A swift and wild Day 1 of the World Cup of Cards Event #22: $5400 NL Hold'em 8-Max has left just 12 players in the fight. The largest buy-in of the festival drew a total of 44 entries, building a prize pool of $213,400. Montreal Nationals star and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Pascal Lefrancois leads the remaining survivors into Day 2.
Lefrancois leaped into the chip lead on the very last hand of the night. Lefrancois got into a post-flop raise war with David Valcourt-Dube and Lefrancois' flopped set of eights faded Valcourt-Dube's top-pair and flush draw to bring the field down to 12. The hand left Lefrancois with 210,900, miles ahead of his closest competitor — Francois Goulet, with 148,700.
Domenic Triumbari ended play with the third best stack, sealing 144,400 in his bag. Almost wire-to-wire chip leader, Marc-Etienne McLaughlin lost a big hand to Goulet during the last level to end the day fourth in chips, bagging 139,000. Pierre-Paul Paulin rounds out the top five stacks with 121,600.
Originally scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. on Saturday, the players have decided to begin at 2 p.m. instead. The event is most likely to finish tomorrow as well, originally scheduled to play a third day. Another eight levels are currently on the slate but tournament staff will leave that decision in the player's hands.
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Pascal Lefrancois opened to 2,400 and David Valcourt-Dube made the call. The flop came , Lefrancois lead for 2,000, Valcourt-Dube raised to 5,800, Lefrancois three-bet to 12,000, Valcourt-Dube four-bet shoved, and Lefrancois snap-called.
Lefrancois:
Valcourt-Dube:
Both had flopped huge but Lefrancois was ahead, needing to hold to bust Valcourt-Dube. The board ran out , sending the pot towards Lefrancois and Valcourt-Dube towards the door.
Hamza Firdawcy opened under-the-gun, Martin Nadeau called from middle-position, Carl Martel three-bet from late-position and Firdawcy four-bet shoved all-in. Nadeau folded and Martel snap-called.
Firdawcy:
Martel:
The board ran out , and Martel scooped the pot, eliminating Firdawcy.
The largest buy-in at the World Cup of Cards gets underway today at Playground Poker Club. Event #22: $5,400 NL Hold'em 8-Max is the High Roller event of the festival, boasting a guarantee of $150,000. Quebec is known for its poker talent and some of the brightest stars should be in the field on Friday.
The three-day event kicks off at 11 a.m. local time in Kahnawake, Quebec. Players will start with 30,000 in chips and play 10, 60-minute levels on Day 1.
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.