Playground Poker Spring Classic 2015

Event 10 – WPT Canadian Spring Championship

The Champion: Sheraz Nasir!

The blind levels had reduced to 30 minutes heads up as per the published event rules, and during the 3rd level of heads up play, […]

Zhang takes a blow

Lu Zhang just lost a good portion of her stack, as she check-called on three streets from the big blind, only to find out her […]

Short chip-up break

We’re on a short break here as the TDs are racing off the T5,000 chips. Sheraz has regained the lead in this heads-up battle, as he has […]

More news from this event

Tickets 4 sale

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 200
  • Big Blind: 400
  • Ante: 50
  • Chip Average: 41.3K
  • Remaining: 98
  • Entries: 135


    • - by

    Marc-Andre Ladouceur

    Montreal has developed a reputation as a pretty fantastic poker town, what with players like Jonathan Duhamel, Marc Etienne McLaughlin, Marc-André Ladouceur, and many many more making a mark on the international tournament scene. But Montreal – at heart – is and will always be a hockey town, first and foremost.

    And it’s created a bit of an issue for a few players in the field today:

    Marc-Andre Ladouceur

    Marc-Andre Ladouceur

    Level 5 photos

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 150
  • Big Blind: 300
  • Ante: 50
  • Chip Average: 40.1K
  • Remaining: 101
  • Entries: 135


    • - by

    Jonathan Duhamel

    Photographs from level 5:

    Table 50 is a beast!

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 150
  • Big Blind: 300
  • Ante: 50
  • Chip Average: 37.2K
  • Remaining: 109
  • Entries: 135


    • - by

    Ami Alibay

    Table 50 is right on the aisle between the cashier area and the Tournament desk, so when the tournament started today we noticed pretty quickly that it was a very tough table. And then local player Ami Alibay sent this tweet:

    Here’s the lineup as it was just 30 minutes ago:

    [eztable width=”70%” colwidth=”35%|35%|30%” colalign=”left|left|left”]
    First Name,Last Name,Seat [attr sort=”asc”]
    Samuel,Chartier,Seat 1
    Jonathan,Karamalikis,Seat 2
    Carlo,Nini,Seat 3
    William,Molson,Seat 4
    Jiachen,Gong,Seat 5
    Marvin,Rettenmaier,Seat 6
    Eric,Afriat,Seat 7
    Timothy,Reilly,Seat 8
    Ami,Alibay,Seat 10
    [/eztable]

    Tim Reilly and Marvin Rettenmaier are household names (at least in the poker world) but just because some of the other names aren’t as well-known doesn’t mean they’re any less dangerous. Between Samuel Chartier, Carlo Nini, Will Molson, Jiachen Gong, Eric Afriat and Ami Alibay you have one of the strongest concentrations of Montreal-area poker talent possible. And add to that Jonathan Karamalikis… whew.

    [Update…]

    And it’s not going to get easier. Eric Afriat is now out of the tournament – but Jeff Gross has been seated in that spot!

    What they’re playing for (WPT Edition)

    - by

    In addition to prize money (always the chief motivation of poker players), players in the biggest events at Playground Poker Club also have an additional prize to compete for – the Championship Belt! Ever since 2011, we’ve awarded boxing-style belts to winners of select events – and once we even held the final table within a boxing ring! That’s in addition to the prestigious WPT Champion’s trophy, where winners names are enshrined for all time…

    Well, the boxing ring is gone but the belts have survived – and the belt for the partypoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship is stunning!

    PPSC-E7-D2-02-2

    Mclaughlin leads after 4 levels

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 150
  • Big Blind: 300
  • Ante: 25
  • Chip Average: 36.6K
  • Remaining: 109
  • Entries: 133


    • - by

    Marc-Etienne Mclaughlin

    While the players were enjoying a short break, we took a walk through the tournament room in search of the current chip leaders, and here is what we found:

    1. Marc Etienne Mclaughlin – 119,000
    2. Brian Wang – 93,000
    3. Etienne Dion – 82,000
    4. Lu Zhang – 78,000
    5. Christopher Clisby – 74,000
    6. Christo Bassila – 69,500
    7. Paul Theodore Klann – 66,000
    8. Doris Charlebois – 62,500
    9. Mathieu Martin – 62,000
    Marc-Etienne Mclaughlin

