LIVE EVENTS

We just passed the final break of the evening, there are now just three levels of play left before the remaining players bag and tag. The field has dropped to under 100 players, with an average stack hovering around 71,000.

The new chip leader is Christine Park, who is a savvy tournament and cash player. She was a winner this afternoon in the first satellite for the upcoming Montreal Open $1000 + $100 Event #2, and she has also secured a seat via the Step 1-2-3 satellites for the MILLIONS North America so she is definitely looking to make this series a a winning venture. Christine started off slow, and waited to find some choice spots and is now nursing a stack of 176,300. Playground regular Neal Freeman follows in second place, with an impressive 160,200, with Pablo Mariz hot on his heels at 153,300.

The last three levels of play always have some large swings and with short stacks shoving away, so, we often end up seeing some monster stacks when the evening finally comes to an close.

Recent eliminations include: Yves Perras, Yves Grenon, Ian Armorer, Michael Korivine, Ivan Driard, David Guay, and Adam Cader.

With about half the field now eliminated, the average chip stack is sitting at 48,000. Two players on the same table are fighting it out for the lead, Marc Bourgeois is in the number one spot with 151,200, followed closely by Albert Nguyen in second place, slightly behind, with 148,100. The two players will surely keep trying to chip up against the smaller stacks, and who knows if they end up clashing with each other, but there is certainly potential for a monster stack as they both have triple the average right now.

Closely behind the two leaders are Michael Malouin and Raphael Tran dinh, who were the two leaders at the 1st break. The competition is intense and there is also some pressure on the smaller stacks in play, who most probably will be shoving away, hoping to double up and have a decent stack to bag at the end of the night.

Some recent eliminations include: Sebastien Fortier, Christian Rho, Larry Hamel, Natalia Nogina, Mina Gerges, Eric Ranger, Nick Soller and Philippe Belley.

Once late registration came to a close, the final number of entries for Day 1A is an outstanding 275 players (including 48 re-entries), putting a total of 6,875,000 chips into play.  That means that we are sure to see some huge stacks at the end of the night.

With such a strong first flight, one can only imagine what the totals will be after all of the four starting flights come to an end.  The prize pool will be outstanding to say the least, with incredible value for such a low buy-in event.  You don’t want to miss out on this event, so plan accordingly.

There are many notables in the room, including WPT champions Eric Afriat and Miguel Goncalo, 2017 WSOP Millionaire Maker Champion Pablo Mariz, Pablo’s partner David Guay in the 2017 WSOP $1K tag team event (2nd place finish and 22nd in the 2017 WSOP $10k Main Event), Rodney Ramalho (2nd place 2016 $2,500  WPT Fallsview Classic and 1st place 2015 $2,500 Deepstacks Poker Tour in Calgary, along with many other cashes on the Hendon Mob), Douglas James, Nick Soller, Sebastien Drolet-Poitras, and John Palmer, as well as many other accomplished tournament grinders.

Recent bustouts include: Nick Nickoletopoulos, Simon Assouline, Mathieu Fontaine Raposo, Gianfranco Giordano,  Brigitte Metivier, Antoine Simon, Jonathan Poissant, David Brillon, Joey Cournoyer and Costa Psallidas, just to name a few.

Here are some recent photos of players still in the running:

The numbers keep climbing and the event has now surpassed 250 players, and there is still a full thirty minutes left in late registration. At this rate, it appears that the $100,000 guarantee may possibly be hit after tomorrow’s Day 1B flight, and there are still another two more flights to go on Wednesday. Only time will tell what the final numbers will be.

There are almost 6,500,000 chips in play at this point, and, with the average stack hovering around 32,000, we walked the floor looking for any stacks that are double the average. There are many players who have built up a larger than average stack, but one player has managed to take the clear lead, chipping up to almost the 100,000 mark; Michael Malouin is currently sitting on 91,700, almost 20,000 ahead of the second place runner, Raphael Tran dinh (73,300). Raphael is known to have some deep runs here at Playground so we will keep a close eye on him and see if he can overtake the others to take the lead at the next break.

Our eyes are also on WPT Champion Eric Afriat, local grinder Dave Hamel, and recent PG100 winner Adam Cader, just to name a few, as there are also many other solid players in tonight’s field.

Here are top six stacks in play:

The day 1A starting flight is usually the smallest field of all of the Day 1 flights. Well, if tonight’s field is any indication, Event #1 is going to be ginormous! To hit the $100,000 guaranteed prize pool, the tournament requires a total of 500 players. Based on tonight’s numbers so far, and with two full hours of late registration still to go, and with three more starting flights between Tuesday and Wednesday, only the Poker God knows for sure what the total amount of entries will be! Come join the action and get your piece of the prize pool pie.

Here are a few of the players in tonight’s Day 1A:

After months and months of anticipation, the time has finally arrived for the first event of the MILLIONS North America, Event #1, the Playground 200, a $200 + $20 NL Re-entry event with four Day 1’s, and the tournament floor staff have just announced, “dealers, shuffle up and deal“!

Players start with 25,000 chips and will play through 14 levels of 30 minutes each, and this is a re-entry tournament with unlimited re-entries available until the end of the first break, just after level 6 (10:15pm), with a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000.

With already 169 entries in level one (and one re-entry), and almost three more hours of late registration, this is going to be a huge field for sure! It looks at this moment as if the field will surpass 200, and who knows how high it might climb to?

This looks like it is going to be a big one!

The stage is set for Event #1 of the MILLIONS North America, the Playground 200, with a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000, this is sure to be a great start to the MILLIONS North America festival at Playground. The $200 + $20 buy-in is the most affordable of all of the events, and based on previous Playground Festivals, it is sure to attract a lot of players and a lot of action. It also offers the players a chance to cash early on during the festival, and with a deep run, it can boost a player’s bankroll and help to finance the other events over the next two weeks.

The event offers a starting stack of 25,000 chips, blind levels are 30 minutes on Day 1 and 40 minutes on Day 2 and Day 3. Just in case you run into a cooler, there are unlimited re-entries available right up until the end of the late registration period, which is at the end of the break after level 6 at 10:15pm.

Day 1A starts at 7:00pm. If you can’t make it in to play tonight, there are three more day 1 starting flights:

• Day 1B is tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7:00pm
• Day 1C (Turbo) is on Wednesday at 12:00pm
• Day 1D is Wednesday night at 7:00pm
• Day 2 is Thursday night at 7:00pm
• Day 3 final table takes place on Friday at 7:00pm.

There is also a $150 + $15 Montreal Open Satellite Turbo Re-entry tonight at 8:00pm, offering a guaranteed 5 seats to the $1000 + $100 Montreal Open taking place later this week, which offers a guaranteed prize pool of $1,154,500 ($1,000,000 in cash prizes plus the top 15 finishers receive a $10,300 buy-in to the Millions North America Main Event, the marquee event of the entire festival).

The MILLIONS North America festival offers many of events of both Texas NL Hold’em and PLO over the next two weeks, ranging in price from $200+$20 all the way up to the Super High Roller $25,000+$300! For the full event schedule, click here

Don’t forget, drinks are always free during tournament play and supper is available at your table from The Rail Coal Fire Bistro, offering a full menu plus daily specials for as little as $10, served by one of Playground’s lovely waitresses.

Jump into your car and come join the action which get’s off the ground at 7:00pm.

To follow the action, go to the PLAYGROUND website, and then go to NEWS, and EVENT COVERAGE, or, click here