Francois Billard Bags the Lead at the End of Day 1

An action-packed Day 1 at the 2017 Caribbean Poker Party Festival has come to an end. The $10,300 MILLIONS High Roller has reached its conclusion with no shortage of notable names moving on to Day 2. Francois Billard managed to bag the largest stack when all was said and done, nearly reaching the 4 million chip mark.

Billard will return with 3,899,000 tomorrow and will start the day as the chip leader. Throughout the day, Billard held on to an average stack until he got involved in a massive pot with Sam Trickett. Trickett flopped a full house on the flop with pocket fives, but Billard rivered a larger full house, holding . That pot vaulted Billard over the 3 million chip mark and he continued to roll through the last level of play.

To date, Billard has over $1.5 million in career tournament earnings with his largest cash coming back in 2014 when the EPT stopped in Prague. Earlier this year, he finished second in another $10,300 event in Barcelona for $297,911. Billard will be looking to move up one more place to reach the top of the podium here in Punta Cana.

There were only two other players to bag a stack over 3 million at day's end and they were fellow Canadian, Daniel Dvoress (3,496,000), and Michael Watson (3,076,000). Other notables to find a bag include Mustapha Kanit (2,779,000), Sergio Aido (2,224,000), Rainer Kempe (2,141,000), Ryan Riess (1,158,000), and partypoker ambassador Kristen Bicknell (553,000).

It wasn't all smiles for everyone as Tom Marchese, Niall Farrell, and Steve O'Dwyer all fell short on two bullets fired today. Matt Kirk was the first elimination of the day, lasting less than an hour when he flopped a set but ran into a bigger set of Sean Winter. On the other hand, Bryn Kenney busted in the last few hands of the night but will surely be back tomorrow to try his luck again.

With a total of 67 entries on the day, the tournament will need to attract at least 33 more in order to reach the $1,000,000 guaranteed prizepool. Late registration will remain open for 4 more levels on Day 2, and there are still unlimited re-entries. Of those 67 entries today, 43 will be returning tomorrow for another eight levels of play starting at 12:00 P.M. local time.

Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
12	1	Bartlomiej Machon	Poland	649,000	27
12	3	Ivan Deyra	France	941,000	39
12	4	Seth Davies	United States	747,000	31
12	5	Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault	Canada	1,228,000	51
12	6	Felipe Ramos	Brazil	486,000	20
12	8	Jake Schindler	United States	1,885,000	79

13	1	Martyn Frey	United Kingdom	2,874,000	120
13	2	Michael Watson	Canada	3,076,000	128
13	4	Sean Winter	United States	1,387,000	58
13	5	Manig Loeser	Germany	1,776,000	74
13	6	Barry Hutter	United States	2,202,000	92
13	7	Philipp Gruissem	Germany	1,719,000	72

14	1	Pavel Plesuv	Ukraine	636,000	27
14	2	Steffen Sontheimer	Germany	1,191,000	50
14	3	Vicente Delgado	Spain	800,000	33
14	4	Adrian Mateos	Spain	2,008,000	84
14	6	Rainer Kempe	Germany	2,141,000	89
14	8	Dmitry Makarov	Russian Federation	2,550,000	106

15	1	Jonathan Little	United States	702,000	29
15	3	Stefan Schillhabel	Germany	850,000	35
15	4	Carlos Chadha	United States	403,000	17
15	6	Gal Yifrach	United States	2,310,000	96
15	7	Chris Hunichen	United States	772,000	32

16	2	Kristen Bicknell	Canada	553,000	23
16	3	Felix Bleiker	Switzerland	2,140,000	89
16	4	Jack Sinclair	United Kingdom	478,000	20
16	5	Stephen Chidwick	United Kingdom	1,709,000	71
16	6	Sam Greenwood	Canada	1,660,000	69

17	2	Sergio Aido	Spain	2,224,000	93
17	3	Preben Stokkan	Norway	2,120,000	88
17	4	Mustapha Kanit	Italy	2,779,000	116
17	5	Benjamin Pollak	France	1,832,000	76
17	7	Pablo Joaquin Melogno Cabrera	Uruguay	713,000	30

18	1	David Peters	United States	924,000	39
18	2	Kenny Hallaert	Belgium	1,006,000	42
18	3	Julian Stuer	Austria	710,000	30
18	5	Francois Billard	Canada	3,899,000	162
18	6	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	3,496,000	146

19	1	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	1,529,000	64
19	2	Ryan Riess	United States	1,158,000	48
19	3	Ludovic Geilich	Germany	559,000	23
19	4	Koray Aldemir	Germany	1,563,000	65
19	6	Michael Zhang	United Kingdom	1,690,000	70