2014 WPT Montreal Champion: Jonathan Jaffe!

Jonathan Jaffe finished runner-up in the 2008 WPT – World Poker Finals – in Mashantucket, and was determined not to finish in second place again. He came in to the final table as the chip leader, and although he saw his stack swing throughout the night, he inevitably found himself with all of the chips in play.

Heads-up play with opponent Ratharam Sivagnanam last quite a while, and both players held the lead at multiple occasions. Following a big pot won by Jonathan that left Ratharam with less than a quarter of the chips in play, Jonathan began applying pressure on the short stack. Ratharam responded to his aggressive opponent by limp-shoving a marginal hand, only to run into a monster.

After making the call, Jonathan tabled Ace of Clubs King of Clubs, and needed to hold versus Ratharam’s 8 of Diamonds 10 of Diamonds to become the champion. The board ran out 4 of Spades 3 of Spades 6 of Hearts Jack of Hearts Queen of Hearts, and with that, Jonathan won the tournament, the Hublot watch, the Monster headphones, an entry to the WPT World Championship, a place on the WPT Trophy, a Playground Poker Fall Classic Main Event Belt, a whopping $446,800 in cash, and, last but not least, bragging rights!

Ratharam’s second place finish earned him a prize of $313,318.

Congratulations!

** You can find all of the photos from the final table by following this link, or by visiting our Playground Poker Flickr page **

2014 WPT Montreal Champion: Jonathan Jaffe – $446,800 + entry to WPT World Championship

2014 WPT Montreal Champion: Jonathan Jaffe2014 WPT Montreal Champion: Jonathan Jaffe2014 WPT Montreal Champion: Jonathan Jaffe2014 WPT Montreal Champion: Jonathan Jaffe

2014 WPT Montreal Runner-up: Ratharam Sivagnanam – $313,318

Ratharam Sivagnanam

Last Hand of Play in the 2014 WPT Montreal

Last Hand of Play of the 2014 WPT Montreal

WPT Montreal – Heads-Up

  • Level: 31
  • Small Blind: 60K
  • Big Blind: 120K
  • Ante: 20K
  • Chip Average: 11M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 732


We are now heads-up between Jonathan Jaffe (16,000,000) and Ratharam Sivagnanam (5,935,000) in the 2014 WPT Montreal!

The High Roller Champion: Matt Jarvis!

With a deal in place – even one that reserved $10K for the eventual champion – it would be easy to assume that 3-way or heads-up play would be less serious that it might normally be. But judging by the play after the deal, that was definitely not the case in this tournament!

When Matt Jarvis took the lead, however, there was no looking back. He played aggressively and Pascal was unable to double back through him and retake the lead – or even to draw level.

On the final hand of the tournament, Matt limped for the first time in the match, and Pascal immediately shoved his last ~340K. Matt called and Pascal’s tournament was on the line.

Pascal: King of Spades 8 of Spades
Matt: Ace of Diamonds 5 of Clubs

The flop of 10 of Clubs 7 of Diamonds 7 of Spades wasn’t helpful for Pascal, and the 10 of Spades on the turn put a second pair on the board, and Pascal needed either a King or an 8 to win the hand. The river was the Jack of Diamonds and the event was over – Matt’s Ace kicker won the hand.

Congratulations, Matt!

Event 9 Champion: Matthew Jarvis, $127,686 and the championship belt

Matthew Jarvis - 2014 Playground Poker Fall Classic High-Roller Champion

Matthew Jarvis - 2014 Playground Poker Fall Classic High-Roller Champion

 

Event 9 Runner-up: Pascal Lefrançois, $147,383.00

Pascal Lefrancois

The final hand of the High Roller Event (Event 9)

Matthew Jarvis - 2014 Playground Poker Fall Classic High-Roller Champion

High Roller – Day 2 seating draw & chip counts

Event 9 in the Playground Poker Fall Classic is the High Roller event, a $10,000 + $400 NL Hold’em event that will run over 3 days. Day 1 is complete after 8 full levels of play and of the 66 players who started the event, exactly 33 remain.

