The pace of play has slowed considerably and will stay relatively leisurely as the money bubble approaches. 108 places will pay in this tournament, and there are just 111 players left at the tables at this point. This tournament tends to not slow down to a complete crawl, but the length of time played today before we reached this point has meant that we’re not likely to sail right through the bubble as has happened in the past.

The players have just returned from their second break of the day as tournament staff removed the T500 chips from play.

Here’s the updated leaderboard compiled during the break.

Event 1 has now passed into level 17 but a quick survey of the big stacks at the end of level 16 shows that there have been some huge moves as the tournament gets deeper.

The current leader is Marc Doyer-St-Jean, who wasn’t even on the radar at the last break – he’s now playing over 625K! Hezkiel Menache, the chip leader going into level 16, has added over 100K more and is now playing with approximately 620K. Ryan Garonce and Glenn Sauvé are also both flirting with the half-million mark, while perhaps the biggest mover of them all is Eddie Daldalian, who had been playing between 80K and 110K until he blew his stack up to over 400K during the last level.

In terms of the players we have been following, both Diana Shamshoum and Dawn Cook have been eliminated. Isham Yamani is still comfortable with just a hair under 270K in his stack, and Ruben Perceval remains among the leaders with approximately 375K. André Boyer has remained just under 150K while Justin Miller is hovering comfortably around the 200K mark.

As level 16 begins, the black/white T100 chips have been removed from play and we took a few minutes to compile a new leaderboard after two levels of play. There have been some big movers in the tourney so far today, and that’s not likely to stop any time soon!

Hezkiel Menache

In a tournament like this there are always interesting situations and stories that develop over the starting days and then intensify as the whole event comes together. A few of these we’ll be trying to follow today…

• Diana Shamshoum and Dawn Cook: They played most of Day 1c together, and after the first few tables broke to start today, they have randomly been seated at the same table today.
• Isham Yamani: Isham has gone very deep in this event in the past, and reports came from several sources at the beginning of the day that he had already doubled his starting stack in the first 25 minutes of play. He is now sitting on close to 300K in chips which puts him squarely among the contenders for the chip lead.
• André Boyer: Although poker has famously become a young person’s game, André Boyer defied the trend this summer in Las Vegas and won a WSOP bracelet – one of only 2 Quebec-based players to do so this year. He is a regular participant in events at Playground, and seems to be in quite good shape early in Day 2.
• Justin Miller: Justin is an accomplished player who was a participant in perhaps the most famous single hand in Playground Poker Club history – the 4-way all-in hand that closed out the Canada Cup a couple of years ago. Justin stated today with over 100K in chips.
• Ruben Perceval: Ruben is a local player who is acknowledged by many of the best local tournament players to be among the best they face in big events – but he hasn’t “closed one out” yet here at Playground Poker Club. Ruben started the day as one of the top-5 chip leaders.

The tournament has moved to 40-minute levels today, and just half-way through the first level of the day there have already been 20 eliminations as players with at-risk stacks try and double up quickly. As mentioned earlier, this pace of play should continue for some time, but eventually the pace will slow.

Play is set to resume on Day 2 of Event 1 in the Montréal Poker Expo. The Strike Out Cancer event has been a tremendous success, with 1,186 entries in total and 290 of those players still alive in the tournament.

They’re playing for a share of a huge $155,307.00 prize pool. 108 positions pay, so the money bubble will be reached at some point towards the end of the afternoon. We expect the eliminations to begin very quickly at the beginning of today’s action but as the players settle in and as the bubble approaches, the pace of play will most likely slow down a little bit.

The chip leader to start the day is Judy L Miller, who managed to accumulate over 300K in tournament chips over the 13 Day 1 levels that were played. There are just 6 more players with over 200K in chips, so there is a very small group entering the day with a clear advantage over the field.

The players are now taking their seats and the TD has announced that play will resume in 5 minutes. Good luck to everyone still in the tournament!

This is the official seating chart for Day 2 of the Strike Out Cancer – Charity Event, Event 1 in the Montréal Poker Expo.

There were 4 starting flights in this tournament and a total of 1,186 entries. 290 players qualified for Day 2. Play resumes in level 14 at 12pm on Sunday August 23rd. When the tournament resumes, play will be 9-handed on 33 tables total. Play on Day 2 will continue for 13 levels and blinds will now be 40 minutes in length.

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Event 1 Day 2: Seating Draw