of the top 26 will earn themselves a seat for Day 2 of the Colossus, kicking off next Monday, August 26 at noon. Let the true battle begin!

The late registration period of the $300 + $30 Colossus Day 1B is about to close.

With a guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pool, now is today’s last chance to join the fun. Because only the top 15% of players move on to Day 2 (occurring Monday, August 26th), only the top 25 players or so will make the cut out of our total of 168.

That said, the average chip stack is only 33,000 chips at the moment. With a starting stack of 20,000, new players are only one double-up away from jumping right into the middle of the action!

Come on down – but hurry! Time is running out.

When the board shows a straight and someone shoves, do you call?

That was the question facing Tomas Magni just now on table 60. Not only was Tomas looking at a communal straight, but there were also three spades showing on a board. Was his opponent bluffing? Did he make a runner-runner flush? Did he only have the straight? Did he have the 10?

The pot was not insignificant either, with a little less than 20,000 chips in the middle. When Costa Babalis shoved on the river (shown below in blue), Tomas had to ask himself some serious questions. Eventually Tomas decided to err on the side of caution, folding the hand. And Costa’s play might have ended without anyone knowing what he had – that is until Malhotra Charajeev yelled “He had a Ten-Jack!”

Unable to resist the temptation, Costa flipped over his cards and revealed just that.

As we approach that fateful hour of 9:00pm (the end of late registration), more and more players are joining the fray. So far we are up to 156 entries (which includes 20 re-entries), with just a little over 100 players still in the hunt.

Below are some of their photos.

At the first break, Danick Landriault is our chip leader with 66,500 chips. Well done!

To this point, only three players out of the 129 total entries in this flight have doubled the chip average. And because registration only ends at 9:00pm, there is still plenty of time left to enter. Remember, players began with 20,000 in chips, so with the chip average standing at only 24,500, it remains absolutely anyone’s game. Good luck to all as we make our way towards the late registration deadline, now only two hours away.

If you’re not here yet, come down and claim your seat, along with your change at a piece of the $1,000,000 prize pool!

Last year’s WSOP-C Colossus champion has come back for seconds, but can he repeat?

Jason Mandanici-Turcot will have his work cut out for him if he wants to go the distance. And while it is unclear if the players at his table know that they are currently sharing the felt with last year’s big winner, perhaps that is to everyone’s benefit. So far there have been no significant fireworks, as everyone is taking their time, feeling each other out in the early levels.

Slow and steady wins the race!