In total 207 entries were logged, including 35 re-entries, and the registration period is now closed.  There are now 135 players remaining and the heat is on.  Players are being sent to the rail at a constant pace, and every hand counts on the path to glory.

We witnessed a hand on table #31.  When we arrived at the table, Diana Shamshoum was deep in thought.  She was facing a considerable all-in from Saman Saryazdi.  Diana was obviously undecided, giving the distinct impression that her hand was not very strong.  Nevertheless, she decided to call and tabled her hand: .  Saman didn’t seem too worried as he pushed his cards out:

The flop didn’t help either player.  Now Saman only needed to dodge jacks, fours, two consecutive hearts or an Ace-three combo.  When the on the turn was exposed, Saman sighed and started to get up.  With no help from the on the river, he was sent to the rail.

We didn’t hear the final all-in amount but it took two separate scoops from dealer to transfer all the chips to Diana.  After this hand, her stack leveled off to approximately 66K, roughly double the average.

The boards are now showing more than 200 entries for this last Day 1 of the Playground 200, with just a few minutes left before the end of the registration period.

With the average hovering around 33K, Kevin Cote’s 18,200 all-in had the players of table #38 putting on their thinking caps.

In the end, all the players folded except Mohamed Ben Yahia. Mohamed decided to call after a short reflection and turned over .

Kevin felt relatively good tabling his but his heart sank on the flop. With his flush option out the door, Keven knew he needed some help from lady luck. Unfortunately for him, the on the turn and the on the river spelled the end of he line.

So Mohamed Ben Yahia adds an important stack of chips to his increasing pile as we head into level 7 in a few minutes.

The 152 players went on break in the Day 1D tournament. We were understandably curious to find out where the chips are stacked.

Four players have separated themselves from the rest of the pack by amassing more than 70,000 chips. Chip leader Stephen Langlois has a sizeable head start with 96,375 chips. The night is still young, the registration period is open until 10:15pm and we’ll keep an eye on the leaders.

Here is the first leaderboard of the night.

Things are well under way in this last Day 1 of Event #2 Playground 200. Players are gradually filling-up the tournament hall, joining the 123 players already seated. This is already the largest turnout of all Day 1’s and the players keep arriving.

Players start with 25,000 chips and may elect to re-enter as many times as they wish. Play is 10-handed tonight, Day 2 (tomorrow) will be 9-handed and Day 3 (Sunday) will see 8-handed action until there are 9 players left for the final table.

The registration period is open until the beginning of level 7, so players have until 10:15pm to register or re-enter.

Here are a few photos of the players.

The tournament just got underway here at Playground Poker. This is the last chance to qualify for Event #2 Day 2 that is set to get underway tomorrow at 1:00pm.

Right now we have 57 entries and everyone expects that number to go up, as is the custom on the last Day 1 flight.
So like the man said: “Dealers! Shuffle-up and deal!”.