Registration is now closed for Day 1b, and a total of 305 players have bought in to this second flight of the Main Event of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival. With yesterday’s 218 entries, the total for the Main Event is up to 523 entries!

Now that the players have taken a rest to fill their bellies with the provided buffet, we are back in action here in Day 1b. With only 3 hours left of play, we can expect to see a lot of movement amongst the stacks. Those who fail to qualify on to Day 2 will have a last chance to do so tomorrow, with Day 1c at 11:00am.

While the players are enjoying a 45-minute break, we went ahead and found the top stacks of the tournament. Here is a list of players who have already climbed into the 6-figures:

1. Theodore Doukas – 223K
2. Alain Jobin – 210K
3. Gaetano DiMaria – 182K
4. Senthuran Vijayaratnam – 159K
5. Kamal Hamai – 147K
6. Kevin Rivest – 146K
7. Michael Mellor – 143K
8. Vinh Lieu – 136K
9. Vlad Faubert – 132K
10. Denis Cyr – 131K
11. John Portelance – 129K
12. Philippe Landy – 123K
13. Gabriel Alarie – 122K
14. Tim O’Grady – 116K
15. Richard Bourgeois – 114K
16. Staurt Taylor – 110K
17. Domenic Vannelli – 103K
18. Jonathan Bussieres – 104K

Some notables include:

• Samuel Chartier – 48K
• Marc Etienne Mclaughlin – 88K
• Amir Babakhani – 99K
• Patrick Braga – 74K
• Ami Alibay – 25K

There are 4 more levels to play before the end of the day.

With less than 25 minutes left on the clock for level 9, the dinner break is fast approaching. Players will have 45 minutes to relax, eat and prepare themselves for the final 4 levels of play for Day 1b. During that time, we will bring you some updates on chip counts, but for now, we’ve prepared a small album of photos from the last hour or so:

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Tony Di Maria is a regular Playground big event visitor and well-known in many circles of the Montreal poker community, having been one of the finalists in the last Montreal Open held a couple of years ago.

Well, Tony has had a great run of cards (and play) and is, for the moment, the chip leader by a long way, with well over 200K in his stack.

Players are on their second break of the day – which also marks the end of the late registration period for today – and while they were away from the tables we surveyed the room for the chip leaders in today’s Day 1b flight.

1. Alain Jobin – 122K
2. Nektarios Papadedes – 99K
3. Gary Lucci – 95K
4. Peter Koumoutsidis – 91K
5. Theodor Dokas & Benoit Desmarais – 88K

The next break will be the 45-minute long dinner break, when we’ll be able to get some more exhaustive counts.

We have just entered level 6, which means that in a little less than 1-hour, registration for this Day 1b will close. Attendance has climbed up to 305 players, with still one more starting flight to go, as Day 1c is schedule at 11:00am tomorrow.

Here are a few more photos taken during levels 4 and 5:

Samuel Chartier

Ryan Sgrignuoli

Anthony Fiumidinisi

Viken Artinian

Garry Lucci

Chanracy Khun

Louis-Philippe Carpentier-Perreault

Vlad Faubert

Daniel Schreiber

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It’s early to tally up the leaders in the tournament, but a quick tour of the room shows quite a few players have doubled or more to start the event and are hovering above 65K. Some of the players in this group include Marc Etienne McLaughlin, Danny Freitas, David Diplacido, and Michael Skinner.

In terms of the overall entries, Day 1b has crept up over 300 for this second flight with another hour and forty-five minutes to late register.

Day 1b is up to 269 entries most of the way through level 2. Here are some photos we took during level 1 of today’s flight.

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The opening announcements have been made and the clock has started to count down the first of 13 45-minute levels to be played today in the second flight of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival Main Event.

As usual, Day 1b has attracted many more entries than the first flight – at the beginning of play today there are already more entries than the total from yesterday. With about 25% or more of the field today due to come during the late registration period (between now and 4pm), it’s looking like a very healthy field today!

It’s a slightly overcast Saturday morning in the Montreal area and poker players are gathering at Playground Poker Club to start Day 1b of the Main Event of the Playground Poker Montreal Festival. To get started this morning there are 190 players around the tables, but with late registration continuing until 4pm it’s certain that the first of two weekend starting flights will be a heavily-attended affair.

Good luck to everyone playing today!