Day 1C of the partypoker.net WPT National: Canadian Spring Championship is in the bag. Mike Sexton, and our Royal Flush Girls, Angelique Velez & Tugba Ercan, kicked off the start of the event with Shuffle Up & Deal this morning at 11. WPT Raw Deal Analyst and Champions Club member, Tony Dunst, stopped by Playground Poker Club to play some cash games, but will not be back in the tournament until Day 2.
Our numbers increased yet again today. We had 552 more entries in today’s field, bringing our event total to 1,079. That meant that the tournament overall prize pool topped the $1 million guarantee – approximately $1,046,630! Of the 552 from today, about 171 will continue on to Day 2, which brings our Day 2 total to about 323.
Heading Up The Field
The chip leader at the end of play tonight is Pierre Guenette with 378,900. Other top stacks were bagged up by Ricky Tang (331,600), Frederic Bunchen (292,800), JP Piquette (279,600), and Selatjin Jakupovski (270,100).
Notables that survived on Day 1C include WPT Commentator Mike Sexton, Samuel Chartier, Sylvain Siebert, Peter Labib and Champions Club member Chanracy Khun. Other notables that weren’t as fortunate are Gavin Smith, Jeff Gross, Anna Khait, Erik Cajelais, Mike Dentale, Eric Danis, Chris McClung and Antonio Esfandiari.
One’s To No Longer Watch
Unfortunately, Season XII Ones to Watch player Jeff Gross couldn’t make it through to Day 2 when he was eliminated during level 11. Jeff, who final tabled the Season 11 WPT Montreal, was just eliminated after two big hands where he held aces and kings within the span of three hands.
In the first hand, Gross flopped a set of aces, but lost to a rivered flush. The next hand, after three players limped, Gross moved all in from the big blind for about 20 big blinds. They all folded, and Gross picked up the pot. In the third hand, one player raised, two others called, and Gross moved all in. The original raiser moved all in over the top, one other player called, and the other player folded. Gross turned over 
, but he needed it to hold up against 
and [8x][8x] to stay alive. The board came out to [Ax][4x][2x][4x][6x], and the original raiser had two pairs, aces and fours, to win the entire pot and eliminate Jeff Gross from the tournament.
Bubble Hockey Anyone?
Anna Khait was also eliminated later on in the day during level 12. Anna spent her break playing a spirited game of Bubble Hockey back in the partypoker Players’ Lounge, and then rushed back to her seat in time to catch the first hand [Kx][Kx] on the button. A shorter stack was all in pre-flop against her with 10-10, but a 10 hit the river to give him the set to double up thru her. The next hand, she was in the cutoff, and when it was folded to her, she moved all in with [Ax][7x]. Another player called with [Ax][4x], and again, Khait was a favorite to double up, but a 4 hit the flop to give her opponent a pair, and she never caught up as she was eliminated from the tournament.
Disappearing Act
Antonio Esfandiari also showed up for his third Day 1, but he was eliminated early on in the day during level 5 by Sebastien Legault. Following the flop – 
– Antonio Esfandiari lead for 1,075, then his opponent, Sebastien Legault, raised to 3,500. Esfandiari responded with an all-in push for about 15,000, and Legault called. Esfandiari held 
for a king-high straight, but Legault flopped a flush with 
. A queen and ten complete the board to eliminate Esfandiari.
Last Of The party People
Today, we had an additional 23 qualifiers join the Day 1C field. Here is a list of the players:
- Max Droege
- Tian Lin Liao
- Domenic Gatto
- Maxime Gervais
- Pascal Fournier
- Santiago Cabrera
- Matthew Swift
- Shpend Kllokoqi
- Marie Josee Hardy
- Pat Johnston
- Scott Dorey
- Steve Simpson
- Stuart Kerridge
- Troy Reardon
- Mario Bouchard
- Salvador Villaluz
- Tyson Yu
- Kenneth McFarlane
- Daniel Neves
- Xavier Cena
- Maurizio LeRusso
- Luigi De Lellis
Some of our partypoker Qualifiers survived through to Day 2 including Max Droege, Daniel Neves, Kenneth McFarlane, Troy Reardon, Steve Simpson, Shpend Kllokoqi, Pascal Fournier, Maxime Gervais, Domenic Gatto and Tian Lin Liao. Day 2 will begin tomorrow at 12pm.
Payouts
| # | Place | Award | Amount |
| 1 | 1st | 17.01% | $178,114.00 |
| 2 | 2nd | 11.92% | $124,758.00 |
| 3 | 3rd | 7.73% | $80,904.00 |
| 4 | 4th | 5.71% | $59,762.00 |
| 5 | 5th | 4.26% | $44,586.00 |
| 6 | 6th | 3.45% | $36,108.00 |
| 7 | 7th | 2.86% | $29,933.00 |
| 8 | 8th | 2.28% | $23,863.00 |
| 9 | 9th | 1.70% | $17,792.00 |
| 10 | 10th | 1.27% | $13,292.00 |
