When Mario Duquette found himself in an unopened pot in the cut-off with a premium hand and few chips, he pushed them forward. His 24K stack was matched by William Pauzé on the button, and Kevin Rousselle instantly committed his own stack, worth 23K.

Duquette:
Pauzé:
Rousselle:

Board:

Rousselle’s tournament life was at stake, and when the king appeared on the turn, he pumped his fist, happy to be allowed to stick around. Just like that, he caught up with the average. Duquette was left with a few crumbs, which were lost on the following hand.

With 8 levels of tournament play now in the books, information for a new leaderboard was gathered while players were on break. The count demonstrated clearly that there’s a new leader as Ely De Paula Filho has managed to put together a stack of over 150K, while Michel Lavoie is only slightly behind, playing a stack of 140,500.

Play now continues in level 9.

Registration has now come to a close in Day 1C – and for this edition of the Playground 200 – and the end of a re-entry period brought with it a bit of a frenzied feeling in the room as players hoped to either double up or bust – and re-enter afresh – before the end of level 6.

There is an orderly way for players to go about this – they may simply forfeit their existing stack and then re-enter. But that doesn’t stop a players from – as we recently witnessed – going all-in for his final 2,200 chips holding – only to laugh when the flop gives an open-ended draw and the turn brings the straight.

Of course the more experienced players in the room – and there are several – have been keeping their eyes open for desperate moves for the past half hour…

The final tally of entries today was 254 (including 51 re-entries), and of that group, 179 are still playing in level 7. Overall, this means that the Playground 200 in the July Power Weekend 2018 attracted a total of 698 entries.

The first break of a Day 1 is very early to start looking at the leaders in a tournament, but having an early lead is instrumental in providing a player with the opportunity to build up a deep stack to take to Day 2 – and maybe make a deep run. Everything can hinge on the chips earned early in a tournament!

So far on Day 1C the leaders are Line St-Pierre, who is already playing a stack of 92,500 chips, and Martin Demondehare who has amassed around 73,000 so far. There are several players as well in the 50,000 to 65,000 range – more than enough to play with at this stage in the event!

Play now continues in level 5, and registration will remain open for just over 45 more minutes.

Players in Day 1C have made their way though 3+ levels now and the first break of the day is approaching at the end of this level. Don’t worry if you haven’t entered the tournament yet – registration continues for another hour after this break ends. Players are continuing to join at a regular pace, and so far there are 172 entries today, including 10 re-entries.

Here is a more extensive photo album of the proceedings this morning.

Play in Day 1C has moved to the latter end of level 2, and registration today is already up to 126 entries, with more coming in at a regular pace. The prize pool has solidly surpassed its $100,000 guarantee, and every new entry just increases the total a little bit more, $200 at a time!

Here are a few photos taken during the first level this morning – just a taste of what we’ll be publishing throughout the day.