LIVE EVENTS

The first of four starting flights of Event #12 of the 2020 World Cup of Cards, the $150 + $25 Strangers in the Night tournament took place this evening. This tournament has a $75,000 guaranteed prize pool and the full $150 part of the buyin goes directly to the prize pool and the $25 rake goes to the Strangers in the Night charity foundation. A great way to play a modest priced poker tournament for a great prize pool while supporting a great cause!

The Day 1A starting flight attracted a total of 163 entries (and 40 re-entries) where players played through 14 30-minute blind levels and the remaining 23 players bagged their stacks to move forward to Day 2.

David Dusome took the early lead and stayed on the leaderboard all night long. He was followed by Xiao Dian Wen who also played a solid game and was on the leaderboard from start to finish. By the time that the second break rolled around, Ayana Massa climbed to second place as she was starting to build a healthy stack. As the night progressed, Massa just kept winning pot after pot and her stack started to climb to the sky. Before too long, she had a commanding lead and a monster stack to go with that lead.

When the players bagged their chips, Massa bagged an impressive 559,500 chips. She is followed in second place by local hero Dave Jeanneau-Cyr who is sitting on 489,500 chips, and in third position is Stuart Taylor with 245,000 chips.

The full Day 1 results will be published tomorrow, Monday. There are three more starting flights as follows:

• Day 1B Monday at 11:00am
• Day 1C Monday at 7:00pm
• Day 1D (turbo) Tuesday at 11:00am

Day 2 will play out on Tuesday at 7:00pm, and Day 3 will play down to a winner on Wednesday at 7:00pm

Good luck go all competitors!

Day 1A chip leader:

Some of the players with larger stacks moving on to Day 2:

The tournament is now in level 12 and play continues until the end of level 14, so that means there is only 90 minutes of play left to go in Day 1A.

The average stack is now at 88,600 (55 big blinds) and the Ayana Massa has jumped into the lead with a stack of 236,100 chips, equal to 147.5 big blinds. She is followed closely by David Dusome with 234,600 chips and by Xiao Dian Wen playing a stack of 225,300 chips.

Here are the top stacks in play:

The tournament is now down to 54 players and although there are some really big stacks on the six remaining tables, many of the short stacks are now making moves.

On table 38, action was opened in late position by Shunn Jacques who raised it up from 1,200 to 3,500, finding a call from Pavel Covaliov on his immediate left. Action was then on Nabil Nahoul who was playing a stack of only 18,800. He gave it some thought and decided to to three-bet to 18,500, leaving only 300 behind. The table stopped talking as they all knew that something was up. Jacques put in a stack of chips, thinking that he was now all in, but he had not put in the right amount so it was deemed to just be a call. Covaliov folded and Jacques mistakenly opened up his hand to show that he had . The dealer informed him that his hand was live but that he was not all in. It was quite the moment to say the least. Regardless of the error, he seemed destined to win the hand.

The dealer fanned out the flop which brought out and both players checked. On the turn, both checked again. The river fell the , and this time Jacques went all-in, and Nahoul called. Nahoul opened up his hand to show that he had for a rivered set of tens! Nahoul was all smiles and Jacques grinned as Nahoul raked in the chips.

A break will be coming up shortly allowing us to produce a new leaderboard; stay tuned.

The average stack is at 52,900 chips and there are many players who are sitting just a little bit above or below that mark. Xiao Dian Wen has the largest stack in play with 172,300 chips, effectively 215 big blinds.

Play continues tonight until players have made it through 14 levels at which point all remaining players will bag their stacks to move on to Day 2.

Here is the latest leaderboard:

The numbers are in: with late registration and re-entry periods now closed, the total number of entries in the first starting flight of the Strangers in the Night tournament reached 163 (including 40 re-entries) of which there are still 107 players still in contention. As the first flight is traditionally the lightest of all of the starting flight, it appears that this event is heating up to be a top success!

Some of the big stacks in play:

The players have just had their first break of the evening and the field is now up to 132 entries, putting over 3.5 million chips into play. The average stack is 32,700 chips and one player has managed to go above 100K; David Dusome is playing a stack of 100,625 chips, good for 335 big blinds.

The chip leaders in level five are:

The first flight of the Strangers in the Night tournament is off to a great start as there are already over 100 entries in level 3. Players have until the start of level seven at 10:15pm to jump in so these numbers are expected to climb steadily over the next two hours.

Here are some photos from around the room:

Welcome to the first starting flight of Event #12, the $150 + $25 Strangers in the Night, a fun tournament where the entire $25 rake goes to the Strangers in the Night charity, and the full $150 buy in goes directly to the prize pool!

Players start with 25,000 chips and play 10-handed through 30-minute blind levels. This is a re-entry event where unlimited re-entries are permitted right up until the end of the late registration period at the start of level seven at 10:15pm. Players will play 14 levels on all Day 1s and 10 levels on Day 2. Day 3 plays down to a winner.

There is a $75,000 guaranteed prize pool and with the four Day 1s, it may easily grow much higher.

Day 1B takes place on Monday at 11:00am and Day 1C is on Monday at 7:00pm. The last starting flight, day 1D is a turbo flight on Tuesday at 11:00am and Day 2 is Tuesday at 7:00pm.

Players are in their seats and the cards are in the air!