LIVE EVENTS

After a fun-filled ten-hour Day 1E, the $300 + $30 Colossus noon flight has finally wrapped. With a total of 336 entries (including 64 re-entries), 51 players ended up making it through to the next step. That next step is Day 2, which kicks off this Monday, August 26th at 12:00pm.

At the top of the group today was Christopher Taylor, who collected an impressive 374,000 chips. Chris finds himself in a comfortable position heading into Day 2, landing in 5th place on the overall leaderboard, a group that includes players from a total of nine previous flights (four online and five live at Playground). All the 260 qualifiers, along with their chip counts, are listed here in the combined results page.

The end of this flight didn’t come easy – in fact it turned into quite a roller coaster of emotions, as hand-for-hand play extended to almost an hour. As players waited for the last elimination, they jumped up from their seats to crowd around a table each time there was an all-in.

On more than three occasions, the bubble player came up against the abyss, only to be rescued by a last-minute twist of fate. At one point a Jack-8 survived against two other all-ins, making a runner, runner gut-shot straight (one opponent had pocket Aces, the other had an Ace-King). Similarly improbable hands seemed to happen over and over, extending play across the seven remaining tables much further than anticipated. As the blinds ate into chip stacks that appeared invulnerable at the start of the hand-for-hand play, many players started to sweat.

In the end, the final player was ultimately eliminated in a more or less normal hand, occurring so quietly that many in the larger group didn’t realize they were in the money until a few minutes later. Once they heard, the remaining 51 players breathing a collective sigh of relief, proceeding to bag their chips and congratulate each other on a successful afternoon of poker.

The next (and final) chance to get in on the Colossus action is tomorrow, Sunday August 25th. The last three flights (Day 1G, Day 1H and the Turbo Day 1I) will begin at noon, 4:30pm and 9:00pm, respectively. So if you want a piece of the guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pool, come on down to Playground and join the action, before it’s too late!

Below are some pictures of the larger stacks from the end of today’s flight. Christopher Taylor is not pictured.

When we arrived at table 27, there was a on the table, 30,000 in the pot and Andrew Boujaoude had just bet 12,000 from mid-position. Action folded around to Ayed Shweihat in the cutoff, who shoved for his remaining 40,000 chips, and it took a couple of minutes before Andrew (below, right) made the decision to call. At first he loved what he saw – until he didn’t.

Both players flipped over their cards with Andrew holding and Ayed holding on for dear life, only having an in his hand. He needed another 9 or an Ace to take it, and as luck would have it, that’s exactly what happened.

Frustrated, Andrew wondered aloud about his opponent’s decision to go all in, but Ayed wasn’t having it. “What am I going to do, fold top pair with an ace kicker when all I have is 40,000 left?”

It was especially good timing for Ayed, as there are now only five eliminations between him and a birth in Day 2, which happens this coming Monday at noon. Can he hold on and make the money? We’ll see!

Tanvir Ahmed was up against the ropes during his last hand, down to only 14,000 chips and in desperate need of a score, as he had less than five big blinds left. Luckily for him, he was able to shove over top of Yves Aubin’s 5,000 chip bet from under the gun and double up, and just in time too.

Most of the decisions were made preflop. After Yves’ raise from under the gun, Tanvir shoved over top and the table folded. When both players flipped over their cards it was Tanvir’s versus Yves’ . It was not looking good for Tanvir right up until the river, but the board saved him at the last minute … for now!

While it was undoubtedly a good hand for Tanvir, it provides little more than temporary breathing room, as his 30,000 chips only represent 10 big blinds for the (now) 1,500/3,000 blinds. With less than a third of the average chip stack, Tanvir has his work cut out for him. He must outlast another 16 players to make Day 2, and it is doubtful he can do it without at least another double up, if not more. We wish him luck.

After 12 levels and 6 and a half hours, Frederic Cossette is at the top of the leaderboard, holding an admirable 216,000 chips in front of him. With only 96 players remaining in the tournament, we only have 44 more eliminations to go before we hit the magic number of 51.

Good luck to all as we make the final push, and congratulations also goes out to Nghi Van Tran for being the only player from the leaderboard at the second break to maintain their position into the third break, well done!

