Once there were only four players left, the table discussed an ICM chop. After a relatively quick back and forth, the group amicably came to a decision. Each player will receive approximately $2,500, along with whatever $100 bounty chips they happened to have collected throughout the day.

Everyone is happy, the pressure is off, and now the players will now likely bring this tournament to a (relatively) speedy close.

Good luck!

The hand began with with a relatively small raise of 80,000 chips by Hicham Hammoud, which was called by William Blais. Once the flop came down , William shoved and was insta-called by Hicham.

Hicham:

William:

The Turn and River were of no help to Mr. Blais, with the river cementing Hicham’s win. William Blais finishes in 5th place and will collect a prize of $1,150.

Now 5-handed, some of the chips have started flowing around the table, and the lead is slowly changing. Just now one of the two larger stacks at the table (Stephane Gauthier) doubled up the smallest one (William Blais). This will lead to some interesting new dynamics at the table.

It was a classic battle of vs .

The board was dealt , and Blais’ pair of 8’s held up.

Play continues on.

Ellis Steinberg finishes the tournament in 6th, and collects a prize of $860. Congratulations!

Anything can happen at the final table, but usually if you see some real chip movement or eliminations it is because one or more players began the hand with pocket pairs and shoved preflop.

Just that situation happened a minute ago, where Christopher Turnbull found himself all in preflop against a significantly smaller stack in Ellis Steinberg.

Once called, Steinberg flipped over a pair of 2’s, Turnbull a pair of 6’s.

But wouldn’t you know it, the board was dealt ! The players split the pot and will leave to play another hand.

With eight players remaining it only took one hand to remove our last two players before the final table.

The hand started with the short stack at the table (Patrick Leduc) shoving all in blind. He had less than two big blinds, so he had no choice. The biggest stack at the table (Stephane Gauthier) called, thinking that was it.

However, Jonathan Poissant, full of confidence from his tournament win earlier today, decided to come in over the top in a psychological power move. Although he had less than half of Stephane’s stack, it would still be a huge gamble to call.

But that’s what Stephane did!

Stephane: K-5

Jonathan: Q-8

Patrick: J-5

The board was dealt , and Stephane won a massive pot with his two pair.

Congratulations to Patrick (8th, $490) and Jonathan (7th, $650) on a great day of poker.

With 8 players remaining in the tournament, we are only two players away from the final table.

But to get there we had to lose some people. Now we say goodbye to three players who had a great tournament: Andre Bilodeau (11th, $270), Eric Benhamron (10th, $270) and Shawn S (9th, $370).

Ciao guys, see you next time!