Two more players have been eliminated as the clock has now moved into the 2nd level of the day. Gianfranco Giordano and Rami Hammoud have been eliminated in 14th and 13th place ($1,330), respectively.

There will now be another pay jump as players from 12th to 10th will each take hime $1,660, and following those eliminations, the final table will be assembled from the remaining 9 players still alive.

Poker players and pundits the world over have debated for years whether poker should be considered a sport or not. Whichever side of that debate one comes down on, however, we can still admit that playing through an injury is a testament to a certain kind of dedication that is seen primarily among sportsmen and sportswomen.

Jean-François Stoycheff is showing just that kind of resolve today. He slipped on some ice earlier this morning, and instead of going to the hospital, he came directly to Playground for his Day 3 restart.

Here is a gallery of the final 14 players in the Playground 200 as play got underway this afternoon.

Two players have already been eliminated in Day 3 of the Playground 200.

On one of the first hands played, Christopher Goudreault raised all in from middle position and after a little thought, John Araujo made the call from the button. The blinds folded and the hole cards were exposed.

Christopher:
John:

John hit right on the flop: – but Christopher also gained a gutshot draw, so all was not (yet) lost. The turn was a brick, and the on the river wasn’t what he was looking for and Christopher was out in 16th place ($1,100).

Next to go was John Kalopedakis. The caught up with the hand with both players’ hole cards turned over, ready for a flop.

John:
Mohammadamin Khalilian:

Community cards:

Mohammadamin’s Tens held and John was sent to the Tournament Desk to pick up his 15th place payout ticket ($1,330)

Day 3 in the Playground 200 is getting started now on tables 20 and 24 in the Tournament Hall. There are 16 players remaining in the event, and with the min-cash today already up to $1,110 – and prizes just go with from there – there’s a lot to fight for on the felts.

The dynamic at the two tables to start the day should be interesting because there are 3 players who will start with less than 10bb who will be under extreme pressure from hand #1 today. At the other end of the spectrum, the chip leaders, Adam Cader and Christian Rho, have a full “median” stack separating themselves from the third place player, Mohammadamin Khalilian. That indicates that the leaders have enough of a lead to really force the pressure from the beginnings – and the large group of players with median stacks that will definitely not want to put themselves at risk while the small stacks are still in play.

Players are unbagging their chips right now and action will be underway in just a few minutes. Good luck to all.

There are just 16 players remaining in the February 2019 edition of the Playground Power Weekend, and as per the rules of the event, tournament staff have performed a full seating redraw for the Day 3 restart. When play resumes at 12:00pm on Sunday February 24, the players will be seated according to the following table. There will be one additional redraw in the tournament when it is down to 9 players remaining – that group of 9 will make up the final table in the tournament.

Good luck to everyone still in the event!

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