A pretty high proportion of “big name” players have been to Playground at least once in the past, but it’s always great to hear from yet another top player who’s happy with what he (or she) finds here in the poker room. Today it was Chance Kornuth, a top-ranked player with massive results around the globe:
Played for the first time at @PlaygroundPoker today. What a great place. Very excited for the 5k tomorrow.
— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) May 4, 2017
Check out the link in the top menu bar of this Event blog or visit partypokertv on Twitch to tune in to today’s edition of the $100/$200 partypoker LIVE cash game. Today’s lineup includes Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Trickett, Jeff Gross, Lauren Roberts, John Krpan, and Rob Yong. Commentary by Simon Trumper and various special guests throughout the dya.
Event #4 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker LIVE has come to a close in dramatic fashion with 16 “Survivors” remaining. The tournament followed a Survivor format, in which the top 10% of the field share the prize-pool evenly. With 169 players registered, the top 16 were awarded a prize of $2,910, while 17th place took home the remainder of the prize-pool, $2,619.
When play returned from break and into level 18 (8K/16K/a2K), only 19 players were still in the game with a handful of short stacks – 2 of which held less than 2bb, and another 8 below the 10bb mark. The shortest stack at the time, Rejean Viens, was the first to go, as his all-in was called by 3 players who checked down to the river.
Once on the stone-cold bubble, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, the two biggest stacks of the tournament clashed in an all-in preflop hand. Chip leader Trevor Delaney open-shoved his 450K stack from early position to put pressure on the short stack in the big blind, and when action came around to Neil Trahey (pictured), he also announced he was all-in with his stack of almost 400K. Neil, who spent the better part of the night referring to himself as “The Best Player in the Game”, seemed to have missed the fact that Trevor was already all-in, binding him to the action. In an apparent outrage regarding the outcome of a previous ruling which had no more recourse, he lost sight of the current action on his table – or perhaps it was the array of colourful drinks that were served to him throughout the night.
Neil tabled 
and was at risk and behind Trevor’s 
. With no help on the 
board, he was knocked out of the tournament in 18th place, and a sigh of relief reigned amongst the short stacks in the tournament. The bubble had now burst, and play continued for a few more hands to determine who would finish in 17th place.
The 16 “Survivors”, earning $2,910 each:
17th place finisher: Arthur W – $2,619
Congratulations!
One of the added attractions in this year’s Playground Poker Spring Classic is the partypoker LIVE High Stakes cash game, hosted by Sam Trickett and Antonio Esfandiari. The minimum buy-in for the game is $100,000 and the blinds are $100/$200.
The cards are in the air right now and the whole thing is being streamed live with commentary from Simon Trumper, who will be joined by pros like Roberto Romanello, Jeff Gross, and others.
You can watch the stream via our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/playgroundpokerclub or simply by clicking on the Live Stream link here on the Playground Events blog. If you want to go to the source, visit PokerNightTV on Twitch.
Here are some shots of the table to start the day (by seating order).
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.
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.
Congratulations!
PLO 50/50 Bounty Champion: Ivan Driard – $3,223.00 + 3 bounty chips of $100
PLO 50/50 Bounty Runner-Up: Steve Ulloa-Torres – $2,924.00 + 16 bounty chips of $100
Last hand of play
One of the best promotions for the partypoker Million North America was the #partypokerMilllionaire social media contest! People were invited to upload their photo to the #partypokerMillionaire page, use a range of frames, stickers and overlays to customize their photo to respond to a simple question: what would you do with a Million dollars?
With well over 1,000 entries and an uncountable number of social uploads, shares, retweets, and the like, the contest has come to a close and the final weekly and grand prize winners have been announced.
Along the way there were 12 weekly winners of Phase 1 tickets plus two Grand Prize winners, Marie-Josee Duguay, and Joe Sicko Jr., who won an entry in a Live Day 1 of the partypoker Million North America – a $5,300 value!
In Joe’s case, persistence paid off – he was by far the most prolific image-maker and social sharer. Some of the images he made were hilarious – and no one got into the spirit of the contest more than he did. Below you’ll see a few examples of his handiwork.
