The WPT Montreal is now heads-up after 35 levels of play over the course of 5 days, and playing for the WPT Title are Darryll Fish and Jared Mahoney.
Jared begins heads-up play with the chip advantage, but his 11,150,000 in chips only slightly surpasses the 9,700,000 stack of Darryll. The money, the WPT Montreal Champion’s Belt, the Hublot watch and the WPT Champion’s Trophy are on the table and all at stake!
Good luck!
Photographs from levels 10 and 11:
The Second Chance of The Playground Poker Fall Classic attracted 136 players, of which 22 survived Day 1 to return today for the conclusion.
When play fell down to 4 players, they decided to make an ICM chop based on their chip counts, leaving $4,000 extra for the eventual winner, as well as a Playground Poker Fall Classic Champion’s Trophy. Play quickly fell heads-up after a deal was made, as Benny Chen knocked out Behram Antia, while crippling Noy in the same hand.
After only a few hands of heads-up play between Jason Mandanici-Turcot and Benny Chen, Jason found his chips all-in on the flop after a check-raise from Benny. Jason had an over-pair to the board, but it was no match against the flopped straight of Benny, who held on to win Event 14!
With the extra $4,000 for the win, Benny Chen finished by pocketing $34,223, while Jason’s conciliation prize was of $27,695.
Congratulations!
Event 14 Champion: Benny Chen – $34,233
Event 14 Runner-Up: Jason Mandanici-Turcot – $27,695
Jason Mandanici-Turcot
Last Hand of Play
Moments after a deal was struck 4-handed, we saw a 3-way all-in happen. Behram, who has just lost a healthy portion of his stack in a flip versus Jason, moved-in from under the gun, and found isolation from Noy on the button. Jason folded his small blind, and Benny looked down at a hand he wasn’t willing to fold given the dynamics of the deal.
Behram: 
Noy: 
Benny: 
Board: 
Behram was eliminated in the hand, while Noy was crippled in the process. He was then knocked out of the tournament the very next hand, bringing The Second Chance down to heads-up.
Benny Chen is starting the heads-up with roughly a 2-to-1 chip lead versus Jason Mandanici-Turcot.
Good luck!
After some back and forth between the last 4 players in the Second Chance Event, they have decided to split the money based on an ICM chop of their current holdings. The tournament requires at least 2% of the total prize pool to be left for the eventual winner, who will also be taking home a sweet Playground Poker Fall Classic Champion’s Trophy. With $4,000 extra going to the tournament champion, here is what each player has locked in:
Congratulations!
Behram put maximum pressure on short-stacked Giancarlo by moving all-in on him in the big blind, but found himself far behind to start the hand.
Behram: 
Giancarlo: 
A few nines on the board changed all that however, and with the board reading 
, Giancarlo was eliminated in 5th place.
5th place: Giancarlo Santolin – $13,250
Giancarlo Santolin
As the players were on another colour-up break, we brought an update on the chip counts of the final 5 players. Noy and Behram have separated themselves from the other 3, and sit atop stacks of roughly 1.2 million each, while Giancarlo is down to just 5 big blinds and some antes.
| First Name | Last Name | Seat | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jason | Mandanici-Turcot | Table 62 - Seat 1 | 485,000 |
| Benny | Chen | Table 62 - Seat 5 | 360,000 |
| Behram | Antia | Table 62 - Seat 8 | 1,140,000 |
| Giancarlo | Santolin | Table 62 - Seat 9 | 160,000 |
| Noy | U | Table 62 - Seat 10 | 1,260,000 |
With a stack of 77,000 and no raises leading up to his action, Philippe Kerri announced all-in from the cutoff. Before Behram had a chance to finish announcing his raise, Giancarlo Santolin yelled out “All-in!” for his last 80,000. He must have been in a rush, as he then called the clock on Noy in the big blind after several seconds, which was over ruled. In either case, Noy let go of his cards shortly after, and the three players tabled their hands.
Philipp: 
Behram: 
Giancarlo: 
Board: 
Aces were good in the end, and Giancarlo tripled up his stack, while Philippe was sent to the cashiers to collect his 6th place earnings.
6th place: Philippe Kerri – $10,600
Philippe Kerri
Once play folded around to Jason Mandanici-Turcot in the small blind, he moved all-in, forcing Tony “GameBoy” To to a decision in the big blind. After some thought, Tony made the call, and it was another race situation.
Jason:
Tony: 
Board: 
Stacks were very close between the two, and once the debt was paid, Tony was only left with 26,000. We’ve seen him stage a comeback from less than this just two days ago, when he ran 9,000 (1/2 of a big blind) up to 1.4 million in the final 3 tables of the WPT Montral
He managed to win his next hand, and climb up to around 5 big blinds, before finding himself all-in again versus Behram Antia. Holding 
, he actually made two pairs on the 
flop, but was drawing (almost) dead to Behram’s 
, and with running blanks was eliminated in 7th place.
He’s had a very strong Playground Poker Fall Classic series, as he won Event 5, made a deep run in the WPT Montreal, and final tabled the Second Chance event, totalling $77,290 in cashes!
7th place: Tony “GameBoy” To – $8,820
Tony To
Andrew Tai made it 48,000 to go from utg +1, and action folded around to Noy in the small blind. He quietly slid forward some raising chips, and the dealer announced a raise to 111,000. Andrew pushed forward his whole stack in reply, for which Noy needed a count. After a little thought, Noy called the 390,000 total bed, and they were off to the races.
Noy: 
Andrew:
Andrew was happy to see and ace in the window, but the final runout was no good for him, as the board read 
, and with that pot Noy increased his lead on this final table.
8th place: Andrew Tai – $7,060
Andrew Tai
