There are just 15 players remaining after the action on Day 2 of Event 1. It was a long and gruelling day of poker as the field made its way through 16 levels of play. These are the chip counts for the players still in the action.

We are down to only two tables left in Event 1, and a seating redraw has been done.

Table 54

• Seat 1: Yannick Lamarre-Delooz
• Seat 2: Mathieu Boucher
• Seat 3: Gaston Dumas
• Seat 4: Mathieu Fournier Gamelin
• Seat 5: Chulsoo Park
• Seat 6: Ramzi Karam
• Seat 7: George Karoubalis
• Seat 8: Daniel Charette
• Seat 9: Kevin Blais

Table 60

• Seat 1: Michael Malm
• Seat 2: Derek Boucher
• Seat 3: Chad Beecraft
• Seat 4: Nicolas Malo Majeau
• Seat 5: Tony Stratopoulos
• Seat 6: Raffi Garabetian
• Seat 7: (empty)
• Seat 8: Shawn Martell
• Seat 9: Steve Pouliot

Day 2 will come to a conclusion when either we have reached our final table of 10 players, or we have played through to the end of level 29, which is in roughly 40 minutes from now.

We just witnessed a monster hand between two players who have been among the leaders all day and one who, while he was strong earlier in the day had recently recovered from just 10K (2 antes) to a respectable, if under average, stack.

With the button on Seat 1, Daniel Charette (the player who had made the big recovery) was in the BB. Shawn Martell in seat 6 (UTG+2) raised preflop to 150K and was quickly called by Stephan Belisle in seat 9. Action folded around to Daniel who went all-in with his 600K stack.

Shawn took some time – and spent some time staring down Stephan – before 4-betting to a cool million chips – though this was almost exactly a min-raise on the all-in. Stephan called and the dealer laid out the flop: . As Daniel (who was already all-in) looked on, Shawn checked and Stephan quickly declared that he was all-in. Action was back on Shawn who tanked for about 45 seconds before making the call.

All three players’ cards were turned over. First was Stephan, who held for middle set on the flop. Shawn held for a pair and the flush draw, while Daniel had for a better pair and a better flush draw.

The turn was an insignificant , but the river was anything BUT insignificant – the gave both Daniel and Shawn their flush. Daniel more than tripled up to 1.9M, while Shawn took the side pot to finish the hand ahead – though not as much as he might have liked. And Stephan who flopped a monster? Eliminated in 23rd place for $1,035.

Here is how the chips are spread out amongst the final 24 players in Day 2 of Event 1 (counts are approximate):

Table 53

• Chad Beecraft – 520K
• Andrew Lalonde – 1.49M
• Tony Stratopoulos – 2.00M
• Raffi Garabetian – 1.20M
• Jeffrey Bartlett – 875K
• Mathieu Fournier Gamelin – 620K
• Steve Pouliot – 3.36M

Table 54

• Ramzi Karam – 1.40M
• Jian-Xin Ma – 440K
• Daniel Charette – 55K
• Genevieve Champagne – 280K
• Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 870K
• Shawn Martell – 2.85M
• Michael Malm – 1.35M
• Stephan Belisle – 1.85M

Table 60

• George Karoubalis – 1.1M
• Kevin Blais – 2.2M
• Gaston Dumas – 430K
• Chulsoo Park – 1.8M
• Mathieu Boucher – 1.4M
• Aladin Reskallah – 350K
• Derek Boucher – 825K
• Niolas Malo Majeau – 800K
• Byron Doyle – 1.6M

There will be a seating redraw at 18 players, and Day 2 will end either at the end of level 29, or when a final table of 9 is reached, whichever comes first.

Event 1 has dropped to 26 players remaining which means that the tournament is now down to 3 tables. Play today is scheduled for 16 levels, which means play should continue through the end of level 29, but Tournament Director Martin Roy has said that if the field reaches 10 players (the number who will start the final table, and the final scheduled seating redraw) early, play will end for the evening.

Players will take a short break in 5 minutes and we’ll publish full chip counts after the break.

Event 1 is now down to 4 tables and just 33 players remain in contention for the top prizes.

