LIVE EVENTS

The day started out with some wild action before play finally settled down to a calm pace, and then remained that way through most of the afternoon. Players seemed to be in “caution mode”, not wanting to spew away chips, preferring instead to be able to bag for the day so that they could join the Day 2 action on Saturday. One player, Robert Gariepy, had a different plan and was dominating the action through most of the late levels. In the end, he simply ran away from the entire field, bagging an impressive 409,500 chip stack. That was more than the double both the 2nd place runner (Yaacoub Gerges, 205,000) and 3rd place runner (Ruben Perceval, 204,500). With players returning to blinds of 1500/3000, Richard will be starting the day with more than 130 BB’s, and Yaacoub and Ruben still have a very solid 66.6 BB stack to start their day.

Other top finishers include Philipp Daze (181,500), Michel Gariepy (178,500), Kevin Macdonald (161,000), Trevor Delaney (140,500), and Adam Cader (130,500), just to name a few. Some of the late day bustouts include Kim Renaud, Pierre Sirios, Sebastien Proulx, Eric Ranger, and Johnny Akillian.

Players will return for Day 2 at 1:00pm on Saturday. Your last chance to still jump into the action is right now, as Day 1C still has over 90 minutes of late registration available.

Day 1B chip leader: Robert Gariepy, 409,500 chips

Robert Gariepy has obviously been playing his “A Game” today as he has been able to accumulate more than double the amount of chips of the 2nd place runner. Gariepy is sitting on a whopping 345,600 chips, way more than double the 2nd place runner, Trevor Delaney, who follows him with 144,600. There are quite a few others also sitting in the 130,000 – 140,000 range, but Gariepy is clearly way above the rest of the pack. There is now just 3 more levels left to play so it will be interesting to see how many more eliminations may come and who else will bag a 200k+ stack.

Here is the leaderboard from the final break:

There is a calmness in the air as the tournament has now been narrowed down to 4 tables. With 4 full levels left in play, and already an average chip stack of almost 80,000, it is expected that there will still be quite a few bustouts before players bag for the day. That means that with the 2.5mil+ chips in play, there should be a few really big stacks heading into Day 2.

Here are some of the players still fighting it out on the felt:

The field is now starting to thin and a few players are sitting on stacks north of 100,000. One player, Robert Gariepy, has pulled away from the rest of the field; he had 68,600 at the 1st break and has now taken the lead with an impressive 184,600, which is more than 40,000 ahead of the 2nd place runner, Kim Renauld!

As the blinds have now increased to 400/800, there will be some big pots for sure as play continues.

Here is the 2nd break leaderboard:

The late registration and re-entry period has just ended on Day 1B. But this flight gathered 102 entries before the timer sounded to indicate the start of the seventh level of play, surpassing Day 1A’s turnout.

There are slightly more than 2.5 million in chips in play and 72 players left trying to collect them all. Between the fast action and strong turnout, there is a good chance that the chip leader from this flight will surpass the chip leader from Day 1A, Josef Ares, for the overall chip lead in this multi-day event.

There are now more than two million in chips in play on Day 1B of the Strangers in the Night. And that figure will soon reach new heights, as the end of the late registration and re-entry period is in sight and will certainly bring some new stacks into play. The action has maintained the frenetic pace set from the first level, with three-bets and big pots becoming the norm. Late registration is available until 2:15pm, don’t miss out!

Here’s a look at some of the players from the last level of play:

Play is set to resume following the first break in the action on Day 1B of the Strangers in the Night.

The action got off to fast start this afternoon, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The rapid growth in the size of the field shortly before the break was driven by seven re-entries and a steady stream of of new joiners. There are now nearly 2 million in chips in play so there are sure to be some big stacks advancing from this flight.

The current chip leader, Alexander Bain, was able to build up a stack of more than triple the current chip average, putting him in great shape at this early stage, but there is still lots of poker left to play before he can bag those chips for Day 2.

With one level of play already in the books on Day 1B, the field is growing quickly. A couple of early bust outs got the ice broken on the re-entries, a testament to the level of aggression during the first level of play; the players have been putting their chips to use early and often. And with more than two hours remaining in the late registration period, many more re-entries are sure to follow.

Here are some photos of the field from level 1:

The May Power Weekend continues today with the second of three starting flights for the marquee event, the $150 + $25 Strangers in the Night.

This is a re-entry event with unlimited re-entries permitted until the end of the late registration period so players can fire as many bullets as they want to have a chance at part of the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool. Last night’s starting flight, Day 1A, drew a field of 95 entries, 21 of which survived to bag chips at the end of the night. Day 1A’s chip leader, Josef Ares, bagged 281,500 in chips.

Day 1B is set to get underway, providing players 25,000 in chips to start their journey through the 14 30-minute levels in this starting flight.  Play will start 10-handed and move to 9-handed as soon as possible.

The cards are in the air. Good luck to all!