Daren Keyes Tops Day 1b of the Canadian Poker Championships
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The second flight of the $2,000,000 guaranteed partypoker LIVE Canadian Poker Championships played out at Playground Poker Club on Saturday attracting a field of 194 entries. After nine levels of play, Daren Keyes bagged best with a monster stack of 7,183,000 leading the 106 Day 1b survivors.
Keyes had the lead coming back after the final break of the night and moments into play, Keyes found a sick cooler to crush Alex Difelice with pocket kings over pocket queens, claiming the largest pot of the event thus far.
Keyes closest competitor on the night was Sebastien Labbe, who used two double-knockouts to cap off the day with 5,777,000. Other top stacks were Ari Engel (5,200,000), Stephane Bedard (4,752,000), George Gaffiero (4,558,000), and Ettehadi Seyedrohollah (4,408,000).
Day 1b started with 82 Phase 1 qualifiers and the field grew with 92 additional entries and 20 re-entries to close at 194 total entries. When the clock ran out, there were 106 survivors.
Notables moving on to Day 2 include Michael Malm (3,486,000), Kyle Bower (3,400,000), Griffin Benger (2,809,000), Armand King (2,500,000), High Roller champ Jeff Cormier (2,494,000), and Sam Chartier 1,716,000). partypoker Team Pro Natalia Breviglieri also found a bag after firing two bullets on Day 1a unsuccessfully. Breviglieri will start Day 2 with 870,000.
Those in need of another bullet after falling on Day 1b include Chanracy Khun, Jason Duval, Jonathan Duhamel, Ryan Yu, Shaan Siddiqui, and Thomas Lefort.
Day 1c is set to get underway at noon local time on Sunday. Another nine levels are on the schedule with late-registration and option for a single re-entry open all day long.
Here's a look at the remaining schedule for the CPC:
| Day | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1C | Sunday September 10th | 12:00pm |
| Day 1D (Turbo) | Monday September 11th | 12:00pm |
| Day 2 | Monday September 11th | 5:00pm |
| Day 3 | Tuesday September 12th | 1:00pm |
| Day 4 | Wednesday September 13th | 1:00pm |
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board and Labbe's jacks held to bust both of his opponents and leap into second place in chips.
board fanned out and Keyes was pushed the largest pot of the even thus far.
, Jeff Cormier bet 30,000 from late position and Rong Xu moved all-in for 98,000 from the hijack. The player on the button called, and Cormier thought for a brief moment before re-raising to 245,000. The button tanked and claimed to fold 
for the nut flush draw, but Cormier tabled 
for the nuts. The turn was the 
and the river was the 
, missing Xu's flush draw and sending him to the rail.
