LIVE EVENTS

Day 1L of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada has officially wrapped, with 44 competitors making it through to Day 2. Each of those qualifiers are “in the money,” and will return tomorrow at 1:00PM to take their places and play down to Day 3’s final table.

Tomorrow’s Day 2 action will undoubtedly make Playground a very busy place, as over 350 players will have qualified by the time our final two flights are completed tonight. That said, a large portion of the 350 qualifiers won’t have more than a few big blinds when they start off, which will probably cut the crowd in half within a couple of hours.

Today’s action was led for most of the day by Alexandre Lajoie, who finished the day with 1,480,000 chips, putting him a great place to start off Day 2 tomorrow. However, the player with the most chips at the end of this flight was Francois Gauthier in the brown leather jacket. He managed to pick up 2,181,000 chips over the course of the day, putting him in the top ten of all the Grand Prix Canada qualifiers. Well done!

There were also several others with large stacks at the end of Day 1L, shown below. The full list of results can be seen here, and will be updated with the Day 1L, Day 1M and Day 1K Turbo flights by Sunday morning, before the start of Day 2 at 1:00PM.

Over on table 20 a few minutes ago, three players were in the middle of a hand when one of them, the smallest stack at the table, shoved for a negligible amount after seeing the flop. The other two players, Luciano Iacovella and James Brown, easily covered him and were happy to simply make the call. Although we didn’t record the exact cards on the table, when Luciano and James both checked, and fourth street revealed a second king on the board.

James was quick to shove all in, and Luciano folded in the face of his aggression. However, when James flipped over his cards to face off against the short stack, all he had was a (with no sevens or fours pairing on the board). It was safe to say that Luciano was not happy – at both James’ play or his own decision to fold. Even worse, the small stack flipped over his cards to reveal only a six and a three! A few expletives later, the short stack took down the hand and Luciano could do nothing but stew while the table twittered in bemusement at James’ decision to shove with nothing and his ability to come out of the hand without a scratch.

This was Luciano’s frame of mind when, a few hands later, he found himself in another hand with James. It began with a late-position raise from Luciano to 25,000, which was called by chip leader Alexandre Lajoie on the button and James in the big blind. The flop came down , the table checked and a was dealt on the turn.

When James decided to open with an oddly-sized 53,000 bet, Luciano was eager to take back some chips from James and push his weight around, shoving for his remaining 400,000. But to Luciano’s surprise, Alexandre shoved over top with his million chips before the action returned to James. The two all-ins were too much for James, who smartly bowed out.

Luciano flipped over his pocket queens, but Alexandre’s pocket pair of tens matched the ten already on the board, leaving Luciano with only a few outs to make either trip-queens or the ace-high straight. Unfortunately for Luciano, the final card was a dud and he was eliminated in 64th place, just 20 from the bubble. James remains at the table, and is very close to making the bubble. That’s poker!

Play continues…

Alexandre Lajoie is the only player at the third break to have accumulated more than one million chips so far in Day 1L of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada. As we move into level 13, there are now fewer than 100 players still seated, and about 40 eliminations to go before the rest qualify for Day 2.

Keep pushing folks, there’s lots of poker left to play!

We’ve just moved into level 12 and entered what should be the final third of this flight (assuming the competition continues until the 18th level or thereabouts). The average stack is up at 313,000 chips, and with 31 million chips in play, the numbers suggest that the largest chip stacks will probably be up near one million. We’ll confirm those figures in 20 minutes at the next break, when we perform our next chip count.

See below for some photos of our competitors as they make their push towards their respective Day 2 qualifications.

As we move from level 10 to level 11, we have now finally crested 300 total entries on the day, a small achievement to be sure. Another milestone reached is that registration is now officially closed for this third-to-last Day 1 flight of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada. With a total of 310 total entries (including 87 re-entries), we can now say definitively that the number of players to qualify for this flight will be 44.

With 129 players still at their seats, we also now know that Day 1L will only officially end when 85 more players are eliminated. Good luck to everyone still in the hunt!

Of the top eight players by chip stack, Francois Gauthier is the overall leader at the second break with 694,000 in chips. However, there are three other players up above 600,000 chasing close behind. By all indications, this looks like it will be one of the richest flights we’ve seen to date in the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada, raising the possibility that the leader at the end of today’s Day 1L action will rise above the three million in chips held by the overall tournament leader Henry Nathan John, from Online Day 1B.

