LIVE EVENTS

After 14 levels of tough poker, Day 1B of Event #2 has come to an end. Out of 68 players – 84 entries total – 19 stacks were sent to tomorrow’s Day 2. Just a bit later tonight, the full list of players and their chip stacks will be posted in the results section. These players will join the qualifiers from Day 1 Online and Day 1A on that page. Day 2 starts at 12:00pm sharp tomorrow. If you want to take a shot at this $100,000 guaranteed prize pool, the last starting flight has started just a few minutes ago, and you have until 11:15 tonight to register.

Today was quite a flight, with lots of great poker action to enjoy, as is usually the case with this particular buy-in. Thank you to all players for the great show, and thank you to all our readers. Stay tuned for tonight’s Day 1C action, and don’t miss tomorrow’s Day 2 coverage, where all achievers merge!

Here are some of our wealthiest Day 1B qualifiers:

Audrey Verlomme, the last woman in the Playground 500 field, survived a triple-up. In a limped pot, she wiggled her way to the flop from the small blind and found what she was looking for.

Flop:

First to act, she checked the action, and the next in line bet 12,5K. It was called once before Audrey moved in with 27.5K. Both players called, and checked both subsequent streets. They each had an ace, which was no match for Audrey’s . The dreaded 1-outer did not show up to the party, and Audrey now enjoys a half-average stack.

Players just took their last break of the day. Three more levels will be played before the remaining players get to bag their chips. Sébastien Larocque, sitting on table 24 and pictured below, came out of nowhere to steal Sloane’s thunder and driver seat.

Following him on our top 5 are three players that have been featured on this blog today: Mark Sloane, and two of those who tasted his medicine but managed to come back strong: Brian Hodhod and Francis Hachey-Roy. William Molson closes our list.

We came across a huge hand involving 4 people on table 28. An flop was on the table, and many chips were wagered. Francis Hachey-Roy, first to act, bet 10K into a pot of just under 20K. Marcello Simonetti went all-in for 37.9K, which was quickly called by Mark Sloane who had more than 200K in the reserve. Jacques Martineau also committed his stack, going all-in under for 17.5K.

At this point Hachey-Roy paused and scrambled to figure out the best decision. He was also pretty deep behind, and knew that Sloane could hurt him badly – or bust him – if he decided to continue. Facing so much heat, he chose to fold and showed a set of sevens.

Simonetti:
Sloane:
Martineau:

Martineau realized that his shaky straight draw was down to 6 outs after Sloane’s nines were taken out of the number.

Runout: … … !

Sloane completed his own straight, knocking down 2 players and climbing to over 300K, and Hachey-Roy started breathing again when the river fell.

Mark Sloane, just before the break, was involved in a hand with Brian Hodhod and Audrey Verlomme. We do not have all the details, but we know that Audrey folded queens after the turn showed an ace. Mark, however, decided to hang around with a pocket pair of fours! He correctly put Brian on a flush draw, and when the river went check-check, he picked up a sizable pot, enough to put him in the lead! His 252K look very good, the only stack above 200K currently in the field.

Registration is now closed. 68 players took part, and 16 of them re-entered, for a total of 84 entries. Players need to survive 6 more levels to send chips to tomorrow’s Day 2.

Here’s our current top 4:

On table 20 sits a player by the name of Aladin Reskallah. He was seen opening a button to a standard min-raise. He was then 3bet to 7K by Hubert Mcmullen from the big blind, and made the call. When Hubert continued with a 6K bet, Aladin put him all-in for another 30K or so, which made Hubert fold. This was a typical button-vs-blind battle where the possible range of hands from both seats is quite large. On this one, Aladin got the last word and only he could tell if he was waiting for more chips to go into the pot before closing it down with a strong hand, or if he was simply playing his opponent’s hand.

Aladin has been a Playground regular for years. He is a very experienced player who likes to have fun at the table. His trademark, as you can see in the picture below, is a very aptly chosen card protector: a genie lamp! One can wonder how many wishes he’s got left.

His large smile was triggered by a joke from Lily Kornik which we unfortunately cannot report here, but it was good enough to make the whole table smile!

Here are a few more shots taken during level 7:

With another 2 levels to the registration period, we now have 7 tables of Playground 500 action. A few more players have doubled their belongings, cracking the 100K mark, and a bunch more are looking to do just that before the next break.

Table 32, by chance, has grouped 3 players that are no stranger to deep runs in Playground events. All 3 are very experienced and well versed in the art of reducing the luck factor at a poker table. Left to right: Daniel Le, Xin Qi, and Rong Xu.

Here are a few more recent shots of the field:

After 4 levels of play, Francis Hachey-Roy managed to accumulate enough chips to be in the clear lead. His 174,500 stack, representing three and a half times the starting stack, is well above his competitors.

The Playground 500 is rolling on 6 tables in the left corner of the Tournament Hall, and 52 players have joined in so far. Four busts took place, and 3 of those chose to re-enter the event in the hopes of redeeming themselves with a second stash of ammunition. There are 3 more hours to go before the end of the late registration period.

Here are some photographs taken during level 2:

Day 1B of the Playground 500, second of 3 live starting flights, is ready to take off at Playground. Last night’s flight rounded 56 entries, a good number for a Day 1A. This afternoon’s flight should be slightly more crowded, as we are one step closer to Day 2 and closed registration.

As a reminder, the Playground 500 guarantees a chunky prize pool: a minimum of $100,000 will be distributed among the participants. To get to the richest final table of this Power Weekend, players need to navigate through their own starting flight, survive Day 2 on Saturday, and wiggle their way to the last 9 players on Sunday. The path through Day 1B, which started a few minutes ago, looks as good as any.

Players have until 3:15 PM to join or rejoin the action, and build a competitive Day 2 stack through this afternoon’s 14 levels of play. 50,000 starting chips, 30-minute levels. Make your way to the registration cashier and show us what you got! If today is not your day, you can always follow the action here. Have a great Friday, and good luck to all participants!