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.

While there were only 36 players at their seats when the WPT Main Event started at 4pm, the list of entrants has almost doubled to 71 at this point, halfway through today’s flight. Some notable recent entries are Shawn Buchanan, Ema Zajmovic and Rayan Chamas.

Rayan (pictured left) arrived fresh from his exit from the WPT500 Day 2, a tournament still being played on the other side of Playground Poker Club. He finished in the money, and clearly wants to continue his fine play during the WPT Main Event.

Shawn (middle) also recently joined the Main Event, a poker powerhouse from Vancouver.  He is one to watch, and currently sits 9th in Canada on the All Time Money List. He had a productive summer, finishing in the money in the WSOP Main Event as well as finishing 6th in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Event.

Last but not certainly not least was Ema Zajmovic, who recently re-entered the WPT Main Event after busting earlier in the evening. She is a native of Quebec, and has had some great runs at Playground recently, making two final tables in the last couple of years, including a 1st place win at the $3,200 No Limit Hold’em WPT Main Event here in February 2017.

After four levels of play most of the players have left their seats to enjoy the 45-minute dinner break, a VIP buffet served in the new expansion of Playground Poker Club.

In terms of chip leaders, Timothy Ulmer was able to stay in the top five of today’s WPT Main Event, but he was surpassed by some newcomers on the leader board. Good luck to all on the last four levels tonight!

Also, don’t forget: if you want to come join the action, registration will remain right until the end of the evening.

As we near the end of the third 60-minute level of the WPT Main Event, many players continue to play conservatively, with quite a number of hands never seeing the flop. But just because there are no cards on the table doesn’t mean there is no drama! On table 61, we saw some of that preflop drama occur just a few minutes ago.

Pablo Mariz led out with a raise to 600 which drew two calls. However, Michael Wang made a significant raise to thin the herd. Pablo, not to be outdone, re-raised to 5600, a move that chased out all the players except Michael. After a minute’s contemplation, Michael raised again, making it 20,000 to go.

Ultimately, Pablo wasn’t willing to go the distance, and as he folded the other players at the table appreciated Michael’s play, especially when he flipped over his .

The first three hours of today’s Main Event has seen some relatively conservative play at most of the tables, with many of the hands finding winners without seeing the river. However, just now on table 60 we happened across some risks being taken, as two players found themselves facing off all in preflop.

It was Joseph Ferrier in seat 3 versus Jonathan Little in seat 4.

Ferrier:

Little:

While the odds were clearly in Little’s favor, the board came down . Ferrier won the hand, pairing his aces. A silver lining for Little is that he had the larger stack, and so paid out Ferrier and continued on.