David Baba was eliminated one spot shy of the final table of Event 4. Jason Griffith open the action preflop to 40K from early position, and Kelly Smith moved all-in next to act. David Baba then announced he was also all-in, but his stack was considerably smaller than the other two. Jason hesitated for a minute before completing both all-ins, and all three were off to the flop.

Jason Griffith:

Kelly Smith:

David Baba:

The board of was what Jason was hoping for, as it paired his ace (and his queen), good enough to scoop the pot. Kelly was left with a mere 48K, but will be back tomorrow for the final table.

With that elimination, Day 2 of Event 4 is now complete, and the final table will be played out tomorrow afternoon at 3:00pm (Thursday March 27th).

11th place: David Baba, $1,745

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

Michael Malm is trying to make his second final table in this Playground Poker Spring Classic, and has just increased his stack by over 200K by eliminating Faizel Satchu in 13th place.

Michael raised to 37K from UTG, and was faced with a decision when Faizel went all-in from the big blind for around 230K. He finished by making the call, but needed to improve if he was to win the hand.

Michael:
Faizel:

The flop was good for Michael, and the turn even better as it assured him the win on a board of .

13th place: Faizel Satchu, $1,605

Kelly Smith has definitely been the most active player on table 65, and in the last few orbits we’ve seen her stack go on a virtual roller-coaster ride. She managed to grind her stack up to over 400K before sending around 250K over to Jason Griffith in a hand that made it to the river, but didn’t showdown. She then proceeded to move all-in preflop several times in the next few hands, all of which were uncalled, and picked up some valuable blinds.

Holding a little over 300K, she 3-bet jammed Jerome St-Onge’s preflop open to 40K from early position, and got the call. Her and was up against , but the board of ran in favour of Jerome, who doubled to over 500K, leaving Kelly with only 54K.

The very next hand she was all-in (blind) with versus Jason’s , and doubled her stack up on a board.

A few hands later, she found herself all-in again, this time with versus the of Trieu Dung Hong. She paired her ace on a , and climbed up to 295K. A few hands later she 3-bet jammed again over Jerome’s 40K UTG raise, and this time managed to make him fold. She is now nearing the 400K mark again.

Here are the approximate chip counts of the 13 players remaining during the current break.

Table 64

• Seat 2. Justin Leeson – 289K
• Seat 3. Faizel Satchu – 291K
• Seat 4. Mark Fitzpatrick – 445K
• Seat 5. Michael Malm – 655K
• Seat 6. Karo Lyne Dufour – 388K
• Seat 7. Larry Farr – 341K
• Seat 9. Daniel Smouha – 530K

Table 65

• Seat 2. Michael David Yeomans – 413K
• Seat 3. Jerome St-Onge – 428K
• Seat 6. Jason Griffith – 280K
• Seat 7. Kelly Smith – 240K
• Seat 8. David Baba – 385K
• Seat 9. Trieu Dung Hong – 840K

We just saw a big hand develop between Trieu Dung Hong and Jonathan Theriault that resulted in a pot exceeding 800K. Jonathan raised UTG to 25K, and was called only by Trieu from the big blind. The flop showed , and Trieu check-raised Jonathan’s 40K bet up to 120K. Jonathan then announced he was all-in, which put Trieu into the tank. After a few moments, Trieu announced the call, and both players tabled their hands.

Jonathan:

Trieu:

The turn and river kept Trieu ahead, and he picked up a pot that propelled him into the chip lead. Jonathan was left with around 80K left, but has picked up a few blinds since and is still in contention with roughly 10BB.

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.

We are back from a short break in Event 4, with 21 players still remaining. Here is an update on their approximate chip counts:

Table 61

• Seat 1. Ruben Perceval – 200K
• Seat 2. Jeff Cote – 210K
• Seat 3. Peter Kavouras – 85K
• Seat 4. Daniel Smouha – 230K
• Seat 5. David Baba – 200K
• Seat 8. Mark Fitzpatrick – 510K
• Seat 9. Michael David Yeomans – 260K

Table 64

• Seat 1. Justin Leeson – 172K
• Seat 2. Larry Farr – 262K
• Seat 3. Michael Malm – 585K
• Seat 4. Faizel Satchu – 401K
• Seat 5. Benoit Jean – 143K
• Seat 8. Trieu Dung Hong – 190K
• Seat 9. Karo Lyne Dufour – 277K

Table 65

• Seat 1. Alex Fiorani – 365K
• Seat 2. Kelly Smith – 185K
• Seat 3. Jeffrey Cormier – 268K
• Seat 4. Jordan Martin – 250K
• Seat 5. Jason Griffith – 264K
• Seat 7. Jerome St-Onge – 225K
• Seat 9. Jonathan Theriault – 250K