Nicholas Bélanger made a small raise, and Alain Zarka pushed his chips forward. His opponents were looking at a 25K bet, and one by one they folded, until the action came around to Bélanger. He already had a pile of chips in his hands, ready to go.

Bélanger:
Zarka:

Board:

Luckily for Bélanger, he had secured a set on the flop. A few hands later, on the same table, Johnny Akilian and Bob T had their own pre-flop showdown:

Johnny:
Bob T:

Board:

As the average stack decreases in number of big blinds, the gloves come off. The last break comes in about 15 minutes, after which Day 1A players will have 3 levels to work with before the end of the flight.

With just a couple of chips in the pot and a small bet from Golnaz Aghabeigi, Étienne Nault shoved his remaining 25K on the flop. He must have felt a lot of strength in his opponent; most people would slow play the monster that he found on the flop.

Nault:
Aghabeigi:

Board:

If that was his read, he was a little too correct. Aghabeigi had the next best hand, and Nault was looking for one of 4 outs to survive, which did not come.

 

After eight levels of play, some players are starting to flirt with the 100K mark. Daniel Pépin actually hit it and sits on top of our current leaderboard. Here is our top 5:

First name | Prénom	Last name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Daniel	Pépin	103,000
Bob	T	99,500
Michael	Korovine	97,000
Ben	Menache	92,000
David	Sorgente	88,500

*While this update was being put together, Bob T increased his belongings by about 50K! He is now comfortably in the lead.

On the flop, Bang Tran was facing an 11K bet and raised all-in, asking Cédrick Quenneville-Renaud a serious question. Cédrick, however, felt like he was way too invested to fold and made the call.

Bang:
Cédrick:

Board:

What a turn, and a brutal way to go out. Cédrick chips up to almost 50K.

Daune Fernandez and Adam Strulovitch were very short with a little over 5K each, and both had the all-in card. Keven Desgagné threw a chip in and the cards were tabled for the showdown.

Fernandez:
Strulovitch:
Desgagné:

Board:

On the turn, Fernandez was more than happy to chop the pot, but the river brought him the other half, and he smiled almost apologetically.

The counter is officially closed to registration in Day 1A of the Playground 200. 129 entries have taken place, and with the 26 from the online Day 1, the tally is now at 155. We are almost half-way through the first live starting flight, and 94 players are still in the race for a Day 2 bag.

Here are some recent photos of the field: