LIVE EVENTS

Day 2 of the Playground 1000 started with 82 players and played 12 action packed levels before bagging for Day 3. In keeping with the trend seen on Day 1 of this event, the players were not shy about putting chips in the middle, leading to nearly half of the Day 2 field being eliminated within the first three hours of play. The pace slowed somewhat in the lead up to the money bubble, but it was dispensed with rather quickly and the action picked right back up where it left off. Things slowed down significantly when the field was down to two tables because the players had lots of big blinds at their disposal and the prospect of the big money at the top of the prize list began to creep into their minds.

The chip leader from this flight, Lily Kornik, better known to Playground regulars as “Big Salami,” kept up her strong Day 1 play and jumped out to an early chip lead. Although some other players had their turn as chip leader during Day 2, Kornik was never far off the lead. After the players reached the money, Kornik jumped back up to the top of the leaderboard and stayed there until the chips went in the bag at the end of level 26.

Play will resume for Day 3 tomorrow at 1:00pm.

The stage is set for Day 3 of Event #6, the High Roller. After two days of play, 102 entries have been reduced to the 16 finalists who will play for the champion’s trophy this afternoon. Pierre-Paul Paulin holds a hefty chip lead, but any player still in the running has a legitimate shot at taking this one down.

The top 11 finishers will cash this event, so expect the tension to build throughout the afternoon as the field continues to shrink. When play resumes at 1:00pm, the players will be seated according to the following table.

The Playground 1000 had a huge turnout for yesterday’s Day 1, bringing in 260 entries. The huge field built a prize pool of more than double the guaranteed amount for this event. After 14 levels of fast and loose action yesterday, 82 players survived to bag chips for today’s Day 2.

Today’s flight will have 12 40-minute levels of 8-handed play before this event plays down to a winner on Day 3 at 1:00pm on Sunday. When the action resumes at noon, the players will be seated according to the following table.

Only 16 players remain in the MILLIONS North America Main Event.

When play began on Day 3, 66 players were still in contention, only three eliminations from the money bubble. After roughly an hour of play, the money bubble burst and the top 63 finalists secured at least $20,000 each. When the flight concluded, the 16 remaining players had locked up at least $40,000 each, but you can be sure that everyone’s focus is on the $1,000,000 champion’s prize.

The stage is set for Day 4, which will feature 90-minute blind levels and 8-handed play. When play resumes today at noon, the players will be seat according to the following table.

After almost 12 hours of intense poker, 16 tired,  but content players dumped their loot in their bags and are heading home for some much needed rest.  By the time the registrations were closed, a total of 102 entries had made their way into the tournament.

If we had to give Day 2 a nickname it would probably be something like “Pierre-Paul Paulin’s Poker-Fest”.  From St-Simon, New Brunswick, Paulin has had a tremendous run here today.  The only time he was not chip leader, was when he sat down this afternoon.  From the first leaderboard, after two levels of play, to the bagging ritual at the end of the evening, Paulin was, and remained, the head honcho.

Here are the players that were sent to the rail with three tables left in the tournament:

• Lauren Roberts (17th)
• Rainer Kempe (18th)
• Jonathan David Concepcion Tacoronte (19th)
• Peter Daniel Weinand (20th)
• Hannes Speiser (21st)
• Peter Christopher Jetten (22nd)
• Artem Metalidi (23rd)
• Jiachen Gong (24th)

With no surprise, the top bagger tonight is Pierre-Paul Paulin with over 21 million chips, more than five million ahead of Brian Yoon in second position with 15.5 million chips.

Day 3 action gets underway tomorrow at 1:00pm.  Play will continue eight-handed until there is nine players left.  Then a full redraw will be made for the final table.

The $10,300 MILLIONS North America is down to its last 16 players. A decision was made to halt play for the day at the formation of the last 2 tables in order to leave some fun for Day 4 and Day 5. Indeed, the rhythm of eliminations today was a little too fast, and players were happy to be able to relax and fully recharge before Day 4.

Day 3 started with Kevin Rabichow in the lead. Rabichow increased his stack by 50% and finishes with a very respectable 45,475,000 chips. Joni Petteri Jouhkimainen and John Cayley are extremely close, trailing by less than a million.

Danick Landriault however, is the story of the day. From a 17M stack at the beginning of the day, he climbed up to a mind-boggling 97,200,000 chips. Although he never set foot in the Stream area, every time we walked by his table, his stack had grown a little bit: the true mark of solid play. Towards the end, however, he managed to make a giant leap after flopping a full house with a 7 and a 6 against Queens. That hand, while causing the elimination of a player who was not short-stacked at all, propelled him way ahead of the field. Landriault is a well-known local at Playground, having played both cash games and tournaments here for years. He is also a great guy who is always nice and polite to everybody, players and staff alike, regardless of whether they return the favour or not.

The tournament staff shared the seating chart for Day 4:

Day 1 of the Playground 1000 brought out an impressive field of 260 entries. The huge field built a prize pool that went far beyond the $100,000 guarantee and created a top prize of $55,430 for the eventual champion.

The action was fast and loose throughout most of the day, leading to 49 players to exercise their option to re-enter during the first nine levels of play. When the dust settled at the end of the flight, there were 82 players remaining.

The story of Day 1 was Eric Afriat’s seemingly insurmountable chip lead. Afriat sprinted out of the gate and quickly multiplied his starting stack to take the lead at the first break. From there, he seemed to only add chips to his stack. Afriat managed to not only maintain the top stack in play but also increase the size of his lead at both the second and third breaks. It was only in the late stages that other players started closing in on Afriat. Eventually, Ali Keshavarz managed to reel him in and finished the day as the only player with more than a million in chips waiting for Day 2.

The players will return for for Day 2 tomorrow at 12:00pm for 12 levels of 8-handed play.

This tournament offers amazing value with a slow blind structure, and unlimited re-entries, and offers a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000!

For today’s Day 2, blinds pick-up at 10K / 20K, and play will continue for ten 60-minute levels on eight handed tables.  There are still over four hours of late registration (and re-entries), so there is plenty of time to get in on the action. Late registration is open right up to the start of Level 13 today, which is at 5:30pm, and players start with 1,000,000 chips.

Expect a lot of new entries today and Day 3 will wrap up the action on Saturday at 1:00pm.

Yesterday’s Day 1 had a great turnout with a total of 52 entries. Day 1 produced 28 qualifiers to continue play today and the top stack belongs to James Romero, who bagged 4,320,000.

Get ready for action…

Event #6 of the MILLIONS North America, the $10,000 + $300 High Roller, brought out 52 entries on Day 1. After eight levels of play, 28 players remained to bag chips at the end of the flight.
Late registration and unlimited re-entries will be available until the beginning of level 13, meaning that players will be able to (re-)enter the action today until 5:30pm to try to get some of the outstanding value this event provides.

When play resumes for Day 2 at 1:00pm, the players will be seated according to the following table.