MILLIONS Satellite News

It’s been a long and distinguished road leading up to this point.  Tonight’s STEP 3 Satellite was the end of the line after a series of STEPS satellites that began during the World Cup of Cards in January.  Tonight, for a $1,500 + $150 buy-in, 10 players were guaranteed a seat in the Main Event at the MILLIONS North America event coming this May.

Registration was open until 11:15 pm and a total of 41 entries were logged.

The last hand involved Line Desjardins, who was holding against Jean-Philippe Piquette, who turned over .  Line had been under the radar all night, nursing a below average stack and trying to stay in the game long enough to get the big prize. Line stayed ahead on the flop: – but JPP picked up an open-ended straight draw – which hit when the came on the turn. The meaningless on the river sent Line Desjardins home empty handed.

The ten remaining players of the STEP 3 are now proud owners of a MILLIONS North America Main Event ticket. This was a “must play” satellite, so these players will all take their seats when the MILLIONS North America arrives in May.

The next batch of STEPS leading to the STEP 3 on March 24th begins with the first STEP 1, being held on February 28th at 8:00pm.

CONGRATULATIONS to:

• Jean-Philippe Piquette
• François Tarrab
• Paul El-khouri
• Christine Park
• David Bolduc Hamel
• Babak Forozandeh
• David Beer
• Garry T.
• Ivan Driard
• Joseph Abou Khalil

With 4 eliminations to go, the players in the STEP 3 Satellite are keeping their eyes on the boards, and each other. Play is strong, but controlled.

The players just had a short break between levels 13 and 14 and we hit the felts to check-out the stacks and update the leaderboard with full chip counts. The last remaining 10 players will each receive a coveted Main Event ticket worth $10,650 each.

The players are taking a short break between levels 6 and 7 and we went to the tables to get an idea of who is successful in building up their stack.

Only two players have managed to amass more than 70K in chips. Chip leader Babak Forozandeh is sitting on 80,700 chips. David Beer is close behind with 78,200 chips.

Obviously, in satellite play, the players don’t need to win all the chips, but the more the better.

Things are moving along in the MILLIONS North America Main Event Satellite Re-entry – STEP 3. The remaining 30 players are adopting strategic play and careful chip management.

The boards are showing 37 entries and there are 10 seats Guaranteed, so this satellite is a HUGE value for any player wishing to enter the Main Event via Satellite.

Here are a few photos of the players, from level 6

Tonight is the culmination of a whole series of STEPS satellites that have led to this point – the MILLIONS North America STEP 3 satellite! Since the last “batch” of STEPS satellites during the World Cup of Cards, there have been another 8 STEP 1 satellites with a total of 55 STEP 2 seats guaranteed, and last night’s STEP 2 saw 25 players book an entry in tonight’s STEP 3.

By the way – starting later this week you can play in the next batch of STEPS – the first STEP 1 leading to the STEP 3 in March is being held on February 28th at 8:00pm.

But tonight’s the STEP 3 – and every other STEP 3 in the future – is Big with a capital B. One satellite – $1,500 + $150 buy-in, and a guarantee of 10 MILLIONS North America seats!

There are 35 entries in tonight’s STEP 3 and registration is open until 11:15pm.

Here is a photo gallery of the players in the early going tonight.

Tonight in the Tournament Hall there was a $440 MILLIONS North America STEP 2 satellite with a huge 25 seat guarantee to Sunday’s $1,500 + $150 STEP 3 satellite – which in turn guarantees 10 seats to the $10,000 + $300 MILLIONS North America in May.

Of the 72 total entries in the STEP 2, 57 of those came from $90 STEP 1 satellites. In addition, there were 15 new buy-ins including 8 re-entries in the STEP 2 tonight, meaning that there was considerable extra value in the form of a prize pool overlay tonight. Most of the seats to the STEP 3 were booked by players who started in earlier STEP 1s – and tomorrow night, when the MILLIONS North America seat winners are finalized, we’ll learn how many players have booked their $10K ticket for just a $90 buy-in!

At the end of the action tonight, our live blog reporter noted that tensions were somewhat frayed after the gruelling satellite which featured an extended period of hand-for-hand play, so a group shot of the winners was not possible. Nevertheless, here are a few shots of players that were in action right to the very end tonight.