July Power Weekend News

The 6-Max Bounty Champion: Sébastien Proulx

2018/07/31 - 4:31 by Jôle Simard

Event 9 was a $200 +$30 + $100 6-Max Bounty, a player favourite and the closing event of the July Power Weekend. Participation was huge, made up of tournament regulars, occasionals and even cash game players. 178 entries were accounted for, and a huge prize pool was formed.

Danny Ibrahim was the first player to enjoy a crushing lead, having almost twice as many chips as his closest opponent at one point. He did take part in the final table chop.

Jonathan Bussières, a very experienced player, was on the hunt. He went after those bounties relentlessly, and his aggressive style and calculated risks got him pretty deep, until he lost a huge pot against Sébastien Proulx for all his chips and missed the final table by one position.

As soon as the final table formed, players agreed to a deal that sped up play considerably. Quick confrontations led to Assouline and Proulx fighting for the extra $700. The duel lasted about 15 minutes. It could have gone much longer, because both players were truly trying to get the extra cash and the title, but 2 premium hands were dealt, and Proulx’s jacks held up.

Congratulations on a solid performance!

Champion of Event 9: Sébastien Proulx – $6,821

Runner-up: Simon Assouline – $2,980

Last hand of play:

Event #2 Champion: Sebastien Drolet-Poitras

2018/07/31 - 2:14 by Shawn McCrory

The latest edition of the Playground 200 brought out 698 entries over the course of the July Power Weekend. The huge field built a prize pool that easily exceeded the $100,000 guarantee. There were 21 players remaining when play began on Day 3, led by Co Tran who started the evening with the largest stack in play.

The players arrived looking determined, seemingly unfazed by the boisterous mood in the tournament hall as 6-Max Bounty got underway. The 21 finalists started on three tables that quickly became two following the eliminations in the first two levels of play. Co Tran’s chip lead began to fade as Steve Horic started his rise to the top of the leader board.

Once the players arrived at the final table, Horic had a slim chip lead over his rivals. And he continued the solid play that got him to the top of the leader board over the course of the next few levels, however, our eventual champion, Sebastien Drolet-Poitras came on strong in the late stages.

It was a rough start to the final table for Drolet-Poitras, having lost a big heads-up pot to Horic in the early going. But he maintained his resolve and stayed focused on his goal. He kept himself out of harm’s way during the early eliminations and then started making some hands as they got into the late stages. Although Steve Horic also eliminated a number of players at the final table, the players busted by Drolet-Poitras had the larger stacks so by the time they arrived against each other to play heads up, Drolet-Poitras had a slim chip lead.

Drolet-Poitras and Horic agreed to an ICM chop before heads-up play began, with a small portion of the prize pool reserved for the outright winner. And it was Drolet-Poitras who immediately took charge. The turning point of the heads-up match came early on when Drolet-Poitras was able to elicit a call from a huge river value bet, holding on a board of . After that hand, Drolet-Poitras had a massive chip lead, one that he would not relinquish. The two players traded some small pots back and forth before the tournament came to its conclusion following a pre-flop all in when two big hands collided. Horic had the best of it before the flop, but Drolet-Poitras flopped a set to claim victory. Congratulations!

Event #2 Champion: Sebastien Drolet-Poitras, $22,737

Last hand of play:

Yvon Robert Blais wins Event #8

2018/07/30 - 20:20 by

Yvon Robert Blais has emerged as the champion of Event #8 in the July Power Weekend, beating Steve Khoury heads up to book the victory. As we posted earlier, after a deal was made 5-way, play didn’t budge for at least a few orbits of the table – but when the first of the final 5 was eliminated, the next two followed, one hand after the other.

This left Yvon with a big chip lead against Steve to play for the win. They played a few hands and exchanged some chips, but with the next tournament starting and blinds feeling very high to both players, they chose to go all-in blind on the last hand – and despite his lowly , Yvon won the hand, and the championship, against Steve’s . The final board was .

The heads up players

Event #8 Champion: Yvon Robert Blais, $925

Final Hand

2nd place: Steve Khoury, $770

The stage is set for Day 3 of the Playground 200

Level: 25
Small Blind: 15K
Big Blind: 30K
Button Ante: 30K
Chip Average: 830K
Remaining: 21
Entries: 698

2018/07/30 - 19:04 by Shawn McCrory

The July Power Weekend edition of the Playground 200 was another great success, as we have come to expect from this event. Throughout the Day 1s, 698 players took a shot at this tournament and only 21 remain. The great turnout built a prize pool that easily surpassed the guarantee, and the players all have their sights set on the big money that will be awarded tonight.

The finalists are making their way into the tournament hall, ready to battle it out for the $24,792 first place prize. As the players tear open their bags and sort their stacks, seven players in the field have over a million in chips, led by Co Tran with 1,470,000. But with lots of strong players in the field, that lead is far from safe.

The action is about to start. Good luck to all!

Action is underway

Level: 2
Small Blind: 50
Big Blind: 100
Button Ante: 100
Chip Average: 15.7K
Remaining: 42
Entries: 42

2018/07/30 - 12:40 by

The action in Event #8 is underway in the Tournament Hall – in fact, level 2 is almost complete with 42 players seated. Late registration is still available for over 90 minutes – 1 hour and 35 minutes, to be precise – and there are 2 rebuys so far.

Here are some photos of the early action.

Event #7 Champion: Alberto Scuderi

2018/07/30 - 3:35 by Shawn McCrory

Event #7 of the July Power Weekend, the $100 + $10 NL Short Deck Hold’em Re-entry, brought out a large contingent of players looking for action. And that’s exactly what they got, with 46 re-entries out of a field of 93 players serving as testament. In all, the event gathered 139 entries, enough to greatly surpass the $8,000 guarantee on the prize pool.

It was a night of wild action. At first, many players were unsure how to adjust to the wrinkles in the traditional hold’em format but before long everyone realized that their equity calculations had to be revised in a big way. The result was lots and lots of pre-flop action where players were happy to take their chances with big pocket pairs or two broadway cards or suited connectors, and those hands come around pretty often when playing with a short deck. So it comes as no surprise that there were so many re-entries in this event.

The only lull in the action was shortly before the money bubble. The money bubble had a major influence on the play and the field remained stuck at 20 players for nearly two levels. And there was an unusual resolution to this impasse; the bubble was resolved when an abandoned stack was finally blinded out. After that the action came roaring back, reducing the 18-player field to the final nine within a few minutes.

The chips went in quickly at the final table, sending two players to the rail within the first orbit. From there, the remaining players agreed to an ICM chop of the prize pool, leaving $283 to play for. Following the chop, the players had a great time at the final table with jokes and friendly barbs flying faster than the chips.

In the end, it came down to Alberto Scuderi and Anderson Frank-Graham. The two Playground regulars have lots of playing history between them and equally booming voices that can often be heard throughout the tournament hall. They went through a series of flips, and Scuderi eventually came out on top.

Event #7 Champion: Alberto Scuderi (right), $1,753

Last hand of play: