Some hands are “perfectly” timed.  Getting a good hand is one thing.  But other things need to line-up to make it profitable, obviously.  This was the case for Sharon Patenaude a few minutes ago.

Sharon was nursing a small stack.  Not tiny, but small, just around 10 bb’s.  When Marc Quenneville raised early to 8,000, the other players got out of the way.  Sharon wasted no time pushing all-in for 23,000.  She got the call from Marc, who covered her, by a lot, and they both tabled their hands.

Marc:

Sharon:

Sharon had the edge of course, but It was still anybody’s game.  With a queen on the window, the flop came out: .  Marc’s kicker was going to either make it or break it for him.  A on the turn ruined Marc’s hopes for a flush, and now only the king would save him.

The river revealed a and gave Sharon top pair top kicker, and some much needed breathing room.

The remaining 53 players are coming back form the break. This allowed us to update the leaderboard and see where the chips lay. Joël Bérard is the current chip leader with 137,000 chips. He is followed closely by Irina Tchakarova with 133,400 and Damien Gozzi, holding a 126,400 stack. Rounding up the board is previous leader Marcello Iacovella, who has dropped down to fourth position, with 125,500.

What has changed is that now there is no “clear” leader. No one has managed to put a lot of distance between them and their rivals. Only 12,000 chips separate the top four players. So it goes without saying that it’s still anybody’s game at this point.

Before the break, we had a chance to go around the tables and catch a few pictures of the players in action. Now that the late registration is closed, the players are settling into their groove and are putting their rally caps on.

Here are a few photos of the players, from levels 5 and 6.

The 91 players still in the tournament just had a short break, which allowed us to bring you the first leaderboard of the evening.

With the average stack at 31K, we decided that every stack above 75,000 would make the board.

Marcello Iacovella is off to a nice start and tops off the list as the only player above 100K, with a respectable 106,400 stack. His adventure is not over by any means; there are quite a few players hot on his heals. There is Damien Gozzi with 92,300 chips, as well as Vladislav Gulii, who’s sitting on 88,400 chips.

As everyone knows, it’s not over ’till the bags come out; and that will be when only 10% of the field remains. Since the registration period just closed and the boards are showing a total of 143 entries (including 26 re-entries), this means that play will stop when 15 players remain.

At that point, everyone left standing will be in the money, and qualified to play Day 2 on Sunday.

The players are entering the tournament hall at a steady pace. There are now 116 registrations on the boards, and there is still a lot of time left on the late registration clock; roughly 60 minutes.

As expected, the players are in it to win; taking no hostages and trying to get their hands on as many chips as they can early in the game. With blinds going up every 20 minutes, the pace is decent, but there is no time to waste. After 3 full levels of play, the total chips in play are already well above the two million mark.

Here are a some photos from levels 1 and 2.

Play just got under way in this first flight of Day 1’s of the Playground 100.

Right now there are 59 players registered and the players are walking into the tournament hall ready for action.

Remember that players may elect to play more than one Day 1 even if they have survived a previous Day 1 with chips. For those players who qualify for Day 2 more than once, they will resume play on Day 2 with their largest qualifying stack; all other qualifying stacks will be forfeited.

So let the cards fly!