After both starting flights of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal Main Event ended with 360 players still in the running, we said that “the money bubble may burst” Sunday. Apparently, there was no need for that “may” hedge. Eliminations were fast and furious on Day 2 at the Playground Poker Club as more than 300 players hit the bricks, many more than were needed to burst that money bubble, which happened with the exit of the 118th place finisher. Just 45 players remain for Monday’s Day 3 as they work down to the six-handed final table.
Leading the pack is Jeff Gross with 2.422 million chips. Gross was fourth in chips after Day 1, adding almost 2 million to his stack Sunday. One of his most significant hands of Day 2 came just before play wrapped up for the night. Already with around 2 million chips, a sum which still would have put him head and shoulders above the rest of the field going into today, he watched as Josh Kimmel raised to 46,000 chips pre-flop with blinds and antes at 10,000/20,000/3,000. Gross re-raised to 105,000 and then Kimmel moved all-in for another 347,000. After mulling his decision for a short time, Gross made the call with A-Q, which dominated Kimmel’s A-J. Nothing higher than a 9 landed on the board and Kimmel hit the rail in 54th place. That pot, one of the largest of Day 2, elevated Gross’s stack to 2.48 million, just about where it ended the night.
After Jeff Gross, the top of the leaderboard contains several familiar faces to poker fans. Mike “timex” McDonald is a distant second with 1.598 million chips, while Christian “charder30” Harder is in fourth place with 1.472 million. Canadian poker hero Gavin Smith sits in ninth with 1.247 million.
The leader going into Day 2, Patrick Lelievre, is still going strong, currently in sixth place with 1.401 million chips.
As for the Day 3 chip leader, Jeff Gross is making a run at his first major live tournament title. The closest he has come was at last year’s World Series of Poker when finished as the runner-up in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout event, winning $269,742. He has two other top ten finishes at the WSOP, placing fifth in one of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em events in 2010 and eighth in this year’s $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up tourney. In his career, the Baltimore resident has won just shy of $700,000 in live poker tournaments.
As already mentioned, the field of 45 will be trimmed to just six today, determining the final table. That final table will not be televised, but as is the case with all World Poker Tour final tables, it will be streamed live on WPT.com.
World Poker Tour Montreal – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Jeff Gross – 2,422,000
2. Mike McDonald – 1,598,000
3. Jason Koon – 1,546,000
4. Christian Harder – 1,472,000
5. Jonathan Roy – 1,431,000
6. Patrick Lelievre – 1,401,000
7. Peter Kaemmerlen – 1,333,000
8. Sylvain Siebert – 1,325,000
9. Gavin Smith – 1,247,000
10. Amichai Barer – 1,235,000