The break following level 6 has ended and with that comes the end of late registration in the Main Event. The 315 entries today, added to the 179 from yesterday adds up to a total of 494 entries. That means there is a very small overlay in the event. Tournament staff is working on preparing the final prize pool and payout information now and we’ll have that information to publish shortly.

Interestingly enough, the leader after 6 levels has slightly less chips than the chip leader after 3 levels! After 6 levels of play, local regular Fadi Haddad is in charge of the field, being the only player above the 100,000 at this stage of the tournament. Here is a look at the top 5, along with their estimated chip counts:

1. Fadi Haddad – 114,000
2. Vartan Arzoumanian – 95,500
3. Noy – 95,000
4. Marc-Andre Racine – 88,000
5. Jonathan Meyer – 87,000

Playground Poker Club has an active tournament scene with over 75 scheduled tournaments per month, ranging from $60 to $165 each (not including special events). At the top end of this range, tournament players frequently play with/against established professionals, while the lower end is a great introduction to tournament poker for players of all backgrounds.

Over the past few years the community has been quite strong, and the quality of play is such that those daily regulars are very comfortable playing in much bigger events – and a lot of them are in the field today.

Some of the more talented and/or experienced among our “locals” in the action today:

• Noy
• Nick Nickoletopoulos
• David Bolduc Hamel
• Luciano Iacovella
• Levon Dedayen
• Marc-Andrée Racine
• Tomas Larivee Magni
• Steve Toulch
• Linda Huard
• Dany Hamel Boulay
• Fadi Haddad
• Michael Mellor
• Jamieson Flores
• Nick Soller
• Rick Shamshoum
• Diana Shamshoum
• Andy D’Allesandro
• Kathy Sawers

Here are a few more photos of the action today.

Photos from level 4 and 5

Play has been completed through 3 levels today and while players were on their first break of the day, we surveyed the room to put together the initial leaderboard in today’s flight.

1. Nabil Assaff – 116K
2. Conrado Corpus – 96K
3. Vartan Arzoumanian – 90K

Behind these clear leaders, there are many players trailing closely in the 65K – 75K range.

It’s remarkable that these three players have grown their stacks to beyond 3x of the starting stack in just 3 levels of play – but none of them will feel comfortable since there’s so much time left to play today. A big stack in level 4 guarantees a player… nothing at all!

As was the case on Day 1a, yesterday, there are some notable players in the field today. There isn’t a single set of criteria that makes a player “notable” for the purposes of this blog – some of these players have had wide international success, others are local poker hotshots who have yet to break through, and still others are notable for other reasons!

• Carla Sabini – Carla is a fixture in big events here at Playground Poker, but also spends a lot of time travelling to events around the world. She had a great week in London in 2013 when she used her winnings from a 30th place finish in the EPT London Main Event to buy in to the High Roller event – and made it to the final table, finishing 4th!
• Vlad Faubert – Vlad hasn’t had the international breakthrough that many of his fellow Quebec-based pros have had, but no one underestimates his talent, and he is an absolute beast in tournaments at Playground Poker Club, having cashed in at least 10 events in the past.
• Eric Afriat – Eric is one of the most celebrated poker players from Montreal, having followed years of success in tournaments around the world with a signature >$1M victory in a WPT event in Florida last year.
• Steve Toulch – Steve is a regular big-event player at Playground Poker Club and though he hasn’t had the huge tournament victories of some others, he is nevertheless very recognizable for the TV coverage he received during a series of hands he played against Scotty Nguyen in the WSOP Main Event 2010.

Play in Day 1b is approaching the end of level 2 and there are already 267 players in this flight, a number that continues to grow quite quickly.

Photos from levels 1 and 2:

The preliminary announcements have been made and play has begun in Day 1b of the Main Event!

Participation today is already much stronger than yesterdays Day 1b, with 205 players already seated and another 6 levels of late registration available. Players receive a full 30K chip stack when they late register, so players who jump in the event late are not at a disadvantage relative to players seated now.

Good luck to everyone today!

Day 1a is in the books and so far 52 players have qualified for Day 2 of the Main Event of the Playground Winter Festival. Today is Day 1b – the second and final starting flight in the Main Event. We’re expecting that many more players will be joining the action today, including many players playing for the first time but also a substantial number of players who will be firing their second bullet in this re-entry event.

With 179 entries yesterday and a $500K guarantee, this tournament is officially in “overlay zone” – which means there’s a chance that the number of entries won’t meet the guaranteed prize pool. In effect, if this happens it’s free money for players – and underlines the huge amount of value in this tournament.