Play has begun in level 5 and during the last 15-minute break we found the chip leaders in today’s starting flight to this point.

1. Eric Auclair – 93K
2. Daniel Suied – 91K
3. Sebastien Labbe – 87K
4. Jean-Manuel Estrala – 86K
5. Jair Beltran – 75K
6. Brian Yoon – 74K

Daniel “Miami Boss” Suied looks to be the first player in today’s starting flight to hit the 100K mark. We’ll put together a new list of Day 1c leaders during the next break, in about 10 minutes.

There are no formal feature tables in the starting flights of the WPT Montreal, but one table in particular grabbed our interest during the first few levels today. Table 33 doesn’t have any big-name stars on it, but it is filled with solid players with strong poker resumes.

It’s probably lucky for some of these players that their table is 2nd on the current breaking order!

• Gilbert Diaz – A French pro with results in big events all over Europe in the past 5 years including several victories in EPT side events.
• Ruben Perceval – Ruben is a local player who has made several deep runs in big events here at Playground Poker Club.
• Ricky Tang – From Toronto, Ricky has had fantastic results in events at Playground Poker Club including a 2nd in the $1.1K in last year’s Fall Classic, but he also has results in events in both North American and Europe going back to at least 2006.
• Daniel Strelitz – Daniel placed 2nd in the $1.1K WPT Warm-up in this year’s Fall Classic, but is also known for having won a huge prize in an event in the Bicycle Casino’s Mega Millions X series earlier this year.
• Brian Yoon – Brian is an up-and-coming star, having already won two WSOP bracelets including the 2013 Little One for One Drop. He has also won an event in this year’s Fall Classic – the 50/50 Bounty held earlier this week.
• Michael Malm – Michael is also a player with a great track record at Playground Poker Club and who has also won a WSOP bracelet. His best result here was a win in a $550 in the spring of this year.

A few well-known players have joined the tables in the past level or so: Past champion Jonathan Roy, Eric Afriat, Will Failla, Pascal LeFrancois, Chanracy Khun, and Tim Reilly have all joined the event. In addition, several of the final table participants in the $1000 + $100 WPT Warm-up event have also joined: Graham Lupton, Faisal Khan (who won), Daniel Strelitz (2nd), and Vlad Faubert.

Players in the WPT Montreal’s Day 1c starting flight have just completed their first break of the day. Two levels is too quick for very many players to have built up large stacks, but there was one player – Eric Aucoin – who has managed to accumulate over 82K already. We’ll be updating the leaderboard at each break today so we’ll see if Eric is able to keep accumulating today.

There are already 320 players in the action in Day 1c with a long time left to late register, so it’s shaping up to be a busy starting flight! Here are some photos of the early action today.

Photos from levels 1 and 2

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(30 Photos)

In three categories…

From the US

• Dan Kelly
• Ankush Mandavia
• Anthony Zinno
• Mike Linster
• Pratyush Buddiga
• Paul Klann

From Canada

• Xuan Liu
• Matt Jarvis
• Steve Kerr

Locals

• Carter Swidler
• Chanracy Khun
• Jonathan Driscoll
• David Barter
• Rayan Chamas

Good luck to all!

The WPT Montreal always attracts is fair share – or more – of top “name” pros, but there are also a lot of more locally well-known players who may not be full-time poker players or travel the circuit extensively, but still have significant results on their resume, both at Playground and internationally.

Here’s a sample of some of these players to watch.

• Carla Sabini – Carla is a fixture in big events here at Playground Poker, but also spends a lot of time travelling to events around the world. She had a great week in London last year when she used her winnings from a 30th place finish in the EPT London Main Event to buy in to the High Roller event – and made it to the final table, finishing 4th!
• Michael Korovine – Michael is a Playground regular who also has the distinction of being the player with the most cashes in big events held here at the club (17). Michael is no stranger to big tournaments and is always a threat to go deep in any event he enters.
• Vincent Jacques – Vincent is a talented young pro who has been on the edge of a big poker breakthrough for a while now. Vincent came 2nd in the recent Canada Cup Main Event held here at Playground poker, and also came 2nd in a WSOP Hold’em tournament a few years ago. Between the two he has cashed in events all over North America.
• Alexandre Lavigne – Alexandre stretches the definition of “local” – he’s from Quebec City, 3 hours away. Nevertheless he belongs on this list because of his amazing run of success in events at Playground Poker Club, starting with a final table appearance (he finished 6th) in the 2013 WPT Montreal. He also has the distinction of having won the very first seat for the 2014 WPT Montreal. He won a $550 event in the summer, and as a bonus, he played Antonio Esfandiari in a heads-up match with an entry in this event as the prize – which he proceeded to win.

Players have taken their seats, announcements have been made, and cards are now in the air for Day 1c of the 2014 WPT Montreal! As anticipated, there are already more players at the tables today than on either of the previous Day 1s, and with late registration open for another 7 hours (5 3/4 hour-long levels, 2 15-minute breaks, and the 45 minute dinner break) that number will most likely climb a great deal more.

We’ll be following the action all day with photos and tournament updates, and be sure to follow the WPT Live Updates site for more tournament news and info.

It’s a beautiful Saturday in the Montreal area and final preparations are being made to welcome players to Playground Poker Club for Day 1c in the WPT Montreal. Today is the final starting flight of this year’s WPT Montreal, and as usual it is certain to be the largest starting day, and likely by quite a margin.

One of the factors that will increase participation today is the fact that a majority of the over 140 live satellite winners have not yet entered the tournament, not to mention the fact that there are still many pros who have not yet qualified for Day 2.

There are three promotions players should keep in mind today. First – the chip leader at the dinner break will receive a pair of Partypoker-branded Monster DNA headphones (courtesy of PartyPoker), and the chip leader at the end of the day will receive Monster DNA headphones courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

The third promotion is pretty amazing – any player that makes a Royal Flush today (using both hole cards, whether the hand goes to showdown or not) will win a free WPT Cruise (with a +1 as well)!

Good luck to all of the players today!