The TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event has just come to a close, and local hero Jiachen Gong was able to overcome a field of 520 players over 4 days of poker to emerge as the tournament champion! Jiachen, better known as Jack here amongst friends at Playground Poker Club, came into this final 6-handed table as the chip leader, and although he gave up the lead to Jessie Wheatley in the early stages of the day, he jumped right back into the driver’s seat in no time. He delivered the knockout blow to both 6th place Danny Kalpakis and 5th place Jessie Wheatley, although in both cases most of the leg work was done beforehand, and then chipped his way up the leaderboard throughout 4-handed action. After the elimination of Maxime Lejeune Hebert in 4th place, Jack became the overwhelming chip leader, and never looked back after that. Once he […]
Poker
December was a great month for Bad Beat Jackpots!
The end of December has arrived, and with it comes the end of what has been a fantastic month for Bad Beat Jackpots here at Playground Poker Club. There were a total of 4 BBJ hands in a 10-day period in the middle of the month – two Hold’em Secondary BBJs and two Omaha BBJs – both of those on the same day! Action kicked off in December on the 9th with a Secondary BBJ on a Hold’em table when the 3 that gave the losing player four-of-a-kind also gave his opponent a straight flush. The players split $25,000 – $12,500 to the loser of the hand, $6,250 to the winner of the hand, and another $6,250 split between the remaining players on the table. Next up were the two Omaha BBJs – both of them on December 15th, and both on the same table. In the first hand, the […]
Anniversary Week begins!
It’s mid-December in Montreal, which usually means two things: snow, and Playground Poker Club’s anniversary! Well, there’s no snow yet, but Playground Poker Club will definitely be celebrating its anniversary in style! The build-up to this year’s anniversary has been fantastic: the new Wicked Wednesday’s promotion has brought in huge numbers to join in the fun, and with Montreal’s favourite team scoring at an unprecedented pace, the Hockey Night promo has been better than ever. Add to that the Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot that was awarded on December 9th, as well as the fact that the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot is over $400,000, and it’s easy to see that December has already been a great month; with the best yet to come. The Playground Anniversary Series gets underway on Thursday December 17th with a $60 + $10 Win the Button event and then continues that night with a $200 + […]
2015 WPT Montreal Champion: Jared Mahoney
Jared Mahoney has won the 2015 Partypoker.net WPT Montreal! After an epic 6-handed Final Table that continued for almost 200 hands of poker, a good many of these part of a huge 3-way battle, followed by a tense heads-up battle with Darryll Fish that saw very little between the two players, Jared emerged victorious. For his victory, Jared has won $433,410.00, the Playground Poker Club Champion’s Belt, his name etched permanently on the WPT Champion’s trophy, an entry in the World Poker Tour Tournament of Champions, and last (but most definitely not least) a beautiful Hublot Oceanographic watch! An experienced player both online and live, Jared had never cashed for more than $32K in a live poker tournament. He has (published) cashes dating back to 2007, however, and a solid online resume to boot. This victory was clearly a long time coming for a talented player who took care of […]
The 2015 Fall Classic opens with a bang!
Event 1 of the Playground Poker Fall Classic presented by Partypoker.net has just concluded with a victory for Jean-Hugo Robitaille over Anesti Kocini for a first prize of $32,557 – and the Champion’s trophy! The first event in this year’s Fall Classic was the traditional starting event at Playground Poker Classic festivals – The Wild $150. This is a $135 + $15 NL Hold’em Re-entry tournament with 4 Day 1s. Players were permitted to enter each Day 1 just once (no same-day re-entry) as they tried to qualify for Day 2 on Wednesday November 4th. This time the event attracted 1439 entries, which meant that the $100,000 guarantee on the tournament was dwarfed by the actual prize pool of $188,437. The money bubble was pierced just after halfway through Day 2 as the first of 135 players were paid, and by the end of the evening there were 31 players […]
Three more jackpots
It’s not as exciting as an over half-million-dollar jackpot like the one awarded in September, but October was still a good month for Jackpots at Playground Poker Club as two Secondary Bad Beat Jackpots and the PLO Bad Beat Jackpot were all won by players during the month. First up was a Secondary BBJ on October 12th. In the hand, pocket Aces confronted pocket Kings on a flop with one of each. The King on the turn changed the hand from a big hand to a jackpot hand and the players at the table shared $25,000! Next came the PLO BBJ on October 15th. In this hand, the flop gave quad Kings to one player while the other flopped a set of Jacks. The Jack on the river brought the player who lost the hand his quads as well, and quads over quads greater than 8 meant that it was […]
Out with the old, and in with the new!
