Event 1 of this Power Weekend has come to a halt. After a whirlwind of all-ins, Simon Belzile was crowned champion of Event 1, the $110 8-Max Freeze. The event attracted 88 players, more than enough to cover the $5K guarantee attached to our opening event. In an extremely rare event, it was 2 players that appeared on the mid-tournament leaderboard, Brent Mccue and Simon Belzile, who played heads-up for the title! But first let’s backtrack the action a little bit. After Alexandre Carpentier jumped without a chute, happy with his secured lead prize, 4 players remained. They only had time to take two breaths before the event concluded. Alberto Scuderi lost a few showdowns and went out first, taking $1,070 for his efforts. He was followed by Karl Berthiaume, who went home with $1,055. Brent Mccue, who had the shortest stack at the moment of the chop, made it […]

The closing event of the May Power Weekend, the 50/50 6-Max Bounty, brought out a huge field of 171 players. The action-inducing format-6 players per table, each with $100 bounty chips-surpassed all expectations and made for a lively and raucous atmosphere in the tournament hall. The players filled the room quickly at the beginning of the evening, and many of them left almost as fast as they arrived. The bounty chips went in the middle early and often, causing the field to shrink surprisingly quickly. The tournament staff handled it all in (rapid) stride, as they balanced and broke tables at high pace to keep everything running smoothly. Hadi Ghattas bolted out of the gate to run up a triple-average stack before the first break, and he managed to maintain his momentum all the way to the final table. Most of the other players at the final table found ways […]

The Playground 200, over several Power Weekends, has become an established event. The format is a great blend of classical structure and a modern take on poker tournaments, one that brings online and live poker together. There were four Day 1s, including one online, and 133 players came back on Sunday afternoon for Day 2. Out of that number, just 20 made it to the final day, tonight’s Day 3. Play was fast at the beginning, and from the 3 starting tables, players were soon confined to 2 short-handed tables and playing for a spot on the Playground 200 final table and its big prizes. Once our finalists were decided, the game was about dodging Mathieu Boucher’s attacks and earning some pay jumps. Boucher is an experienced tournament player who knows exactly what to do when given a massive lead. He took no quarter and steamrolled the table with incessant […]

Event #8, the $60 + $10 NL Hold’em Single Rebuy, brought a field of 70 runners, enough to easily surpass the $3,000 guarantee for this event. The action was predictably aggressive for this type of tournament, but only 13 players took advantage of the re-buy option. Play at the final table was particularly snug, but things opened up once the blinds reached 8K/16K. Following a flurry of eliminations that quickly reduced the field to three players, Victor Soumis, Brigitte Metivier and Normand Plessis Belair, who agreed to an ICM chop of the prize pool. Although Soumis had controlled the biggest stack for a large part of the final table, by the time negotiations had started Plessis had taken over the chip lead and got the lion’s share of the prize pool according to the ICM chop. Not long after the chop was concluded, Soumis hit the rail as a victim of […]

Tonight’s event was a 50/50 Bounty that attracted a staggering 245 players. 31 of them got paid, but many more went home with their money back or a small profit from the collected $100 bounty chips. The money was reached without any hand-for-hand play after 2 players busted simultaneously, and from there the eliminations came in at a fast pace, until the tournament moved to a 2-table affair. After so many fast busts, it was natural to see the progression slow down, and this moderation was supported by the fact that players where trying to play low-risk poker to earn a seat in the finals. The last table was eventually reached, and provided a good amount of drama. Frédéric Normand mistook a bounty chip for a regular chip, and threw it in as a call. The bounty chip, however, is always an all-in bet and that mistake cost him the […]

Event #6, the $70 + $10 NL Hold’em Freezeout, brought out a huge crowd of 202 entries, enough to nearly triple this afternoon’s $5,000 guarantee. The 20-table field dominated the tournament hall, making the remaining field in the Playground 200 look small by comparison. The Freezeout lasted for 24 levels, as the players left the field at a slow and steady pace. Unlike many other events, without the potential or re-entries or the enticement of bounty chips, the Freezeout charted its own course, and most eliminations came as the result of a short stack moving all-in for a handful of blinds. There were a few big stacks that led the way for significant portions of the afternoon; Alexandre Menard held the chip lead throughout the early stages. Menard gave way to Stephen Langlois as afternoon became evening, but by the time the sun had set Jonathan Tremblay had taken charge […]

