Day 1K Turbo of the Grand Prix Canada – Event #8 in the World Cup of Cards – has officially wrapped up with 29 players qualifying for Day 2 action.

There were 138 entries (including 31 re-entries) in Day 1K that included 10 levels of late registration.  Today’s qualifiers for Day 2 action will be added to the Combined Day 1 Results page that now include all but the last live flight, tomorrow’s Day 1K turbo.

Today’s qualifiers will return for Day 2 action tomorrow, at 3:30pm. Day 3 is scheduled for Monday Jan 27, at 7:00pm.

See the Combined Day 1 Results here.

Congratulations to all the qualifiers!

Here are some pics of some of today’s big stacks.

In a recent back and forth between Said Michailidis and Gabriel Attiave in the 10PM Grand Prix Turbo, both players seemed happy and relaxed at the end, even though one of them had just been eliminated. We suppose that if you’re going down, you may as well be comfortable.

The hand began with raise from Gabriel to 8,000 preflop. It was called by Said, and they saw a come down. Both checked, and the turn was a .

This time the Gabriel bet 25,000, which was called by Said again. Now it was a dealt on the river, meaning among other things that there were no flushes available. Gabriel’s shove was insta-called by Said, who showed his Jack-high straight.

It turns out Said had been betting big, chasing the gut-shot, while Gabriel was out ahead the whole time. Oh well! That’s why they call it gambling. Said collected the chips, and it is unclear if Gabriel is still at the table, completely at ease with his play thus far, despite the results.

In the last hand Ricky Campanelli came close to elimination, but the river saved him, vaulting his trip-Queens into a full house, Queens over Kings, narrowly beating out Daniel Periard’s Ace-high straight.

Having already pushed the other players out of the hand with some raise/re-raise action between the two of them, both Ricky and Daniel had made some pretty aggressive moves early, beginning with Ricky’s re-raise to 25,000 preflop (with the big blind only 1,600).

In fact, in retrospect it is hard to tell what strategy Daniel was using preflop when he called, particularly when we saw his hole cards later on. With the flop coming Ricky led out again, this time with a 20,000 bet. Daniel called again.

The turn was a  and this time it was Daniel who led out strong after Ricky’s check, shoving the rest of his stack.

Ricky felt he had to call, showing his pocket Queens. In any case, he couldn’t fold and miss seeing what his opponent had been doing, particularly with this many chips in the pot. When Daniel showed his A-10, Ricky got up from the table, thinking his night was over.

However, when the came down on the river, making Ricky’s boat, it was instead Daniel that had to take a walk. He had been pushing really hard, which can feel necessary in a Turbo format. And while he was ahead at the turn (and thus his shove was the “correct” play), he probably never should have been in that hand chasing a gut-shot in the first place.

In this case, the A-10 wasn’t the hill to die on, but he did anyway. Play continues on without him.

So far we have 45 entries into our Day 1K Turbo for the Grand Prix Canada, including the one and only Vera G, a Playground regular who’s taking another crack at the Day 1.

Below are some photos of those players in the early going. Good luck!

The $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada has been a massive success so far, and today is no exception. Playground Poker Club is absolutely jammed this evening, with every single table full, and all of our extra tables brought out of storage to accommodate the influx.

The reason today is so full, besides it being Saturday night, is because both of our daytime flights (Day 1I at 12PM and Day 1J at 5PM) were at capacity, with almost 1000 players registered today alone. This will lead to quite a large Day 2, which begins tomorrow at 3:30PM.

If you haven’t yet earned your seat to the Grand Prix’s Day 2, there is still time! This evening’s 10PM Turbo flight (Day 1K) is your second to last chance to make it through to the next level. The only other option is tomorrow morning’s 10AM Turbo flight (Day 1L).

So if you’re on the fence, get off it! Come down to Playground, jump into the 10PM flight, and before you know it you could be seated at Day 2 vying for your share of the (more than) $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

See you at the tables!