The WPT Warm-up is warming up!

  • Level: 10
  • Small Blind: 500
  • Big Blind: 1K
  • Ante: 100
  • Chip Average: 56.5K
  • Remaining: 119
  • Entries: 269


Play in Event 4, the $1000 + $100 WPT Warm-up, has reached level 10 and a few of the players still in the action have managed to accumulate some very healthy stacks that should – if things go well – vault them towards Day 2. The players are back from their third break of Day 1 and during the break we were able to update the leaderboard to this point in the event.

  1. Dustin Centanni – 170K
  2. Mark Darner – 153K
  3. David Ryan Enda – 152K
  4. Jonathan Barrette – 141K
  5. David Barter – 136K
  6. Gary Lucci – 132K

One note about the leaderboard – Mark Darner and David Ryan Enda are sitting one seat away from each other on table 63!

The Fifty Fifty!

Tonight will be a very busy night at Playground Poker Club, with three tournaments going on simultaneously for much of the evening. Event 3 is wrapping up and will play to a winner, Day 1 of the WPT Warm-up will continue until about 10:45 tonight… and we’re also hosting Event 5, which is a 50/50 Bounty tournament ($100 + $20 + $100 NL Hold’em Bounty).

Fifty-fifty means simply that exactly half of a player’s buy-in goes to the prize pool, and the other 50% ($100) goes to a bounty chip that the player will keep until they are eliminated – when they will give it to the player who eliminated them. In other words, for every player you eliminate from the event, you get $100!

This is a very popular format, and players should be aware that due to the high level of activity tonight, we can only accept 150 players plus a maximum of 50 alternates. So if you are planning to join us for this event, it would be a good idea to ensure that you arrive at Playground in good time – if you wait until the end of the late registration period you may not have a chance to enter!

Leaders at the end of late reg

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 250
  • Big Blind: 500
  • Ante: 75
  • Chip Average: 35.6K
  • Remaining: 189
  • Entries: 269


Late registration ends after the players’ current break, so we’ll have a final tally of the number of players in today’s $1000 + $100 WPT Warm-up shortly, and the prize pool and payout structure will follow shortly.

During the break we found the chip leaders at this stage in the tournament.

  1. Dustin Centanni – 166K
  2. Jean-Louis Arseneau – 123K
  3. Andrew Hansen – 107K
  4. David Barter – 99K
  5. Mike Lafable – 87K

Some more players in the field

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 150
  • Big Blind: 300
  • Ante: 50
  • Chip Average: 30.5K
  • Remaining: 212
  • Entries: 259


The pace has slowed a little bit, but players continue to join Event 4 as registration has climbed to 259 players.

Since our last post some other notable players have joined the field as well.

Online masters

  • Timothy Ulmer
  • Rayan Chamas

International travellers (regularly play in events worldwide)

  • Kitty Chen
  • Russell Thomas
  • William Molson
  • Kevin Macphee

Playground Players Club

  • Chanracy Khun
  • Jonathan Roy
  • Jean-Philippe Piquette
  • Philippe Plouffe

Previous Playground Event Winners

  • Jason Comtois
  • Mike Lafable
  • Vince Dwyer

Very early leaders

  • Level: 4
  • Small Blind: 100
  • Big Blind: 200
  • Ante: 25
  • Chip Average: 28K
  • Remaining: 224
  • Entries: 251


Three levels is a little fast for many players to have built up big stacks, but nevertheless there are already 4 players at or over 65K as play resumes in level 4:

  • Eraldo Edouard
  • Dustin Centanni
  • Andrew Hansen
  • Philippe Plouffe

Some players of note

  • Level: 3
  • Small Blind: 75
  • Big Blind: 150
  • Ante: 25
  • Chip Average: 27.8K
  • Remaining: 221
  • Entries: 246


The field in the $1,100 WPT Warm-up keeps growing – it’s already up near 250 players with another 3+ levels of late registration available. Players will have their first break of the day at the end of this level (in 9 minutes).

