Eric Afriat Tops Day 1a Field of partypoker.net WPT Montreal
Day 1a of the $2,000,000 partypoker.net World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal kicked off Friday at Playground Poker Club. The headline event of the 2016 Playground Poker Fall Classic got underway at 11 a.m. inside the prestigious Kahnawake, Quebec poker room. Canadian WPT Champion’s Club member Eric Afriat topped a field of 135 runners to claim the chip lead.
Afriat bagged a healthy 214,500 chips after 10 levels of play to lead the 47 survivors. Joining the 2014 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown champion at the top of the leaderboard was Thomas Boivin (175,800), partypoker qualifier Richard Mask (174,100), Daniel Le (167,300) and Francois Gobeil (157,600).
A few notables also securing their seat on Day 2 include Scott Montgomery (149,000), Jeff Gross (119,700), Andrew Boujaoude (111,200), Allan Kessler (67,700) and Mike Sexton (64,600). Not everyone found success on Day 1a but will have the chance to fire another bullet in one of the two remaining starting flights. Ami Alibay, Ankush Mandavia, Anthony Zinno, Ari Engel, Darren Elias and Griffin Benger are some who did not survive.
Afriat picked up a big pot during the seventh level, propelling him into the chip lead. With a flop of J♥10♣10♦, Afriat slid out a bet of 6,900 and his heads-up opponent, Thomas Lefort, check-called. The turn was the 8♦ and Lefort again check-called a bet from Afrait. This time for 8,500. The 9♦ completed the board on the river and for the third time, Lefort check-called Afriat’s bet. Afriat tabled J♦7♦, rivering a straight flush, and Lefort mucked while sliding another 9,000 towards Afriat.
Play will resume with Day 1b Saturday morning at 11 a.m local time. Another 10 levels are scheduled. Check out PokerNews daily for a recap of all the action at the Playground Poker Fall Classic. Follow all of the action on the Fall Classic Event Blog.
