Marc-Andre Ladouceur

Montreal has developed a reputation as a pretty fantastic poker town, what with players like Jonathan Duhamel, Marc Etienne McLaughlin, Marc-André Ladouceur, and many many more making a mark on the international tournament scene. But Montreal – at heart – is and will always be a hockey town, first and foremost.

And it’s created a bit of an issue for a few players in the field today:

Playing WPT Montreal today and still have chips. Means I have to sell my tickets to Habs Game 1 tonight. Section 120 C, $300 each, hit me up

— Marc-Andre Ladouceur (@MarcAndre_FDawg) May 1, 2015

Jonathan Duhamel

Photographs from level 5:

Ami Alibay

Table 50 is right on the aisle between the cashier area and the Tournament desk, so when the tournament started today we noticed pretty quickly that it was a very tough table. And then local player Ami Alibay sent this tweet:

@WPTlive @PlaygroundPoker main event the toughest table in Mtl ever …me-afriat-rettenmaier-tim reilly-chartier-will molson-carlo-jack

— AmiAlibay (@AmiAlibay) May 1, 2015

Here’s the lineup as it was just 30 minutes ago:

[eztable width=”70%” colwidth=”35%|35%|30%” colalign=”left|left|left”]
First Name,Last Name,Seat [attr sort=”asc”]
Samuel,Chartier,Seat 1
Jonathan,Karamalikis,Seat 2
Carlo,Nini,Seat 3
William,Molson,Seat 4
Jiachen,Gong,Seat 5
Marvin,Rettenmaier,Seat 6
Eric,Afriat,Seat 7
Timothy,Reilly,Seat 8
Ami,Alibay,Seat 10
[/eztable]

Tim Reilly and Marvin Rettenmaier are household names (at least in the poker world) but just because some of the other names aren’t as well-known doesn’t mean they’re any less dangerous. Between Samuel Chartier, Carlo Nini, Will Molson, Jiachen Gong, Eric Afriat and Ami Alibay you have one of the strongest concentrations of Montreal-area poker talent possible. And add to that Jonathan Karamalikis… whew.

[Update…]

And it’s not going to get easier. Eric Afriat is now out of the tournament – but Jeff Gross has been seated in that spot!

Marc-Etienne Mclaughlin

While the players were enjoying a short break, we took a walk through the tournament room in search of the current chip leaders, and here is what we found:

1. Marc Etienne Mclaughlin – 119,000
2. Brian Wang – 93,000
3. Etienne Dion – 82,000
4. Lu Zhang – 78,000
5. Christopher Clisby – 74,000
6. Christo Bassila – 69,500
7. Paul Theodore Klann – 66,000
8. Doris Charlebois – 62,500
9. Mathieu Martin – 62,000

Photographs from levels 3-4:

Players have completed the first two 60-minute levels today (of the 10 levels to be played) and have gone on break. Late registration continues after this break – in fact, it continues past the next break and all the way through the dinner break following level 6.

During the first two levels we took a few photos of the field: