LIVE EVENTS

Hand-for-hand play was a rather quick affair. The last player to miss Day 2 qualification was eliminated after just 4 bubble hands. Tae Cha, who was “big daddy” of the tournament for a few hours, to use his own words, had the honour to make the bubble burst.

Cha limped in from the cutoff, and saw a flop with both blinds: Mario Lépine in the small, and William Molson in the big. Lépine, working with very few chips, open shoved the 9-high flop. Molson quickly folded, and Cha called even faster.

Lépine:
Cha:

Cha pulled a sneaky one! The board ran clean, and the pot brought Cha back to 372,500 chips. Shortly before that hand, it seemed like he was going to bag the lead, but bluffed all-in into a very happy William Molson who had filled up on the turn after flopping a set of aces. Molson finishes with the most chips, 497,000 of them, passing many players in the last stint. Second in chips, just before Cha, is Chen Song. He bags a very respectable 425,000 chips. These numbers are not enough to dethrone the current Day 2 leader, Mathyeu Provost from Day 1A, but they are enough to start Day 2 with confidence and some momentum.

Day 1A and 1B results will be added to the combined results page tomorrow. Congratulations to everyone who added their name to the list!

If you missed qualification and would like to take another shot, or if you would like to give the WPT500 Montreal a shot for the first time this year, there are 3 flights to choose from tomorrow. Check the schedule!

With another bust on the last hand before the break, players are now one elimination away from being able to stop play and place their hard-earned chips in the bags. When play resumes in a few minutes, it will be hand for hand until one more player bites the dust.

There is one table with a lot more chips than the other 2 on it. Tae Cha, Aneris Adomkevicius and Steven Brenie-Sinclair are very well stacked and sharing a 6-handed table with 3 unlucky players who cannot wait for play to halt.

Miguel Goncalo played a solid game. He protected his chips for a long time, then doubled up easily to about 80K with queens. Shortly after, he took a shot at reaching the average with an off-suit ace-king, but William Molson’s Jacks held up.

Goncalo will surely try again at some point during the week. Only 2 more eliminations to go before the end.

Frederick Bradbury was doing very well earlier, but the last few levels were not very good to him and he was working with about half the average. Maxime Chartrand, third in chips at the last break, was his victim in this pot.

Chartrand opened to 10K pre-flop and watched Bradbury, sitting on his left, move all-in for 100,500. When all other players folded, he snap called and showed the goods. Bradbury needed help.

Bradbury:
Chartrand:

Board:

Help came quickly, although Chartrand’s kings had quite a few outs to hope for. The turn, however, sealed the deal. Chartrand looked a bit shaken up, but it wasn’t long before he found his smile again.

The action is now on 3 tables and players are looking at 7 more eliminations before they reach the end of the day.

Steven Brenie-Sinclair has dethroned Aneris Adomkevicius! Adomkevicius had climbed to over 350K, thanks to a solid run that had him bust a few players. He was seen calling a big all-in bet on the turn after crunching the numbers with a pair and a flush draw. Facing a set, he hit a diamond on the river and scooped a pot of almost 200K to jump ahead in the clear lead.

His stay in the driver’s seat, however, was short lived. Brenie-Sinclair doubled up twice on him, taking his place at the top of the new leaderboard.

On a nearby table, Chen Song invested everything pre-flop with the best starting hand against the second best starting hand. His flopped set brought a lot of extra security, to say the least, and the king that showed up wasn’t enough to turn things around. The pot is good for 4th place.

There are 12 more eliminations to go before survivors bag their chips.

The new level is 1,500/3,000/a3,000, which is roughly one third of the average stack – now at just over 100K – and enough to put a lot of pressure on the smaller stacks. However, there are not too many of those, as the chip distribution is not too polarized. Another factor dictating the slow pace of eliminations is the careful approach displayed by most. A glaring exception, however, is observed in Aneris Adomkevicius. Look for his name at the top of the next leaderboard update!

At the third break of the WPT500 Day 1B, 49 players are left at the tables from the 124 entries. Only 18 of them will get to bag chips and secure a min-cash in doing so.

Tae Cha is currently leading with 175,000 chips, more than enough to put some pressure on his opponents. A few others are also doing very well. Here our current top 5:

Major poker festivals attract a lot of travellers, but they also bring out some local talent. Day 1B has its share of that. In the now 62 players left in the field, we can see a few rounders that are festival regulars, local sharks who can only be seen playing tournament poker when the prize pools are big enough for them to invest their time and money. Here are a few examples:

After 8 levels of play and 2 breaks, registration is closed in Day 1B of the WPT500. Haroutioum Telvizian leads the pack, the only player to have a 6-figure stack. Here is the current top 8:

Players in Day 1B of the Playground 500 are now playing the last level before second break. 112 entries have taken place, and when play resumes after the break, registration will be closed.

A few recent shots:

Vsevolod Malamud, thanks to a much-needed river in the last hand before the break, is in the lead after 4 levels of play. His flopped top pair was facing bottom 2 pairs, and when the money went in on the turn, Malamud was happy to see the board pair, giving him the higher 2 pair.

Here is our current top 4, followed by  photos of Malamud and other well-off Day 1B players:

Miguel Goncalo, the WPT500 defending champ, has entered Day 1B! Click here to read all about his feat in last year’s WPT500 Montreal.