Players have just returned from their first break of the day and we took the opportunity to get full chip counts for the remaining field. The chip leader currently is Daniel Gagnon with 4.1M but he’s followed closely by Alexandre Lavigne with 3.6M.

1. Joakim Beaupré – 1,600,000
2. Derek Lerner – 2,100,000
3. Lorne Wechsler – 540,000
4. Michael Mellor – 900,000
5. Theodore Doukas – 250,000
6. Denis Cyr – 105,000
7. Amir Babakhani – 1,350,000
8. John Helou – 1,230,000
9. Kamal Hamai – 1,010,000

1. Gabriel Vézina – 1,290,000
3. Michael Malette – 2,635,000
4. Thi Nguyen – 780,000
5. Daniel Gagnon – 4,100,000
6. Daniel Gagné – 1,535,000
7. Amine Mouna – 665,000
8. Nicola Basile – 195,000
9. Mike Costa – 765,000

1. Chad Gray – 400,000
2. Presten Cloutier – 585,000
3. Noeung Troeung – 1,670,000
4. Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 905,000
6. Ami Alibay – 910,000
7. Rick Shamshoum – 1,340,000
8. Justin Chung – 1,290,000
9. Alexandre Lavigne – 3,600,000

Alain Jobin was the chip leader following the three Day 1s in the event and managed to remain among the chip leaders for much of Day 2 until the last two levels, when he lost much of his stack and only bagged up 247K at the end of Day 2.

In the first level of Day 3, however, he managed to build his stack very quickly back to over 1.5M – but now has hit the rail in 27th place. We don’t have details of the hand, but from accounts by players at the table the player who eliminated him made a tough hero call on a big river bluff by Alain.

A few minutes later Dustin Melanson was also eliminated in 26th position.

Andrew Pereira was eliminated in 29th place and Pierre Daigle in 28th place leaving just 27 players left in the Main Event. As per the rules of this event, there will be a full seating redraw and play will continue in level 25. There is a break following this level during which time we’ll update the chip counts for the remaining players.

Pierre was the chip leader to start the day but the hand prior to being eliminated he lost a huge hand to Alexandre Lavigne. Pierre and Alexandre were the only two in the hand on a flop of . Alexandre raised and Pierre went all-in over the top, and was called by Alexandre.

Pierre:
Alexandre:

Alexandre had outflopped and trapped Pierre. The runout of was no help and Alexandre stacked a massive pot and is the chip leader in the tournament.

Alexandre Lavigne

Here is the new seating arrangement.

Table 62

1. Joakim Beaupré
2. Derek Lerner
3. Lorne Wechsler
4. Michael Mellor
5. Theodore Doukas
6. Denis Cyr
7. Amir Babakhani
8. John Helou
9. Kamal Hamai

Table 65

1. Gabriel Vézina
2. Alain Jobin
3. Michael Malette
4. Thi Nguyen
5. Daniel Gagnon
6. Daniel Gagné
7. Amine Mouna
8. Nicola Basile
9. Mike Costa

Table 66

1. Chad Gray
2. Presten Cloutier
3. Noeung Troeung
4. Yannick Lamarre-Delooz
5. Dustin Melanson
6. Ami Alibay
7. Rick Shamshoum
8. Justin Chung
9. Alexandre Lavigne

A few more players have been eliminated just before the end of level 24. First to go was Alain Rondeau.

A few minutes later Jano Salbzian found himself very short stacked after having made a bad call (in his words) and got it in for less than 60K on the next hand from UTG. Chad Gray, to his immediate left, raised to 115K and everyone else including the blinds folded.

Jano:
Chad:

Jano hit on the flop of but the turn and river didn’t give him the lift he needed to pass the pocket Nines.

Immediately after Jano got his coupon at the tournament desk, both Carla Sabini and Dean Murphy – two mainstays of the Montreal tournament scene appeared as well.

Here are some photos from the first level that was played today in Day 3 of the Main Event.

Andrew Pereira

John Helou

Jano Salbzian

Michael Mellor

Yannick Lamarre-Delooz

Alexandre Lavigne

Joakim Beaupré

Dustin Melanson

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(33 Photos)

Two players have been eliminated in the first half of level 24. First to go was Saim Mumal, who busted on the first hand, followed 20 minutes later by Patrick Braga. Both players started the day with short stacks.

Meanwhile, one of the other short stacks to start the day, Alain Jobin, has built his chip count up from under 250K to over 1.5M.

The players have all arrived to start Day 3 in the Main Event of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival, the TD has just made the introductory announcements and now the clock has started to count down level 24. Blinds are 60 minutes long today and play will continue until an official final table of 9 players remains.

Day 3 of the Main Event of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival will get underway in just under 12 hours, and with 35 players remaining the field is stacked with talent!

The current chip leader, Pierre Daigle, started Day 2 with just about 50,000 chips in play but managed to chip up quickly to the point that he was among the leaders all day. Players like Michael Malette and Noeung Troeung were among the leaders for most of the day as well.

There are some other players who played more modest stacks who now find themselves near the top of the leaderboard – most notably Alexandre Lavigne, who has had remarkable success in events at Playground Poker Club in the past year.

Also lurking on the leaderboard are quite a few extremely accomplished players with a long history of top results at the top levels of the game whether online or live. First on this list is Montreal’s own Derek Lerner, but anyone who overlooks players like Ami Alibay, Carla Sabini, or Patrick Braga will most likely regret it eventually.

Special mention should also go to Nicola Basile, a Toronto-area player who is a frequent visitor to Playground for big events and recently made a deep run in the inaugural WPT 500 at Aria in Las Vegas, and (for an entirely other reason) Mike Costa, who flew to Montreal at the last minute, had a friend late register for him and had his stack blind off for about 2 levels past late reg just to get in the tournament in the first place.

Good luck to everyone still in the event. Day 3 is sure to be a fantastic day of poker!