As we make our way toward the final 100 players (there are currently 102 still left) we noticed two women battling it out on table 30. They were Kit S. (below, right) and Sahar Khajavi.

The board was showing when Kit shoved for her last 34,100 chips. Sahar had her covered easily, but she didn’t want to lose half of her stack. It took a solid two minutes of difficult contemplation, but Sahar eventually laid it down.

Kit was kind enough to show her an as she scooped the pot, and both live to continue playing.

Note: As this post was being written, we moved down to 97 players.

As we walked between the tables just now our attention was drawn to someone uttering that all-too-familiar phrase: “All in,” one that holds an added significance now that registration is closed for this flight.

On table 27, Michael Husted had put all of his hopes (along with his remaining 31,000 chips) on a preflop shove with pocket sevens. Unfortunately for him, he ran into the most dangerous pocket pair of all, Aces, held by Bryan Ferreira (pictured below).

When the board was dealt Michael’s night ended, and the crowd shrank by one.

When we arrived at table 22 just now, the board had already been dealt and there were only two players left in the hand. The action was to Matthew Witterick, and after a few moments of contemplation he tossed in 9,500 chips.

Michael Khan had some thinking to do. Although we were not present to see how the hand had originally unfolded, suffice it to say that there was a lot of danger for both players on the board. Not only was there a 4-card straight flush on the table, but the river held the potential to complete a full house as well.

In the end, Michael risked it and called. Matthew flipped over his and the nut flush ended up being enough to take it down. Play continues…

With an average chip stack of 39,000, Richard Shamshoum is sitting pretty on top of the pile with 130,000 chips.

And now that registration is officially closed, we can say with certainty this flight of the $300 + $30 Colossus will only end when the field is reduced to 51 players. With 171 currently seated, we need to see 120 elimination to get there. Let the true battle begin!

Worth noting: None of the leading players at the first break made the list of chip leaders at the second break. It’s anyone’s game!

At this point we have already seen 324 entries to the noon flight of the $300 + $30 Colossus, including 52 re-entries. That means that in just the last few hours we’ve collected almost $100,000 to put towards the guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pool. Not bad for half of a Saturday afternoon!

And because play will continue until the field is reduced to 15% of it’s total size (after registration closes at 4:30pm), we expect to see about 50 players qualify for Day 2 from this flight. Of the 324 entries today, only 203 players are still at their seats playing, so if you were to join right at the end of the late registration period (in the next thirty minutes), all you would have to do is outlast 150 players to move on!

Those aren’t bad odds, especially considering the fact that the average chip stack is only 31,000 at the moment (and players begin with 20,000 chips). Are you feeling lucky? Do you think you could skip the first four hours and make the cut? There’s only one way to find out….

That said, if you prefer to grind out a full day of play, you can always wait for the next live flight (Day 1F), which also starts at 4:30pm. Either way, good luck to all!

Just a few minutes ago we hit the 300-mark for attendance in Day 1E, and by 4:30pm this afternoon, when the second live flight of the day kicks off, we expect Playground to be completely full, with every single table in the tournament hall and the cash game room filled to capacity.

It’s going to be so busy in fact that we’ve opened up our extra tent to handle the overflow of players. We’ve already started filling up that room, with a few tables already seated. We timed it, and it takes just under 90 seconds to walk there from the main tournament hall. Thankfully, the Playground crew also set up a bar, television screens and bathroom right next to the tent for convenience.

As we said earlier, it’s busy here at Playground, and it’s only going to continue filling up throughout the day. Here are some more photos of the growing Day 1E crowd as they make their way towards the first official break of the day.

As we were passing through the crowded tournament room here at Playground taking photos, one of our east coast favorites Ernest Kelly (below, right) waved us down, pointing to a notable hand that had just been played on his table, number 24.

That’s right, you’re seeing it correctly: trip-Jacks were beaten by a royal flush. The lucky winner of that hand was Jared McDonald, pictured below (left). He might be wondering if he should simply pack up his things and head home early, having used up all of his luck for the day during the first few hands.  We’ll keep an eye on Mr. McDonald and see if his luck holds up!