With the 1492 player field down to just 3 remaining, Raffi Garabetian moved all-in from the button preflop for just over 4.8M, and was called by Steve Pouliot from the big blind.

Raffi:
Steve:

The board ran out , and Steve added a few more millions to his chip lead stack, while Raffi walked over to the cash to collect his $16,860 reward.

Play is now heads-up in this opening event, with Steve Pouliot holding around 25M out of the 30M in play. But his opponent is Daniel Charette, seems to have an infinite amount of lives!

3rd place: Raffi Garabetian, $16,860

Play had slowed down considerably while Steve Pouliot was playing with a huge chip advantage and the other 3 had relatively small stacks. After several orbits in which nothing notable happened, suddenly Tony Stratopoulos open shoved and Steve snap called.

Tony:
Steve:

The board gave no help to Tony and he was eliminated in 4th place.

4th place: Tony Stratopoulos, $12,405

Here is how the chips are spread out amongst the final 4 players of Event 1:

• Seat 2. Raffi Garabetian – 5M
• Seat 3. Daniel Charette – 4.8M
• Seat 4. Tony Stratopoulos – 2.8M
• Seat 7. Steve Pouliot – 17M

Steve Pouliot has been on a huge run in the last two levels, picking up one pot after another, usually uncontested. This time he was just at the right place at the right time, when Shawn Martell open-shoved his 4.6M chips stack from middle-position, and Steve quickly called from the button.

Shawn:
Steve:

Shawn was drawing dead by the turn, with the board showing , but will go home with a nice $9,140 payday.

Players will go on break in 3 minutes, and we will provide an update on the chip counts at that point.

5th place: Shawn Martell, $9,140

Shawn Martell placed a raise preflop to 475K, and Steve Pouliot made the call from the button. The blinds folded and they were heads-up to the flop, which showed . Shawn, first to act, announced he was all-in, and before his sentence was over, Steve had already called and tabled . Shawn and his needed some help, but the turn sealed the deal for Steve. The meaningless river was a . Steve is now holding roughly 7M.

Kevin Blais has been eliminated in 6th place on a slightly weird hand. He shoved his small stack of just over 1M chips from the UTG position and the dealer announced the all-in. It folded around to Shawn Martell in the small blind, who threw in two chips without saying a word, which is (of course) a call of the all-in bet. That being said, it was pretty clear from his surprised look that he only meant to call the Big Blind.

There was no controversy, however, as there was no question that it was a call of the all-in by Kevin whether or not it was Shawn’s intention, and he didn’t protest in any way.

As it turned out, Shawn’s was good against Kevin’s on a flop of . The turn brought the and the river cemented the result – .

6th place: Kevin Blais, $6,740

Daniel Charette is continuing his improbable run, as he just doubled up twice in the last few hands.

In both hands, Steve open-shoved from the small blind preflop. The first time around, Daniel’s won against Steve’s on a board. The second time around, it was Daniel’s that prevailed over Steve’s on a board.

After the second double up, Daniel was holding 12.6M in chips, while Steve had 17.3M. They decided to strike a deal at that point, taking $28,684 each, and leaving an  extra $3,500 as well as the Playground Poker Spring Classic bracelet.

Good luck!

Derek Boucher has been eliminated in a hand that also managed to cripple Daniel Charette, all to the benefit of Tony Stratopoulos.

Derek open shoved his almost 1.2M stack and Daniel flat called. Tony 3-bet shoved his 2.3M stack and the decision came back to Daniel, who called.

Derek:
Daniel:
Tony:

The flop left little wiggle room for either of the players holding small pocket pairs as it ran out and the pair of 7s ( ) on the turn and river was no help.

7th place: Derek Boucher, $4,960

Here is an update on the chip counts of the final table of Event 1, which is now returning from break:

• Seat 1. Kevin Blais – 2.5M
• Seat 2. Raffi Garabetian – 6.3M
• Seat 3. Daniel Charette – 6.3M
• Seat 4. Tony Stratopoulos – 2.6M
• Seat 6. Shawn Martell – 7.5M
• Seat 7. Steve Pouliot – 2.4M
• Seat 9. Derek Boucher – 1.9M