The sixth starting flight of Event #16: $500,000 partypoker Canadain Grand Prix in the books with 32 players qualifying for Day 2. Friday evening's Day 1f flight inside Playground Poker Club attracted a field of 313 entries. Leading the way at the end of play was Glenn Sauve, bagging a top stack of 415,000.
Sauve claimed the chip lead by a single chip as Tommy Perreault built a stack of 414,000. Also among the leaders were Luc Lariviere (380,000), Darrin McCaffrey (341,500), Tristan Bernier (331,000), and Stephanie Mclean (323,000).
A number of notables and familiar faces around Playground took their shot this afternoon. A few failing to survive include Kathy Sawers, Buddy Villaluz, Grant Ellis, Jason Comtois, Bryan Ferriera, and Nick-Real Seide.
Players will have four more opportunities to qualify live at Playground on Saturday, along with a number of online Day 1 flights via partypoker.
PokerNews will be here throughout the festival, bringing you all the news, updates, and photos. Follow @pokernews on Twitter for live updates, Periscope broadcasts, and more. Also, follow PokerNews on Facebook and Instagram.
The World Cup of Cards (WCC) is really starting to ramp up with Day 1a of the partypoker Grand Prix Poker Tour $500,000 Guarantee. This is event #16 and this tournament sports the biggest guarantee of the WCC. It also has the lowest buy in, only $109.
Today's flight is just the sixth of eleven live starting flights. There have been a ton of online Day 1 flights as well and online flights are still running concurrently with the live flights. Mike Stannard is the big stack so far with 668,500 qualifying from one of the earlier online flights.
There are still plenty of chances for live players to match Stannard's stack, beginning with Day 1f at 7 p.m. This will be the second of four starting flights today. The regular flights will have 20-minute levels and the turbo flights will have 15-minute levels. Each player will start with 20,000 and each starting flight play will continue until ten percent of the field remains. Day 1f is a normal flight with 20-minute levels.
One of the unique elements of the GPPT is a "Golden Chip." The golden chip can be earned in a series of 1-cent online tournaments. The top five players from each of the tournaments earns a virtual golden chip. If a player with a virtual golden chip makes Day 2, they get a physical golden chip. Then any player who wins the tournament and has a golden chip adds $50,000 to their first place prize.
The partypoker Grand Prix $500,000 Guarantee is Event #16 of the World Cup of Cards. PokerNews will be here throughout the festival, bringing you all the news, updates, and photos. Follow @pokernews on Twitter for live updates, Periscope broadcasts, and more. Also, follow PokerNews on Facebook and Instagram.