LIVE EVENTS

When we joined the hand on table 28, two players were all in, and the player with pocket aces had the biggest smile. It didn’t last, however, as his opponent’s K-10 ended up taking down the hand on the river.

Chanracy Khun was holding the and Paul Nakhle had nothing more than a . With the board showing , it looked to be all over for Paul. But as the dealer dropped the last two cards ( ) Chanracy’s luck quickly ran out as Paul made his two pair. With Chanracy’s exit, the group was reduced to only 18 players. With a full 40 minutes remaining, the number is likely to drop further still.

Franco A. was desperate for chips just a couple of hours ago, but after a some key double-ups he is in a much more comfortable position. Unfortunately for Mark Sloane, most of the good fortune experienced by Franco was at his expense.

This time the battle involved an all in preflop shove by Franco after Mark had opened with a bet of 9,000. When the players flipped their cards, Franco’s AK was dominated by Mark’s pocket kings and it looked like it was curtains for Franco … right up until the river that is.

Board:

Mark took the loss in stride however, saying he’d be back tomorrow to try again. That’s poker!

After the third break Goran Brestovac still sits atop the leaderboard, but we have some new blood in the top three, with Remi Blanc and Matthew Hendler now occupying the other two spots. That said, no one seems to be running away with it so far, as only Goran has more than double the chip average, a testament to the skill of this group.

There are now only 24 players remaining out of the 56 entries from Day 1A, but with the blinds now at 1,500/3,000 and rising fast, it is likely that we will end the day with significantly fewer competitors.

Good luck to all!

As we move towards the end of the night, players find themselves under pressure; pressure to stack enough chips to start off Day 2 from a position of strength, pressure from the rising blinds, and of course, pressure from other players. Jean Francois Alexandre found himself under a combination of pressures midway through level 11, resulting in a low pair shove preflop for his tournament life.

However, unlike earlier on in the night, his opponent Remi Blanc decided to call.

Remi:

Jean Francois:

The first four cards all favored Jean Francois ( ), and he looked to be sailing towards a victory. Unfortunately for him, the last card was also a diamond () and Remi took down the hand with a higher flush.

On table 24 Franco A. just doubled up at the expense of one of the larger chip stacks in the room, Mark Sloane. Franco was in the big blind, and took quite some time to consider his all in preflop shove. But once he did he was insta-called by Mark.

Mark flipped over his suited AQ, but it wasn’t enough to best Franco’s pocket aces. When the board came down Mark relunctantly paid out 57,900, and Franco breathed a sigh of relief. Now sitting above 100,000 chips, his push to the end of level 14 will be a little easier.

On table 24 just now there was a back-and-forth preflop battle between Ricky Campanelli and Stephen Anderson, each raising the other until Ricky shoved and Stephen quickly followed suit. The table couldn’t help but laugh, however, as each player flipped over their pocket aces, reds versus blacks. As was expected, they chopped it, with the board dealt .

Here at Day 1A of the $500 + $50 Playground 500, Goran Brestovac finds himself on top of the pile, the only player with more than double the chip average of 77,000 chips. With only two other players close to him (one of which being the former chip leader Vivo L.), the chips are spread out fairly democratically, meaning it’s anyone’s game.

Good luck to the rest of the group as they make their way to the end of the night, six levels away.

Registration is now closed for Day 1A, so anyone interested in joining the tournament can do so at one of two Day 1 flights tomorrow, Friday July 19th. They begin at 11:00am and 7:00pm, respectively. Day 2 will begin on Saturday at noon.

With 38 players remaining in their seats out of a total of 53 entries, there isn’t much time left to get down here and claim your seat for this first live Day 1 flight of the $500 + $50 Playground 500. Given that the chip average is only 71,000 at the moment (and every player’s starting stack is 50,000) there is ample opportunity to catch up quickly.

So if you’re one of those players that loves to join the action late in the game to earn a quick entry into Day 2, now is the time to grab a seat! In approximately 30 minutes it will be too late, so it’s now or never. Come on down!

A very relaxed Jonathan B. shoved preflop and barely looked up from his massage as two players eventually tripled him up. One of those callers was Robert Cohen, who had also shoved for his remaining chips with a pair of fours. The other was John Rathburn, who’s stack covered them both. Unfortunately for John, he found himself behind and never caught up.

Jonathan: 

John:

Robert:

The board came down , and for a moment it looked like Robert’s sailboats would take it, as the two other players’ aces battled it out. However, Robert ended up sailing away into the night as the final two cards came down with Jonathan’s kicker taking the hand.

We joined table 28 with three players in the hand and a flop on the board.

Ben Terence Cade bet 3,500 from the button, finding only one caller in Mingzhe Zhang. When a was dealt on the turn, both players checked. The river was a , and that’s when things started to heat up. Mingzhe checked, and Ben bet 6,500. Mingzhe looked like he was going to fold, spending two expressionless minutes thinking. But instead, he re-raised to 22,500!

This raised the temperature on Ben, but he didn’t melt when it counted.

After thinking about it for short time, he called, flipping over his . Ben’s jacks held up against Mingzhe’s and the gusty river call earned him every one of those chips. Play continues…

After the first break, the average chip stack is 57,317, and only one player has managed to amass more than double that average. He is Mr. Vivo L., currently sitting pretty with just over 150,000 in chips. In fact, only two other players even come close to 2X of the average, listed below.

Over on table 28, Jean Francois Alexandre just collected a healthy pot of about 12,000 chips.

The last of four players to call the preflop 1,000 chip raise, the table ended up checking the flop.  When the came down on the turn, Jean Francois knew it was time to act. He thinned the herd by betting 3,500. Only Remi Blanc called, two seats to his left.

The river was a , and Jean Francois shoved his remaining stack. That made it easy for Remi, who casually tossed his cards away, not willing to tangle with Jean Francois’ potential flush.