Nikolas Blanchette and David Cadoch both started the day with short stacks and tried right away to secure a double-up, but the poker god was not onside with them and both have been eliminated.
After a full week of starting flights attracting a total of 2,696 runners, 366 players returned yesterday, all of them now in the money, to fight it out until the field was reduced to the final 16 players.
Today is the day that all have been waiting for as Day 3 starts now! Players are all assured of at least $2,500 but of course have their eyes focused on the top prize of $80,000, along with the champion’s ring and the associated bragging rights.
The average stack is 17,973,000 (30 big blinds) and Perry Rouzes leads the final 16 with 34,275,000 in chips, good for 57 big blinds.
The cards are in the air and play has just begun!
Good luck to all of the competitors.
The Grand Prix Canada has played down from 2,696 entries to reach the final 16 players. Yesterday’s Day 2 saw 366 players take to the felts and battle it out for a day of dramatic action. Everyone who reached Day 2 secured themselves a payout from this event, but all eyes were set on the $80,000 prize at the top of the prize list. Predictably, Day 2 started off with a bang, as the players raced to build their stacks and setup a deep run. The frenetic pace of the early levels reduced the field by half within the first three hours of play, before the deep stacks and big pay jumps led to a much slower pace of play. After a 12-hour grind, only 16 players remained, each with a payout of at least $2,500 secured.
When play resumes for Day 3 at 6:00pm, the players will be seated according to the following table.
| First Name | Last Name | Seat | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perry Phillip | Rouzes | Table 24 - Seat 8 | 34,275,000 |
| Loic | Duguay | Table 20 - Seat 7 | 33,050,000 |
| Alexandre | Raymond | Table 24 - Seat 5 | 31,575,000 |
| Christopher | Turnbull | Table 20 - Seat 8 | 24,750,000 |
| James | Brown | Table 20 - Seat 3 | 21,500,000 |
| Jean-Pascal | Gauthier | Table 20 - Seat 2 | 19,450,000 |
| Jean | Roy | Table 20 - Seat 5 | 14,000,000 |
| Rong | Xu | Table 20 - Seat 1 | 13,900,000 |
| Langis | De Grand Pre | Table 24 - Seat 1 | 13,525,000 |
| Steven | Vinetti Huot | Table 24 - Seat 7 | 11,500,000 |
| Albert | Nguyen | Table 20 - Seat 4 | 11,250,000 |
| Francois | Gauthier | Table 24 - Seat 6 | 9,500,000 |
| Kevin | Javier | Table 24 - Seat 2 | 8,125,000 |
| Nikolas | Blanchette | Table 24 - Seat 3 | 6,050,000 |
| David | Cadoch | Table 24 - Seat 4 | 5,800,000 |
| Brigitte | Korak | Table 20 - Seat 6 | 4,300,000 |
Day 2 of the Grand Prix Canada has come to a close with the final 16 players bagging their chips to head into Day 2. Over the various Day 1 starting flights that attracted a total of 2,696 runners, Day 2 started off with 362 players who were all assured of a $400 min-cash. They played through 40-minute levels, all looking to make it to the final table where the there is $80,000 up top for the event champion. Action started off fast and furious as there were many short stacks who were all hoping for a badly needed double-up and one by one, players were sent to the cashier to collect their payouts while others were chipping up and building big stacks.
Danny Freitas took the early lead and maintained it through many levels of play, but ultimately fell short of the final 16 players. Local Abram Logasy then shot up into the stratosphere building a solid wall of chips, becoming the massive chip leader, with Kevin Javier right behind in second place. Francois Gauthier was also high on the leaderboard and at one point was in contention to take the lead.
Christopher Turnbull had a lot fun playing today and was sitting on an average stack and in the end of the evening, he picked up a huge triple-up to give him a really nice stack. While others were chipping up, Logasy ran into trouble and started to lose flip after flip, until, when it was all said and done, he ended up being eliminated on the bubble of the Day 3 qualifiers.
Perry Rouzes was under the radar for most of the day but in the later levels he found some great spots to get his chips in and in the end, he bagged the chip lead with a stack of 34,275,000
The top five stacks belong to:
The players will return for Day 3 tomorrow at 6:00pm, and play down to a winner. The 16th place payout will be $2,500, and the top prize is $80,000 plus the championship ring along with the bragging rights.
Here are the 16 finalists:
With only 20 players still in contention and the blinds at 250,000/500,000, Nicolas Miron open shoved his stack of close to 5,000,000 chips. Christopher Turnbull was next to act and he re-shoved over top. The action then folded to Kevin Javier, who had the biggest stack in play. Javier spent a considerable amount of time in the tank trying to decide how to proceed until he finally moved a stack forward and announced that he was also all in. The blinds folded and the hands were tabled.
