Playground Poker

Chao bags over 3 million as today’s Phase 1 comes to a close

2017/05/03 - 21:56 by Playground Poker

This afternoon’s Phase 1 tournament is now complete, and 26 players have bagged chips onto Day 1 of the partypoker Million North America from a starting field of 266 entries. The count was supposed to be 27 players, but there was a 3-way all-in during hand for hand play at the end of the day, and 2 players were eliminated, leaving just 26 stacks to be taken by players to Day 1.

Sammy Chao ended the flight with an impressive 3,149,000 chip stack, which is the biggest stack to date coming from a Phase 1. Ryan Smith bagged the second biggest stack from this flight with 2,366,500, while Hugo Dumoulin rounds the top 3 with 1,838,500. The full counts of the 26 qualifiers will be added to the Phase 1 Results page once the bagging process has been completed.

For more info regarding the partypoker Million North America, visit the info page on the Playground website.

Photographs from the last levels of play in Wednesday’s Phase 1:

169 turn up for the Survivor Event

Level: 5
Small Blind: 200
Big Blind: 400
Ante: 0
Chip Average: 22.2K
Remaining: 152
Entries: 169

2017/05/03 - 20:46 by Playground Poker

Registration has just come to a close in Event #4 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic, and a total of 169 players participated in this Survivor Event. The tournament will come to an end when play reaches the final 16 players, and they will chop up the prize pool evenly, taking home $2,910 each. The 17th place finisher will also earn a prize, although slightly smaller – $2,619.

Photographs taken before the first break:

Late registration is open until 8:30pm

Level: 2
Small Blind: 50
Big Blind: 100
Ante: 0
Chip Average: 20K
Remaining: 102
Entries: 102

2017/05/03 - 19:26 by Playground Poker

The registration period for Event #4 NL Hold’em Survivor will remain open through until the end of the first break at 8:30pm. So far the $30,000 guarantee has already been passed with over 100 players currently at their seats, and more are joining by the minute. Once the first break is open we will publish the prize-pool and payout information.

$300 + $30 Survivor begins at 7pm

Level: 1
Small Blind: 25
Big Blind: 50
Ante: 0
Chip Average: 20K
Remaining: 35
Entries: 35

2017/05/03 - 19:00 by Playground Poker

Event #4 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker LIVE is a $300 + $30 Survivor tournament with a guarantee of $30,000. Players will begin with 20,000 in chips with 20 minute levels, and late registration will be open through until the end of the first break.

Much like a satellite tournament, play stops once the final 10% of the field remains in the Survivor, and the “surviving” players are then awarded an even portion of the prize-pool, regardless of their stack size at the end of the tournament.

Registration is up to 35 entries so far and climbing fast, and players have up until 8:30pm to jump into action.

See you on the felts!

Event #3 final results

2017/05/03 - 9:00 by Playground Poker

Event #3 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker LIVE was a $100 + $20 + $100 Pot Limit Omaha Bounty tournament which attracted 121 players and 30 re-entries, for a total of 151 entries.

The following is the official results table for the event. Note that this does not include any of the $100 Bounties won by players, which are not formally tracked.

Rank \| Pos	First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Name	Prize \| Bourse
1	Ivan	Driard	$3,223.00
2	Steve	Ulloa-Torres	$2,924.00
3	Brian	Morgan	$2,000.00
4	Manfred	Gunther	$1,550.00
5	Simon	Pin-Disle	$1,200.00
6	Alexandre	Vendette	$900.00
7	Leor	Wasserman	$650.00
8	Sako	Marashlian	$500.00
9	Issie Emin	Yuzgulec	$400.00
10	Hans	Carcenac	$350.00
11	Christopher	Scrimshaw	$350.00
12	Arthur	W	$300.00
13	Mike	Fraser	$300.00

PLO 50/50 Bounty Champion: Ivan Driard

2017/05/03 - 4:23 by Playground Poker

Although cash prizes were being awarded throughout the night in the form of $100 bounties, the final 13 players were awarded cash payouts, with $3,440 reserved for eventual winner.

Steve Ulloa-Torres was the early chip leader and managed to gather a handful of bounties in the early levels of play. Once play neared the money-bubble, Manfred Gunther started applying pressure with his big stack and won two big pots which propelled him to the final table as chip-leader. After picking up bounties in 2 of the first 3 eliminations, Manfred eventually made an exit from the tournament in 4th place. Brian Morgan was the 3rd place finisher, and heads-up play began between Steve and Ivan Driard, with Steve holding a 3-to-1 chip lead.

After a few hands of play, Ivan evened the playing grounds and the two finalists decided to strike a deal. Being very close in stacks, they agreed to take an even portion of the prize-pool, all the while leaving an extra $300 for the eventual winner, who would also take home the champions trophy. Ivan quickly picked up a 2-to-1 chip lead over his opponent before the two players clashed in a big pot leading to Steve’s elimination.

With blinds at 30K/60K, Steve completed his small blind, and Ivan checked his big blind option. On a flop, Ivan checked first to act, and Steve fired 75K. Ivan raised to 345K, and called Steve’s all-in of 1.15M.

Ivan:
Steve:

Steve was drawing to a straight, while Ivan flopped three-of-a-kind. The brought no change in the hand, and the sealed the deal for Ivan, who closed the tournament with quads! Although Ivan only managed to pocket 1 bounty prior to heads-up play, he locked in the biggest payout and earned an extra 2 bounties by winning the heads-up match. Steve walked away with the biggest total prize as he cashed in a massive 16 bounty chips worth $1,600.