Event 5 of the WSOP-C Playground, the Closer, just wrapped up in a jiffy. The event, fueled by 4 starting days, roared into its final day at noon with 211 players at the tables. After 12 hours of poker, it was down to just Robert Cheung, François Tarrab and Allan Barnes. Cheung gobbled Barnes’ chips, which allowed him to face Tarrab in a pretty even heads-up match. The match lasted 4 hands. In the third, Cheung completed the big blind from the button for 300K. Tarrab made it 900K to go, but when Cheung announced all-in, chose to fold with an ace face up. On the following hand, Tarrab made it 725K to go, and when Cheung went all-in again, he called right away. Unfortunately for Tarrab, he was drawing to one of 3 aces, and did not hit. He will have to console himself with $37,000, the amount that […]

The inaugural WSOP-C Playground Main Event has come to an end and the Champion has been crowned: congratulations to Danny Freitas! With the player deal that was made when there were just two players remaining – and the huge chip lead Danny enjoyed – heads up play was never destined to be a long affair. Maxime Boulais doubled up once – but otherwise, everything was going Freitas’ way and nothing was going to stop his championship bid. The win caps off a fantastic week, as Freitas also final tabled Event #1, the Colossus, and arguably exited prematurely in 6th place having controlled the table and the leaderboard for long stretches of play. The same was true in the Main Event. Freitas began play on Day 4 in 4th place on the leaderboard with 8.925M in chips, and just two levels in to the final day, he was past the 25M […]

After a heads up battle that can only be described as epic, Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault has emerged as the Champion of Event #4 of the WSOP-C Playground, the $5,000 + $300 Super High Roller event. Igor Picone, a young Belgian player, put up a massive fight and on several occasions looked like he might come out on top. For his victory in the event, Marc-Olivier won $100,000 plus the coveted WSOP Circuit Ring, while Igor had to settle for $67,000 for second place. Day 2 in the event started with just 11 players remaining, and by the end of the first three levels of play on the day there were 5 eliminations, the bubble was burst, and the first three players to be paid made their exit – Pablo Mariz in 9th place, Mike Leah in 8th, and Omid Shahbazian in 7th. Play was 6-handed and Marc-Olivier had managed to build […]

After 14 hours of intense play in Day 2, the Monster Stack tournament is over. Dallis Kerbrat has won Event #3 of the 2018 WSOP-C Playground – Monster Stack! Play on Day 2 began with 145 players from yesterday’s Day 1. The pace was constant and eliminations were happening at a regular rate. Once the players were down to 16 there was a redraw, from then on the play slowed down considerably. At that point Khalid was chip leader by a hefty margin and Dallis was in 6th position. Khalid Waziri was consistently among the chip leaders throughout the day. Dallis Kerbrat’s rise to glory was not as seamless, and the 19 year-old from B.C. chewed and clawed his way to the final table. No less than 5 players were eliminated in one single level on the final table. Waziri played position, stack and image to chip away at his […]

Jason Mandanici-Turcot has won Event #1 of the 2018 WSOP-C Playground – the Colossus! After a heads up battle that lasted over 100 minutes in length – despite there being a deal in place – Jason finally found a way to best his opponent, Trevor Delaney, and take down the Championship. For his efforts on the day, Jason won $125,130 in cash and the first-ever WSOP-C Playground Championship Ring! Play on Day 3 of the tournament began with 37 players and the pace that was set at the beginning was blisteringly fast. There were 13 eliminations in the first hour of play today and another 8 in the second hour of play. The only time there was any kind of lull in the action was on the “bubble” before the redraw to take the tournament to two tables. When there were 5 players left, a deal was proposed and rejected […]

Event 9 was a $200 +$30 + $100 6-Max Bounty, a player favourite and the closing event of the July Power Weekend. Participation was huge, made up of tournament regulars, occasionals and even cash game players. 178 entries were accounted for, and a huge prize pool was formed. Danny Ibrahim was the first player to enjoy a crushing lead, having almost twice as many chips as his closest opponent at one point. He did take part in the final table chop. Jonathan Bussières, a very experienced player, was on the hunt. He went after those bounties relentlessly, and his aggressive style and calculated risks got him pretty deep, until he lost a huge pot against Sébastien Proulx for all his chips and missed the final table by one position. As soon as the final table formed, players agreed to a deal that sped up play considerably. Quick confrontations led to […]

