Since Justin Leeson doubled through Mark Fitzpatrick there have been some interesting dynamics on the table he shares with Michael Malm, Karo Lyne Dufour, Larry Farr, and Daniel Smouha. The action at the table has gotten very aggressive preflop and when the action is being contested between 2 or 3 of the large stacks at the table each move has huge implications.

One hand in particular is illustrative. Daniel raised UTG to 36K and Justin called. Michael then 3-bet to 155K and got a fold from Daniel. Justin was another story – he chose to 4-bet shove his almost 600K stack, which Michael covered but by a very small margin.

Michael went in the tank for about 4 minutes until he finally folded and Justin stacked the chips.

Mark Fitzpatrick has been eliminated in 12th place for $1,605.

The elimination was a two-stage affair that started with Justin Leeson open jamming his 295K stack from the button and Mark called from the Small Blind. The Big Blind folded and the hands were turned over.

Justin:
Mark:

The flop was very fortunate for Mark: but Justin faded Mark’s flush outs with an turn and river. The hand left Mark with under 100K in chips.

A few hands later Mark open shoved 93K from middle position and was called by Daniel Smouha in the BB.

Mark:
Daniel:

The runout of was no help to Mark and he is eliminated.

12th place: Mark Fitzpatrick, $1,605

There has been a full seating redraw as the tournament has gone to two tables.

Final two tables of play in Event 4:

The first few players since the money bubble burst have been eliminated from the tournament.

19th place: Ruben Percival, $1,260.00
20th place: Alex Fiorani, $1,155.00
21st place: Benoit Jean, $1,155.00
22nd place: Gary Yeghiayan, $1,070.00
23rd place: Jonathan Neil Hansmeyer, $1,070.00

Alex’s elimination was a cooler – after having recently lost a pot to reduce him from his high point of over 350K, Jordan Martin raised preflop to 25K from middle position and Jonathan Theriault called from the button in Seat 9. Alex raised all-in and put his 100K+ stack at risk, only to be called by Jordan. Jonathan folded.

Alex turned over while Jordan held . The flop had “a little something” for both of them: for set over set, and the turn and river didn’t save Alex. Even more “coolerish” about it is that after the hand one of the other players reported folding a Jack, meaning that Jordan’s top set was possible only due to the case Jack on the flop.

In the seventh hand of hand-for-hand action, Kyle Hartree open raised all-in to 31K and it folded around to Daniel Smouha who called from the Big Blind. Kyle turned over while Daniel held .

The flop was pretty good for Kyle: and the on the turn didn’t hurt either. However the that came on the river gave Daniel a better pair than Kyle, who was eliminated in 24th place.

The rest of the players stand to make a minimum of $1,070 and play continues.

The bubble is approaching quickly and the players know – and can feel – that the impact of their every action is amplified. Luckily for everyone the pace of play has remained relatively quick – no 5-minute tanking – but big decisions are being made every hand.

A hand just played out between two of the players who have been among the chip leaders the whole way. Mark Fitzpatrick raised to 15K from the cutoff and Jeff Cote re-raised from the big blind to 36K. Mark decided to flat call and we saw a flop.

Flop: .

Jeff led out for 27K and Mark again called. The turn brought the and the players both checked. The river was the and Jeff chose to check to Mark, who bet 56K. Jeff thought for about 30 seconds before he made the call.

Mark called out “two pair” and tabled and Jeff showed the and mucked.

Immediately after that hand a player busted on another table and the tournament is now hand-for-hand on the money bubble.

Michael Malm started after the last break just behind the chip leaders in the 190K-200K range, but this level he has put the pedal to the metal and has built his stack up over 600K and is now the chip leader in the event by a wide margin.

Players in Event 4 are on their first break of the day so we took the opportunity to find the chip leaders at this point in the tournament.

1. Maxime Laberge – 280K
2. Michael David Yeomans – 270K
3. Jeff Cote – 240K
4. Benoit Jean – 220K
5. Mark Fitzpatrick and Ramzi Karam (tie) – 210K

Despite the fact that there weren’t too many short stacks to start the day the play has gotten off to a blistering pace as 11 players have been eliminated in the first level today.

One of the side-effects of this action is that two of the players who led most of the way yesterday while playing on the same table, Maxime Laberge and Jeff Cote, have been reunited as Jeff’s first table today was broken.

Larry Farr

Jeff Cote

Wafic Fala

Maxime Laberge

Benoit Jean

Jeff Cote demonstrates proper table change technique

Michael Malm

Jean-Louis Arseneau

Danielle Micallef

Deron Noksana