The tournament will resume at 1pm on November 25th. There has been a full seating redraw – when play resumes in level 9 the players will take their seats as per this table. The chip counts included are provided by players when they sealed the chips in bags. Bags will be unsealed by players when they return for the start of Day 2.

[Click (or tap) on a column heading to sort]

First Name Last Name Seat Chip Count
Eric Afriat Table 66 – Seat 4 47,000
Frank Bruno Table 68 – Seat 1 12,575
Pratyush Buddiga Table 70 – Seat 3 13,800
Stephen Cellucci Table 66 – Seat 5 49,400
Scott Jeremy Clements Table 69 – Seat 4 63,450
Philippe D'Auteuil Table 66 – Seat 6 36,175
Yann Dion Table 70 – Seat 2 73,925
Connor Joseph Drinan Table 68 – Seat 5 61,550
Robert Logan Dunn Table 68 – Seat 4 15,700
Darren Elias Table 69 – Seat 5 219,250
Jean-Manuel Estrala Table 70 – Seat 1 60,000
Lucas Greenwood Table 64 – Seat 3 108,000
Samuel Greenwood Table 64 – Seat 4 31,025
Max Greewood Table 64 – Seat 1 40,700
Christian Harder Table 64 – Seat 2 20,325
Doug Hartwick Table 70 – Seat 6 11,300
Matthew Kevin Jarvis Table 66 – Seat 2 66,500
Eugene Katchelov Table 69 – Seat 1 49,125
Danny Lauzon Table 68 – Seat 7 35,400
Pascal Lefrancois Table 69 – Seat 3 119,100
Matthew Marafioti Table 68 – Seat 6 29,575
Jason Mercier Table 64 – Seat 5 19,450
Robert Mero Table 69 – Seat 2 74,800
Kyle Myers Table 69 – Seat 6 30,350
Nicholas Petrangelo Table 66 – Seat 3 50,000
Danny Qutami Table 68 – Seat 3 101,450
Micah Raskin Table 70 – Seat 5 23,025
Brian Rast Table 64 – Seat 6 800
Shannon Shorr Table 68 – Seat 2 36,950
Shaan Siddiqui Table 64 – Seat 7 120,200
Charles Alexandre Sylvestre Table 66 – Seat 1 291,250
Michael Watson Table 70 – Seat 4 31,375
Richard Wierzba Table 66 – Seat 7 37,075

Photos – Break #1

  • Level: 4
  • Small Blind: 150
  • Big Blind: 300
  • Ante: 25
  • Chip Average: 26.4K
  • Remaining: 176
  • Entries: 186


The first break in Event 10 is approaching and there are 185 players in the tournament with registration open until the end of the break. Here are some photos of the players in the tournament taken during the first few levels.

PPFC-2014-2927 PPFC-2014-2928 PPFC-2014-2930 PPFC-2014-2932 PPFC-2014-2935 PPFC-2014-2936 PPFC-2014-2942 PPFC-2014-2943 PPFC-2014-2945 PPFC-2014-2950 PPFC-2014-2953 PPFC-2014-2954 PPFC-2014-2959 PPFC-2014-2962 PPFC-2014-2966 PPFC-2014-2969 PPFC-2014-2972 PPFC-2014-2974 PPFC-2014-2976 PPFC-2014-2925

Eliminations 24 to 22

  • Level: 23
  • Small Blind: 10K
  • Big Blind: 20K
  • Ante: 3K
  • Chip Average: 1.1M
  • Remaining: 20
  • Entries: 732


Nenad was eliminated when he got it in on the flop with top pair, top kicker against a worse Ace – but suited. Ace of Clubs 8 of Clubs had already hit the flush and Nenad was eliminated.

22nd place: Nenad Sizgoric, $18,020

Nenad Sizgoric

Ryan Fee was all-in holding 6 of Hearts 6 of Diamonds and was called by a player holding Ace of Diamonds Jack of Spades. The bad news came right on the flop of Ace of Clubs 4 of Spades 10 of Spades and the turn and river 8 of Clubs King of Diamonds brought no relief and Ryan was eliminated.

23rd place: Ryan Fee, $18,020

Ryan Fee

24th place: Philippe Plouffe, $18,020

2014 Fall Classic Event 6 Day 3-2913

High-Roller satellite attracts 63 players

The $1,040 + $100 High-Roller satellite is well underway here at Playground Poker Club, and 63 players have registered to try and win their seat into tomorrow’s Event 9 – $10,000 + $400 High-Roller. This means 6 seats will be awarded, as well as a cash prize for 7th.

Given the amount of big names in poker present at this Playground Poker Fall Classic, we can expect to see a very interesting field in tomorrow’s event. The tournament will begin at 3pm, and late registration will remain open until the end of the break following level 6.

Event 7 Champion: Alex Shing

Stephane Fortin was in the process of making a comeback in heads-up play with Alex Shing, but was stumped when he fell into Alex’s preflop trap. Sitting on the big blind, Alex completed the 100,000 blind, to which Stephane replied with a shove of 890,000. Alex snap called, and turned over his premium:

Alex: Queen of Hearts Queen of Spades

Stephane: 6 of Diamonds 6 of Spades

The board ran in favour of Alex’s queens, showing 10 of Hearts 8 of Diamonds 8 of Hearts 7 of Hearts King of Clubs, awarding him the pot and the win. He takes home $5,000 for his victory, as well as a Playground Poker Fall Classic bracelet!

Congratulations!

Event 7 Champion: Alex Shing – $5,000

Event 7 Champion: Alex Shing

Event 7 Champion: Alex Shing

Event 7 Runner-up: Stephane Fortin – $3,600

Stephane Fortin

Last hand of play of Event 7

Last Hand of Play in Event 7

WPT Montreal 2014 – prize pool & payout schedule

The 2014 WPT Montreal was Event 6 of the Playground Poker Fall Classic. It was a $3500 + $350 NL Hold’em Re-entry event (next day re-entry) with 3 Day 1s. The event attracted a total of 732 entries, which generated a net prize pool of $2,485,140.00.

A total of 90 players will cash in this event, and the prize pool will be distributed according to the following table.

Note that first prize includes an entry in the WPT World Championship at Borgata, which is valued at US$15,400. Based on the exchange rate at which we collected US funds (1.08), this is C$16,632.00, which has been removed from the payout schedule. Therefore, the cash prizes in the following table add up to $2,468,508.00.

Finish Prize
1 $446,800.00 plus WPT World Championship entry
2 $313,318.00
3 $201,920.00
4 $149,340.00
5 $111,820.00
6 $90,350.00
7 $74,800.00
8 $59,490.00
9 $44,680.00
10-12 $33,080.00
13-15 $26,410.00
16-18 $22,960.00
19-21 $20,240.00
22-24 $18,020.00
25-27 $15,800.00
28-36 $13,820.00
37-45 $11,850.00
46-54 $10,120.00
55-63 $8,390.00
64-72 $7,160.00
73-81 $6,170.00
82-90 $5,430.00

Antonio is Number 2!

Antonio Esfandiari is a long-time friend of Playground Poker Club and a member of the Players Club. He always comes for big events here, and this past summer lent his name to the Antonio Esfandiari Survivor Series, a mini-festival that culminated in a heads-up match between Antonio and WPT Montreal 2013 Final Tableist Alexandre Lavigne.

For almost as long as the Tournament Hall has been open, there has been a huge poster of him on the wall, and one of the bullet points about our friend Antonio is that he is ranked #1 on the All Time Money List in poker.

But… that is no longer the case. Daniel Negreanu, by taking 2nd prize in last summer’s Big One for One Drop tournament, passed Antonio. The poster was no longer accurate!

So, during the dinner break today of Day 1c in the WPT Montreal, Antonio climbed up and made a needed edit to the huge poster of him… he added a huge sticker that says “#2”!

2014 Fall Classic Event 6 Day 1c-2734


2014 Fall Classic Event 6 Day 1c-2728


2014 Fall Classic Event 6 Day 1c-2736