The WPT Montreal is one of the most anticipated events of the year, and it is just around the corner! Players have already started qualifying for the $3,000 + $300 WPT Montreal Main Event on partypoker, through feeders and satellites that will put at least 40 qualifiers into the race for part of the $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. This Sunday at 4:00pm on partypoker, all online qualifiers will come together to square off against each other and the direct buy-ins when the online action begins. The Main Event will start with the Online Day 1 & 2, a flight that will combine two days of play into one so qualifying players can join the live action with a cash already secured. The Online Day 1 & 2 allows players one entry and one re-entry. The Main Event is a multiple re-entry event so players can enter multiple Day 1s even […]
Poker
The Playground 200 and Other Side Events
Everyone’s attention is on the WPT Montreal, but Playground has a lot more in store in the weeks ahead! There has been a great deal of focus on the Main Event, the WPT500 and the WPTDeepStacks, but players will have plenty of playing options, thanks to not only the $200 + $20 Playground 200 but also the single-day tournaments at the end of the series. The Playground 200 is well known to Playground’s regular players, but its merits are worth revisiting. This three-day event features six starting flights including an online flight and a turbo flight, an unlimited re-entry format and a prize pool guarantee of $100,000. The modest price point, huge guarantee and player-friendly structure have made the Playground 200 a consistently popular tournament, one that makes a great warm-up for multi-day events like the WPT500 and the Main Event. The first starting flight for this edition of the […]
Weekly Cash Game Giveaways – The New Lineup
The leaves are changing colour and the days are getting shorter, as part of the annual reminder that the seasons are changing. And Playground’s Sizzling Summer cash game promotions are changing right along with them to provide players a fresh fall lineup. Starting Monday, October 7, the new Weekly Cash Game Giveaways will be bringing players outstanding value and exciting formats across the five weekly promotion days. From Sunday to Thursday, it will pay to play! On Mondays, players will hope to hear their table number called for the hourly Lucky Table drawings because, at the Lucky Table, everyone wins! Every hour on the hour from 11:00am to 1:00am, one active cash game table will be randomly selected. Every player at that table will be given one card, and the high card wins the Main Prize of $300, and every other player gets $50. At 11:00am and 1:00am, the Main […]
Music to Your Ears
Last week we rolled out a slew of promotions for the month of October as well as a series of Entertainment shows, a first in Playground history. The party starts this Friday, October 4 with Rod Stewart and Tom Jones tributes by Forever Young and Dave LaFame and continues Saturday with Night Fever paying homage to the Bee Gees. Throughout the rest of the month, our stage will feature tributes to some of the biggest names in music: Eagles, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Elton John and a tribute to the British Invasion with the Hi-Fins. Finally, fight fans will get to watch the WCA Strikers Series bring their combat sport to our club’s arena. In much the same way our poker events give local players an opportunity to shine on a bigger stage, a different kind of stage will give some local talent the chance to perform their music to […]
A Big BBJ for a Big Game
The first day of October has produced the first Bad Beat Jackpot of the Fall! In the early hours of the morning on October 1, the jackpot hand was dealt at a $10/$25 auto straddle table. It started with a raise from the button to $325 from Naspie W. Malibu, a well-known high stakes player, put in a raise to $925 from the small blind. The action folded around to Williams who made the call. Following the flop, Malibu checked and Williams put out a bet of $500, which Malibu called. On the turn, Malibu took the same line with a check-call, calling Williams’ $1,500 bet. And once again on the river, Malibu checked and Williams made a hefty bet, this time for $3,900. But there was no calling on this street. After a little while in the tank, Malibu raised all in for roughly $10,000, which was met with […]
6-Max Re-entry Champion: Francois Semaan
The 6-Max Re-entry was a fun-filled and action-packed affair that took in 117 entries. The short-handed format helped bring about 22 re-entries and put a massive amount of chips in play. And all those chips were put to use early and often, as this event played down to a winner faster than anyone expected. Francois Semaan had a slow start to the day, but after the first break of the afternoon he went on a heater that would last until the end of the tournament. It started with getting maximum value from pocket aces on two occasions which allowed him take the chip lead, one that he would not relinquish. On the money bubble, it was Semaan who brought the field into the money by cracking aces with pocket sevens. Shortly after play began at the final table, Semaan still had the chip lead, and he added to it by […]
Kristofer Coulombe takes down the $100 + $10 Single Rebuy
