Today at noon (12:00pm EDT) will see the restart of Event #1 in the MILLIONS North America, the $1,000 + $100 NL Hold’em MILLIONS Open. A grand total of 392 players will be taking their places at the tables at that time, every one of them vying to make it into the money of the tournament. The prize pool (see below) was released overnight, and just over 1/3 of the remaining players will achieve that goal – 143 places will pay in the tournament, with a min-cash of $2,700. But just as everyone is looking to cash in the event, everyone is equally trying to WIN the event, which comes with a much bigger prize – $210,000!
There’s a long way to go between the restart at noon and the bubble being reached – not to mention someone claiming victory, which will wait for tomorrow. Nevertheless, there are a few players who have staked an early claim to at least some of the prize money by building a huge stack through the 12 levels of Day 1. Paramount among these is Jeffrey Cormier, a player who is always near the top of the leaderboard in major tournaments here at Playground Poker Club. Cormier will start the day with 13,350,000 in chips – a staggering 191bb stack. The rest of the players near the top of the leaderboard is like a who’s who of recent Canadian tournament performers, however, so Cormier is not going to move through the day unopposed!
Some of the notable players with important stacks include the players in 2nd and 3rd on the leaderboard to start Day 2: Ryan Yu and Griffin Benger. Other high-performing players in the mix (including several champions of past Playground big events): Francois Goulet (139bb), Dejuante Alexander (122bb), Ruben Perceval (118bb), Kevin Rivest (102bb), and Sebastien Drolet-Poitras (101bb).
Not so far behind are some other world-class players such as 2017 WSOP Main Event Champ Scott Blumstein (91bb) and Chris Moorman (87bb), among others.
Play today will continue through 12 40-minute levels with 15 minute breaks after every 3rd level of play. Good luck to everyone for a great restart and a great day of poker here at Playground Poker Club in the MILLIONS Open!
MILLIONS Open Prizes
| Rank | Pos | Prize | Prix |
|---|---|
| 1st | $210,000 |
| 2nd | $133,920 |
| 3rd | $88,000 |
| 4th | $58,000 |
| 5th | $40,000 |
| 6th | $28,000 |
| 7th | $20,000 |
| 8th | $15,000 |
| 9th | $12,000 |
| 10th-12th | $10,250 |
| 13th-14th | $9,000 |
| 15th-16th | $7,750 |
| 17th-24th | $6,500 |
| 25th-40th | $5,500 |
| 41st-64th | $4,750 |
| 65th-88th | $4,000 |
| 89th-112th | $3,500 |
| 113th-136th | $3,000 |
| 137th-143rd | $2,700 |