Here are the final chip counts for Day 1a of The Wild $150, Event 1 of the Playground Winter Festival.

There were a total of 280 entrants in this first of four starting flights in Event 1, and 58 of these players have qualified for Day 2 on Sunday, March 1st at 1pm.

Note that these are unverified player-counted totals. All chips have been sealed in bags until they return to play on Day 2.

[eztable width=”100%” colwidth=”35%|35%|30%” colalign=”left|left|right”]
First Name,Last Name,Chip Count [attr sort=”desc”]
Gianfranco,Giordano,”284,600″
Edouard,Dupuis,”210,200″
Sebastien,Allain,”204,900″
Ian,Robillard,”198,900″
Jose,Manchon,”182,700″
Douglas,Best,”170,000″
Simon Pier,Belair-Grondin,”166,400″
Yves,Belair,”160,100″
Julian,Didone,”143,700″
Richard,Figiel,”138,000″
Francois,Cardinal,”137,700″
Davide,Giardino,”133,000″
Anthony,Carbery,”123,900″
Martin,Dej,”116,000″
Cole,Skye,”114,600″
Amir,Ahmed,”113,000″
Simon,Huard-Dufresne,”112,400″
Maxime,Auger,”111,900″
Richard,Myron,”108,700″
Marc Gabriel,Cyr,”104,900″
Rony,Cherfan,”104,100″
Francesco,Presta,”97,600″
Melanie,Ares,”96,700″
Philippe,Plouffe,”93,700″
Vo Victor,Ly,”93,100″
Jonathan,Bourdages,”92,700″
Francois,Blouin,”91,600″
Jefferson,Jocelyn,”90,900″
Rodney,Harris,”90,400″
Jean-Francois,Marin,”89,800″
Francois,Bergeron,”87,500″
Richard,Hardy,”86,400″
Walid,Otaky,”86,200″
Jonathan,Poissant,”81,600″
Jean,Laviolette,”79,200″
Sean,Windover,”75,800″
James,Wesley,”75,100″
Michel,Simoneau,”70,500″
Frederic,Cossette,”68,700″
Julien,Giguere,”66,500″
Eleuterio,De Miranda Guedes,”66,000″
Dave,Glube,”63,700″
Hugues,Belzile,”63,400″
Eric,Provencher,”58,300″
Michel,Allen,”57,300″
Bianca,Perron,”55,700″
Cadillac,,”53,600″
Norman,Gauthier,”51,000″
Richard,Berenbaum,”50,900″
Jean Michel,Mazingarbe,”49,200″
Adam,Cader,”42,500″
Carl,Blouin,”41,100″
David,Czaja,”40,100″
Sebastien,Drolet-Poitras,”37,900″
Todor,Petkov,”35,300″
Yannick,Boulanger,”34,000″
Carmine,Sorella,”32,200″
Denis,Blais,”26,300″
[/eztable]

Here are some photos of the action towards the end of level 13.

Play has begun in level 13 of today’s first of four starting flights in The Wild $150. This will be the last level of play today, and everyone who has survived the end of this level will have qualified for Day 2 on Sunday March 1st.

Players who were eliminated today – or those who survived, for that matter – may play any or all of the remaining 3 starting flights in the event. In the case of a player who qualifies for Day 2 through 2 different starting days, their smaller stack will be retired from play and they will proceed on Sunday with the largest stack they were able to build.

For a tournament at this buy-in level, The Wild $150 always attracts a surprisingly diverse group of players. Of course there are a lot of recreational players who take this opportunity to play a “Big Event” at a modest buy-in – but there are also players who can measure up at any table in the world, at any buy-in.

Here is a sampling of some of the players of note in today’s Day 1a flight.

Noted Tournament Players

• Ami Alibay
• Michael Malm
• Philippe Plouffe

Past Champions (or nearly champions)

• Daniel Gagnon
• Jessie Wheatley
• Steve Pouliot
• Mathieu Tanguay
• Benoit Pesant

Players are back from their first break of the day and registration for Day 1a has now closed. There were a grand total of 280 entries in this flight of The Wild $150 – which in our experience is a number (on a Friday afternoon) that suggests a great overall turnout for the event!

Of the 280 who started the day, 231 are still playing on the 24 remaining active tables. Play will be 10-handed for all of Day 1.

The Tournament Hall at Playground Poker Club at the beginning of Day 1a of The Wild $150 in the Playground Winter Festival 2015.

We’re just 20 minutes in to level 1 of today’s Day 1a flight of The Wild $150 and another 50+ players have taken their seats since the tournament began, which takes today’s registration number to just about 200 players. And more players are signing up every minute, so we can already pretty confidently conclude that this is going to be another blockbuster event!

The tournament director has made the introductory remarks and with that, the Playground Winter Festival has begun!

There are 136 players seated to start today’s Day 1a of The Wild $150, and registration is open until 10 past 1pm today, so that number will certainly climb. Remember – if you can’t make it to play today, you will be able to enter this event tonight at 7:30pm or you can try your luck in one (or both) of tomorrow’s starting flights!