Event #4 – Day 1B – Playground News

Next stop for 107 players –> Day 2!

May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 | 12:44am | Playground

It’s been a long day, full of action and fun. After it was all said and done, a total of 107 happy but tired players get to come back tomorrow for Day 2 of the MILLIONS North America Main Event. They will be joined by the 151 Day 1A qualifiers, for a total of 258 players on the felt tomorrow.

Today’s flight started off smoothly, as expected in a multi-day tournament of this level. The players adopted a prudent approach, mindful of the fact that there was no way of re-entering if all was lost. The variable degrees of skill and experience in this field also had an impact on the global approach of most players. One could spy a seasoned professional, an international player and/or a local champion at any given table.

From the start, the undisputed forerunner was Aleks Dimitrov, the 26-year-old Bulgarian player, with more than $300,000 or recorded live cash winnings to date. Even this early in the flight American Brandon Hall, whose cash winnings exceed $1,800,000, was hot on his heels. As the day wore on, both Dimitrov and Hall kept neck to neck and stayed on top of the leaderboard.

By the time the dinner break arrived, other players had caught up. Now Michael Farrow, from Ontario, Canada, who recently placed first at the $1,100 NLH WPT Fallsview Poker Classic in Niagara Falls, was the chip leader. Also in the top four with Farrow, Hall and Dimitrov, was William Givens IV, from Colorado. Givens has over $2,000,000 cash earnings and was crowned the champion of Event #45 ($1,000 NLHE) of the 45th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in 2014.

In the late stages of this flight, Brandon Hall eventually gained the top spot on the leaderboard. Dimitrov had lost a little ground and was now fifth in chips. A new set of players had squeezed in between Dimitrov and Hall. Jonathan Dwek, from Toronto, Turkish player Orpen Kisacikoglu, and Canadian Michal Wywrot had managed to hoard enough chips to rank in the top five.

But, no matter the road taken, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the number of chips one drops in the bag. In total, 217,000,000 chips found their way into the bags, and the average stack was at 2.03 million. William Givens IV is the top bagger tonight with 6,285,000 chips. He is way out in front of the pack, his closest rival is Michal Wywrot who dropped 4,360,000, almost two million chips behind. Four other players managed to bag north of four million chips: Jonathan Dwek (4.33M), Sergio Aido Espina (4.2M), Tyler Smillie (4.15M), and Thomas Hall (4.02M). As a reminder, the top stack on Day 1A was Sandy Lam, with 6,840,000 chips.

So that’s a wrap for now, and the action will pick-up again tomorrow. Here are the dates and times of the remaining days of the MILLIONS North America Main Event:

Day 2: Thursday May 23 at 12:00pm
Day 3: Friday May 24 at 12:00pm
Day 4: Saturday May 25 at 12:00pm
Day 5: Sunday May 26 at 12:00pm

Day 1B chip leader – William Givens IV – 6,285,000

Hall is ahead after 8 levels in Day 1B

Level: 9
Small Blind: 10K
Big Blind: 20K
BB Ante: 20K
Chip Average: 1,64M
Remaining: 132
Entries: 217

May 22, 2019 | 10:13pm | Playground

The players are coming back from their last break of of the evening. The clock has been paused to reset the feature table and the action will get under way in a few minutes.

This was the perfect time to update the leaderboard. The day has pretty much been Aleks Dimitrov’s cup of tea. From early on he jumped ahead of the pack and stayed ahead through most of the levels up to now. We set the bar at 3.5 million chips for this edition of the leaderboard and Dimitrov just made it. Brandon Hall, another regular figure on today’s stack radar, has jumped ahead of them all with his 4,860,000 stack.

First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Stack \| Tapis
Brandon	Hall	4,860,000
Jonathan E	Dwek	4,105,000
Orpen	Kisacikoglu	3,741,000
Michal	Wywrot	3,590,000
Aleks	Dimitrov	3,549,000

The field is slowly shrinking – 136 players left

Level: 8
Small Blind: 8K
Big Blind: 16K
BB Ante: 16K
Chip Average: 1,61M
Remaining: 135
Entries: 217

May 22, 2019 | 9:35pm | Playground

The action is intense but controlled on the felts. Players are three-betting, four-betting, folding, and overall just making sure they control the pots, the hands, and, specifically, their stacks.

Like last night’s Day 1A, most players have a cautious approach, especially the seasoned ones.

We’ll have an updated leaderbord, the last of the evening, at the end of the current level.

Here are some photos of the players, from level 7.

