One player has been eliminated already since the event got down to two tables, but here is the current seating chart.
Table 36
Table 40
Alex Brandstatter started the day with one of the larger stacks in the tournament but along the way took a pretty bad beat holding pocket Jacks and was crippled down to under 10bb.
His ultimate hand came after some patient waiting. Norman Messier opened to 200K and it folded around to Alec in the SB who went all-in for about double the opening raise. The big blind folded and Norman made the call.
Alec: 
Norman: 
Alec had a real hand, and had his opponent dominated – but the 
on the flop removed his preflop advantage and the 
that filled out the community cards didn’t help at all.
Play on Table 39 has now been suspended and those players have been moved to open seats on the two remaining tables in the tourney.
19th place: Alec Brandstatter, $2,000
Alec Brandstatter
In a fairly standard hand between players with relatively small stacks, Felix Bigras open shoved his under 400K stack and was called by Nicolas Martel on the button, who slightly outchipped Felix.
Felix: 
Nicolas: 
The good news for Nicolas came instantly: 
was dealt on the flop, with the Queen in the window running 5s – the 
and 
came on the turn and river and Bigras went for his payout coupon.
20th place, Felix Bigras, $2,000
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 .
Event 3 re-started with 33 players but played down very quickly to 27 players and the full redraw – and then in the time we were preparing that, 6 more players were eliminated. In any case, here is the current seating arrangement in the event. Note that when it gets to 18 players, a table will break and we’ll bring you the final two tables at that time. The next full redraw is at 10 players remaining.
Table 36
Table 39
Table 40
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!
Play on Day 2 of The $250 Frenzy began with 307 players and continued through 12 30-minute levels before 33 players bagged up their chips to return for Day 3. Along the way the money bubble burst when Georges Hallak and Shaun Bowring went out on the same hand, sharing the min-cash of $460, and then another 109 players were eliminated in the money.
Play resumes with 33 players in level 27. Blinds will be 40 minutes long on Day 3 and there will be seating redraws at 27 players remaining and 10 players remaining. Play will continue to the end of the tournament when a Champion will be crowned.
Note that these are player-recorded chip count totals. The actual chips have been sealed in bags which will be opened by the players to be returned to play on Day 3.
[Click or tap on a column header to re-sort this table or search for your name using the box provided]
| First Name | Last Name | Seat | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard | Caron | Table 35 - Seat 1 | 775,000 |
| Bryce | Potter | Table 35 - Seat 2 | 2,560,000 |
| Susan | Wiley | Table 35 - Seat 4 | 885,000 |
| Haralambos | Margaritis | Table 35 - Seat 5 | 1,000,000 |
| Andre | Pelletier | Table 35 - Seat 6 | 765,000 |
| Benoit | Pesant | Table 35 - Seat 7 | 300,000 |
| Ioannis | Pentefountas | Table 35 - Seat 8 | 965,000 |
| Andonios | Papageorgiou | Table 35 - Seat 9 | 1,490,000 |
| Jeremy | Galin | Table 36 - Seat 1 | 765,000 |
| Roger | Thibault | Table 36 - Seat 2 | 840,000 |
| Frank | Truong | Table 36 - Seat 3 | 2,250,000 |
| None | Table 36 - Seat 4 | 290,000 | |
| Marc | Guerbilsky | Table 36 - Seat 5 | 540,000 |
| Alec | Brandstatter | Table 36 - Seat 7 | 1,360,000 |
| Felix | Bigras | Table 36 - Seat 8 | 825,000 |
| Yannick | Labattaglia | Table 36 - Seat 9 | 515,000 |
| Nicolas | Martel | Table 39 - Seat 1 | 1,970,000 |
| Rami | Hammoud | Table 39 - Seat 2 | 1,085,000 |
| Norman | Messier | Table 39 - Seat 3 | 690,000 |
| Alain | Mathieu | Table 39 - Seat 4 | 325,000 |
| Andrew | Boujaoude | Table 39 - Seat 5 | 585,000 |
| Olivier | Beaulieu | Table 39 - Seat 6 | 800,000 |
| Tomas | Larivee Magni | Table 39 - Seat 8 | 630,000 |
| James | Wesley | Table 39 - Seat 9 | 700,000 |
| Ken | Stutz | Table 40 - Seat 1 | 605,000 |
| Fabrice | Levi | Table 40 - Seat 2 | 1,000,000 |
| Jaroslaw Zbigniew | Jaskiewicz | Table 40 - Seat 3 | 320,000 |
| Michael | Korovine | Table 40 - Seat 4 | 725,000 |
| Jason | Williams | Table 40 - Seat 5 | 250,000 |
| Shane | St John | Table 40 - Seat 6 | 635,000 |
| Andrew | Hansen | Table 40 - Seat 7 | 330,000 |
| Santos | Ciulla | Table 40 - Seat 8 | 1,850,000 |
| Richard | Gauthier | Table 40 - Seat 9 | 825,000 |
