A few players have now crept up over 1M in chips as level 21 winds down. The current millionaires are:
Ruben Perceval is trailing just behind at slightly over 900K, but it should be noted that he’s at a table with both Johnny and David, making for a very stacked table.
Ami Alibay has been among the chip leaders for the past few levels but he just lost a big pot to Pierre Guenette who is sitting directly to his right. The UTG player, Wei Xu, made the opening raise to 20K and George Daoukakis flat called from UTG +1. The action folded around to Pierre who also just called. Ami raised to 55K from the BB. Wei and George folded, Pierre called and 2 players went to the flop.
Flop: 
.
Pierre checked and Ami led out for 68K. Pierre thought for a bit and counted out raising chips – he made it 160K. Ami had a decision to make, but judging by the investigation of his neighbour’s remaining stack, it wasn’t between calling and folding but rather a decision between calling and re-raising to force Pierre to commit the 222K he had behind.
After a minute and a half Ami ended up calling and the turn came 
. Pierre immediately shoved and again Ami thought for a couple of minutes. He ended up folding, showing 
. Pierre tried to just show one partial card to his neighbour and not much was seen except that it was a spade.
Ami is still in pretty good shape after the hand with more than 800K in play.
Since the bubble burst the eliminations have come quickly and the tournament is now down to 100 players with over 4 levels left to play today.
Mike Leah was one of the more recent eliminations as flopping Kx Kx 7x doesn’t help K6 nearly as much as you would think when your opponent has 7x 7x for a flopped boat.
Play will continue today for 11 levels total, which is to say that it will conclude at the end of play in level 24.
Event 6 in the Playground Poker Spring Classic was the $1000 + $100 partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship, a next-day re-entry event with three starting flights that had a total of 1079 entries over all three flights. This generated a total prize pool of $1,046,630.00 which was awarded according to the following payout table.
| Rank | First Name | Last Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason | Comtois | $178,114.00 |
| 2 | John Paul | Tabago | $124,758.00 |
| 3 | Daniel | Gagne | $80,904.00 |
| 4 | Johnny | Mazzaferro | $59,762.00 |
| 5 | Alexander | Wong | $44,586.00 |
| 6 | Mario | Lim | $36,108.00 |
| 7 | Pierre | Guenette | $29,933.00 |
| 8 | Sylvain | Siebert | $23,863.00 |
| 9 | Brent | Wheeler | $17,792.00 |
| 10 | Marco | Caza | $13,292.00 |
| 11 | Rodney | Lawrence | $13,292.00 |
| 12 | Ami | Alibay | $13,292.00 |
| 13 | Matthew | Brunskole | $10,675.00 |
| 14 | Frederic | Bunchan | $10,675.00 |
| 15 | Simon | Quintal | $10,675.00 |
| 16 | Maxime | Theroux | $9,210.00 |
| 17 | Nicholas | Petrina | $9,210.00 |
| 18 | James | Nortcliff | $9,210.00 |
| 19 | Osman | Soubra | $8,268.00 |
| 20 | Eric | Afriat | $8,268.00 |
| 21 | Alexandre | Lavigne | $8,268.00 |
| 22 | David | Lanthier | $7,326.00 |
| 23 | Mark | Guerbilsky | $7,326.00 |
| 24 | Ruben | Perceval | $7,326.00 |
| 25 | Daniel | Cote | $6,384.00 |
| 26 | Samuel | Chartier | $6,384.00 |
| 27 | Kenneth | McFarlane | $6,384.00 |
| 28 | Gaetano | Buda | $5,442.00 |
| 29 | Mathieu | Roy Arbour | $5,442.00 |
| 30 | Eric | Davis | $5,442.00 |
| 31 | Xiao | Peng | $5,442.00 |
| 32 | Sammy | Chao | $5,442.00 |
| 33 | Andrew | Humphrey | $5,442.00 |
| 34 | Tyson | Erback | $5,442.00 |
| 35 | Selajtin | Jakupovski | $5,442.00 |
| 36 | Danny | Ayoub | $5,442.00 |
| 37 | Jonathan | Poissant | $4,709.00 |
| 38 | Justin | Miller | $4,709.00 |
| 39 | Edouard | Dupuis | $4,709.00 |
