There was a little advance notice that this weekend’s Event 1 of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival was going to be something special when, on Friday by noon, there were already about 10 cash games running including a big $5-$10 game.

Nevertheless, a lot of people were (pleasantly) surprised when 527 players entered Day 1a of the event. When 513 came to play yesterday it made it obvious – something big was underway.

Tonight’s Day 1c was expected to be another well-attended starting day… but even the most optimistic prognosticators didn’t expect the waves of poker players who started arriving in force by mid-afternoon.

The total number of players seated in Day 1c blew Days 1a and 1b out of the water: 565 players ended up taking their spot at the table, for a total of 1605 total entries and a massive prize pool.

And so Event 1 is already one for the history books – one of the largest tournaments ever held in Canada. And, most importantly for most players, what may be the largest prize pool ever for a $150 (total) poker tournament.

Good luck – and thank you – to all of the players who have joined us at Playground for this amazing event.

Cards are in the air and players are already into the second level of play in Day 1c of Event 1 of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival.

The event “sold out” over an hour before the event began and we began accepting alternates – and increasing the capacity as the 7:30 start time approached. These efforts have so far been a big success, as there have already been 558 players seated.

More updates coming soon…

We’re just over an hour away from the beginning of Day 1c in Event 1 of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival. The capacity for each Day 1 of this $135 + $15 No Limit Hold’em Re-entry was 400 players and all 400 seats have already been sold – but if you get to the club soon there’s still a very good chance you’ll be able to play in this huge event. In each of the other two Day 1s (Saturday and Sunday) we were able to seat over 100 alternates.

We’ll confirm the numbers when late registration closes, but this is shaping up to be the largest tournament in Playground Poker Club history in terms of the total number of players.