Two more quick eliminations occurred, as Christopher Roger’s was third-best to Alex Plourde’s , who won the side pot, and Eric Ylagan’s , who took the main pot in a 3-way all-in. The board stayed clean for the pair of kings, showing .

Eric then went on to eliminate Michelle not even an orbit later to bring this shootout event down to heads-up. He finds himself with a 3-to-1 chip lead over heads-up opponent Alex Plourde, as they play for the remaining $360 and the TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy.

3rd place: Michelle Belliveau – $2,000

Michelle Belliveau

4th place: Christopher Roger – $1,716

Christopher Roger

Once the deal was made, play opened up considerably, as payouts were virtually all locked in, apart from that of the eventual winner.

Yang Guo was the first to go, and he was followed shortly by Shawn Dubeau, who ran into the pocket rockets of Alex Plourde. Alex now leads with nearly 500,000 in chips, and the other three are fairly close, all holding roughly 300,000 each.

5th place: Shawn Dubeau – $2,100

Shawn Dubeau

6th place: Yang Guo – $1,575

Yang Guo

As the tournament was on break, the final 6 players started negotiating a potential deal. Stacks were counted, and an ICM deal was proposed, which was accepted by all parties. Given that there is a TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy awarded to the winner, the is a clause which forces 2% of the total prize pool to be awarded for the eventual winner, along with the trophy. Players are therefore playing for an additional $360, after locking in the following amounts:

Congratulations!

Andrew Forest saw his stack roller-coaster in the last few orbits, and he was in the process of rebuilding himself before ultimately finding himself on the losing end of an all-in versus Alex Plourde.

He raised from the small blind, and called off his remaining chips once Alex announced all-in form the big blind. He turned over , but was trailing the of Alex, who held on for the win on a board.

7th place: Andrew Forest – $610

Andrew Forest

It only took a few hands before we had our first casualty on this final table of the shootout, as local sharp-shooter Rami Hammoud ran into what could only be described as a cooler versus his neighbour Shawn Dubeau.

We caught up to the action on the turn in a battle of the blinds, as Rami was faced with a check-raise to 39,000 from Shawn on a board showing , after having initially fired 14,000. Rami committed the extra 25,000 in chips, and the two players went on to see a river. When the fell, Shawn lead out for 50,000, and then quickly called the all-in of Rami, who had him barely covered.

Rami tabled for a full house, but found himself second best versus Shawn’s bigger full house, who tabled . With only a few chips left to his name, Rami was then eliminated by Nick a few hands later, placing 9th.

Rami has proven himself to be a strong competitor here at Playground Poker Club, as he took down The $250 Frenzy during the most recent Playground Poker Fall Classic, topping a massive field of 1,475 players. Unfortunately for him, his hunt for a second Champion’s Trophy fell short on tonight’s attempt.

9th place: Rami Hammoud – $360