Tonight was the first ever NL Pineapple tournament at Playground Poker Club, part of the TonyBet Power Weekend. The buy-in was $100 + $10 and this first edition attracted 163 players – players who were impressed with the format and looked forward to another… or possibly Pineapple cash games at some point.

Despite the initial rapid pace of eliminations, the length of the event overall was about normal, even considering the 6 way deal that wrapped up the tournament.

With 6 players remaining, the players decided to negotiate a deal – here are the chip counts when discussions began:

1. Richard Figiel: 355,000
2. Domenico Boemio: 210,000
3. Andrew Forest: 1,835,000
4. Jean-Sébastien Labonté: 320,000
5. Kosta Papa: 280,000
6. Donald Abdelhay: 255,000

According to the published prize pool, the winner was scheduled to received $3,801, and as the chip leader with almost 60% of the chips in play, Andrew Forest offered to take $3,500, leaving the remaining prize pool to be distributed among the remaining players, who chose an even chop (save for the extra $11 to 2nd place).

Final prize payouts

1. Andrew Forest – $3,500
2. Richard Figiel – $1,771
3. Jean-Sébastien Labonté – $1,760
4. Kosta Papa – $1,760
5. Donald Abdelhay – $1,760
6. Domenico Boemio – $1,760

7th place: Joseph B., $660

Joseph B was as normal as a metronome all night, playing almost exactly the tournament chip average from start to finish. When he finally went all-in for 80K, he was called by Andrew Forest.

Joseph B.:

Andrew Forest:

Board:

The flop reminded Joseph that some nights, KK just won’t do the trick – Andrew had out-flopped him by hitting his set of 7s. After the hand Donald Abdelhay mentioned that he had folded a pair of nines – he would have made his 3rd Quads of the night.

A key hand in the tournament followed. The chip leader for several hours already, Andrew Forest, raised from middle position and everyone folded around to the blinds who both went all-in, one after the other. Andrew made a snap-call with pocket Aces, while all his opponents in the hand could do was to note they both had the same hand (killing outs for each).

Andrew Forest:

Vera Greenstein:

Jean Marie Roy:

Board:

Even though both of them made their straight with their Queen Ten, the Ace on the turn along with the pair on the flop kept Andrew well in the lead.

(Vera had more chips than Jean-Marie to start the hand, so she finishes ahead of him in the standings).

8th place: Vera Greenstein, $490

9th place: Jean-Marie Roy, $370

Late registration has come to a close and in total, 163 players joined the tourney, including 43 alternates. Throughout the first passage of play there were lots of smiles from players unfamiliar with the format!

Two players have taken an early lead in the event:

1. Mikael Huneault: 70,400 chips
2. Jean-Pierre Poirier: 66,550 chips

Tonight in the TonyBet Power Weekend there’s a new tournament format on offer: No Limit Pineapple. It’s a $100 + $10 tournament and players start with a 20K stack and blinds go up every 20 minutes.

What is Pineapple? It’s a variant of Texas Hold’em, except that players are dealt 3 hole cards, not 2. Preflop betting occurs exactly like in Hold’em, and once the betting is over – preflop – players must discard one of the 3 hole cards. From there it plays out as a normal Hold’em hand.

Players have 4 levels to register in the tournament (plus the break following the first 4 levels).