Play has resumed following the first break of the day with all 8 players still in their seats. Action continues with blinds now at 2M/4M/a400K. On the Live Stream, Jeff Gross has taken a break and been replaced by Kristen Bicknell in the booth alongside Simon Trumper.
You can watch the stream via https://www.twitch.tv/partypokertv.
Rayan Chamas has just added a cool 50M to his stack following a 30M river bet into a 35M chip pot in a hand against Niall Farrell. Farrell had the lead most of the way with his middle pair, but the money card on the river gave him two pairs compared with Chamas’ nut straight. Chamas, first to act, led out with a huge bet, effectively polarizing his range. After a good 6 minutes in the tank, Farrell made the call and learned the bad news.
With that hand Chamas has become one of the larger chip accumulators during the first level of play today and now sits on a stack of over 204M chips.
Louis Boutin hasn’t necessarily been the busiest player at the table, but he has benefited from some nice hands, including pocked Aces and most recently a pair of Kings, which he raised and found a call from Niall Farrell and a 3bet from Matt Waxman holding 
. Louis shoved over the top and found two quick folds and took down a nice pot. He’s now up to 146.2M in chips, good for 4th place at the moment.
Louis Boutin started the day as the short stack and had just 49M in chips when he squeezed the 
in the cutoff. Niall Farrell folded from the button and Matt Waxman showed up with 
– he went all-in over the top and successfully isolated the shorter-stacked player.
The flop came up 100% Louis: 
for two pairs, and the 
on the turn and river didn’t bail Matt out. Louis doubles up to over 100M in chips, while Matt is down to 89M (30bb).
Play on the official final table of the partypoker Million North America began at about 12:25pm, and with the 30 minute delay placed on the Live Stream, that means that that action has effectively just begun. Play is in hand 11 now and will continue throughout the day until a champion is crowned.
The Live Stream features commentary by Simon Trumper and Jeff Gross, and you can tune in via http://twitch.tv/partypokertv/ – or simply by visiting the link in the top menu bar on the Playground Live Events blog. The stream is cards-up, meaning that hole cards will be visible for each player in turn, which makes the whole thing that much more entertaining.
Above all, this is an exciting day because there is still $3,023,350.00 of the total $5.7M prize pool to be awarded, including a $1,000,000 for the player who finishes in first place! The next elimination will receive $80,000 and the prizes just go up from there!
The official final table in the partypoker Million North America is set to begin momentarily, and before things get started we compiled a few notes on the remaining 8 players in the field. One of these 8 players will collect $1,000,000 today – maybe these notes will provide some insight into who that might be!
Ari Engel, 252,500,000, Seat 1
Ari is one of the most well-travelled pros in poker today and boasts published results going back to 2007 on 5 continents, putting him 15th on the Canadian All Time Money List with $4,617,000 in Live earnings. His recent form is pretty great as well – he currently occupies 11th on the Global Poker Index. Ari arrives at the final table as the chip leader in the tournament.
Jonathan Bussieres, 108,700,000, Seat 2
Jonathan is a Quebec-based player who is frequently seen making deep runs in events at Playground and elsewhere in the region. Jonathan has an event win at Playground Poker Club on his resume, but with a minimum of $60,000 coming his way today, this will be by far his largest live tournament score.
Rayan Chamas, 168,400,000, Seat 3
Rayan is another Montreal-based player with a solid mix of online and live results over the years. Known for using a variant of “zebest” on various online sites, Rayan also had a significant final table appearance in the $3.3K Canada Cup held at Playground Poker Club in 2014, in which he eventually finished 5th for $91K. Rayan is known at the tables for his distinctive neon orange sunglasses.
Philippe D’Auteuil, 142,500,000, Seat 4
Philippe – known universally as “takechip” – is quite simply one of Quebec’s online poker legends. Predominantly a high-stakes cash player, players worldwide know and fear Philippe when he arrives at an online table. His Live results are pretty impressive as well, including a 5th place finish in the EPT London Main Event in 2008.
Louis Boutin, 43,900,000, Seat 5
Louis is another young Montreal-area player who has had some impressive results in the past here at Playground Poker Club. Any outcome today will be his largest live tournament cash by a wide margin, but people who have played him caution that he is not to be under-estimated.
Niall Farrell, 69,200,000, Seat 6
Niall joins us from the UK where he is known for both live and online poker exploits. Known as “Firaldo” on the virtual felts, he boasts impressive live results including WPT and EPT victories. He has $3,358,272 in lifetime live tournament earnings.
Matthew Waxman, 115,300,000, Seat 7
Matt is among the most experienced players left in the field with over $3.4M in lifetime live tournament earnings and boasting a WSOP bracelet, a WSOP-C ring, and a WPT win on his impressive resume. He has largely flown under the radar in this event, but it would be a big mistake to under-estimate his experience and talent.
Jean-Pascal Savard, 243,100,000, Seat 8
Jean-Pascal begins the day 2nd in chips and is one of several Quebec-based pros on the final table. With an established resume as one of the most feared online MTT players in the world, Jean-Pascal made a breakthrough in Live MTTs this past February in the WPT Playground, in which he placed 6th for his biggest live score to date. A trainer at the prestigious Run It Once training site, Jean-Pascal looks to be ready to make an indelible mark on the Live poker world.
