LIVE EVENTS

Day 1H has finally come to an end but there is no question, it did not come easily. Hand for hand play lasted for almost 45 minutes. With a total of 582 entries, the top 88 players were to bag and move on the Day 2, and although there were many all ins, the short stacks just kept surviving and doubling up.

The final hand of play came when Steeven Jacques shoved his stack with and after giving it some very serious thought, Antony Hallam made the call in the big blind with seven bigs, holding .

The flop came , giving Hallam a flush draw. The turn was the , which was of no help, and Jacques stayed in the lead with his ace. The river changed everything when the hit the board, completing a flush for Hallam, and knocking out Jacques to bring the Day 1H field into the money.

The chip leader for tonight’s flight is local player Hamid Reza Ofogh who bagged 421,000. Ofogh  was on the leader board the entire flight, starting off in third place at the first break, then moving up to first place at the second break, and moving to second place during the third break. He played a great tournament and had a ton of fun at the same time, while staying relaxed all night long. Tjhe smile on his face says it all.

Players return tomorrow (Monday) at 12:00pm for Day 2. For a complete list of combined Day 1 chip counts, click here. (NB: tonight’s flights will be added to the list on Monday morning, and the Day 2 seating draw will also be added at that point.)

You can feel the tension in the air as the tournament is on the stone cold bubble. There have been a few all ins with a call, but so far the short stacks have come out ahead and there have not been any bustouts.

A hand just took place between Eric Benhamron and Chuck Levros Jr. that almost ended it…but once again, Eric Benhamron (the shorter stack of the two players) won the hand.

Benhamron had shoved for just undedr 65,000 and received a call from Levros Jr. holding .

The board came and Benhamron received a badly needed double-up. The players are now on break while the floor colours up the 100 value chips.

Play is now hand for hand with 90 players remaining and 88 players scheduled to bag for Day 2.

Here are some of the players nursing healthier stacks:

The chips have been flying around and moving across the tables as play is very aggressive right now.

On table 90, Matthew Polishuk opened in middle position to 5,500. Daniele Sanna flat called in the cutoff position. On the button, Edward Parkinson looked down at his hole cards and decided to move all in for 21,000. Ryan Press in the small blind also moved all in (20,600). The initial raiser, Polishuk decided to fold his cards and move out of the way. The decision was on Sanna, who went into the tank, trying to decide if he should get involved or not. His stack was below average and he knew that he needed to build it up and finally decided to throw in a chip to make the call.

The hands were tabled:

Parkinson:
Press:
Sanna:

The flop came , giving Press two pair. Then came the turn, the . Now things got interesting as both Parkinson and Sanna picked up gutshot straight draws. Parkinson needed to see a jack, and Sanna was looking for a ten, although Parkinson of course had the blockers. The river was , and Parkinson made his broadway straight and received a badly needed triple-up.

As the dealer moved the chips his way, he stood up and made a little victory speech, saying “I would like to thank all of the players in the hand” as he had a big smile on his face.

With 582 players in today’s Day 1H flight, the play will continue until the field drops to 88 players. As the field is now starting to thin out with only 157 runners still in the game, the smaller stacks will start to get their chips into the middle to try to get a badly needed double-up, and then typically the players tighten up as everyone wants to make it to day 2.

While on the third break of the evening the stacks were counted and there is now a new leader: Randy Khalil has taken command and is is currently the only player above 300K, with a cool 326,600. Hamid Ofogh is right behind him with 296,000. Let’s keep a close look at this duo as both players can be dangerous with a big stack in front of them, and there are still many other tough players still in serious contention as well.

Some of the recent bustouts include: Gabriel Gingras, Sean Carpenter, Kevin Hanka, Tomas Larivee-Magni, Ryan Andrade, Vera G., Johnathan Dsouza, Chris Arvanitis, Chia Chang, Soterios T., and Marc-Andre Racine.

Here is the leaderboard from the break:

The rockets keep holding, and the best hand wins.

