2011 Playground Poker Classic
The first Playground Poker Classic, held in the spring of 2011, featured 15 bracelet events including the Main Event, a $3000 tourney that attracted 75 players. That first Main Event was won by Pascal Lefrançois for $72,000, who just months before had made a deep run in the WSOP Main Event.
2012 Playground Poker Classic
The 2012 edition of the Classic also featured 15 bracelet events though in a slightly different configuration. This time the Main Event was a $2K buy-in – and there was also a $10K High Roller event on the schedule.
The 2012 event also marked the beginning of a Playground Poker tradition – instead of bracelets, the champions of the biggest event or events in a series win boxing-style championship belts! Amazingly, in 2012 the same player won both belts that were up for grabs – Jean-Philippe Piquette. Along with the belts came a total of $100K in prize money for just those two events!
2012 Playground Poker Fall Classic
The fall of 2012 marked the inauguration of a new festival, the Playground Poker Fall Classic, which was capped off by the first ever WPT Montreal. The PPFC 2012 was an unparalleled success with players coming from all over North America and the world to join the action. At the end of the event, the big winner was Jonathan Roy who won the WPT Montreal, beating his friend and former Playground Classic champion Pascal Lefrançois heads-up.
2013 Playground Poker Spring Classic
The third Playground Poker Spring Classic featured 11 events including the WPT Canadian Spring Championship and again attracted players from around the world who came to participate in the events. The WPT Main Event was won by Amir Babakhani, who beat out a field of 735 players for the win.
2013 Playground Poker Fall Classic
From November 18th through December 6th Playground hosted the second annual Fall Classic including the WPT Montreal. This year’s WPT Montreal came to a close after 5 days of action packed poker, and of the 862 entries, Derrick Rosenbarger ended up being the last one standing! After coming in to the final table as one of the shorter stacks, Derrick managed to build some momentum progressively throughout the night, and went on to defeat poker pro Mukul Pahuja in a heated heads-up battle to emerge as the champion. His victory earned him a $517,049 prize, as well as a $15,400 seat to the WPT World Championship, a beautiful WPT Montreal Belt, and an eternal spot engraved amongst the past WPT Champions on the WPT Trophy!
