So far 44 players have joined the action spread over 5 tables. Below are some more photos of our competitors in the early going.
Here are some photos of the players who have already taken their seats. Primary among them is Mitcheal Ferguson, one of the players to final table the Playground 200. This was a three day event that included 707 entrants, so he is one to watch out for!
After almost a week of festivities, today marks the last day of Playground’s 8-Year Anniversary Series. The first event of the day will be the $100 + $10 Megastack Turbo Re-entry tournament, starting at noon.
This No Limit Hold’em tournament will be played 10-handed, and all players will receive a 50,000 starting stack. This is also a re-entry tournament, so players can buy back in (or late players can register) right up until the beginning of level 7.
Because each level will be 15 minutes long, this means you have until exactly 1:45pm to join us. Come on down!
Marco C. of Montreal, QC has been crowned the Champion of the 8-Year Anniversary edition of the Deepstack! He outlasted 128 players through 27 levels and a grueling 15 hours of play to emerge victorious.
After Marco hit an ace on the river to knock Pierre Guay, the final three competitors continued to grind for dominance. When Christine Park knocked out Mark Saddik a half-dozen hands later, it left Marco and Christine to battle it out to the finish.
When the tournament was reduced to 7 players, the competitors chose to do an ICM chop (reserving $750 for 1st place). Combined with his guaranteed $3,895, Marco ended up winning $4,645.
When the final hand of play occurred and both players went all in, Marco was holding 
while his opponent, Christine, showed 
. The board ran out 
and Marco’s pair proved to be the winning hand!
Eric Schanck of Lachine, QC has been crowned the Champion of the 8-Year Anniversary edition of the Playground Shootout Turbo! He outlasted 62 players through 25 levels of play to emerge victorious.
It wasn`t always easy going for Eric. He had to endure a heads up battle with Ghita Acordunencei just to secure the last spot at the final table. Ghita and Eric went back and forth long after the other eight spots had been secured, but in the end Eric finally prevailed.
When the tournament was reduced to 8 players, the competitors chose to do an ICM chop (reserving $120 for 1st place). Combined with his guaranteed $665, Eric won $785.
When the final hand of play occurred and all the chips were pushed into the pot, Eric was holding 
while his opponent, James Brown, held 
. The board ran out 
and the pair Eric was holding was potent enough for the win!
After the final table was reduced in size to 7 players, the group decided to request an ICM chop. This was the result:
Christine Park: $5,390
Pierre Olivier Guay: $5,175
Joon Seok Park: $4,775
Robert Gosselin: $4,370
Marco Cannizzaro: $3,995
Marc Saddik: $3,550
David Beer: $3,424
In addition to this breakdown, players were informed that they would need to remove $750 collectively to save for first place. While an even division would have meant that each player subtracted approximately $110 from the numbers listed above, the gentlemanly and magnanimous Joon Seok Park offered to donate $150 from his winnings in the interest of moving things along. As a result every one else only needed to subtract $100 from their chop.
Everyone was happy to agree to this formula, and so they players sat back down in order to play to a winner.
However, Joon was not able to stay, so his chips were removed from the table and they moved forward 6-handed.
Marc Petit had a great tournament.
While we missed his last hand at the table, he finishes 8th after a long day of poker, collecting a prize of $1,190.
Well done!
A funny situation occurred earlier this evening.
Douglas Best, who was doing spectacularly all evening, had to leave the tournament. Not only that, but he had to leave while he had the second highest number of chips! The reason is because Doug had to play another tournament across the room, and it is forbidden to play two tournaments at once at Playground.
Doug had won his way through Step 1 and Step 2 earlier this week, qualifying for the Step 3 qualifier to the MILLIONS Main Event happening in May 2019. Step 3 began at 7pm, and so Doug waited as long as he could and then made the switch just before registration closed on the Step 3.
His giant stack of chips sat at his place at the table, slowly bleeding blinds. But so big was his stack that, even in absentia, Doug made the final table. More than that, he outlasted one of the final 10 players without ever playing a hand!
In any case, Doug (unfortunately) busted out of the Step 3, which meant he was able to return to the final table for the $300 + $30. Two hands later he was all in for his remaining chips, and when the players flipped over the cards, he was ahead.
It was not to be however, as Doug was bested by Marc Siddik. But regardless it was a great day for Doug. He finishes in 9th place and collects a well deserved $890. Well done!
Douglas Best
This was a weird one.
Two players found themselves in a position to shove preflop. One had QQ, the other AA.
Then the flop comes down 
. Wow! Crazy hand! Trip Aces over Trip Queens, what a flop! But the strange hand wasn’t done yet!
The turn came down 
, then the river was a 
! With a flush on the board, both players split the pot when mere seconds before it looked like someone was going home.
Eric Schanck just knocked out Benoit Leber and Vera G. when all three players went all in. That leaves just three players left the table: James Brown, Michael Cohen and Eric.
