Bagged and tagged

The chips are all nestled safely in their bags under lock and key and the counts are being consolidated to be posted later tonight. The players are either a) resting or more likely b) enjoying the Event Player’s party tonight at the Rail!s

The chip leader to end Day 1b was Quebec’s own Guillaume Rivet, with over 370K in his bag.

Those huge stacks?

They’re really starting to grow. Both Craig Hyde and Carter Swidler have built up stacks of around 275K and there are at least 5 other players with stacks north of 200K.

There are 10 minutes left in level 12, the second-last level to be played tonight. Blinds are 800/1,600/a200. There are 200 players still in the event.

A note about Day 1c

Day 1c – which starts tomorrow (Sunday) at noon – is looking like it’s going to be a sellout. As of this moment, there are over 370 tickets sold (in customers’ hands), another 40 sold with payment confirmed, and another 12 seats that will be awarded in tonight’s satellite. The implication of these numbers is that the capacity of 500 should be reached by the time Day 1c starts.

Alternates will be accepted, so even if it does sell out early many additional players will be able to enter the event – but if you want to ensure that you’ll have a spot tomorrow, the best way to do that is to get to Playground early tomorrow morning or even tonight. Remember, we’re open 24 hours a day!

Level Eleven

Say that ten times, fast!

There is still one break and two levels to play after this one – which is about half way finished – and Day 1b will be in the books. At this point in a Day 1 some people are really just hoping to find a spot to double – and then double again – while others are working hard to chip up and build one of the massive stacks that you always see at the end of a Day 1.

Blinds are currently 600/1,200/a200 and the jumps from level to level start to seem more significant – and so do pot sizes in general. The chip average at the moment is just under the 65K mark – but by the end of these upcoming two levels it will have jumped to over 100K. So things are going to start to move quickly.

Before the end of the night we’re going to get some photos of the more massive stacks in the room and then, about an hour after the action closes tonight we’ll post full chip counts for Day 1b.

And then it all starts again tomorrow at noon!

Dinner break!

The end of level 8 means it’s time for a 45-minute long dinner break. The final number of entries today crept up to 524 and of that number, 349 remain alive in Day 1b.

When players return from break, they’ll be playing level 9 and the blinds will be 400/800/a100. The average stack is up to 45 K though there are quite a few very large stacks being built throughout the room.

Notable players’ stacks

Players are on break so we have gone to assess the stack size of some of the more notable players in the field today.

  • Gavin Smith – 60K
  • Antonio Esfandiari – 33K
  • Guy Carbonneau – 11K
  • Samuel Chartier – 46K
  • Marc-Etienne McLaughlin – 28K
  • Chanracy Khun – 41K

Some big stacks!

After a quick tour we have found some of the bigger stacks in the room.

  • Michael Malouin – 118K
  • Justin Litwin – 105K
  • Jean-Philippe Piquette – 92K
  • Erik Cajelais – 85K
  • Van Cong Nguyen – 85K
  • Armenak Kizirian – 82K

Remember you can look up players’ chip count here.

Players go on break in about one minute!

Lots of photos!

Here are a lot more photos of today’s Day 1b of the Main Event of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival. Enjoy!

Update at Level 5

Day 1b has reached the middle of level 5, and so far 519 players have taken there seats of whom 475 are still playing. Blinds are currently 150/300/a50.

Registration closes at the end of the next level (level 6) so there’s still a little time to jump in today if you want!

Early photos

To kick off the photos we’re sharing today, we got some shots of a variety of the local regular tournament players. But these aren’t just “locals” – there are some very talented, experienced players among this group.