When the TonyBet Power Weekend Tag Team tournament reached level 27, a few of the team members asked the table once again if there was any interest in looking at potential numbers for a deal. With the blinds entering 50K/100K and an ante of 5K, the average stack would be reduced to just 12 big blinds, leaving less room for manoeuvrability – and a huge gap between 1st place prize money and 8th place.

After much negotiating, something to be expected when two players are involved per member of the final table, the 8 teams finally agreed to the ICM chop numbers, which split the remaining prize pool based on their current chip counts. Team Fee was awarded the biggest piece of the chop, as they were the chip leaders at the time of the chop, and all team members were left well rewarded for their long day on the felts.

Congratulations!

Here is the final prize distribution:

Team | Équipe	Seat | Siège	Prize | Prix
Team Fee	Seat 2	$6,880.00
Team Chaykowski	Seat 1	$6,520.00
Team Gunther	Seat 9	$5,425.00
Team Fred Belanger	Seat 4	$5,420.00
Team Aristeo	Seat 3	$4,810.00
Team Isreal	Seat 5	$4,325.00
Team Betournay	Seat 7	$4,325.00
Team Lapointe	Seat 8	$3,465.00

The Tag Team tournament has been running since 11am this morning, meaning the final 8 teams are approaching their 15th hour of play for the day!

Fatigue has definitely made its appearance clear with many of the players still in action, however determination seems to be overriding it. Talks of chop have come up a few times, but a few of the teams are set to play the tournament until completion, so play continues!

Team Fee and Team Chaykowski share the lead with 8 teams left, as they both hold roughly 2,350,000 in chips.

Team Belzile was just eliminated from this final table, as they ran their into the of Team Chaykowski in a betting war preflop.

9th place: Team Belzile – $1,170.00

The Tag Team event has reached the final table, and 9 teams remain in battle for the $11,000 first prize. Leading the way is Team Fee and their 2,200,000 betting units. Close behind is Team Israel, who holds roughly 1,650,000 in chips.

Here are the final 9 teams:

Team | Équipe	Seat | Siège
Team Chaykowski	Seat 1
Team Fee	Seat 2
Team Aristeo	Seat 3
Team Fred Belanger	Seat 4
Team Isreal	Seat 5
Team Belzile	Seat 6
Team Betournay	Seat 7
Team Lapointe	Seat 8
Team Gunther	Seat 9

We are but one elimination away from our 9-handed final table.

Photographs taken during level 23:

A new chipleader has emerged late in this Tag Team event, as Team Fee now sits on a stack north of 1.75 million with 2 tables remaining.

We missed the exact action of how this happened, however we know that Team Fee scored a big double-up after winning with QQ versus the A9 of Team Dionne in an all-in preflop situation.

Here are the final two 8-handed tables:

Team | Équipe	Seat | Siège
Team Chaykowski	Seat 1
Team Fee	Seat 2
Team Aristeo	Seat 3
Team Fred Belanger	Seat 4
Team Isreal	Seat 5
Team Belzile	Seat 6
Team Betournay	Seat 7
Team Lapointe	Seat 8
Team Gunther	Seat 9

 

The 21 remaining teams in the Tag Team event have agreed to pay one additional spot in order to skip the bubble, and just like that the tournament is now in the money!

Congratulations to the following 21 teams for making it through to this milestone in the tournament:

• Team Aristeo
• Team Arvanitis
• Team Belzile
• Team Betournay
• Team Burrhead
• Team Chaykowski
• Team Cloutier
• Team Dionne
• Team Fee
• Team Fortier
• Team Fred Belanger
• Team Gunther
• Team Israel
• Team Janneau
• Team Lapointe
• Team Lauze
• Team Lariviere
• Team March Pats
• Team Messier
• Team Rudic
• Team Vijayaiatnam

Only 21 teams remain here in the Tag Team event, meaning we are but one elimination away from being in the money. Leading the way is Team Dionne, who sits on a comfortable 1,085,000 stack, while Team Fee (840,000), Team Fred Belanger (810,000) and Team Israel (800,000) are not too far behind.

The Tag Team event has dropped from 195 teams down to 28 teams, but the road to victory is still long and treacherous for the remaining players. The team structure is a slow paced one, mainly due to the switches between each level and the consultations with team members, however players do get to rest and recoup while their teammates are on the felts.

Given there are very few official breaks, it is difficult to gather exact leaderboards, however peeking over the shoulders of the players, we noted that three teams in particular are in charge at the moment. Team Belzile is the current chip leader, and the only team over the 1 million chip mark, as they have accumulated around 1,050,000 in chips since the start of the day. Team Dionne and Team March Pats are tied in second place, holding healthy 650,000 stacks.

More detailed coverage of the event will resume once the field drops to its final legs.

As mentioned earlier, the Tag Team format is notoriously slow paced – so while it’s a ton of fun for the players – and it gets better the deeper you get – it takes a long time to play out. This edition of the tournament is now in level 16 and there are still 48 teams of the 195 that started the event.

With 48 teams in action, the tournament is down to 6 tables (play is 8-handed) and the side-effect of the relatively tight play is that there are a few relatively short stacks still in the event – it would be a great time to be able to pick up some short stacks – and grab those consultation chips to boot!