When we got to table #35 we could tell this was going to be crucial.  The hand involved Piotr Wielopolski, Gabriel DT, Mohamed Ben Yahia and Tomas Larivee Magni.  If these names sound familiar, it’s because they have all been on the leader boards at least once tonight.

The flop was out: 

Blinds were 800/1,600 and Piotr got the ball rolling with a bet of 5,100.  Tomas, on the button flat-called and Mohamed wasted no time, pushing out his entire 89K stack as he said: “All-in”.

All eyes were on Gabriel DT, chip leader in this particular hand, with 2 players behind, including the original post-flop raiser and a flat call.  After a few minutes, Gabriel lifted his head and uttered two small but explosive words: “All-in”.  Original raiser Piotr Wielopolski got rid of his hand quickly which left Tomas Larivee Magni.

After some soul-searching Tomas called and opened his hand with an iconic don’t-have-a-choice smile.  He was holding   , huge draws… straight, flush and straight-flush.

Mohamed tabled  , top 2 pairs.

Then Gabriel flipped over his cards to show the strongest pre-flop hand: , top-top.

Mohamed was already standing up and froze mid-stance when the turn came out: .  This card obviously made Tomas’s gamble pay off by awarding him a baby-flush.  With no one else holding a spade he didn’t care that his flush was weak at this point.

“Gimme a jack; c’m’on, gimme a jack!” pleaded Mohamed, ready to accept defeat in the face of his few outs.  And as the dealer snapped a on the river, the whole table and a few bystanders exhaled a collective “wow”.

So Mohamed more than triples up and is now sitting behind a very decent stack.  Tomas Larivee Magni did manage to get a few chips from Gabriel DT but the blow was hard to both players.

 

 

 

 

The 45 remaining players in Day 1B of the Playground 200 took a short break after level 11. We went around the 5 tables to obtain a leader board update. We found 5 players with stacks larger than 150K.

Both Gary Lucci and Simon Belzile have taken a decent lead, and with only 3 levels to go they will surely look to improve their position. As fate would have it, both player are on the same table. This setup is putting a lot of pressure on the shorter stacks, as they get pounded on by the larger ones. No one said it was going to be easy, and we noticed a few players keeping their eyes on the table breaking order in hopes of getting a new seat soon.

Of the previous leader board only Tomas Larivee Magni was able to stay up on the board.

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Simon	Belzile	232,200
Gary	Lucci	230,200
Karim Olivier	Kamal	165,300
Gabriel	DT	153,800
Tomas	Larivee Magni	153,500

We are now down to 48 players, and the eliminations can be seen at a steady pace. With 3 more levels to go the play is open and aggressive, especially from the larger stacks. Shorter stacks are trying to elbow their way into good spots to double up.

Here are a few more photos of the players. There will be a short break soon and we will be able to get a clearer picture of the leaders.

Players have just come back from a break between levels 8 and 9 and we took advantage of this moment to update the leader board.

At the close of the late registration and re-entry period we ended up with 133 entries (including 21 re-entries). Of those entries only 71 remain after 4 hours of play.

With the average chip count at 45K, we decided to target the stacks above 90K. None of the players on the previous leader board (from the 1st break) managed to stay in the lead.

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Piotr	Wielopolski	169,000
Tomas	Larivee Magni	129,000
Anthony Douglas	Henderson	123,900
Daniel	Le	115,400
Mohamed	Ben Yahia	92,300

Here are some more photos of our players, from level 5.

Players took a short break after level 4 and we headed to the tables to see how the chips are stacking up after 2 hours of play.

104 players are still in the tournament, out of 115 entries (including 8 re-entries), with just about one hour to go in the late registration (or re-entry) period.

We were looking for stacks of 50K and more, roughly double the average, and we found a few. Very few chips separate most of the “leaders”, the only exception being Michael McKinnon who is sitting behind 65,000 chips.

It’s still very early and anything can happen, but we will keep an eye on those players who were fortunate enough to double up before the first break.

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Michael	McKinnon	65,000
Simon	Belzile	56,000
Hagay	Brener	54,400
Frederick	Gougon	54,300
Massimo	Ruggiero	53,400
Tanvir	Ahmed	51,700
Michel	Leblanc	50,000