Maxime Marcouiller plays on table 70, home of Ghislain Pigeon, our chip leader. Marcouiller just gained a lot of chips by winning a 3-way all-in pot, and may prove to be a thorn in Pigeon’s side. Here is the pre-flop showdown:

Maxime Marcouiller:
Mathieu Lavigne:
Nikola Denis:

Board:

A huge pot was pushed to Maxime, who is now in a great spot to go the distance.

Meanwhile, on table 58, Daniel Marcotte was taken out by Paul Ménard. When Marcotte was successfully isolated by Ménard, he first showed a jack and declared that this was the only card that he saw. He was far behind Ménard’s kings, but the flop presented some great possibilities:

Marcotte:
Ménard:

Board:

Marcotte missed, and walked away.

The field is dropping fast and has just shrunk to just 3 tables.

Because the first break took place after 5 20-minute levels instead of the usual 4, allowing more rebuy action, the second segment was only 3 levels long. That was enough time to allow 4 players to leave the rest of the field behind. 4th in chips is Étienne Lanteigne with 77,500, which is about 20,000 more than his followers!

The pole position is still held by Ghislain Pigeon, who is the first to breach the 100K mark.

Here is our top 4:

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Ghislain	Pigeon	116,000
Mathieu	Daigneault	89,500
Michael	St-Martin	80,000
Étienne	Lanteigne	77,500

Ghislain Pigeon was very serious about costing his opponents a few buy-ins. At the first break, he is the clear leader, with almost 5 starting stacks in front of him. We prepared a top 5, which lists all players above the 50K mark, but many were in the 40s. Here is our first leaderboard:

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Ghislain	Pigeon	72,500
Marc	Lacroix	58,500
Danick	Landriault	57,500
Shane	Larose	56,000
Cole	Cross-Lusignan	53,000

The rebuy period ended with 33 rebuys, 13 of which took place during the last level. Here is a sample of the heavy action that took place during the last moments before the break:

Michael St-Martin:
Sébastien Lapierre:
Devon Atwell:
Kevin Javier:

Board:

This was a pre-flop all-in. Sebastien Lapierre took out 3 short stacks with his ace-king high, who all rebought.

When we got to the table, Pierre Bouchard had bet 4,500 on the turn, and Jean-Sébastien Dagenais went all-in for about twice that amount. Bouchard made call and realized that hitting a second pair cost him greatly. They tabled their cards and watched as the dealer revealed the river, which did not change the order of things.

Bouchard:
Dagenais:

Board:

Play now enters level 5, the last level before the break. Already 20 rebuys have taken place, and that number should grow substantially in the next 20 minutes.

Photographs from level 4:

Event 3 is entering level 3, and only 3 rebuys have taken place during the first 40 minutes. This number should grow exponentially as the blinds get bigger, and we should see a avalanche of them towards the end of level 5, which will be 200/400/a200 and your last chance to buy chips at the table. Following level 5 will be the first break, at which point the Event will turn into a Freezeout.

Photographs from levels 1 and 2:

This afternoon, we have a special Event on tap for our players. Event 3 is a $50 + $10 NL Hold’em Rebuy Event, which is a format that we have not seen at Playground for a long time. Until the first break, players who bust will be able to rebuy directly at the table, allowing them to keep playing with the players that they now know, and possibly take a shot at settling the score with the person who eliminated them! Remember that the rebuy must be done immediately, and that if a hand goes by, you will not be able to re-enter the Event. Players can also rebuy between hands, if their stack is evaluated at 5K or less.

As was the case with yesterday’s Event 1, Event 3 boasts a 5K guarantee, which is the equivalent of 100 entries, including rebuys. Starting stack is 15,000 chips, which is also the amount that will be handed to a player who rebuys.

Cards will be in the air in a minute. Good luck to all participant!