The players in the Colossus have just returned from a break and we were able to survey all of the remaining tables to find the current chip leaders in the tournament. Jonathan Bussières continues to lead the way, but Scott Montgomery has been stacking chips as well today – he’s now playing over 1.6M. Otherwise, the top of the leaderboard is quite consistent with earlier today.

The rate at which players are sent to the rail has slowed down considerably, but there are still a good number of short stacks trying to build.

Louis Richard was all-in on the flop after investing much of what he had before the flop. Joshua Frazer was happy to take part with a solid pair, but Richard had ordered something on the turn:

Richard:
Frazer:

Board:

Tyler Dietz did not enjoy the same luck. He was all-in against Jonathan Marrie with his tournament life on the line:

Dietz:
Marrie:

Board:

Not a bad flop for Dietz, but no favorable conclusion came for him.

After 3 levels, 1 bubble and almost 200 eliminations, Day 2 players were finally able to take a short break, which allowed them to reassess their strategy. We took the opportunity to bring you a top 5 stacks, which counts 3 millionaires!

Bussières shows the biggest fortune, but Carl Martel, a strong local player, follows. Denis Simard rounds up the three 7-figure stacks:

The Colossus field, after just two hand-for-hand hands, has dropped to 350 players! Short-stackers have been very cautious in the last half-hour or so, conscious of the $1,100 difference between position 351 and position 350.

Isabelle Tremblay, with only a few chips to her name and 4 players to go before the bubble, fearlessly jammed her pocket jacks and managed to double her belongings against 2 over cards. Steve Mansour also went all-in, with ace-queen and 3 players to go before reaching the money, and found a wheel on the river!

On the bubble hand, Andrej Bachynsky was all-in on the small blind with 1K! Two players tagged along, and one of them, Jeffrey Kirton, isolated Bachynsky with 9-high on the flop!

Bachynsky:
Kirton:

Board:

After hitting a 9 on the turn, Kirton watched the river bring Bachynsky a second pair and a min-cash! On a nearby table, Arlindo Bettencourt was also all-in – on the river – and at risk, but it seemed like despite the strength of his hand, he knew that Michel Leblanc had him cooked. All he could hope for is for someone with less chips bust on another table. Bachynsky however, as we know, survived his hand. Here is the bubble hand:

Bettencourt:
Leblanc:

Board:

What a brutal bubble bust! Bettencourt left in 351 place with a heartbreaking story to tell his friends. The rest of the field, as expected, is now shrinking at light speed, with over 60 busts since the bubble burst. Congratulations to everyone in the money!

Jonathan Bussières, who started the day with a clear 250K lead, is applying tremendous pressure on his opponents. Every time we walked by his table, he was involved in a hand. One time, he simply and casually called an ace-high flop bet in position, and fired on the turn to pick up the pot after his opponent checked.

The next time, his pre-flop raise to 12K was 3bet to 36K, and while the action was folded around, he was assessing how much his opponent had behind. Giuseppe Niro had about 95K in the back, and when Bussières announced all-in, he chose to save them.

His stack is evaluated at about 975K, and knowing Bussières’ ability to lean on his table mates when working with a crushing stack, he could already be our first millionnaire.

The Colossus may have a friendly buy-in, but its $1,000,000 guarantee attracted quite a few sharks. Here is a sample, taken during the first level of play today:

The shorter stacks, understandably, are rolling the dice in the hopes of running it up and making it to the later stages of Day 2. As a result, the field is shrinking and closing in on the money rather quickly.