LIVE EVENTS

In a wild turn of events, Trevor Strutt, who was on top of the leaderboards all night long is out just prior to the bubble. Steven Vinetti Huot, sitting on a stack of close to 2,000,000, opened from 30,000 to 100,000. Trevor Strutt jammed his stack of 1,600,000 and to his surprise, Vinetti Huot insta-called.

Strutt had pocket tens and Vinetti Huot had pocket kings. The board ran out clean for Vinetti Huot who is now sitting on approximately 3,650,000 chips, and, Strutt is eliminated just shy of bagging for Day 2.

The tournament is now down to 45 players with the top 42 moving on to Day 2, The action is tense is all players are trying to protect their stacks and the bigger stacks are trying to put some pressure on to the short stacks.

The players are now back from their last break of the day and there are now four millionaires who have taken charge. The average chip stack is 549,000 (27 big blinds) and the following four players are playing stacks from 61 to 93 big blinds. Steven Vinette Huot is the leader with a stack of 1,867,000 in chips.

Some of the stacks are becoming huge right now while others are feeling the pressure of the blinds and are dwindling down. With the blinds at 8,000/16,000, the action was opened by Christian Rho who made it 40,000 to go. A few seats to his left, Karl Albert ripped it in for his tournament life. It folded back to Rho who instantly made the call.

Albert:
Rho:

Albert had a premium hand with his pocket jacks but Rho also was holding a premium with his AK suited. The flop came and Rho jumped into the lead after hitting his ace. The turn and river didn’t change anything and since Rho had Albert covered, he picked up a nice addition to add to his stack while Albert was sent to the rail with his tournament coming to an end.

The tournament is now 18 away from the bubble. A break will be coming up shortly and the last leaderboard of the night will be published.

The players are now back from their third break of the day with an average stack just over 300,000 (37 big blinds), there are now two millionaires in the field, both seated on the same table! Trevor Strutt has nursed one of the top stacks throughout the flight and he is now sitting in the leader’s seat with an outstanding 1,291,000 chips, good for 161 big blinds! Also on the same table is Marcello Iacovella, the other millionaire with 1,063,000 chips (133 big blinds).

Here are the top stacks in play:

The late registration and re-entry period has finally come to a close in day 1M and the total number of entries reached 291 (including a whopping 71 re-entries). With one in seven advancing on to Day 2, 42 players will bag their stacks and be in the money, trying to spin it up and make the final table and ultimately take home the championship title.

With the 291 entries the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool has now been well surpassed. In addition to the Day 1M flight, there are also 110 entries at the moment in the last starting flight, Day 1N, with still another full hour to go in the late registration period.

The players have returned from another break and there are now 140 players still grinding it out from the 283 entries in Day 1M.

The chip average is now 202,100 (58 big blinds) and none other than Tu Kham Tran leads the way with 689,000 chips (197 big blinds). As a note of interest, Tran has been seen playing many of the starting flights in the Grand Prix Canada and it seems to be paying off in dividends for him as he has taken advantage of the tournament structure and has already bagged chips in three of the flights. Each bag has earned him a min-cash of at least $400. So far his largest Day 2 stack is 850,000 in chips. He used the same strategy earlier this year when he fired three bullets during the $2,000 + $200 No Limit High Roller this past summer during the WSOP-C at Playground and earned the championship ring for the event.

Trevor Strutt, another highly skilled player who is a regular at all of the Playground events is only 2,500 chips behind Tran, so it is obviously still anyone’s game.

With the blinds at 1,000/2,500, Trevor Strutt opened to 8,000 and found a call by Christian Rho seated a few seats over to his left. When it was Louis Crete’s turn to act, he moved all in and was called by both Strutt and Rho.

Crete:
Strutt:
Rho:

The situation was looking really good for Trevor Strutt until the flop came down , making a set of jacks for Rho. Strutt still had outs, but when the hit the turn, it wasn’t looking so good for him as he was now only drawing to an ace on the river to win the pot. Unfortunately for him, the river was the , and Rho picked up a really nice pot.

The tournament is now in level five and there are still 161 players left in contention of the 203 total entries. Late registration is open until the start of level 11 at 9:30pm.

With an average chip stack at 126,000 (79 big blinds), Steve Khoury has jumped out in front of the pack with the only stack above 400,000; he is currently sitting on a stack of 428,400, good for 267 big blinds.

Here are the current leaders:

The tournament is now up to 185 entries (including 22 re-entries) and the stacks are building.

With the blinds at 600/1,200, Giovanni Moscuto opened under the gun to 1,200 and found calls from Trevor Strutt and Dave Brochu. When the action was on Panagiotis Prahalis, he bumped it up to 3,600 and the other three players made the call to see a flop.

The flop fell and it checked all around. On the turn, Moscuto checked and Strutt put in a bet of 5,500. All three other players made the call. The river was the , and it checked around to Prahalis who fired 10,000. Moscuto made the call while the others folded and the hands were opened:

Prahalis:
Moscuto:

Moscuto had flopped top pair, but Prahalis’ pocket rockets stood tall.

There will be a break coming up shortly and we will publish the first leaderboard of the day.

The tournament room is busy with already 141 entries (including 6 re-entries) in level two of Day 1M and there are still another 111 players remaining out of the 310 total entries in Day 1L. Players have right up until the start of level 11 at 9:30pm tonight to still jump into this last opportunity to play a starting flight with 30-minute blinds (late registrants receive a full 100,000 starting stack).

These are some of the faces in level two of Day 1M:

Welcome to Day 1M of the $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada, the marquee event of the Playground 9-year Anniversary series featuring an amazing $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. With already 300 players entered into this morning’s Day 1L, there have now been a total of 2,251 entries spread across 17 starting flights, both live and online on partypoker. The 4:00pm Day 1M will bring the total prize pool north of the guarantee and there still remains one more starting flight at  7:30pm this evening (Day 1N). The value of this low buy in event is simply spectacular; do not miss your chance to get a piece of the amazing prize pool.

Players start the Grand Prix Canada with 100,000 chips. The blind levels are 30 minutes long and the play is 10-handed on Day 1. Day 2 starts 9-handed and moves to 8-handed as soon as possible.

This is a re-entry event with unlimited re-entries permitted until the end of the late registration period on each Day 1, which is at the start of level 11 at 9:30pm. 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 would, however, retain the associated cash prize for every forfeited stack. This allows for a great opportunity to see if you can qualify with a larger Day 2 stack by firing more than one bullet.

The starting flights will play down to when one in seven players remain, at which point the players will be in the money and bag their chips for Day 2.

To date 279 players have now qualified for Day 2, in addition to all of today’s qualifiers who will join the group of Day 2 players. To see the combined Day 1 results, click here. (NB: today’s results as well as the Day 2 seating chart will be added to the list late in the morning on Sunday).

Good luck to all competitors!