LIVE EVENTS

Day 1A of the $500 + $50 Playground 500 just ended with 12 players bagging to advance to Day 2.  The tournament is the marquee event of the November Power Weekend and features a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The first of three live flights attracted a nice sized field with a total of 40 entries who played through 14 levels of 30 minutes.  The lead changed hands a few times through the course of the evening and when it was all said and done, it was Patrick St-Laurent who bagged the top stack, with 360,000 chips. He is followed closely in second place by Thibault Nouveau with 353,000 chips, and then by Charli Azoulay in third with 253,000 chips.

Day 1A chip leader: Patrick St-Laurent:

Here are some of the players who were able to find a bag for Day 2:

For a complete list of the combined Day 1 qualifiers, click here.  (NB: Tonight’s qualifiers will be added to the list sometime on Friday)

There will be additional day 1 flights as follows:

• Day 1B: Friday, November 22 at 11:00AM
• Day 1C: Friday, November 22 at 7:00PM

Day 2 will play out on Saturday at 3:00pm, followed by Day 3 on Sunday at 2:00pm where the remaining field will play down to a champion.

Play is slowing down as the tournament is now in the final stretch playing out the last three levels of the evening. There are now just 16 of the original 40 left in contention and a new chip leader has emerged: Charli Azoulay has now made it to the top spot, with a cool 258,500 chips, good for 86 big blinds, where the average stack is now at just over 41 bigs.

Here are the new leaders from the last break:

Some of the recent bustouts include: Mitcheal Ferguson, Christina Knot, Arianne V., Li Ding, Matthew Wade, Adam Cader, Rong Xu, Ido Sharon, Brian Yim, Brian Hodhod, to just name a few.

Still in contention are: Joshua Hopkins, J.P. Piquette, Stephane Lacasse, Miraz Ullah, Natalia Nogina, David St.-Louis, Michael Korovine, and Tomas Larivee Magni.

The late registration and re-entry period has now finally closed and the totals are in: there are 40 entries (including 5 re-entries) in Day 1A, with 26 players still in contention with still six full levels of play before the remaining players bag for the Day 2.

Although we missed the action, the players at the table tell us that a hand took place just before the last break when Andreas K. had pocket sevens and ended up calling an all-in for a flip against Patrick St-Laurent holding ace-king. St-laurent hit the board and is now in the lead with 179,800 chips, good for 112 big blinds. Andreas is still on the leaderboard and trying to get back the chips that he gave up to St-Laurent.

Here are the leaders from the second break:

Play is moving along nicely and there are now 35 entries (including 2 re-entries) and with an average chip stack hovering just over 60,000, one player has built up a solid six figure stack to jump ahead of the rest of the pack: Andreas K. is in the driver’s seat with a 120,700 chips, equal to about 201 big blinds.

Here are the leaders from the first break:

The play is in level three and the flight is now up to 31 entries (including 2 re-entries) which is a nice pace for this larger buy-in event. Late registration remains open right up until the start of level at 11;30pm, so with the 30 minute blind levels and super late registration available, there is plenty of time to still jump in. If ypu can’t make it tonight, Day 1B takes place tomorrow at 11:00am and Day 1C, the final starting flight is at 7:00pm.

Looking around the room,. here are some of the players battling it out in Day 1A:

Day 1A of Event #2, the $500 + $50 Playground 500, the marquee event of the November Power weekend is just about to get underway. With a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000, this tournament is sure to attract some of the most dedicated tournament players from both near and far.

Players start with 50,000 chips and play nine-handed through 14 levels of 30 minutes on the Day 1’s, and Day 2 and 3 action will see the blinds increase to 45 minutes in length as play becomes eight-handed.

This is a re-entry event with unlimited re-entries permitted until the end of the late registration period on each Day 1 starting flight. Re-entry is permitted for any player that loses all their chips or chooses to forfeit their stack. A player may play additional Day 1s even if they have survived a previous Day 1 with chips. Players who qualify for Day 2 more than once will resume play on Day 2 with their largest qualifying stack; all other qualifying stacks will be forfeited. Players may enter (or re-enter) the tournament until the beginning of Level 9 on each Day 1, which will be at 11:30pm. With great structure in place, players who choose to late register in the last minute will still receive a full chip stack, which will effectively be just over 31 big blinds.

There was an online flight on partypoker that place this past Sunday that attracted 20 players of which three have advanced to Day 2. Samuel Roussy-Majeau leads at the moment with 507,000 chips. For a list of the combined Day 1 results, click here.

There will be additional day 1 flights as follows:

• Day 1B: Friday, November 22 at 11:00AM
• Day 1C: Friday, November 22 at 7:00PM

Day 2 will play out on Saturday at 3:00pm, followed by Day 3 on Sunday at 2:00pm where the remaining field will play down to a champion.

The floor has just announced “dealers, shuffle up and deal” and the cards are in the air!

Good luck to all competitors!