Day 1b of WPT Montreal exceeds expectations

Yesterday we told you about the record-setting pace the current World Poker Tour (WPT) stop in Montreal, Canada is on. Day 1a of the tournament saw a field of 478 players take to the felt, and before the chips were even bagged-up the WPT announced that it already had over 500 pre-registrations for Day 1b. Well, Day 1b, not only passed the 500 player mark; it also cleared the 600 player mark, and narrowly missed crossing the 700 player mark! The final number came in at 695 players, which when added to Day 1a’s 478 players put the overall attendance number at 1,178 entrants.

Several records fell by the wayside including:

• The largest WPT tournament held in Canada (the previous mark was the WPT North American Poker Championship held in Niagara Falls back in 2008 which attracted 504 players)
• The largest tournament with a buy-in of at least $1,000 in Canadian history (the previous record was the $1,500 buy-in WSOPC Vancouver event earlier this year)

The WPT Montreal also flirted with two other records:

• The largest prize-pool in Canadian poker history which it missed by about $500,000, coming in at $3,387,930 (the record once again belongs to the 2008 North American Poker Championship held at Niagara Falls, which featured a $3,829,391 prize-pool)
• The largest field in WPT history which it missed by a mere eight players (the record is currently held by the 2012 WPT Borgata Poker Open which saw a field of 1,181 players)

Here is a look at the two Day 1a leader-boards from the WPT Montreal Main Event:

Day 1a chip-leaders:

1. Patrick Lelievre — 326,100
2. Kerry Shears — 299,300
3. Jean-Louis Forino — 272,000
4. Marc-Andre Ladouceur — 247,300
5. Ben Armstrong — 221,700
6. Guillaume Decaen — 214,200
7. Kevin MacDonald — 212,200
8. Mike Watson — 207,300
9. Tamer Alkamli — 204,600
10. Antonio Esfandiari — 197,400

Day 1b chip-leaders:

1. Kalpesh Raichura — 314,200
2. Jeff Gross — 284,000
3. Glen Cymbaluk — 270,700
4. Everol Davis — 243,900
5. Louis Rousseau — 236,200
6. Daniel Ricci — 231,900
7. Josh Kimmel — 210,000
8. Amanda Musumeci — 149,500
9. Matthew Burnitz — 143,000
10. Christian Harder — 132,400

And here is a look at the final table payouts for the 2012 WPT Montreal:

• 1^st place — $754,162
• 2^nd place — $470,922
• 3^rd place — $317,449
• 4^th place — $211,746
• 5^th place — $146,359
• 6^th place — $113,157