LIVE EVENTS

Danielle Schwartz played a great game and when the final table was first formed, she went on a heater, knocking out player after player. She ended up heads-up against Dominic St-Pierre in a blind vs blind hand and had an amazing flop when she hit her flush with her on a flop. The money went in on the turn when Dominic St-Pierre, playing , turned trip 6’s. The river however changed everything when the board paired with the making a full house for St-Pierre.

• 3rd place: Danielle Schwartz, $1,490
• 4th place: Maurice Tarabay

Play is now heads-up between Dominic St-Pierre and Yasser Zaatar.

The players just went on their last break of the evening and Dominic St-Pierre now has a massive lead. Here are the chip counts:

The money went in pre-flop and Yasser Zaatar had a double up.

Zaatar:
Belanger:

It was a miracle flop for Zaatar when the dealer fanned out . Belanger still had outs but missed on the turn and river.

A few hands later there were two more bustouts:

• 6th place: Jean-Francois Belanger, $690
• 5th place: Haralambos Margaritis, $910

Since the final table has been formed, Danielle Schwartz has gone on a heater and has now knocked out three players. James Belanger open-shoved with pocket queens, and was met by a re-shove by Stephane Matte with pocket aces. Danielle Schwartz had both players covered and made the call with pocket tens. The board ran out with four spades making a flush for Schwartz who knocked out both players. Goran  Brestovac was next to go. Eddie Daldalian, who had lost a lot of chips over the course of three hands was also knocked out by Schwartz when she called his shove holding an ace and hit an ace on the board.

• 10th place: James Belanger, $240
• 9th place: Stephane Matte, $310
• 8th place: Goran Brestovac, $410
• 7th place: Eddie Daldalian, $530

Here are the players and stacks on the final table:

The players had decided to do a bubble deal when there were only 12 players remaining, agreeing to remove $70 from the top three spots so that the 12th place finisher would be paid $210.

• 11th place: Eslami Manouchehri, $240
• 12th place: Adam Hussen, $210
• 13th place: Sylvain Hazan, bubble

The tournament is now heading into the final stretch and with the average stack hovering just over 130,000, Eddie Daldalian has taken the lead with 259,000 chips, good for 32 big blinds. He is followed closely by Peyman Eslami Manouchehri who is on his tail and closing in.

Here are the top stacks in play:

As there are only 17 players still fighting it out, with the top 11 spots getting paid, there have been a lot of all ins taking place over the last level.

On table 35, Dominic St-Pierre limped in for 6,000 only to be met by a raise to 25,000 by Ayana Massa. Danielle Schwartz called Massa’s raise and St-Pierre let go of his hand and let the two others play heads-up.

The flop came and Ayana right away announced that she was all in. Schwartz gave it some thought but ultimately let go of her hand, allowing Massa to add to her stack.

On the next hand, the action folded to Richard Sysko in late position who opened to 15,000, only to be met by an all by Dominic St-Pierre seated on his immediate left. Sysko was about to let go of his hand but in the last minute he said “OK, let’s just do it” as he called the bet.

St-Pierre:
Sysko:

St-Pierre was ahead but Sysko had one of those hands that often plays well. The board however ran out and although Sysko did have an open-ended satraight draw on the turn, he didn’t connect with the river and St-Pierre doubled up and more from his 54,000 chip stack.

There are 39 players left in contention and the average chip stack is now 56,800 chips (28 big blinds). Richard Sysko, who hails from upstate Vermont and who is a regular visitor to all of the Playground events, has taken the lead with more than three times the average, sitting on a stack of 181,500 chips (91 big blinds). He is followed closely by Danielle Schwartz holding 172,000 chips (86 big blinds).

Here are the current leaders from the second break:

With the blinds at 600/1,200, action was opened to 3,000 in early position by Patrice Ravary who found a call by Ayana Massa. Tanvir Ahmed had already lost most of his stack and decided to go all in “dark” for 4,000. When it was Carl Des Grange’s turn to act, he wasn’t sure what he was up against but he was sure as to what his hole cards were and he moved all in. Ravary made the call and Massa folder her hand (she shared with the table that she had folder pocket 3’s).

Ravary:
Ahmed:
Des Granges:

Des Granges was in a great spot and both Ahmed and Ravary were holding on tight as they still had hope, but of course needed some help from the board. And for at least Ahmed, it was help that he received as the board ran out , and with his , he made the highest flush. Luckily for Des Granges Ahmed was severely short stacked so Des Granges ended up moving up to 42,000 chips from the larger side pot with Ravary who was eliminated in this hand.

It almost looked like a family pot on table 30 which made for a lot of chips in the middle. Alexander Burn limped in under the gun, followed by Nicolas Matte. When it was Christine Park’s turn to act, she raised it up from 400 to 1,550, and found calls from Frederick Robert, Matthieu Blondin, Jonathan Hauth and Atbin Abbasianafrapoli in the big blind as well as by the original limper, Alexander Burn. Margaritis had folded in the small blind.

The flop came and surprisingly it checked around the table. The turn was the and Abbasianafrapoli moved all in, which would ended up being enough to take down the pot as it folded all around. A nice spot for sure.

There will be the first break of the evening in just a few minutes, which will allow us to count the stacks and put together the first leaderboard of the night.