The latest edition of the Playground 200 brought out 698 entries over the course of the July Power Weekend. The huge field built a prize pool that easily exceeded the $100,000 guarantee. There were 21 players remaining when play began on Day 3, led by Co Tran who started the evening with the largest stack in play. The players arrived looking determined, seemingly unfazed by the boisterous mood in the tournament hall as 6-Max Bounty got underway. The 21 finalists started on three tables that quickly became two following the eliminations in the first two levels of play. Co Tran’s chip lead began to fade as Steve Horic started his rise to the top of the leader board. Once the players arrived at the final table, Horic had a slim chip lead over his rivals. And he continued the solid play that got him to the top of the leader board […]

Yvon Robert Blais has emerged as the champion of Event #8 in the July Power Weekend, beating Steve Khoury heads up to book the victory. As we posted earlier, after a deal was made 5-way, play didn’t budge for at least a few orbits of the table – but when the first of the final 5 was eliminated, the next two followed, one hand after the other. This left Yvon with a big chip lead against Steve to play for the win. They played a few hands and exchanged some chips, but with the next tournament starting and blinds feeling very high to both players, they chose to go all-in blind on the last hand – and despite his lowly , Yvon won the hand, and the championship, against Steve’s . The final board was . The heads up players Event #8 Champion: Yvon Robert Blais, $925 Final Hand 2nd […]

Event #7 of the July Power Weekend, the $100 + $10 NL Short Deck Hold’em Re-entry, brought out a large contingent of players looking for action. And that’s exactly what they got, with 46 re-entries out of a field of 93 players serving as testament. In all, the event gathered 139 entries, enough to greatly surpass the $8,000 guarantee on the prize pool. It was a night of wild action. At first, many players were unsure how to adjust to the wrinkles in the traditional hold’em format but before long everyone realized that their equity calculations had to be revised in a big way. The result was lots and lots of pre-flop action where players were happy to take their chances with big pocket pairs or two broadway cards or suited connectors, and those hands come around pretty often when playing with a short deck. So it comes as no surprise […]

Event 6 was a shootout tournament, a fun format in which you need to win your table to earn a round 2 seat, where everybody gets a share of the prize pool. 120 players took part, indicating that our player base is fond of sit & gos! To succeed in it, you need to be able to adjust your game as players get eliminated. 17 players did just that, and showed up on the final 2 tables with a minimum prize of $220. Kristopher Chaykowski was very active in the early round 2 action. His stack was the most volatile, as he was trying to earn enough to indulge in big stack play. Down on his luck, he did not make the final table. Alexandre Mongrain played a solid game, but got crippled by the eventual champion when a gutshot appeared out of the blue to pass the flopped set. […]

Event #5 of the July Power Weekend, the $100 + $20 + $100 50/50 Bounty, drew an impressive turnout of 214 players. Showing the consistent popularity of Power Weekend bounty tournaments, this event generated a prize pool that far exceeded the $20,000 guarantee. The early levels were predictably wild, with lots of multi-way all ins and plenty of huge pots. There were nearly 200 entries when the first break arrived and a rush of players to the cashier brought the total number to 214 before play resumed. 40 players were eliminated prior to the first break, and the action continued at a frantic pace right through to the second break of the evening. David Ho jumped out to an early lead, but he ran out of steam around the time of the second break. From there Andre Piunno rose to the top of the leader board with Yan Gohier right behind […]

Event #4 of the July Power Weekend, the $200 + $30 + $100 PL Omaha Bounty Re-entry, got off to a slow start but steadily picked up pace until 71 entries were in on the action. The bounty hunting of the early levels led to 17 re-entries, enough to build a prize pool that easily surpassed tonight’s guarantee. The early levels were predictably loose for an omaha bounty tournament, as any four cards seemed good enough to play. This trend kept up for most of the night. The only exception was during the money bubble, where hand-for-hand play lasted for a little more than a level. The bursting of the bubble coincided with the creation of the final table, and the action picked right back up once the cards got in the air. At the outset of the final table, it seemed like anyone’s game, as several players were close to […]