On the eve of level 2, Elvira Popescu, who finished 2nd in last month’s Playground 200 Event, doubled her belongings to the detriment of Jacques Blais.

When we got to the table, Popescu was all-in for her remaining 6,800, and Blais was eye-balling her. Considering the strength of his hand and the amount of chips already invested – Popescu started the hand with a full stack – he must have had a pretty strong feeling that he was beat to even consider a fold. In the end, and understandably, he wasn’t able to let go of this multi-colored pot and called.

Board:

Popescu:

Oof! Blais threw the face up, and mucked his other card. He is left with about 7K.

Today was the first day of the March Power Weekend, a mini-series comprised of 6 events, introduced by the amazing Mix Max tournament at noon and concluded by the 6-max Bounty on Monday night.

In between, a few other events you will want to take a look at, including the tournament that fronts the whole thing: The $200 + $20 Playground 200 NL Hold’em Re-entry.

The Playground 200 is fairly new, but already familiar and sought after, its $100,000 guarantee catching the eye of many. Players will be working with 25,000 chips and 30-minute levels, and unlimited re-entries are permitted until the end of level 6, which gives you over 3 hours to join the event or to jump back in, should you be on the wrong side of your luck in the early stages.

Day 1A will get underway in a few minutes, and will play 14 levels before its survivors bag their chips and send them to Sunday’s Day 2.

Good luck!