Please note that due to the heavy turnout for Day 1c of the Main Event, the capacity of Event 11, a No Limit Hold’em Deepstack Turbo tournament, has been reduced to 80 players. Late registrations and alternates will be accepted as space permits.
The Tournament Hall is full
People who haven’t been to Playground Poker Club often don’t really have a good picture in their head of the scope of the room. To give some perspective, here’s a photo of the Tournament Hall from a few minutes ago, full with players.
Oh, and we also have 8 cash games going right now in the main poker room.
Meanwhile, at the cash tables…
It’s almost as if it’s a new trend! For the second festival in a row, the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot has been hit on one of the cash tables, while the Main Event is in play.
Alecsei Veitzman was holding 
when the flop came 
, but once the 
turn hit, his hand was second best to Geovanni Stephen’s straight flush, whose hole cards were 
. After the 
fell on the river and both players opened their hands, a rumble took over the entire club as the table realized what just happened: the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot of $277,243 was just hit!
Along with this Bad Beat Jackpot comes some news – starting immediately, there are NEW BBJ rules in effect. In a nutshell, the new Primary Bad Beat Jackpot starts at a whopping $150,000 and the minimum qualifying hand goes down every 3 weeks. As well, the Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot is now fixed at $25,000.
To see the complete new rules, please see this page. These rules will be on the main Playground Poker Club website on Monday, September 1st.
The number is 477!
Days 1a and 1b have seen 218 and 305 entries, respectively, which adds up to 523 total entries. That’s an impressive number, but there’s a $1 Million Guarantee on this event, which means one thing: if there are fewer than 477 entries tomorrow, there will be an OVERLAY!
There may be no greater value in tournament poker than a prize pool overlay. It simply means that no matter how many entries there are tomorrow – up to 477 – the gross prize pool will be a million dollars!
If there are MORE players tomorrow, well that’s great too, because every player after the 477th just ADDS to the total prize pool you’re playing for!
This is the definition of Win-Win-Win. There’s value for players if there are fewer than 477 entries tomorrow, you win if there are exactly 477 players, and you win if there are more than 477 players!
Event 9 Champion: Raphael Clayette
Raphael Clayette bested a field of 250 players to become the champion of Event 9! After a deal was made 6-handed, which was based on a slightly modified chip-chop formula, play opened up quite a bit. We saw 4 quick eliminations before heads-up began between Frederic Charest and Raphael, and it didn’t take too long before Raphael ended up with a all the chips in play. He earned $3,435 and a Playground Poker Montreal Festival bracelet!
Congratulation Raphael!
Event 9 Champion: Raphael Clayette, $3,435
Runner-Up: Frederic Charest, $2,735
Last hand of play
Satellite Day!
Today marks a new addition to a festival at Playground Poker Club – an entire day on the Eve of the Main Event devoted 100% to Satellite tournaments.
There are three “open” scheduled events today with a huge 24 seats guaranteed:
- $70 + $10 Re-entry – Thursday August 28th at 12pm, 2 seats guaranteed.
- $100 + $10 Turbo Re-entry – Thursday August 28th at 4pm, 2 seats guaranteed.
- $100 + $10 Re-entry – Thursday August 28th at 8pm, 20 seats guaranteed.
In addition to this there is a private freeroll satellite that will get even more people into the Main! Add to that what are sure to be multiple single-table Sit & Go’s and it’s reasonable to assume that at least 40 to 50 more Main Event seats will be secured at some point between now and 11am tomorrow!
The whole satellite program for this festival has been a huge success. There were over 100 seats won in online satellites, and before the festival started there were another approximately 135 seats awarded in live satellites. Add to that the huge “Win & Go” promotion that ran yesterday and other Sit & Go’s that have run over the past week and it adds up to a fantastic number of Main Event seats that will be occupied by satellite winners – which any poker player knows adds a tremendous value to the tournament overall.
Good luck to everyone today!
Event 8 Champion: Alain Corriveau
Traci Horpestad, a visitor from Edmonton who often comes down here to participate in our Playground Poker series, has been on a bit of a roll since yesterday, having cashed in all three tournaments she participated in (Events 5, 6 and 8). She managed to make it to heads-up in Event 8, but started with roughly a 13-1 chip disadvantage versus her heads-up opponent Alain Corriveau. It didn’t take long for both players to get all their chips in the middle, and although Traci has the better hand preflop, the community cards changed all that. Alain Corriveau finished by taking the win, which was accompanied by a $1,507 prize, and a Playground Poker Montreal Festival bracelet, while Traci earned herself a consolation prize of $1,150!
Congratulations Alain!
Event 8 Champion: Alain Corriveau, $1,507
Event 8 Runner-Up: Traci Horpestad, $1,150
Last hand of play in Event 8
Already through to level 11
Event 8 has already moved into level 11 and there are just 34 players left of the 92 who started the tournament. At the last break there were two clear chip leaders: Jason Kantarjian with 107K and Ivan Dimitrov with 96K. Several players were in the 50K – 70K range – which is to say, within striking distance of the leaders.
Here are some photos of the players still in the tournament this afternoon.
Event 6 Champion: Zhen Wang
After a heated heads-up battle between Zhen Wang and Guillaume Doyon, it was finally Zhen who got the best of it, and claimed the victory. He took home $1,863 for the win, and also earned himself a Playground Poker Montreal Festival bracelet!
Congratulations Zhen!
Event 6 Champion: Zhen Wang, $1,863
Event 6 Runner-Up: Guillaume Doyon, $1,350
Last hand of Event 6
Top 3 at the break
Three players have managed to climb over the 100K mark in Event 6 so far, and they are leading the field. Here is an estimate of their stacks:
- Michel Landry – 114,000
- Brandon AAron Kitchen – 112,000
- Mathieu Ducharme – 108,000
