The High Roller, Event #4 in the 2019 WPT Montreal, just came to close. The 3-day tournament, priced at $5,000 + $300, was the biggest buy-in event in this festival, and it transpired through the amazing skill level that we witnessed since Monday. The crowd was a who’s who of the poker scene, both local and international. The event’s Day 3 was positioned just before the last Main Event starting flight which made it a great option for pros to face each other and get the juices going before the big dance. Kristen Bicknell, Charles L.B., Marc-André Ladouceur, Jeffrey Cormier and Tony Dunst are just a few of the great players who made Day 3. Tony Dunst, after securing the biggest payout in a 3-way deal, left Louis Boutin and Alex Ding heads-up for the title. Stacks, however, were very uneven, favouring Ding. Ding increased his lead by calling down […]
Club News
WPT500 Champion: Bradley Smith
The WPT500, the first event of the WPT Montreal, brought out a huge field of players. Thanks to five starting flights on partypoker and eight live starting flights at Playground, this edition of the WPT500 collected a total of 2,135 entries. From those entries, 303 players survived their respective starting flights to reach Day 2 and cashed this event. Day 2 play brought the field down to the final table. The nine finalists returned this afternoon to play for hundreds of thousands in cash prizes and a prestigious WPT event championship. When play began at the final table, Stephane Nadot controlled the largest stack in play, however, he went through some major swings during the early stages of play, eventually exiting in seventh place. Following Nadot’s elimination, the players agreed to an ICM chop of the remaining prize pool, leaving $40,000 for the eventual champion. The bustouts proceeded quickly from […]
Jessie Wheatley took down the Playground 200
The Playground 200 needs no introduction anymore. The $200 + $20 tournament has been headlining our Power Weekends and supporting major festivals for years. At the WPT Montreal, it acted as a side event, placed right before Event #1, the WPT500. Through one online and five live starting flight, 550 entries were accumulated, just enough to cover the $100,000 guarantee. After three days of tough poker, it all came down to a heads-up match between Jessie Wheatley and George Chow. When the dust settled, Jessie had all the chips and took one down for the women! A money deal had been made, and following Jessie’s win, her net prize was $19,250. As for George, he finished the tournament $15,680 richer. Not too bad for a $220 poker tournament! Jessie joins Marie-Claude Grondin (winner of the WPT Montreal Event #3, the $200 + $20 Ladies) and Crystal Abouhanna (winner of the […]
The Tributes Continue in November
After Captain Fantastic finished his flamboyant tribute to Elton John on October 19th, there was one question on everyone’s mind, what’s next? The obvious answer was the WPT Montreal which kicked off at Playground on October 25 and runs until November 4. But what about after that? Was that the final curtain call of 2019? The answer to that question became a resounding no! The show must go on and go on it will in November, with not two but three shows a week! Our series of concerts will take place every Thursday to Saturday from November 7 to 23 for a total of 9 shows that are sure to make every night a memorable one. And as was the case in October, they are absolutely FREE! The first weekend will feature a tribute to Tom Petty with Practically Petty covering Petty’s hits with the Heartbreakers as well as his […]
She wins a brand new car!
Yesterday, a little after 5:00pm, Lydie Stacey’s name was picked as the 6th of 10 participants to play Trick or Treat. A few pumpkins later, she was the happy winner of a brand new 2019 Buick Envision! The goal of the game is simple. The game board contains twenty-five pumpkins; through a maximum of seven picks, participants need to collect three identical symbols from the game board to win the associated prize. The game started. Lydie picked the first five pumpkins, one by one: A black cat! The symbol for a prize of $750 A car! The symbol for… the car. Another car! What an unbelievable start for Lydie! Another black cat! A ghost! The symbol for a prize of $1,000. Lydie was off to a good start. At this point, she had to choose between ending the game and taking $250 in free play as her prize, or giving […]
We have a winner!
WPT Ladies Event Champion: Marie-Claude Grondin – $5,177 Congratulations to our Ladies Event Champion! After 13.5 hours of play, Marie-Claude took down first place and a prize of $5,177. Well done! Final Hand of Play: The final hand of play began with a 150,000 preflop bet by Marie-Claude, which was called by the runner-up, Roberta Biancardi. The flop came down , which led to an all-in shove by Roberta, who was holding bottom pair and a flush draw. Marie-Claude snap called with her and made her nut flush on the turn. WPT Ladies Event Runner-Up: Roberta Biancardi – $3,455 Roberta finishes in second place and earns a $3,455 prize. She had a fantastic tournament as well, outlasting all but one of her female competitors. Congratulations go out to both of our finalists on a tournament well played.
