Landriault Bags Day 3 Lead in the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America Main Event
Play has come to an end in the CA$10,000 Main Event at the 2019 partypoker MILLIONS LIVE North America. It took less than six levels to bring the field down to 16 players and the tournament director decided to bag up the chips early with only two tables remaining.
Leading the pack when the action resumes on Day 4 will be Danick Landriault from Hawkesbury, Ontario. Landriault went on a tear after the dinner break and it all started from a failed bluff attempt from Bryn Kenney. Not long after, Landriault flopped a full house against Philipe Pizzari Pinto's pocket queens and raked in nearly a 70 million chip pot. To finish the day, Landriault eliminated last year's third-place finisher Tony Ruberto in 19th place as he bagged up 97,200,000, nearly one-fifth of the total chips in play.
After play concluded, Landriault mentioned that he doesn't play a lot of live tournaments and mostly focuses on cash games and a little bit of online play. Landriault is a regular at the Playground Poker Club and won his way into the Main Event via one of the satellites. With the final tablists guaranteed a six-figure payday, Landriault could find himself a new career at the felt.
The next closest stack to Landriault belongs to Kevin Rabichow with 45,475,000. Rabichow was the Day 2 chipleader but he remained fairly quiet on Day 3 which turned out to be all he needed to do. The sole remaining partypoker pro Joni Jouhkimainen also bagged a healthy stack with 44,750,000 and John Cayley was the only other player over 40 million chips with 44,525,000.
Day 3 kicked off with 66 players returning to the felt, only three eliminations away from the money. The action was slow to start until just over halfway through the first level when the money bubble burst. Cedrick Angove-Bernier found himself all in for 2,750,000 and thought he would be in great shape to double up with pocket kings, but unfortunately, he ran into the pocket aces of Olivier Rebello-Frechette.
The bustouts came fast and furious afterward which saw the likes of Sergio Aido, Tom Hall, Manig Loeser, Philippe D'Auteuil, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Griffin Benger, and Sam Grafton all hit the rail. Only 26 players returned from dinner break and when Orpen Kisacikoglu and Maurice Hawkins exited the tournament, they were down to just three tables.
Mike McDonald, who once held a spot atop the leaderboard, was one player everyone wanted to keep their eye on. He was moved away from the feature table and his short stack didn't last much longer. McDonald's ace-high was no match for Erik Lemarquand's pocket nines and "Timex" finished in 22nd place. Former GPI #1 ranked player Bryn Kenney was looking to add another title to his collection but his four-bet jam with king-queen sent him home in 18th place just before the day wrapped up.
The action will get back underway on Saturday, May 25 at 12 p.m. EST and the schedule is to play down to the final six players. There will be 9:36 remaining in level 26 with the blinds at 200,000/400,000 and a 400,000 big blind ante. At the start of level 29, the blinds will be increased to 90 minutes in length. Each player is now guaranteed to walk away with at least CA$40,000 but they will all have their sights set on the first-place prize of CA$1,000,000.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back to bring you all of the live updates throughout the entire event so keep it locked here.
Paulin Leads High Roller
Day 2 of the 2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America CA$10,300 High Roller is now in the books after ten grueling hours of play. The late registration and re-Entry period was still open for another four hours to begin the day and by the completion of that period, there were a total of 102 slips sold. By nights end it was Pierre-Paul Paulin leading the way with an impressive 21,425,000 in chips.
Paulin started the day just slightly above average in chips but instantly catapulted to the top of the food chain. He was the first player to reach the ten million mark and he did so by eliminating the start of the day chip leader James Romero. The two found themselves in a flipping situation with Paulin holding big slick against Romero's pair of sixes. Romero flopped a six and seemed to have the hand all but locked up. Paulin managed to hit a runner-runner full house, taking down the pot and eliminating Romero from the tournament.
The New Brunswick, Canada native continued to run hot and it seems like a standard for him here in the Playground Poker Club as he finished seventh in the partypoker Main Event held in October of last year for his first six-figure cash. Paulin will be looking to surpass that personal best and add another six-figure cash to his resume.
Right behind the chip leader is Brian Yoon with a healthy 15,525,000 stack. Yoon started the day around average and just like Paulin, he started to climb quickly. Yoon played an aggressive style of poker but always seemed to have a hand when the cards were turned over. He is a competitor with enough experience to take over during Day 3 so be sure to keep an eye out for him as the action unfolds on the final day.
The tournament started the day with 52 runners and by the end of late registration, a total of 102 had joined, gathering $989,400 for the prize pool. A total that came up just shy of the one million guarantee that was set. Only 16 found a bag at the end of play and those who did will be returning tomorrow to battle it out. The money bubble is lingering around the corner with only 11 receiving a payday. A min-cash will be worth CA$25,000 and the eventual winner will be pulling in an immense CA$300,000.
Many familiar faces will be returning tomorrow for that top prize but two, in particular, stand out. partypoker pro's Anatoly Filatov and Bertran Grospellier are two people that everyone will have their eyes on tomorrow. Filitov is starting the day third in chips and always brings excitement to the table whenever he plays. Grospellier is starting at the bottom of the pack but knows his way around a short stack and will look to prove that once again.
A lot of pros took a shot, or in some cases, several, and failed to make it to Day 3, including Germanies Rainer Kempe, Lauren Roberts, Artem Metalidi, Javier Gomez, Alan Schein, Kitty Kuo, and Ryan Riess.
The action will restart on May 25 at 1 p.m. EST with the blinds resuming at 60,000/120,000 and a 120,000 big blind ante. There will be a 15-minute break after every two levels of play and the levels will remain at 60-minutes in length. A winner will be crowned and the tournament will not stop until someone takes down first place for that cool $300,000 cash prize.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you all the action throughout the rest of the tournament so be sure to stay tuned.
