Antonio was cruising for most of the day, always among the chip leaders and seemingly having little trouble navigating a tough field. When the 10 players came together on the unofficial final table, however, he went through a run that saw him move from among the leaders to a relatively short stack.

Just before the most recent break it looked like Antonio had found the solution – François Goulet was all-in with a short stack and James Armstrong had simply flat-called to Antonio’s right. Antonio then raised to isolate, James folded and the players turned over their cards.

François:
Antonio:

The flop: – so far, perfect for Antonio. The turn was a (relatively) safe but the river brought the . François more than doubled up and Antonio went down to about 14 BB.

On the first hand back from the break, Antonio got it in and it looked like he was going to get folds all around… but Robert Notkin called.

Antonio:
Robert:

The flop spelled disaster for Antonio: , and then the turn and river brought no help and Antonio was out of the Main Event.

10th place: Antonio Esfandiari, $26,960.00

We are still 10-handed here at the Main Event of the PokerStars Canada Cup, and here is an update on the chip counts:

Final Table

1. Thiago Nishijima – 2.680M
2. James Armstrong – 1.060M
3. Antonio Esfandiari – 575K
4. Francois Goulet – 1.070M
5. Ankush Mandavia – 1.415M
6. Rayan Chamas – 2.265M
7. Robert Notkin – 1.310M
8. Justin Miller – 2.680M
9. Vincent Jacques – 2.555M
10. Ryan Rivers – 1.735M

With one elimination to go before the end of Day 4, here is how the chips are currently spread out on this final table:

Final Table

1. Thiago Nishijima – 2.10M
2. James Armstrong – 1.62M
3. Antonio Esfandiari – 1.87M
4. Francois Goulet – 750K
5. Ankush Mandavia – 1.24M
6. Rayan Chamas – 1.95M
7. Robert Notkin – 1.23M
8. Justin Miller – 3.15M
9. Vincent Jacques – 1.47M
10. Ryan Rivers – 1.87M

Play is about to resume in level 25.

The Main Event of the PokerStars Canada Cup has now reached it’s final table of ten players, and the players will be seated according to the following seating chart:

Final Table

1. Thiago Nishijima
2. James Armstrong
3. Antonio Esfandiari
4. Francois Goulet
5. Ankush Mandavia
6. Rayan Chamas
7. Robert Notkin
8. Justin Miller
9. Vincent Jacques
10. Ryan Rivers

The day will end with one more elimination, giving us the official final table of 9 players, which will resume tomorrow at 11:00am.

Congratulations to our ten finalists!

Francois Binette fell short stacked, and moved in his final 5 big blinds with from early position. Antonio Esfandiari made the call from late position holding , and they ended up going to the flop heads-up.

Before the cards were out, Antonio apologized in advance for winning the hand, saying whenever he holds a live KQ vs an ace, he always wins. He even went on to say that it’s not a 60/40, but rather a 90/10, which made the table laugh a little.

Surely enough, the window card was a , and that pair was enough to win him the hand on the board.

The tournament has now reached it’s final table of 10 players, and Day 4 will conclude with one more elimination.

11th place: Francois Binette, $26,960

Theodore Doukas has been eliminated in 12th position after he got very short coming out of the last break. At the end he got it in from the small blind with just 253K left in his stack (just under 10 BB). James Armstrong tanked for a few minutes but eventually called.

Theodore:
James:

The flop was good for Theodore – but the gave James the straight and the on the river looked nice but had no value for Theodore and he hit the rail.

With the players on a short break, we took a moment to count the stacks of the remaining players. Here are the current counts:

Table 38 (Feature Table)

1. empty seat
2. Thiago Nishijima – 2.55M
3. Robert Notkin – 1.42M
4. empty seat
5. Francois Binette – 253K
6. Theodore Doukas – 343K
7. empty seat
8. James Armstrong – 1.80M
9. Antonio Esfandiari – 1.74M

Table 39

1. Vincent Jacques – 1.53M
2. Justin Miller – 2.51M
3. Francois Goulet – 1.27M
4. Rayan Chamas – 1.80M
5. empty seat
6. Ankush Mandavia – 1.64M
7. Ryan Rivers – 494K
8. empty seat
9. empty seat

Kevin MacDonald, who is fresh off a 5th place winner in Event 4 – High Roller, has been eliminated from the Main Event of the PokerStars Canada Cup.

On a flop of , Justin Miller check min-raised Kevin’s 50K bet, to which Kevin responded with an all-in of 595K. Justin went into the tank for a minute, but eventually made the call.

Kevin:

Justin:

Justin remained ahead, with the turn and river bringing the and , and Kevin picked up his second $20K+ cash of this series.

13th place: Kevin MacDonald, $21,920

McKenzie James Liebzeit is out in 14th place. His elimination was an extended affair which took several hands in an orbit and a half to complete.

It all went wrong for McKenzie when he opened on the button to 40K and then Ryan Rivers went all-in from the big blind. Action returned to McKenzie and he went in the tank before eventually calling the 398K bet.

McKenzie:
Ryan:

Ryan won the hand by spiking the on the turn (the board ended up ) and McKenzie was crippled down to 70K – just 3BB.

On the second hand following this loss, he got it in with and Vincent Jacques called with . McKenzie doubled to 128K on the board of . He was still in critical condition, but a little more healthy than before.

A few more hands passed that included McKenzie folding to raised pots or going all-in and picking up blinds and antes, until his ultimate hand.

Justin Miller raised to 50K and François Goulet called the 50K. Immediately to François’ left, McKenzie shoved (165K). Justin flat called the 165K and then François re-raised and got the quick fold from Justin. The pot was now heads up with McKenzie all in for his tournament life.

François:
McKenzie: .

This time the board was no help to McKenzie as the gave François 2 pairs and sent McKenzie to the rail.

14th place: McKenzie James Liebzit, $21,920

Amir Babakhani fell rather short stacked in the last few levels, and on the first hand back from break, he moved his last 175K in with from early position. Rayan Chamas called from middle position, holding , and everyone else folded.

Rayan spiked a king on the board, and former WPT Canadian Spring Championship winner Amir Babakhani was sent to the cashiers to collect his $21,920 paycheck.

15th place: Amir Babakhani, $21,920