The $300 + $30 Closer is Event #5 in the 2018 WSOP-C Playground. The tournament featured four Day 1s with unlimited re-entries permitted until the beginning of level 9 on each Day 1. The Closer has a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Day 1D, the last Day 1, is currently running in the Tournament tent with 193 players still in and more than 90 minutes still left in the late registration period. Players can try to qualify through multiple flights, and if a player does qualify twice, the largest stack will go through to Day 2.

Day 1C just ended as the players bag their chips, and gets some rest before Day 2. A total of 374 entries were logged today in Day 1C, including 85 re-entries. Out of all those entries only 58 players qualified for Day 2 tomorrow.

Very early in the tournament today Hai Ut Phuong Le got on the leader board, only 50,000 chips behind leader Julius Roque, after 8 levels. That was the last time he was not in the lead. By level 12 Hai Ut Phuong was not only in the lead, but had almost twice the chips of his closest competitor. This ratio would prove constant throughout the day.

When all was said and done, Hai Ut Phuong Le bagged an incredible 719,000 chips for his efforts today. This sum is by far the most chips of all Day 1s combined. Gary Farrel bagged 470,000 chips on Day 1A, and yesterday Rami Hammound bagged 555,000 chips for Day 1B.

Hai Ut Phuong’s stack is not only big compared to other Day 1 leaders, but twice the stack of 2nd place leader today Pierre-Olivier Adam, who bagged 360,000 chips.

A thumbs up goes to Timothy Deering who did manage to bag 25,500 chips after suffering a gut-wrenching loss in the last 3 hands of play. We’ll see how he manages tomorrow – will he make a comeback?

See the Event #5 – Closer – Combined Closer Day 1 results page for an updated list. In total 35 players qualified Friday, and 52 made it on Saturday. With today’s 58 players we currently have 145 players setup for Day 2.

Here are a few pictures of the players taken during the last few hands of play.

The poker player in all of us will cringe, as we recount this hand we witnessed only a few hands before the end of Day 1C in the Closer tournament.

When we arrived at the table, the action was preflop, and Timothy Deering was facing Robert Cohen’s 103,500 all-in. Timothy was obviously having a rough time making up his mind. He was standing up, ruffling his hair and visibly torn between a monster fold or a call that went against his instincts. Deering later said that he was sure Cohen was holding aces.

In the end, Thimothy could not bring himself to fold and announced: “Call!”, still standing.

Robert Cohen immediately tabled his hand:

Relief washed of Deering who tabled cowboys:

The dealer announced that there would be no more action and proceeded to bring out the flop:

Deering starting sweating again, the flop had just added all the jacks to Cohen’s outs.

Then the turn came:

Deering looked to the ceiling knowing that those chips were almost his now, he covered Cohen, but not by much.

And, of course, the river Barry Greenstein wrote a book about: !

Timothy Deering’s exasperated sigh was heard by all… and every poker player in the room recognized it for what it was, incredulity mixed with defeat. So now Timothy Deering is working with vapours to try and bag some chips for Day 2 as we only have a few hands left.

The remaining 86 players just came back from the break, and we are entering level 13. They have until the end of level 14, to amass as many chips as possible for Day 2.

Julius Roque who was the top chip leader at the last break, is now in third place with 205,300. In second place we have Dave Janneau-Cyr, who has improved from 7th position on the leader board, with his stack of 292,600.

Crowning the top of the leader board is Hai Ut Phuong Le with a whopping 578,200 stack, almost twice the stack of his closest rival.

The last hour should prove very exciting, as players make a last push to narrow down the competition and grab chips.

As the players in Day 1D get ready to start, players in Day 1C are going strong. We are presently down to 93 players in level 12. Players will take a short break after level 12 and we’ll get the leader board up to date.

In the meantime here are a few more photos of the players, which were taken in level 11.

The players have been going at it for 10 levels, here in the Tournament Tent for Closer Day 1C. Every time a player is eliminated the dealers turn on a green light above their seats. We are now seeing green lights blinking everywhere in the room as a steady stream of players are sent to the rail.

The fourth and final flight of Day 1’s is coming up tonight in a few moments at 6:00pm. We just saw the army of dealers file into the Tournament Tent, in preparation for what will undoubtedly be a big turnout. Each Day 1 allows for unlimited re-entries until the beginning of level 9. Up to now we’ve had 99 players qualify for Day 2 (Day 1A & 1B combined). But even players that have already qualified are welcome to take another shot and give themselves a better Day 2 stack. Players who qualify multiple times for Day 2 will take their largest stack forward and forfeit their other chips.

Here are a few photos of Day 1C taken in level 8.

No less than 374 entries (including 85 re-entries) have been logged in Day 1C of Event #5 $300 + $30 Closer. The end of the break following level 8, signaled the end of the late registration period.

We currently have 150 active players on the tables and things are moving along nicely.

During the break we went around the room to spot some 100K + to see who was going up on the leader board. Julius Roque holds the top spot with a very slight lead. It’s still anybody’s game, and things will get wild when the Day 1D starts at 6:00pm.