Our PokerStars Tag Heuer Watch raffle winner has been randomly selected, and the winner is Carl Lashway! Players who purchased an early-bird tickets to the $1,100 Main Event of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival were automatically entered in a draw to win a PokerStars branded Tag Heuer Aquaracer watch, valued at $3,600!
Congratulations Carl!
In about 90 minutes Event 8 of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival – the $1000 + $100 Main Event – will kick off here at Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake!
Judging by the turnout for the preliminary events, it’s shaping up to be a great tournament. Event 1 attracted 1,605 players total adding up to a prize pool of over $200,000 for a $150 buy-in event. The other preliminaries have had 2x or even 3x the number of entries that similar daily tournaments attract, adding up to amazing prize pools and great competition at the poker tables.
Event 8 is due to be a blockbuster as well. Over 600 players have won their entries in satellites both live and online. Just yesterday another 39 players won their way into the event (33 in the satellite last night and 6 during the afternoon)!
You can read Full Tilt Poker’s Day 1a preview on the Full Tilt Poker Blog.
So… welcome to all of the players from both near and far who will be joining us for the Main Event of the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival. It’s going to be a great day for poker.
Eric Richer and Alim Perales had a pretty tight heads-up battle for a while, but eventually Perales managed to wear down Richer to the point where any good hand would require a shove.
Unfortunately for Richer, his timing wasn’t great. The players got to the flop safely enough, which came down 
. Richer shoved on the flop holding (we found out later) 
– but Perales was holding 
for a flopped straight.
The turn was very good for Richer – 
– but he couldn’t keep up that momentum when the 
came on the river and Perales’ straight held up.
2nd place: Eric Richer, $23,842
Champion: Alim Perales, $28,842
…is Lambros Xerakias, fondly known to almost everyone at the Club as “Spikey”.
When the final table came together Lambros was among the leaders – but then he eliminated 3 or 4 players in a row (and in a short period of time) to become the massive chip leader.
Following this, however, he was unfortunate to double up two opponents even though he was clearly ahead both times. Then the tourney settled in for a long session 4-handed. Eventually Dominic Dufour was eliminated, and the players continued for another two or three levels 3-handed.
Fabio Ribeiro was the next to go, but only after the players came to a very small deal for the prize money. The players agreed to take $100 from the 1st-place prize and $50 from the 2nd-place prize and add it to the prize money for 3rd – bringing the prize for 3rd up to $1,225 – which is what Fabio took home for his work today.
Heads up play didn’t last very long, and eventually Lambros triumphed over the strong play of Eric Gravel (2nd, $1,360) to take the trophy and the 1st place prize ($1,779).
After all was said and done, Simon V ended up as the winner of Event 5 after beating Jingles heads-up. Both Simon and Jingles are well-known Omaha players here at Playground Poker Club, and evidently their experience paid off in Event 5!
After a short heads-up session, massive chip leader (following the deal) Adam El Bied outlasted Jay Doerr to take down the first prize of $1,380 and the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival Trophy.
Congratulations Adam!
After a long afternoon (and early evening) of heated poker battles, we have a winner in Event 3 of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival.
The winner is Russel Turner, a regular afternoon tournament player here at Playground Poker Club, and for the win he takes home $1,400 plus the beautiful Champion’s trophy.
To win the event he barely edged out second-place finisher Nicolas Rabba who played solid poker all afternoon and but for a pretty big cooler at the outset of final table action could have been the massive chipleader 9-handed. Nicolas won $1,264 for his runner up finish.
Third place went to Matthew Parker who was the last of 4 players to take $800 after the deal that was struck with 6 players remaining.
Congratulations to Josh Kimmel, the winner of Event 2 in the Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival. The winner took home $2,395 and the beautiful trophy. Congratulations are also due to Yohann Wagner, who placed second for $1,775.