For much of the day Table 61 has had massive stacks in several seats, and this has led to some pretty amazing hands. Two of the players who have witnessed most of the action are local player Kevin Blais and frequent festival visitor Michael Malm – who has also been among the chip leaders for most of the tournament.

In this hand, Michael raised preflop to 65K and Kevin quickly put his 435K stack in the middle. Action folded back to Michael, who eventually called. Kevin turned over while Michael held .

The flop came which didn’t settle anything, but the on the turn put Michael in the lead while leaving Kevin with outs. One of those outs fell on the river – the gave Kevin Broadway and the double up.

We are on a short break here in Event 1, and here are the estimated chip counts of the remaining players:

Table 53

• Chad Beecraft – 580K
• Dany Hamel Boulay – 300K
• Dale Chalifoux – 625k
• Tony Stratopoulos – 1.25M
• Armry Senat – 1.15M
• Mark Fitzpatrick – 520K
• Yves Bohemier – 200K
• Steve Pouliot – 800K

Table 54

• Ramzi Karam – 1.25M
• Mathieu Fournier Gamelin – 480K
• Daniel Charette – 1M
• Genevieve Champagne – 120K
• Diana Ferreira- 255k
• Shawn Martell – 305K
• John Clarke – 465K
• Maxime Labrecque – 1.15M
• Stephan Belisle – 1.6M

Table 57

• Eric Thibodeau – 180K
• Andrew Lalonde – 315K
• Derek Boucher – 435k
• Stylianos Stafylakis – 520K
• Colin Scheckman- 280K
• Jean-Guy Roy – 320K
• Georges Hallak – 950K
• Felix Brochu – 360K

Table 60

• George Karoubalis – 1M
• Gaston Dumas – 500K
• Chulsoo Park – 575K
• Mathieu Boucher – 2.4M
• Lance Perkins – 925K
• Nicolas Malo Majeau – 1.15M
• Byron Doyle – 850K

Table 61

• Kevin Blais – 600K
• Raffi Garabetian – 900K
• Eddie Daldalian – 80K
• Jian-Xin Ma – 640K
• Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 1.6M
• Jeffrey Bartlett – 920K
• Michael Malm – 1.6M
• Aladin Reskallah – 605K

We’ve just begun level 24 here in Day 2 of Event 1, and the field has dropped down to 59 players. There are 5 levels of 40 minutes left to play today, after which the remaining players will bag and tag their chip onto Day 3.

Here are a few photos taken during level 23:

The action continues to move very quickly and in the course of two hands on what was perhaps the most stacked table left in the event a new chip leader has emerged with a truly massive stack of over 1.5M.

In the first hand, Luigi Fantigrossi lost one of the leading stacks in the tournament to Yannick Lamarre-Delooz in a nightmarish (for Luigi) board runout. Preflop, Yannick raised from UTG to 32K (a min raise) and it folded around to Luigi in the Big Blind, who called. The flop came and with Luigi holding and Yannick holding what followed was inevitable. Luigi checked, Yannick bet 25K and then Luigi shoved his big 720K chip stack over the top. Yannick called holding the set and even managed to improve to quads when the King came on the turn.

The table was still settling down from that excitement when Yannick got involved in another hand with another player with an above-average stack – this time, Ryan Levine was the victim.

On the hand there was a min-raise and a call pre flop, which came . Ryan made a small c-bet that Yannick called. The turn fell – and with Ryan holding , he quickly shoved holding a turned full house. Yannick called immediately – unfortunately for Ryan, the boat wasn’t good against Yannick’s flopped quad Queens!

Yannick has moved into the clear chip lead with over 1.5M.

We are back from another short break, and play is resuming in level 22 with 91 players remaining. We took a walk around the room, and here are the biggest stacks we came across:

1. Nicolas Malo Majeau – 1.1M
2. Luigi Fantigrossi – 725K
3. Byron Doyle – 715K
4. Michael Malm – 675K
5. Maxime Labrecque- 650K
6. Stephan Belisle – 630K
7. Mathieu Boucher – 625K