Miron: 
Turnbull: 
Javier: 
Javier had the best hand but Turnbull had the over cards. The flop came 
and Javier stayed out in front. On the 
turn, nothing changed, however when the 
hit the river, Turnbull stood up in excitement, celebrating his huge triple-up. Turnbull had 9,000,000 chips and is now sitting on one of the top stacks in play.
Miron played a great game but unfortunately was eliminated in 19th place, collecting $2,100 for his two days of poker action.
On the next table over, we noticed that Abram Logasy has now lost a large portion of his stack and is no longer in the lead.
Day 2 is now in the final stretch as the tournament is down to the final 26 p,layers. Play will continue until only 16 players remain at which point players will bag their chips to return for Day 3 action tomorrow at 6:00pm.
Avi Logasy has been running hot for most of the afternoon and is sitting on a stack of 29,500,000 chips to lead the field. Kevin Javier is in second place with 22,300,000 chips.
Here are the leaders:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Abram (Avi) | Logasy | 29,500,000 |
| Kevin | Javier | 22,300,000 |
| Francois | Gauthier | 17,400,000 |
| Nikolas | Psarris | 11,950,000 |
| Christopher | Turnball | 11,700,000 |
| Langis | De Grand Pre | 11,100,000 |
| Loic | Duguay | 10,700,000 |
Some of the players still in contention include: Denis Ouellette, Albert Nguyen, Rong Xu, Brigitte Korak (the “last woman standing”), Nikolas Blanchette, Van Nghien Nguy, Luc Ratelle, Nicolas Miron, Yannick Belanger, just to name a few.
With only 36 players left in contention, Avi Logasy has built a massive wall of chips, a wall worth over 22 million! There are many other large stacks in play but no one is close to him at the moment. The current payout is at $1,600 and it will jump to $1,800 once there are only 32 players.
Here are some of the other players who are still alive and kicking in level 27:
The last two women standing (or sitting…):
There are now 60 players and the next pay jump takes place at 56 players ($1,200). The average stack is currently just under 4,500,000 and there is a new chip leader: Pierre-Luc Gaudreau is sitting on a stack of 12,750,000, equal to 80 big blinds. Steven Vinetti Huot, ther chip leader from yesterday’s Day 1M is closing in on him, and all of the players with top stacks play a solid game, so it is still anybody’s tournament to win.
These are the top stacks in play from the last break:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack | # of Big Blinds: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pierre-Luc | Gaudreau | 12,750,000 | 80 |
| Steven | Vinetti Huot | 12,260,000 | 77 |
| Danny | Freitas | 10,830,000 | 68 |
| Francois | Gauthier | 10,050,000 | 63 |
| Abram (Avi) | Logasy | 9,550,000 | 60 |
| Jean-Pascal | Gauthier | 8,935,000 | 56 |
Things are really heating up as there are only 65 players left in the field. The current payout is now in the 4 digit range ($1,000) and the sizable prizes will start happening as the tournament move along.
There will be a break shortly and a new leaderboard will be published following the break.
The players just had their second break of the day and with an average chip stack sitting at 2,519,000 (31 Big Blinds), Danny Freitas is still in charge with the only stack north of 10 million, playing a stack of 10,015,000, good for 125 big blinds.
These are the big stacks in play:
| First Name | Last Name | Stack | # of Big Blinds: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danny | Freitas | 10,015,000 | 125 |
| Van | Nguy | 9,220,000 | 115 |
| Steven | Vinetti Huot | 8,850,000 | 111 |
| Abram (Avi) | Logasy | 7,250,000 | 91 |
| David | Sorgente | 6,950,000 | 87 |
| Jean | Roy | 6,190,000 | 77 |
| Gary | Nagribianko | 6,090,000 | 76 |
| Senthuran | Vijayaratnam | 5,550,000 | 69 |
With 109 players still fighting it out, the minimum payout is now $700. Rest assured, no one has their eyes on the min-cash amount; it’s the $80,000 up top that everyone wants!
Here are some of the players from level 22:
Logasy has been chipping up like crazy over the last hour:
Players have been dropping as the pay jumps are starting to become more interesting since only 125 runners remain in contention. In a classic battle of the blinds, on a 
board, Line St-Pierre moved all in from the small blind while heads-up against Manuel Fernandez in the big blind. Fernandez went deep into the tank before folding. He showed St-Pierre an ace as he folded. She then also showed Fernandez an ace. A battle of the blinds with both players still alive to see another hand.
