We arrived at a fully-composed table. The board was laid out: . The pot was huge: at least 4.6M in chips. Omid, in early position, had checked, and Said, the only other player in the hand, had laid out a bet of 1.7M – using a couple of the new 500K chips in play. Omid was in the tank.

He thought for some time even then, and eventually called the clock on himself. The 30-second countdown began, and finally 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… FOLD – Omid had not moved, his hand was folded and Said stacked more chips.

Michailidis is now up to 13.1M and is the chip leader by some margin.

Play has wrapped up for the first two levels today on the Final Table of the Playground 1000, and the two eliminations so far leave 6 players in contention for the remaining prizes. The chip leader after the first stint today is Omid Shahbazian, but the largest gainer today so far is Said Michailidis, who is playing just about 300K (just over 1bb) less than Omid.

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Seat | Siège	Stack | Tapis
Ruben	Perceval	Table 66 - Seat 1	9,200,000
Omid	Shahbazian	Table 66 - Seat 3	11,975,000
Eric	Schanck	Table 66 - Seat 4	4,175,000
Said	Michailidis	Table 66 - Seat 5	11,650,000
Jaered Daniel	Besse	Table 66 - Seat 6	8,800,000
David	Bertrand	Table 66 - Seat 8	4,125,000

Said Michailidis has chipped up recently to the point where he’s playing around 9M in chips. A lot of these chips were won in a huge hand against Eric Schanck. We missed the early action, but when we arrived on the river there was a monster pot in the middle and the following board laid out:

. Eric had put out a river bet of 1.1M and action was on Said.

After a relatively long period in the tank, Said stated clearly to the dealer and the entire table, “Raise.” Then he paused a moment, and instead of sliding forwards a proper raise in chips, or even just stating an amount to which he was raising, he simply tossed a chip.

Everyone at the table knows the rule and it’s unambiguous – you may raise in two motions IF (and ONLY if) the first amount you put forward is the exact amount of what would have been required to call. Put out less, or slightly more, and the rules are clear – the player is to be held to a min-raise.

There was no controversy, however, because Said clarified instantly that he intended to min-raise and throwing out the chip was his way of doing exactly that with no ambiguity.

It hardly affected anything – Eric called instantly and the cards were exposed:

Said:
Eric

Said had the better straight and stacked a huge pot.

Santiago Plante doubled through Eric Schanck to give himself a much-needed chip boost, but just a few hands later they crossed swords again and Eric got the best of it – for the rest of Plante’s chips.

Plante got the ball rolling in the hand by raising all-in from utg for what we soon learned was exactly 1.5M. When action came to Eric he thought for a bit, and eventually re-raised to 2.9M to isolate, successfully, and the cards were turned over.

Santiago:
Eric:

Eric wasn’t surprised to see a better pair but that’s not to say he was happy about it. The community cards came out and Santiago stacked a decent slice of Eric’s stack.

A few hands later, though, the shoe was on the other foot. Ruben opened to 450K – always a daunting prospect with his huge chip lead – but Santiago wasn’t intimidated and shoved all in. Omid Shahbazian was the next to act but folded after a little thought, and action was back on Eric, by far the most active player at the table so far.

Eric chose to shove over the top for about 25bb which was enough to convince everyone else to exit the hand and the cards came out.

Eric:
Santiago:

Santiago was behind, and the baby card flop – added some thin chop possibilities but not much else. The turn was the and river :3.

All of his activity today is paying off – Eric Schanck is up to about 8.5M so far.

7th place: Santiago Plante, $15,260.00

Nick Nickoletopoulos is a local player who has been running deep in almost every big tournament he plays, and the Playground 1000 was no exception. His run is over in 8th place, however, as Nick continues to strive for a breakthrough in the biggest events he plays.

His final hand saw Eric Schanck open the action to 375K, and Nick 3-bet all-in for 1.825M. Eric asked for the amount to be verified, then cut out calling chips… and made the call by throwing one chip forward.

Eric:
Nick:

The flop was safe for Nick: but the turn put Eric over the top and the river didn’t change matters.

8th place: Nick Nickoletopoulos, $11,905.00

Ruben Perceval is a very skilled tournament player who came into today as the chip leader… and in the first hand played today, he raked in a tidy 2M+ pot. He won it after getting a fold on the river from Eric Schanck on a board – but when Ruben flashed his …

Ruben is already up to 11.9M in chips today.