Francois Billard Bags the Lead at the End of Day 1
An action-packed Day 1 at the 2017 Caribbean Poker Party Festival has come to an end. The $10,300 MILLIONS High Roller has reached its conclusion with no shortage of notable names moving on to Day 2. Francois Billard managed to bag the largest stack when all was said and done, nearly reaching the 4 million chip mark.
Billard will return with 3,899,000 tomorrow and will start the day as the chip leader. Throughout the day, Billard held on to an average stack until he got involved in a massive pot with Sam Trickett. Trickett flopped a full house on the 
flop with pocket fives, but Billard rivered a larger full house, holding 
. That pot vaulted Billard over the 3 million chip mark and he continued to roll through the last level of play.
To date, Billard has over $1.5 million in career tournament earnings with his largest cash coming back in 2014 when the EPT stopped in Prague. Earlier this year, he finished second in another $10,300 event in Barcelona for $297,911. Billard will be looking to move up one more place to reach the top of the podium here in Punta Cana.
There were only two other players to bag a stack over 3 million at day's end and they were fellow Canadian, Daniel Dvoress (3,496,000), and Michael Watson (3,076,000). Other notables to find a bag include Mustapha Kanit (2,779,000), Sergio Aido (2,224,000), Rainer Kempe (2,141,000), Ryan Riess (1,158,000), and partypoker ambassador Kristen Bicknell (553,000).
It wasn't all smiles for everyone as Tom Marchese, Niall Farrell, and Steve O'Dwyer all fell short on two bullets fired today. Matt Kirk was the first elimination of the day, lasting less than an hour when he flopped a set but ran into a bigger set of Sean Winter. On the other hand, Bryn Kenney busted in the last few hands of the night but will surely be back tomorrow to try his luck again.
With a total of 67 entries on the day, the tournament will need to attract at least 33 more in order to reach the $1,000,000 guaranteed prizepool. Late registration will remain open for 4 more levels on Day 2, and there are still unlimited re-entries. Of those 67 entries today, 43 will be returning tomorrow for another eight levels of play starting at 12:00 P.M. local time.
Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 1 | Bartlomiej Machon | Poland | 649,000 | 27 |
| 12 | 3 | Ivan Deyra | France | 941,000 | 39 |
| 12 | 4 | Seth Davies | United States | 747,000 | 31 |
| 12 | 5 | Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault | Canada | 1,228,000 | 51 |
| 12 | 6 | Felipe Ramos | Brazil | 486,000 | 20 |
| 12 | 8 | Jake Schindler | United States | 1,885,000 | 79 |
| 13 | 1 | Martyn Frey | United Kingdom | 2,874,000 | 120 |
| 13 | 2 | Michael Watson | Canada | 3,076,000 | 128 |
| 13 | 4 | Sean Winter | United States | 1,387,000 | 58 |
| 13 | 5 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 1,776,000 | 74 |
| 13 | 6 | Barry Hutter | United States | 2,202,000 | 92 |
| 13 | 7 | Philipp Gruissem | Germany | 1,719,000 | 72 |
| 14 | 1 | Pavel Plesuv | Ukraine | 636,000 | 27 |
| 14 | 2 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 1,191,000 | 50 |
| 14 | 3 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | 800,000 | 33 |
| 14 | 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 2,008,000 | 84 |
| 14 | 6 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | 2,141,000 | 89 |
| 14 | 8 | Dmitry Makarov | Russian Federation | 2,550,000 | 106 |
| 15 | 1 | Jonathan Little | United States | 702,000 | 29 |
| 15 | 3 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 850,000 | 35 |
| 15 | 4 | Carlos Chadha | United States | 403,000 | 17 |
| 15 | 6 | Gal Yifrach | United States | 2,310,000 | 96 |
| 15 | 7 | Chris Hunichen | United States | 772,000 | 32 |
| 16 | 2 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | 553,000 | 23 |
| 16 | 3 | Felix Bleiker | Switzerland | 2,140,000 | 89 |
| 16 | 4 | Jack Sinclair | United Kingdom | 478,000 | 20 |
| 16 | 5 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 1,709,000 | 71 |
| 16 | 6 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 1,660,000 | 69 |
| 17 | 2 | Sergio Aido | Spain | 2,224,000 | 93 |
| 17 | 3 | Preben Stokkan | Norway | 2,120,000 | 88 |
| 17 | 4 | Mustapha Kanit | Italy | 2,779,000 | 116 |
| 17 | 5 | Benjamin Pollak | France | 1,832,000 | 76 |
| 17 | 7 | Pablo Joaquin Melogno Cabrera | Uruguay | 713,000 | 30 |
| 18 | 1 | David Peters | United States | 924,000 | 39 |
| 18 | 2 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | 1,006,000 | 42 |
| 18 | 3 | Julian Stuer | Austria | 710,000 | 30 |
| 18 | 5 | Francois Billard | Canada | 3,899,000 | 162 |
| 18 | 6 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | 3,496,000 | 146 |
| 19 | 1 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 1,529,000 | 64 |
| 19 | 2 | Ryan Riess | United States | 1,158,000 | 48 |
| 19 | 3 | Ludovic Geilich | Germany | 559,000 | 23 |
| 19 | 4 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 1,563,000 | 65 |
| 19 | 6 | Michael Zhang | United Kingdom | 1,690,000 | 70 |
Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team for all of the updates from the event.