Playground Poker

After Mike Leah was eliminated from the Grand Prix Canada, ending the $20,000 last-longer promotion from partypoker, the final 3 players decided to pause the clock to see if a deal can be negotiated. Striking a deal while the last-longer promotion was still ongoing would cancel the bonus, and therefore all deal-talk was quickly turned down leading up to this point.

Once the ICM numbers were given, the three finalists were happy to lock in their prizes and shake on the deal. The tournament stipulates that a percentage of the prize-pool must remain in play for the eventual winner, and so an additional $20,000 has been left on the table for the Grand Prix champion, while the rest of the prize pool was divided as indicated below. Action is now back underway in level 38 as we play towards a winner, who will also take home the Grand Prix Canada champion’s trophy.

• Cassidy Battikha (30,485,000) – $64,050.00
• Karim Abdelhamid (29,720,000) – $62,500.00
• Kevin Zeidler (17,295,000) – $53,450.00

Congratulations!

The most decorated player from this Grand Prix Canada final table has just been eliminated, as did his hopes of taking down the $20,000 last longer sponsored by partypoker. Mike Leah was one of two remaining players with a Golden Chip on this final table, and the last man standing was set to take home the bonus prize. With Mike’s recent elimination, it is Kevin Zeidler who won the $20,000 bonus.

Mike lost a good portion of his stack when he open shoved from the small blind in an unopened pot, putting pressure on shorter stack Cassidy Battikha in the big blind. With around 14bb in front of him, Cassidy made the call with and held on for the double up, leaving Mike with under 10bb.

An orbit later, action folded around to Mike in the small blind, and once again he moved all-in – this time as the shorter stack. He found a quick call from Cassidy and the two tabled their hands.

Mike:
Cassidy:

Board:

Mike was eliminated on the hand, taking home a $25,000 consolation prize for his efforts.

Counts of the final 3 players:

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Cassidy	Battikha	30,485,000
Karim	Abdelhamid	29,720,000
Kevin	Zeidler	17,295,000

4th place: Mike Leah – $25,000.00

Leandre St-Laurent went on a tear in the second half of Day 2, building himself a monster stack in the process. He held the chip lead for several levels, until Mike Leah chipped his way into the lead in the final moments of Day 2 to bag the lead.

Leandre returned to the felts today second in chips, and remained fairly quiet throughout the night, maintaining a healthy stack until the field got near the final table. Once the 8-handed final table began, he found himself to be one of the shorter stacks, but managed to remain in the game until the tournament reached 5-way action.

With only 6 big blinds left, Leandre found a shoving hand from utg and pushed for 4,700,000. Mike Leah re-shoved from the cutoff for 8,200,000 and action closed heads-up.

Leandre:
Mike:

Leandre couldn’t improve on the  board and was sent to the rail in 5th place, while Mike picked up some much needed ammunition.

5th place: Leandre St-Laurent – $14,580.00

The 5 finalists in the Grand Prix Canada took a short break following level 35, and leading the way is Karim Abdelhamid who has managed to build his stack up to 23,005,000 chips. Cassidy and Kevin sit in the middle of the pack with around 17 million each, while Mike and Leandre have some work to do with stacks below the 20 big blind mark.

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Golden Chip	Stack | Tapis
Karim	Abdelhamid		23,005,000
Cassidy	Battikha		17,520,000
Kevin	Zeidler		16,495,000
Mike	Leah		10,210,000
Leandre	St-Laurent		8,770,000

Shahar Ohaion was been on the shorter end of the leaderboard for the entirety of Day 3, and has managed to navigate through the field and secure himself a spot on the elusive final table.

In his final hand of play, he moved all-in for 3,195,000 from the cutoff after Karim had limped in from utg. Action folded to Cassidy Battikha in the big blind, who 3-bet all-in over the top, bringing the hand down to heads-up.

Shahar:
Cassidy:

Although he picked up a premium hand with his short stack, Shahar was in big trouble and needed to find some help on the board. Unfortunately for him the board ran in the favour of the pocket pair, reading . Shahar gracefully congratulated his table-mates and left the stage with a smile to collect his 6th place prize money.

6th place: Shahar Ohaion – $10,000.00