Here are a few shots of the field early in Day 1C of the Playground 500.
Some early shots
- Level: 3
- Small Blind: 200
- Big Blind: 400
- Button Ante: 200
- Chip Average: 51K
- Remaining: 102
- Entries: 105
Play has begun in Day 1C
- Level: 1
- Small Blind: 100
- Big Blind: 200
- Button Ante: 0
- Chip Average: 50K
- Remaining: 60
- Entries: 60
Day 1C has just begun with 60 players at the tables and new entries joining every few seconds as the players take their last shot at qualifying for Day 2 in the tournament. After all of the starting flights so far there are already 106 Day 2 qualifiers, with John Kim and Valerie Vaillancourt – the Day 1B leaders – at the head of the pack.
A few photos of large stack holders
- Level: 14
- Small Blind: 2.5K
- Big Blind: 5K
- Button Ante: 5K
- Chip Average: 168.4K
- Remaining: 68
- Entries: 229
John Kim, after losing a good chunk of his leading stack to Valérie Vaillancourt, came back with a vengeance, although he took it out on his other table mates. He was seen with a rebuilt stack, taking out Maxime Marcouiller. John put him all-in on the river, and Maxime called after some thinking, only to see a queen in John’s hand, filling up the other 3 queens on the board. His stack is estimated at 530K, 3 and a half times the average.
The left photo below shows John staring at Maxime after his river bet. The right photo shows John and Valérie, sitting side by side as the last level runs out, moments after Maxime’s departure.
Day 1C starts at 7pm sharp, and will be the last starting flight for the Playground 500.
Here are a few more photos big stack holders:
The final flight starts at 7pm
Play is winding down in Day 1B of the Playground 500 in Playground Poker Club’s 7 Year Anniversary celebrations, and all that remains is for the final flight – Day 1C – to play through to the end. Action gets underway at 7:00pm tonight and as always, late registration will be available through the first 8 levels of play (plus the two breaks during that time). Players may enter or re-enter throughout the late registration period, and considering that this is the final starting flight in this $250,000 Guaranteed event, we’re expecting many players to take advantage of this tonight.
Play will continue through 14 levels tonight, following which the remaining players will bag their chips to return to action in the Day 2 restart, tomorrow at 1:00pm. Along the way, we’ll provide coverage of the action, chip counts along the way, and at the end of the night we’ll publish the full seating chart for tomorrow’s restart.
Good luck!
Valérie Vaillancourt leads Day 1B into the last stint
- Level: 13
- Small Blind: 2K
- Big Blind: 4K
- Button Ante: 4K
- Chip Average: 127.2K
- Remaining: 90
- Entries: 229
The third and last break of Day 1B is now behind us. We prepared a table featuring the top ten stacks, where Valérie Vaillancourt is showcased:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Valérie | Vaillancourt | 388,000 |
| Vincent | Benoit | 336,000 |
| Tam | Ho | 278,000 |
| Douglas | Best | 263,500 |
| Marvin | Yousif | 243,500 |
| Shailesh | Patel | 242,000 |
| Carter | Swidler | 238,000 |
| Thien Loc Albert | Nguyen | 230,500 |
| Christos | Arvanitis | 226,500 |
| Zheng-Yi | Xie | 220,500 |
Jonathan Thériault doubles up
- Level: 12
- Small Blind: 1.5K
- Big Blind: 3K
- Button Ante: 3K
- Chip Average: 119.3K
- Remaining: 96
- Entries: 229
Jonathan Thériault limped in from an early position. Action was folded to Michael Malm, who made it 7,600 from the small blind. George Chow went all-in from the small blind, and Jonathan committed his 58,400 chips.
They were heads-up going to the board, and Jonathan’s tens held against George’s ace-jack. Here is a look at Jonathan, watching the run out intensely:
