Day 1A of the Playground 1000 drew a field of 96 players. Of those 96, 18 players re-entered event, making for a total of 11,400,000 chips in play during this first flight (114 total entries). Tonight’s crowd was mostly local, regular players but there was also a significant contingent of established, travelling pros.

As with most big tournaments, play started out cautiously in the early levels. But caution was thrown out this window by the end of the day. By the later levels, it seemed like nearly every pot started with a three-bet, and four-bets were not uncommon. This level of aggression shrank the field significantly, and only 49 players remained at the end to bag chips. Those 49 players bagged an average of 234,700 chips for Monday’s Day 2. Faisal Khan emerged as the chip leader from this flight, bagging 619,000.

See the full chip counts for each Day 1 on the Combined Day 1 Results page.

We are in the last level of play in Day 1A, and the pots are getting bigger and bigger. The trend of three- and four-betting continues, and it’s building huge stacks for some and sending others to the rail.

The blinds were 1.2K/2.4K when Aaron Roy Parson opened the action from early position to 5.4K. This raise drew a series of calls before the action got to Joshua Frazer James in the big blind. James made it 27.5K to go and gave Parsons something to think about. After a moment in the tank, Parsons re-raised to 65.5K; the other players couldn’t fold fast enough. James immediately threw in a chip, and they were off to see the flop. It seemed unlikely that the flop of connected with either player’s hand. James checked to Parsons who quietly announced “all in.” James asked for the count and rose out of his chair. After about two minutes, James made the call. Parsons said “nice call,” and James knew his were good. Parsons tabled and picked up his coat. The turn and river were blanks, James scooped a huge pot and Parsons hit the rail.

The action continues to be fast and unpredictable as we enter the last level of Day 1A. It seems like the ranges have been opened up as pre-flop raises continue to draw multiple callers and heads-up pots are becoming a rarity.

With the blinds at 1K/2K, an early position raise to 4.5K from Ami Alibay drew four callers, and they saw a flop of . Not exactly an action flop, right? Wrong. This hand blew up and left everyone at the table stunned. The first to act was Pierre Lamothe, who led out with a bet of 7K. This bet was called by Alibay and Pierre Lamothe and forced everyone else out of the hand. The turn brought the , and Lamothe bet 20K. After taking a minute to study Lamothe, Alibay made the fold and Paradis calmly called. The river brought out the and Lamothe made the same bet, 20K. Paradis then moved all in without much hesitation. This forced Lamothe to take a minute to consider the situation before making the call. Paradis showed for a flopped full house. A stunned Lamothe showed

Day 1A is drawing to a close, but the players show no signs of slowing down. Three-bets are quickly becoming standard as the players take every opportunity to accumulate chips, however, they are keeping their eyes on the prize and still making big folds.

A big hand that just played out on table 56 offers a nice example; Daune Fernandez opened the action in early position, raising the 2K big blind to 6.5K. Immediately to his left was Todd Pierce who re-raised to 23K. This 3-bet drew a cold call from Eric Cormier, before Fernandez moved all in. Pierce immediately followed suit and left Cormier with a tough decision. After asking for a count, Cormier opened and folded :ks saying “…it must be aces.” Sure enough, it was for Pierce. Fernandez grimaced as he showed his . By this time a small crowd had gathered around the table, and Pierce and Fernandez rose from their seats to watch the board run out: . And with that hand, Fernandez more than doubled his stack.

The players have returned from their last break of the evening. Event #9 champion, Ami Alibay, leads the field. Several other players are close behind with stacks greater than double the current average.

Here are the chip leaders as we enter level 9:

The players are off on their last break of the day. Here are some photos from the last level: