The final event of the Montréal Poker Expo has come to a close and the winner was Charan Malhotra! Charan managed to outlast 203 other players for the victory after 10 gruelling hours of poker action.
Event 14 Champion: Charan Malhotra, $3,180
Charan Malhotra
Last hand of play
Final hand of Event 14
2nd place: Sander Jonathan Straus, $2,600
Sander Jonathan Straus
After deep-running an EPT Main Event last week in Barcelona, Rodney Ramalho returned to Montreal just in time to play in the $500 + $50 Event, part of the Montréal Poker Expo. He stayed under the radar for most of the tournament, until play fell down to 6 players, where a combination of run-good and play-good propelled him into the chip lead.
He entered heads-up play versus opponent Trevor Delaney with roughly a 3-to-1 chip advantage, and never looked back. On the last hand of play, Trevor opened his button to 105,000, to which Rodney replied with a 3bet to 275,000. Trevor quickly moved all-in for just over 1-million, and got an even quicker call.
Trevor: 
Rodney: 
Rodney’s big-slick held for the win on a 
board, and with that pot he became our Event 12 Champion! He collected a sweet $14,830 for his finish, as well as a Montréal Poker Expo Champion’s Trophy.
Congratulations!
Event 12 Champion: Rodney Ramalho – $14,830.00
Event 12 Runner-Up: Trevor Delaney – $11,110.00
Last Hand of Play
The Main Event in the Montréal Poker Expo has just come to an end, and after 4 days of poker, the starting field of 647 players was reduced down to only one finalist: Chan An Luong!
When play fell down to three players, an agreement was made whereby each player took a share of the prize pool based on their chip counts at the time, leaving an additional $12,500 to be won by the eventual tournament champion – who would also take home the beautiful Montréal Poker Expo Main Event Champion’s Trophy.
Jonathan Brassard was the first to get eliminated after the deal, as Chan An cleaned him out in two huge hands. The tournament was then heads-up between Chan An and Chanracy Khun, with Chan An holding nearly a 5-to-1 chip advantage.
After only a few hands of play, Chanracy found himself all-in and far behind. He 3bet his last 2,800,000 from the big blind facing a min-raise of 400,000, and found a call from Chan An, who couldn’t withhold his smile.
Chanracy: 
Chan An: 
Chanracy almost made a straight to double himself up and stay in the game, but in the end it was the pair of aces that won the hand on a board of 
. With that, Chan An became the Montréal Poker Expo Main Event Champion, collecting a sweet $92,500 cash prize, as well as the Champion’s Trophy! Chanracy collected $73,140 for his runner-up finish.
Congratulations!
Montréal Poker Expo Main Event Champion: Chan An Luong – $92,500
Main Event Runner-Up: Chanracy Khun – $73,140
Last Hand of Play
Event 13 of the Montréal Poker Expo has come to a close and the champion is Scott Worsley! There was a chip chop deal made 4 ways and just a half-hour later play had concluded with Scott as the last player with chips of the 98 who started earlier in the evening.
Event 13 Champion: Scott Worsley, $1,315
Last hand of play
Runner up: Kuong chhe Kuoch, $993
When the 4-way deal was made between the players, Wenzhe Wang was the chip leader and he has managed to do the rare feat of also winning the tournament! For his victory he takes home $4,442 and the Montréal Poker Expo Champion’s Trophy!
Event 11 Champion: Wenzhe Wang, $4,442
Final Hand of the tournament
2nd place: Matthew Paplyk, $2,990
Matthew Paplyk
After only a few hands of heads-up play between James Cooke and Steve Daraiche, James grinded into the chip lead, only to knock out Steve and become champion of Event 10 in the Montréal Poker Expo!
In the last hand of play, James opened to 280,000, and called the 3bet shove of Steve for roughly 1,600,000. He opened up 
, and although he was trailing the of Steve, he quickly caught up and held on for the win, as the board showed 
.
Win that pot, James winded up with all 3,960,000 chips in play, making him the Event 10 Champion. He collected $4,135 for his win, as well as a Montréal Poker Expo Champions Trophy!
Congratulations!
Event 10 Champion: James Cooke – $4,135
Runner-Up: Steve Daraiche – $3,100
Steve Daraiche
Last Hand of Play
The poker in Event 1 wrapped up on Tuesday, but the real conclusion of the Strike Out Cancer Charity event came on Thursday night, when some special guests joined us at Playground Poker Club so that we could give them the donation to support the Jodi Taiger Lazarus Fund for Hereditary Breast Cancer Research that every participant in the event contributed to by playing.
In attendance were (among others) Morden Lazarus, Jodi Taiger Lazarus, and Dr Will Foulkes, and the oversized novelty cheque they were presented by David Montour was simply a placeholder for the real thing – a donation of $29,710.00! This amount was made up of the $25 tournament fee included with each of the 1186 entries in the event.
Congratulations to Mark Wells for winning the event, and to every single person who played, for making such a meaningful contribution to a worthwhile cause!
One of the most enduring traditions at Playground Poker Club is pretty straight forward: giving away money! And not just prize pool money – of course there’s a lot of that! But in addition to tournament prizes, during all of our major tournament series’ – it’s bonus time at the cash tables!
With all of the visiting players alongside our fantastic regular customers – and probably a little extra luck in the air – it seems that the bonuses and jackpots just fly during a poker festival!
So far during the Montréal Poker Expo we’ve had TWO Gold $10,000 Spins – on back to back days – and being a new promotion, before this week there had only been ONE total before that! The $10K Spin is fantastic because while the “spinner” gets $2,500, everyone else playing on cash tables shares the rest – everyone gets a piece of the remaining $7,500!
The big one, though, is the Bad Beat Jackpot. It’s well over $550,000 at the moment, and going up every day! The Primary Jackpot has been hit TWICE during past festivals at Playground Poker Club…
As we say in French: À qui la chance? Who will be the lucky one?
Ami Alibay is a popular local player who joins us at Playground for all events we host as well as a lot of our weekly and daily tourneys. Ami has also had a lot of success in poker, and he spent the last year touring the international poker circuit extensively, playing in more events than he ever has before.
This year he plans to continue playing tournaments all around the world, but he’s adding a very generous wrinkle: he’s donating 5% of all of his winnings to various charities. The organizations that stand to benefit include the following (1% each):
We wish Ami all the luck in the world as he continues his poker journeys!
As the Main Event gets started, we put together what we hope is a helpful list of suggestions for your time at Playground Poker Club!
$10,000 Spin Winner!
DO… Play in 1, 2, or 3 flights of the Main Event – it’s your choice! It’s a next-day re-entry event with best stack forward, so if you don’t qualify on Day 1a, you can try again. See the Tournament Info page for more information.
DO… Check out our $10,000 Spin promotion. The most recent $10K spin was… yesterday!
DON’T… forget to check the schedule for the 2015 Playground Poker Fall Classic including the WPT Montreal presented by Partypoker.net! It’s time to make your plans to join us in November!
DON’T… ignore the daily specials on the menu from The Rail Coal Fire Bistro! Korean Chicken, Lamb & Beef Gyros, Australian burger – all of these have been specials in the past few days!
DO… consult the screens around the Club to keep track of the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot as it grows. It’s approaching $600,000!
Most of all… HAVE FUN while you’re here at Playground Poker Club.
