LIVE EVENTS

The stage is set for the WPT Montreal High Roller to crown a champion. Through two days of play, this event collected 142 entries, enough to greatly surpass the $500,000 prize pool guarantee. The field moved beyond the money bubble last night, as the top 18 finishers secured a cash from this event. All the returning players are in the money, but you can be sure that none will be satisfied with anything less than the huge payouts at the top of the prize list. With a top prize of $173,080, everyone in this elite field is sure to bring their “A” game this afternoon; there will be some world-class poker on display!

When Day 3 play begins at 12:00pm, the players will be seated according to the following table.

At the conclusion of Day 1, the WPT Montreal High Roller counted 46 players. Registration, however, was still open, and 54 players started Day 2 today. After the first 4 levels of play, the late registration period was over and the payout table was published, announcing a whopping $173,080 first prize! All were looking to squeeze into the top 18, which would not be an easy task for anyone, given the considerable amount of talent in the field. And chips were moving…

Before the dinner break, Stephen Song and Stephen Deutsch distanced themselves from the field and were ruling the leaderboard. Sitting side by side, they showed great camaraderie and both continued to bust players and chip up until their table had a disproportioned amount of chips.

Jeffrey Cormier made a dent in Deutsch’s stack, but Deutsch then doubled up against Song. Then Tony Dunst came along and shook the table up. He climbed the leaderboard at a frantic pace, and before long had the biggest stack in the event. He was still in the lead at the end of the day with 698,000 chips.

Marc-André Ladouceur also had a nice run on his own table and orchestrated the bust that led the field in the money. He starts Day 3 in second place with 487,000.

Day 3 starts at 12:00pm sharp, and coverage will continue until one player has it all. See you then!

A few photos taken during the last moments:

After the eliminations of Michael Mcdonald and Jake Schwartz in 18th and 17th position, the High Roller event was paused for a full redraw. Tony Dunst, who has been on a tear since arriving at the table with the most chips, is now on a different table than his former neighbour and co-tournament leader Stephen Deutsch.

There are another 30 minutes of play to go before play halts until tomorrow at 12:00pm. Here is the new seating arrangement, which will remain for tomorrow:

After about ten hands of hand-for-hand play on three tables, James Romero went down to the hands of Marc-André Ladouceur. Ladouceur, chip leading his table, played almost every hand in that period, taking advantage of the bubble.

On the elimination hand, he raised the 4K big blind to 8,500. The action was folded to James Romero in the big blind and without thinking too long, he announced all-in. Ladouceur calmly but instantly called. The other two tables having already finished their hand, cards were tabled for a very uneven showdown.

Romero, having noticed the Ladouceur’s hyperactivity, took a risk and tried to pick up the pot. The timing, however, could not have been worse:

Romero:
Ladouceur:

Board:

Ladouceur added a little over 100K to his already very healthy stack. All players have secured a $11,945 prize. Congratulations!

On our last leaderboard update, few players of the remaining 20 players are sitting well above average, thanks to Stephen Deutsch who is absolutely crushing the tourney with 621,000 chips. On his table, 4 of the current top 5 are going at it. The only top 5 player who is not at that table is local shark Marc-André Ladouceur, whose riches came to him in the last moments before the break.

When Jeffrey Cormier made it 7,000 to go, it was 3bet by Stephen Deutsch to 32,000. Stephen Song 4bet to 77,000, which Deutsch to the tank. After some time, he announced all-in, and Song snap-called. The deck had been cold to song, dealing him kings while one of the few players in the whole tournament had been dealt aces. Luckily for him, Deutsch had previously lost a bit of chips to Jeff Cormier. The best hand won, and a new chip leader was created.

Meanwhile on the next table, Ema Zajmovic, the darling of Playground with three WPT final tables in our club in three consecutive years, including a win and a runner-up finish, took a hard hit. Holding pocket fives, she flopped fives full of jacks and the turn gave Martin Jacobson a higher boat. She doubled him up and was left with just a handful of chips, causing the former world champion to chip up nicely.

As we are entering level 16, the 142-entry field is now 26 players large and the average stack currently represents about 54 big blinds.

Here are a few more shots of the field:

Players are now resuming play after a well-deserved 40-minute dinner break. We took the opportunity to collect all chip counts from the room and prepared a full table. We excluded seating position, as a table was about to be broken and that information would not be reliable.

Two players have climbed over the 300K mark: Stephen Song and Stephen Deutsch! They are sitting side by side on the heaviest table by far. Also on that table is Jeff Cormier, 4th in chips!

Here are the counts:

The timer is winding down on level 14, and there are only 32 players still in contention on Day 2. The remaining players are looking forward to their dinner to refuel for the grind to the end of the day.

Here is a look at the action from the late stages of level 14:

As announced, the payouts! The table has $173,080 reserved for the eventual winner… not too shabby. The top 18 positions – almost half of the remaining players – will walk away with money, most likely towards the cashier to register in the Main Event Day 1B or Day 1C.

On a separate note, there is a world champion among us! Martin Jacobson, 2014 World Series Main Event Champion, is among the 38 remaining High Rollers. It is not his first visit at Playground. He was here a few times before, and last year, he finished 6th out of 1,231 entries in the MILLIONS Open before making the payouts in the series Main Event, MILLIONS North America. We wish him all the best at the WPT Montreal!

High Roller payouts:

Registrations are finally closed, which means we are going to have a payout table momentarily. Spoiler alert: with 142 entries accounted for, it is going to be huge!

Louis Boutin ceded the pole position to Stephen Song. He is, however, very close behind, and so are their followers on the updated leaderboard:

After two hours of play, Louis Boutin has lost a handful of chips, but not enough to leave the driver’s seat. He is leading a much tighter race though, one that has 14 players above the 100K mark, compared to just 6 two hours ago. As a reminder, there are two hours left to late registration, at which point the High Roller event will become a freezeout affair.

Here’s the current top 10: