What a night! There were a total of 143 entries, including 26 re-entries, for tonight’s Day 1A of the Playground 100. In total, twenty 20-minute levels were played and 2,860,000 chips found their way into the bags. 15 players are now qualified for Day 2, and are also in the money.

In the early stages of the tournament, Playground regular Marcello Iacovella got off to a great start. Damien Gozzi was also faring well. Midway through the tournament and by the time the second break came around, Marcello and Damien were still in good position, but there was a new sheriff in town: Joël Bérard was now chip leader. Leader not by much, but in the lead nevertheless. In fact, at this point in the tournament, very few chips separated the top-four players.

As the evening wore on and the action became lethal, the field kept shrinking at a steady rate. At the third break, Damien Gozzi was still second in chips, but by then Joël had amassed an impressive amount of chips and had a huge lead. Joël managed to not only hang on to his lead, but increase his lead in front of his adversaries.

When all was said and done, Joël had gathered no less than 409,500 chips, which he was quite happy to drop into his bag. In second place, Damien has bagged 305,500 chips. The two players are clearly in a good position and will probably keep their eyes on the feeds tomorrow to see how their counts hold up against the players of the two remaining flights of Day 1s.

When he peeked down at his hole cards and saw , Matthew Monteschio decided that this was his time for a Hail Mary Pass, and shoved all-in preflop for 23,000. The next few players folded, which left only Pierre Lauzé in the action. Big blind and with more than 220,000 chips behind, Pierre called even before looking at his cards.

As soon as Pierre called, all the players at the table stood up, and were joined by the players of the adjoining table. Matthew turned over his hand and Pierre did the same, curious to see what he had. Holding , Pierre was crushed by Matthew’s hand.

When the flop came out, the window card made Matthew cringe, and for good reason: . Pierre had hit the jack, which was exactly what Matthew had not wanted to see. An ace would be great for him at his point, and a king even better. The pair of threes that hit the turn and river did nothing to help Matthew and he had to take his leave,in the shadow of Pierre’s two pairs, and in the bubble position.

With 16 players left and since only the last 15 players will be moving on, the tournament has entered the “hand per hand” format. This format will be active until the next player is eliminated.

I’ts been a day of ups and downs, as well as intense action, and the players are slowly showing some signs of fatigue. They have been playing now for more than 7 hours and are ready to call it a night.

Joël Bérard is still going strong and in the lead.

After winning a few important hands, Damien Gozzi was obviously having a hard time stacking the staggering amount of chips in front of him. While waiting to get a photo of him we were unable to resist the urge to capture the moment.

Fully concentrated, Damien was hard a work, mumbling, “I’ll never be a dealer!” and making the players around him chuckle. It was also obvious that the dealer was itching to help him, knowing very well that he would be able to accomplish the task in about 15 seconds. It took some time, a lot of care and labor, but he eventually managed to get some kind of control over the chips and when he finally looked up, it was to see the players at the table smiling and enjoying the show.

Damien ended up posing for us, which allowed us to capture the young man’s smile… and nice stack. No one had the heart to tell him that all the black chips were going to go during the chip race a few minutes later.

The field is shrinking and there are now 20 players left. The tournament director has just closed a table so there are two full-ring tables left. The players are in for the last sprint and are eager to bag the chips.

If you could not make it down to Playground Poker Club today for this first Day 1 of the Playground 100, there are two more Day 1s available. Both remaining Day 1s are tomorrow, Saturday March 23rd at 12:00PM and 7:00PM. Expect the fields to be quite large for these 2 flights.

Here are a few more photos of the players

After 16 levels, Joël Bérard is still chip leader with a massive 280,000 stack; that’s more than twice the chip average!  Damien Gozzi is still fighting hard and still in second place with 208,000 chips.  The last player to make our 175K+ list is Antonio Cappelo, proud owner of a 181,500 stack.

With over 2.6 million chips in play, there are sure to be some pretty hefty stacks at the end of the night.  The last 15 players are bagging chips tonight.  They will be in the money, and coming back for Day 2 on Sunday.

Play has just resumed after a 15-minute break and there are now 22 players left.