LIVE EVENTS

At the start of the Main Event Day 2, 432 bags were on the tables. However, many players had registered directly into Day 2, and many more did that during the first four levels of play. At the start of level 13, registration was closed, and the final number of entries for the Main Event was 1,109, including the 101 that played Online Day 1 & 2.

From level 13 on, play was lively and very few players were playing overly tight. Even with the bubble in sight and the Action Clocks on the tables, eliminations were coming in at a regular pace, as if all players had one thing in mind: the $500,000 first prize. When it got to just three players from the end of day, however, things changed. Short stacks were using their time extension chips, while most pots were fought by players with a lot of ammunition. Mike Leah, in particular, took advantage of this period. Approaching the bubble and during hand-for-hand play, it seemed like every time we walked by his table he was 3-betting someone. He was sitting on over a million chips and fighting every battle as if it was the last, which made it very unappealing for others to get involved.

Meanwhile, the few pots that had a player fully invested at showdown ended in a double-up. We counted at least five such instances. In by far the most flamboyant one, ultra short stack Ruben Perceval put it in with and was facing . The flop came !! There were three rows of players from other tables watching as the flop came out, and a giant roar filled the room, then everybody went back to their seat with a story to tell.

In the end, it was Nadir Lalji who busted last with . He could not spike a jack and stood tall. When the dust settled, Mike Leah was bagging the largest stack, the only player sending seven figures to Day 3. Kelly Minkin follows with just under a million. The full chip counts and seating draw will be published in the morning.

Day 3 resumes play at 12:00pm sharp. Don’t be late!

The prize pool was broken down into individual prizes, and the table shows some really nice numbers. The winner of the WPT Main Event will take home half a million dollars, the WPT Montreal Main Event trophy, and some well-earned bragging rights! Fourteen players already cashed by finishing the Online Day 1 & 2 and will be joined by the 145 players who bag chips today, for a total of 159 prizes.

Here is the prize pool breakdown:

At 160 players, play is paused to allow Playground and partypoker staff to introduce the Action Clock, a very useful tool to protect players from abusive tanking when approaching the payouts of a major tournament. The Action Clock is a tablet kept and managed by the dealer.

Players have 30 seconds for every action. If they fail to act within those 30 seconds, their hand is declared dead. However, they each have two time extension chips to use when they have a tough decision and wish to extend the allotted time by another 30 seconds. At the start of Day 3 tomorrow, players will see their extension chips reset to nine. This number is reset to six when the field is reduced to 24 players, and eight when the official 6-handed table is reached.

The WPT Montreal Main Event has seen the first player to pass the 1M mark! Giuseppe Corapi was already doing well at the dinner break with 519,000 chips, but he doubled that in just 2 hours of play! Not far below sits tournament crusher Mike Leah in 3rd place. His table has a lot of chips with Kitty Kuo and Adedapo Ajayi, both part of our current leaderboard.

As a reminder, 145 players will bag chips today, which means that play will halt when 19 more eliminations have taken place. Here is a list of players with over 500,000 chips:

Twenty minutes from now, Day 2 players will be able to enjoy a 1-hour dinner break. A complimentary buffet will be available to them in the Tournament Hall. The field is shrinking slowly but surely, making its way into the money. When the prizes are reached, we will halt play and Day 2 survivors will bag their chips.

A few recent shots:

Maher Achour, who was sitting in second place at the last break, did very well for himself in the last stint, accumulating 175K in just 2 levels of play. This rise allowed him to take the lead, demoting Camille Mikhael. We counted 17 players with over 250K to their name, and they are listed below.

On a separate note, registration is now closed. We will be able to publish the payouts soon, but for now, we can only say that we are playing down to 144 players today, which is when the money will be reached.

Entries and re-entries keep flowing in, but eliminations happen faster, slowly reducing the field. The fourth level is starting now, which means players have another 75 minutes to jump in.

Here are some recent photos of the field:

Two hours of play have passed in Day 2 of the Main Event, and a break allowed us to identify all players with stacks of 200K or more. We also found that Camille Mikhael, coming into Day 2 with the largest stack – 285,000 – had an amazing 2 hours and is still in the driver’s seat, even more comfortably than before!

Here are the top 16 stacks in the field:

After one level of play, 112 Day 2 entries have taken place, bringing the tally to 998. With 472 players, Main Event tables are everywhere, even overflowing on the cash game side. Here are some shots of familiar faces in the crowd:

Day 2 of the WPT Montreal main Event starts at 12:00pm this afternoon and will see all qualifiers from the three Day 1 starting flights come together. The whole field will unite completely on Day 3 tomorrow, when the 14 qualifiers from Day 1 & 2 Online join the live field at Playground. Today, players will continue until the money is reached, which is when the number of remaining players has been reduced to 1 in 7 entries. We do not know what this number is yet, because Day 2 will welcome entries for the first 4 levels today. At this point only, we will be able to publish information on the end of day and prize pool.

Camille Mikhael starts the day with the most chips, holding 285,000 of them. There are, however, quite a few players gnawing at him and quite a bit of poker to play today. Click or tap Event Updates and scroll down to check seating assignment and full chip counts, and follow all-day updates on this thread. First shuffle is at 12:00pm. Good luck to everyone playing!

The live starting flights for the WPT Montreal Main Event took in a total of 787 entries, which allowed 432 players to advance stacks to today’s Day 2. The stage is now set for an exciting afternoon of action, as the field plays down to the money.

Late registration and re-entries will be available until the beginning of level 13 at 4:30pm so there will be many new players and re-entries in the early stages of play this afternoon. The field will also be joined by the players who qualified from the final two Main Event satellites, which were held last night. The extended late registration period means that the chips are likely to be flying from the outset of play because this is the last chance to get in on the Main Event. Once the late registration period ends, the field will know exactly how many players will reach the money, as the cutoff point is one in seven total entries.

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