Ryan Rivers seems to be playing survivor rather than poker at this final table of the Main Event of the PokerStars Canada Cup, and has recently doubled his short stack up once again. Joe Stapleton made an amusing comment earlier in the PokerStars.tv live stream, saying that ‘Rivers is better at laddering up than Mario in a Donkey Kong video game’. He has been on the short side of the leaderboard right from the start, but has managed to ladder up to the top 4, guaranteeing himself at least $122,410.

In the most recent hand, Rivers found himself all-in preflop with versus the of Vincent Jacques, and managed to double his 890K stack up on the board.

Justin Miller just doubled up his 1.5M stack by limp-calling an all-in from Vincent Jacques in a battle of the blinds.

Justin:

Vincent:

Board:

With the recent elimination of Rayan Chamas in 5th place, here is how the chips are currently spread out:

Final Table

1. Thiago Nishijima – eliminated 7th: $61,300
2. James Armstrong – eliminated 9th: $36,660
3. Francois Goulet – eliminated 8th: $48,880
4. Ankush Mandavia – eliminated 6th: $73,520
5. Rayan Chamas – eliminated 5th: $91,760
6. Robert Notkin – 7.125M
7. Justin Miller – 2.995M
8. Vincent Jacques – 6.425M
9. Ryan Rivers – 840K

Rayan Chamas, known for his online success as ‘zebest_666’, has had quite the ride here at this Main Event of the PokerStars Canada Cup. He held the early chip lead for most of Day 1b before getting crippled near the end. He managed to reclaim the chip lead in Day 2 after making a huge call on the money bubble for nearly his tournament life, and kept a healthy stack all the way until the final table. His aggression payed off in many spots throughout the tournament, but in the last few orbits he lost a number of pots, dwindling his stack down to under 15 big blinds.

On his last hand, Rayan shoved his last 1.395M from under the gun with , and got the call from Robert Notkin with in the cutoff. Rayan failed to improve on the board, effectively ending his Main Event run in 5th place.

5th place: Rayan Chamas, $91,760

Robert Notkin just extended his chip lead by taking a big pot from Rayan Chamas.

In an unopened pot, Rayan opened from the button to 160K with , to which Robert replied with a 3bet to 665K with . The flop ran out , and Robert check-raised to 1.15M after Rayan bet 475K. Both players checked the turn, and on the river, Robert threw in 500K, which was uncalled.

With that pot, Robert now has over 6.5M and is in the chip lead.

Here are the chip counts of the final 5:

Final Table

1. Thiago Nishikima – eliminated 7th: $61,300
2. James Armstrong – eliminated 9th: $36,660
3. Francois Goulet – eliminated 8th: $48,880
4. Ankush Mandavia – eliminated 6th: $73,520
5. Rayan Chamas – 2.650M
6. Robert Notkin – 5.405M
7. Justin Miller – 2.915M
8. Vincent Jacques – 4.850M
9. Ryan Rivers – 1.560M

Online shark Ankush ‘pistons87’ Mandavia was sitting with under 15BB when he open jammed from middle position. Justin Miller made the call from the button, committing 1.195M chips, and they went heads-up to the flop:

Ankush:

Justin:

Justin hit a flush on the board, and Ankush got a warm congratulatory applause from his rail for his 6th place finish.

6th place: Ankush Mandavia, $73,520

After losing big pots to Vincent Jacques and Robert Notkin, Thiago Nishijima fell on the short side of the leaderboard. He eventually got his last 795K all-in preflop with , and was called by Robert holding .

Thiago couldn’t improve his hand on the board, and his Main Event run ended in 7th place.

7th place: Thiago Nishijima, $61,300

Justing Miller fell to just below 1 million in chips before getting all of them into the middle with . He was up against the of Robert Notkin, who has been running quite well so far in this tournament.

Robert outflopped Justin on the flop, but the running gave Justin the winning hand, who doubled to around 2 million.