As is the custom, play accelerated after the ICM numbers were agreed upon. Bini Gianpaolo left in 6th, followed by Mitcheal Ferguson and Carl Des Granges.

Des Granges:
Allali:

Board:

Bruce Allali and Sébastien Éthier-Roy now share most of the chips, but Andrei Cernopolc is just 2 double-ups away from being a serious contender.

Congrats to our fallen soldiers!

With Suart Taylor’s elimination in 8th and Mathieu Hébert in 7th, the remaining 6 players decided to talk numbers. They all agreed to the ICM numbers brought to them by the tournament staff. Their secured prizes are listed below, and they are now playing a winner-take-all format to add $170 to their winnings.

Congratulations all on a nice deep run, and to Bruce Allali for taking the biggest amount!

Here’s a gallery of the final table participants. The pace of play has now slowed significantly as the money jumps enter into the equation – they have continued 8-handed for almost a full level already.

The eliminations have kept coming at a breakneck pace and less than a level after the bubble burst, 3 players have been eliminated – 2 of them simultaneously just before the clock was paused – and the final table has been set.

The players have just taken a break as the field dwindles to just a few more than the number – 9 – required to bring together the final table in the event. With the players away from the tables we were able to identify Andrei Cernopolc as the chip leader to this point, with a commanding stack of 281,000 chips.

With 12 players remaining, the next player out will be the hard bubble player – and play is now hand for hand on the two remaining tables.

Update: As we were preparing this post, Dominic Boucher was eliminated in 12th position and the remaining 11 players are all in the money!