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.

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.