Ari Engel Leads the Official Final Table of the partypoker MILLION North America Main Event!
This is it. This is what it has all come down to. Just eight players remain in the partypoker MILLION North America Main Event, making up the official final table that will be coming together tomorrow at noon local time. The day began with 37 players who have played at least four full days of poker. A total of 119 players were guaranteed to make at least CA$10,000. but everyone has their eye on the CA$1,000,000 first place prize.
Day 4 is a wrap, completing after seven minutes shy of six full levels, for a total of almost eight hours of play, not including breaks. The player who leads this record-breaking Canadian live poker event is none other than Ari Engel, bagging a whopping 252,500,000 chips, making up about 22 percent of the 1,138,600,000 chips in play. That's not a typo. There are over a billion chips in play on one single table.
Sitting in second place is Quebec's own Jean-Pascal Savard, bagging 243,100,000 chips after bursting the final table bubble. Engel and Savard are the only players over the 200-million chip mark, with Rayan Chamas rounding out the top three stacks with 168,400,000 chips. Savard is known for his final table finish for over half a million dollars in the 2015 PCA $25,000 High Roller, and is a familiar face at the Playground Poker Club in Canada.
Engel started the day with 44,000,000 chips and gradually built up his stack, as he has been known to do. He eliminated quite a few players along the way, and may have made a failed bluff attempt against Niall Farrell, but that didn't stop him from making that elusive final table. Engel has earned eight WSOP circuit rings, and 22 career wins in places throughout the United States, Punta Cana, the Philippines, Panama and the Main Event at the Aussie Millions in Australia. In 2017 alone, Engel has already booked two wins, and looks to snag another on his home soil in the biggest prizepool this country has ever seen. He currently sits in the 13th spot in the world based on GPI rankings, and 1st in Canada just above Sam Greenwood who also made it to Day 4 but busted midway through the day.
Here is a look at the final table, including chip stacks and their seating assignments:
| Seat | Player Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ari Engel | 252,500,000 |
| 2 | Jonathan Bussieres | 108,700,000 |
| 3 | Rayan Chamas | 168,400,000 |
| 4 | Philippe D'Auteuil | 142,500,000 |
| 5 | Louis Boutin | 43,900,000 |
| 6 | Niall Farrell | 69,200,000 |
| 7 | Matthew Waxman | 115,300,000 |
| 8 | Jean-Pascal Savard | 243,100,000 |
Two other familiar players at the final table who are decorated in their own right include Matthew Waxman (115,300,000), and Niall Farrell (69,200,000). Waxman owns a WSOP bracelet along with a circuit ring, and boasts just under $3.5 million in live recorded earnings. Farrell, better known as "Firaldo", also has a little under $3.5 million in live recorded earnings, and holds a European Poker Tour title, along with a World Poker Tour Caribbean title.
The day started out with five eliminations in 20 minutes, with the first three playing out during the first three hands of the tournament. Play was steady throughout the day, and the tournament was down to just 15 players on the dinner break after the completion of four levels.
The entire tournament attracted a total of 1,168 entries, combining for a prizepool of a record-breaking CA$5,709,750 - beating the guarantee of CA$5,000,000 put up by partypoker.
Patrick Blye finished on the final table bubble in a massive setup hand, taking home CA$60,000 for his 9th place finish tonight. In the hand just before his elimination, Blye correctly folded pocket queens, as his opponent held kings, but he got unlucky when his full house, tens full of aces, wasn't enough against Savard's aces full of kings.
Canada's Scott Montgomery led the way at the beginning of the day with just over 83 million chips, and was also the first player to reach the 100-million milestone. He lost a few big pots along the way, and ended up exiting in 13th place, pocketing CA$45,000 for his deep run. Montgomery is a WSOP bracelet winner, and is also known for his 5th place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, pocketing over $3 million.
Other notable players who made it deep into Day 4 included Michael Addamo (24th place - CA$35,000), and Sam Greenwood (27th place - CA$32,500). The spotlight was also on Joseph Sicko, who finished in 30th place for a payday of CA$32,500. Sicko won his CA$5,300 seat into the Main Event through a Twitter contest held by partypoker LIVE, so he was freerolling his way to a cool million dollars. Hailing from Albany, New York, Sicko had a smile on his face the entire tournament, including when he ran kings into Farrell's aces to bust the tournament. Based on his demeanor, he is sure to be back to play in Canada.
Day 5 is set to start tomorrow at noon local time, and the live stream will be online as of 12:30 p.m. due to the 30-minute delay. PokerNews will also be reporting all of the updates on a 30-minute delay to avoid spoilers.
The live stream will be accessible via the tab above.
Keep following along as PokerNews reports on the remainder of this tournament on the way to crowning Canada's next millionaire!
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
252,500,000
23,500,000
|
23,500,000 |
|
||
|
243,100,000 | |
|
168,400,000
72,000,000
|
72,000,000 |
|
142,500,000
-7,900,000
|
-7,900,000 |
|
115,300,000
3,800,000
|
3,800,000 |
|
108,700,000
-13,300,000
|
-13,300,000 |
|
69,200,000
-66,800,000
|
-66,800,000 |
|
||
|
43,900,000
600,000
|
600,000 |