Day 1a of The $250 Frenzy – Event 3 of the Playground Poker Fall Classic presented by Partypoker.net – started at 11am and played through 14 30-minute levels before the remaining players bagged up their chips to take to Day 2. There were 148 entries in this first of 6 starting flights in Event 3, and at the end of the action today just 32 remained. Here are the final chip counts for everyone who has qualified for Day 2.

Just a reminder – as a next-day re-entry event, any player may enter multiple Day 1s, and if they are fortunate enough to qualify twice, only their largest stack will move forward to Day 2. And if you played in Day 1a but didn’t qualify, you can try again in any of the remaining starting flights.

The players in Day 1a have begun their second-last level of this flight and as the numbers have dwindled and blinds climbed, a few players have really started to put their foot on the accelerator as they pursue the goal of reaching Day 2 with a healthy stack.

Tanvir Ahmed continues to add to his stack and is managing to keep – and gain – momentum while playing a huge proportion of hands. He’s now playing over 240K.

A different approach is that taken by Claude Begin, who has been playing few hands – but making them count when he does. Claude is now up over 220K. Rounding out the top 3 at this point in the tournament is Patrick Chartrand, who has been steadily building his stack to approximately 180K.

The other movement to note is the move Thomas Lefort has made – after playing with a starting (or below) stack for most of the day, he has suddenly seemed to awake – and is now playing over 100K.

There’s a new chip leader in the tournament. Tanvir Ahmed – who also went deep in Event 1 – has climbed to over 115K in chips, leaving almost everyone else in the dust for the moment.

Carter Swidler (L) with Tanvir Ahmed (R)

The players are now back from their first break of the day in The $250 Frenzy Day 1a. During the break saw the final late registrants enter the tournament today, bringing the total number of entries up to 148 for this opening flight of the event.

During the break we also found a few players who have started to build oversized stacks, including Ray Haddad who already has over 67,000 tournament chips in his stack. Isham Yamani and Maxime Fortin Demers about both playing just under 50K each, which rates both of them among the leaders.

Be sure to consult the “Live Chip Counts” page via the link at right during the day to follow the leaders and several others throughout the day.

The preliminary announcements have been made and players have taken their seats at the tables… and cards are now flying in this first starting flight in The $250 Frenzy.

The Friday afternoon flight is typically the smallest of the 6 starting flights in the tournament, but with a full 2 hours of late registration still available, there are already 70 players at the tables.

Play will continue today for 14 30-minute levels, following which the surviving players will bag up their chips to return for Day 2. Any player – whether he or she survives today or not – may play in one or more additional Day 1s – if a player qualifies for Day 2 more than once, only his or her largest stack will move forward in the event.

Last year’s Playground Poker Fall Classic saw the introduction of a new event – and one that’s going to stick around for a while! The best way to follow up on the $100K guaranteed Wild $150 was to bump up the buy-in by just a little bit – but to double the guarantee!

That’s the tournament that is now known as The $250 Frenzy. It’s a $225 + $25 NL Hold’em Re-entry event with 6 Day 1s and a massive $200,000 guaranteed prize pool! The six Day 1s are spread out over today, Saturday and Sunday, with one running starting at 11am and the second daily starting flight starting at 7:30 each evening. Everyone who qualifies for Day 2 will return on Monday, November 9th for Day 2.

Good luck to all of the players in today’s first starting flight of Event 3!