Play continues immediately before the money bubble in the Million North America and Vlad Mezheritsky has just improved his position on the leaderboard by doubling through Christopher Dowling.

Preflop betting was well underway when we arrived at the table to see Vlad rais all-in from the hijack and Christoper made the call.

Christopher:
Vlad:

The community cards held some promise as they came out : 7h, followed by a on the turn, however the on the river meant the Aces were good. Vlad is now playing over 22M while Christopher is now dangerously short-stacked.

Players are back into action in level 21 after a short break, and the tournament is only a handful of eliminations away from the money bubble. Upeshka De Silva tops the 126 player field with over 26-million, with Jean-Pascal Savard hot on his tail. Below are the top counts at the first break of Day 3:

Photographs from level 20:

The first level of Day 3 is behind us, and 148 players remain as the money-bubble slowly approaches. The top 119 will secure a payday, and we should reach the money sometime near the dinner-break.

Photographs from level 19:

The first level of the day has concluded and 21 players have already been eliminated today as play continues at a reasonably fast pace.

Some of the recent eliminations include local players Benoit Jean and Ruben Perceval plus such well-known pros as Daniel Colman, Christian Harder, and partypoker’s Tony Dunst.

Elliot Smith opened to 250,000 from utg, and Ruben Perceval 3bet to 800,000 from the button. After the blinds folded their cards, Elliot replied with a 4bet to 1,850,000 and Ruben made the call.

Elliot fired 600,000 on the flop, 1,000,000 on the turn and all-in for 2,460,000 on the river on a : Kh board, and Ruben followed along until showdown. Elliot tabled , which was good enough to win him the pot, putting a dent in Ruben’s stack.

Ruben was eliminated shortly after the hand.

We caught up to the action on the turn between Upeshka De Silva (button) and Santiago Plante (small blind).

With showing, Santiago check-called a bet of 3,150,000. He checked once again when the river brought the , and this time Upeshka slid forward a bet worth 5,885,000, forcing Santiago into the tank. After a few moments of silence, Santiago made the call only to find out his opponent backed into the straight with . He shook his head in disbelief while Upeshka, who now sits on over 25 million in chips, was collecting the pot.