Spring Classic 2017

Jôle Simard

Our PL 5-Card Omaha Champion: Simon Pin-Disle

- by

Event 8 was our second PLO Event in the Playground Poker Spring Classic, this time in its 5-card variation. 51 players joined the Event, 14 of which opted to re-enter when they ran out of chips, for a total of 65 entries. Players battled hard, with the whole deck out.

Ivan Driard, the winner of our previous PLO Event (last Tuesday), got 6th place, claiming the best PLO combined results in this series, while Ben Menache, another local cash player, placed in 5th.

The Heads-up match was an all-Simon affair. Simon Pin-Disle is an experienced local player, and his crushing chip lead, along with his poker skills, were going to make things really hard for Simon Assouline. In just a few hands time, Pin-Disle had the best him.

Simon ”Mr. Poisson” Pin-Disle won the first all-in hand of the match, and with it the tournament.

Congratulations!

The $300 + $30 PL 5-Card Omaha Champion: Simon Pin-Disle – $8,065.00

Runner-up: Simon Assouline – $4,000.00

Simon Assouline

Last hand of play:

4th place: Ariel Hassan; 3rd place: Ryan Smith

- by

Players are now playing short-handed 5-card PLO. Can any 5 cards be played by now? Most will say yes. At this point, it’s much more about how you bet than how you select. Ariel Hassan and Simon Pin-Disle went to the flop together, and got it in there.

Ariel Hassan: 10 of Diamonds 4 of Diamonds 8 of Diamonds 9 of Spades King of Spades
Simon Pin-Disle: King of Hearts Jack of Clubs 10 of Hearts Queen of Clubs Ace of Clubs

Board: 4 of Clubs 9 of Clubs 2 of Diamonds 7 of Clubs Ace of Hearts

Pin-Disle was looking for a 3rd club, while Hassan had flopped 2 pairs. The turn completed the flush, and when the river came out clean, Hassan was out in 4th.

Two hands later, it was Ryan Smith’s turn to have a taste of Pin-Disle’s chops.

Simon Pin-Disle: 9 of Clubs 9 of Spades 7 of Diamonds 5 of Spades 3 of Diamonds
Ryan Smith: Jack of Clubs Queen of Spades 8 of Hearts 8 of Clubs King of Clubs

Board: 5 of Hearts 9 of Diamonds Queen of Hearts 4 of Spades Jack of Spades

In this hand, Pin-Disle had Smith in as bad a shape as one can be with 5 cards in their hand. In other words, Smith had a quite a few outs. The set of nines held, however, and sent Simon Pin-Disle and Simon Assouline in a heads-up match, favoring Pin-Disle by a huge margin.

4th place: Ariel Hassan – $1,800.00                                            3rd place: Ryan Smith – $2,000.00

Shawn Daigle, Ivan Driard and Ben Menache claim prizes in the PL 5-Card Omaha

  • Level: 18
  • Small Blind: 8K
  • Big Blind: 16K
  • Ante: 0
  • Chip Average: 406.3K
  • Remaining: 4
  • Entries: 65

- by

Only 5 players remain in the $300 + $30 PL 5-Card Omaha Re-entry, and 3 prize winners are already decided. Shawn Daigle (title picture), who took second place in our Winter Festival 2017 Second Chance Event for $29,130, was awarded the minimal prize. He left with $650.

Ivan Driard, who was the defending PLO Champion, followed him, cashing $1,000. He was really close to accomplishing something great: winning back to back PLO tournaments in the same series!

After Driard, Ben Menache took a walk over to the desk, claiming 5th place money: $1,400.

Our 4 surviving finalists (Ariel Hassan, Simon Pin-Disle, Simon Assouline and Ryan Smith, seated in that order) will play until the Champion’s Trophy is awarded.

Our $500 + $100 + $500 NL Hold’em 50/50 Bounty Champion: Mitchael Ferguson

- by

Tonight’s Bounty tournament was our last high-buy-in Event in the Playground Poker Spring Classic. 156 Bounties were on the tables, and all but one were relinquished.

