We have two photographers on the floor today for the Playground 200, so we’ve been able to grab more photos of players than usual! Here are a few more taken today during the first level of the day (level 15).
Right out of the gate we have seen all kinds of action and already 15 players have left their seats as lady luck was not on their side.
The top 71 places will be in the money, and if the pace stays constant, we expect that to happen sometime around the 1st break. We of course will keep you posted with constant updates so that you can follow the action. Don’t forget that if you have busted out, Event #4 starts at 3 PM this afternoon, which is an $80 + $10 freezeout, players will have a starting stack of 20,000 chips, and 20 minute blind levels.
Here are some photos from the 1st level of play today (level 15):
With 566 total entries, the Playground 200 in the February 2019 Playground Power Weekend has been a great success, and the 124 players remaining in the event have taken their places at the tables to begin the next stage in the tournament. Day 2 is bound to start off with a bang as there are 14 players that are starting with 15bb or less in their stack. And with the bubble set to arrive when a player is eliminated in 72nd place (71 places are in the money), the pressure will be on right off the bat today.
Prize pool information was released last night following the close of registration last night and has been posted here under the “Results” tab. The top prize will be $19,949 with a min-cash coming in at $330. The top 3 finishers will also win a seat to the next MILLIONS North America STEP 3 satellite – a $1,655 value!
At the other end of the leaderboard, there are 4 players in the event who are starting with over 100bb: Mohammadamin Khalilian, Pierre Pellerin, Douglas Best, and John Araujo will all start with over 300K in chips. Following them, however there is a big drop off – the equivalent of more than 20bb – and the player in 5th place (Bill Kontaratos), starts with just 79bb. A healthy stack to be sure – but not one that won’t require effort to maintain and to grow. The same goes for everyone else in the event – and in such a situation, fireworks are likely!
Play will continue for 10 levels today, and levels have increased to 40 minutes in length. The preliminary announcements have now been made, and cards are in the air!
Good luck to everyone playing today!
There were a total of 128 qualifying stacks from the 5 Day 1s in the Playground 200, but 4 of these were “double stacks” from players that qualified twice – for each player, their smaller stack has been removed from play, leaving 124 players to assemble for the Day 2 restart at 1:00pm on Saturday February 23. When play resumes, the players will be seated according to the following official seating chart.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert | Turcotte | Table 17 - Seat 1 | 57,000 |
| Luc | Richard | Table 17 - Seat 2 | 115,000 |
| Alex | Normandin | Table 17 - Seat 3 | 177,500 |
| Steve | Berube | Table 17 - Seat 4 | 136,500 |
| Carla | Ruggiero | Table 17 - Seat 5 | 45,000 |
| Louis-Patrick | Levros | Table 17 - Seat 6 | 73,500 |
| Anton | Shlyk | Table 17 - Seat 7 | 40,000 |
| Samuel | Miranda | Table 17 - Seat 8 | 195,500 |
| Paul | Nakhle | Table 17 - Seat 9 | 138,000 |
| Mathieu | Bouvret | Table 19 - Seat 1 | 36,500 |
| Geng | Chen | Table 19 - Seat 2 | 87,500 |
| Vladislav | Gulii | Table 19 - Seat 3 | 230,500 |
| Sebastien | Rioux | Table 19 - Seat 4 | 59,500 |
| Jean Rene | Lafleur | Table 19 - Seat 5 | 136,000 |
| Richard | Lajeunesse | Table 19 - Seat 6 | 138,000 |
