Here are full chip counts for the remaining 39 players who went to the most recent break.

Click (or tap) on a column header to sort the table.

[eztable width=80% colwidth=30%|30%|20% colalign=center|middle|center]
Table – Seat [attr sort=asc],Name,Chip Count
Table 60 – Seat 1,Shawn Martell,”479,000″
Table 60 – Seat 2,Jonathan Poissant,”535,000″
Table 60 – Seat 3,Danny Lauzon,”185,000″
Table 60 – Seat 4,Norman Doucette,”503,000″
Table 60 – Seat 5,Serge Pouliot,”752,000″
Table 60 – Seat 6,Amir Babakhani,”148,000″
Table 60 – Seat 7,Levon Dedeyan,”476,000″
Table 60 – Seat 8,Eric Afriat,”165,000″
Table 60 – Seat 9,Seat Empty,
Table 61 – Seat 1,Stephen Baker,”34,000″
Table 61 – Seat 2,George Caragiorgas,”499,000″
Table 61 – Seat 3,Rodney Hollett,”220,000″
Table 61 – Seat 4,Michael Noor,”472,000″
Table 61 – Seat 5,Mackenzie McDonald,”428,000″
Table 61 – Seat 6,Denis Quirion,”259,000″
Table 61 – Seat 7,Nicolas Belcourt,”97,000″
Table 61 – Seat 8,Seat Empty,
Table 61 – Seat 9,Norman Dowdall,”70,000″
Table 62 – Seat 1,Seat Empty,
Table 62 – Seat 2,Armry Senat,”178,000″
Table 62 – Seat 3,Hugo Fontaine,”339,000″
Table 62 – Seat 4,Daniel Hamelin,”759,000″
Table 62 – Seat 5,Anthony Khoury,”448,000″
Table 62 – Seat 6,Jason Duval,”584,000″
Table 62 – Seat 7,Rodney Ramalho,”845,000″
Table 62 – Seat 8,Jonathan Meyer,”71,000″
Table 62 – Seat 9,Nabil Assaff,”514,000″
Table 64 – Seat 1,Frederic Pierre,”718,000″
Table 64 – Seat 2,Ibrahim Almalhi,”199,000″
Table 64 – Seat 3,Sergio Vigano,”242,000″
Table 64 – Seat 4,Seat Empty,
Table 64 – Seat 5,Seat Empty,
Table 64 – Seat 6,Rick Shamshoum,”135,000″
Table 64 – Seat 7,Quyen Dao,”289,000″
Table 64 – Seat 8,Shakeeb Kazemipur,”495,000″
Table 64 – Seat 9,Jordan Miraglia,”738,000″
Table 66 – Seat 1,Michael Antimisiaris,”491,000″
Table 66 – Seat 2,Rodney Lawrence,”116,000″
Table 66 – Seat 3,Steve Toulch,”137,000″
Table 66 – Seat 4,Seat Empty,
Table 66 – Seat 5,Nicolas Bastien,”546,000″
Table 66 – Seat 6,Daniel Charette,”468,000″
Table 66 – Seat 7,Jonathan Brule,”252,000″
Table 66 – Seat 8,Shane Flewelling,”185,000″
Table 66 – Seat 9,Levi Stevens,”250,000″
[/eztable]

The Main Event is down to 5 tables, as only 42 players remain. A few of the shorter stacks around the bubble have made their exits, and action has opened up a bit now that this milestone event in the tournament has passed. The day is far from over however, as there are still 4 more 60-minute levels scheduled today after the completion of level 19.

Players will have a break in 10 minutes, and we will bring you an update on the leaderboard at this point.

Photographs taken in level 19:

There was a double elimination on separate tables while play was hand-for-hand, and this means that Jean Louis Forino and Lukas Pasek will be sharing the prize for 54th place, and taking home $1,115 each.

We arrived at table 66 when Lukas Pasek was tabling his hand, after his 57,000 all-in was called by Jonathan Brule. Lukas tabled , and was looking good against the of Jonathan, however a few clubs appeared on a board to give Jonathan the flush.

Immediately after the bubble burst, the tournament staff closed a table, and the tournament has now been reduced to 6-tables.

Congratulations to the players who cashed in this years Main Event of the Playground Winter Festival!

Eric Afriat is certainly one of the most experienced and successful live tournament players in the field, and for much of the day he had been among the chip leaders. However, following a table change to Table 60, – the table with by far the most total chips in the tournament – he eventually lost most of his stack, until he posted his big blind with just 68K behind.

In the hand, 4 players limped, the small blind folded, and then Eric went all-in for 72K total. The player UTG folded, but then Shawn Martell went all-in over the top. Everyone else folded and the cards were flipped over.

Eric:
Shawn:

The board was safe enough for Shawn until the river: – and then Eric spiked the to double up.

Play is now very close to the actual bubble.

Players are back from break and we have a new top 4 to share.

1. Rodney Ramalho – 630K
2. Jonathan Poissant – 623K
3. Serge “Momess” Pouliot – 555K
4. Levon Dedeyan – 540K

Following the leaders are quite a few players in the >400K range, including experienced players such as Jason Duval and Eric Afriat, among others. The tournament is just 10 eliminations away from the bubble.

Jonathan Poissant

Levon Dedeyan

Rodney Ramalho

Momess

Play in the Main Event, now in level 17, has slowed down considerably. 65 players were eliminated in the first 3 levels, but eliminations have slowed right down. Though the bubble is still another 20 eliminations away, it’s clear that at least some of the players have transitioned to an opportunistic, chip-acccumulating style while others just try to stay alive in the tournament.

Photos from levels 16 and 17

Everyone knows the benefits of a large stack, but one of the least talked about benefits is just being able to effectively close the play in multi-way pots.

In a hand just now, Gabriel Vezina raised UTG to 8.5K and Giovanni Massa re-raised All-in, though only to 15.5K (he had recently lost most of his chips in another hand). The current chip leader, Serge Pouliot – aka Momess – chose to stay in the hand but not just by calling – he min-raised from the button.

Action was back on Gabriel Vezina, who simply chose to call the 22K – Momess had effectively communicated that if he wanted to stay in the hand, Gabriel would have to commit many more chips to the pot.

The board ran out and both players checked all the way down. Momess only made a hand (top pair) on the river – but it was enough to take down the pot of about 75K.

Players have returned from their first break of the day, during which tournament staff coloured up and raced off the black T100 chips. During the break we got updated counts to build this new leaderboard.

1. Serge “Momess” Pouliot – 528K
2. Denis Quirion – 516K
3. Eric Afriat – 450K
4. Frederic Pierre – 385K
5. Nabil Assaff – 355K

Serge Pouliot aka Momess

In the early flurry of activity, a few of the already-strong stacks have managed to chip up and join Serge Pouliot (who remains one of the big stacks) up over 350K in tournament chips. Some of the players who have made strong gains so far include Eric Afriat (400K), Amir Babakhani (350K), Frederic Pierre (360K), and Andrew Knowles (355K).

Play continues at a relatively fast pace as another 11 players have been eliminated.