2018 MILLIONS North America News

News about the Big Game

2018/04/26 - 14:06 by

News about the Big Game is developing quickly as the schedule for the three-day stint gets worked out. Here’s the info we have for today’s sessions:

Session #1 – Thursday April 26th, 4:00pm to 10:00pm (stream begins at 4:30pm)
NL Hold’em $100/$200
Players: Lauren Roberts, Rob Yong, Ouri Ohayon, Jonathan Duhamel, Joao Simao, Kristen Bicknell, Sam Chartier

Session #2 – Thursday April 26th, 10:00pm to 4:00am (stream begins at 10:30pm)
PLO $200/$400/$800
Players: Leon Tsoukernik, The Wolf, Rob Yong, Sam Trickett, “Aussie” Matt Kirk, John Savidis

Tune in to My partypoker Live or just join us here on the Event Blog to follow all of the action!

Watch the Big Game!

2018/04/25 - 18:33 by Playground Poker

The MILLIONS North America features lots of big games – the High Roller was a big game, the Super High Roller was a big game – even the Main Event qualifies as a big game considering the monster guaranteed prize pool.

But there’s only one Big Game – and it’s coming to Playground Poker Club from Thursday April 26th to Saturday April 28th. We’ll have three evenings of solid high stakes cash-game streaming action starting at 6:00pm and continuing deep into the night. And by “Big Game” we’re not fooling: the minimum buy-in will be $100,000 and the game will be played with $100/$200 blinds!

Confirmed so far for the stream are Jonathan Duhamel, Rob Yong, Leon Tsoukernik (King’s Casino Rozvadov), and with interest as high as it has been, it’s certain that you’ll see some of your favourite players in the Big Game. We’ll be posting updated lineups as the information comes in.

Tune in to My partypoker Live or just join us here on the Event Blog to follow all of the action!

The Flip ‘n Go is BACK!

2018/04/25 - 16:06 by

Throughout Canada and the US, there are probably thousands of local independent poker clubs that host fun, small-stakes poker games and tournaments. Occasionally they’ll get more ambitious and organize leagues over multiple weeks or months to send players to a place like Playground Poker Club for a series like MILLIONS North America. These small clubs and groups often go unnoticed in the industry, but in reality, it’s they who first kindle many players’ passion for the game!

We just had an amazing time with just such a group from Vancouver. They came from Rev’s Poker Club, but their main man in town, Rich Gablehouse, had a problem. They had run a league for many weeks, but instead of sending a couple of players here to Playground with a full Main Event buy-in, they chose to make it more social and send 8 people with just enough for one Step 1 satellite and one Step 2 satellite for each player. When the schedule changed and today’s Step 1 was replaced with a Step 2… they turned to us for advice.

What to do… what to do…

How about a Flip ‘n Go!

They were thrilled – they had already brought the Flip ‘n Go format home with them from a previous visit. Before too long, all 8 players were assembled around Table 25 to run 2 Flip ‘n Gos for 1 $580 Step 2 satellite seat each!

We’re happy to announce – the Flip ‘n go is BACK! Any time you’re at Playground during the Main Event, contact the Brush desk to get on the list! We’re running Flips for Step 2 satellites – but also for MILLIONS Main Event seats!

Here are some photos of the shenanigans earlier this afternon:

For the record, the first of the two Flip ‘n Gos was won by a full house while the 2nd was won by trip 4s!

Here’s the video:

MILLIONS Open champion: Karim-Olivier Kamal

2018/04/25 - 1:09 by Shawn McCrory

The MILLIONS Open drew a massive field of 1,231 entries in only two starting flights. The large turnout allowed this first event of the MILLIONS North America series to easily surpass its $1,000,000 guarantee. 392 players advanced to Day 2 and 68 players made it to Day 3. But in the end it came down to two players: Ehamparam Kauvsegan and Karim-Oliver Kamal.

Both players showed their skill and tenacity by grinding their way through a tough final table that featured notable players like Martin Jacobson and Christopher Moorman. For the most part, the play at the final table was cautious and conservative. The huge pay jumps from ninth place-$12,000-to first place-$210,000-certainly factored into the players’ approaches.

Karim-Olivier Kamal brought one of the larger stacks in play with him to the final table, and he found a way to maintain his momentum all the way to heads-up play. When Christopher Moorman was eliminated in third place, Kamal had nearly one billion in chips. Kauvsegan showed impressive discipline and patience throughout the heads-up match, as the two played for more than two levels. Even though he won a number of pots, Kauvsegan was never able to get a double up and was eventually worn down by Kamal’s pressure. On the final hand of play, Kamal moved all-in from his button and Kauvsegan made the call in the lead with ace-high, but Kamal hit the board, showing that it was truly his night. Congratulations!

MILLIONS Open champion: Karim-Olivier Kamal – $210,000 and the champion’s trophy

Runner-up: Kauvsegan Ehamparam – $133,920

Last hand of play:

Christopher K is the Super High Roller Champion!

2018/04/24 - 21:57 by agarzon

The heads-up battle between Christopher K. and Anthony Zinno had played through three full levels (halved to 20 mins each) and had remained more or less even in chips – and they were still reasonably deep – when they chose to forego a scheduled break and continue with level 25 immediately. It would only take a single hand in the level to wrap a bow around the tournament and crown a new Champion.

The cards were dealt. Anthony was on the button and thus first to act, and he raised to 1.5M holding . Christopher, in his turn, considered his options for a little longer than usual before grabbing a stack of orange chips, moving them forward, and declaring, “all in”!

Anthony quickly made the call and the cards were exposed – Christopher had shoved his leading 43bb stack with !

The flop was dealt: – not much there for the Christopher’s Ace-high.

The turn: – which might not seem like much of a card, but doubled Chris’s outs.

The river: – a disaster for Anthony! His pair of 7s was counterfeited by the board and Chris’s Ace kicker took the hand… and the tournament!

MILLIONS Super High Roller Champion: Christopher K., $373,000

Super High Roller Champion Christopher Kruk

Final hand of play

2nd place: Anthony Zinno, $234,750

Tony Dunst bags the lead

2018/04/24 - 21:19 by Playground Poker

Today was Day 1A of the MILLIONS North America Main Event. As the Open and the Super High Roller were playing to their conclusion, The Main Event was on its first of 5 starting flights. 164 entries were accounted for, and when the dust had settled, 65 players were still at the tables, led by none other than Tony Dunst.

Many big names joined in including superstars Jonathan Duhamel, Richard Dubini, Kristen Bicknell and Mike Watson, but also local heros like Samuel Chartier, Marc-Etienne Mclaughlin, Ema Zajmovic, Chanracy Khun, and many more.

Tyler Clayton Patterson was leading the field through a big part of the day until Tony Dunst and David Shao passed him during the last lap.

View the full Combined Day 1 Results List