The remaining players in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal Main Event can see the prize. There are just 49 players left after Sunday’s Day 2, so a final table appearance and possible title is clearly possible for most of them. Maduka Meragal will enter Monday’s action at the Playground Poker Club with the chip lead; with 1,423,000 chips, he has a solid 40 percent more than his closest competitor.
After two starting flights, the total field for the tournament was 732 players with 301 still in play at the beginning of Day 2. The prize pool is CAD $2,192,888 with a first prize of USD $409,656 (WPT.com has the prizes converted to USD to help in tournament comparisons). A total of 90 players will make the money.
Meragal took the lead fairly late in the day, around 10:00pm. According to WPT.com, there were about 70,000 chips in the pot and the flop was T♥-9♣-3♣. Serge Cantin checked, Meragal bet 50,000, and Cantin check-raised all-in for around 300,000 chips. Both men had strong hands, so it is no surprise all the chips got in the middle. Cantin held A♣-T♠ for top pair, but Meragal had pocket Nines for middle set. The turn produced the T♦, giving Cantin some hope, but the K♣ doomed him to the rail. That pot brought Meragal’s stack up over a million chips, boosting him into the chip lead.
The bubble boy was 2013 Borgata Poker Open champ Anthony Zinno. He was pretty much stuck, nursing a tiny stack, and had to go all-in when Antonio Esfandiari raised pre-flop. Surprisingly, Zinno actually had a shot to double-up and stay alive, as his J♣-8♦ gave him two live cards against Esfandiari’s A♥-5♠. Despite Esfandiari making a pair on the 6♦-5♥-3♣ flop, Zinno was still basically in the same spot, but the Ace on the turn did him in. The river was meaningless and Zinno was eliminated in 91st place.
Esfandiari remains in the hunt for the WPT Montreal title, as do such notable names as Andy Frankenberger, Paul Volpe, Mike McDonald, Darren Elias, and Scott Clements. Darren Elias continues his hot streak, having recently become the first player in history to win back-to-back World Poker Tour titles in the same season.
Day 3 of the WPT Montreal Main Event picks up in just a few minutes, at noon ET. Blind levels will be lengthened to 90 minutes from 60 minutes and the day will continue until 18 players remain.
2014 World Poker Tour Montreal Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Maduka Meragal – 1,423,000
2. Marc-Andre Ladouceur – 1,071,000
3. Mukul Pahuja – 1,024,000
4. Phillip Hui – 909,000
5. TJ Ulmer – 800,000
6. Sheraz Nasir – 766,000
7. Maurice Hawkins – 732,000
8. Jonathan Jaffe – 698,000
9. Kevin MacPhee – 639,000
10. Nenad Sizgoric – 598,000