When we arrived at the table, a significant amount of money was already in the pot at table 36, and the action was heating up.

With the board showing , Normand Chapdelaine opened with a bet of 2,000. He was raised 10,000 by the man in the white shades, Mr. Michael Korovine. Normand considered calmly, and called.

The turn was a , and Normand shoved. Michael called, and that was the beginning of the end for him.

Michael:

Normand:

Normand had flopped the second-best flush, and as both players flipped their cards, Michael was putting on his jacket even before the final card was dealt. Only a spade could save him, and unfortunately for him the river was a , ending his night.

At this point we are down to 81 players.

A moment ago we noticed a showdown in progress, the classic Ace-King v. Ace-Queen battle. Normally any player would rather have AK, but in this particular case it was not the best hand.

Both players got their chips in the middle preflop, and the board was dealt .

In this case, Roberto Parent’s AQ defeated his opponent’s AK, eliminating him from the tournament. A tough way to go, to be sure. As we have now closed registration, the number of participants will only decrease. Only 94 players remain, and at least 50 more will be eliminated before the end of the night.

We have now passed the 150 mark, with 151 official entries in today’s flight of the Playground 200.  There remains only a few minutes left to register this evening.

Otherwise, if you want to qualify for Day 2 you’ll have to enter one of the two final Day 1 flights tomorrow, Friday December 14th. The Day 1C flight will kick off at 11am, and Day 1D begins at 7pm.

After four 30-minute levels Joel Moreau sits atop the leaderboard with more than 5X the average chip stack.

Joel is looking to continue his luck after placing 9th earlier today in Event #3, the $100 + $10 + $25 Bounty Tournament. Good luck to all players!

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Name	Stack | Tapis
Joel	Moreau	160,500
Francois	Lalonde	115,000
Steve	Horic	110,500
John	Palmer	72,000
Devon	Morgan	68,700

As we near the end of level 4, we have reached a total of 129 entries, including 14 re-entries. Registration will only close at level 7, meaning you still have approximately 90 minutes to come down and get started.

The first 80 players have taken their seats for tonight’s Playground200 Day 1B. Below are some photos of those early-stage competitors getting started.

Tonight is the second of 4 starting flights in the 8-Year Anniversary edition of the Playground 200, a $200 + $20 NL Hold’em tournament. Last night’s Day 1A attracted 140 entries and there was also an online flight on Sunday that welcomed 44 more to the event – so there have been a total of 184 entries so far. The goal of everyone tonight is the same: make it through 14 levels of 30 minutes each and bag up chips to take to Day 2 in the event.

Late registration is open in this event until the beginning of level 7 – in practical terms, this means players have until 10:15pm to join. As well, this is a re-entry tournament, so anyone who is eliminated in the first 6 levels may re-enter – in fact, there is already one re-entry tonight.

There are a few players in the field already tonight that have distinguished themselves by their skilled play in the past – one of the interesting story lines will be to see if any of these players can make it through! These players include Thierry Blanc, David Bonneau, Sebastien “Seabass” Drolet-Poitras, Linda Huard, and Michael Khan – among others.

Good luck to everyone playing tonight!