Playground

Day 2 Seat Draw

Luthra Leads Day 1D Of Canadian Poker Championship

Photo: Danesh Luthra

It became clear at the dinner break of today’s flight that the $1,000,000 put on the Canadian Poker Championship would be hit with no problem. As the next three hours of registration continued, the overall number for this flight shot up to 487, bringing the overall prize pool number to $1,055,000. Only 54 ended up putting chips in a bag by night’s end, meaning that those who busted will have to look at the following MSPT tournaments to claim a main event title of their own.

Leading the way is Danesh Luthra, who ended the day with 1,704,000. Hailing from Mississauga, the poker tournament regular had a ten year gap in his Hendon Mob resume before starting to grab a number of cashes in the 2024-2025 season. With $160,853 in lifetime earnings, Luthra secured himself his first MSPT cash tonight as well as a lofty stack to set him up for a deep run. Time will tell to see if he can leave a lasting impression upon the MSPT tour.

Sitting just behind him is Scott Babbitt, who ended with 1,057,000. Showing a no fear cavalier attitude towards his play that earned many murmurs from his tablemates throughout the day, Babbitt’s initial ascend involved his pocket kings holding for a near 180 big blind pot in the earlier goings of the day. He became the first player to cross the seven figure mark of the day and has at least doubled his overall lifetime earnings with his first ever MSPT cash. With his sizable stack here today, he looks to continue his ascent through the

Others that bagged today included Jean-Francois Khalil (937,000), Lily Lotfy (459,000), Stuart Taylor (362,000), and Pablo Mariz (293,000). Each one will be looking to become the inaugural Canadian Poker Champion here at Playground Casino in Montreal.

The sun did not shine on everyone today, as many of the game’s familiar faces dropped by the wayside. Defending MSPT POY Umut Ozturk’s top pair ran into a set to lose his whole stack towards the end of the night, leaving him short of ending up with another Main Cash to add to his already incredible year. He will look to the remaining events on the schedule to grab some more points in the hotly contested race.

MSPT all-time casher DJ Buckley was unable to add another cash to his decorated resume and joined the rail with players like Anne Bui, Bradley Smith, and Christopher Keem. They will have to look to the other events coming up to take down the title of MSPT champion.

Play ended today at Level 18, so play on Day 2 will return to exactly where it was on Wednesday. Day 1A ended with 39:35 in Level 15 with blinds at 3,000/6,000, with a 6,000 big blind ante. Levels will last 40 minutes and continue until a winner is crowned.

That will conclude today’s coverage of Day 1D in the Canadian Poker Championship.

Be sure to check back into MSPTPoker.com tomorrow for Day 2 coverage of the championship!

End Of Day 1D Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Danesh Luthra	1,704,000	1,710,000
Scott Babbitt	1,057,000	12,100,000
Alexandre Fortin-Demers	971,000	312,000
Jean-Francois Khalil	937,000	912,000
Denis Quiron	730,000	291,000
Rocco Smeriglio	655,000	655,000
Georgees Zero	609,000	591,000
Theodore Giannikos	599,000	599,000
Zilong Zhao	552,000	470,000
Joshua Hardiman	515,000	515,000
Ryan Bevens	496,000	496,000
Joseph Laramee	476,000	476,000
Lily Lotfy	459,000	540,000
Patrick St-Onge	433,000	433,000
Ran Yi	406,000	406,000
Matthew O'Brien	399,000	399,000
Wesley Sproule	388,000	423,000
Zhi-Lin Lin	375,000	375,000
Jiacheng Zhou	370,000	370,000
Paul Gardner	368,000	368,000
DJ Sharma	363,000	363,000
Stuart Taylor	362,000	401,000
Jonathan Marrie	358,000	0
Kurt Vaters	342,000	342,000
Kevin Kitchen	330,000	330,000
Michel Dubreuil	317,000	317,000
Alexandre Mongrain	305,000	54,000
Ernest Kelly	303,000	0
Pablo Mariz	293,000	290,000
Pierre-Alexandre Lessard	276,000	276,000
Rami Hammoud	254,000	260,000
Luis Sanchez	254,000	254,000
Andy Carriere	248,000	248,000
Andrew Schneider	245,000	245,000
Said Michailidis	235,000	235,000
Melanie Dufour	228,000	302,000
Benjamin Chen (CA)	217,000	217,000
Carter Swidler	207,000	207,000
Tomas Larivee Magni	193,000	193,000
Marc Capelli	178,000	178,000
David Beer	174,000	174,000
Siddharth Dutta	165,000	165,000
Chad Lipton	143,000	143,000
Ahmed Khaldi	143,000	143,000
Justin Kuzmicki	140,000	140,000
Michael Plante	140,000	140,000
Mathieu Boulanger-Vaugeois	121,000	121,000
Gregory Reid	112,000	112,000
Kezheng Peng	93,000	93,000
Thomas Bona	90,000	90,000
Alexandre Henry	57,000	57,000
Konstantin Shukhman	56,000	56,000
Van Tam Ho	22,000	22,000

Raymond and Duhamel Bubble Day 1D

Photo: Cody Raymond

Three all ins resulted in two eliminations on the final hand of the night while the other resulted in a chop.

One saw Maxime Duhamel forced all in for his last 11,000 in the big blind and only Danesh Luthra called him.

Maxime Duhamel:
Danesh Luthra:

The board ran out and the flush on the turn gave Luthra the pot to eliminate Duhamel from the tournament.

On another table, Cody Raymond was all in for 391,000 up against Alex Fortin-Demers.

Cody Raymond:
Alex Fortin-Demers:

No improvement was found by Raymond on the runout of and he was eliminated at night’s end.

Stay tuned to later for full chip counts, redraw, and a recap.

• Danesh Luthra - 1,704,000
• Alex Fortin-Demers - 971,000
• Cody Raymond - Eliminated
• Maxime Duhamel - Eliminated

Zero Doubles Through Babbitt

Photo: Scott Babbitt

Action was picked up on the bubble with Georgees Zero all in and at risk for his last 283,000 up against Scott Babbitt.

Georgees Zero:
Scott Babbitt:

The board ran out and the aces up was good for Zero to double through Babbitt.

• Scott Babbitt - 1,210,000 (121 bb)
• Georges Zero - 591,000 (59 bb)

Hand For Hand Begins

The hand for hand portion of the tournament has begun with the clock reading 55 players remaining.

Just one more elimination before the night ends.

Ozturk Falls To Luthra's Set

Photo: Umut Ozturk

A player called in first position and Danesh Luthra raised to 16,000 from early position which saw Umut Ozturk in the big blind call and the under the gun player called as well.

The flop rolled out and Ozturk moved all in for 250,000, which the under the gun player called.

“All in!” Luthra screamed as he excitedly jumped out of his chair, putting his opponent at risk for 640,000. His body continued to bop rapidly up and down before his opponent elected to fold.

Umut Ozturk:
Danesh Luthra:

Luthra pumped his fist on the turn as the pot was locked up for him before the river peeled off. The MSPT POY front-runner and hall of famer quietly exited the tournament while Luthra began stacking up the massive pot into his chip leading stack.

• Danesh Luthra - 1,710,000 (213 bb)
• Umut Ozturk - Eliminated

Another One Zeroed Out

Photo: Georgees Zero

A player raised to 16,000 in early position and in the big blind, Georgees Zero raised to 55,000. The early position player jammed for 210,000 and Zero called.

Early position:
Georgees Zero:

The board ran out and the tens full of kings were good for the pot to bring the field one closer to the end.

• Georgees Zero - 514,000 (64 bb)

Break

The players have gone on a 15-minute break.

Updated Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Scott Babbitt	915,000	688,000
Jean-Francois Khalil	912,000	528,000
Danesh Luthra	541,000	541,000
Lily Lotfy	540,000	132,000
Ran Li	520,000	520,000
Georgees Zero	514,000	514,000
Zilong Zhao	470,000	244,000
Wesley Sproule	423,000	423,000
Umut Ozturk	410,000	540,000
Stuart Taylor	401,000	309,000
Melanie Dufour	302,000	302,000
Pablo Mariz	290,000	108,000
Cody Raymond	251,000	121,000
Sundiata DeVore	195,000	89,000