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Ari Engel Leads partypoker North America Million Final Table
The first-ever partypoker North America Million final table is set and long-time MTT vet Ari Engel is in the driver’s seat with 252m chips.
Engel has roughly 22% of the chips in play but he’s followed closely by Quebec’s Jean-Pascal Savard who finished with 243m.
The final table also includes American Matt Waxman (115m chips) and Scotland’s Niall Farrell (69.2m).
All eight players at the final table are chasing a CAD$1,000,000 first-place prize thanks to the record-breaking 1,168-player field.
The $5m prize pool that partypoker guaranteed blossomed to $5.7m as a result of the strong numbers.
Near Miss for Scott Montgomery
Scott Montgomery, who finished fifth in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $3m, had the chip lead to start Day 4 with 37 players remaining but wasn’t able to keep pace with the field.
He ended up finishing in 13th place for a $45k payout.
Some of the other notables to make deep runs were Sam Greenwood, who finished 27th, and Michael Addamo (24th).
The notably-named Joseph Sicko had a bit of a coming out party in the tournament. Sicko won his seat into the $5,300 buy-in tournament through a contest on Twitter.
Sicko managed to parlay that freeroll into finishing 30th for $32,500. He had the misfortune of shoving pocket kings into Farrell’s pocket aces but even that couldn’t keep the New Yorker down as he happily collected his payout.
Engel Eyes Canadian Top 10
Engel, who gained notoriety in the online world playing as BodogAri, has a chance to add yet another massive score to his $4.6m in lifetime live tournament earnings.
Engel’s biggest score remains the 2016 Aussie Millions main event, which he took down for $1.1 million but the partypoker Million top payout would come close to matching that one.
He already has 17 cashes in 2017 including an MSPT win for $114k in Milwaukee.
If Engel is able to close out the partypoker Million today he would leap into the top 10 all-time Canadian money earners list, leapfrogging the likes of Timothy Adams and Sam Greenwood.
Action begins at 12:30 p.m. local time today with both live updates and a live stream (on 30 minute delay) on partypoker.
Here’s a look at the final table chip counts:
1. Ari Engel - 252,500,000
2. Jean-Pascal Savard - 243,100,000
3. Rayan Chamas - 168,400,000
4. Philippe D’Auteuil - 142,500,000
5. Matthew Waxman - 115,300,000
6. Jonathan Bussieres - 108,700,000
7. Niall Farrell - 69,200,000
8. Louis Boutin - 43,900,000
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