Freddy Deeb Among Chip Leaders After Day 1b of partypoker.net WPT Montreal Main Event
The World Poker Tour continued its third Canadian stop of 2015 with Day 1b of partypoker.net WPT Montreal at Playground Poker Club. Located just outside of downtown Montreal, Quebec, 235 players came through Playground's doors on Saturday to try to qualify for Monday's Day 2.
Another 10 one-hour levels of play came to a conclusion with just 96 players still holding chips. Among them was Freddy Deeb, who finished second at the last WPT event he cashed — WPT Legends of Poker in Los Angeles this past August. He looks to be headed for another deep run, bagging a fourth-best stack of 180,000 in chips.
Combined with Day 1a, this event has had 362 entries so far and 141 of them are headed to Day 2 at this point.
Day 1b's top three were the only players to pass the 200,000-chip mark. Leading the way was Abdallah Aljboul with 252,300 chips. Behind by just a few antes was Marco Caza with 252,000. In the third-best spot was Michael Tieu with 220,300.
Top 10 Day 1b Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abdallah Aljboul | 252,300 |
| 2 | Marco Caza | 252,000 |
| 3 | Michael Tieu | 220,300 |
| 4 | Freddy Deeb | 180,000 |
| 5 | Daniel Notice | 175,700 |
| 6 | Carlos Sanchez | 157,100 |
| 7 | Patrick Blye | 153,600 |
| 8 | Anthony Diotte | 149,000 |
| 9 | Ronald Laplante | 144,600 |
| 10 | Mike Linster | 141,400 |
Outside of the top 10, there were several other notable players who bagged chips including Marc-Andre Ladouceur (127,500), Mike McDonald (116,200), Jonathan Duhamel (99,400), Mike Sexton (82,900), Darren Elias (82,600), defending WPT Montreal champion Jonathan Jaffe (71,700), Sam Chartier (60,900), Kevin MacPhee (54,300), and Jeff Gross (53,000).
Last year, 732 entries to WPT Montreal were topped by Jaffe, winning CAD$464,252 and the title. After bagging a little more than the tournament average on Day 1b, he’ll be back for Day 2 on Monday to try to defend his title.
Some of those chips came from a pot that began with him opening the action preflop with a raise to 1,500 and his opponent three-bet to 4,100. Jaffe called and the dealer swiped 7♣6♠7♥ on the felt. Jaffe called a bet of 5,100 that left the other player only about 15,000 chips behind.
The turn was the 4♦ and Jaffe’s opponent pushed all in. Jaffe snap-called, tossing in a single chip. Jaffe showed the 8♣5♣ for the turned straight and held up through a blank river against his opponent's A♥A♠.
There were some great players who came and went on Day 1b. Some of those to buy in but be eliminated before the end of the day include Ami Alibay, Andy Frankenberger, Darryll Fish, Will Molson, Liv Boeree, Igor Kurganov, Vince Van Patten, Eric Afriat, and Sheraz Nasir.
Players still have one last chance to try to build a Day 2 stack. Sunday’s Day 1c will begin at 11 a.m. and play through 10 levels. Anyone can enter, even those who have already bagged a stack on Day 1a or 1b. If a player survives more than one of the starting days, their largest stack will move forward to Day 2. Registration will remain open until the end of the dinner break after Level 6 — about 6:15 p.m. local time.
The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on the tournament floor providing live updates of all the biggest names, largest stacks, and most exciting hands.
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