With blinds at 800/1,600, Philppe Plouffe open shoved and found a call by Anthony Ribeiro.

Plouffe:
Ribeiro:

Plouffe had some outs on the flop, but he couldn’t improve on the turn or on the river.

The players are about to go on break whch will allow us to up[date the leaderboard.

The late registration and re-entry period has finally closed and the total number of entries reached 582 (including 143 re-entries). That means that the total number of Day 1 players has already reached 3,309, just a few players shy of the total amount required for the $1,000,000 guarantee (which has now already been hit in the turbo Day 1I that started at 9:00pm).

There was just another break and after looking at the stacks, one player has managed to go north of 200,00; Hamid Ofogh is the chip leader with 212,500 (approximately five times the chip average). In second place is Naveen Thorati with 190,800.

Here are the top stacks in play:

One of the things that happens when there is a large field like tonight is that pocket rockets just keep showing up on table after table. Interestingly enough, tonight they seem to be holding, well, at least for the hands that this blogger has witnessed.

On table 99, Zohrain Ladha raised it up UTG to 1,400. Ralph Gidaro smooth called in mid position. Two seats over to his left, Frederick Moss 3-bet to 5,000. Ladha, the original raiser, then shipped it for 19,250. Gidaro went deep into the tank until finally he mucked his hand. When action was back on Moss he snap called.

Ladha:
Moss:

The board came and Moss scoops the pot. Gidaro mentioned that he folded pocket tens as he just felt he was behind. It appears that he made a good decision.

It’s nice to see how many times AA has held on the different tables tonight.

Frederick Moss

The crowd just keeps growing as Day 1H is now up to 532 runners (including 109 re-entries) and it looks like those re-entries will keep happening right up to the very last minute when the late registration period ends at 9:00pm.

On table 103, Tomas Larivee-Magni was one of those players who did make a re-buy after getting into a bad spot earlier on. He seems to be running better now as he just took down a pot and eliminated another player. With the blinds at 250/500, action folded to Larivee-Magni who opened to 1,200. When it reached Robert Viola in the cutoff position, he 3-bet to 3,500. Without hesitation, Larivee-Magni 4-bet to 7,000. Viola flat called.

The flop came . Larivee-Magni checked, followed by a shove by Viola. Larivee-Magni snap called the shove.

Viola:
Larivee-Magni:

The turn was the and the river was the , and the dealer scooped the pot and shipped the chips to Larivee-Magni.

There are now 447 entries (with 78 re-entries) and minute by minute the players still keep arriving. It will surpass 500 entries very shortly, and who knows where it will stop as there remains 90 minutes in the re-entry and late registration period.

The players just had their first break of the day and it gave us a chance to see who the leaders are. With the chip average sitting around 25,000, Fuad Kharagni has amassed a stack of 96,600, almost four times the average.

Here are the leaders from the first break:

The play has been fast and furious and in level three there have already been almost 400 entries with over 40 re-entries.

Table 91 had a three way all in a few minutes ago that saw two players with pocket aces up against  another player with pocket kings.

With the blinds at 100/200, Brandon Breton-Ortega raised it up to 1,500. It folded to Ryan Tjong who decided to move all in. When it was Kevin Hanka’s turn to act, he also went all. Back to Breton-Ortega, he snap called.

Breton-Ortega:
Tjong:
Hanka:

As the dealer was getting ready to fan the board, Hanka kept repeating out loud “king, king, king, king…” however he found no saving grace on the board, and both Breton-Ortega and Tjong chopped up Hanka’s chips as well as the blinds and ante.

Day 1H is now halfway through level two and there are already well over 300 players seated in the room. The air-conditioning is working well and the room is cool and the action is hot.

Players have until 9:00pm to re-enter or late register. This is the last Day 1 flight with full 30 minute blind levels so there is still plenty of time to jump into the action and try for a piece of the $1,00,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Here are a few of the players seated right now: