This is a rarity. So rare, in fact, that we had to look up how rare it was online. On table 37 just now, a Royal Flush just beat a King-high Straight Flush. That is the definition of luck (or bad luck, depending on which way you look at it).

This is how the hand occurred.

Former chip leader Francis Abbott was holding a suited . Charli Azoulay had himself a . Of course, neither player knew that at the time. The hand started off with a raise to 10,000 with three players calling.

Flop:

Francis opened with a bet of 20,000, holding the nut flush. Charli called, and the third player folded. So far so good.

The turn was a .

Charli probably couldn’t believe his luck. A straight flush? To the King? Amazing, right? What are the odds of that in a 7-card hand? Well, as we mentioned, we checked. It turns out that the odds of being dealt a straight flush is approximately 1 in 3,500, or about 0.03%. Charli (and probably any other player in the building) would have found a way to shove at some point soon.

While he might not have had the exact stats on hand, he likely knew there was an even lower chance his opponent was holding the . We checked that too. It’s true, a Royal Flush is much harder to get, a roughly 1 in 31,000 chance, or 0.003%. And Francis had it.

Charli began by betting 25,000 on the turn. He was raised all in by Francis. His lucky day, he must have thought.

The players flipped their cards, the table erupted, and a worthless was dealt on the river.

Francis busted Charli from the tournament and added to his already considerable chip stack. This may have been  one of those wins you feel a little bit guilty about. But what are you going to do?

When life hands you a Royale with cheese, you eat it. And you say thank you.

 

The 8th level recently ended and the players are on their second break of the evening. While perusing the tables we noticed there was a distinct lack of big stacks.

In fact, we searched high and low and found that there were only two that stood out.

Mr. Christopher Savov is the leader at the moment, having amassed 452,500 chips. Right behind him is Daniel Soussan with 435,000. Daniel’s place on the leaderboard was actually only recently solidified, having pushed someone out of a big pot just before the break began.

Now halfway through level 8 we are up to 111 participants and growing.

Over on table 26 we noticed one of our regular players mixing it up and so we watched a couple of hands. Miguel Goncalo won one and lost one, ending up about even. He likes to mix it up, and isn’t afraid to throw some chips around when the timing is right.

The first hand started with Miguel limping in from late position to battle the blinds.

Flop:

The big blind bet 5,000, Miguel called and the small blind took a walk. Down came a on the turn. This time the BB led out for 10,000. No problem, Miguel tossed in a single chip, indicating a call. The river was a , the BB tossed in another 10,000 and Miguel called without too much urgency.

The BB flipped over his , which was apparently enough to win. Miguel mucked.

Not to worry, there’s always another hand!

On the next one the table ended up folding around to Miguel’s neighbor on the right, who raised to 6,500. Miguel called right away.

Flop:

With only the two of them in the hand, the other player checked to Miguel. As he had been doing for the last couple of hands, he tossed in some chips very casually, this time 8,000.

His opponent folded and Miguel collected back some of the money he had lost the hand before. That’s how it goes, round and round. Poker is a collection of hundreds (even thousands) of small decisions over time. You have to bet if you want to win, and it doesn’t always come down to a dramatic showdown for the cameras.

As we get closer to the registration deadline, now just over two hours away, the field continues to grow.

As we passed by table 28 just now, it appeared that Dimitri Morcos was on his last legs.  With only a few chips remaining in his tournament life he decided to shove, and found one caller. Not usually a shove-worthy hand, his suited was the best he could do in a jam. The caller, Dimitri’s neighbor to the left Pierre Pellerin, easily covered his stack and decided to indulge him. He flipped over a , hoping for a lucky pickup.

The board was dealt , and Dimitri gratefully scooped up the relatively small (but vital) chips. He lives to play another hand! When it comes to shoving, it’s all about the timing. In this case, it worked out well.

After four 30-minute levels the players took their first break of the evening. We took that opportunity to tour the tables, looking for players with at least double the average chip stack. Out of the 89 players that have joined us so far, only a handful made the cut above 200,000.

At the top of the leaderboard is Francis Abbott, who has amassed 342,500 chips so far. More than tripling your starting stack in the first two hours is always good policy.

Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Francis Abbott	342,500
Andre Lajoie	252,500
Najib Aabi	245,200
David Bonneau	204,700

Below are some more photos of our competitors.

We are up to 70 entrants so far for Day 1B. Since registration remains open until 10:30 there is plenty of time to come on down and join the poker action!

We have just started our second 30-minute level, and the number of participants has jumped from 22 to 41. Here are some photos of the Day 1B players that have taken their seats already.

Registration will remain open for another five hours, or until 10:30PM, so even though the roads out there are probably jammed with snow and frustrated commuters, there is plenty of time to get down here and take a stab at some Day 1B action. Drive safely, and come on over!

The 2019 World Cup of Cards continues, and today is a special day. Because while the weather outside may be frightful, let us assure you that down here at Playground Poker Club it is quite delightful. It is the perfect day to begin the first two live flights in the Grand Prix Canada, a $200 + $20 NL Hold’em tournament.

It’s time to get down here and find your seat!

This tournament has a very tempting $500,000 guarantee, and we are able to make such a guarantee because of the huge number of Day 1 flights contributing to the pot. There are a total of 17 Day 1s in fact (including on PartyPoker).

Today’s first live flight, Day 1A, began at noon and has over 130 participants so far. Day 1B is likely to be even bigger!

Play on each Day 1 will work its way through 18 levels of 30 minutes each. Players begin with 100,000 tournament chips, and there are unlimited re-entries until the beginning of level 11 on each Day 1. Players are free to enter multiple Day 1 flights whether or not they have already qualified for Day 2. The advantage of this strategy is that players may then choose their largest qualifying stack to move forward with.

Cards are now in the air for Day 1B. Good luck to all the players!