In celebration of Playground Poker Club’s 6th Anniversary, the club hosted a series of specials and events for their players, including The Extravaganza – a $90 + $10 multi-flight tournament which featured a massive $100,000 guarantee. A total of 10 starting flights were scheduled from which players funnelled into Day 2.
With a total of 993 entries recorded, 101 players managed to earn a seat into Day 2, securing a cash prize along the way. Two of those players (Jennifer Brooks and Bart Sieminski) managed to qualify twice into Day 2, and were awarded a $300 bonus for the forfeited stack – with their biggest moving forward. A hefty $17,570 was reserved for the eventual champion, with several 4-figure scores along the way on the final table.
After 9 levels of play in Day 2, 14 players managed to bag some chips for the grand finale on Day 3. Although Karam Saleh held control of the chip-lead throughout almost the entirety of Day 2, it was finally Olivier Brossard who bagged the lead heading into Day 3. Olivier found some misfortune on the final table resulting in a 9th place finish, while Karam Saleh managed to secure a 6th place finish after finding himself on the wrong side of a massive 3-way all-in which saw Tina emerge as chip-leader 5-handed. Richard Sysko lost most of his armory on that hand, and was eliminated moments later in 5th place.
Anthony-Paul Belle-Isle took over the lead only a few minutes later. With straight and flush possibilities, he moved in on a flop which Tina connected strong with, and won the flip to put him in charge – making first a straight on the turn, and then a flush on the river. Yan Gohier was eliminated in 4th place by Brian Massender in a later hand, and Tina followed shortly after in 3rd place – leaving only Anthony-Paul and Brian in a heads-up duel for the win. A second place finish came with a consolation prize of $12,000
Anthony-Paul began heads-up with a 2-to-1 chip lead, but Brian chipped his way into the lead before the two found themselves flipping for a pot of over 12 million. Anthony-Paul and his 
managed to overcome Brian’s 
, leaving his opponent with less than 3-million behind.
Brian wasn’t ready to leave just yet, and found a double up with 
over 
leading to a series of other pots. Before long, he found himself back to even grounds and the heads-up match continued. The two finalists swung back and forth with the chips for the better part of 2 levels before another massive flip occurred. Anthony-Paul opened his small blind with 
, and called off Brian’s 3bet all-in, who tabled 
. With the board reading 
, the pot was awarded to Brian, and once the count was final, Anthony-Paul was left with only 50K behind – or one ante. Automatically all-in on the next hand, Anthony-Paul lost with 
versus Brian’s 
to finish in 2nd place. Brian claimed the victory, taking home a massive $17,570 on a $90 + $10 investment.
Congratulations!
The Extravaganza Champion: Brian Massender – $17,570.00
Runner up: Anthony-Paul Belle-Isle – $12,000.00
and river 
brought no change to the hand, bringing the field down to just 2 players.
river was not one of them though, and in fact it even improved her opponents hand to a flush. Tina now holds a little over 3 million in chips while Anthony-Paul nears the 6-million mark for the chip lead.