There are many players of note in the field – here’s a sampling of the big names playing today:

  • Yann Dion
  • Ankush Mandavia
  • Carter Swidler
  • Brian Yoon
  • Ricky Tang
  • David Barter
  • Carla Sabini
  • Philippe Bouchard
  • Ami Alibay
  • Connor Drinan
  • Chris McClung
  • Laurence Grondin
  • Kalpesh Raichura
  • Fabio Luongo

Photos of the early action

  • Level: 2
  • Small Blind: 75
  • Big Blind: 150
  • Ante: 0
  • Chip Average: 25.7K
  • Remaining: 207
  • Entries: 213


Event 4 is still growing, and 213 players have already entered the tournament with another 4 levels of late-reg yet to come. The trend to strong fields we have seen so far in Events 1 and 3 seems to be continuing today.

Photos from levels 1 and 2

Play begins in the WPT Warm-up

  • Level: 1
  • Small Blind: 50
  • Big Blind: 100
  • Ante: 0
  • Chip Average: 25K
  • Remaining: 153
  • Entries: 153


The players have taken their seats and cards are now in the air for the $1000 + $100 WPT Warm-up! 153 players have registered so far, but with late registration open until the end of level 6, there’s still a lot of time for players to join in the action.

The starting stack is 25K and blinds for Day 1 are 45 minutes long. Play will continue for 13 levels today and then the players will bag their chips to return for Day 2 tomorrow at 12pm. Tables are starting 10-handed but will move to 9-handed tables as soon as possible.

Good luck!

Next on the agenda: $1,100 WPT Warm-up!

In just under an hour, players will take their seats for the first of the larger buy-in events in this year’s Playground Poker Fall Classic. According to Twitter and Facebook, several “name” pros have already arrived in Montreal, so we may see a few of them in this event as players get acclimatized to their surroundings before the WPT Montreal Main Event.

Regardless, an hour before play begins there are already 66 players registered, and considering that poker players are famous for arriving at the last minute for their events, it’s shaping up to be a very strong field in terms of participation for Event 4.

The WPT Warm-up is a 3-day freezeout event, meaning that there are no re-entries or rebuys available – it’s the classic formula for a poker tournament. Re-entry events are great for building fantastic prize pools, but there’s something inherently exciting about a true freezeout tournament.

Late registration is extended for 6 levels for this event (45-minute blinds on Day 1), so players have until 5pm to jump into the action.

Event 3 Day 3 – seating draw

There are 28 players left in Event 3 as it enters Day 3, the final day of the tournament. The event has been “in the money” for over a hundred eliminations now, but the players remaining are those that stand a chance to make a big score, at least “big” relative to the $225 + $25 buy-in! The min-cash for every player left is $1,510.00 – and that number goes all the way up to $50K for the winner!

Good luck to all of the players still in the action. Cards are in the air at 7pm.

First Name Last Name Seat Chip Count
Vo Victor Ly Table 36 – Seat 7 536,000
Tyler St Clair Table 35 – Seat 6 1,603,000
Tian Lin Liao Table 36 – Seat 4 801,000
Thomas Wintermans Table 32 – Seat 7 1,278,000
Terence Lai Table 36 – Seat 6 308,000
Stephane Lacas Table 31 – Seat 6 585,000
Sebastien Rioux Table 31 – Seat 3 380,000
Rostand Asselin Table 31 – Seat 4 884,000
Rick Shamshoum Table 31 – Seat 5 2,700,000
Raymond Kay Table 32 – Seat 4 1,286,000
Rahman Khakban Table 32 – Seat 3 603,000
Nicolas Malo Majeau Table 36 – Seat 2 730,000
Michel Leblanc Table 31 – Seat 2 971,000
Michael Malm Table 35 – Seat 5 1,300,000
Marc-Andre Racine Table 36 – Seat 5 702,000
Lesley Amos Table 32 – Seat 5 343,000
John Helou Table 35 – Seat 7 1,275,000
Joel Moreau Table 35 – Seat 3 457,000
Jean-Francois Lescadres Table 36 – Seat 3 1,965,000
James Danchuk Table 31 – Seat 1 645,000
Gregory Katayama Table 36 – Seat 1 583,000
Georges Hallak Table 32 – Seat 6 974,000
Edward Hislop Table 31 – Seat 7 886,000
Derek Lerner Table 32 – Seat 1 331,000
Andrew Lalonde Table 35 – Seat 4 707,000
Andre Bilodeau Table 35 – Seat 1 300,000
Alexandre Normandin Charest Table 35 – Seat 2 2,673,000
Al Caranci Table 32 – Seat 2 800,000