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!
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Costa | Babalis | 164,900 |
| Hugo | Kropodra | 153,100 |
| Sinisa | Stajic | 107,100 |
| Terence | Caulcutt | 103,000 |
The first live flight of Event #1, the $300 + $30 Colossus, has just wrapped up for the night, having attracted 221 entries. Players had unlimited re-entries available to them and 42 players took advantage of re-entering before the late registration period closed for the flight.
Play started off conservatively but by the first break, two players had the clear lead; Jishant Sapra was the leader at both the first and second break of the evening and Crystal Abouhanna was right behind him in second place. Both players made it to the end of the flight and bagged for the night but lost some ground in the late stages.
The players were to bag their chips for the day once the field dropped to 34 players so play tightened up considerably when there were 40 players remaining. As soon as they were down the final 35, play went hand-for-hand. Hand-for-hand play lasted for over 20 minutes until finally Alessandro Gentile got it in with , and was snap called by Laurence Louie holding 
.
Louie looked at the dealer and requested “an ace from space” and the dealer delivered on the 
flop. The 
on the turn and 
on the river were of no help to Gentile and he unfortunately became the Day 1A bubble boy, bringing the rest of the field into the money and bagging for Day 2. All players who bag from Day 1 are assured of a $600 min-cash, and should they choose to play additional Day 1 flights and be able to bag and tag again, they will play their largest stack on Day 2 and will also receive a $600 min-cash for every other bag.
The bubble hand:
The chip leader for Day 1A is Travis Robertson, a local player with a solid reputation. Robertson came onto the radar midway through the tournament and was the chip leader during the last hour of play. He bagged an impressive 342,000, followed very closely by Jonathan English, hot on his heels, bagging 340,000.
Here are the top 10 stacks for Day 1A:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Travis | Robertson | 342,000 |
| Jonathan | English | 340,000 |
| Laurence | Louie | 255,000 |
| Jishant | Sapra | 250,500 |
| Stephen | Rosen | 231,000 |
| Andrew | Kristoff | 207,000 |
| Brian | Hodhod | 197,000 |
| Ralph | Abou-Nader | 187,000 |
| Albert | Desroches | 156,000 |
To see all of the combined updated chip counts, click here
Day 1B is currently playing out this evening and there is still plenty of time to join the action with a still another seven more Day 1 flights left to go. Click here to see the structure sheet and full schedule.
Here are some of the players who were nursing larger stacks at the end of the evening:
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!
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| David | Assouline | 94,900 |
| Nikola | Isaev | 84,700 |
| Danick | Landriault | 84,000 |
| Terence | Caulcutt | 79,600 |
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.
The field is down to 61 players and the chip lead has finally changed hands. Laurence Louie has taken over the lead and is the only player to break the 200,000-mark with a massive stack of 218,200. Following closely behind in second place is Bang Tran, with 192,100 chips. There are also now many other stacks in the 150,000-200,000 range.The chip leaders from earlier on, Jishant Sapra and Crystal Abouhanna, have dropped off of the leaderboard but are still alive and fighting to come back. Sapra just took down a massive pot after having turned a full house and, once again, his stack is looking very healthy.
Here is the latest leaderboard:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Laurence | Louie | 218,200 |
| Bang | Tran | 192,100 |
| Jonathan | English | 188,400 |
| Benjamin | Croteau | 181,200 |
| Brian | Hodhod | 164,900 |
| Michael | Pitcher | 157,100 |
| Steven | Rosen | 144,100 |
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!
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Danick | Landriault | 66,500 |
| Simon | Belzile | 57,800 |
| Maxime | Duhamel | 55,450 |
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!
Brett Hart had been having a tough go at things today and he did his best to try for a badly needed double-up, but Phillpe Belley had other plans in mind.
The action folded to William Kelly in the hi-jack position who opened for 3,000, and Philippe Belley made the call in the cutoff. Brett Gregory Hart, sitting on the button, looked down at his hole cards and moved all in for less than 25,000. Kelly folded and Belley, shook his head and said, “OK, I call”. The hands were opened:
Hart: 
Belley:
The flop came 
, making a set for Belley. Hart had at least a back door straight draw and needed to make runner-runner, but he was drawing pretty thin. The 
on the turn gave some hope, but the on the river was of no help to Hart.
