The Strangers in the Night tournament is through to level 23 – scheduled to be the second-last level of the night. However, with just 18 players left, the remaining players will be given the choice to continue and play down to a winner tonight if they wish. The decision would have to be unanimous to make such a change.

Although players continue to be eliminated, in one sense the tournament went “backwards” in the last stint of 3 levels. Whereas there were 3 players with over 1M in chips at that time, now there are only two – Michel Gariepy (1,653,000) and Robert Courriere (1,423,000).

Here are some photos taken during the past level.

Daune Fernandez is one of the more experienced players left in the field, but so far he hasn’t been able to accumulate the chips he needs to really dominate the tables he’s been on. The recent pot he won didn’t solve that problem – but it is a step in the right direction.

Steven Valitalo raised all in for his last 225K from utg+1 and action folded around to Daune in the sb – with a player’s folded Jack-Nine being exposed along the way. Daune went all in for (slightly) over, and Mike Lafable folded his bb.

The cards were exposed:

Steven:
Daune:

Daune was way behind, but the flop too care of things nicely for him: . The last two cards were no help for the JJ – came out to pair the board and give Daune a full house. Daune is now back up around the 500K mark – about average with just 23 players left.

Just 26 players remain on 3 tables in the Tournament Hall, and during the last break we were able to get full counts for the entire remaining field.

Action has been lightning fast since play resumed following the break, and there are just 40 players remaining through under an hour of play since the bubble burst – that means current short-stacks have already laddered up 2 pay jumps!

There have been some wild swings in this time as well, as players are eliminated and others double through erstwhile big stacks…

Table 62 has emerged as the table with more than its fair share of large stacks as players have moved around due to tables closing and other balancing moves by the floor staff. Johnny Verhoeven and Jason Fernandes are still there, and both are now in good chip health – but Michael McKinnon has also moved there. Meanwhile, Miguel Goncalo has managed to accumulate some chips as well – that makes 4 players at that one table who are playing over 500K stacks.

Day 2 of the Strangers in the Night event is shrinking rapidly, as players who were on the tight side in the hopes of making the money are now on all-out aggression mode.

Table 66 had more than its share of action since the bubble burst. This is where William Blais played his last hand. His fell to Patrick Skrodski’s when a flush draw turned into a pair of kings got the chips in. Shortly after, a 3-way feud resulted in Craig Gay’s demise.

Craig Gay:
Piotr Wielopolski:
Eden Almakias:

The money went in on the turn. Almakias already had the check mark with about 80K to triple up, but Wielopolski had quite a few outs to fade in order to break even in the hand.

Board:

1 clean river, 1 bust, 1 relieved player and 1 happy coffee drinker.

Play continues with five 9-handed tables.

Bubble play in the event brought the tournament to just 4 minutes before the first break of the day. That 4 minutes was plenty of time for Michael McKinnon to add another 160K or so to his stack, making him the clear chip leader at the beginning of in-the-money play. Johnny Verhoeven is the only other player with over 500K, and following them, there are just 3 players with over 400K stacks, including Piotr Wielopolski and master accumulator Jonathan Bussières.