As of Monday October 12th at 3am, the Mega Wheel will be taking a vacation. Both wheel promotions, the $10,000 Spin, and High Hand Happy Hour, will be retired, and replaced by something WICKED! Every Wednesday of the month will be a new high hand cash giveaway, and everyone playing on a No Limit Hold’em cash table has a chance to win. It’s called Wicked Wednesdays, and every Wednesday between noon and 8pm, the player with the high hand at the end of the hour at a cash table will instantly win $250! The qualifying high hand resets every time a prize is awarded, in other words, every hour – so any exceptional hand has a good chance of being the winner! The minimum qualifying hand is any full house, and the hand doesn’t even have to go to showdown to win – you simply need to table your cards! […]
The greatest Jackpot in Playground History!
After weeks of anticipation, the largest Primary Bad Beat Jackpot in Playground Poker History was finally won in the early hours of September 17th! The jackpot had climbed to $672,202 as players flocked to the tables to try for a share of the huge prize. The jackpot grew even more than usual because it managed to survive the most recent big festival, the successful Montréal Poker Expo. The decisive hand was played at a $1-$2 NL Hold’em table with 7 players seated. Pre-flop action saw a raise to $10 and 6 players saw the flop: . The pre-flop raiser opened to $25 and found only one caller and the turn was dealt: the . On the turn, the players both stayed in the hand on a bet of $55 and the river came out: . On the river, the initial pre-flop raiser check raises all-in to $155 and was instantly […]
Wrapup: The Montréal Poker Expo
September has come and with it comes the end of the first Montréal Poker Expo, after 13 days of spectacular poker action at Canada’s premier poker destination, Playground Poker Club. Over the course of the 14 Montréal Poker Expo events over $1 Million in prizes were awarded! The kickoff event for the Expo was the Strike Out Cancer Charity Event, a $135 + $25 NL Hold’em re-entry event that saw 1186 entrants all contribute to a $29,710 donation that has been made to the Jodi Taiger Lazarus Fund for Hereditary Breast Cancer Research. The winner of the 3-day event was Mark Wells, who took home a handsome $24,440 for his victory. Attention then turned to the Montréal Poker Expo Main Event, a $1,000 + $100 NL Hold’em Re-entry event with three Day 1s. There were a solid 647 entries in the event, adding up to a massive prize pool of […]
The Strike Out Cancer Charity Event has a champion!
After 3 long days of poker, Mark Wells managed to turn a 20,000 chip starting stack into 24 million tournament chips, in the meantime, turning his $135 (+ $25 charitable contribution) investment into a sweet $24,440 cash prize! It wasn’t until 2 in the morning on Tuesday August 25th that the outcome of the Strike Out Cancer Charity Event was decided – a long journey that began on Friday August 21st. Participation in Day 1a was strong as 238 players joined us for that Friday afternoon heat – the start of a strong trend that would continue through Day 1d on Saturday evening. During the event, players had the opportunity to see and play with some of the greatest stars from the poker and hockey worlds. Larry Robinson, Guy Carbonneau, Guy Lapointe, Jacques Demers, Karl Dykhuis, Eric Desjardins, and Antonio Esfandiari all played in the event. Everyone – stars and […]
Montréal Poker Expo Trophies!
The Montréal Poker Expo gets underway in just one week! The first event is the $135 + $25 Strike Out Cancer Charity event, and it starts with TWO Day 1 flights on Friday August 21st. What’s special about this event is that the entire $25 tournament fee is going to the Jodi Taiger Lazarus Fund for Hereditary Breast Cancer Research. It’s going to be a great tournament for a great cause and with a $100,000 Guarantee, it’s going to have a massive prize pool for the players as well. In addition to the Strike Out Cancer tournament, the Montréal Poker Expo includes 13 other events including the $1,000 + $100 Main Event with a $500,000 Guarantee. Players in all 14 events will be playing for their share of huge prize pools, as well as bragging rights over poker friends and foes alike. They’ll also be competing for an amazing Montréal […]
The Primary BBJ Reaches New Heights!
On August 5th a new threshold was surpassed at Playground Poker Club the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot crossed the $500000 mark for the first time ever! More than 28 weeks have passed since the last Primary BBJ was awarded, and since then the Jackpot amount has gone up while the minimum qualifying hand has gone down. The Primary BBJ is awarded when the minimum qualifying hand is beaten by a better hand at a No Limit Hold’em table. The minimum qualifying hand started off at Quad Aces, but after such a long time, it has now gone down to Quad Fives the smallest minimum qualifying hand offered in this promotion! Cash game action has ramped up even more than usual as the jackpot has increased, which creates a virtuous circle the more players at the tables, the quicker the Jackpot amount goes up! There’s no better time to play cash […]