Online Day 1's
Day 1a Completed
2017 partypoker LIVE Million North America
Online Day 1's
Day: 1a
Joao "Azor_Ahai" Neves Jr Leads the partypoker MILLION North America Main Event
Level 10
: 20,000/40,000, 4,000 ante
After almost 4 1/2 hours of play, Brazil's Joao "Azor_Ahai" Neves Jr snagged the biggest chip stack of almost 6.4 million in Day 1a of the partypoker MILLION North American Main Event.
The tournament guarantees a huge CA$5,000,000 prize pool with at least CA$1,000,000 guaranteed to the winner for a CA$5,300/$4,000 buy-in. This will easily establish a new record for the largest prize pool in Canadian poker history.
As has been the case in recent partypoker-branded tournaments, the opening days take place both online at partypoker and live at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Canada.
Today was the first of two online Day 1s held at partypoker with the second online opening day scheduled to take place on April 30 at 9 p.m. ET. A few days later, the three live Day 1s will take place at the casino on May 5-7.
Players can opt to play as many Day 1s as they wish. Any player bagging chips on multiple Day 1s will finish off the final three days of the tournament on May 8-10 with their largest stack. Players can also choose to late register on Day 2 up until the second blind level is completed.
Today's opening flight began with a field of 20 players and grew to 31 players, including two reentries, by the time the late-registration period ended at the end of Level 6.
Players that directly bought into Day 1a or qualified via traditional satellites began the day with 1,000,000 chips. However, many of the players began Day 1a with varying chip counts thanks to qualifying into the field via Phase 1 tournaments. The Phase 1 tournaments are structured so players begin any of the Day 1s with their ending chip stack from that tournament.
Blinds increased every 24 minutes during Day 1a and the structure will be the same for the other online opening day next Sunday. The three live Day 1s will feature 60-minute blind levels. The structure becomes deeper as play moves on with Day 2 and 3 featuring 75-minute blind levels and the final day featuring 90-minute blind levels.
Of the 31 entrants, 13 players survived the day and will move onto Day 2. In addition to Neves Jr, other notable players that advanced to Day 2 included Toby "eightenclubs" Lewis and Toby "jesusneedsaces" Joyce.
Timothy "RandyB0bandy" Ulmer and David "JeanClaude1970" Peters (two bullets) were less successful and eliminated before today's action was completed.
The PokerNews Live reporting team will be back on April 30 to report the other online opening day and the rest of the tournament held at the Playground Poker Club.
"BIGSHOT188" Eliminated on Final Hand of the Day
Level 10
: 20,000/40,000, 4,000 ante
The action folded around to "Navins9" in the small blind who quickly jammed for 1,129,774 with 
. "BIGSHOT188" quickly called with 
from the big blind and found himself on the losing end of another flip and eliminated from the tournament after the board ran out 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
2,148,354 | 1,035,580 |
|
|
Busted |
"Jsdubois11" Doubles Against "BIGSHOT188"
Level 10
: 20,000/40,000, 4,000 ante
Canada's "jsdubois11" was just complaining in the chat about the slow play on his table stating he wanted a chance to double before the end of the day. "BIGSHOT188" asked him to "hold on" and that "we all want to double."
About five minutes later the duo was battling it out. "Jsdubois11" jammed for 749,044 before "BIGSHOT188" came over the top for 1,583,621. All the other players folded and it was a classic flip situation with "jsdubois11" holding 
and "BIGSHOT188" holding 
.
"Jsdubois11" took a big lead in the hand after he paired up on the 
flop. The 
on the turn and the 
on the river was unable to help "BIGSHOT188" get back into the hand and "jsdubois11" got the double he was after.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,586,088 | 1,102,044 |
|
|
834,580 | -1,005,600 |
"Skunk419" Doubles
Level 10
: 20,000/40,000, 4,000 ante
The action folded to "Heinz_76" in the small blind who quickly jammed all in. Just as quickly, "Skunk419" called from the big blind.
Heinz_76:
Skunk419: 
"Skunk419" was in the lead before the flop and was even more so after he snagged top-pair on the 
flop. The 
on the turn and the on the river completed the board and "Skunk419" doubled up to 653,214.
Meanwhile, at around the same time on the other table, "Pocket_Flush" was eliminated to leave 14 players remaining competing in Day 1a with 10 minutes remaining on the day.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,545,491 | 137,060 |
|
|
653,214 | 326,607 |
|
|
Busted |
"Tomcemm" Doubles With Snowmen
Level 10
: 20,000/40,000, 4,000 ante
"Tomcemm" got it all in with pocket eights and was able to double up against "Skunk419" who was holding pocket queens after the board ran out 
to give him a set.
Meanwhile, "Skunk419" is down to just eight big blinds.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
2,447,614 | 1,255,307 |
|
|
326,607 | -1,192,337 |
Level: 10
Blinds: 20,000/40,000
Ante: 4,000
Chip Count Update
Level 9
: 15,000/30,000, 3,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
6,825,598 | -105,000 |
|
3,943,735 | 1,299,791 |
|
|
3,617,399 | -267,522 |
|
|
2,225,421 | -815,327 |
|
|
1,840,180 | 24,000 |
|
|
1,736,500 | 98,068 |
|
|
1,518,944 | -123,937 |
|
|
1,408,431 | 348,999 |
|
|
1,192,307 | -126,000 |
|
|
1,112,774 | 33,000 |
|
1,087,432 | -22,964 |
|
875,885 | 3,000 |
|
|
841,352 | -164,257 |
|
|
484,044 | 120,522 |
|
|
407,950 | 6,210 |
Last Break of Day 1a
Level 9
: 15,000/30,000, 3,000 ante
The remaining 15 players in the Day 1a field are now on their last five-minute break. Shortly after play resumes, blinds will increase to 20,000/40,000 with an ante of 4,000, which is the final level of the first opening day.
"Ross_Geller99" Eliminated
Level 9
: 15,000/30,000, 3,000 ante
"Ross_Geller99" was just eliminated to bring the field size down to 15 players. Meanwhile, Brazil's Joao "Azor_Ahai" Neves Jr extended his chip lead and is now near 7 million in chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
6,930,598 | 613,788 |
|
|
Busted |