PokerStars Canada Cup $10,400 High Roller Day 1: [Removed:17] Leads Star-Studded Field

May 21, 2014

Preliminary events at the PokerStars Canada Cup at Playground Poker Club just outside of Montreal, Quebec began a few days ago, and action heated up on Tuesday when the most expensive event on the schedule got underway.

The $10,400 High Roller event attracted 34 players to the world-renowned poker room in Kahnawake. By the end of play on Day 1, eight one-hour levels had passed and just 20 players remained with [Removed:17] holding a commanding lead on the field with 130,250 chips and the tournament average sitting at a little over 50,000.

Some of the recognizable names that passed through registration included Timothy Adams, Samuel Chartier, Yann Dion, Jonathan Duhamel, Jason Duval, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, and Sylvain Siebert.

Local pro Yann Dion had the unfortunate honor of being the first player eliminated. He fell victim to a cooler with kings against the aces of Samuel Chartier.

The second elimination came when Jeffrey Cormier got his small stack all in preflop with the A♥9♦ with a call from Steven Silverman's J♠J♥. The flop secured Silverman's lead when two more jacks hit the table, giving Silverman quads, and there was no sweating the turn or river as Cormier was drawing dead.

Here's a look at the seat draw and chip counts for Day 2 which will resume at 1 p.m. on Wednesday:

Table 61

Table 66

Table 70

If there's one player to watch for, keep your eye on Sylvain Siebert from Ontario. He is virtually unknown outside of Eastern Canada, but he has a tremendous track record in events in his part of the country. We saw Siebert on the unofficial final table of the Main Event at the most recent series at Playground, the WPT Canadian Spring Championship, where he finished in eighth place. He also final-tabled the $2,500 event at WPT Fallsview a month earlier immediately after making a deep run in the $1,100 event. Siebert also final tabled the WPT Montreal Main Event last year for the second straight year. His consistency is incredible and nobody will be surprised to see him on the final table of this High Roller or the upcoming Main Event.

This special poker festival from PokerStars exclusively for Canadians is in its third rendition, but it takes a different form this year. Past Canada Cups were a unique hybrid of online and live poker. Players logged in to PokerStars and played the $530 Canada Cup tournament in November until they reached the final table of nine, at which point the virtual chips were bagged and the tournament resumed at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) the following January. The live final table was then filmed for TV and the Canadians battled it out for the prize money and the added seats for other PCA events awarded to top finishers.

This year, the PokerStars Canada Cup is an all-live event with 12 tournaments across 13 days. Buy-ins range from as little as $110 to as high as $10,400 for the High Roller.

Besides being the largest online poker room on the planet, PokerStars is also well known to offer some of the best live events in the world, and Canada Cup is no exception. They provide the ultimate player experience, and teaming up with Playground Poker Club to host this event will ensure it is a great one.

This High Roller event will award a champion on Day 3 on May 22, and the $3,300 Main Event will begin on the same day. The Main Event has three starting flights from May 22-24 and there's plenty of great action to come down to Playground for.

Day 2 of the High Roller resumes at 1 p.m. local time and we will have a recap of all the action to follow. Check in with PokerNews for all your PokerStars Canada Cup updates.

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