Rabichow Leads the Final Six in the CA$10,000 Main Event
The final six players have been reached in the CA$10,000 Main Event at the 2019 partypoker MILLIONS LIVE North America in Montreal, Canada. It took 12 hours on Day 4 to dwindle the field down from 16 players and Kevin Rabichow has once again claimed the chip lead.
Rabichow bagged the Day 2 chip lead and coasted through Day 3 to finish second in the counts behind a surging Danick Landriault. However, the tides turned today and Rabichow was on the receiving end of a couple of bluffs gone bad from Landriault. Heading into the final day, Rabichow will return with 156,150,000 chips, more than a quarter of the chips in play.
Francois Billard, the hometown favorite, is not far behind with 126,250,000. Billard made a late rally that all stemmed from a lucky double up when he spiked a three-outer on the river. He topped that off by picking up a couple of key pots toward the end of the night to finish second in chips, the only other player in the nine-figure range.
Paul Fontan (87,975,000), partypoker pro Joni Jouhkimainen (79,050,000), Alexandros Kolonias (40,550,000), and Danick Landriault (33,150,000) round out the remaining players. They will all return with CA$250,000 locked up but there is a cool $1,000,000 awaiting the winner.
Final Table Seating Assignments
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Fontan | Spain | 87,975,000 | 63 |
| 2 | Danick Landriault | Canada | 33,150,000 | 24 |
| 3 | Kevin Rabichow | United States | 156,150,000 | 112 |
| 4 | Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | 79,050,000 | 56 |
| 5 | Francois Billard | Canada | 126,250,000 | 90 |
| 6 | Alexandros Kolonias | Greece | 40,550,000 | 29 |
With only 16 players returning for the penultimate day and the blinds being increased to 90 minutes after a couple of levels, the action was expected to be much slower than the previous days. It took a while for the first elimination to occur but when it did, they seemed to come in bunches. Senthuran Vijayaratnam was the first to fall by the wayside and was quickly followed by Josue Sauvageau and Seyedrohollah Ettehadi. Before the first break of the day, John Cayley was also sent to the rail leaving just 12 players.
There were no eliminations in the next level of play but Erik Lemarquand was grinding a short stack. He eventually got his chips in with king-jack suited but was dominated by the ace-king of Upeshka De Silva. He found no help on the runout and hit the rail. Those chips didn't stay with De Silva for long as he was the next to be ousted. De Silva turned two pair against Fontan's pocket aces but the river counterfeit De Silva as he bowed out in 11th place.
It was about 90 minutes later when the next bustout would finally occur. Chips were tossed back and forth and multiple players grabbed a hold of the chip lead and Jason James was forced to watch it all happen in front of him. His flopped two pair was no match for Fontan's turned set of deuces and all of the chips got in the middle on the river.
The unofficial final table of nine players lasted nearly three hours as everyone started with a stack of over 30 big blinds. Armin Rezaei was the casualty of bluff gone wrong against Rabichow and quickly became one of the shorter stacks. He eventually found himself at risk with pocket fives against the pocket kings of Kolonias and was unable to improve.
As the schedule dictated, two more eliminations were required before the action would conclude for the day. Ruben Perceval put up a strong fight for quite some time but also ran a small pocket pair into a premium hand of Rabichow. In the last hand of the night, Ben Heath found himself on the wrong side of the river again. Both players turned a pair but Kolonias rivered two pair to bring an end to Day 4.
2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (CAD) | Prize(USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | -- | -- | $1,000,000 | $744,138 |
| 2nd | -- | -- | $650,000 | $483,690 |
| 3rd | -- | -- | $473,700 | $352,498 |
| 4th | -- | -- | $370,000 | $275,331 |
| 5th | -- | -- | $300,000 | $223,241 |
| 6th | -- | -- | $250,000 | $186,035 |
| 7th | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | $200,000 | $148,828 |
| 8th | Ruben Perceval | Canada | $150,000 | $111,621 |
| 9th | Armin Rezaei | Austria | $100,000 | $74,414 |
The final six will return tomorrow for the last day of the 2019 partypoker MILLIONS LIVE North America at the Playground Poker Club. The action will resume at 12 p.m. EST with 26:17 remaining in level 33. The blinds will be 700,000/1,400,000 with a 1,400,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 90 minutes in length and will be reduced to 45 minutes when heads-up begins.
Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team as we bring you all of the coverage until a winner is crowned.