The kickoff event to the Playground Poker Fall Classic has just come to a close, and from a starting field of 904 entries, William Blais was left as the last man standing. He locked in a prize of $23,000 for his victory, along with a stunning PPFC champion’s trophy and bragging rights.
William arrived into Day 2 second in chips, and maintained a spot amongst the leaders until the closing moments of the night, where he sprung up into the massive chip lead. When Day 3 began, he was the overwhelming chip leader with 14 players remaining and went straight to work, knocking out 2nd in chips Jean-Francois Daunais in an inevitable cooler.
In the first few orbits of the final table, William saw his stack get cut in half after a series of unfortunate spots. As play got more short-handed, Francois Roy started to rival his chip count and even took over the lead at some point leading into 6-handed poker. William kept applying pressure on his opponents, and regained the top spot after eliminating Rami Hammoud in 4th place.
Francois managed to send Said Michailidis to the rail in 3rd place to begin the heads-up duel with the chip lead, but within a few hands William flipped the stacks and was back in the driver seat. He then weighed down on his opponents and chipped up into a 2-to-1 advantage rather quickly, leading to the final hand of play.
With blinds at 125K/250K, Francois raised to 625K from the button, and William followed along from the big blind. Both players checked on the 
flop, and William check-called a bet of 900K on the 
turn. William checked again once the river brought a 
, and Francois moved all-in for around a pot-sized bet. William was holding a good enough club to make the call, and tabled 
for a flush, while Francois regrettably tabled a second-best 
.
Congratulations!
Strangers in the Night champion: Willaim Blais – $23,000.00
Runner-up: Francois Roy – $14,807.00
Last hand of play:
flop, who fired a bet of 550,000. Francois mucked his hand, while Rami raised to 1,300,000. William thought about his options before 3-betting all-in, and Rami made a quick call.
versus Rami’s 
turn brought William a flush draw, which he completed on the 
river, crippling Rami down to just 25,000.
prevailed over William’s 
on a 
board.