With only 1.5 big blinds to her name, Susan Wiley was all-in on the first hand back from the break. Her 
was heads-up versus the 
of Tomas Larivee Magni, who scooped the pot on a 
board.
16th place: Susan Wiley – $2,550
Susan Wiley
The players are back from a short break, and we took this opportunity to bring you full chip counts of the remaining 16 players. Andonios Papageorgiou has taken over the chip lead, as he holds over 3.5 million to his name. Shane St John is closing in on him though, having run his stack up to over 3 million.
Here is a look at the chip distribution as play enters level 30:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Andonios | Papageorgiou | 3550,000 |
| Shane | St John | 3050,000 |
| Santos | Ciulla | 2800,000 |
| Michael | Korovine | 2350,000 |
| Bryce | Potter | 2140,000 |
| Rami | Hammoud | 2025,000 |
| Tomas | Larivee Magni | 1850,000 |
| Haralambos | Margaritis | 1760,000 |
| Norman | Messier | 1655,000 |
| Nicolas | Martel | 1585,000 |
| Fabrice | Levi | 1320,000 |
| Roger | Thibault | 1210,000 |
| Andrew | Boujaoude | 855,000 |
| Andre | Pelletier | 760,000 |
| Frank | Truong | 745,000 |
| Susan | Wiley | 170,000 |
Santos Ciulla was one card away from elimination before the poker gods extended him a helping hand, and he now leads the field here in Day 3.
With a stack of 1,250,000, he open-raised all-in from early position, and found a call from big-stack Alec Branstatter on the button.
Santos: 
Alec: 
Santos paired up on the river to collect the pot of over 2,500,000, as the board ran 
, leaving Alec with just under a million after the hand.
While this hand was happening, we lost Jeremy Galin, who fell to the hands of Rami Hammoud.
Jeremy Galin
We lost four more players in the last few minutes, bringing the field down to 21 players.
Yannick Labattaglia was rivered by the monster draw of Susan Wiley, as she flopped a straight flush draw with 
on a board. Yannick had to avoid half the deck to survive with 
, as the turn brought the 
and the river the 
.
John Pentefountas was the next player out, as he 3bet his last 300,000 with 
, but was drawing nearly dead when Andrew called and flopped a set with 
. The turn was a blank, ending John’s run in 24th place.
Olivier Beaulieu was eliminated in 23rd place, when he moved in with 
on the turn, with the board showing 
, however he was called by Alec with 
, who rivered a straight with the 
.
Shortly after the redraw, Richard Gauthier was eliminated in 27th place.
Marc Guerbilsky took a hit to his stack as he got caught trying to steal the blinds with a button-shove. He doubled up Felix Bigras in the mean time, but then managed to reclaim some chips by doubling his stack the very next hand. He then picked up a pair of the very next hand, but was eliminated by Fabrice Levi and his 
.
We are now down to 25 players.
Players waisted no time jumping into the action in this Day 3 of The $250 Frenzy, and we’ve already seen a few of them hit the rail.
The first to go was Alain Mathieu, who was in the big blind facing an early position open from Tomas Larivee Magni, which was flat called by James Wesley, and 3bet all-in by Rami Hammoud. Alain decided to go to war with his 
and pushed his ~300,000 stack in, finding himself heads-up with Rami and his 
. With no help on the board, Alain was the first casualty of Day 3.
Moments later Ken Stutz under-called the all-in shove of Shane St John, and found his tournament life on the line on a flip. His fell second best to the 
of Shane, who paired on the 
and added 550,000 new chips to his stack, while Ken finished in 32nd place.
Jason Williams was down to 3 big blinds when he moved in from the small blind in an unopened pot, unfortunately for him he found a call from Tomas in the big blind, who had him crushed. Jason flopped a flush draw with 
, but didn’t improve against Tomas’ 
on the board to bust in 31st place.
Jaroslaw Sbigniew Jaskiewicz was waiting for a spot to make something happen with his short stack, however his short-stack move was looked up by Santos Ciulla with , who ended up winning the pot, bringing us down to 29 players.
Andrew Hansen moved in two hands in a row moments later. On the first hand, he chopped with his opponent as they both had ace-high on a paired board. The next hand he moved in from utg holding , and lost to the of Shane, who called the small all-in from the big blind.
James Wesley was eliminated in the same time in 28th place. We missed the exact action, but we were told Andrew Boujaoude moved all-in from middle position with AQ, and was called by James with AJ, who failed to improve.