Level nine is now underway, and there remains just 50 minutes before the end of the registration period. As for player entry numbers, we’ve almost crested the 300-entry mark … but not quite yet.

Day 1L of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada is in full swing, and we’re currently at 279 entries on the day, including 63 re-entries. With 176 players still in the hunt and at their seats, it is still a question if we’ll reach a total 300 entries for this tournament. However, considering the fact that there still remains two full hours before the end of the registration period, it is probably a safe bet that we will, in fact, hit that satisfying round number of 300.

That said, if there are no more entries at all, we will still see a grand total of 40 players advance to Day 2 from this flight. Keep it up!

Note: While this post was being uploaded, the field grew by one entry, bringing us to a total of 280! Almost there!

Dale Verge is the chip leader after four levels, having pulled together an impressive stack of almost half a million chips. Several other large stacks are nipping at his heels, but we remain in the very early part of today’s Day 1L flight, so there will no doubt be much more movement (up and down) before the day is done.

At 253 entries so far, the field is robust and continues to grow. So for anyone still thinking of joining us here at Playground for this flight of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada, there are still just under three hours left before registration closes. Get on down here and take your seat, and see if you can make it to Day 2 and the money!

We’ve just heard the bell indicating that we’ve moved from level three to level four, meaning the blinds have gone up again, this time to 700/1,400. Another metric that continues to rise is the number of entries at today’s $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada Day 1L. Only 90 minutes has elapsed, but there have already been 209 entries so far! That equates to over 20 million chips in play. If the tournament were to close registration right now, the format of one qualifier for every seven entries would equal out to 30 places reserved for Day 2 qualifiers.

Luckily for you, however, registration is still open, and will remain so for the next four hours. See below for some more photos of our players as they make their way to the end of the fourth level and the first official 15-minute break of the day.

There have been a great deal of starting flights for the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada event here at Playground so far, during this, the ninth anniversary of the poker club’s opening. Including online Day 1s, today’s Day 1L marks the seventeenth Day 1 flight, with two final Day 1 flights taking place later today at 4:00PM and 7:30PM.

With that many entries, tomorrow’s Day 2 is bound to be quite a competitive affair. Wondering where you stack up against the players who have come before you and already qualified for Day 2? Check out our results page for more information.

At the top of the pile is an online qualifier from Day 1B, Henry Nathan John. His chip stack of three million chips is the largest by far, with a further six players having managed to accumulate more than two million chips. If you want to be in the top one hundred players by chip stack, you’ll need to hold a minimum of 750,000 chips in front of you by the end of the day.

And for those who find themselves up against the ropes in the last minutes of the tournament, perhaps use this next statistic for inspiration. The smallest stack that managed to qualify for Day 2 so far had only 60,000 chips left when time expired – less than the original starting stack! So while this player has the largest hill to climb on his way to a tournament win, he’s still got a chip and a chair, as they say, so the dream is still alive!

Good luck to all of our competitors as they make their push to qualification.

We’re halfway through level two, and already we’ve seen our list of entries grow from 92 to over 150, which is an indication that this day will be a busy one! Here are some photos of our competitors in the early rounds.

Playground’s ninth year has been a great one so far, and the fun continues today. And what better way to celebrate this milestone than with a series of fantastic tournaments? This particular event, the first event in the anniversary series, is the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada. Believe it or not, this morning’s 11:00AM start marks the seventeenth Day 1 flight of this event, which began on December 8th. With so many Day 1s feeding into the event’s final days (Day 2 and Day 3), it’s no surprise that the guaranteed prize pool is a very generous $500,000.

In today’s event, players start off with 100,000 chips and will play 10-handed, with levels lasting 30 minutes. Players are permitted unlimited rebuys until the end of regitration. After registration closes (which occurs at the beginning of level 11 at 4:30pm), our competitors will play down until only one-seventh of the total number of entries are left alive. At that point, all players will be “in the money” and qualify for Day 2, which kicks off tomorrow at 1:00pm.

The players have just taken their seats and the cards are officially in the air, so if you’re looking for a chance to claim your piece of the half-million-dollar bounty, come down to Playground and take your shot! And if you happen to miss out on an entry to this flight, keep in mind that the final two Day 1 live flights start today at 4:00pm (Day 1M) and 7:30pm (Day 1N Turbo).

Good luck to all!