After more than 10 hours of poker, the WCC Event #26 has a champion. It took more than eight hours to reach the final table, but when it was finally established, Rami Hammoud played dominant poker. He steam-rolled his way to victory, knocking out the final two players that stood between him and victory in three, quick hands. When Jacob Parent raised all in with a pair of sixes, , Rami called with . The board came down and Jacob’s night was over. As he left the table, he surrendered his bounty chip to Rami, the 15th bounty chip our champion was awarded during the event. Two hands later, it was Charles-Éric Benoit’s turn to face off against Rami. He pushed his bounty chip forward, risking it all with . Rami was holding . When the community cards were dealt, , Charles-Éric was Rami’s 16th bounty of the evening, and […]

It was a grueling day of poker full of action and packed with seasoned poker professionals. We started the day with 64 competitors, with only 40 slated to be paid. As the group made its way towards the final table we lost a lot of big names. That said, once the final table was formed the field was still very strong. After four hours of intense play the final four players decided upon an ICM chop. That helped speed the tournament along, but it still took another 90 minutes to crown our champion. And that champion is Danny Ibrahim! Although Danny is an experienced poker player, this is his biggest win to date. On top of his ICM-apportioned win of $42,070, he also gains the $6,000 kept in reserve for the winner. In the end he takes home a prize of $48,070, the trophy, and many great memories from a […]

Event #25 of the World Cup of Cards, the $100 + $10 8-Max Re-entry, drew a large afternoon turnout of 118 entries including 23 re-entries, enough to more than double the prize pool guarantee. The players in this event made two deals to re-distribute the prize pool; the first was made to provide the player on the money bubble a small cash of $150, and the second was an ICM chop of the remaining prize pool when three players, Chris Arvanitis, Yannick Labattaglia and Eric Guindon, remained. According to the terms of the ICM chop, each of the three finalists locked up a significant profit for the day and left $230 for the eventual winner. After the deal was made, the first player to exit was Eric Guindon, who earned $1,955 in the process. It then came down to a heads-up battle between Arvanitis and Labattaglia. At this stage, the trophy and […]

Event #24 of the World Cup of Cards, the $200 + $20 PL Omaha 3 Lives Re-entry, was a huge success that brought out a field large enough to more than double the prize pool guarantee. Players took advantage of the re-entry option early and often, generating 21 re-entries in the first six levels of play. In many tournaments with this kind of structure, we tend to see the play tighten up once the re-entry period ends, but that was not the case tonight. The loose play of the early levels kept up all the way until the money bubble, as multi-way pre-flop all ins were a regular occurrence up until the very late stages of play. Once the field reached the money bubble, the players found some patience and some folds, as a dozen hands of hand-for-hand play ensued. The short stack in the field nearly blinded out and was […]

After 45 minutes of head-to-head action at the final table, Nabil Nahoul took down the Short Deck trophy, 1st place and the $1,388 that go with it, narrowly defeating runner-up Borislav Angelov. The two players exchanged the chip lead several times, but whenever it seemed that Borislav was going to take it down, Nabil would thunder back with a massive win. And when we say massive, we mean it! Nabil pulled quads on three separate occasions in the heads-up battle alone! The hand that finally finished Borislav off was another quads miracle, with Borislav’s preflop shove with not standing a chance against Nabil’s on a board. Borislav had an excellent tournament with lots of great play throughout the evening and early morning, but it is certain that his 2nd place finish was bittersweet. That is the nature of poker. When you run into a player who pulls that many improbable […]

With the chip stacks to start heads up play being at the level they were at, it was possible, even probable, that the 2-way match would end up taking a significant period of time. However these players had something else in mind. Before the end of the same level as heads up play began, there was an all in and a call – and a player at risk. Julio Cacoilo opened the action preflop with a raise to 400K and Martin Gaudreault-Remillard made the call. Flop: The action went check-check – a little bit of a surprise considering the wet board. The turn was – and the action heated up quickly. Martin opened to 500,000 only to face an all in raise from Julio. Martin went pretty deep into the tank before calling – but call he did. Julio: Martin: . Martin was miles ahead with two pair and just […]

In the end, Event #20 in the World Cup of Cards ($200 + $20 Single Rebuy) came down to a battle between two friends from Ottawa: Tam Ho and Marc Lavergne. But their fracas was a short and sweet one, determined by their very first hand of heads up play. Before Marc and Tam went head-to-head, Tam bettered Ian Tang after Ian went all in with . Tam made the call holding . When the community cards were dealt , Ian’s night was over. He finished in third place, and that hand set the stage for Tam and Marc’s showdown. On the very first hand, Marc was dealt pocket fives, . Tam had pocket jacks, , and both players went all in. When the competitors turned over their hole cards, Marc sighed. The dealer then snapped the community cards onto the table: . Marc shook his head. “Why did I go […]

Patrick Bernier – who at one point on the final table was down to just 55K in chips – has emerged as the winner of Event #19 in the World Cup of Cards at Playground. The head up match against Stuart Linnen lasted about a half hour during which they kept roughly equal stacks. Eventually, though, a hand came that would signal that the end of the tournament was near (though not yet over). Patrick got it in with after Stuart limped his to trap on the button/sb. Stuart made the call and Patrick saw the bad news – he was dominated. But although poker is primarily a game of skill, luck is involved, and Patrick would benefit in this hand. The window card on the flop was , but the other two cards: and seemed to signal what was to come. Turn: River: Patrick had made his flush! When […]

When the dust settled on the recent spate of eliminations, just two women were left at the table: Manon Lucasnszky and Veronica Dick. During the final table, each doubled up the other at least once, and despite the other talented players left with 5 remaining, both of them remained among the leaders throughout final table play. Heads up play was destined to be a short affair. The blinds were very high relative to the stacks in play – and just as importantly, both of the players had been among the most active throughout the final table. After just a couple of hands between the players in which Veronica had managed to build up a decent chip advantage, the final hand presented itself. Manon pushed with and was quickly called by Veronica with . The flop was pretty rough for Manon – Veronica went way ahead when the dealer put out […]

After outlasting all 583 opponents, Jamie Baker was crowned the champion of the $150 + $25 Strangers in the Night event. Congratulations to him on a very nice night of poker! It was an extremely rapid Day 3 from the get go, seeing six of the twenty starting players eliminated in mere minutes. It took only two hours to reach the final table of ten players, where the real poker began. Although a few players were knocked out of it in the first hour, things slowed down considerably with six players remaining. After about 90 minutes of play, there seemed to be no end in sight, but out of the blue a streak of players were eliminated in rapid succession by former short stack Terence. In the heads-up battle between Jamie and Terence the lead moved back and forth for a short time, but ultimately Jamie wore his opponent down, […]