Congratulations to Mike Lafable who battled hard all day to emerge victorious in Event 1, The Wild $150, at the 2014 Playground Poker Fall Classic. Ahmad Baalbaki worked equally hard and managed to come in 2nd place.
The final hand of Event 1
Event 1 Champion: Mike Lafable, $30,600
2nd place: Ahmad Baalbaki, $20,500
After a long, hard-fought tournament the final day of Event 1 has reached its heads-up phase with just two players remaining in contention for the top prize of $30,600 (prize reflects a player deal made at 3 players remaining).
The two players still in the action are Ahmad Baalbaki and Mike Lafable, whose voyage to this point could not have been more different. Where Ahmad was among the chip leaders from early on in Day 2, Mike was never among the leaders until the very end. And where Ahmad played a tight, aggressive game, Mike seemed to alternate between trying to open up the game by playing a lot of hands and then periods of extremely tight play as he needed to double up to survive. But, survive he did – as did Ahmad – and both players have done very well to get to this point in the tournament.
After a full level of play 3-handed, Mike Lafable managed to eliminate Bichr Awad in 3rd place.
The players were all in preflop (Bichr had gotten quite short).
Bichr: 
Mike: 
The flop was perfect for Bichr – 
and the turn was better still – 
– though it really didn’t change anything, Mike still needed a river 6 to win the hand. Lo and behold, the dealer put out the 
on the river giving Mike his set for the win.
3rd place: Bichr Awad, $20,500
As soon as the tournament reached 3 players remaining, the players agreed to a deal. They have chosen to reserve $10,100 and the champion’s bracelet for the winner and evenly divide the remaining prize pool ($20,500 each).
Play continues.
Mike Lafable had won several hands over Alberto Scuderi in the past hour – more than a couple to double up – to the point that Alberto declared about half an hour ago that he wasn’t ever calling one of Mike’s shoves.
He broke his vow after Mike went all in preflop from the button and Alberto found a hand he couldn’t fold.
Mike: 
Alberto: 
Mike spiked his Ace right away on the flop: 
. Turn: 
. River: 
.
4th place: Alberto Scuderi, 12,800.00
While writing the post about how the tournament was stuck at 5 players, Albert Bassal went all in and was called and then eliminated from Event 1. Play continues…
5th place: Albert Bassal, $9,200
The play on the final table in Event 1 picked up in pace once the first player was eliminated, but now that it’s down to 5 players things have ground down to a halt. That’s not to say that chips aren’t moving around – they are – but every time someone gets short they seem to find a double up.
At any rate, the blinds keep going up and players are already relatively short-stacked, on the whole, so the logjam should clear soon.
Play has begun in level 35 and we have updated counts for the remaining 5 players at the table.
Final Table
Mike Lafable has been playing a super patient game all night waiting for his spot. He found a good spot already once – but at the time was so short-stacked as to have made it a simple exercise in survival. This time, though, he found his spot and had a stack to start with.
Mike shipped over an early position raise from Ahmad Baalbaki, and was quickly called when action returned to Ahmed. Mike had the better of it though – his 
dominated Ahmed’s 
.
Community cards: 
.
Mike doubled to around 6.5M while Ahmad went down to 775K. Ahmad proceeded to double up himself two hands later, but he’s still obviously in the danger zone.
Yves Aubin had been playing a very careful game all evening, accumulating chips and staying near the average all the way, but in the past 20 minutes or so he seemed to be itching to get involved in a big hand. He finally got his wish – but was eliminated in the process as Bichr Awad’s pair of Queens held up.
6th place: Yves Aubin, $7,100
