Photo Recap: Day 2 of WPT Montreal Bursts the Money Bubble

There are 43 players remaining in WPT Montreal, and Day 3 begins at 12:00 noon ET. Click here for the full list of official seating and chip counts.

There were 606 entries over the three starting flights at WPT Montreal, but only 234 of them survived to begin Day 2 on Monday. The final 76 would finish in the money.

Robert Rose finished Day 1C with 300,600 in chips to begin Day 2 as the tournament chipleader. Unfortunately, Rose would eventually bust in 66th place, earning CAD $5,910.

Reigning WPT Montreal champion Mike Sexton was putting forth his best effort to defend his title, but the repeat simply wasn’t meant to be, and Sexton was eliminated about three-and-a-half hours into Day 2, falling short of the money.

While Mike Sexton is the defending WPT Montreal champion, Ema Zajmovic is actually the most recent WPT champion to win a title here at the Playground Poker Club, as she won the WPT Playground event held here in February. But Zajmovic’s day wasn’t much better than Sexton’s, as she busted about an hour after he did.

Two-time WPT champion Michael Mizrachi entered the day as one of the big stacks, and he was at or near the top of the leaderboard for most of the day. But Mizrachi stumbled after the dinner break, losing two big pots (450K and 300K) in quick succession to Feizal Satchu, who would build momentum of his own.

Mizrachi survived the day, but he’s the shortest stack in the field with just 88,000 in chips (9 big blinds).

As Mizrachi slipped down the leaderboard, Feizal Satchu rose up, taking the lead late in the day and finishing with 1.52 million in chips (152 big blinds).

The final 76 players would finish in the money, and when the field got down to the final 90, it was time to bring in the Action Clock by Protection Poker. With the Action Clock in use, players have only 30 seconds to make each decision.

The Action Clock is being used at all World Poker Tour main tour events this season, starting shortly before the field reaches the money, and continuing all the way thru the WPT Final Table.

When the Action Clock was introduced, each player received four yellow Time Chips, which could be used to extend their time by 30 seconds when facing a decision.

As the Money Bubble got closer, longtime WPT camera operator Dave Purdy and his crew were in the field to record every all-in-and-call situation for the World Poker Tour TV show.

So in addition to the pressure of the Money Bubble, all-in players would look up to see TV cameras pointed in their direction, and if they were to lose and bust, their bad beat story would be televised around the world.

When hand-for-hand play began on the Money Bubble with 77 players remaining, the biggest hand was a queen-high river bluff by Senthuran Vijayaratnam, which caused Jamie Sequeira to use two of his Time Chips to tank for nearly a minute and a half before he folded. That’s when Vijayaratnam showed the bluff, and Sequeira was not pleased, questioning Vijayaratnam’s play in the hand, and warning him that “What goes around, comes around.”

Unfortunately for Sequeira, he never recovered after this hand. While he made it into the money, he was eliminated in 65th place, earning CAD $5,910.

When the field was four spots away from the money, Senthuran Vijayaratnam accelerated his game into a higher gear.

“I’ve been raising every hand — literally. It doesn’t really matter which two cards.”

When hand-for-hand play began on the Money Bubble, Vijayaratnam found himself in a hand where he was convinced — “100%” — that his opponent Jamie Sequeira had pocket aces.

“The other table literally just busted a guy, so we’re on the actual Money Bubble. … [Sequeira’s] not calling without the nuts, so I went all in, and that’s when the cameras came, and he tanked forever. You heard his commentary out there, he went on and on. He goes, ‘What do you think I have?’ I said, ‘You have aces.’ He said I could have tens, kings, or ace-queen of spades. Ace-queen of spades makes the nuts. And I have the queen of spades, right? So he has a single naked pair, and he can’t call on the cold bubble.”

Vijayaratnam is an I.T. analyst who says he brings a laptop when he plays poker so he can also get some work done.

“The thing is, I don’t play poker for a living. That’s why nobody knows me. I literally only come to Montreal. Really nowhere else. I have family and I have work. I have fun playing poker, so that’s why I was showing my bluffs. I have fun with this, and I show it. This cameras are there, this might make for good coverage, so I show it, and then he went on for the next few minutes, going after me, blah, blah, blah.”

That hand took Vijayaratnam to about 440K, and he would continue to build during the final two levels of the day to finish with 680,000 (68 big blinds) heading into Day 3.

Down to less than two big blinds, Eric Danis was all in preflop against two callers with . And the board came , which isn’t a bad board for his hand. But he finished third in the hand behind Mohammad Abu-Hadbah’s and Lucas Drolet’s .

The elimination of Danis burst the Money Bubble, and the remaining 76 players were in the money.

Two of the more notable pros from Montreal, Marc-Andre Ladouceur (left) and Samuel Chartier (right) were eliminated late in the day. Ladouceur finished 47th, while Chartier’s elimination in 44th place was the final bustout of the night.

David Peters became a contender for the chip lead when he played a big hand against Ari Engel two spots away from the money, and then he continued to build his stack from there.

In the final minutes of Day 2, Peters knocked out Christian Harder, which propelled him to the end-of-day chip lead with 1,614,000 (161 big blinds).

Day 3 of WPT Montreal begins at 12:00 noon ET, when the field is scheduled to play five 90-minute levels, and they should reach the final two tables. Return to WPT.com for continuing live updates throughout the event.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com