Canadian Grand Prix Day 1g | 2016 Playground Poker Club World Cup of Cards

The World Cup of Cards (WCC) is really starting to ramp up with Day 1a of the partypoker Grand Prix Poker Tour $500,000 Guarantee. This is event #16 and this tournament sports the biggest guarantee of the WCC. It also has the lowest buy in, only $109.

Today's flight is just the seventh of eleven live starting flights. There have been a ton of online Day 1 flights as well and online flights are still running concurrently with the live flights. Mike Stannard is the big stack so far with 668,500 qualifying from one of the earlier online flights.

There are still plenty of chances for live players to match Stannard's stack, beginning with Day 1g at 10 p.m. This will be the final starting flight today. The regular flights will have 20-minute levels and the turbo flights will have 15-minute levels. Each player will start with 20,000 and each starting flight play will continue until ten percent of the field remains. Day 1g is a turbo flight with 15-minute levels.

One of the unique elements of the GPPT is a "Golden Chip." The golden chip can be earned in a series of 1-cent online tournaments. The top five players from each of the tournaments earns a virtual golden chip. If a player with a virtual golden chip makes Day 2, they get a physical golden chip. Then any player who wins the tournament and has a golden chip adds $50,000 to their first place prize.

The partypoker Grand Prix $500,000 Guarantee is Event #16 of the World Cup of Cards. PokerNews will be here throughout the festival, bringing you all the news, updates, and photos. Follow @pokernews on Twitter for live updates, Periscope broadcasts, and more. Also, follow PokerNews on Facebook and Instagram.

The seventh starting flight of the World Cup of Cards Event #16: $500,000 partypoker Canadain Grand Prix has come to an end with 14 players qualifying for Day 2. Friday evening's Day 1g turbo flight inside Playground Poker Club attracted a field of 135 entries. Bagging the chip lead on Day 1g was Yann Touchette with 538,500.

Touchette grabbed the chip lead on the very last hand of the night, busting Sean Hollohan on the bubble. Touchette shoved preflop with ace-ten but was behind Hollohan's ace-king. Touchette hit a ten on the flop scooped the pot.

Other big stacks at the end of play were Manny Walia (380,500), Daniel Beauregard (220,000), Christos Sfyridis (215,500), and Alexandre Renaud (191,000).

A number of notables and familiar faces around Playground took their shot this evening. A few failing to survive include Charles La Boissonniere, Jason Conforti, Ruben Perceval, and Andrew Boujaoude.

Players will have four more opportunities to qualify live at Playground on Saturday, along with a number of online Day 1 flights via partypoker.

PokerNews will be here throughout the festival, bringing you all the news, updates, and photos. Follow @pokernews on Twitter for live updates, Periscope broadcasts, and more. Also, follow PokerNews on Facebook and Instagram.