$300 +$30 Freeze champion: Isaac Buswell
Event #2, the $300 + $30 Freeze, was the first single-day event of the WPT Montreal. There was a $30,000 guaranteed prize pool which ended up getting doubled with the 200 entries in tonight’s field. The top 25 places were paid, with a min-cash of $590 in 25th place, and $13,565 along with the champion’s trophy for the first place finisher. There was a lot of great talent in the field and the players enjoyed a great atmosphere along with some laughs along the journey. Once play went three-handed, the players agreed to an ICM chop, and each of them locked up some hard-earned cash; the deal was as follows: Dsouza – 1,730,000 in chips, $8,540 Buswell – 2,415,000 in chips, $9,060 Chackal – 1,855,000 in chips, $8,650 All three finalists agreed to the deal and play continued on. The players played down to a winner who would receive an […]
A Record-setting Jackpot
Today is a day that Bruno Roy will remember for a very, very long time. He chose the right game at the right time and turned an ordinary Thursday afternoon into one for the record books! He was playing Ramses Gold on Bally’s Power Strike at the time, one of Playground’s more popular EGD titles, when the glorious moment happened. All it took was a single spin on the five-reel, 30-line game. Nine Power Strike symbols fell across the screen and awarded a record-setting number of credits. Thanks to the progressive jackpot that was just unleashed, Bruno’s $1,50 bet returned a $45,393.11 win! This monumental EGD jackpot stands as the largest awarded at Playground, so far, one that Bruno and his wife will be enjoying for quite some time!
The Women’s Series Starts Tomorrow!
The first ever Playground Women’s Series, presented in partnership with the Women’s Poker Association (WPA), is almost here! The consistently large fields seen in ladies tournaments during recent events bode well for this inaugural series so expect a big turnout. The first open tournament in this hotly anticipated series runs this Saturday, October 19 at 12:00pm, with late registration available until 2:15pm. The WPA is a global membership-based, all-volunteer, professional organization formed to promote, develop, and professionalize the advancement of women in poker by heightening the exposure of current women poker players while encouraging and developing new women players. Playground is proud to help the WPA further its goal of elevating the poker experience for women. The Women’s Series features four $150 + $15 single re-entry tournaments, each with a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000, where players will compete for not only a piece of the prize pool but also […]
The WPT Montreal Starts This Sunday!
The WPT Montreal is one of the most anticipated events of the year, and it is just around the corner! Players have already started qualifying for the $3,000 + $300 WPT Montreal Main Event on partypoker, through feeders and satellites that will put at least 40 qualifiers into the race for part of the $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. This Sunday at 4:00pm on partypoker, all online qualifiers will come together to square off against each other and the direct buy-ins when the online action begins. The Main Event will start with the Online Day 1 & 2, a flight that will combine two days of play into one so qualifying players can join the live action with a cash already secured. The Online Day 1 & 2 allows players one entry and one re-entry. The Main Event is a multiple re-entry event so players can enter multiple Day 1s even […]
Weekly Cash Game Giveaways – The New Lineup
The leaves are changing colour and the days are getting shorter, as part of the annual reminder that the seasons are changing. And Playground’s Sizzling Summer cash game promotions are changing right along with them to provide players a fresh fall lineup. Starting Monday, October 7, the new Weekly Cash Game Giveaways will be bringing players outstanding value and exciting formats across the five weekly promotion days. From Sunday to Thursday, it will pay to play! On Mondays, players will hope to hear their table number called for the hourly Lucky Table drawings because, at the Lucky Table, everyone wins! Every hour on the hour from 11:00am to 1:00am, one active cash game table will be randomly selected. Every player at that table will be given one card, and the high card wins the Main Prize of $300, and every other player gets $50. At 11:00am and 1:00am, the Main […]
Music to Your Ears
Last week we rolled out a slew of promotions for the month of October as well as a series of Entertainment shows, a first in Playground history. The party starts this Friday, October 4 with Rod Stewart and Tom Jones tributes by Forever Young and Dave LaFame and continues Saturday with Night Fever paying homage to the Bee Gees. Throughout the rest of the month, our stage will feature tributes to some of the biggest names in music: Eagles, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Elton John and a tribute to the British Invasion with the Hi-Fins. Finally, fight fans will get to watch the WCA Strikers Series bring their combat sport to our club’s arena. In much the same way our poker events give local players an opportunity to shine on a bigger stage, a different kind of stage will give some local talent the chance to perform their music to […]