TonyBet Winter Festival

Jiachen Gong wins the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event

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The TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event has just come to a close, and local hero Jiachen Gong was able to overcome a field of 520 players over 4 days of poker to emerge as the tournament champion!

Jiachen, better known as Jack here amongst friends at Playground Poker Club, came into this final 6-handed table as the chip leader, and although he gave up the lead to Jessie Wheatley in the early stages of the day, he jumped right back into the driver’s seat in no time. He delivered the knockout blow to both 6th place Danny Kalpakis and 5th place Jessie Wheatley, although in both cases most of the leg work was done beforehand, and then chipped his way up the leaderboard throughout 4-handed action. After the elimination of Maxime Lejeune Hebert in 4th place, Jack became the overwhelming chip leader, and never looked back after that.

Once he eliminated Grant Pazarka in 3rd place, he entered into heads-up play versus Will Molson with a 6-to-1 chip advantage. Will wasn’t going to make it easy for his opponent, and he almost instantly doubled up his short stack, becoming a potential threat given his expertise in the game. After several orbits of back and forth between the two, both players picked up an ace in the hole and the fireworks began. Jiachen min-raised his button, and Will quickly moved all-in for 3,425,000. Jiachen made the call, and found he needed some help if he wanted to win this pot.

Jiachen: Ace of Spades 8 of Clubs
Will: Ace of Clubs 9 of Spades

The King of Clubs Ace of Diamonds 8 of Diamonds 6 of Clubs 2 of Diamonds board was just what Jiachen ordered, and with the flopped two-pairs he was able to eliminate his opponent and claim victory in this Main Event, collecting a cool $100,000 in the process, as well as the TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Belt!

Congratulations!

TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event Champion: Jiachen Gong – $100,000.00

Main4-3040

Main4-3044 Main4-3050

TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event Runner-Up: Will Molson – $70,000.00

William Molson

William Molson

Last Hand of Play:

Main4-3036

Heads-Up: Will Molson vs Jiachen Gong

  • Level: 32
  • Small Blind: 75K
  • Big Blind: 150K
  • Ante: 25K
  • Chip Average: 7.8M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 520


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    With the most recent elimination of Grant Pazarka in 3rd place, the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event has now entered heads-up play.

    Chip leader Jiachen Gong and his 13,175,000 betting units are battling it out versus Will Molson and his army of 2,150,000 for the $100,000 first place prize, and the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event Champion’s Belt!

    Good luck, and congratulations on making it this far!

    3rd place: Grant Pazarka

  • Level: 32
  • Small Blind: 75K
  • Big Blind: 150K
  • Ante: 25K
  • Chip Average: 7.8M
  • Remaining: 2
  • Entries: 520


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    Play since the break has been quite aggressive, and we’ve seen a few all-ins from the two short stacks, yet all were uncalled until this last one.

    Grant Pazarka was in the small blind when he slid his 2,950,000 stack into the middle versus Jiachen Gong, in the big blind. Jiachen didn’t waste any time before announce the call, and the two players tabled their hands.

    Jiachen: Ace of Diamonds Jack of Spades
    Grant: Ace of Hearts 8 of Clubs

    Although Grant took the lead on the flop, Jiachen ran a straight on the 8 of Spades 4 of Clubs 10 of Diamonds Queen of Clubs King of Clubs board to bring us down to heads-up.

    3rd place: Grant Pazarka – $44,000.00

    Grant Pazarka

    Grant Pazarka

    Updated counts of final 3

  • Level: 32
  • Small Blind: 75K
  • Big Blind: 150K
  • Ante: 25K
  • Chip Average: 5.2M
  • Remaining: 3
  • Entries: 520


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    Jiachen Gong is continuing to apply pressure on the two shorter stacks, slowly increasing his holdings in the process. He now sits with almost 2/3 of the chips in play.

    Here are the counts entering level 32:

    First Name | PrénomLast Name | NomSeat | SiègeStack | Tapis
    JiachenGongSeat 109,750,000
    GrantPazarkaSeat 92,975,000
    WilliamMolsonSeat 22,600,000

    Main4-3018

    Jiachen continues to chip-up

  • Level: 31
  • Small Blind: 60K
  • Big Blind: 120K
  • Ante: 20K
  • Chip Average: 5.2M
  • Remaining: 3
  • Entries: 520


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    Action has been a little quite of late here amongst the final three, however Jiachen has found himself on the winning end of a lot of small pots, chipping himself up to a healthy chip lead.

    Here is a rough count of the chips in play:

    First Name | PrénomLast Name | NomSeat | SiègeStack | Tapis
    JiachenGongSeat 108,900,000
    GrantPazarkaSeat 93,700,000
    WilliamMolsonSeat 22,600,000

    4th place: Maxime Lejeune Hebert

  • Level: 30
  • Small Blind: 50K
  • Big Blind: 100K
  • Ante: 15K
  • Chip Average: 5.2M
  • Remaining: 3
  • Entries: 520


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    Maxime came into Day 4 of the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event with a under-average stack, and although he played quite a few hands and found a some nice spots to pick up blinds and antes, he was never really able to run his stack up much past his starting point.