| 40 | Ashutosh | Sharma | $4,709.00 |
| 41 | Ben | Menache | $4,709.00 |
| 42 | Wei | Xu | $4,709.00 |
| 43 | Thomas | Mulverhill | $4,709.00 |
| 44 | Georges Anthony | Dunst | $4,709.00 |
| 45 | Daniel | Schreiber | $4,709.00 |
| 46 | William | Foxen | $3,977.00 |
| 47 | Tony | DiMaria | $3,977.00 |
| 48 | Maxime | Laberge | $3,977.00 |
| 49 | Brady | Hinnegan | $3,977.00 |
| 50 | Yong | Li | $3,977.00 |
| 51 | David | Baba | $3,977.00 |
| 52 | Conrado | Corpus | $3,977.00 |
| 53 | Josh | Kimmel | $3,977.00 |
| 54 | Ronald | Greig | $3,977.00 |
| 55 | Giovanni | Abate | $3,349.00 |
| 56 | Paul | Naccarato | $3,349.00 |
| 57 | Johnny A | Benehoutsos | $3,349.00 |
| 58 | George | Daoukakis | $3,349.00 |
| 59 | Casey | Smith | $3,349.00 |
| 60 | Jordan | Martin | $3,349.00 |
| 61 | Steven | Schartner | $3,349.00 |
| 62 | Jean-Philippe | Matte | $3,349.00 |
| 63 | Olivier | Racine | $3,349.00 |
| 64 | Doris | Charlebois | $2,930.00 |
| 65 | Ryan | Higgins | $2,930.00 |
| 66 | William R | Mullen | $2,930.00 |
| 67 | Albert | Phillips | $2,930.00 |
| 68 | Steven | Chu | $2,930.00 |
| 69 | Jonathan | Renaud | $2,930.00 |
| 70 | Irina | Tchakarova | $2,930.00 |
| 71 | Diana | Shamshoum | $2,930.00 |
| 72 | Timothy | Vukson | $2,930.00 |
| 73 | Marc-Andre | Racine | $2,511.00 |
| 74 | Mike | Sexton | $2,511.00 |
| 75 | Amirmasoud | Babakhani | $2,511.00 |
| 76 | Frederic | Moulin | $2,511.00 |
| 77 | Camille | Godin | $2,511.00 |
| 78 | Owen | Snow | $2,511.00 |
| 79 | Jean-guy | Boyer | $2,511.00 |
| 80 | Shpend | Kllokoqi | $2,511.00 |
| 81 | Ricky | Tang | $2,511.00 |
| 82 | Michael David | Yeomans | $2,197.00 |
| 83 | Nicky | Evans | $2,197.00 |
| 84 | Mathieu | Martin | $2,197.00 |
| 85 | Yan | Touchette | $2,197.00 |
| 86 | Johnathan Neil | Hansmeyer | $2,197.00 |
| 87 | John | Henhoeffer | $2,197.00 |
| 88 | Kevin | MacDonald | $2,197.00 |
| 89 | Eric | Levesque | $2,197.00 |
| 90 | Dean | Murphy | $2,197.00 |
| 91 | Marcello | Simonetti | $1,883.00 |
| 92 | Thibaut | Delmarle | $1,883.00 |
| 93 | Charles | Gagnon | $1,883.00 |
| 94 | Vince | Dwyer | $1,883.00 |
| 95 | Peter | Kavouras | $1,883.00 |
| 96 | Paul | Petten | $1,883.00 |
| 97 | Joseph | Verdugo | $1,883.00 |
| 98 | Geoffrey Robert | McNeely | $1,883.00 |
| 99 | Josue | Sauvageau | $1,883.00 |
| 100 | Jean-Philippe | Piquette | $1,569.00 |
| 101 | Scott Robert | Cagan | $1,569.00 |
| 102 | Rayan | Chamas | $1,569.00 |
| 103 | Boyd | O'Neill | $1,569.00 |
| 104 | Mike | Leah | $1,569.00 |
| 105 | Pascal | Bibeau | $1,569.00 |
| 106 | Shawn | Zibenberg | $1,569.00 |
| 107 | Gary | Lucci | $1,569.00 |
| 108 | Serge | St-Pierre | $1,569.00 |
| 109 | Charles | Dalton Shapiro | $1,569.00 |
| 110 | Matthew | Durand | $1,569.00 |
| 111 | Domenic | Durante | $1,569.00 |
| 112 | Frederick | Deguzman | $1,569.00 |
| 113 | Bill | Loukanikas | $1,569.00 |
| 114 | Louis Alexandre | Cabana | $1,569.00 |
| 115 | Anthony | O'Hagan | $1,569.00 |
| 116 | Steve | Simpson | $1,569.00 |
| 117 | Chris | Arvanitis | $1,569.00 |
| 118 | Manuel | Moffatt | $1,569.00 |
| 119 | David | Szymanowicz | $1,569.00 |
| 120 | Chase | Olsen | $1,569.00 |
| 121 | Andrew | Helleur | $1,569.00 |
| 122 | Eric | Theroux | $1,569.00 |
| 123 | Frederic | Mercier | $1,569.00 |
| 124 | Badri | Abboud | $1,569.00 |
| 125 | Dale | Chalifoux | $1,569.00 |
| 126 | Chaayanath | Mysore | $1,569.00 |
Another player has been eliminated on the same hand that player number 128 busted. Play paused on each table as the hand was completed as tables waited to kick off hand-for-hand play, but on the last table still going, Stephanie Goertz was eliminated putting the rest of the players in the money. For the record, the other player eliminated on the hand was Leng Khauv.
