by Casey Kaplan, onlinecasino.org The World Poker Tour (WPT) wrapped up its tournament in Montreal earlier this week, which was considered the grand return of professional poker in Canada. The tournament had the highest number of participants in the history of Canadian poker, which was one of the signs of the tournament’s great success. High profile players and professional athletes such as Daniel Negreanu and Michael Phelps were largely responsible for the excitement that surrounded the Playground Poker Club, which hosted the WPT tournament. However, fans were hopeful that a Canadian player would win the jackpot on home turf, and on the night of November 27, that hope paid off when Jonathan Roy of Boucherville, Quebec knocked off the competition to become Canada’s poker champion. The Montreal tournament hosted a Canadian record 1,173 players with a buy-in of $3,300 a player. The tournament offered two ‘Day 1s’ to allow players […]

by Tim Forvanti, BLUFF.com The poker world is full of facts, figures, stats and records. With so many numbers being crunched day in and day out, sometimes it is tough to see what they all add up to. That is why BLUFF brings you some of the more interesting numbers related to the big tournaments, big stories, and big personalities in the poker world. Some are factual, some are fun, and some are both. In this edition of By The Numbers we take a look at WPT Montreal. 106 Number of hands played three-handed at WPT Montreal. 42% as long as the 11 hour three-handed marathon at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table, despite representing more than half of the hands played at the WPT Montreal final table. 182 total number of hands at the WPT Montreal final table 5 WPT Final tables that Gavin Smith has […]

By Dave Ferrara pokerfuse.com French Canadian Jonathan Roy bested a field of 1 173 on Tuesday to take down the PartyPoker.net World Poker Tour Montreal event. The 25-year-old earned $755 601 and a seat in the $25k WPT World Championship to be held at the Bellagio in May. The $3 300 buy-in re-entry tournament set a record for the largest event over $1k in Canadian poker history and the biggest WPT event in Canada. The crowd was rather impressive too. WSOP Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel cheered on Roy and second-place finisher Pascal Lefrancois a fellow Canadian. After his victory Roy of Boucherville Quebec gave a nod to the rail of locals. ‘This is incredible ‘-the support here was amazing the crowd really wanted to keep the title in Quebec and I am so happy to have done that ‘ he said. Known for his online heads up play Roy […]

On the heels of hosting the WPT Montreal the biggest poker tournament in Canadian history in which two local rising stars beat out a field featuring some of the biggest names in the game to go heads up for first prize Playground Poker Club is keeping the action going fast and furious with the announcement of three new additions to the prestigious Playground Players Club. The first-ever World Poker Tour stop in Montreal wrapped up earlier this week at Playground Poker Club with a result that defied even the most optimistic predictions. The tournament featured a field of 1173 players and a prize pool of roughly $3.3 million with a winner’s share of over $750000. Jonathan Roy and Pascal LeFrancois two Quebec natives were the last two players standing and Roy beat out his friend to take down the title. Roy also won a $25000 entry to the prestigious WPT […]

By Diana Cox – WorldPokerTour.com One of the largest World Poker Tour Main Events in the tour’s 11-year history came to an end when all the chips in play were stacked in front of Jonathan Roy. Appropriately for the WPT’s first main event in Canada since 2008 the final table came down to two Canadians at WPT Montreal. Roy outlasted a field a massive field of 1 173 players and walked away with $779 710 from the $3 387 930.00 prize pool. At the front of of a packed house Roy battled heads up with Pascal Lefrancois for a spot on the Champion’s trophy the prize money and the WPT silver belt. The final hand came to down Lefrancois being forced all-in for less than one big blind after being severely crippled when he ran his 6s into Roy’s . With their stacks nearly even Pascal raised to 1000000 from […]

A little over a week ago, local Montreal poker player JP Piquette took down a $50000 dollar first place finish at the 2012 Playground Poker Classic, further bolstering his bankroll and his overall tournament ranking at his local poker club, just outside Montreal. Well, he just hit gold again with another incredible first place finish in the 10K High Rollers event only seven days later earning him an additional $50000 in cash and his second championship belt. With a small portion of his winnings from his 2K Main Event win, JP bought into a 1k satellite for the Playground Poker Classic 10k High Roller event on the following weekend. The entry paid off for JP as his satellite win earned him and one other player a seat to the big show. Piquette played along his fellow Players club Team member, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald who flew in for a second time […]

Last December I attended the grand opening at Playground and had a great time. A few months ago I was fortunate enough to get invited to their players club and this weekend had my second opportunity to visit the club. I flew in Friday night and although multiple groups of friends were going out to a club called wood 35, I ultimately was too tired and wanted to be well-rested for the tournament and opted to stay at the hotel. Playground picked out a hotel for me and it ended up being really nice in a great location downtown. In the morning I got up nice and early and met up with my friend Marc Karam. He gave me a ride down to the poker club and we grabbed breakfast at the rail fire bistro. If anyone hasn’t eaten here, I can’t stress enough just how good the food is. […]

The 2012 Playground Poker Classic is one of Canada’s largest poker series, spanning over the course of eighteen days from April 27th to May 14th and has been grabbing the attention of poker players all over Canada and the Northeastern United States, not only for the sizable prize pools, but the chance at winning one of two unique championship belts. The $2000 Main Event and the $10000 High Roller Event winners not only get to walk away with the lion’s share of the prize pool, but they also get to take home the poker world’s first-ever Championship Belt that would put any WWE piece of hardware to shame. The Main Event belt is handmade out of nickel, high grade durable leather, and encrusted with Swarovski Crystals. This year’s Main Event title was captured by non-other than proud Playground Players Club Member JP Piquette after taking down a total field of […]