Event #7, the $100 + 10 Single Rebuy, attracted a total of 84 players plus an additional 24 rebuys to create a prize pool of $10,476, more than double the $5,000 guarantee that was in place tonight. The action started off at high speed and continued that way until the tournament got close to the bubble. Once the bubble burst, the final table was formed in less than one level of play. The final table saw a mix of very experienced players including Karim-Olivier Kamal, who plays some of the larger tournaments across the globe, as well as Nick “Shooter McGavin” Soller, who shipped Event # 5, the $100 + $10 Freeze, last night after placing 20th in the Playground 200 earlier. Soller had an early exit, and Kamal ended up going deep but ultimately fell in fourth place, leaving Andreas K, Kristofer Coulombe and Roberto Parent as the last […]
Tag Team Champions: Team Ravary
Event #6 of the September Power Weekend, the $300 + $30 Tag Team, brought out a boisterous field of 84 teams. The healthy turnout easily surpassed the $20,000 guarantee and allowed 11 teams to reach the money. The tournament hall was buzzing with excitement throughout the morning, afternoon, evening and night as players shuffled back and forth from their shared stacks, discussing strategy and sweating hands at every opportunity. In the end, it took 28 levels of play for this event to reach its conclusion. The final table was a seesaw battle that saw the chips move from one team to another; every team that reached the final table went through some major swings in the process. Ultimately, it was Team Ravary that prevailed. They quietly maintained one of the larger stacks in play from the beginning to the end of this event, without ever holding the outright chip lead […]
Playground 200 Champion: Bill Kontaratos
A champion has finally been crowned in the $200 + $20 Playground 200. It was a spirited affair that saw 562 entries battle it out over the course of five Day 1s. A total of 117 players qualified for Day 2, and only 14 players advanced to Day 3. Bill Kontaratos found himself in heads up play with Josef Ares after eliminating a slew of other players throughout the course of the day. After exchanging a few small pots at the beginning of heads-up play, the two were nearly even in chips, with Ares holding a razor-thin chip lead. But before long, they decided it was time to play for all the chips and were all in preflop after raising each other back and forth. Ares had the best of it with ace-high, but Kontaratos’ suited gapper, , improved to a straight by the river. This hand crippled Ares’ stack, […]
Champion of the $100 + $10 Freeze: “Shooter McGavin” Soller
Event #5, the $100 + $10 Freeze, offered a $10,000 guaranteed prize pool. By the time late registration came to a close, 186 players had entered, creating a total prize pool of $18,042. The top 24 players would reach the money, with payouts ranging from $180 for 24th place to $3,832 for the champion. As the night progressed, the chip lead changed hands quite a few times. As soon as the money bubble burst, the bustouts started to happen in rapid-fire progression. On the final table, the action began at a fast pace, but when there were only five players remaining, it slowed down quite a bit. Both Nicholas Soller and Tommy Inthouray played great games. Soller was coming off a deep run in the Playground 200, but was disatisfied with how his run ended in 20th place. Some of his friends suggested that he should jump into the evening event, […]
And our Women’s Event winner is…
It didn’t take long! After less than 30 minutes of heads-up play, Ginette Langlais became the September 2019 Power Weekend’s Women’s Event champion! Congratulations to her and her excellent runner-up Louise Brouillette. Both played a fantastic final table, but it was really Ginette’s game from start to finish, having gobbled up the chip stacks of a few of the women at the final table early on and never looking back. Ginette’s first place finish earned her $1,642. Congratulations! $100 + $10 Women’s Event Champion: Ginette Langlais – $1,642 Final hand of play: The final hand was a classic preflop shove, with Ginette leading the way and Louise calling shortly after. Unsurprisingly, Louise’s did not fare well against Ginette’s . Either way, it was a convivial and spirited tournament from start to finish, with laughter and good cheer present throughout. That’s why it’s no surprise that the runner-up was happy to […]
Boissonneault takes down the Re-entry
Event #3 of the September Power Weekend, the $100 + $10 Re-entry, was a fun-filled affair that brought out a field of 132 entries. The players in attendance took advantage of the unlimited re-entry format early and often, which put a massive amount of chips in play. And those chips were put to use without hesitation from the beginning to the end of this single-day event. The early levels saw many spots where players were happy to take their chances pre-flop, with an abundance of multi-way pre-flop all ins. There was a brief lull in the action following the end of the late registration and re-entry period before the action returned to the frenetic pace seen at the outset of the tournament. The result was a rapidly shrinking field that reached the money before anyone expected. Even the money bubble, a moment where many tournaments grind to a virtual halt, […]