Since this hand 6 players have already been eliminated and gone to the tournament desk to receive their payment coupon.
Martin Roy, the Tournament Director at Playground, has just announced that dealers should light their red lamps at the end of this hand as play will begin hand-for-hand with 127 players remaining.
At the last break just over one level ago, there was one player over 500K in chips and 2 or 3 within 40K of that watershed count – but in just one level we now find at least 6 other players have joined Josh Kimmel over 500K and with the bubble starting to get closer there will definitely be lots of opportunity for other healthy stacks to chip up in the next little while.
Some of the players over the 500K mark now are Amir Babakhani, Eric Afriat, William R Mullen, and Sammy Chao.
Ironically, Josh had to win a big hand to get back over the 500K mark after having lost a couple of pots recently. We arrived on the river and André Turcotte in Seat 1 had bet 30K on a board that read 
and Josh raised to 75K. André thought for a few minutes but then made a frustrated fold.
There are many Playground regulars still in the field and among them are a few players who due to their history or their chip stack deserve the “player to watch” label.
Ryan Higgins
Ryan is a full-time poker player who could just as easily fall under the “Team Quebec” label and is just one or two breakthrough results away (if that). Primarily an online player, Ryan also has a final table in a WSOP-C event under his belt as well as several deep runs in big events here at Playground.
Louis-Alexandre Cabana
Louis-Alexandre has made himself known in local poker rooms for a couple of years now with regular appearances in daily tourney final tables and winner’s photographs. A former dealer, Louis-Alexandre more than held his own on Day 1c on a table that featured, at different points, Mike Sexton, Antonio Esfandiari, and Gavin Smith.
Josh Kimmel
Josh is another local player who’s often found on final tables in Playground events and made a deep run in the inaugural WPT Montreal in 2012, finishing 54th. A film producer by trade, Josh has several poker productions under his belt and comes to Day 2 with a solid stack.
Marc-André Racine
Marc-André has become more of a cash player than a tournament player recently, but that doesn’t change the fact that he has had a lot of success in events big and small at Playground. No one is eager to see him move to their table in a tournament, that’s for sure.
Ami Alibay
Ami is a local restaurant and nightclub owner who may not play as many daily tournaments as many of the others in this list, but has thrived in big events both here and in the US. Just in the past year Ami barely missed the final table of a 6-Max event at the WSOP in Las Vegas and later in the summer made a deep run (125th) in the WSOP Main Event.
Noy
Noy is a known for a carefree attitude and his unconventional betting lines, but no one who plays in local tourneys at any buy-in takes him lightly. Last year he final tabled a $1K side event in the 2013 Spring Classic and though be began very short stacked managed to ratchet up a few positions to finish 6th.
Eric Afriat
Last but most definitely not least is Eric Afriat, who is the only player in the field who can say he played a WPT Final Table against Phil Ivey (in the 2010 WPT Championship at Bellagio). More recently Eric won a $5K Bellagio Cup event in 2012 and made a deep run in last summer’s Little One for One Drop.
Samuel Chartier
Although he’s not Quebec’s highest profile player, Samuel Chartier has built up an extremely impressive resumé including success in events all over the world, including wins in the 2009 WSOP-C Championship and a PCA side-event win.
Philippe Boucher
Philippe Boucher is a well-respected Quebec pro who boasts a WSOP bracelet from a PLO Event at the WSOP-E in Cannes in 2009 and other results from events around the globe since 2004.
Laurence Grondin
Laurence, known universally by her Twitter handle @LadyLuckPoker, is primarily an online pro but she has also had a lot of live success over the years. In addition to playing poker, Laurence is currently a TV Poker analyst at RDS (a French-language sports channel).
Jean-Philippe Piquette
Playground Players Club member JP Piquette is an online and live poker pro whose claim to fame here at the Club is having won the Main and High Roller Events at the first Playground Poker Classic festival, taking home the first two Championship Belts that were ever awarded by Playground Poker Club. Piquette is a dedicated tournament and cash game player and managed to cash in 6 of 8 events he entered in the 2013 EPT Prague festival.
Patrick Braga
Patrick Braga may not consider himself a poker pro, but he has enough results to be put on any Team Quebec list. Patrick’s biggest result to date is his win in the 2013 FPS Deauville Main Event.