Event #5 was a shootout tournament, a format that is gaining some serious traction during Playground tournament series. Players needed to win their sit & go table to participate in the 16-player final where everybody got a payout. Some tables finished very quickly, others were playing rather tightly and went the distance. When all 16 spots were taken, round 2 began. 16 players dropped to 8, and that’s when the flow of bust outs halted. For almost an hour, every single all-in saw the shortest stack survive, until there were 6 big blinds in the average stack. Then, of course, everything happened really fast. After the series of eliminations that brought the shootout to a 3-way affair, players decided to reduce the variance by accepting ICM numbers. Jordan Chartrand – $2,845 Chrishan Sivasundaram – $2,661 Rong Xu – $2,570 There was another $300 reserved for the winner, which was decided […]

Today is Day 1C in the Playground 200 tournament during the May Playground Power Weekend. This is the final starting flight in the event, and represents players’ last chance to qualify for Day 2 in the tournament – or to improve their chip holdings going to Day 2 for those that have already qualified. As a re-entry event, any player, whether or not they have qualified for Day 2 already, may join Day 1C and attempt to build a dominant stack to take with them to Day 2. The event can already be counted as a great success. With 360 entries so far, the day should open up very close to the total number of entries required to match the guarantee, and from there, the prize pool simply increases, one buy-in at a time. Of the 360 entries, there are 78 players currently qualified for Day 2. This includes Mathieu […]

Event 4 in the May Power Weekend was a $50 + $10 NL Hold’em Rebuy tournament. Players could rebuy an unlimited amount of time during the first 4 levels, directly at the table, making for an interesting dynamic. When the rebuy period was over, players started to be a little more cautious with their plays, until the final table was reached. A deal was struck 10-way that brought a lot of action. Every final tableist was secured a payment and the only extra money was at the very top – all were playing for a $509 extra. Eight busts later, Cole Skye and Ranjeev M were heads-up and they gave quite a show. The first thing they did was to reduce the variance to the maximum. They added $192 to their secured amount and played for $125. Even though the bounty was massively reduced, both players put on their best […]

Event #3 of the May Power Weekend, the PLO Bounty Re-entry, brought out enough players to easily surpass this tournament’s $10,000 guarantee. In predictable fashion, the players were quick to put their bounty chips in play throughout the early levels, each prepared to take advantage of this event’s unlimited re-entry format if necessary. This type of play comes with the territory for any re-entry bounty tournament, but the surprise was that the players showed no signs of slowing down after the end of the late registration and re-entry period. The field reduced to the final nine, who moved on to the final table, well before anyone expected. The last two men sitting, Marc Chanthamynavong and Jonathan Bussieres, were playing similarly-sized stacks and agreed to a deal that would see them each take $2,400, leaving an extra $406 for the eventual winner. Both players fond a way to survive the crazy […]

The end-game in Event #1 of the May Power Weekend at Playground Poker Club ran very quickly, as the table was reduced from 8 to 2 in just over an hour, and to 1 Champion left standing just minutes after that. And when the last stacks were shipped, Stuart Taylor emerged as the victor. There was no deal between the players as heads up play got underway, and no deal would be made as this segment of the tournament only lasted for around 25 minutes. Michael Hunter started out roughly equal to Stuart as play began, but in short order, Stuart had taken about 40% of Michael’s chips, and when he looked at an he felt it was time to make his shove. Stuart took no time at all to call and flip over his cards: Michael: Stuart: The flop was a pretty definitive answer to the question at hand: […]

After that astonishing check-raise bluff, Taylor had about an 80-20 chip advantage, but Darryll was again showing his class as a player and working hard to narrow the gap. He had taken back a few points when the final hand in the event occurred. Darryll was on the button and raised to 45M holding . Taylor put together a 3bet to 140M holding . Darryll made the call. Flop: . Taylor was first to act, and bet 130M – and found a raise all-in from Darryll Fish. Taylor made the call as quickly as humanly possible… and the bad news was revealed to Darryll. All Taylor would have to do is fade three Queens or two Nines to take the championship! Turn: – a terrible card for Darryll! Now making two pair was no longer good enough – he’s have to hit a Nine for a full house! River: – […]