As play nears the money, we just saw a huge pot develop between former chip leader Yannick Cyr, who recently dropped the rankings, and Israel Pantaleon.

Richard Leger was the initial raiser in the hand, as he opened to 27,500 from early position. Yannick Cyr then moved in his roughly 300,000 in the middle, and was called by Israel Pantaleon, who was just barely covered with his 279,500 stack. Richard regrettably folded his hand, leaving the two heads-up.

Yannick:
Israel:

Board:

Yannick was left with only 2 big blinds after the hand.

We are starting to get close to the money bubble in Event 10, as the field has been shrunk to just two tables. The top 14 will receive a cash prize, but all the players have that sweet top prize of $4,135 cash in mind, which of course is accompanied by a beautiful Montréal Poker Expo Champions Trophy!

Here is a look at the final two tables:

We have been reduced down to the final three tables here in Event 10 in the Montréal Poker Expo, and Yannick Cyr is miles ahead of the field, holding a stack upwards of 3 times the average. Here is a look at the top stacks heading into level 15.

Here are the current chip leaders of Event 10, as play enters level 9.

With the registration period now closed, we saw a total of 132 players turn up for Event 10 in the Montréal Poker Expo. Since this is a 1-day event, play will continue until we have a champion, who will earn himself a Montréal Poker Expo Champion’s Trophy, as well as a sweet cash prize (which is being tabulated by the tournament directors as we speak – stay tuned!).

As the final starting flight of the Main Event winds down, Event 10 will be starting up, the $135 + $15 NL Hold’em 3 Lives event in the Montréal Poker Expo!

This event is very cool – instead of a normal starting stack, players receive 3 “Life” chips at the beginning of the tournament, each one worth 10,000 tournament chips. During the first 4 levels, players may redeem this “Life” chips as they wish. A player can choose to start with 30,000 chips on the table, or alternatively they could choose to start with 10K in chips and keep 2 lives behind, to be redeemed if they bust their initial stack. At the end of the 4th level, all remaining Life chips will be redeemed and the tournament continues as a normal Freezeout tourney.

This format has been popular as a Pot Limit Omaha tournament in the past, and this is the second time in a Playground festival that it will be used in a NL Hold’em event – it should be pretty popular!

Play begins at 8pm and this is a one-day tournament, so it will conclude in the early hours of the morning.

Good luck!