Michael Hunter, on the button, enjoyed an unopened pot and open shoved. It was a surprising decision, considering that he had an over-average stack and that Daniel Deshaies was sitting in the big blind with more than enough chips to keep him honest.

However, it was Shane Gallant who challenged him, from the small blind. He was much lower in chips, but the blinds are climbing rapidly and every bullet counts.

Hunter:
Gallant:

Board:

Gallant’s pair prevailed, and he lives to see another hand.

When the action folded around to Derek Lerner, he decided that his nearly-90K stack needed the 15K in blinds lying on the table. He open shoved, but Stephen Langlois was lurking with a monster.

Lerner:
Langlois:

Board:

In the absence of a king on the board, Lerner had to walk away, while Langlois got to add to his already healthy stack and join the leaders.

Things have moved extremely fast in the last half hour. The field shrunk rapidly to 3 tables, and birds continue to fall. Play should slow down soon, as the average stack reach a good number of blinds.

Daniel Deshaies took a serious lead in the Megastack event. At the break, he is sitting on 343,000! A few other players are doing well, but none of them are on his table. Deshaies is a very capable tournament player, and we expect him to put maximum pressure on his opponents.

Here is our actual top 5:

The players in Event #5 are on their second break of the day, but despite 37 eliminations so far, there are only two players that have taken a real lead on the field to this point – Michael Hunter (168,700) and Michael McKinnon (166,700), who happen to be playing on neighbouring tables. Otherwise, the eliminated players’ chips have been pretty well distributed amount the other players still in the action.

Here are a few more photos from the action in Event #5, the Megastack Turbo.

Registration in Event #5 is closing in about 15 minutes and there are already 90 players that have made their way to the tables – so if you’re able to get to Playground quickly, the prize pool today is going to be very healthy!

Here are some photos of the action today.