Event 6 was the closing event of the MILLIONS North America 2018, the MILLIONS Finale. The event was designed for high rollers who wanted to redeem themselves from the Main Event, or anyone looking for big-money action. The 126 entries that were accounted for easily surpassed the $1,000,000 guarantee that was attached to the tournament, and made up some very interesting prizes. The Finale brought together the who’s who of the MILLIONS participants. Notables were on every table, and it is no surprise that after 3 days of high-level poker, the final table grouped some of the best tournament players on the poker scene. Philippe D’Auteuil and Josue Sauvageau, two of Québec’s most experienced poker pros, Chance Kornuth, a player with countless wins in his resume, and Manig Loeser, Germany’s finest, to name just a few, faced each other in what can only be described as a grueling marathon. Day […]

Event 5 was a 2-Day-1 event that featured a $1,100 buy-in and an amazing $1,000,000 guarantee. The MILLIONS Turbo, the official name of the tournament, is a reference to the 30-minute levels that ran through the whole event. Today was Day 2, the final day of the tournament, and 140 qualifiers were assembled in the main hall. A constant race for the lead was noticeable throughout the day. It started with Andrew Neeme, who was 4th biggest stack to start off the day and got eliminated in the early levels when his queens met Griffin Benger’s aces. That’s when Benger started distancing the rest of the field. From that point, he maintained his stack and managed to stay in the top 5 all the way to the end. Shaun Deeb was also a huge player leading up to the final table. In the later stages, he was playing the majority […]

One of the “signature” features of the MILLIONS tour – and of the MILLIONS North America in particular – is that the top 3 players in the Main Event will all be awarded a prize of at least one million dollars! With three players now left, play was paused for some photos to be taken and a short dinner break for the remaining players. Congratulations to Anthony Ruberto, Darryll Fish, and Taylor Black for making the final 3 and the 7-figure payouts! Good luck to the final three: This post was published first on this Playground Event Blog: MILLIONS North America 2018.

Day 2 of the MILLIONS Finale brought 55 new entries into the field to bring the total up to 126 before the late registration and re-entry period closed at the end of level 12. Many players took advantage of the slow structure and unlimited re-entries to take a few shots at the $1,260,000 prize pool. This field had no shortage of star power with the likes of Martin Jacobson, Ami Alibay, Roberto Romanello, Darren Elias, Kristen Bicknell and Jeff Gross each taking a shot at the Finale. Day 2 was characterized by deep stacks and sharp, disciplined play from all involved. We saw numerous examples of four, five and even six-bets, as the players used the huge number of blinds at their disposal to try to instill fear in their opponents. But the world-class players in this field are not the type to be intimidated, and there was no shortage of bluff-catching […]

The Main Event continues today with Day 4 and just 51 players remain in the hunt for the top 3 prizes of greater than $1M each! In fact, the min-cash today will continue to be $17,500 and there will be small but increasing pay jumps throughout the day. Play is scheduled to continue through 10 levels today beginning with level 27 – blinds 400,000 and 800,000 with a button ante of 800,000. There will be a streamed feature table from the outset of the action today – minus the 30 minute security delay – and we have learned that the starting feature table will be table 35, including players such as Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Antonio Esfandiari, and Joseph Cheong. With a wide variety of stack sizes at play, there’s sure to be some interesting dynamics on that table – and throughout the Tournament Hall. Good luck! This post was published first […]

To say that Playground Poker Club is booming this week would be the understatement of the year. Of course, the MILLIONS North America is in full swing, with three champions crowned already and the MILLIONS Main Event playing on Day 2. Besides hosting the biggest tournament series in Canadian history, Playground Poker Club is also the place where six Bad Beat Jackpots were hit in only six days!! That’s right, since our record-breaking $1,375,265 Primary BBJ was awarded at the wee hours of Friday morning, 3 more Jackpots were hit! First, the very same day, about 12 hours later on table 1, Marc-André G. raised to $12 and got called by 2 spots before Laurent P. 3bet to $45. Marc-André went all-in and only Laurent stayed in. As soon as the flop fell, Marc-André tabled his top set. Laurent was a little more reserved, and waited until the money river […]

The 2018 MILLIONS North America has proven to be a fruitful series for Jackpots! Not only did we see the Secondary and Omaha Jackpots hit, but this morning at 5:30, the Primary BBJ was won. With the Jackpot amount sitting at over $1,375,000, that makes it the largest Primary BBJ ever awarded at Playground Poker Club! The early morning hour meant that there were only 6 NL Hold’em tables in action at the time. Table 12 was a $2-$5 table with 9 players seated. For the Jackpot hand, the button was on Seat 6, and the hand opened with a raise to $25 from utg+1 – Kwane R in Seat 1. The player in Seat 2 called, as did the player in Seat 5 and both players in the blinds in Seats 7 and 8. There were 5 players to the flop. Flop: On the flop, the first two players […]

News about the Big Game is developing quickly as the schedule for the three-day stint gets worked out. Here’s the info we have for today’s sessions: Session #1 – Thursday April 26th, 4:00pm to 10:00pm (stream begins at 4:30pm) NL Hold’em $100/$200 Players: Lauren Roberts, Rob Yong, Ouri Ohayon, Jonathan Duhamel, Joao Simao, Kristen Bicknell, Sam Chartier Session #2 – Thursday April 26th, 10:00pm to 4:00am (stream begins at 10:30pm) PLO $200/$400/$800 Players: Leon Tsoukernik, The Wolfe, Rob Yong, Sam Trickett, “Aussie” Matt Kirk, John Savidis Tune in to My partypoker Live or just join us here on the Event Blog to follow all of the action! This post was published first on this Playground Event Blog: MILLIONS North America 2018.

The MILLIONS Open drew a massive field of 1,231 entries in only two starting flights. The large turnout allowed this first event of the MILLIONS North America series to easily surpass its $1,000,000 guarantee. 392 players advanced to Day 2 and 68 players made it to Day 3. But in the end it came down to two players: Ehamparam Kauvsegan and Karim-Oliver Kamal. Both players showed their skill and tenacity by grinding their way through a tough final table that featured notable players like Martin Jacobson and Christopher Moorman. For the most part, the play at the final table was cautious and conservative. The huge pay jumps from ninth place-$12,000-to first place-$210,000-certainly factored into the players’ approaches. Karim-Olivier Kamal brought one of the larger stacks in play with him to the final table, and he found a way to maintain his momentum all the way to heads-up play. When Christopher […]

The heads-up battle between Christopher Kruk and Anthony Zinno had played through three full levels (halved to 20 mins each) and had remained more or less even in chips – and they were still reasonably deep – when they chose to forego a scheduled break and continue with level 25 immediately. It would only take a single hand in the level to wrap a bow around the tournament and crown a new Champion. The cards were dealt. Anthony was on the button and thus first to act, and he raised to 1.5M holding . Christopher, in his turn, considered his options for a little longer than usual before grabbing a stack of orange chips, moving them forward, and declaring, “all in”! Anthony quickly made the call and the cards were exposed – Christopher had shoved his leading 43bb stack with ! The flop was dealt: – not much there for […]

Our wait staff is working diligently to bring food and refreshments to all MILLIONS players, and they dressed up for the occasion! You can see some of them below, sporting the amazing MILLIONS outfit: This post was published first on this Playground Event Blog: MILLIONS North America 2018.