LIVE EVENTS

The second live flight of the Playground 200 is officially in the books.

After 14 level of eight hours of play, the field of 109 entries (which included 21 re-entries) was whittled down to just 26. Those players all officially qualify for Day 2, which will kick off on Saturday, September 28th at 2:00pm. Congratulations to all who made it so far. Well done!

The player at the top of the heap of tonight’s Day 1B flight was Eric Gignac, who collected 242,000 chips. It was an impressive run at the end, with him winning practically ten hands in a row to raise him above his rivals. His successes have landed him right up at the top of the leaderboard, which can be viewed here.

Tonight’s qualifiers join those from the Day 1 Online flight (which took place last Sunday), as well as those from the other live flights. One of those, Day 1A, wrapped earlier today. Days 1C and 1D will take place tomorrow, Friday September 27th at 11:00am and 7:00pm, respectively.

So if you haven’t already earned yourself a birth the Playground 200’s Day 2, it’s time to get on it. Come on down to Playground on Friday and take your best shot at your piece of the guaranteed $100,000 prize pool. Below are some photos of this flight’s chip leaders.

Steve Bernier was eliminated and Christina Gebrayel had her chip stack significantly reduced just now on table 31, where a victorious Elvira Popescu just tripled up with pocket queens – and at quite an opportune time! With less than an hour left to play, Elvira’s now in a much more comfortable position heading into the final stretch.

The hand began with a late-position bet of 4,000 from Christina (above, left). Steve (above, right) shoved over top from the small blind, and seemed disappointed when Elvira called from the big blind, with Christina following suit as well. Speaking of suits, that was what Christina threw down enthusiastically, showing off her suited .

But if Christina was happy with her preflop odds, she wasn’t so happy when she saw the board. As the showdown commenced, Steve flipped over a , and Elvira .

The board was dealt , and Elvira’s queens took it. Speaking of taking it, that was all her opponents could do as well. They took it like champs. Play continues!

When we arrived at table 31, the board had already been dealt and there were only two players left in the hand. Dardan Elbasani opened with a pot-sized bet of 23,000.

However, Soomnath Datta, deep in the middle of a massage, didn’t let his relaxation dull his killer instinct. He shoved over top for just over 40,000 chips. It took Dardan a few moments to figure out his move, but he ultimately made the right one, folding.

Soomnath was courteous enough to show his opponent his two pairs, jacks and queens.

Alon Messica just lowered the number of seated participants by one by eliminating Nabil Nahoul.

It was a classic case of a dwindling chip stack leading to a premature preflop shove. Putting the last of his chips into the middle, Nabil’s couldn’t match the power of Alon’s . When the flop came down , that was it for Nabil.

We suspect he’ll be back though, taking a crack at Day 1C or 1D tomorrow. Hope to see him then!

After eight 30-minute levels (and two 15-minute breaks) our group has been reduced down to a total of only 60 players. At the top of the group, as he was at the end of the last break, is Jean Francois Alexandre, currently crushing it with over 200,000 chips.

Indeed, there are only a few players even close, listed below. Congratulations on a stellar start to Day 1B Jean Francois. Keep it up!

On table 37 just now we saw a relatively rare sight, a quadruple all-in. Not all the stacks were of the same size, however, so the winner, Jung Park, didn’t quadruple up. But he was happy with the result all the same.

The hand began with a small bet from Bastien Muselli under the gun. He was called by Jung Park, but Peter Liakopoulos decided to shove for his remaining 9,500 chips from the button. Steve Pouliot had a similar-sized stack in the small blind, so he shoved as well. Because the amounts were relatively small compared to his stack, Bastien called as well. Unfortunately for him, Jung decided to shove over top for almost 50,000.

Now Bastien had to make a decision. Was he confident enough in his cards to go for it? He was. Unfortunately for him, his cards didn’t hold up.

Steve Pouliot: (top left)

Bastien Muselli: (top right)

Jung Park: (bottom left)

Peter Liakopoulos: (bottom right)

Peter couldn’t have been happier with the flop, catching trip-queens. Seeing that two of his opponents had split aces (and that the other opponent had a lower pair) he was cruising. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the board looked like this:

Four clubs later, Jung’s took down the whole thing, adding about 70,000 chips to his stack and putting him out front of most of the group. Nice hand!

Well folks, level seven started just a few seconds ago, which means registration is now officially closed for this flight of the Playground 200. If you wanted in and missed it, too bad.

But don’t worry, you still have plenty of chances to take another shot tomorrow! Days 1C and 1D kick off tomorrow at 11:00am and 7:00pm, respectively. At this point we have 76 players still battling it out at the tables from the 109 total entries (which includes 21 re-entries). How many will we have left at the end of the night? We’ll see, but our best guess is that something close to 25 players will make the cut tonight.

Only time will tell how close that guess is. Good luck to all the remaining players as they make their way towards the end of level 14 and a birth in Day 2.

Level five is about to tick down to zero, meaning any player who wants to jump into the action of the Playground 200 Day 1B only has about 30 minutes to do so!

And if you’re afraid that it’s too late, not willing to take the risk of joining the tournament just before late registration ends, think again! Players each began with 25,000 chips to start off the night, and the chip average is still less than 32,000 as we start level six! In other words, if you were to join right now and win only one moderately-sized hand, you could be right in the middle of the pack!

Below are some more photos of our competitors as they make their way towards a birth in Day 2.

Jean Francois Alexandre leads the pack after four levels, having stacked 85,750 chips. With a chip average of less than 30,000, he’s well positioned moving forward, although there are still ten levels of play left to go. Still, it’s a good start!

The action is starting to heat up here, with almost 100 players entering this flight of the Playground 200 so far. Good luck to all the players as we make our way into level five!

On table 34 just now we finally saw an elimination take place – but it wasn’t where you might have expected it, had you seen the cards the players were holding beforehand.

The situation began with Malik Lefty (below, left) and Brendan Syrette (below, right) going head to head during the first of two hands, shoving all in preflop. Brendan’s pocket sevens ended up taking down the pot, leaving with Malik (and his losing ace-king) with almost nothing, just about 7,000 in chips.

Enter the second hand of this two-parter: When the table folded around to Malik, he shoved from the button – perhaps hoping to collect the blinds, or perhaps feeling a little tilty. He didn’t like what he saw, however, when both blinds decided to call. One of the blinds was Brendan, the other Alissa Allen. The flop came down and Malik stood up, not exactly enamored with the board. With no chips left to play, he could do nothing but act as a spectator.

Alissa bet 2,500, followed by a casual all-in shove by Brendan, indicating his choice with a flick of the wrist. Alissa took a minute to think about it, but ultimately decided to call Brendan’s shove. The players flipped over their cards, and it was easy to see why Malik had stood up early: he was holding hot flaming garbage!

Malik:

Alissa:

Brendan:

Alissa had made the correct read and was leading so far. However, Brendan had an open-ended straight draw so it could go either way. What no one saw coming was what eventually happened – a big triple-up by Malik! It was the river that saved him, as the final two cards were dealt giving Malik a winning pair of eights. Alissa scooped up the rest of Brendan’s chips, sending him to the rail. Malik couldn’t have been happier. “Let’s do it again!” he said.

As time ticks down on Day 1B’s first level, 53 players have already joined the fray.

Although it remains very early, somehow after 20 minutes no one has been eliminated yet – quite a rare feat! Usually we never see a full level go by without at least one player making an early shove, particularly in tournaments with unlimited re-entries.

Below are some photos of our competitors in the early goings.