Jôle Simard

Day 2 started with 422 players, and 151 Day 2 entries were added in the first 2 levels. Out of that number, 173 were still alive when the last level of the day had run out. The average stack is now 6.6M chips, and the blinds will resume at 60K/120K/a10K.

Day 2 has seen a lot of action, and big stacks were created. Players seem to enjoy working with big numbers (1M starting stack!), and these numbers are only going to get bigger.

The final results will be published shortly, but here are some pictures of players who are among the 10 biggest counts. Ema Zajmovic, our last Main Event winner and back to back final tableist, is one of them. Can she do it again? Only time will tell…

Tomorrow is Day 3, play will once again start at 12pm, and continue though 8 levels. See you then!

When we arrived at the table, the hand was already at the river, and Maria Ho had bet 850K into an estimated 1.5M pot. Viet Van Ho raised to 2 025 000, and Maria went to the tank.

The board was everything but dry, showing . Maria finally made the call, keeping about 800K behind, only to find that she had been the victim of an extremely rare event*. Viet Van Ho tabled , for a flopped royal flush!

Maria is now crippled, with nothing but a few chips and a good story.

*Odds of flopping a Royal Flush: 1 in 19,600 (given that you have the proper starting hand)

Jean-Philippe Piquette, a local hero who has had success in both cash and tournaments, had won the $500 buy-in Event in the Playground Poker Fall Classic in November 2016, for $28,420. Earlier last year, he also took down the 1,350 + 150 No Limit Hold’em Shootout at the 2016 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic, in Niagara Falls, for $36,665 – not to mention having been the winner of the first two Playground Poker Championship belts! This week, he is on a mission.

As we got to his table, we could determine that Piquette had raised to 175K from an early position, and had been called from Austin Peck, 3 seats to his left, and raised to 775K from Kurt Kohlberg, on Peck’s immediate left. The rest of the table got out of the way, and Piquette went to the tank. He asked to see his opponents’ stacks, and then removed his own bet, which meant that he was at least going to call. But call he did not! Instead, he slid forward 1,480,000 in chips, and waited for the response.

Peck threw his hand in, and Kohlberg took but a few seconds to go all-in, for about 4M. Piquette, who started the hand with around 5M in his stack, made the call.

Jean-Philippe Piquette:
Kurt Kohlberg:

Board:

Kohlberg was drawing dead on the turn, and it was at that point that Piquette put a victorious smile on his face. We wish him the best of luck for the remaining of his journey!

Table 30 has rounded up some of Montreal’s best poker players. On it, one can see Carter Swidler ($551,237 in lifetime earnings), who cashed $108,410 for his 5th place in the 2015 partypoker.net WPT Montreal, right here at Playground Poker Club. On his right sits none other than Marc-André “FrenchDawg” Ladouceur ($1,843,708 in lifetime earnings). Although he made most of his money in the online nosebleeds, he is an established and feared tournament player.

Last but not least, a few seats over is Marc-Étienne McLaughlin. His lifetime earnings are $2,905,697, $1,601,024 of which came from his 6th place finish in the 44th World Series of Poker Main Event, in 2013. He is considered a top 5 tournament player in Québec.

All 3 have a little under average, but they will probably find a way to climb up the leaderboard.

That table has tremendous skills on it, as you can also find Maria Ho, professional player with over 2M in lifetime earnings. Maria and Marc-André are also connected as two of the Captains of Global Poker League teams (LA Sunsets and Montreal Nationals, respectively).

As we were writing these lines, the table was broken, and those players are now scattered on the tournament floor. We wish them good luck on their new tables!

Having played 4 out of 8 levels today, the halfway point has now been reached. Players have enjoyed a warm buffet, and are now back at the tables for the second half of Day 2.

The prize pool will be published shortly, but it is now confirmed that 119 players will get paid in the Event and that a cool $1,000,000.00 will go to the winner, with 6-figure prizes awarded to the top 7 positions. It is also confirmed that the Million North America just beat the all-time prize pool record in Canadian poker history! It is with great pride that Playground Poker Club claims this record today. This great milestone is yet another notch on our belt.

Here is the top of the leaderboard, as play resumes at level 15, with blinds at 25K/50K/a5K.

Alex Keating is a very accomplished professional poker player from California. He has lifetime live earnings of 1.5M, including a 35th place in the WSOP Main Event 2016 for $216,211. It was a pleasure to have him here for the Million North America, and even a greater treat to see him qualify for Day 2 through Day 1A live, with a healthy stack just short of 6M.

Unfortunately, this afternoon was rough on him, as he had lost the better part of his stack within the first few levels. When we arrived at his table not long ago, he was all-in pre-flop for about 1.5M with , and was facing . The board came . That flop spelled danger for keating, as he now had to dodge 17 outs to stay alive. One of them fell on the turn, leaving him with only 4 outs for the boat redraw, which did not come.

We hope to see him tomorrow in the Second Chance Event, doing what he does best.