It was not until the start of Day Two of the 2024 World Poker Tour Montreal at the Playground Poker Club that the players learned what they were playing for. Because late registration/reentry for the tournament was extended until the start of the action on Sunday, nobody was sure how high the figures would go. What is known after the conclusion of Day Two is that 44 players will move on to Day Three on Monday, with Day 1A Dongwoo Ko back in the leadership saddle with a monstrous chip stack.
Final Numbers Shatter Guarantee
There were 405 entries in the books when action began on Saturday, putting the guarantee for the 2024 WPT Montreal well within sight of the players. Common in multi-starting day events, the final one proved to be the biggest of all, bringing in more entries (448) than the previous two-Day Ones had brought (405). Even with those numbers in the books, the final figures would not be known until the start of the play on Sunday.
Some stragglers would come into the fold before the cards hit the air on Sunday, but it turned out to be a small number. Only 29 players would take the 50K in chips to start Day Two, bringing the total number for the field to 882 entries. It would take a bit to figure out the final numbers, but once they were compiled, the guarantee was crushed.
12.5% of the field would be paid for the 2024 WPT Montreal, meaning that 111 players from the 332 runners who hit the line to start Day Two would take some money from the prize pool. That field built a $2,822,400 (Canadian, $2,071,642 U. S.) prize pool that topped the $2 million guaranteed, with the eventual champion taking down the $434,900 top prize for the victory. That prize also includes a seat to the 2024 WPT World Championship, which will be held in December to crown the WPT’s next World Champion.
Changes to the Leaderboard
Leading the way to start Day Two was Hassanian Al Ghunaim, who was able to bag up a monster stack of 723,500 to begin the day’s play. His stack was so massive that he was able to survive doubling up Patrick Tardif (Tardif’s pocket Queens holding against Al Ghunaim’s A-K) and still maintain the lead. But challengers were coming and in the form of another one of the three Day One chip leaders.
Dongwoo Ko, who was the leader after Day 1A, went to work early in the action on Sunday and made up ground quickly. While Al Ghunaim maintained a slim lead over Kevin Rivest, Ko rocketed from his 456,600 starting stack to eclipse the 700K mark within a couple of levels of play. The money bubble had not been reached, however, and it would come up right around the dinner break.
It would take 23 hands – and that aforementioned dinner break – to pop the money bubble. Gaurav Sood was all in with his pocket Jacks against the Big Slick of Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault and at least it was quick and painless. A King would come on the flop, pushing Carpentier-Perrault into a lead he would not relinquish. As the final card hit the board, Sood was out in 112th place ($0), and the remaining 111 players were in the money.
From there, Ko began his run to the top of the standings. He doubled up Xuan Liu before the bubble popped, but it did not slow him down from assaulting the rest of the field. He would power past the three million mark in chips, joined only by Eun Park over that level, as they lead the 44 remaining players heading to Day Three on Monday:
1. Dongwoo Ko, 3.155 million
2. Eun Park, 3.065 million
3. Nektarios Papadedes, 2.05 million
4. Charles Kassin, 1.99 million
5. Chi Do Nguyen, 1.79 million
6. Dan Stavita, 1.72 million
7. Eric Afriat, 1.7 million*
8. Thinh Bui, 1.6 million
9. Dukenson Lebrun, 1.49 million
10. Tony Dunst, 1.44 million*
(tie) Baseem Nsier, 1.44 million
(* – WPT Champions’ Club member)
It could be a long day at the Playground for the remaining players in the 2024 WPT Montreal field. Plans for Monday look to bring the field down to the six-handed WPT final table, which could push play into early Tuesday morning.
(Photo courtesy of World Poker Tour)
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