PokerStars Canada Cup Main Event Day 3: Rayan Chamas with Dominating Lead
Seventy two players sat down at Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake, Quebec for Day 3 of the PokerStars Canada Cup $3,300 Main Event on Monday. It was another short day for the players; just five hours later the field had been thinned to 27 players and action was halted for the day with Rayan Chamas holding a massive chip lead with a stack of 2,682,000.
The Main Event caps a 12-event series across 13 days from the world��s largest online poker site for their Canadian players. PokerStars slapped a whopping $2,000,000 guarantee on the tournament, but fell short with 578 entries across the three starting days, creating a $266,000 overlay. First place will pay out $366,660.
The top 72 players made it in the money when the bubble was popped and play halted on Sunday. Monday��s Day 3 narrowed the field substantially and some big names left the table and headed to the cashier. All remaining players are now guaranteed at least $12,990.
Some notable players who won��t be back for Day 4 include Sylvain Siebert, Pascal Lefrancois, Mike Watson, Jonathan Driscoll, Carter Swidler, Will Molson, and Ami Alibay.
Of those who remain in contention for the trophy, familiar faces include 2013 WPT Canadian Spring Championship winner Amir Babakhani, Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel, highest-grossing player in the world Antonio Esfandiari, PokerStars Team Online member Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Vancouver online powerhouse Jonas Mackoff, and European Poker Tour high roller champion Steve Silverman, among plenty of lesser-known local talent.
Chamas had the second-largest stack at the beginning of the day and he spun it up to a dominating lead of 2,682,000 to end the day. The closest contender behind Chamas is Francoise Goulet with 1,523,000 �� over 1,100,000 million less than Chamas.
This is already the largest cash Chamas has ever made in a tournament, according to his Hendon Mob profile. He has just two prior results, and his largest cash to date is a min-cash in the WPT Canadian Spring Championship just two months ago at this same poker room.
The complete roster of the 27 remaining players and their chips are as follows:
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rayan Chamas | 2,682,000 |
| 2 | Francois Goulet | 1,523,000 |
| 3 | Robert Notkin | 1,290,000 |
| 4 | Thiago Nishijima | 1,253,000 |
| 5 | Vincent Jacques | 988,000 |
| 6 | Antonio Esfandiari | 970,000 |
| 7 | Jeremie Bilodeau | 956,000 |
| 8 | Francois Binette | 898,000 |
| 9 | Ryan Rivers | 837,000 |
| 10 | Laurence Grondin | 800,000 |
| 11 | Tamer Alkamli | 712,000 |
| 12 | Ankush Mandavia | 571,000 |
| 13 | Marcello Delgrasso | 482,000 |
| 14 | Jonas Mackoff | 423,000 |
| 15 | Theodore Doukas | 367,000 |
| 16 | Justin Miller | 293,000 |
| 17 | Micah Johnson | 280,000 |
| 18 | Johnny Mazzaferro | 258,000 |
| 19 | Amir Babakhani | 250,000 |
| 20 | Amer Sulaiman | 247,000 |
| 21 | Kevin MacDonald | 241,000 |
| 22 | Spencer Stacey | 229,000 |
| 23 | Marc-Andre Ladouceur | 216,000 |
| 24 | Jonathan Duhamel | 164,000 |
| 25 | McKenzie Liebzeit | 164,000 |
| 26 | Steve Silverman | 139,000 |
| 27 | James Armstrong | 95,000 |
Play will resume on Tuesday at 11 a.m. local time and will continue until a final table of nine players has been set. Tune in to the action with the live streaming video on PokerNews with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton on site for colour commentary. Jonathan Duhamel has been on the feature table for Days 2 and 3, and Ladouceur joined his table immediately to his right part way through Day 3.
Just got moved to the @JonathanDuhamel Invitational. Hi @sportengueule Hi @Stapes Hi #Mom Im a shawty tho
— Marc-Andre Ladouceur (@MarcAndre_FDawg)
Check back in to PokerNews for a recap of the day��s action after play is completed.
Photos and data courtesy of the Playground Poker Club Blog.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