| Sebastien | Zrihen | Table 19 - Seat 7 | 30,500 |
| Alon | Messica | Table 19 - Seat 8 | 27,500 |
| Stephane | Sevigny | Table 19 - Seat 9 | 45,500 |
| Cristian | Muset | Table 20 - Seat 1 | 93,000 |
| Gianfranco | Giordano | Table 20 - Seat 2 | 128,000 |
| Stephane | Blouin-Verroeulst | Table 20 - Seat 3 | 65,000 |
| Michael | Baldessari | Table 20 - Seat 4 | 42,000 |
| Vladimir | Sevostianov | Table 20 - Seat 5 | 106,000 |
| Frederic | Chantal | Table 20 - Seat 6 | 39,000 |
| Alexandros | Charitos | Table 20 - Seat 9 | 100,000 |
| Yan | Gohier | Table 21 - Seat 1 | 130,000 |
| Mark | Guerbilsky | Table 21 - Seat 2 | 32,500 |
| Marc-Antoine | Gaudet | Table 21 - Seat 3 | 50,000 |
| Tyler | Lee | Table 21 - Seat 4 | 186,000 |
| Cameron | Wilson | Table 21 - Seat 5 | 217,500 |
| Gael | Dauphinais | Table 21 - Seat 7 | 150,500 |
| Michel | Pouliot | Table 21 - Seat 9 | 131,000 |
| Brigitte | Metivier | Table 22 - Seat 1 | 132,500 |
| Hubert | Nadeau | Table 22 - Seat 2 | 87,500 |
| Maxime | Argento | Table 22 - Seat 3 | 92,000 |
| Antoine | Sankari | Table 22 - Seat 4 | 91,500 |
| Andrew | Talbot | Table 22 - Seat 5 | 88,000 |
| Jonathan | Brazeau | Table 22 - Seat 6 | 215,000 |
| Eric | Guindon | Table 22 - Seat 7 | 118,000 |
| Anderson | F. | Table 22 - Seat 8 | 67,500 |
| Mathieu | Vallee-Bacon | Table 22 - Seat 9 | 151,000 |
| Tina | Howie | Table 23 - Seat 1 | 49,000 |
| Norman | Mannion | Table 23 - Seat 2 | 88,500 |
| Donald | Abdelhay | Table 23 - Seat 4 | 159,500 |
| Vincent | Messier | Table 23 - Seat 5 | 101,500 |
| Ruben | Perceval | Table 23 - Seat 6 | 187,500 |
| John | Kalopedakis | Table 23 - Seat 7 | 76,000 |
| Alexander | Bain | Table 23 - Seat 9 | 74,000 |
| Miguel | Goncalo | Table 24 - Seat 1 | 136,000 |
| Francis | Dery | Table 24 - Seat 2 | 130,000 |
| David | Veloso | Table 24 - Seat 3 | 84,000 |
| Jean-Philippe | Dupuis Bouvier | Table 24 - Seat 4 | 59,500 |
| Vera | G | Table 24 - Seat 5 | 94,000 |
| Adam | Cader | Table 24 - Seat 6 | 133,500 |
| Chanwoo | Lee | Table 24 - Seat 7 | 58,000 |
| Frederic | Cossette | Table 24 - Seat 8 | 89,500 |
| Natalia | Nogina | Table 24 - Seat 9 | 137,000 |
| Yvan | Gravel | Table 25 - Seat 1 | 74,500 |
| Masi | Vito | Table 25 - Seat 2 | 50,500 |
| Bryan | Robitaille Fequet | Table 25 - Seat 3 | 53,500 |
| Frederic | Normand | Table 25 - Seat 4 | 115,000 |
| Jahkheem | Polydore | Table 25 - Seat 5 | 109,500 |
| Gabriel | L'Italien-Simard | Table 25 - Seat 6 | 88,500 |
| Francis | Le Quere | Table 25 - Seat 7 | 38,500 |
| Dylan | Thibault | Table 25 - Seat 8 | 65,000 |
| Francois | Nicolas | Table 25 - Seat 9 | 148,000 |
| Abdulkadir Abdurazak | Mohammed | Table 26 - Seat 1 | 129,500 |
| Stephen | Langlois | Table 26 - Seat 2 | 143,500 |
| Andrew | Dick | Table 26 - Seat 3 | 55,000 |
| Griffin | Mason | Table 26 - Seat 4 | 137,500 |
| Rami | Hammoud | Table 26 - Seat 5 | 137,500 |
| Daniel | Pepin | Table 26 - Seat 6 | 131,500 |
| Sean | Grover | Table 26 - Seat 7 | 118,000 |
| Alain | Berard | Table 26 - Seat 8 | 77,000 |
| David | Bonneau | Table 26 - Seat 9 | 229,500 |
| Ivan | Driard | Table 27 - Seat 1 | 207,000 |
| Hugues | Fontaine | Table 27 - Seat 2 | 117,500 |
| Fady | Habashi | Table 27 - Seat 3 | 65,500 |
| Murielle | Viau | Table 27 - Seat 4 | 164,000 |
| Juan Federico | Garcia | Table 27 - Seat 5 | 118,000 |
| Bill | Kontaratos | Table 27 - Seat 7 | 236,500 |
| William | Pauze | Table 27 - Seat 8 | 64,500 |
| Jean-Francois | Bruens | Table 27 - Seat 9 | 211,500 |
| Joseph | Abou Khalil | Table 28 - Seat 1 | 81,000 |
| Catalin-Aurel | Niculescu | Table 28 - Seat 2 | 65,500 |
