The Main Event’s first flight is on its second break of the day, and registration is moments away from closing. We will be back shortly with the final count of players for today. For the moment, here are the top stacks entering level 7:

1. Carl Laberge – 102,000
2. Jonathan Brule – 91,000
3. Nicolas Bastien – 89,000
4. Daniel Gagne – 84,000
5. Hubert Paquin-Moisan – 83,000
6. Jacques Iza – 82,000
7. Shawn Martell – 79,000
8. Kevin MacPhee – 78,000

Notable eliminations include back-to-back WPT Montreal final tableist Alexandre Lavigne, and local hero Ruben Perceval.

172 players have registered through 5 levels of play, and registration will remain open until roughly 4pm.

Photographs from levels 4 and 5:

Many of the players registering late for today’s Day 1a of the Main Event are stronger, more experienced players. Two more have just joined the action – Carter Swidler and Amir Babakhani.

Amir is best known for having won the first WPT Canadian Spring Championship here at Playground Poker Club in 2013, but he also final tabled the WPT Montreal the following year and came 9th in the WPT World Championship in 2013.

Carter’s most recent success was a very deep run in the 2015 PCA Main Event in the Bahamas – while simultaneously final tabling the Sunday Supersonic on Pokerstars!

Samuel Chartier and Jean-Philippe Piquette have both just taken their seats in the event. Samuel has over $1.8M in career live tournament earnings, including a 5th place in the most recent WPT Montreal, while Jean-Philippe is a Players Club member and has the distinction of having won two championship belts in a single festival in 2012. Both are professional players who are well known to everyone at Playground Poker Club.

As the field fills out today, some more interesting players have taken their seats. Here’s a sampling…

• Josue Sauvageau – Josue is a regular visitor for big events at Playground, and has had some top results over the years, including an 11th place finish in the 2012 WPT Montreal and a 5th place at the 2014 WPT at Fallsview.
• Ami Alibay – Ami is well-known to everyone at Playground and has devoted more than a year to his poker career after great success as an entrepreneur and nightclub owner in the Montreal area. Ami has has a lot of success over the past few years at events in North America and Europe, including a 2nd place finish in a High Roller event here at Playground Poker Club.
• Rayan Chamas – Rayan is primarily an online pro, but he has had a couple of notable live results as well, including a past final table visit in a $3.3K Main Event here at Playground Poker Club.
• Alexandre Lavigne – Alexandre only has results published from here at Playground, but they’re impressive results, including a final table visit in the 2013 WPT Montreal.
• Ruben Perceval – Ruben doesn’t have a lot of live tournament cashes on his record at Hendon Mob, but he’s very well respected among local tournament players. No one is happy to find themselves moved to his table when their table breaks.

The Main Event is on it’s first break of the day, and with only 3 levels completed, we’ve already lost 10 players so far. Here is a list of the early chip leaders, along with their approximate chip counts:

1. Nicolas Bastien – 76,500
2. Sergio Vigano – 72,000
3. John Zioulas – 61,500
4. Marie-Pier Simard – 60,500
5. Charles La Boissonniere – 58,000
6. Edward Hislop – 55,000
7. Hubert Paquet-Moisan – 54,500

Photographs taken during level 3:

We’ve done a quick survey of the field so far, and there are definitely some players to watch in the event so far.

• Kevin MacPhee – one of the leading pros in the field, Kevin has almost $3.5M in live tournament earnings, and his results include an impressive 4th place finish in last fall’s WPT Montreal, held right here at Playground Poker Club.
• Chris “D0r1t0s” McClung – Chris is a member of the Players Club and has just under $600K in live tournament earnings, with published results going back to 2006.
• Jason “Bébé Chien” Duval – a Players Club member, Jason is one of the best-known of the “new” Quebecois poker pros. A WSOP bracelet winner, Jason has almost $1M in career live tournament earnings and a fearsome reputation for aggressive play at the table.
• George Caragiorgas – Marathon George is a Players Club member with an impressive record of results both here at Playground Poker Club and in his memorable deep run at the 2009 WSOP Main Event, in which he finished 20th.
• Marco Caza – Marco is well-known on the Montreal tournament scene and has been on quite a heater in the past few months, with wins in the Série Royale at the local casino and deep runs in events at both the PCA in the Bahamas (January) and Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls (February).
• Patrick Braga – Patrick may not consider himself a poker pro, but he has enough results to be put on any list of notable players in this event. Patrick’s biggest result to date is his win in the 2013 FPS Deauville Main Event.
• Jean-François Marin – Jean-François is not a “known” player, but he already has two cashes in this festival including a first-place finish in Event 1, The Wild $150.
• Alan Yifan Dong – Yifan is a local tournament regular who may not have the gaudy results of some of the other players in the event, but he’s a solid player with a well-deserved reputation among locals.
• Jason Comtois – Jason’s poker resume is short, but includes a very significant entry: he was the winner of a previous $1,100 Main Event here at Playground Poker Club.

Level 3 is about to start, and a few more players have registered in this last level. Day 1A is schedule to play for thirteen 45-minute levels, and those still around at that point will bag and tag their chips onto Day 2, which will be held Sunday at 12:00pm.

Level 2 photos:

The Main Event has just jumped into level 2, and registration is still climbing! For now we’ve seen 135 players take their seats, but registration will remain open until around 4pm.

Level 1 photos:

The tournament director has made his opening announcements and given the traditional command:

Dealers, Shuffle up and deal!

And with that, the $500K Guaranteed Main Event of the Playground Winter Festival has begun. Players start with 30K in tournament chips and blind levels today are 45 minutes long.

As it’s 11am on a Friday, and as poker players are, well, people who keep poker players’ hours, we’re expecting a large number of people to take advantage of late registration. Registration is open until 4pm, so there’s lots of time for players to arrive at Playground Poker Club and take their seats in this fantastic event.

Good luck to everyone in the event!