Gary Lucci has been an event champion here multiple times, but at least on Day 1A things didn’t go his way and he was eliminated in back-to-back hands on table 36. Another perennial champion, Ruben Perceval, placed the final straw, but Vivo L took a big portion of Gary’s stack to put everything in motion.

In the first hand, preflop action was raised to 4,400 (over 10x the bb at the time) and there were 3 to the flop – an inflated pot if there ever was one. The flop came and the three players checked around. On the turn , Vivo bet 4,750 and Gary called. The 3rd player got out of the way and the river came . Vivo checked and Gary came out firing: 7,500. Vivo called and showed down just – but it was more than enough to beat Gary’s Ace-Jack high.

With about half of his chips pushed across the table, Gary was in another hand, this time against Ruben, and by the time the river was dealt – the board read – Ruben had just over 10K left, which he slid to the middle to signal that he was all in. Gary was clearly not happy with the state of things, and had the smaller stack – but he made the call.

Ruben:
Gary:

Play has now moved into level 7, meaning that registration is now closed with a total of 112 entries on Day 1A including 14 re-entries.

The players in Day 1A are back from their first break of the day, and while they were absent from the tables, we surveyed the room to find out who were the big stacks to this point in the flight. We counted everyone who had built up more than a 2x starting stack (i.e., over 50K) and found 6 players, including chip leader Gabriel Attiave, who has already accumulated close to 80K!

Play is winding down in level 4 of Day 1A in the Playground 200 and players are about to take their first break of the day. As we surveyed the room, we noticed an all in from Jean-François Alexandre, who had just 9,425 chips left in his stack. Vera G, the early position raiser, made the call.

Jean-François:
Vera:

The flop had a little something for Vera: but the turn and river were no help and she paid off her opponent.

Vera had managed to chip up in the first 4 levels, so although she ate into her “profits” in the hand, she’ll return after the break with around a starting stack with which to resume play.

Here are a few shots of the early action in Day 1A of the Playground 200. A big welcome to all of the out-of-town players who have arrived, including Armand King aka The Oyster King!

The largest event of the October Power Weekend – the Playground 200 – is now underway in the Tournament Hall here at Playground Poker Club. Play tonight will continue through 14 levels of 30 minutes each, with blinds starting at 50/100 and a button ante that will start in level 3. Each player begins with 25,000 in tournament chips. Play will be 10-handed throughout each Day 1 and move to 9-handed play on Day 2.

This is a re-entry event, and players may choose to re-enter a starting flight they have played until the end of level 6, and any player – qualified or not for Day 2 – may play in multiple Day 1 starting flights. Players who qualify multiple times for Day 2 will take their best stack forward and forfeit their other stacks.

The first Day 1 of a multi-day event is usually the “lightest” in terms of attendance, so tonight represents a great opportunity to qualify for Day 2 in a relatively calm starting flight. Tonight is also the beginning of the hockey season, so there will be at least a few players whose attention is divided!