Day 1B: Players on dinner break – Full chip counts

Level: 7
Small Blind: 7K
Big Blind: 14K
BB Ante: 14K
Chip Average: 1,36M
Remaining: 159
Entries: 217

May 22, 2019 | 7:37pm | Playground

There are now 159 players left in this last Day 1 flight. The players are taking a well-deserved break for dinner.

Right now Michael Farrow, is in the lead with 4,264,000 chips. From Rockwood Ontario, Farrow recently won the WPT $1,000 Fallsview Poker Classic in Niagara Falls last February.

Early chip leader Aleks Dimitrov is still going strong and comes in as the second chip leader behind Farrow, with a hefty stack of 3,385,000 chips. From Sophia Bulgaria, Dimitrov came in fourth at the $ 10,000 + 300 No Limit Hold’em – High Roller (Event #4) partypoker MILLIONS South America, Rio De Janeiro last March.

William Givens IV, Brandon Hall, Orpen Kisacikoglu and Ludovic Geilich are each sitting on more than 3 million chips, and top-off the leaderboard halfway through today’s flight.

First Name	Last Name	Table	Stack
Carl	Martel	Table 19 - Seat 1	1,759,000
Dietrich	Fast	Table 19 - Seat 2	744,000
Noeung	Troeung	Table 19 - Seat 3	598,000
Alexander William	Keating	Table 19 - Seat 4	1,117,000
Rodney	Ramalho	Table 19 - Seat 5	2,126,000
Garrett	Dansereau	Table 19 - Seat 6	1,932,000
Kelly	Minkin	Table 19 - Seat 7	931,000
Bertrand	Grospellier	Table 19 - Seat 8	1,387,000
Aaron	Mermelstein	Table 19 - Seat 9	912,000
Danny	Boyaci	Table 20 - Seat 1	2,134,000
Patrick	Stacey	Table 20 - Seat 2	1,137,000
Ying Chiu	Wong	Table 20 - Seat 3	661,000
Steven John	Desjarlais	Table 20 - Seat 4	107,000
Scott	Seiver	Table 20 - Seat 5	1,856,000
Isaiah	Goldman	Table 20 - Seat 6	549,000
Jonathan E	Dwek	Table 20 - Seat 7	2,784,000
Mark	Bradley	Table 20 - Seat 8	593,000
Martin Robert	Marthis	Table 20 - Seat 9	460,000
Gagandeep	Singh	Table 22 - Seat 1	1,850,000
Patrick	Clarke	Table 22 - Seat 2	2,745,000
Alexander J	Gambino	Table 22 - Seat 3	1,420,000
Rodney	Lawrence	Table 22 - Seat 4	905,000
Anton	Morgenstern	Table 22 - Seat 5	828,000
Jason	James	Table 22 - Seat 6	1,880,000
Paul	Van Walsem	Table 22 - Seat 7	2,550,000
Jiachen	Gong	Table 22 - Seat 8	750,000
Philipp	Gruissem	Table 22 - Seat 9	1,800,000
Ruben	Perceval	Table 23 - Seat 2	1,710,000
Steven	Van Zadelhoff	Table 23 - Seat 3	855,000
Patrick	Serda	Table 23 - Seat 4	615,000
Azim	Popatia	Table 23 - Seat 5	1,215,000
Daniel	Neilson	Table 23 - Seat 6	845,000
Wing Tat	Yeung	Table 23 - Seat 7	787,000
Jean Francois	Bouchard	Table 23 - Seat 8	930,000
Daniel	Elkeslassy	Table 23 - Seat 9	2,970,000
Ryan	Rivers	Table 24 - Seat 1	1,715,000
Anatolly	Filatov	Table 24 - Seat 2	2,737,000
Ema	Zajmovic	Table 24 - Seat 3	900,000
Edward	Hislop	Table 24 - Seat 4	450,000
Alexis	Urli	Table 24 - Seat 5	1,100,000
Medhat	Ramzy	Table 24 - Seat 6	425,000
Felix	Martel-Racine	Table 24 - Seat 7	2,175,000
Jeff	Gross	Table 24 - Seat 8	465,000
Joel	Miller	Table 24 - Seat 9	1,675,000
Daniel	Retallick	Table 25 - Seat 1	785,000
Bartolomiej	Machon	Table 25 - Seat 2	1,420,000
John	Cayley	Table 25 - Seat 3	1,530,000
Pieter-Michael	De Goede	Table 25 - Seat 4	1,800,000
Luis Pedro	Urrutia	Table 25 - Seat 5	930,000
Ludovic	Geilich	Table 25 - Seat 6	3,100,000
Paul Georg	Michaelis	Table 25 - Seat 7	1,050,000
Amir	Babakhani	Table 25 - Seat 9	1,610,000
Seyedrohollah	Ettehadi	Table 26 - Seat 1	1,817,000
Brian	Altman	Table 26 - Seat 2	590,000
Daniel	Rezaei	Table 26 - Seat 3	960,000
Andrew Kinwai	Lam	Table 26 - Seat 4	1,760,000
Antonio	Esfandiari	Table 26 - Seat 5	2,140,000
Michael	Watson	Table 26 - Seat 6	975,000
Joseph	Abou Khalil	Table 26 - Seat 7	1,232,000
Tomaz	Jozonis	Table 26 - Seat 8	2,280,000
Shaan	Siddiqui	Table 26 - Seat 9	745,000
Michal	Wywrot	Table 27 - Seat 1	2,225,000
Kevin	Macdonald	Table 27 - Seat 2	1,025,000
Zheng-Yi	Xie	Table 27 - Seat 3	670,000
Yannick	Labattaglia	Table 27 - Seat 4	750,000
Maxime	Chartrand	Table 27 - Seat 5	1,200,000
Alexander	Wong	Table 27 - Seat 7	2,640,000
Brandon	Hall	Table 27 - Seat 8	3,390,000
Alexandre	Lavigne	Table 27 - Seat 9	760,000
Ariel	Silveira Celestino	Table 28 - Seat 1	1,016,000
Artem	Metalidi	Table 28 - Seat 2	1,625,000
Harpreet Singh	Gill	Table 28 - Seat 3	1,935,000
Richard Thomas	Mullen	Table 28 - Seat 4	2,000,000
Andrew Alan	Chen	Table 28 - Seat 5	1,237,000
Jeffrey Williams	Sarwer	Table 28 - Seat 6	363,000
Robert	Greenberg	Table 28 - Seat 7	1,655,000
Christopher	Taylor	Table 28 - Seat 8	425,000
Patrick	Blye	Table 28 - Seat 9	1,573,000
James	Romero	Table 29 - Seat 1	498,000
Jonathan	Jaffe	Table 29 - Seat 2	2,011,000
Patrick	Mahoney	Table 29 - Seat 3	607,000
Tommy	Nguyen	Table 29 - Seat 4	1,130,000
Jeffrey James	Chu	Table 29 - Seat 5	2,284,000
Francois	Billard	Table 29 - Seat 6	1,788,000
Upeshka	De Silva	Table 29 - Seat 7	1,569,000
Derek	Verrian	Table 29 - Seat 8	985,000
Faraz Quddus	Jaka	Table 29 - Seat 9	784,000
Samuel	Greenwood	Table 30 - Seat 1	2,590,000
Jordan	Saccucci	Table 30 - Seat 3	983,000
Orpen	Kisacikoglu	Table 30 - Seat 4	3,159,000
Romio	Mikhael	Table 30 - Seat 5	2,473,000
John Paul	Tabago	Table 30 - Seat 6	513,000
Kevin	Rabichow	Table 30 - Seat 7	1,559,000
Darryll	Fish	Table 30 - Seat 8	759,000
Sergio	Aido Espina	Table 30 - Seat 9	2,081,000
Paul Theodore	Klann	Table 31 - Seat 1	780,000
Victor	Adams	Table 31 - Seat 2	750,000
Jeffrey Alan	Yarchever	Table 31 - Seat 3	1,520,000
