After a few hands at the now 5-way table players asked for a pause to discuss a deal. The TD explained that in this event 10% of the official 1st place prize was the minimum they must leave at issue. Players suggested $10K be withheld instead, and they made an ICM chop (based on relative stack sizes).

Eventually the players agreed to the following deal:

• Kyle: $29,300
• David: $30,000
• Geoff: $23,165
• Johnny: $36,000
• Sol: $29,000

Players will continue to play for the bracelet plus $10,000 remaining in the prize pool.

Noy Ung, a well-known fixture on the Montreal poker tournament circuit, has been eliminated in 6th place. Noy was on the small stack for almost all of the night – and even when he did double up early tonight he promptly gave the chips back to the table. Nevertheless he stuck around and outlasted a couple of other players before he left, nurturing his at-time 2BB stack very carefully and getting key double-ups to stay short – but stay in.

6th place: Noy Ung, $11,550

Since the break the tournament is progressing a little more quickly. The most recent elimination was Nandam Subrahmanyam in 7th place, and the hand immediately before that Geoff was all-in for his tournament live although he managed to win and double through David.

7th place: Nandam Subrahmanyam, $9,575

Christopher Annouza has been eliminated in 8th place as his couldn’t improve against Johnny’s .

8th place: Christopher Annouza, $7,675

In a stunning hand in level 25, chip leader to start the day Jason Duval is out of the tournament in 9th place.

There is no question that Jason Duval is one of the rising stars of poker in Quebec. He was the chip leader coming into the final table, the third place finisher in the November edition of this tournament, and a player who has come to be widely respected both in North America and Europe.

His fate was sealed in a massive hand against Johnny Mazzaferro. Johnny opened the action with a raise to 85K in early position. It folded around to Jason in the cutoff who 3-bet to 180K. The blinds got out of the way and Johnny thought for a few moments before declaring, “All in.”

Jason went in the tank. At least two minutes passed before he made his decision. “Call.”

Jason showed at the same moment as Johnny flipped over . The board ran out and just like that Johnny’s stack has grown to over 2M while Jason finishes the tournament in 9th place.

9th place: Jason Duval, $5,750

Johnny Mazzaferro started the final table relatively short-stacked but after grinding away and a double up against Kyle 30 minutes ago he just won a huge pot against David Dineen that put him among the chip leaders.

Johnny was on the button and there was a raise to 60K from David in the hijack. He called and both blinds folded. The flop came out and David bet 85K. Johnny raised to 205K, and David thought for a minute and shoved. Johnny snap called and flipped over for top set, while David was way behind with for middle pair. The turn and river were and Johnny added 565K to take him to around 1M in chips.

The final 9 players back from their first break of the evening and based on the action during the first two levels of the day it was a well-earned respite. There were at least 10 all-ins and calls though only one player has been eliminated from the tournament.

Blinds are 15K/30K/a3K and levels are an hour long today.

Rough chip counts

• Noy Ung: 420K
• Jason Duval: 1.2M
• Christopher Annouza: 550K
• Kyle Zechner: 1.2M
• David Dineen: 520K
• Geoff McNeely: 600K
• Johnny Mazzaferro: 200K
• Nandam Subrahmanyam: 800K
• Sol Bergren: 620K

Update: Johnny just doubled through Kyle.