The World Poker Tour has landed at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal for their latest stop on their Season XVII schedule. In partnership with partypoker, the WPT Montreal has already been going on for two days and one online segment. While many might have wanted the treats from Halloween, many of those who journeyed into the “haunted house” of the Playground instead got tricks!
Biggest Day One of the Tournament
As per the case with multi-Day One tournaments, Day 1C would prove to be the largest of them all. From the start of action, there were plenty of players in their seats vying for a shot at making it to Day 2. Aaron Massey, Mike Dentale and Dylan Wilkerson were all there from the opening gun, looking to run up a stack before the bulk of the field got seated. While they were playing, the dealers and staff of the Playground added a little levity to the Halloween festivities, dressing in costumes around the tournament floor.
By the end of the first level, the levity might have gone out the door! 206 entries were registered by the end of the first level, a marked improvement over the 80 for Day 1A and the 172 on Day 1B. That number would only get bigger as the prize pool for this WPT Main Event swelled even larger.
With registration going on until the start of Day 2, there was a bit more of a relaxed atmosphere. Even if they were eliminated on Day 1C, players could still reenter the tournament before the start of Day 2 and receive a 30K stack of chips to try to run up. That didn’t stop plenty of people from trying to make their run during the Day 1C play, however, as the numbers on the tournament clock ratcheted up throughout the day.
2018 is Alex Foxen’s Party…
By the time the dinner break was completed, 351 entries had been received on Day 1C alone. By the time the end of the day had come, 369 entries had been received. Leading the way for the 220 who would bag up chips on Wednesday was Alex Foxen, who has been having an outstanding 2018 season.
1. Alex Foxen, 213,800
2. Homan Mohammadi, 197,500
3. Quentin Siffledeen, 185,400
4. Senthuran Vijayaratnam, 184,100
5. Steve Firestone, 168,200
6. David Guay, 163,000
7. Carlo Nini, 161,100
8. Ryan Godson, 159,900
9. Faisal al Qutub, 151,100
10. Fabio Luongo, 145,000
With his excellent showing in Day 1C, Foxen is looking to make 2018 a HUGE year. He is currently in fifth place in the WPT Player of the Year race and is making some noise on the other POY races. He is currently in fourth place on the CardPlayer Magazine POY battle and leads the Global Poker Index POY for 2018 and the overall GPI 300. With a big finish here, Foxen can add to the $3.9 million he has won this year and solidify his positions on the various POY lists.
There are 358 players who have made it to Day 2, with the Top Ten looking like such:
1. Marius Kikinezhdi, 283,500
2. Upeshka De Silva, 249,000
3. Matt Salsberg, 237,200
4. Steven Tripp, 227,600
5. Alex Foxen, 213,800
6. Maxime Heroux, 198,400 (defending champion)
7. Homan Mohammadi, 197,500
8. Kevin Rivest,192,100
9. Zachary Donovan, 190,400
10. Ljubomir Josipovic, 187,200
Today’s action will bring those survivors together, but they still don’t know what they are playing for. As registration/late registration/reentry continues until the start of play today, the final field size is unknown. What is known is that there is a $5 million (Canadian) guarantee on the tournament and, with the $5000 ponied up for each entry, the eventual prize pool will slightly eclipse that $5 million figure and might provide the eventual champion with a million-dollar payday.
