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.

We’ve lost our first player of the final table.

10th place: Levon Demirdjian, $4,200

There have been a couple of players all-in and called so far, but to date the smaller stack has been winning. Geoff McNeely and most recently Noy Ung have both doubled through more “wealthy” adversaries. In any case there’s no lack of action on this final table so far.

Noy’s double up was very fortunate for him as he was down to 329K in chips, well below the current average of 630K and under some pressure with blinds at 10K/20K/a2K. Noy raised preflop in late position and Jason 3-bet a big amount. Noy tanked for a minute or two before quietly announcing, “All in”. Jason snap-called and flipped over and was way ahead of Noy’s .

The flop didn’t contain an Ace, but it was nevertheless fortunate for Noy. The added a gutshot draw to his A draw and the turn added some chop outs as well. Sure enough the came on the river – and Noy doubled up to over 700K.

Some photos from the beginning of tonight’s final table of Event 5.

Cards are in the air for Event 5 at the Playground Poker Spring Classic. Ten players have begun play on the final table of this $1000 + $100 No Limit Hold’em Deepstack event. We’ll be posting updates and photos all the way to the end.

Here are the seating assignments and chip counts for the 10 players who will start the final table on Day 3 of the $1000 + $100 No Limit Hold’em Deepstack event tomorrow at 3pm. The Feature Table is the table on the stage! There is room for a few friends to rail the final table so let them know you could use their support!

Jason Duval was a man on a mission. Well, two missions. One: to win the tournament. Two (and seemingly more immediately relevant) to see the Habs playoff game tonight at the Bell Centre.

Whether it was one motivation or the other, Jason has personally eliminated three of the last four players to leave the tournament, which fulfills both of his missions – he’ll be the chip leader going into the final table and he’s in time to go see the game tonight.

Chip counts and seat assignments for tomorrow’s final table will be posted soon. Action resumes at 3pm tomorrow.

Congratulations to everyone who made the final table!

The tournament continues to move super quickly as Ben Leblond and Jonathan Duhamel have been eliminated in 14th and 13th place respectively.

Ben got short after doubling up Jason Duval in a huge pot (AQ>KK), and just one or two hands later shoved his pocket 99 and was called, again by Jason who held AK. The nines didn’t hold and Ben is out of the tournament.

Just a few minutes later Jonathan got his below-average stack in the middle with and was called, and once more Jason was playing for an opponent’s stack holding . The flop came all hearts: giving Jonathan some extra outs, but the turn and river were brutal – to put two higher pairs on the board leaving Jason’s Ace kicker the best hand.

Again just a few minutes later Thomas Lefort got it in and lost leaving the tournament in12th place.

Eliminations:

• 12th place: Thomas Lefort, $4,200
• 13th place: Jonathan Duhamel, $3,450
• 14th place: Ben Leblond, $3,450

One more elimination and we’ll have a final table.

We’re playing down to 10 today (in all likelihood – if players wish to play through to the end they will have that option) and since the money bubble at 28th the pace has moved quickly.

Here are the eliminations since the bubble:

• 15th place: David Ormsby, $3,450
• 16th place: Vlad Faubert, $2,925
• 17th place: Edin Cekic, $2,925
• 18th place: Mark Epstein, $2,925
• 19th place: Hugo Dumoulin, $2,575
• 20th place: Daniel Noel Noseworthy, $2,575
• 21st place: Alexander Hartung, $2,575
• 22nd place: Ryan Smith, $2,300
• 23rd place: Thomas Keeper, $2,300
• 24th place: Ryan Higgins, $2,300
• 25th place: Josue Sauvageau, $2,025
• 26th place: Ron Farber, $2,025
• 27th place: Michael Korovine, $2,025