The Event went on for almost 15 hours straight, involving stamina in the game. It started at 11h00, and by 1h30, Mitchael Ferguson had outlasted every other player.

The final table was an interesting game, and lasted almost 3 hours. Players enjoyed an average stack ranging from 15 to 25 big blinds, which made it possible for the better stacked to play with decent depth.

Since Stoffmaker announced pretty early that he was not going to consider a deal, the final table unfolded without any deal talk, in the pure form of tournament poker. Without protesting, players went about their game, seemingly happy with the situation. Many finalists took turn at the top, including Sreyleap Prom, who was chip leader for the longest time. When she lost a huge pot with a busted flush draw, she left in 5th place.

Harley Stoffmaker also took the lead for a while, and made it to the heads-up match, which did not last very long. He and Ferguson battled small pots for about 15 minutes, until Stoffmaker finally managed to get it in with a dominating hand.

He placed a minimal raise from the button, and when Ferguson announced all-in, he called instantly, and could only hope that his queens would hold. Unfortunately for him, fate had it otherwise.

Ferguson flopped trips, and was incidentally crowed Champion of the $500 + $100 + $500 NL Hold’em 50/50 Bounty.

Congratulations!

Our $500 + $100 + $500 NL Hold’em 50/50 Bounty Champion: Mitchael Ferguson – $17,800.00

Runner-up: Harley Stoffmaker – $13,480.00

Harley Stoffmaker

Last hand of play:

Sreyleap Prom, Zhao Kang Peng and François Tarrab leave the room

  • Level: 28
  • Small Blind: 20K
  • Big Blind: 40K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 2M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 156

- by

Sreyleap Prom and Mitchael Ferguson got into a blind versus blind battle. We missed the exact action, but the hand resulted in a huge 2M pot.

Sreyleap Prom: Ace of Spades 7 of Spades
Mitchael Ferguson: Queen of Diamonds 3 of Diamonds

Board: 2 of Hearts Queen of Spades Queen of Clubs 8 of Spades 5 of Hearts

Prom was taken out in 5th, allowing Zhao Kang Peng to squeeze one more pay jump with his micro stack. Peng went out on the next hand, handing his few chips to Stoffmaker.

After this, it was François Tarrab’s (title picture) turn to fall, another victim of the Stoffmaker, who seems to collecting Bounties. Tarrab’s King of Clubs 6 of Hearts could not improve, and Stoffmaker’s King of Diamonds Queen of Diamonds held strong.

The heads-up match is so decided, with fairly even stacks, favoring Mitchael Ferguson by a tiny margin. The Trophy is out on the table. Good luck to both!

5th place: Sreyleap Prom – $5,760.00
4th place: Zhao Kang Peng – $7,640.00
3rd place: François Tarrab – $10,130.00

Norson Shiniti Saho bites the dust

  • Level: 25
  • Small Blind: 15K
  • Big Blind: 30K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 780K
  • Remaining: 5
  • Entries: 156

- by

Norson Shiniti Saho min-raised to 60K, and Sreyleap Prom went all-in, putting pressure on Saho. He commited the rest of his chips, about 360K total.

Norson Shiniti Saho: 4 of Spades 4 of Clubs
Sreyleap Prom: Ace of Spades King of Diamonds

Board: 3 of Spades 6 of Clubs Ace of Diamonds Jack of Spades 10 of Clubs

Prom wins a Bounty, but more importantly, some very valuable final table chips.

Shortly after, Harley Stoffmaker got it in with Ace of Spades King of Diamonds against Zhao Kang Peng’s 10 of Hearts 10 of Clubs. Stoffmaker hit an ace, and doubled up to 1.2M, crippling Peng in the process. Even though he doubled him up twice since then, he still has a cool million in chips.

6th place: Norson Shiniti Saho – $4,340.00

Norson Shiniti Saho