Demosthenes	Kiriopoulos	Table 31 - Seat 5	1,900,000
Sorel	Mizzi	Table 31 - Seat 6	1,303,000
Tyler	Smillie	Table 31 - Seat 8	2,750,000
Stephane	Faucher	Table 31 - Seat 9	194,000
Sopheak	Heang	Table 32 - Seat 1	681,000
Thomas	Hall	Table 32 - Seat 2	541,000
Joni Petteri	Jouhkimainen	Table 32 - Seat 3	1,758,000
William	Blais	Table 32 - Seat 4	500,000
Spiro	Mikrogianakis	Table 32 - Seat 5	512,000
Vladislav	Mezheritsky	Table 32 - Seat 6	968,000
Andrei-Lucian	Boghean	Table 32 - Seat 7	1,654,000
Michael	Farrow	Table 32 - Seat 8	4,264,000
I.	Tang	Table 32 - Seat 9	840,000
Samuel	Tsehai	Table 33 - Seat 1	1,404,000
Elliot	Smith	Table 33 - Seat 2	1,147,000
Ryan	Godson	Table 33 - Seat 3	599,000
David George	Cowling	Table 33 - Seat 4	1,192,000
Bas	De Laat	Table 33 - Seat 5	1,053,000
William	Givens Iv	Table 33 - Seat 6	3,691,000
Muhyedine	Fares	Table 33 - Seat 7	581,000
Marc	Macdonnell	Table 33 - Seat 8	746,000
Feizal	Satchu	Table 33 - Seat 9	383,000
Michael	Carter	Table 34 - Seat 1	1,808,000
Frank	Szelepcsenyi	Table 34 - Seat 2	2,729,000
Simon	Assouline	Table 34 - Seat 3	885,000
Michael	Laufer	Table 34 - Seat 5	885,000
Griffin	Benger	Table 34 - Seat 6	951,000
Sammy	Lafleur	Table 34 - Seat 7	1,516,000
Haipeng	Pang	Table 34 - Seat 8	723,000
Ari	Engel	Table 34 - Seat 9	2,271,000
Alan	Schein	Table 35 - Seat 1	1,390,000
Daniel	Ghionoiu	Table 35 - Seat 3	1,800,000
Severin	Schleser	Table 35 - Seat 4	640,000
Alain	Chenel	Table 35 - Seat 6	1,555,000
Mike	Sexton	Table 35 - Seat 7	1,035,000
Jimmy	Lee	Table 35 - Seat 8	2,280,000
Patrick	Eskandar	Table 35 - Seat 9	832,000
Francis	Collins	Table 36 - Seat 1	472,000
Nicola	Basile	Table 36 - Seat 2	1,700,000
Luigi	Knoppers	Table 36 - Seat 3	1,575,000
Nghi Van	Tran	Table 36 - Seat 4	1,200,000
Kristen	Bicknell	Table 36 - Seat 6	1,050,000
Yann	Prevost-Dumont	Table 36 - Seat 7	840,000
Diogo	Veiga	Table 36 - Seat 8	785,000
Andrew	Graham	Table 36 - Seat 9	1,350,000
Aleks	Dimitrov	Table 37 - Seat 1	3,850,000
Maduka	Meragal	Table 37 - Seat 2	1,644,000
Jean-Francois	Daunais	Table 37 - Seat 3	1,963,000
Philipe	Pizzari Pinto	Table 37 - Seat 4	525,000
Patrick	Quinn	Table 37 - Seat 5	909,000
Jason	Mandanici-Turcot	Table 37 - Seat 6	1,400,000
Diego	Zeiter	Table 37 - Seat 8	1,830,000
Steven	Warburton	Table 37 - Seat 9	660,000
Lauren	Roberts	Table 38 - Seat 2	675,000
Thomas	Lefort	Table 38 - Seat 3	898,000
Michael David	Dyers	Table 38 - Seat 4	760,000
Usman	Ulhaq	Table 38 - Seat 5	745,000
Thomas	Boivin	Table 38 - Seat 6	387,000
Tobias	Anttila	Table 38 - Seat 7	2,110,000
Brandon Michael	Sheils	Table 38 - Seat 8	1,965,000
Robert	Cicchelli	Table 38 - Seat 9	1,650,000

Level 4 through the lens

Level: 5
Small Blind: 5K
Big Blind: 10K
BB Ante: 10K
Chip Average: 1.22M
Remaining: 177
Entries: 217

May 22, 2019 | 5:45pm | Playground

Things are moving along in Day 1B. The ten satellite winners joined the group at the last break and everyone seems to be having a good time. The next break will be a 60-minute intermission to allow the players to get a bite to eat. This longer break will also allow the tournament staff to get a full chip count for all remaining players.

We took a few photos of the players just before the last break…

Dimitrov holding on to the lead

Level: 5
Small Blind: 5K
Big Blind: 10K
BB Ante: 10K
Chip Average: 1.16M
Remaining: 187
Entries: 217

May 22, 2019 | 5:23pm | Playground

The players had a short break and we took the opportunity to update the leaderboard. Aleks Dimitrov has managed to stay on top of the list, with now 3,661,000 chips. Brandon Hall (3,305,000) and Harpreet Singh Gill (3,034,000) are right behind him and are the only other two players above 3 million chips.

The late registration period is closed and the total number of entries for today adds up to 217. This brings the total combined Day 1 entries to 521, which propels the prize pool above it’s $5,000,000 guaranteed amount. Players are obviously cautious and carefully assess their chances, only 30 players have hit the rail since the onset of the tournament, five hours ago.

First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Stack \| Tapis
Aleks	Dimitrov	3,661,000
Brandon	Hall	3,305,000
Harpreet Singh	Gill	3,034,000
Anatolly	Filatov	2,561,000
Richard Thomas	Mullen	2,439,000
Jonathan E	Dwek	2,402,000
Luis Pedro	Urrutia	2,396,000
Garrett	Dansereau	2,129,000
Seyedrohollah	Ettehadi	2,108,000
Jean-François	Daunais	2,103,000
Sergio	Aido Espina	2,090,000
Patrick	Clarke	2,057,000
Ludovic	Geilich	2,046,000
Daniel	Elkeslassy	2,035,000
Carl	Martel	2,003,000

200 entries; late registration closing soon

Level: 4
Small Blind: 4K
Big Blind: 8K
BB Ante: 8K
Chip Average: 1.1M
Remaining: 182
Entries: 200

May 22, 2019 | 3:57pm | Playground

The boards are showing 200 entries and there is just about 45 minutes left for late registrations. We’ll have an update of entries and chip leaders at the next break.

Here are a few photos from the players taken during level 2.

Dimitrov in the lead after 2 levels

Level: 3
Small Blind: 3K
Big Blind: 7K
BB Ante: 3K
Chip Average: 1,05M
Remaining: 186
Entries: 196

May 22, 2019 | 3:13pm | Playground

After two levels, a few players have managed to rise above 1,5 million chips. During the short break we took a moment to go around the tables and see who’s doing well.

Young Bulgarian Aleks Dimitrov is in the lead with 2,908,000 chips, his closest rival are Brandon Hall (2,352,000) and Felix Martel-Racine (2,013,000). The three players are the only ones who have amassed more than 2 million chips so far. But it’s early, and poker is nothing if not unpredictable.

The guaranteed $5,000,000 prize pool has been exceeded. Also, the last satellite for the Main Event is currently running, and the 10 seat guarantee will send an additional ten players into the Main Event as well.

First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Stack \| Tapis
Aleks	Dimitrov	2,908,000
Brandon	Hall	2,352,000
Felix	Martel-Racine	2,013,000
Joni Petteri	Jouhkimainen	1,776,000
Garrett	Dansereau	1,766,000
Patrick	Stacey	1,718,000
Ludovic	Geilich	1,681,000
Jiachen	Gong	1,657,000
Anatolly	Filatov	1,635,000
Wesley	Pantling	1,628,000
Sergio	Aido Espina	1,603,000
Daniel	Retallick	1,593,000
Andrew	Pantling	1,535,000
Seyedrohollah	Ettehadi	1,527,000

Photos from level 1

Level: 1
Small Blind: 2K
Big Blind: 5K
BB Ante: 5K
Chip Average: 1,00M
Remaining: 146
Entries: 146

May 22, 2019 | 1:02pm | Playground

Things are moving along in Day 1B of the Main Event. Players are half-way into level 1 and everyone who entered is still seated. Just like yesterday’s Day 1A flight, the players approach is cautious and calculated. They know they are in it for the long haul and are playing accordingly.

Here are a few photos of the players from level 1.

Cards are in the air for Day 1B

Level: 1
Small Blind: 2K
Big Blind: 5K
BB Ante: 5k
Chip Average: 1,00M
Remaining: 92
Entries: 92

May 22, 2019May 22, 2019 | 12:09pm | Playground

Day 1B of Event #4 – $10,000 + $300 MILLIONS North America Main Event just got under way.

Loaded with a $5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, this is THE event you don’t want to miss. The Main Event has only two Day 1’s. Last night’s Day 1A attracted 304 entries and saw 151 players qualify for Day 2. Sandy Lam bagged a whopping 6,84 million chips, and Manig Loeser threw 6,620,000 chips in his bag, roughly three times the average, so the bar is set pretty high for today’s contenders. The list of qualified players and their chip counts can be found here.

Players have until the beginning of level 5 (approximately 4:30pm) to register. Remember that if a player survived Day 1A and chooses to play Day 1B, their qualified stack from Day 1A will be forfeited with no possibility of recovery.

Players start with 1,000,000 chips and blinds increase every 60 minutes today. The tournament will stop after 10 levels and resume Thursday, May 23 at 12:00pm for Day 2. The rules and tournament structure can be found here.

And we’re off!

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