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.