    Marc-Etienne Mclaughlin

    Some Day 1A photographs

  • Level: 4
  • Small Blind: 100
  • Big Blind: 200
  • Ante: 25
  • Chip Average: 36.1K
  • Remaining: 109
  • Entries: 131


    • - by

    Photographs from levels 3-4:

    First break of Day 1a

  • Level: 3
  • Small Blind: 75
  • Big Blind: 150
  • Ante: 25
  • Chip Average: 32.2K
  • Remaining: 109
  • Entries: 117


    • - by

    Players have completed the first two 60-minute levels today (of the 10 levels to be played) and have gone on break. Late registration continues after this break – in fact, it continues past the next break and all the way through the dinner break following level 6.

    During the first two levels we took a few photos of the field:

    Cards are in the air!

  • Level: 1
  • Small Blind: 50
  • Big Blind: 100
  • Ante: 0
  • Chip Average: 30K
  • Remaining: 85
  • Entries: 85


    • - by

    The opening announcements have been made and poker legend Mike Sexton has given the command to the dealers to “Shuffle up and Deal” and with that, the partypoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship is under way!

    By the way, we streamed the opening announcements live via Periscope/Twitter, and we will try and find other opportunities to do more of this in the future. Check out periscope.tv for more information.

    Here’s a sample:

    Welcome to the partypoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship!

    - by

    In just minutes, Season XIV of the World Poker Tour will kick off with Day 1a of the partypoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship!

    This is the third Canadian Spring Championship in a row, but just the second springtime full WPT Tour event. In 2013, Amir Babakhani outlasted a field of 735 entrants to take home the first prize, and in 2014 when this was a WPT National event (with $1,100 buy-in), Jason Comtois was the last man standing of over 1000 entries.

    Event 10 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker.net. The buy-in for the event is $3200 + $300 and it is a next-day re-entry event with 2 starting days (today and Saturday May 2nd). Players will start with 30,000 in tournament chips and blinds will be 60 minutes long during Days 1 and 2. Anyone may consults the full rules and tournament structure by downloading the PDF from our Tournament Details page.

    Late registration will be open until the end of the dinner break following level 6 today, which means that players have until 6:15 tonight to join the event.

    Good luck to all!

    Event 7 – Results & Payouts

    - by

    Event 7 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker.net was the WPT Warm-up, a $1000 + $100 NL Hold’em tournament. The tournament began on April 29, 2015 at 11:00am and was a two-day event. There were a total of 190 players in the event, which generated a prize pool of $184,300.00. This was be distributed according to the following table.

    [eztable width=100% colwidth=10%|35%|35%|20% colalign=center|left|left|left]
    Rank [attr sort=asc],First Name,Last Name,Prize
    1,Philippe,Belley,”$44,500.00″
    2,Andrew,Graham,”$31,300.00″
    3,Alexander James,Allison,”$20,050.00″
    4,Joshua Keith,Tucker,”$14,850.00″
    5,Michael,Wang,”$11,150.00″
    6,Kane,Kalas,”$8,920.00″
    7,Alex,Fortin Demers,”$7,400.00″
    8,Joe,Gualtieri,”$5,930.00″
    9,Peter,Papadakos,”$4,440.00″
    10,Daniel,Leduc,”$3,240.00″
    11,Gregory,Katayama,”$3,240.00″
    12,Jonathan,Duhamel,”$3,240.00″
    13,Alan,Ryan,”$2,670.00″
    14,Griffin,Benger,”$2,670.00″
    15,Grant,Fallis,”$2,670.00″
    16,Ami,Alibay,”$2,260.00″
    17,Chanracy,Khun,”$2,260.00″
    18,Robert,Taylor,”$2,260.00″
    19,Geoffrey Robert,McNeely,”$1,990.00″
    20,Gagandeep,Singh,”$1,990.00″
    21,Joseph,Andres,”$1,990.00″
    22,Victor,Artemenko,”$1,760.00″
    23,Jean-Sebastien,Gratton,”$1,760.00″
    24,Jeremy,Lyons,”$1,760.00″
    [/eztable]