Day 3 of the 2014 WPT Montreal is set to begin in about 5 minutes. The players are gathering here at Playground Poker Club – some are enjoying a nice breakfast at The Rail, others have already made their way to the table where dealers are already in place and the players’ bags are arranged at the players’ new seats.
There are still 49 players remaining in the tournament, and today they will play through as many 90-minute levels as required to take the field to just 18 players remaining. Of course everyone still in the event is already in the money (41 players cashed last night after the bubble burst), and the first player to be eliminated today will earn $10,120.00 for his efforts this week.
The remaining field is incredibly stacked with poker talent. Poker legend Antonio Esfandiari is still in the field today, starting the day with 306K in chips, while further up the leaderboard are established pros like Marc-André Ladouceur, Jonathan Jaffe, and Todd Terry.
There are also some experienced Playground Poker regulars still in the field. Philippe Plouffe, Bill Kontaratos, and Ioannis Pentefountas may not be household names, but they all have a lot of big-event experience and the abilities to make a deep run in the event.
There are two other Montreal-based players that warrant special attention. Samuel Chartier spent much of the day yesterday among the chip leaders in the event, and although he has fallen off the pace a little bit, he has both a vast trove of experience to draw upon and a great track record in tournaments here at Playground Poker Club, having won a High Roller event here earlier this year. TJ Ulmer is not very well known in the live poker world, but online he is a true legend of the game. Ulmer has already made one final table in this year’s Fall Classic – we’ll see if he can do it again in the WPT Montreal.
