It seems like it was just yesterday that Season XIII of the World Poker Tour concluded with Asher Conniff winning his first major championship in becoming the WPT World Champion in Atlantic City. Looking at the calendar, it wasn’t just yesterday, it was a couple of days ago, which makes the beginning of Season XIV, which kicked off on Friday at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal with the partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship, a little surprising.
The quick turnaround for players and WPT personnel didn’t catch 136 players off guard on Friday as they entered the baize battlefield for Day 1A of the tournament. With two Day Ones – and the ability for the players on Day 1A to re-enter on Day 1B if they were knocked out or not happy with their stacks – the Friday action was expected to be quite hectic. In fact, it would provide the chip leader for the overall tournament after its day of competition.
As with many of the WPT events contested in Canada, there were plenty of players from the “Great White North” who made their mark on the leaderboard by the end of the day. Former November Niner Marc-Etienne McLaughlin was able to cobble together a decent stack (61,300) alongside Xuan Liu (48,800), but the upper echelons of the leaderboard were populated by several other Canadians. Canadian players Pascal Lefrancois (189,100) and Rene Bourbeau (249,100) took the bronze and silver medal positions on Day 1A, but it was World Series of Poker bracelet winner Mike Leah who powered his way through the field to amass 265,300 chips and finish the day as the chip leader.
Typical of the final starting day of a major tournament, a sizeable number of players came out on Saturday to build a nice field for the WPT Canadian Spring Championship. 234 players put down their $3500 to take part in the festivities on Saturday and, added in with the players from Day 1A, brought the field size to 370 entries. After totaling the prize pool ($1,148,480 Canadian dollars), WPT officials decided to pay out 45 players, with the minimum payday of $5410, while saving back $218,297 ($255,408 Canadian) for the eventual champion of the event.
Although there are 152 players who still have at least a sliver of hope of taking down the first championship of Season XIV of the WPT, there are some that will have to wait a little while before they can take their next shot at WPT gold. Some of those players are Jonathan Duhamel (fired two bullets that missed), former WPT champions Matt Salsberg, Jonathan Jaffee, Amir Babakhani, Aaron Mermelstein and Chanracy Khun, Canadian pro Samuel Chartier and WPT announcer and Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton.
While these men will be on the rails watching the action, these players will be at the top of the leaderboard as Day 2 kicks off this afternoon:
1. Mike Leah, 265,300
2. Rene Bourbeau, 249,100
3. Eric Afriat, 212,200
4. Pascal Lefrancois, 189,100
5. Jason Duval, 188,400
6. Kevin Singh, 187,700
7. Ratharam Sivagnanam, 184,000
8. Angelo Cusinato, 174,200
9. Kevin Lee Sharp, 159,000
10. Justin Rabba, 150,700
Notable pros that are looking to break into the top of the ladder in Montreal include former WPT World Champion Marvin Rettenmaier (134,700), Darryll Fish (130,200) and Paul Klann (108,000), while Matt Marafioti (37,700), Dylan Wilkerson (33,200), Will Molson (14,600) and Danny Suied (8100) will be looking for the “double up or go home” early on Sunday.
Plans on Sunday are for the remaining player to play 10 one-hour levels before calling it a night. In that time span, the bubble should pop sometime around the dinner hour and, if the usual casualty rate continues after the money bubble pops, it is possible that the final 27 players could be determined by this evening. The final table is expected to be contested on Wednesday night, where the first champion of Season XIV for the World Poker Tour will be crowned.
