LIVE EVENTS

After the massive chip swing from Zhang to Rimniceanu, Rimniceanu again asked the other players if they want to look at some numbers. The players decided that maybe it was time to take a look and the tournament director paused the clock to calculate the payouts. The players were told that as per Playground event policy during partypokerLIVE events, 10% of the remaining prize pool must be removed from the deal and reserved for the eventual winner (the tournament must play down to a winner and not just end when the deal is made). The amount would be $9920. One of the players suggested that instead of just playing down to a winner to take all of the money in reserve, that instead, they remove $12,000 total and pay out $9,000 to first place, $2,000 to second place, and $1,000 to third place. Once the tournament director returned and read out the payouts to each player, they all gave the thumbs up and the deal was made.

Here are the chip stacks and ICM chip chop payouts:

In addition to the amounts listed above, the following amount will be added to the top three finishers:

1st place: $8,998 (plus the winner’s trophy and bragging rights)

2nd place: $2,000

3rd place: $1,000

Aaron Parsons was the next to hit the rail, leaving in ninth place ($3,600). Earl Levett had spent most of the night keeping himself out of trouble and watching other players get knocked out one by one.  Following Parson’s departure, Levett was next to bust, after he shoved A3 in the big blind after an open by Rimniceanu who had bet in early position holding 77. Levett didn’t hit and Rimniceanu’s pocket pair held to knock Levett out in eighth place ($4,860).  Marc Bourgeois, who played a solid game, fell victim to Rimniceanu and he went home in seventh place ($6,130).  Next was Philippe Boucher, who was short stacked at the final table but was able to ladder up and finally exited in sixth place ($7,410).

When play became five handed, Rimniceanu, who was second in chips, asked the other players if they wanted to look at the numbers for some sort of deal. In the end, the chip leader, Zhang, didn’t want to make a deal and the players told the dealer to deal the next hand.

A few hands later, Zhang and Rimniceanu got involved in a hand heads up that ended up sending a ton of chips to Rimniceanu, making him the new chip leader. With already over 3M chips in the middle, Rimniceanu went all in, putting Zhang on a decision that would have destroyed his stack if he lost. Zhang tanked for quite some time and used his time bank cards to allow more time again, while Rimniceanu was standing and pumping his fist and making it tough for Zhang to make his decision. Finally Zhang folded, and Rimniceanu became the new chip leader.

Yirui Zhang (4,750,000) is the chip leader at the second break with “Bruce” Daud Sha (4,580,000) just slightly behind him. There are five other stacks in the 3M-4M range, so the lead can easily keep changing hands over the next few levels.

Marc Bourgeois finished Day 1A as the chip leader, and went into Day 2 as second in in chips. He has been relatively inconspicuous this evening, playing only select hands, which his his typical style. Once again, he seemed to wait for the “right hand”.

When we arrived at the table, three players were all in and Marc was the lucky one.

Marc Bourgeois:   
Aaron Parsons:     
“Bruce”Daud Sha:

Although it looked like Parsons would scoop a huge pot with his pocket rockets, Marc got lucky with a flop as he hit a set of Kings. The on the turn and the on the river didn’t change anything and Marc picked up a huge pot to put him back into business. Daud Sha told us that “he was hoping it was a flip and that maybe he was ahead, but it was only costing him 1.4M to try to win a pot of almost 5M”. Luckily for Daud Sha, he still has a huge stack and he can still end up the last man standing.

The bustouts have been happening at a fast and furious pace and the tournament is now down to the final nine players. Yirui Zhang, who has been sitting on a nice stack, decided to get involved in what ended up becoming the hand that sent Carlos Gerones to the rail as the final table bubble boy. Carlos had come into Day 3 as the massive chip leader, but his run good from yesterday did not continue today as he kept bleeding chips.

On the hand that sent him to the rail in 10th place, he got it all in with , and when action folded to Zhang, he went deep into the tank, thinking through his options and trying to decide if the math made sense or not. He also knew that he had been running good, and with his large stack, he finally decided that he could absorb a loss if he was making the wrong decision, and he decided to move forward a stack of 25K chips to indicate a call.

Zhang opened his hand: and apparently his timing was dead on, as, the dealer flopped: !  Zhang hit his J and Gerones was now hoping to hit a 9 for a two-outer. The dealer then turned the to give Zhang two pair, and Parsons was still alive if he could hit a 9 on the river to beat Zhang’s two pair. River: , and Zhang boated up to knock out Gerones. The table looked at him and said “Ok, that was a good call”.

Here are the results of the others have exited since the last post:

• 18th George Caragiorgas $1,780
• 17th Joshua Gaudet $1,780
• 16th Marc Saddik $1,780
• 15th Martin Borras $2,190
• 14th Jimmy Setna $2,190
• 13th Chawki Fawaz $2,190
• 12th Moucheghe Bamboukian $2,790
• 11th Kevin Rousselle $2,790
• 10th Carlos Gerones $2,790

The players have just returned from the first break of the evening, and as suspected, Aaron Parsons has jumped into the lead, with a healthy 3,230,000 chips. Daud Sha (“Bruce Lee”), who came into Day 2 as the chip leader, but had lost some chips through the 10 levels of play, has managed to jump back into second place with 2,900,000. The chip leader at the start of Day 3, Carlos Gerones, has lost a few chips over the last few hours as well but is still in third place with a solid 2,500,000.

Here is the complete leaderboard:

Aaron Parsons, currently the chip leader

Daud Sha in second place and Zhang in third place:

The mood is competitive but calm, no one wants to make a mistake since the ICM considerations are very substantial. The tournament is down to three tables now with 19 players remaining.

Shijaudin Daud Sha (aka “Afghan Bruce Lee”) has chipped up over the last two hours and it appears that the lead is either with him or with Aaaron Parsons.  As a break is coming up, it will give us a chance to count the stacks and post a leaderboard.

Here are some of the players still in the action:

Action started from the very first hand, and over the first hour, there have now been a total of 13 bustouts, which means the tournament staff are now doing a seating re-draw and balancing the tables.. The remaining players are steadily building their stacks, and there is still a long way to go before even getting close to forming a final table.

Here are the players that have now exited Day 3:

37th: Dean Nerbonne $800
36th: Richard Hamelin $920
35th: Crhistopher Pietrzak $920
34th: Tony Lei $920
33rd: Adam Bogach $920
32nd: Loivier Lamarre $920
31st: Marouane Tijani $920
30th: Elie Abdallah $920
29th: Tyrone Baskin $920
28th: Paul Manoian $1,050
27th: Jose Nirranjan Cruze $$1,050
26th: Matthew Wilkins $1,050