Darryl Beal has amassed a stack north of 475,000 after 16 levels of play, and is now far ahead of any player in the field – his closest rivals find themselves below the 300,000 mark.
We will bring you coverage of this event once play is in the money.
The final 3 players in The $250 Frenzy have negotiated a deal based on their current chip counts. The tournament requires $5,000 to be held back for the eventual champion, who will also take home the Playground Poker Spring Classic Champion’s Trophy, and the rest of the prize pool was divided based on an ICM chip-chop.
Here are the numbers that were agreed-upon, with and extra $5,000 going to the eventual winner.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis | Prize | Prix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simon | Pin-Disle | 11,775,000 | $37,477 |
| Jaroslaw Zbigniew | Jaskiewicz | 6,650,000 | $31,884 |
| Zheng-Yi | Xie | 6,475,000 | $31,640 |
Congratulations!
Maxime Theroux
When action folded around to shortest stack Maxime Theroux in the small blind, he put the pressure on the other short stack Ziggy in the big blind by moving all-in. Ziggy looked down at a pair and made the call.
Maxime: 
Ziggy: 
Board: 
Ziggy nearly doubled up on the hand, as play fell 3-handed.
4th place: Maxime Theroux – $18,000.00
Maxime Theroux
“Let’s play”… the words muttered by chip leader Simon Pin-Disle when he didn’t get the $40,000 he wanted in the deal – which proposed him $38,171.
Play continues in level 34…
Event 5 Champion: Rong Xu
As we mentioned earlier, once the deal was made the play became extremely loose as everyone was tired after a day that was already more than 13 hours long. When all was said and done, there were just two players left: Neal Thornton and Rong Xu. They played all of 3 hands heads-up before Rong was crowned the champion of Event 5!
Event 5 Champion: Rong Xu, $10,425 plus the Champion’s Trophy
Event 5 Champion: Rong Xu
2nd place: Neal Thornton, $9,125
Neal Thornton
The final hand of play
Event 5: Final Hand
Event 5 in the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker.net was a $500 + $50 NL Hold’em Freeze the began on April 26th, 2016 at 11am. It was a 1-day event with a total of 134 players that contributed to a final prize pool of $64,990.00. This prize pool was distributed according to the following table.
Note there was a player agreement reached at 5 players remaining that reserved $1,300 and the trophy for the winner and the remaining prize pool was distributed via modified (negotiated) ICM chop. The final prize numbers reflect this deal – this accounts for why the player in 3rd place won the most money – he was a big chip leader at the time of the deal.
| Rank | Pos | First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Prize | Bourse |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rong | Xu | $10,425.00 |
| 2 | Neal | Thornton | $9,125.00 |
| 3 | Rodney | Ramalho | $11,740.00 |
| 4 | Yohann | Wagner | $9,125.00 |
| 5 | Kliment | Tarmakov | $7,740.00 |
| 6 | Christopher | Willis Jackson | $3,890.00 |
| 7 | Julien Baptiste Roger | Arneodo | $2,950.00 |
| 8 | Sebastien | Proulx | $2,240.00 |
| 9 | Adrian Dominik | Jandziszak | $1,695.00 |
| 10 | Ramesh | Puradchithasan | $1,285.00 |
| 11 | Mehdi | M | $1,285.00 |
| 12 | James Marvin | Loder | $1,195.00 |
| 13 | Francesco | Maltese | $1,195.00 |
| 14 | Dany | Pacitti | $1,100.00 |
After short stacked Maxime Theroux won two consecutive double-ups, the final 4 decided to pause the clock to negotiate a potential deal. Here are the stacks as they stand at the turn of level 33:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|
| Simon | Pin-Disle | 12,550,000 |
| Jaroslaw Zbigniew | Jaskiewicz | 5,975,000 |
| Zheng-Yi | Xie | 3,300,000 |
| Maxime | Theroux | 3,150,000 |
Players in Event 5 learned that they must reserve $1,300 and the Champion’s Trophy, and once the break arrived – after an early failed attempt at an agreement – the 5 remaining players agreed to a modified ICM chop.
Here are the agreed-to payouts: Kliment: $7,740; Rong, Neal, Yohann: $9,125; Rodney: $11,740.
Once the deal was made everyone loosened up – almost completely – and the play was as fast as possible.
3rd place: Rodney Ramalho, $11,740
Rodney Ramalho
4th place: Yohann Wagner, $9,125
Yohann Wagner
5th place: Kliment Tarmakov, $7,740
Kliment Tarmakov
Simon Pin-Disle
Simon Pin-Disle defended his big blind facing a button min-raise from Maxime. He lead out 550,000 on a 
flop, and Maxime replied with a raise to 1,325,000. Simon 3bet his over 5-million chip stack, and Maxime double-checked his cards before making a quick call.
Simon: 
Maxime: 
Simon let out a sigh when he saw he was in bad shape, but the running 
and 
gave him a full house to win the hand over Maxime’s flopped flush. He now holds a little over 11.5 million chips, good for the lead, while Maxime is down to about 700,000.
Shortly after seeing a large part of his stack get passed along to Jaroslaw with 
versus 
, Maxime Theroux found himself on the stronger end of a cooler in 4-handed action.
Maxime: 
Ziggy:
Board: 
Maxime now holds roughly 5.5 million, while Ziggy slid down to under 4-million.
