2015 WPT Canadian Spring Championship Day 1b: Afriat Leads; Leah Remains on Top
The second Day 1 flight of the 2015 partypoker.net World Poker Tour Canadian Spring Championship drew 234 players to Playground Poker Club just outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Saturday. Add that to the 136 from the first flight and the first stop on the tour's 14th season officially drew 370 entries.
Saturday, a total of 102 players survived 10 levels of play with local rounder and 2014 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown champ Eric Afriat grabbing the end-of-day chip lead. Afriat had a hot start to the day, building his stack up to 90,000 in just the first level and a half, and although there were some bumps in the road, he bagged 212,200 and the lead.
Top 10 Day 1b Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Afriat | 212,200 |
| 2 | Jason Duval | 188,400 |
| 3 | Kevin Singh | 187,700 |
| 4 | Kevin Sharp | 159,000 |
| 5 | Justin Rabba | 150,700 |
| 6 | Nicholas Naccarato | 141,900 |
| 7 | Louis Boutin | 135,300 |
| 8 | Marvin Rettenmaier | 134,700 |
| 9 | Darryll Fish | 130,200 |
| 10 | Jean-Louis Cyr | 129,400 |
Others who built big stacks before play ended included 2013 World Series of Poker bracelet winner and WPT Canadian Spring Championship finalist Jason Duval, WSOP final tablist Laurence Grondin, WSOP Circuit winner Darryll Fish, and WPT Champions Club member Marvin Rettenmaier.
Hitting the rail as they day wore on were stars like Poker Hall of Fame member, partypoker team pro, and WPT host Mike Sexton, 2010 WSOP Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel, and 2014 WPT Montreal winner Jonathan Jaffe.
The 102 Day 1b survivors will join the 50 left over from Day 1a on Sunday, making for a total of 152 players that will hit the felt when play kicks off again at 12 p.m. local time in Montreal. Day 1a chip leader Mike Leah will be bringing the biggest stack with him.
The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be back then to bring you all the action from start to finish with live updates and videos throughout, so be sure to stay tuned to these pages.
In the meantime, check out what Afriat had to say about his big start in the following video interview with PokerNews' Caitlyn Howe:
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