Day 1c of the Partypoker.net WPT Montreal started at 11am on November 15th and played through 10 60-minute levels before play was suspended as scheduled and all remaining players bagged up their chips to return for Day 2. There were 335 entries in this final starting flight in the event and 153 players were left by the end of the action on the day.

The following are player-provided counts and although we do our utmost to verify that players are reporting their precise count, it’s the physical chips sealed in their bags which are returned to play on Day 2.

Day 2 begins on Monday November 16th at 12pm. The full list of qualifiers for Day 2 as well as the seating draw will be published shortly.

The players in Day 1 have just returned from their final break of the day and during the break we put together a new leaderboard. This one is expanded to 7 players – to underline the fact that just outside the current top 5 is one of the most accomplished players in the field today, Liv Boeree.

The dinner break has just concluded and we took the opportunity to add a lot of players’ chip counts to the “Live” Counts page, and also put together this smaller leaderboard of the top 5 players at the break.

After some early strong moves, no one has really put their foot down and taken control at this point – but there’s a long way to go tonight so that’s sure to change.

The players in Day 1c have taken their second break of the day and now are back at the tables and playing in level 5 of this final starting flight of the WPT Montreal. There’s a new leader in the event – Hapreet Singh Gill is the first player over 100K and is about 20K ahead of the player with the next most chips. Dean Murphy and Mike Dentale are both still among the leaders as well.

During the break a player made a comment to a few others that another player was, “stacking chips as if there’s no tomorrow…” Which is more or less literally true…

Some players who have recently entered the tourney: Liv Boeree, Danny Suied and Charles Alexandre Sylvestre

Players have just returned from their first break of the day, and while they were away from the tables we were able to determine that local player Dean Murphy has taken the early lead in Day 1c, with over 73,000 in chips. Mike Dentale has also managed to build up a pretty solid early stack – he’s already playing about 67,000.

Everyone in the room heard when Dean made his most profitable hand so far – he got it in preflop holding pocket Aces against a player holding pocket deuces – and the player with the 22 flopped his set. Dean managed to river an Ace to give him the biggest set – which is actually quite an accomplishment in the sense that Dean is also the player who, a couple of years ago, was eliminated in the first level playing Quads…

Update: Dean just shared that the dealer of this hand was actually the SAME dealer who gave him his Quad 6s while his opponent made their Royal flush in that hand from the past.

As Mike Sexton exclaimed in his intro today – quoting Bruce Buffer – It’s Time!

Cards are now in the air for Day 1c and there are are already as many players seated in the tournament as there were after all 6 levels of late registration yesterday – so it’s definitely shaping up to be a huge day.

There are a few new faces in the field today that we haven’t seen in previous starting days in this year’s WPT Montreal, including local stars Marc-Etienne McLaughlin, Laurence Grondin, and Alexandre Lavigne. Also joining the field fresh off his 2nd place finish in Event 3 is Fabio Luongo, who has proven to be a talented poker player in recent years.

As with every Day 1 in this event, players today are playing 10 60-minute levels today with breaks every 2 levels and a 45-minute long dinner break after level 6. The end of the dinner break is also the end of late registration, so after that we’ll have a final count of the number of entries in the event and thus the prize pool.

Today is the third starting flight in the 2015 Partypoker.net WPT Montreal – Day 1c. History has proven that the final starting day is always the largest in terms of participation – so we’re expecting a huge day at the tables today.

Well over 50% of all satellite winners have not yet played their ticket, and it seems that most players who have determined in advance to only fire one bullet in the event tend to wait until the final starting day. As well, there are several well-known pros who haven’t yet qualified for Day 2 – we expect to see most of them back today as well.

Good luck to everyone today!