With that, we are now down to 27 players, and a redraw is in course.
It’s Day 3 here in The $250 Frenzy, the third Event of the Playground Poker Fall Classic presented by Partypoker.net, and only 33 players remain from the 1,475 that started the event.
Play is about to begin, and the plan is to play out until we have our Event 3 Champion. Levels will be 40-minutes long today, which should give players a little more room to manoeuvre with, however we can expect to see a lot of action right off the start as there are a few players coming back with considerably short stacks.
It was Bryce Potter (2,560,000) who bagged the chip lead last night, as we claimed a massive double up from Jeremy Galin in the closing minutes of Day 2. Frank Truong (2,250,000) also made a big move in the last hand of play last night, as he doubled up through Alec Brandstatter to claim second place in chips entering Day 3. Rounding up the top 3 in chips is Nicolas Martel (1,970,000), who steadily grew his stack throughout the evening last night.
There are still many talented players left in this field, making the road to victory a challenging one, but one of these 33 players will claim the victory in The $250 Frenzy tonight… who will it be? Stay tuned to find out!
Good luck to the returning players!
After 26 levels of play combined over 2 days, the starting field of 1,475 entries has been reduced to just 33 players.
We saw the balance in chip leads switch drastically in the last level of the night, as the two top stacks at the start of the level, Santos Ciulla and Alec Brandstatter, both lost huge pots and dropped down the leaderboard. It was finally Bryce Potter who bagged the chip lead, and he will return with 2,560,000 chips tomorrow. Second in chips is Frank Truong, who doubled up in the very last hand of the night to end Day 2 with 2,250,000.
As soon as the tournament staff is done crunching the numbers, we will be publishing the full list of player-reported chip counts, as well as the new seating assignments for tomorrow’s Day 3, which is scheduled to start at 7pm. Below is a table with the top stacks as Day 2 closed.
Be sure to tune in to the blog tomorrow night to follow all the action, as we bring you up-to-date coverage of the conclusion of this 3rd event in the Playground Poker Fall Classic.
See you tomorrow!
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Bryce | Potter | 2,560,000 |
| Frank | Truong | 2,250,000 |
| Nicolas | Martel | 1,970,000 |
| Santos | Ciulla | 1,850,000 |
| Andonios | Papageorgiou | 1,490,000 |
| Alec | Brandstatter | 1,360,000 |
Photographs from the last two levels of the night:
Santos Ciulla has been hovering around the top of the leaderboard since the end of Day 1F last night, but in recent levels has leaped far ahead of the field. He recently crossed the 2-million chip mark, and hold more than three times the average stack at the moment.
Alex Brandstatter, who happens to be at the same table as Santos, is second in chips, as his stack is just shy of 1.6 million. Jaroslaw Zbigniew Jaskiewicz rounds up the leaderboard in third, with a stack of over 1.2 million.
Only 2 levels remain, after which the tournament will go on pause until Day 3 tomorrow.
We have seen a lot of action in these last few levels, as play considerably opened up after the bubble burst. Only 74 players remain in this Event 3, and they will play through 4 more 30-minutes levels before wrapping it up for tonight. Those left with chips at the end of it all will be back tomorrow for Day 3 of The $250 Frenzy, where we will crown our champion!
Here is a look at the leaderboard as we enter level 23:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Eric | Ranger | 1217,000 |
| Jeremy | Galin | 1137,000 |
| Santos | Ciulla | 983,000 |
| Alec | Brandstatter | 952,000 |
| Rami | Hammoud | 786,000 |
| Jason | Conforti | 781,000 |
| Nicolas | Martel | 735,000 |
| Tomas | Larivee Magni | 727,000 |
| Richard | Gauthier | 688,000 |
| Yannick | Labattaglia | 682,000 |
| Andrew | Boujaoude | 648,000 |
| Frank | Truong | 622,000 |
| Roger | Thibault | 608,000 |
| Sinisa | Stajic | 597,000 |
| Norman | Messier | 579,000 |
| Thomas | Cohen | 576,000 |
| Ruben | Perceval | 537,000 |
| Benoit | Pesant | 532,000 |
| Daryl | Andrews | 532,000 |
| Michael | Korovine | 532,000 |
| Susan | Wiley | 531,000 |
| Patrick | Boisvert | 511,000 |
Photographs from levels 21 and 22:
@PlaygroundPoker out in 106 place out of a field of 1475….always a great time!
— dave rathwell (@daverathwell) November 10, 2015
