LIVE EVENTS

Day 1H of the Grand Prix Canada was by far the largest of all of the starting flights, attracting a total of 528 runners. This brought the marquee event of the 2020 World Cup of Cards just shy of the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool, which was then well surpassed in the 5:00pm flight (Day 1I).

With over 52 million chips in play, large stacks were built throughput the day. The top 75 players were scheduled to bag and tag for Day 2 and as play approached the bubble, there were a lot of aggressive moves taking place as everyone wanted to bag as much as possible.

When play was two players off of the bubble, Christine Park picked up pocket aces and sent Andre Vezina packing when she bested his pocket kings (click here to read the details).

As fate would have it, the bubble bustout hand was also pocket kings (held by Ricky Campanelli)  vs. the pocket aces of Grant Guevremont. As Campanelli busted out at the same time as Maxime Jutras who was seated on another table, both players chopped the $400 min-cash, walking away with $200 each.

The chip leader from Day 1H was Christian Berthelet who bagged an impressive 2,568,000 chips. He is followed in second place by Rene Fortin, bagging 2,353,000, and by Dave Bonneau with 2,119,000 chips.

To see the combined Day 2 qualifying stacks, click here.

The Day 2 seating draw will be posted later this evening once the turbo flight Day 1J comes to a close.

Day 2 takes place tomorrow, Sunday, at 1:00pm.

The tension across the room was super high as the tournament was two away from the money bubble and bagging and tagging for the night. Action was opened by Christine Park who raised it up from 25,000 to 55,000, only to be met by an all in shove by Andre Vezina who was sitting on a stack of 480,000. It folded to Marc-Andre Senecal who went deep into the tank. He tanked, and tanked, and tanked, from what seemed like an eternity, until finally he let go of his hand. Park then smiled as she snap-called and the hands were tabled:

Vezina:
Park:

The board ran out and Park sent Vezina to the rail bringing Day 1H to the bubble. Marc-Andre Senecal was heard saying “I’m so happy that I folded, I’m so happy!”. When asked what he had, he said that he folded ace-king from the small blind, and since he was nursing a below average stack, the fold was very painful at the time. It ended up being the right for him for sure.

Day 1H is now one away from the money.

The players have just returned from their last break of the night and with an average stack sitting at just over 600,000 chips, Rene Fortin is in the lead with 1,850,000 chips, good for 92.5 big blinds. The bigger stacks will certainly be putting pressure on to the smaller ones as the bubble is fast approaching so it will be interesting to see where this all ends up.

Here are the leaders in level 17:

Play is approaching the the final stretch and everyone is fighting to bag a big stack. On table 60, Simon Tabah bumped it up from 12,000 to 30,000 and received a call from Said Michailidis seated on the button, while both blinds folded. The flop came and Tabah continued out for 44,000, only to be met by a raise to 130,000 by Michailidis. Tabah gave it some thought and then announced that he was all in. Michailidis shook his head and folded. The pressure is on as play will stop once the field is reduced to the last 75 players standing.

Day 1H is 8 hours in and our remaining players are very close to achieving their main goal for today: qualify for Day 2! 37 eliminations are needed before the tournament staff take out the bags and close the flight.

Here are some recent shots:

Day 1H has just resumed play after taking their 3rd break of the day. Scouting the tables for leaders, we found 3 millionaires in the field! About half of the remaining players will bag their chips tonight.

Registration is now closed in Day 1H of the partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Canada, and an astounding 528 entries have been accounted for. 217 players are still battling it out, all trying to build up a nice stack for tomorrow’s Day 2. The action will stop when the field is reduced to 1 player for every 7 entries, or 75 players.

If you missed registration, you can still jump in Day 1I, starting at 5:00pm – soon! – or Day 1J Turbo, starting at 10:00pm.

After 4 hours of play, the field now counts over 500 entries! Some of these players have done extremely well for themselves. Ryan Wetzel lost some steam but managed to stay among the top runners an is 4th on the updated leaderboard. Our current top 3 spots are occupied by the 3 players who rocked the hardest in the second stint – 2 of them, Nabil Akalach and Jacob Dugal, were on the same table! That table broke in the first few minutes of level 9.

Our current chip leader, with just a few chips more than Dugal, is Ricardo Teves, with a more than respectable 730K in front of him. Such huge fields tend to create a lot of disparity, and Day 1H is no exception. Here is a list of all players above 500K:

Grand Prix Canada Day 1H counts many ladies in the field – one or two on almost every table! It is nice to see some many of them coming out to compete in this great event. We like to think that the Playground Women’s Series, which concluded last Sunday as the World Cup of Cards was getting underway, gave a few more a taste of the game we all love, and we sure hope that their numbers within our player base will only grow.

The Women’s Series 2020 starts on February 22. Here are shots of some of today’s fierce competitors:

After just 4 levels of play, Ryan Wetzl shows a mountain of 564,500 chips. To give you an idea of the magnitude of his stack, it would be about an average bag at the end of any flight!

His closest rival in Day 1H is Tony Lei, sitting on a nearby table with a very respectable 314,000 chips.

After just 3 levels, Day 1H is already the biggest flight so far in the Grand Prix Canada with over 300 entries. Players will keep entering and re-entering until 4:30pm this afternoon and will not stop until the field is reduced to 1 player for every 7 entries.

Here are some shots taken during level 3:

After about a level and a half, 252 entries have been placed, filling about two thirds of the tournament hall. Saturday is shaping up to be a riot. The field is a mix of players who were waiting for the weekend to jump in, players who played before and decided to give it another shot, and also Day 2 qualifiers who are looking to increased their Day 2 ammunition.

Keep in mind, at the Grand Prix Canada, being late to the party is not a  problem; entries and unlimited re-entries are permitted until the beginning of level 11! Here’s a shot of the crowded room: