Just 33 eliminations were needed on Monday to narrow the field of the 2014 World Poker Tour (WPT) Canadian Spring Championship to the six-handed final table, but it wasn’t the play a few hands and go home affair that many expected. On the contrary, Day 3 lasted nearly nine and a half hours as blinds were relatively low and the level times were extended. When the seventh place finisher was finally eliminated, the final table was determined, with Daniel Gagne leading the charge with an even 8,000,000 chips.
It should be a very competitive final table when play resumes at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal at noon on Tuesday. After Gagne, Alexander Wong, who was fourth going into Day 3, has 7,505,000 chips. There’s a large gap to the third place Mario Lim, who has 5,450,000 chips, but that’s still 36 big blinds, so he has plenty of room to play. Johhny Mazzaferro is next with 4,825,000, followed by Jason Comtois with 4,700,000. John Paul Tabago is the short stack at the final table witih 1,370,000. He will likely be all-in within the first few minutes today.
Wong held the chip lead until very late in the day, losing it in part because he doubled-up Comtois within the final few hands. Gagne also made a nice run at the same time to build his stack. One hand that really pushed his chip count up came during the last couple orbits. He raised pre-flop to 350,000 and Pierre Guenette, the Day 1 chip leader, called. On the flop of K-J-2, Gagne bet 375,000 and Guenette called once more. Gagne bet another 450,000 when a 4 was dealt on the turn, coaxing another call from Guenette. When a second 4 landed on the river, Gagne changed things up and checked. This time, Guenette bet 500,000, but Gagne made a quick call. It was obviously a bluff by Guenette, as he mucked his cards without even requiring Gagne to show his, surrendering the sizable pot to our current chip leader.
The final table will get underway shortly as the six players will battle it out for the USD $160,999 first prize. Blinds will start at 75,000/150,000 with a 25,000 ante in Level 32. The blinds will jump to 100,000/200,000 with the same ante in the next level, so while the chip stacks indicate it should be competitive contest, some of the players are probably going to want to try to buffer their chip collections before the blinds increase and every bet is a significant one.
2014 World Poker Tour WPT Canadian Spring Championship – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Daniel Gagne – 8,000,000
2. Alexander Wong – 7,505,000
3. Mario Lim – 5,450,000
4. Johnny Mazzaferro – 4,825,000
5. Jason Comtois – 4,700,000
6. John Paul Tabago – 1,370,000
* Credit to wpt.com for tournament updates and information.
