Jonathan was running low on options with his 7 big blind stack, and when he picked up a weak-ace in an unopened pot, he took a chance and moved all-in. He was met with a call from Philippe Belley in the small blind, and action closed heads-up.

Jonathan:
Philippe:

Jonathan found no help on the board and was forced to settle for an 8th place finish. Philippe climbed above the 3-million chip mark with that hand, putting him at par with the average stack.

8th place: Jonathan G – $4,650.00

Pierre Gauthier was in the cutoff position when he took advantage of an unopened pot by raising all-in. His 1.1 million chip bet was met with a re-raise from big stacked Presten Cloutier, and the two players fell heads-up.

Pierre:
Presten:

Presten’s pair of jacks held on the board to bring the field down to 8 players. He took over the chip lead with that pot, climbing up above 5.6 million.

9th place: Pierre Gauthier – $3,450.00

Philippe Belley open-shoved his 1,265,000 stack from utg+1, and Santiago Plante isolated from middle position.

Philippe:
Santiago:

Philippe smashed the board to double him up to above average stack.

It’s hard to believe that we have only now reached the first break of the night, as the first 2 hours of play was action-packed, with the field dropping from 24 players down to just the final 9.

The race is tight at the top of the leaderboard as 3 players are within a few blinds of each other to share the lead. Below are the top counts as play enters level 30:

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Presten	Cloutier	3,650,000
Naghibollah	Noori	3,470,000
Isaac	Buswell	3,455,000
Philippe	Belley	2,385,000
Michael	Malm	2,245,000
Santiago	Plante	2,160,000
Jonathan	G	1,640,000
Pierre	Gauthier	1,200,000
Gianfranco	Giordano	735,000

Benoit Lord (under the gun) and Preston Cloutier (small blind) got into a raising war pre-flop which resulted in a flip for a 3+ million chip pot. Benoit tabled and was poised to score the double up versus his opponents , until the river-card paired Preston’s ace on a board showing .

Preston climbed to nearly 4 million with that pot, propelling him up the leaderboard.

10th place: Benoit Lord – $2,600.00