LIVE EVENTS

The late registration and re-entry period has now come to a close and the number of entries reached 336 players (with 61 re-entries). That means with play continuing down to approximately 15% of the field, 48 players will bag and tag for Day 2 and they will be assured of at least a min-cash.

Looking at the stacks during the break, Jishant Sapra is still in the lead (246,900) however there are now quite a few other players who are doing their best to close in on him. Here is the second break leaderboard:

The play going on is definitely serious but one player can be heard having all kinds of fun tonight. Denise Pratt, from Olive Branch, Mississippi, is having a great time playing the WPT500. But make no mistake; according to the Hendon Mob, she has lots of cashes (*almost $200,000 USD) on her resume, including a 1st place finish in the 2017 $500 + $50 Wynn Summer Classic ($47,769 USD) and a deep run in the 2019 WSOP main event in Las Vegas (624th for $22,190). She can play some serious poker while having fun at the same time! Nice to have a player like this on your table.

Across the room, Jessie Wheatley, a regular visitor to Playground events from PEI, is fresh off of a 1st place finish in the Playground200 earlier this week and she is pulling in lots of chips here in flight 1G.

While watching her table, she just won three hands in a row and keeps building her stack.

The players are about to go on another break which will allow us to update the chip counts on the leaderboard. Late registration and re-entry comes to a close when the players return for level nine.

Playground is moving and shaking this week as players have come from around the globe to take part in the WPT Montreal. Event #1, the WPT500, has so far attracted 1,963 players and there is still more than a full hour left in the late registration period of Day 1G. For any players who still want to give one more chance of making Day 2, the last flight, Day 1H, a turbo flight, kicks off at 10:00pm tonight.

Here is the WPT team along with Playground manager Hugo Fontaine welcoming the players to the WPT Montreal at Playground and announcing the start of level five.

Some of the players in the room include: Jamie Sequeira, Trevor Adams, Armand King, Denise Pratt, Kitty S., Lucas Drolet, Shawn Daigle , Tomislav Misho Pavkovic, Tam Ho, Danick Landriault, Nadir Lalji, Pierre-Paul Paulin, David Guay, Brian Tock, Yirui Zhang and Linda Huard, just to name a few.

There are now a total of 277 entries (including 26 re-entries) with still another 2 hours (9:30pm) left to go in the late registration and re-entry period. There is a possible overlay however if the pace keeps up the way that has been going, and, with the last flight scheduled to start at 10:00pm (Day 1H turbo), time will only tell what the total prize pool number will be.

With an average stack right now hovering around 36,000, one player has managed to jump way ahead of the rest of the field; Jishant Sapra currently has 237,325 chips, which in level five is already equal to a Day 2 average stack! Following in second place is Kevin Hobbs (159,000) and in third place is Pierre-Paul Paulin (117,500). All three players are seasoned grinders with a history of deep runs so we will certainly be keeping a close eye on them throughout the night.

Here are the current leaders:

Players keep entering the tournament room and there are now 176 players out of the 191 entries (including 9 re-entries) still grinding away and looking to bag for Day 2. Play will end once the top 15% of the field remains. When the late registration comes to a close at 9:30pm the floor staff will let the players know what the actual number will be for this flight.

Here are some of flight 1G’s grinders:

Day 1G, the last starting flight with full 30 minute blind levels, has just begun! There are so far 70 players seated at the tables and more players are entering the room minute by minute.

There are two more starting flights left to play today, Day 1G starting just now at 5:00pm, and the final starting flight, Day 1H Turbo, starts tonight at 10:00pm.

This WPT500 has already gathered 1,671 entries through five online flights and six live flights. So far, 169 players have advance stacks to Day 2, which will be held Monday, October 28 at 1:00pm. To see the combined Day 1 results, click here.

Each starting flight of the WPT500 starts players with stacks of 30,000 in chips to play through as many 30-minute levels as needed to reduce the field to one in seven entries, at which point the players will bag their chips for Day 2. Each Day 1 will play 10-handed and move to 9-handed play as soon as possible.  

The WPT500 is an unlimited re-entry event, with unlimited re-entries permitted until the beginning of the ninth level of play on each Day 1, which will arrive at 9:30pm on Day 1G. Players can enter multiple starting flights but only their largest stack can be used on Day 2; all other qualifying stacks will be forfeited, but players will receive the associated cash prize for any forfeited stacks. 

Good luck to all!