Below are the top stacks after 11 levels of play in this Day 1c of the Main Event:

1. Cheryl Leon – 252K
2. Mark Salerno – 204K
3. Mathieu Parent – 193K
4. Mike Costa – 186K
5. David St-Louis – 181K
6. Demo Kiriopoulos – 183K

Almost two levels have gone by since dinner break, which means we are nearing the end of Day 1c. Upon the completion of level 13, the players still in the tournament will bag and tag their chips onto Day 2.

Here are a few photos taken shortly after dinner:

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(52 Photos)

Thanh-Phong Bui went into the dinner break with 100. Not 100K – 100. A single black chip. The price of a single ante. Not much to work with…

Now, just 30 minutes into the first level after dinner, Thanh-Phong is up to over 72K, and making an impression on the entire room as he grows his stack. Such an impression, unfortunately for him, that he is now serving a 10-minute penalty for cheering his success too vigourously!

While on his unscheduled break his table broke – will he be able to reclaim the magic at his new table? We’ll be following this story to find out…

Players are back at the tables after the dinner break, recharged and ready to play the final 4 levels of the flight.

Here is a list of the chip leaders during the break.

1. Cheryl Leon – 190K
2. Steven Chu – 190K
3. Demo Kiriopoulos – 190K
4. Mark Salerno – 169K
5. Thanh Phong Trieu – 143K
6. Julien Sanscartier – 138K
7. Mike Costa – 132K
8. Casey Smith – 132K
9. Angus Wong – 130K
10. Xiao Peng – 126K

Here are some chip counts of some of the notable players in today field, counted during the dinner break.

• Alexandre Lavigne – 81K
• Ami Alibay – 67K
• Derek Lerner – 61K
• Henri Balcazar – 46K
• Johnny Mazzaferro – 49K
• Jonathan Duhamel – 82K
• Michael Malm – 23K
• Nicola Basile – 105K
• Philippe Plouffe – 79K
• Samuel Chartier – 49K
• Vincent Jacques – 20K

Players in Day 1c of the Main Event are now on a 45-minute break as they enjoy a meal from the free buffet and take some time to charge their batteries after 9 full levels of poker so far today.

With the end of the break following level 6 came the end of the final late registration period in the Main Event of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival. The total number of entries today is 540, which adds up to 1,063 entries overall in the event. Prize pool and payout information is being prepared now and will be made available as soon as possible.

During the break we surveyed the Tournament Hall for the chip leaders at this point in the flight, and found that there is already a massive chip leader and quite a few other players with strong stacks but following the leader from a distance.

1. Demo Kiriopoulos – 173K
2. Xiao Peng – 122K
3. Alexandre Bertrand – 120K
4. Ali Khan, Nicola Basile, Peter Zhou – 99K

In our early tour of the room, one thing became clear: there has been a resurgence in the popularity of the hat! Not baseball caps, a long-time staple of any poker player’s wardrobe, nor even a toque. We’re talking about real honest-to-goodness hats!

Here are some examples from today.

It’s early in the flight to talk about chip leaders, but there are a few players who have already started to accumulate a significant stack. All of the following players have more than 75K at this early point in the day.

• Ali Khan
• Richard Brinklow
• Normand St-Jean Thibodeau
• Julien Sanscartier
• Peter Zhou