Level 13 is underway in the Main Event, and those who still have chips upon the completion of this level will bag their chips onto Day 2.
Photographs from level 12:
Last break for Day 1a
The last break of Day 1a has just finished, and only two 45-minute levels remain before players bag their chips for Day 2. There are still two more flights for this Main Event of the Montréal Poker Expo, with Day 1b scheduled for tomorrow 11am, and Day 1c on Sunday at 11am.
Here are the top stacks at this last break:
| Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Leandre St-Laurent | 202,000 |
| Rejean Grenier | 187,000 |
| Jean-Francois Bouchard | 186,000 |
| Russ Radom | 164,000 |
| Michael Noor | 162,000 |
| Jonathan Poissant | 157,000 |
| Levi Stevens | 143,500 |
Photo update
We are mid-way through level 11, and by peeking over the shoulders, we determined that the chip leaders at the moment are Leandre St-Laurent (~250,000), Russ Radom (~175,000) and Rejean Grenier (~170,000).
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- Leandre St-Laurent
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- Russ Radom
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- Rejean Grenier
Photos from levels 10 and 11:
Russ Radom leads after 9 levels of play
The tournament staff is racing off the T25 chips as the players are on a short break, and Russ Radom has chipped up into the chiplead, and now holds 187,500. Former big stack Sylvain Siebert has been quite volatile lately, and has dropped below the 100,000 mark as he doubled up a few opponents on his table, however his stack is still above average and quite healthy.
Here is a look at the leaderboard as play enters level 10:
| Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Russ Radom | 187,300 |
| Réjean Grenier | 173,400 |
| Marcello Rosa | 166,000 |
| Jean-François Bouchard | 157,000 |
| Denis A Roussy | 131,000 |
| Claudemir De Oliveira | 112,200 |
| Jonathan Poissant | 105,000 |
Photos from level 9:
Level 8 complete
Time has just run out in level 8, and at the moment it is still Sylvain Siebert who is leading the field, as he has climbed to nearly 200,000. Marcello Rosa and Jean-Francois Bouchard are also maintaining their position amongst the leaders. Rejean Grenier has joined them recently, as he has been stacking quite a few chips lately, breaching the 100,000 mark.
Photographs from levels 7 and 8:
Lefort gets some breathing room
Thomas Lefort found himself very short-stacked and went all-in from the cutoff for his last 5,725 in tournament chips. Denis Quirion didn’t think too hard about it and just flat called and it looked like both blinds were about to fold when Sylvain Siebert in the big blind thought better of it and tossed in calling chips as well.
The flop was dripping: 
and both live players checked. The dealer turned over the 
and again both players checked. On the river 
Sylvain exclaimed that he won as the betting went check-check once again. Sylvain turned over 
for two pair – which would very often rate to be good in that spot – but Thomas tabled 
for a rivered straight and the triple up.
Bouchard wins big pot, jumps in the leaderboard
Jean-Francois Bouchard has been amongst the big stacks for most of this Day 1a, and although he recently lost a few chips, he just took a huge pot of table-mate Jeffrey Cormier to regain a spot atop the leaderboard.
Apart from a preflop raise, action was rather quiet until the turn, with a board showing 
. This is where things blew up, as we saw a raising war between the two players which finished when both of their stacks were in the middle. Jeffrey opened up 
for two-pair, but was drawing dead to Jean-Francois and his set of 
. To add insult to injury, the river brought the 
, filling up both players.
With that pot, Jean-Francois jumped up to over 125,000, which is likely one of the biggest stacks in the room.
Jean-Francois Bouchard
Siebert jumps into the lead
It’s only been half a level since we last did an update on the chip counts, and at the time Sylvain Siebert was in 2nd place holding just north of 100,000. Since then, he has increased his stack to nearly 180,000, putting him in the driver seat of this Day 1a.
Late registration is now over, and this starting flight saw a total of 144 players. Play has been brought down to 9-handed poker, and will remain so until the end of the day.
Sylvain Siebert
Day 1a leaderboard plus photos
Late registration is now closed and there are a grand total of 144 entries in today’s Day 1a. This is typically the smallest (by far) of the starting flights in an event like this – so in fact this is quite a decent total for today.
Two players have jumped out to an early lead as their stacks surpass 100K but the leaderboard trends quickly to smaller stacks and there are quite a few players below the 75K it took to make the leaderboard who are still looking to make a bigger move than just doubling their starting stack.
That being said, there are still a full 7 levels to be played today – more than enough time for someone to build a stack with which to make a run on Day 2.
| Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Stephane Dallaire | 102,500 |
| Sylvain Siebert | 100,500 |
| Leandre St-Laurent | 91,000 |
| Jean François Bouchard | 84,000 |
| Jeffrey Cormier | 75,000 |
| Marcello Rosa | 75,000 |
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- Kenny Bogart
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- Jean-Philippe Piquette
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- Daniel Gagnon
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- Joey Boczek
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- Levi Stevens
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- Stephane Dallaire
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- Mike Lafable
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- Jean-Francois Bouchard
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- Yohann Wagner
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- Ramon De La Cruz
The 2nd break approaches
Play in the Main Event of the Montréal Poker Expo has progressed most of the way through level 6, and at the end of the 15-minute break following this level, late registration will close. During the break we’ll be putting together a leaderboard for today’s starting flight as well as updating the photos of the event.
