The TD called for dealers to deal 3 more hands a few minutes ago and now that all tables have completed the day, the players are bagging up their chips. We’ll publish full chip counts and the seating draw for Day 2 later this evening.

Players have begun the final level to be played today and there are a couple of interesting stories beginning to emerge.

First, two of the three top chip leaders in the tournament at this point are at the same table. Mark Fitzpatrick and Jeff Côté – both of whom have made deep runs or won major events at Playground in the past – are both hovering around stacks of about 225K in chips. They are the two clear leaders in the event at this point, and that table (Table 54) could prove dangerous for anyone who is moved there.

The second interesting story is that the third leader at this point – Ramzi Karam – is fresh off a very deep run in Event 1 in this series.

Mark Fitzpatrick

Ramzi Karam

Jeff Côté

Event 4 in the Playground Poker Spring Classic is a $500 + $50 No Limit Hold’em tournament being held over three days from March 25 to 27, 2014. A total of 221 players registered for the event building a prize pool of $107,185.00 which will be distributed according to this table.

Event 4 is coming back from break after 8 levels of play, and two players have already managed to breach the 100K mark: Melissa Cummings and Jonathan Theriault are both holding roughly 105K each to lead the field for the time being. Not far behind is Jeff Cote, who has 96K, and there are a number of players with stack sizes in the 80K-90K range.

Play is about to resume in level 9, where the blinds will be 400/800/a100. The event will go on break until tomorrow upon the completion of the next 5 levels.

Jeff Cote

Jonathan Theriault

Melissa Cummings

The second break is just around the corner here in Event 4, and the 221 player field has been reduced to 155 players.

Here are a few photos from the last two levels:

Players in Event 4 coming off a short 10-minute break after having played 4 of the 13 levels scheduled to be played out today. A total of 221 players have registered in todays Event, and a few of them have already jumped to an early lead.

Here are some players who have chipped up nicely in these first few levels:

• Melissa Cummings – 71K
• Stephen Hardy – 64K
• Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 61K
• Pierre Guitard – 53K

The first two levels have come and go here in Day 1 of Event 4, and attendance has climbed up to 190 entries. Players still have just over an hour left to enter the tournament, with late registration set the close around 2:15pm.

Here are a few photos from these early levels of play:

Event 4 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic is set to start in a few short minutes, and players are beginning to take their seats here in the tournament hall. This event is a $500 + $50 No Limit Hold’em tournament that will be played over 3 days, with 13 levels of 30 minutes scheduled for today’s Day 1.

With this being the biggest buy-in of the series so far, as well as with the WPT Main Event only 2 days away, we should expect to see some bigger names from the poker world start to make their appearance here at the Spring Classic.

So far 122 players have already registered, and the registration period will remain open until the end of the first break, which will be after level 4, roughly 2:15pm.

Good luck to our players here in Event 4!