The first stop on Season XIV of the World Poker Tour kicked off on Friday in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with the partypoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship. The first of two Day 1 flights drew 136 runners to Playground Poker Club with some 50 players surviving through 10 levels of play. Canadian pro Mike Leah grabbed the overnight chip lead, continuing a two-year tear that has seen him score two runner-up finishes in the 2015 WPT L.A Poker Classic and Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open and win his first World Series of Poker bracelet in Australia.
Leah schooled one local in series of pots to chip up early, then had the better hand and held as players like Mike Yacoubain and Samuel Chartier got it in against him late. He bagged 265,300 to finish ahead of a late charge from WSOP bracelet winner Pascal LeFrancois and local Rene Bourbeau.
Those hitting the rail included local stars like 2010 WSOP Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel, Philippe D'Auteuil, and WPT Champions Club member Eric Afriat.
However, this is a five-day tournament with two Day 1s and next-day reentry format, giving all who busted all another shot at things when Day 1b kicks off at 11 a.m. local time Saturday.
Once again the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand for it all with live updates and videos throughout. In the meantime, check out what Leah had to say in the following video with PokerNews' Caitlyn Howe:
Famed Shirtless 2010 WSOP bracelet winner Pascal LeFrancois is on over 200,000 now.
The Quebec local made short work of dinner break chip leader Brian Wang, busting him in two pots. Soon after, he took care of another player on 45,000 getting queens to hold over big slick.
LeFrancois now looks more interested in Game 1 of the NHL PLayoff series between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning - Which is in now overtime tied 1-1 as Level 10 comes to a close and the players get ready to bag and tag.
Quyen Dao slipped a little, but got things headed in the right direction again by pushing Lu Zhang off of a 50,000-chip pot with a shove on a board.
In the meantime, Marc-Etienne McLaughlin is now sitting on the other end of the table with 170,000 - Good for spot in the log jam developing at the top of the chip counts as the players ease into the last level of the night.
After a bit of back and forth in a battle of two guys with the same first name, Mike Yacoubain shipped it in with kings running smack into Mike Leah's aces.
The board provided some kind of sweat, but Leah faded it and is now in the chip leader chair as Yacoubain hits the rail.
Canadian Pro Mike Leah has been killing it over the past two years, with second place finishes in the 2015 WPT L.A Poker Classic and Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event and a win in the World Series of Poker APAC $25,000 High Roller adding up to more than $2 million in live tournament earnings.
Now he's enjoying a little of the local hospitality in Quebec, one province over from his Ontario home.
Especially the part where one local paid him off with a set, failed to push him off top-pair top-kicker and eventually shipped it into his tens with a weak ace that failed to improve.
As a result, Leah finds himself among the leaders.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada's Sheraz Nasir finished 10th at the partypoker.net WPT Montreal main event the last time the WPT was here at Playground this past November.
Today he's back at it again and building a contending stack. Nasir picked up an early pot with aces, then stacked one opponent who shoved aces of his own into his flopped set of sixes.
As a result, Nasir now trails only chipleader Marc-Etienne McLaughlin at the top of the counts.
On Episode 11 of the Remko Report, Dong Kim joined Remko Rinkema in Seoul, South Korea, to talk about the local culture, competing against the best heads-up players in the world, and much more.
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