As soon as the tournament made it way down to the final 8 players, people started getting shove-happy.

The first to do so was Sean Balfour who shoved from late position. He was called by the player directly to his left, Jonathan Poissant. Sean flipped over his , and Jonathan his .

As the flop came down, the players all made some noise as Jonathan buried Sean with the nut flush right off the bat, . The and were no help, and Jonathan happily scooped up the chips.

The very next hand saw three players shove simultaneously. Emile H started it off, and he was called by Michael Monteleone and Steve Khoury.

Emile:
Michael:
Steve:

In this case the 8’s took the day. The flop was dealt , and Steve scooped up the chips from his two opponents.

So, in case you were keeping score, Sean Balfour finished in 8th and collected $350. Emile H finished in 7th and collected $470 for his efforts, and Michael Monteleone finished in 6th, collecting $620.

Unfortunately, while this post was being written up, three more players were eliminated.

Dylan Thibault finished in 5th for $810. Michael Nabilsi finished in 4th, collecting $1,070. And Simon Bissonnette finished in 3rd for $1,748.

Now we are down to the final two.

Eliminations have come quickly now that the bubble has burst, and the tournament is now down to 9 players remaining – the final table!

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Seat | Siège
Emile	H	Seat 1
Michael	Nabilsi	Seat 2
Michael	Monteleone	Seat 3
Lee	Bechard	Seat 4
Steve	Khoury	Seat 5
Dylan	Thibault	Seat 6
Sean	Balfour	Seat 7
Jonathan	Poissant	Seat 8
Simon	Bissonnette-du-Cap	Seat 9

Here’s a gallery of the remaining players today:

Jonathan Poissant has been on a wild heater since the last break and managed to chip up to over 500K, which were enough chips for him to call any semi-small stack’s shove with any two cards as long as he closed the action. He did manage to double up a couple of players, but would quickly regain his lost chips to keep his huge advantage intact.

Eventually a hand came that wasn’t at all marginal… he called Nicholas Curtis’ open shove holding . Nicholas could only show down a to counter the Kings. The writing was on the wall… now, would the cards cooperate?

They did. The community cards at the end of the hand were for only the most minor of sweats – at least for those hoping the bubble would burst.

Jonathan is now playing over 760K in chips and seems to be in the driver’s seat as the tournament continues. Since the bubble have been the normal parade of short-stacked players to the cashier, and the final table will arrive quite soon (when 9 players remain).

With the elimination of Vincent Tremblay, the field is now down to 16 players – as this is an 8-Max tournament, they are spread evenly across 2 tables. The bubble is now officially in play as it will only take 2 more eliminations to get to the money at 14 players remaining.

The remaining field in the tournament is quite strong and includes quite a few players we see frequently into the money in big events and dailies alike: Jonathan Poissant, Emile H, Adam Hussen, Dylan Thibault, Mitcheal Ferguson – any one of these players can do damage in tournaments at any buy-in level!

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Seat | Siège
Steve	Ribeiro	Table 28 Seat 1
Alexander	Bitsakis	Table 28 Seat 2
Lee	Bechard	Table 28 Seat 3
Mitcheal	Ferguson	Table 28 Seat 4
Steve	Khoury	Table 28 Seat 5
Ira	Enman	Table 28 Seat 6
Michael	Monteleone	Table 28 Seat 7
Michael	Nabilsi	Table 28 Seat 8
Adam	Hussen	Table 32 Seat 1
Jonathan	Poissant	Table 32 Seat 2
Ron	S	Table 32 Seat 3
Sean	Balfour	Table 32 Seat 4
Emile	H	Table 32 Seat 5
Dylan	Thibault	Table 32 Seat 6
Simon	Bissonnette-du-Cap	Table 32 Seat 7
Nicholas	Curtis	Table 32 Seat 8

With just 19 players remaining and the bubble (14 places pay) beginning to loom over the tournament, Steve Ribeiro has run up his stack to over 300K – well ahead of the rest of the field. In fact, although there are quite a few stacks at or around the average of 167K, there are quite a few players in the 5-10bb rage as well.

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Steve	Ribeiro	330,000
Emile	H	254,000
Michael	Nabilsi	205,000

In the early stages of level 12, with the blinds at 1.5K/3K, Jason Humphrey got lucky when he needed to most. With his chip stack dwindling, Humphrey knew he had to find a way to collect some chips sooner rather than later. So, after Arthur Picard made an opening raise and the action folded around, Humphrey looked down at and moved all in. Picard had Humphrey covered by a large margin and a premium hand, , to boot so he easily called the three-bet-shove.

The window showed the , but Picard didn’t have to fear an ace in this case, however, it would be Humphrey who got the best of it as the and were quickly revealed as the dealer spread the flop. The flopped set gave Humphrey a lengthy lead over his opponent. The turn brought an innocent , followed by the on the river. What a time for quads!

Humphrey more than doubled his stack to give himself a new lease on his tournament life, and Picard was still left with a playable stack. The two players are still in contention as play now continues is level 13.

Alexander Bitsakis remains in the lead in Event #3 of the World Cup of Cards, now boasting a stack of almost exactly 200K while his opponents are struggling to pass the 140K chip mark.

First Name | Prénom	Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Alexander	Bitsakis	200,000
Simon	Bissonnette-du-Cap	138,000
Richard	Sim	138,000
Michael	Nabilsi	132,500
Vincent	Tremblay	131,000

Here are some additional photos of the action taken during the level just before the most recent break.