| Alexandre | Mongrain | Table 28 - Seat 3 | 93,000 |
| Luc | Lariviere | Table 28 - Seat 4 | 202,000 |
| Vsevolod | Malamud | Table 28 - Seat 5 | 71,000 |
| Simon-Olivier | Genest | Table 28 - Seat 6 | 42,500 |
| Mohammadamin | Khalilian | Table 28 - Seat 7 | 343,500 |
| Tanvir | Ahmed | Table 28 - Seat 8 | 59,000 |
| Douglas | Best | Table 28 - Seat 9 | 314,000 |
| Nabil | Nahoul | Table 29 - Seat 2 | 114,000 |
| Nassim | K. | Table 29 - Seat 3 | 187,500 |
| Yannick | Bourque Patry | Table 29 - Seat 4 | 76,000 |
| Christian | Rho | Table 29 - Seat 5 | 90,000 |
| Nyron | Jagoo | Table 29 - Seat 6 | 32,500 |
| Marc | Petit | Table 29 - Seat 7 | 100,000 |
| David | Bolduc Hamel | Table 29 - Seat 8 | 187,000 |
| Marko | Meniko | Table 29 - Seat 9 | 57,500 |
| Pierre | Pellerin | Table 30 - Seat 1 | 315,500 |
| Christopher | Tomalty | Table 30 - Seat 3 | 27,000 |
| Hugues | Belzile | Table 30 - Seat 4 | 46,500 |
| Igor | Gamayunov | Table 30 - Seat 5 | 31,500 |
| Christopher | Goudreault | Table 30 - Seat 6 | 153,000 |
| Matthew | Lakins | Table 30 - Seat 7 | 139,000 |
| Eric | Al Halaby | Table 30 - Seat 8 | 54,000 |
| Yves | Plante | Table 30 - Seat 9 | 201,500 |
| Raphael | Tran Dinh | Table 31 - Seat 1 | 66,500 |
| Christopher | Lefebvre | Table 31 - Seat 2 | 111,500 |
| Pierre | Sirois | Table 31 - Seat 3 | 63,500 |
| Patrick | St-Onge | Table 31 - Seat 4 | 195,500 |
| Sebastien | Vezina | Table 31 - Seat 5 | 115,000 |
| Garret | West | Table 31 - Seat 6 | 60,500 |
| Aytekin | Akol | Table 31 - Seat 7 | 55,000 |
| Alexandre | Ruest | Table 31 - Seat 8 | 163,000 |
| Nicola | Spinelli | Table 31 - Seat 9 | 209,000 |
| Nabil | B.N. | Table 32 - Seat 1 | 76,000 |
| Jean-Francois | Stoycheff | Table 32 - Seat 3 | 116,500 |
| John | Araujo | Table 32 - Seat 5 | 306,500 |
| Serge | Roy | Table 32 - Seat 6 | 171,000 |
| Claude | Leclair | Table 32 - Seat 7 | 32,000 |
| Mark | Fitzpatrick | Table 32 - Seat 8 | 48,500 |
| Steven | Dubois-Daigle | Table 32 - Seat 9 | 72,000 |
With 207 entries, including 35 re-entries, the 5,175,000 chips in play tonight have allowed no less than 52 players to qualify for Day 2. With the average at 99,519, it was interesting to see if any one would best chip leader Mohammadamin Khalilian, who bagged 343,500 chips last night.
Tonight’s top stack, weighing in at 230,500 is in Vladislav Gulii’s bag. This performance will rank him in 6th place overall on Day 2. Right behind him is Jonathan Brazeau who managed a respectable 215,000 and Yves Plante who scooped up 201,500. The three gentlemen are the only ones to have bagged more than 200K chips tonight.
Out of the 566 total entries from all Day 1’s combined, 128 players have been qualified. Some players have more than one bag, which means that only their biggest stack will make it to the felts tomorrow.
It has been a grueling 14 levels of fast paced action today. With happy hearts but exhausted bodies the qualifiers were anxious to bag the chips and get some much needed rest before Day 2 gets underway tomorrow at 1:00pm.
You can find the updated Combined Day 1 results here.
As the tournament clock approaches it’s final minutes for today, the action is going strong on all the tables.
60 players remain of the original 207 entries. All in cards are seen flying left and right, and the players are showing no signs of slowing down. The antics on table #27 have everyone in stitches and made for some interesting photos. Tension was a little higher on other tables as the players all make a last ditch effort to add chips to their stacks before the bags come out.
Here are a few photos from levels 13 and 14.
