Level 23 has just begun, and this is scheduled to be the last level of play for today. Once the clock runs out, the surviving players will bag their chips in preparation for Day 3, tomorrow at 12:00pm.

The last break of Day 2 of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival Main Event is just about over, and there are two 1-hour levels left before players bag for Day 3. A number of players have already breached the 7-figure mark, and this is what the leaderboard looks like at the moment:

1. Noeung Troeung – 2,110,000
2. Pierre Daigle – 1,890,000
3. Gabriel Vezina – 1,323,000
4. Alain Jobin – 1,227,000
5. Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 1,140,000
6. Mike Costa – 1,105,000
7. Dean Murphy – 1,075,000
8. Presten Cloutier – 1,010,000

Other notable counts:

• Alexandre Lavigne – 936,000
• Ami Alibay – 835,000
• Amir Babakhani – 255,000
• Carla Sabini – 769,000
• Derek Lerner – 702,000
• Patrick Braga – 490,000

Here are a few photos from level 21:

We’ve seen a number of players hit the rail since the money has burst, and only 67 remain of the 300 that started Day 2. There are still three 1-hour levels left to play before the tournament goes on pause until Day 3.

While the players are enjoying a 45 minute break, we went around the room to see who’s leading the field. Here’s an approximation of the current leaderboard:

1. Noeung Troeung – 1,775,000
2. Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 985,000
3. Mike Costa – 849,000
4. Pierre Daigle – 820,000
5. Rick Shamshoum – 810,000
6. Dean Murphy – 770,000
7. Alain Jobin – 726,000

Below you’ll find an album of photos taken in the levels leading up to the bubble (17, 18 & 19):

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(47 Photos)

Hand for Hand play on the bubble continued for over 45 minutes but now the bubble has burst and Jonathan Skelly was eliminated in 118th place. The remaining players are all in the money.

Hand-for-hand play featured no shortage of action, with a few all-in and calls (all double-ups) and even more uncalled all-in bets. Finally, though, Jonathan was left with no more than a small blind’s worth in his stack and he was all in whether he wanted to be or not.

Play is now hand for hand as the tournament has wound it’s way down to 118 players remaining.

Here are counts of some of the notable players left in the field:

• Alain Jobin – 399,000
• Alexandre Lavigne – 145,000
• Ami Alibay – 505,000
• Amir Babakhani – 106,000
• Carla Sabini – 252,000
• Derek Lerner – 253,000
• Jeff Cote – 293,000
• Jean-Philippe Piquette – 20,000
• Josue Sauvageau – 262,000
• Nicola Basile – 333,000
• Patrick Braga – 240,000
• Yannick Lamarre-Delooz – 429,000

We’re at the start of level 18 and players have just returned from a break while tournament staff removed the blue T500 chips from play. With just 130 players left and the bubble at 117, the tournament is getting very close to the bubble.

The leaders to start level 18 are…

1. Noeung Troeung – 1,021,000
2. Pierre Daigle – 712,000
3. Mike Costa – 596,000
4. Peter Senecal – 550,000
5. Kalpesh Raichura – 548,000

Michael Mallette has been having a great day, but we just saw a pretty typical hand in which he ended up shipping something north of 150K across the table. When we arrived at the table short-stacked Sylvain Cote was already all in and Michael had shoved over top to isolate. Unfortunately for him, Denis Cyr had a hand – he called to go all in for his tournament life.

The hands:

Sylvain:
Michael:
Denis:

The community cards came out to give no help to either man holding an Ace, and Denis stacked up the chips.

It’s 15 minutes into level 17 and the leaderboard is remaining more or less intact with Noeung Troeung way ahead of the pack – he’s up over 850K now. Michael Mallette has done well since the break with 620K, and after that are a few players all hovering around the 500K mark: HongKong Nguyen, Joakim Beaupré, Rick Shamshoum, Theodore Doukas, and Peter Senecal are all there.

Rick Shamshoum

Peter Senecal

Noeung Troeung

HongKong Nguyen

Joakim Beaupré