14 levels of poker are in the books and when the last page was turned in Day 1A, there were just 23 players of the 140 that started the action tonight. The chip leader at the end of the night was none other than Yannick Labattaglia, who bagged 300,500 chips – enough to put him in 2nd place overall after the first two flights in the event.
See the Playground 200 Combined Day 1 Results page to see the results of all of the Day 1s in the tournament.
Play is now in level 13 in Day 1A, and will continue through the 20 minutes remaining and one more 30 minute level before the remaining players bag up their chips to return to play on Day 2.
Some recent eliminations: Mike Lafable, John Palmer, Charles-Eric Benoit, Joel Moreau, and Michael Khan. Of course all of them are invited back to play in one or more of the remaining starting flights – Day 1B tomorrow night, or Day 1C or Day 1D on Friday.
The players in Day 1A have just returned from their final break of the day, and William Blais has stormed into the chip lead, having amassed over 200,000 in chips. Apparently he got most of those during the last two hands before the break – proof of how patience is a huge virtue in poker.
Update: within the first few minutes of level 12, William picked up even more chips and has already added another 100K to his stack…
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Name | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| William | Blais | 200,400 |
| Kathy | Sawers | 165,500 |
| Stephanie | Cormier | 150,000 |
| Simon | Belzile | 144,000 |
| Simon | Assouline | 144,000 |
| Yannick | Labattaglia | 110,000 |
Well… in a tournament, any time is a good time to triple up, but Joel Moreau, an experienced local tournament player, has just managed this in a hand with Travis Robertson and Massinissa Belaid.
We arrived at the table on the turn with the board reading 
. Massinissa had checked, Travis (in middle position) bet 17K, and Joel went all in for more – but only a little more, 21,700. Action was on Massinissa, who went in the tank for some time before eventually making the call. Travis made the call as well and the river was dealt: 
.
The way the board read, that was pretty much a brick for all concerned, and the two players in the side pot (Travis and Massinissa) both chose to just check. The cards were exposed:
Massinissa: 
Travis: 
Joel: 
The flopped set of 10s took down the hand.
As suspected, Yannick Labattaglia has taken the lead after 4.5 hours of play on Day 1A. He’s currently working with a stack totalling 125,300 – and lots of time left to grow that stack further.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Name | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Yannick | Labattaglia | 125,300 |
| Travis | Robertson | 97,100 |
| Gino Roland | Frenette | 86,500 |
| Nadir | Lalji | 86,000 |
| Pierre-Paul | Paulin | 82,400 |
| Juan Frederico | Garcia | 81,000 |
Play in Day 1A has now reached the second break of the day following 8 30-minute levels, and there are still 80 players left out of the 140 total entries today. Surveying the room in the minutes leading up to the break leave little doubt that Yannick Labattaglia is the current chip leader – we’ll verify that in a few moments.
Here are some photos from level 8:
Play in Day 1A has moved into level 7, which means that registration has now closed in this first live starting flight in the 8-Year Anniversary edition of the Playground 200. There were 140 entries tonight, and of those, almost 100 are still in the action. With the online starting flight, this means there have been 184 total entries in the tournament.
If you missed your chance tonight – or even if you were here but didn’t book a spot in Day 2 – you still have lots of chances to jump in the event. Day 1B runs tomorrow evening at 7:00pm and there are two flights – Day 1C and Day 1D – on Friday, at 11:00am and 7:00pm respectively. All flights allow for unlimited re-entries during the late registration period – that is, until the beginning of level 7 in each flight.
Here are some photos of the action during level 5 in Day 1A of the Playground 200.
Players in Day 1A have made it through 4 levels of this first starting flight – at least most of them have – and with the end of level 4 came the players’ first break of the evening. While the players were absent from the tables with at least 60,000 chips – double the current average – to make up the first leaderboard of the night. The current chip leader is Simon Belzile and all of the top 4 players are known to be quite skilled players, so there’s chance we could see these names listed again and again tonight. Only time will tell!
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Name | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Simon | Belzile | 78,125 |
| Travis | Robertson | 70,000 |
| Cristian | Muset | 64,000 |
| Pierre-Hughes | Faulkner | 60,100 |
With the first event now in the books, attention turns to Event #2, the 8-Year Anniversary Edition of the Playground 200. Day 1A – the first of 4 Live starting flights in the event – got going tonight at 7:00pm, meaning play is just wrapping up in level 3. That still leaves more than 3 levels to late register – players interested in playing tonight still have 1 hour and 45 minutes to make it here to Playground and take their seat!
Play continues through 14 levels of 30 minutes each today, and everyone in the flight is looking to join the 8 players that have already qualified for Day 2 through the online flight this past Sunday. Day 2 will get underway on Saturday December 15 at 1:00pm.
Good luck!
