Tonight’s Day 1C was the largest of the 1st three starting flights so far. There were 103 players (including 13 re-entries) which allowed the tournament to surpass the $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. With still one more flight to go, the prize pool will be amazing.

As seasoned tournament grinders all know, it doesn’t matter how many chips you have midway through the flight; all that really counts is what you put into the bag at the end of the night. There were many coolers in the last 45 minutes of play, and when it was all said and done, 27 players bagged & tagged.

The last flight will take place tomorrow at 12 noon, which offers the same starting stack (50,000 chips), but plays with a turbo format with 20 minute blind levels. Day 2 takes place tomorrow night at 7 PM.

This post will be updated overnight to show the combined Day 1 chip counts of all remaining players.

When you’re below average and in the last level of play, any pair looks pretty good, and when Chris Arvanitis saw a pair of snowmen (88), it looked good enough to get all his remaining chips into the middle. Unfortunately for Chris, he was going to need some help as Jeanrene Plante and Adam Cader also went all in.

Plante had a pair of Queens and Cader had pocket Kings…but Chris was lucky enough to hit his 2-outer on the river to make a set of 8’s and triple up.

The tournament floor has just announced that there will be four more hands and then the remaining players will bag & tag.

Action folded to John Aroujo in the cut-off who limped in. Shaan Siddiqui, a skilled player who has had many deep runs here in Playground events raised it up to 16,500 on the button. Jeanrene Plante shoved his stack in the small blind and had a fast call by Siddiqui. Plante said “really?”, and Siddiqui replied “yes…I have AK”.

Plante:

Siddiqui:

There was no help on the board for Siddiqui and Plante scoops a massive pot, to send him north of 300k.

Players have just returned from the last break of the night, with three more levels of 30 minutes each remaining before the chips get bagged for Day 2.

Michael Korovine, a well known tournament and cash game regular here at Playground was leading at the last break, and, still dominates the field heading into the final stretch.  The next three levels typically see some huge swings, so, although we currently have four players on top of the leader board right now, that can easily change rapidly as all players will want to bag as many chips as possible to head into Day 2.

Jean-Sebastien Penven just scooped in a large pot on table 31. With the blinds at 1.2k/2.4k, Jonathan B. opened in late position for 5K, and Penven called on the button.  Both blinds folded and action was heads-up.

The dealer fanned out and Jonathan checked. Penven threw in 5.5k, which was met by a re-raise to 17K.  Penven smooth called.

The turn brought the and Jonathan led out again, throwing in 18K.  Penven tanked and then finally made the call.

River: .

Jonathan wasted no time and shoved all his remaining chips.  Penven looked at his hand one more time, looked up at his opponent, and then said “I can’t fold this hand” as he moved a chip forward to make the call.

Jonathan:

Penven: for the 2nd nut flush over Jonathan’s lower flush, and the large pot was sent his way.

On one table over, Anderson F. was able to get a badly needed double up after he shoved his , getting a call from John Aroujo holding .  Anderson flopped a set on a flop and is still alive as we head into the last break of the night.

Registration has now closed and there are a total of 103 entries (including 13 re-entries) in tonight’s Day 1C.  We are now in level 9 and there are still 63 players grinding away and hoping to bag.

Still in contention are: Chris Arvanitis, Tom Cohen, Jonathan B., Linda Huard, and Walter Asatoorian, just to name a few.

Recent bustouts include: David Williams, Tam Ho, Eric Ranger, Tomislav Pavkovic, Franco Sicondolfi, Gaetano Di Maria, and Jean-Philippe Lehoux.