    In recent orbits, he fell below the 15 big blind mark and was cornered into a push-or-fold style of play. Most of his shoves were uncalled, until this most recent one, where he moved in for 955,000 from utg, finding a call only from Will Molson in the big blind.

    Maxime: 8 of Spades 9 of Spades
    Will: 10 of Hearts 10 of Spades

    Maxime has a very favourable flop given the situation, but failed to improve enough to win him the pot on the 7 of Clubs 6 of Clubs 9 of Hearts 2 of Diamonds 2 of Spades board. Will, who started the hand with 1,250,000, added some much needed chips to his stack as play enters 3-handed.

    4th place: Maxime Lejeune Hebert – $32,000.00

    Maxime Lejeune Hebert

    Maxime Lejeune Hebert

    Gong takes a huge chunk from Pazarka

  • Level: 30
  • Small Blind: 50K
  • Big Blind: 100K
  • Ante: 15K
  • Chip Average: 5.8M
  • Remaining: 4
  • Entries: 520


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    There has been no shortage of play in this final stretch of the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event, and for the most part Grant Pazarka has benefitted – until this hand in which Jiachen Gong took a huge pot from Grant.

    Grant got things going with an utg raise to 225K. Jiachen called, Will Molson folded, and Maxime Hebert called as well (from the bb).

    The flop was Ace of Spades 5 of Clubs 7 of Clubs. Max decided to check to the raiser, Grant, who bet 275K. Jiachen called and Max called – they were three-way to the turn.

    Turn: Jack of Diamonds

    Again Max checked and Grant led with a bet to 350K. This time Jiachen counted out raising chips – he made it 900K. Max got out of the way, and Grant called.

    The river was the 9 of Hearts and again Grant led out – this time for 550K. Again Jiachen counted out raising chips – he made it a cooo 1.6M. Grant thought about it for about 2 minutes… and made the call!

    Unfortunately for him, his next move was to insta-muck as he saw Jiachen’s set – he held the 5 of Spades 5 of Hearts.

    Jiachen has now taken a definitive lead with 7.9M while Grant was reduced to 5,150,000.

    5th place: Jessie Wheatley

  • Level: 30
  • Small Blind: 50K
  • Big Blind: 100K
  • Ante: 15K
  • Chip Average: 3.9M
  • Remaining: 4
  • Entries: 520


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    After a losing a big pot to Grant Pazarka a few hands ago, Jessie Wheatley was left with a fairly short stack. She waited patiently for a good spot to get her last chips in, until finally she was dealt King of Hearts Queen of Clubs. With only 4.5 big blinds to her name, she moved all-in from middle position. Action folded around to Jiachen Gong in the big blind, who couldn’t find a fold for such a good price, even though he only had Jack of Clubs 3 of Clubs.

    Jiachen picked up a pair on the 6 of Hearts Jack of Diamonds 8 of Clubs 4 of Spades 10 of Diamonds board to knock out his opponent, and bring this Main Event of the TonyBet Winter Festival down to 4 players.

    5th place: Jessie Wheatley – $24,500.00

    Jessie Wheatley

    Jessie Wheatley

    Pazarka moves past 50%

  • Level: 30
  • Small Blind: 50K
  • Big Blind: 100K
  • Ante: 15K
  • Chip Average: 3.1M
  • Remaining: 5
  • Entries: 520


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    Grant Pazarka has taken a commanding lead on the tournament as it moves towards a conclusion. With 5 players left at the table he has moved to over 8M in tournament chips – over 50% of the chips in play.

    His most recent “haul” of chips was in a hand against Jessie Wheatley. Grant raised to 190K from the cutoff and Jessie called from the bb. The flop was dealt:

    King of Clubs 4 of Diamonds 3 of Clubs

    Jessie acted first and decided to check. Grant then bet 270K and Jessie check-raised to 600K. Grant made the call.

    The turn was the 8 of Hearts, and this time Jessie led out with a bet of 775K – which Grant called.

    The river was a 9 of Spades and Jessie check-called Grant’s bet to 700K – only to muck with disgust upon seeing Grant’s flopped set of 4s – Grant was playing 4 of Spades 4 of Hearts.

    The hand left Jessie dangerously short while catapulting Grant even further into the lead.

    Grant Pazarka

    Grant Pazarka

    Chips counts at break

  • Level: 29
  • Small Blind: 40K
  • Big Blind: 80K
  • Ante: 10K
  • Chip Average: 3.1M
  • Remaining: 5
  • Entries: 520


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    With a short break in play, we took this time to update the chip counts of the final 5 players.

    Here are current counts:

    First Name | PrénomLast Name | NomSeat | SiègeStack | Tapis
    GrantPazarkaSeat 95,650,000
    JiachenGongSeat 103,730,000
    JessieWheatleySeat 42,785,000
    WilliamMolsonSeat 21,900,000
    MaximeLejeune HebertSeat 71,315,000

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    TonyBet Winter Festival