Cong Son Dao just added heaps of new chips to his stack, as he knocked out two opponents in one hand.

He opened from utg+1 to 78,000, and was 3bet to 190,000 by Kenny Bogart, who was next to act. Giovanni Massa moved all-in for a little less, as his total stack was of 170,000. Cong committed the extra 112,000 to go see a pot 3-way.

Cong tank-checked first to act on the flop of , but couldn’t call quickly enough when Kenny announced his all-in (for almost 700,000).

Cong:
Kenny:
Giovanni:

Cong was in great shape to win a huge pot, and with the running cards bringing the , he did just that, eliminating two players in the process. Kenny placed in 15th, collecting $7,090, while Giovanni picked up a cash of $6,080 for his 16th place finish. Cong increased his stack to just over 2.5 million with that pot, putting him amongst the chip leaders.

Chanracy Khun has been in the middle-to-back of the pack in terms of his stack size for most of the day, but he just completed a full double up through David Sorgente to move him much closer to the chip average with 16 players left in the tournament.

Preflop, Chanracy opened from the button to around 55K and David made the call from the big blind. The flop was dealt: .

David was first to act, and he checked it to Chanracy, who opened to 60K. David then raised to 150K, and after 15-20 seconds of thinking about it, Chanracy re-raised all-in to 466K. Now it was David’s turn to think, and he thought about it a lot more than Chanracy had. Finally he made the call and the two hands were tabled.

Chanracy:
David:

Chanracy was a 9-1 favourite, and the remaining community cards did nothing for David and Chan made the pure double. He now sits at around 1.1M in chips.

Jason Mandanici-Turcot was in the small blind when he 3bet shoved from 305,000, facing a late-position open to 75,000 form Kenny Bogart. Kenny made the call and the players tabled their hands.

Jason:
Kenny:

Jason was one heart short of making the nut flush on the , and was eliminated in 17th from this Main Event in the Montréal Poker Expo. He was awarded with $6,080 for his deep run, while Kenny climbed to around 1,130,000 in chips.

Chan An Luong opened to 90,000 from under the gun, and when action folded around to Jason Mandanici-Turcot in the big blind, he announced all-in. Chan An, holding a stack of 460,000, made the call to go heads-up.

Chan An:
Jason:

The window cards would make it hard for Jason to win the hand, as it was a jack, and the board of ran in favour of Chan An, who doubled to nearly 1 million. Jason was left with a little over 300,000 after the hand.

Robert Johnson opened from middle position to 55K and Miltiadis Mavrigiannakis went all-in for his last 280K (approximately). Robert asked for a count, and when the stack was broken down but before he got the total he just asked, “is it less than 300?” It was – the stack was clearly countable from across the table – and Robert made the call.

Miltiadis:
Robert:

Robert was dominated, but it proved to be irrelevant – Miltiadis didn’t connect at all and Robert got by far the best of it as these community cards were dealt: .

Robert has grown his stack to over 2.5M in chips.

18th place: Miltiadis Mavrigiannakis, $6,080

Here is an update on the full chip counts of the remaining 18 players, as they return from a short break and enter level 24. Eric Aucoin had amassed a stack of nearly 3.5 million not long ago, but a few recent hands brought him back closer to the field, although he still holds the lead.

First Name	Last Name	Seat	Chip Count
Leandre	St-Laurent	Table 66 - Seat 1	467,000
Jonathan	Brassard	Table 66 - Seat 2	1,325,000
Cong Son	Dao	Table 66 - Seat 3	1,275,000
Kenny	Bogart	Table 66 - Seat 4	780,000
Giovanni	Massa	Table 66 - Seat 5	250,000
Jason	Mandanici-Turcot	Table 66 - Seat 6	864,000
Jared	Newcombe	Table 66 - Seat 7	1,790,000
Chan An	Luong	Table 66 - Seat 8	438,000
Kevin	MacDonald	Table 66 - Seat 9	1,615,000
Chanracy	Khun	Table 70 - Seat 1	541,000
Miltiadis	Mavrigiannakis	Table 70 - Seat 2	242,000
Angelo	Cusinato	Table 70 - Seat 3	863,000
Azim	Popatia	Table 70 - Seat 4	1,075,000
David	Sorgente	Table 70 - Seat 5	869,000
Xin	Qi	Table 70 - Seat 6	666,000
Marcello	Miceli	Table 70 - Seat 7	1,561,000
Robert	Johnson	Table 70 - Seat 8	2,327,000
Eric	Aucoin	Table 70 - Seat 9	2,471,000

Just before the break Azim Popatia got it all in and found a call from Eric Aucoin. Before any cards were dealt Eric said, “You’re probably good” to which Azim replied, “I know I’m good…”

Eric:
Azim:

The flop hit Azim but was nevertheless pretty scary: :9g but the turn and river were clean and he doubled to over 1M.

The pace of play has continued to be very fast and a full table’s worth of players have left the tournament in less than a single level of play. With 18 players left there was a full redraw of tournament seats – play continues in level 23 in the following configuration.

First Name	Last Name	Seat
Leandre	St-Laurent	Table 66 - Seat 1
Jonathan	Brassard	Table 66 - Seat 2
Cong Son	Dao	Table 66 - Seat 3
Kenny	Bogart	Table 66 - Seat 4
Giovanni	Massa	Table 66 - Seat 5
Jason	Mandanici-Turcot	Table 66 - Seat 6
Jared	Newcombe	Table 66 - Seat 7
Chan An	Luong	Table 66 - Seat 8
Kevin	MacDonald	Table 66 - Seat 9
Chanracy	Khun	Table 70 - Seat 1
Miltiadis	Mavrigiannakis	Table 70 - Seat 2
Angelo	Cusinato	Table 70 - Seat 3
Azim	Popatia	Table 70 - Seat 4
David	Sorgente	Table 70 - Seat 5
Xin	Qi	Table 70 - Seat 6
Marcello	Miceli	Table 70 - Seat 7
Robert	Johnson	Table 70 - Seat 8
Eric	Aucoin	Table 70 - Seat 9

Recent Eliminations

• Yohann Wagner, 23rd place
• Mikael Guenard, 22nd place
• Dejan Kovinic, 21st place
• Faisal Khan, 20th place
• Alberto Scuderi, 19th place

A huge pot just developed on table 70, resulting in a new chip leader.

We caught up to the action on the flop in a three-way pot between Chan An Luong, Mikael Guenard and Eric Aucoin. With the board showing , Chan An fired a bet of 185,000 into a pot which already had a few hundred thousand in it. Mikael 3bet all-in from the cutoff for 517,000, and Eric then 4bet all-in for around twice that amount from the button. Chan An went into the tank for a minute, before folding what he later said was Ax 8x.

Mikael and Eric were then asked to table their hands, and Mikael saw he was in big trouble with only , as his opponent flop a set with . The running and brought no change, eliminating Mikael in the process.

With that pot, Eric climbed to around 2,600,000, and took over the chip lead here in Day 3 of the Main Event in the Montréal Poker Expo. Moments later he scooped another big pot off of Chan An, bringing him up to around 3,200,000.

Only 19 remain, and with one more elimination we will have another full seating redraw.

Eliminations have been stacking up as the pace of play has picked up quite a bit since the tournament became a 3 table affair. Just since then we have already lost the following players:

• Michelle Reyes, 27th place
• Poorya Nazari, 26th place
• Buck Ramsay, 25th place
• Jean Francois Bouchard, 24th place
• Yohann Wagner, 23rd place

Play continues with 22 players on 3 tables. There will be another redraw at 18 players remaining, when the tournament moves to 2 tables.