LIVE EVENTS

Halfway through level 21, with the blinds at 6,000/12,000 and the average stack up above 600,000, players are picking their battles more and more. Evidence of that was apparent at table 19 just now, as Toby Lewis (below, on the left) found himself up against the constant raises of Louis Salter.

When we joined the hand the flop was already on the table. Toby checked to Louis, who raised to 22,000. Toby called. A came down, and this time Toby checked again. Louis raised it to 75,000 this time, and again Toby called. The river was a which led to another check from Toby.

Either he wasn’t concerned that Toby was slow-playing a monster, or Louis was confident enough in his cards (or bluffing ability) to go this distance. In any case, when Louis raised it again, this time to 200,000, Toby needed to use one of his 30-second time chips to make his decision. Ultimately, he decided to fold, and Louis scooped the pot. No one was willing to show a hole card in this battle of wills, lest they give their opponent a possible future advantage.

Play continues…

Over on table 20 we just saw Roger Lamia double up, and boy does he look excited about it. Proving that poker is serious business -especially in the Main Event – the expression you see in the picture below is what Roger looked like after he won the hand. We wonder what he looks like when he’s mad!

The hand began with a mid-position raise from the always dangerous Mike Leah to 25,000. That was re-raised by Giuseppe Corapi to his left to 75,000, which was when Roger shoved for his remaining 590,000. Mike beat a hasty retreat from the hand, but Giuseppe was happy to gamble. He called and flipped over his , running head-first into Roger’s .

The board was no help, coming down , and Roger doubled up, instantly moving up to over 1,000,000 chips. Hopefully Roger will find reason to smile as we move forward and he makes his way closer to a birth in the final table.

Samuel Gagnon is the player at the top of the pile at the moment, having collected 1,370,000 chips so far. Close behind him are six other players with more than a million chips in front of them, and several players (not listed below) are also close to seven figures, but not quite there yet.

Players have just returned from break, and with blinds now at 5,000/10,000, we’re sure to see a few more exits before our next chip count, which occurs in two hours.

We started the day with 159 players, but the number has dropped dramatically in the first 90 minutes of play. We’re at the 100-player mark at the moment, and the field will no doubt continue to shrink at a rapid pace until we reach a temporary equilibrium point, one where the average stack size allows the majority of players to wait for their respective moments, getting their chips in when it counts. We’re not there yet, as a few more players have been eliminated while writing this post.

Below are just a few of our players making their way through level 19. Good luck!

Day 3 of the $3,000 + $300 WPT Montreal Main Event has just kicked off.

After multiple days of action-packed poker and thousands of entries, the remaining 159 players are now making the push towards the final table, all of them dreaming of that healthy half-million-dollar prize.

Players will play eight-handed until the reach the final nine players, with a full redraw at 16 and nine players remaining. This is what poker is all about – lots of talented players, a growing sense of pressure, and huge payout at the end of this long, dark poker tunnel.

Good luck to all our competitors – go get it!

The remaining players in the WPT Montreal Main Event are now all in the money, and the stage is set to play down to the final table.

This afternoon, the Day 3 qualifiers will be joined by the players who advanced from the Online Day 1 & 2 for an exciting day of action. The Main Event surpassed its prize pool guarantee to create some huge payouts at the top of the prize list. Everyone involved in today’s flight is guaranteed to walk away with at least $6,000, but all eyes are set on the six-figure prizes for the top six finalists, including the $500,000 prize for the eventual champion.

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