For the second-straight day, the premiere poker tournament of the year has surpassed 2015’s numbers at the 47th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Day 1b of Event #68: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em Championship drew a field of 1,733. Russian Andrey Zaichenko leads 1,302 survivors into Day 2 with Canadian World Poker Tour (WPT) Champion Eric Afriat in the top five.
The Canadian contingent was out in full force on Day 1b with 51 Canucks advancing to Day 2. WPT Champions Paul Klann and the aforementioned Afriat are moving on along with WSOP November Niner’s Matt Jarvis and Scott Montgomery. Montgomery is also a WSOP bracelet winner and will be joined by fellow bracelet winners Justin Oliver and Daniel Idema. Here is how the Canadian contingent stacks up heading into Day 2.
| Eric Afriat | SAINT-LAURENT, QC | 200,500 |
| Matt Jarvis | VANCOUVER, BC | 147,000 |
| Philipp Schnetzer | Granville Ferry, NS | 142,700 |
| Mike Watson | Toronto, ON | 125,400 |
| Geoffrey Mcneely | Thornhill, ON | 121,100 |
| Justin Oliver | Toronto, ON | 112,200 |
| Paul Klann | Richmond, BC | 110,500 |
| Enzo Deluca | Vernon, BC | 108,000 |
| Marc-Andre Ladouceur | Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC | 103,700 |
| Charles Hebert | Boucherville, QC | 91,000 |
| Michael Niwinski | Burnaby, ON | 90,500 |
| Edward Arnold | Niagara On The Lake, ON | 85,800 |
| Joseph Gallo | Tisdale, SK | 80,600 |
| Scott Montgomery | Ottawa, ON | 76,300 |
| Thomas Lefort | St-Annes-des-Lacs, QC | 75,600 |
| Nikolaos Alafogiannis | North York, ON | 73,200 |
| Shayne Khanna | SAINT-LAMBERT, QC | 72,000 |
| Richard Mullen | White Rock, BC | 69,800 |
| Perry Rouzes | Cape St George, NL | 64,200 |
| Ronald Giles | Airdrie, AB | 63,200 |
| John Wakileh | Maple, ON | 62,200 |
| Jason Lavallee | Montreal, QC | 58,900 |
| Min Huang | VANCOUVER, BC | 58,300 |
| Antonio Pace | Kitchener, ON | 57,500 |
| Terrence Chan | VANCOUVER, BC | 56,100 |
| Ronnie Khanna | SAINT-LAMBERT, QC | 54,300 |
| Robert Anderson | Delta, BC | 53,900 |
| Stephen Ladowsky | Toronto, ON | 49,400 |
| Daniel Idema | VANCOUVER, BC | 47,000 |
| Jean-Nicolas Fortin | Saint-Augustin-De-Desmaur, QC | 45,600 |
| Theresa Jennings | Okotoks, AB | 45,200 |
| Randy Jennings | Calgary, AB | 45,000 |
| Lucas Greenwood | Toronto, ON | 42,800 |
| Paolo Cusinato | Sudbury, ON | 42,200 |
| Marc Olivier Carpentier Perrault | Montreal, QC | 35,000 |
| Eric Levesque | Montreal, QC | 34,000 |
| Curt Walter | White City, SK | 32,800 |
| Eric Vallee | New Westminster, BC | 24,800 |
| Timothy Vukson | Mount Forest , ON | 24,400 |
| Ali Sheikholeslami | Richmond Hill, ON | 24,100 |
| William Fitzpatrick | Erin, ON | 23,500 |
| Josh Mammon | Richmond, BC | 22,400 |
| David Dubnyk | Lethbridge, AB | 21,700 |
| Yao Sun | VANCOUVER, BC | 21,500 |
| Jason Mann | Burnaby, BC | 18,400 |
| Osman Soubra | Richmond Hill, ON | 16,700 |
| Douglas Suffel | SAULT STE MARIE, ON | 14,100 |
| Baruch Scheinberg | Richmond Hill, ON | 13,400 |
| Henry Strasser | Toronto, ON | 6,300 |
| Clinton Cockburn | Saskatoon, SK | 6,200 |
| Matthew Wood | Whitby, ON | 4,100 |
After five levels of play Zaichenko built a stack of 292,700. Kenny Hallaert (269,400), Kevin Powell (219,800), Chang Luo (203,800), and Afriat (200,500) round out the top of the leaderboard. Melanie Weisner, Brandon Adams, Johnny Chan, David Vamplew, and Justin Bonomo are just a few notables also surviving the day.
There is one more chance for players to qualify for the Main Event. Day 1c begins at 11:00 a.m. local time in Las Vegas on Monday and a full house is expected. The final starting flight has always been the largest and nothing short of that is expected.
The WSOP is now quickly coming to an end, but there is still hope for another Canadian bracelet. Good luck to all Canadians on their Main Event adventure in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to Canada Poker for up-to-date WSOP news and events and follow your favorite Canadian poker players throughout the series. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for live updates over the series.
