After over nine hours of intense poker action, our WPT Montreal Main Event Day 1A is officially in the books. There were 80 total entries (including 9 re-entries), and at the end of the day 41 players were still standing, ready for Day 2 which comes up on Thursday November 1, 2018 at noon. All of them will have a shot at winning part of the guaranteed $5,000,000 prize pool.

Although the chip lead went back and forth throughout the day, in the end it was owned by the same player for the last 2 levels, Mr. Marius Kikinezhdi, who ended the day with a great run of cards on top of his solid play. The leader board can be seen below.

Also, don’t forget that you can join the Main Event by buying in for Day 1B (Tuesday) or Day 1C (Wednesday). In fact, you can even buy in on Day 2 (Thursday) if you want, right up to the end of the registration period, which will close after 3 levels of play on Thursday.

Congrats to all the players moving on. See you at the tables!

View the WPT Montreal Main Event Day 1 Combined Results page.

It is just after midnight and the players at today’s Main Event have been at it for eight hours (including breaks). Some are doing well, others not so much. But Mauricio Pais isn’t going to let a little something like a recent bust ruin his night!

To briefly recap: Mauricio was busted just before the last break – less than an hour ago – by the (now) chip leader Marius Kikinezhdi. His jacks were beaten by a straight. Not so out of the ordinary, so far as it goes. But as we toured the remaining tables, there he was again at table 62! And not only that, he’s smiling!

Instead of making another run at one of the two other Main Event Day 1s (happening Tuesday and Wednesday this week), he has decided to grab the opportunity right away. The man won’t be cowed, he will make Day 2 of this tournament. That is, unless he has a very unlucky last hour.

Best of luck to him and the 48 other players still seated at the tables!

After six 60-minute levels and three breaks, Marius Kikinezhdi is the new chip leader, thanks entirely to his win of the last hand before the break, busting Mauricio Pais.

With only seconds to go before the players were to hit their third break of the night, a relatively low stakes hand on table 63 turned into a monster for one player – and a nightmare for another. We joined the action late in the hand, with the board showing , and only about 11,000 in the pot.

There were three players in the hand, and the player in seat 2 checked utg. Marius Kikinezhdi in seat 3 made a pot-sized bet of 12,500. But instead of pushing the other players out of the hand, he met with resistance.

Mauricio Pais, who took some time deciding (staring down Marius for some clue), decided to shove all in for his stack of 53,200. The player in position 2 folded, and Marius quickly called. The players flipped their cards.

Mauricio:

Marius:

Marius had made his straight on the turn, and Mauricio packed up his things. That catapulted Marius into the chip lead as the players got up from the tables to stretch their legs at the break.

We joined the action at table 64 late in the hand, with a board of showing, two players in the hand, and already more than 60,000 in the pot. Alex Demers was on the button in seat 2, Brian Altman in seat 9.

Two checks led to an being dealt on the river, and Brian led with a bet of 25,000. He looked on dispassionately, seemingly without a care in the world. It was another picture on the other side of the table, with Alex appearing to be under a great deal of stress and unsure of what to do. After almost five minutes of mental effort, Demers decided to fold the hand.

It is unclear what either player had, but with any number of straight and flush possibilities showing, it was too much of a gamble for Alex to risk his tournament life on it. This was not the hill to die on, and Alex will live to fight another day!

Haitham Masri had a decision to make. When we joined the action, the board showed a and there was almost 20K in the pot. He had been raised 11,800 by his only remaining opponent, Yannick Gauthier, who had led the action most of the hand, betting when others checked.

Haitham took his time. If he called the bet and lost  his night would be close to over, as he had slightly more than 15,000 chips left. However, after some intense thought and a careful mental review, he decided to call. It must have been quiet a relief to see Yannick’s , as Haitham flipped over his pair of 7s in relief, his set dominating Yannick’s King high.