Event #8 of the June Power Weekend brought out an impressive field of 222 entries, enough to greatly surpass the guarantee on the prize pool and fill the tournament hall with bounty hunters.
The action was predictably wild during the early levels. There was no shortage of multi-way all-ins, bloated pots and loose calls. In many bounty tournaments, this kind of dynamic gives way to much tighter play once the prize money is in sight, but that was not the case tonight. The money bubble held up play only briefly, and the 28 players who cashed this event were reduced to the final table before anyone expected.
The play at the final table was far more conservative than everything we had seen throughout the night, as the huge swing between tenth and first-place money clearly weighed on the players. There was an attempt at negotiating a deal at the final table when four players remained, but they could not come to a consensus so play carried on. After the chips shifted around over the course of the next level, the players started to feel differently about a deal and an ICM chop that left an extra $400 for the winner was agreed to.
After the ICM deal, the chips started going in a lot more easily, and most hands were played out pre-flop. Nicolas Laliberte was eliminated in fourth, and Robert Dagenais followed immediately after in third. In the end it, came down to Donald Lee and Francis Rivest-Beaudoin. Rivest-Beaudoin got the best of Lee and won consecutive all-in hands to claim victory. Congratulations!
Event #8 Champion: Francis Rivest-Beaudoin, $3,270
Last hand of play:
