Following an open to 115,000 from Jared Mahoney, AJ Gambino slid forward his 815,000 stack. Rainer asked for a count, and after a short moment he announced a call. The rest of the players got out of the way, including Jared, and cards were tabled.
AJ: 
Rainer: 
Board: 
After missing the flop, AJ found some help on the turn to keep this final table 7-handed, as he doubled his stack up to over 1.8 million.
Action continues….
Registration is now over for Event 14 – the $1,500 + $150 NL Hold’em Second Chance, and a total of 136 players took their seats to participate in this 2-day event, and are battling it out for a top prize of $53,110.
Some notables found in the field include players such as Jonathan Duhamel, Dylan Wilkerson, Eric Afriat, Will Molson, Giacomo Fundaro, and many other well-known stars in the poker community.
Good luck!
Brian Altman opened the action to 110,000 from under the gun, and found calls from Michael Dentale (utg+1), Darryll Fish (small blind) and Rainer Kemp (big blind). On a flop of 
, the blinds checked it over to Brian, who fired 160,000. Michael got out of the way, and Darryll went in for a raise to 510,000. Rainer mucked his hand, and Brian tanked for a moment before making the call.
Heads-up on the 
turn, Darryll fired again, this time for 710,000. Brian went into the tank a second time, and after around 3 minutes he finally let his hand go.
“I know what you had there Darryll” said Michael, once the hand was over; “you got lucky there kid, I had 
”. AJ Gambino interrupted Michael, saying that it was not possible as he had folded the preflop. “Ok Ok fine, I had two red kings there”, added Michael, as players smirked at his radical change in apparent holdings.
Photographs taken during level 6:
While the final 8 players of the WPT Montreal were on break, we brought an update on the leaderboard. Brian Altman is still the man in charge, and has built his stack up to 6,740,000. Rainer Kempe (4,280,000) and Darryll Fish (3,645,000) are also amongst the leaders, while the rest of the field is found below the 2-million chip mark.
Here is a look at the chip distribution, as we enter level 27:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Brian | Altman | 6740000 |
| Rainer | Kempe | 4280000 |
| Darryll | Fish | 3645000 |
| Jared | Mahoney | 1925000 |
| Carter | Swidler | 1520000 |
| AJ | Gambino | 1280000 |
| Michael | Dentale | 765000 |
| Chris | Arvanitis | 610000 |
In a preflop raising war between Darryll Fish (utg) and Craig Stewart (button), both players were more than happy to find all their chips in the middle given the hole cards they were dealt. Once the hands were tabled though, Craig realized that his red 
were going to need some help to overcome the 
of Darryll.
The dealer brought out a board of 
, and although Craig used his “one time”, he found no such help and was eliminated out of the WPT Montreal in 10th place.
10th place: Craig Stewart – $31,910
Craig Stewart
Darren Elias came into the day as one of the shorter stacks, and knew he was going to have to be active if he wanted to turn things around. He lost a few pots early on to find himself nearly crippled, before finding a pocket pair of jacks which tripled him back into shape.
Moments later, he min-raised his button in an unopened pot, and found himself heads-up with AJ Gambino in the big blind. On a flop showing 
, AJ check-called a bet of 95,000, which brought out the 
on the turn. AJ checked again, and this time raised all-in following a 160,000 bet by Darren. Without any hesitation, Darren snap called the all-in, and was in a world of trouble, as his two-pair with 
was far behind the set of 
of AJ. The river 
changed nothing, and Darren saw all but 100,000 of his recently acquired chips move to the other side of the table.
He then found a double up the very next hand, as his 
rivered a straight against the 
of James Yang on a board showing 
.
He picked up the blinds and antes with an uncalled all-in the next hand, and was then moved to the other table to balance the tournament, as Trevor Delaney was recently eliminated.
After a few hands on his new table, Darren found all of his chips all-in preflop versus Darryll Fish:
Darren:
Darryll: 
Board: 
Darryll hit the board hard, and after one wild roller coaster ride, Darren’s WPT Montreal came to a close in 11th place.
With his elimination, the field is now down to 10-players, which are all gathered on one (unofficial) final table.
11th place: Darren Ellias – $31,910
Darren Elias
James Yang was grinding the short stack most of this Day 4, and when he looked down at a suited-ace in the big blind facing a raise from Carter Swidler in middle position, he decided to go for it and moved all-in for around 9 big blinds. Carter made the call, and the two were heads up with hole cards tabled.
James:
Carter: 
Board:
Carter improved his hand by pairing the flop, which was enough to eliminate James in 12th place.
12 place: James Yang – $31,910
James Yang
After a short break, players of the WPT Montreal are back at their seats, as play resumes in level 26. We’ve lost three players so far in this already action-packed Day 4, as Harpreet Sign, Randall Pfeifer and Jason Mann have made early exits.
Brian Altman is leading the way with 13 players remaining, and his 4,170,000 betting units far outnumber the rest of the field. Here is a look at the chip distribution, as play enters level 26:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Brian | Altman | 4,170,000 |
| Rainer | Kempe | 2,755,000 |
| Craig | Stewart | 2,070,000 |
| Jared | Mahoney | 1,975,000 |
| Darryll | Fish | 1,830,000 |
| Chris | Arvanitis | 1,740,000 |
| Trevor | Delaney | 1,665,000 |
| Michael | Dentale | 1,320,000 |
| Giacomo | Fundaro | 820,000 |
| Carter | Swidler | 815,000 |
| AJ | Gambino | 780,000 |
| Darren | Elias | 455,000 |
| James | Yang | 360,000 |
| Randall David | Pfeifer | 0 |
| Jason | Mann | 0 |
| Harpreet | Gill | 0 |
Brian Altman
Samuel Barre arrived at Playground Poker Club this morning with the intention of continuing his deep run in the WPT Montreal, as he was one of the 63 players remaining at the start of Day 3. Lady Luck seemed to have a different plan for him however, as he was eliminated in 52nd place after losing a large portion of his chips in what could only be described as a cooler (QQ < AA).
As he was in line at the cashier to collect his almost $10,000 prize from the Main Event, he realized he could still late register for this Event 12. He decided to jump in, and as it turns out, it was a very profitable decision! He built his stack rather early, and remained amongst the chip leaders throughout the tournament, arriving at the final table with nearly double second place in chips.
When play fell 6-handed, the players decided to negotiate a deal. As he was the chip leader at the time, he took the biggest share, pocketing $24,000 in the deal, while an additional $2,950 was left for the eventual winner, along with a Playground Poker Fall Classic Champion’s Trophy.
Play opened up considerably once the deal was struck, and it wasn’t long before he found himself heads-up with a 4-to-1 chip lead over opponent Zheng-Yi Xie. They only played for several orbits before Samuel called the preflop 3bet all-in of Zheng-Yi, and held on to become our Event 12 Champion!
Zheng-Yi, who was on the shorter end of the spectrum when the deal was made, collected $13,630 for his run.
Congratulations!
Event 12 Champion: Samuel Barre – $26,950
Event 12 Runner-Up: Zheng-Yi Xie – $13,630
Zheng-Yi Xie
Last Hand of Play:
