Jonathan Bussieres Leads the 45 Survivors on Day 1A of WPT500 Montreal

by Tim Duckworth

The opening flight of WPT500 Montreal kicked off on Friday from the Playground Poker Club as part of the Season XVII WPT Montreal festival that includes the three major components of the World Poker Tour’s offering – WPT500, WPTDeepStacks, and WPT Main Tour.

Day 1A of WPT500 Montreal saw a total of 244 entrants fill the tournament hall, and after 16 levels of tournament action, just 45 players would survive into Day 2 to join the 45 players that qualified for Day 2 action online on partypoker. Leading today’s flight is Jonathan Bussieres who managed to bag an impressive 542,000.

Bussieres is an accomplished poker player from Quebec having lodged over $700,000 in live tournament earnings stretching back to 2013. Bussieres has several partypoker tour cashes to his name, with his biggest result coming in May 2017 when he took second place in the Playground Poker Spring Classic – partypoker MILLION North America at Playground Poker Club Kahnawake.

Late during Day 1A play, Bussieres found himself on a table that included three of the chip leaders along with WPT Champions Club member Brian Altman. For Bussieres, he would assert his presence as the top dog eventually slithering past the others to earn Day 1A chip leader honors.

Unfortunately for Altman, his day would end just before play concluded, and along with fellow WPT Champions Club member David Ormsby, he would be eyeing a stint at another flight in the upcoming days. Accomplished players Danny Wong, Michael Wang, and Steven van Zadelhoff were also eliminated throughout the day. Marco Palombi (415,000), Frederic Normand (340,000), Michael Benkop (325,000), and Frabrizio Bruno (325,000) are the only players to cross the 300,000-chip threshold. The Day 1A survivors will all return for Day 2 action on Monday, October 29 at 3 p.m. (EDT).

Everyone eliminated throughout the course of Day 1A, or those looking to improve on their end-of-day chip count, will all have a chance to participate in Day 1B which is currently being played in the newly opened section of the tournament hall. Alternatively, they can take a seat in any of the subsequent flights over the next three days. Saturday, and Sunday will see two Day 1 flights on each day commencing at 12 p.m. (EDT), and 6 p.m. (EDT), while there will also be a turbo flight beginning on Monday, October 29, at 10 a.m. (EDT).

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On Saturday, Day 1C will commence at 12 p.m. (EDT), and Day 1D will commence at 6 p.m. (EDT). Players will begin with 30,000 in starting chips and play 16 30-minute levels before ending play for the flight. Late registration is open until the beginning of Level 11, and each player is allowed one re-entry.

Stay tuned right here to WPT.com for the exclusive live coverage of WPT500 Montreal, along with the other events of the WPT Montreal festival.

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