TonyBet Winter Festival

No heads-up? No heads-up!

- by

The final event in the TonyBet Winter Festival was Event 13, a $100 + $20 + $100 NL Hold’em $100 50/50 Bounty tournament. The eliminations came quickly from the very beginning of the tournament, but with 245 players it still took almost 10 hours to complete. As is common for the final event in a festival, the mood in the room was light as some Playground staff mingled with the other players to cap off a great two weeks of poker.

The end of the event was both sudden and remarkable. Fabien Domenech was able to eliminate the 2 other players who remained in the tourney in a single hand.

 

Fabien Domenech: Queen of Diamonds Queen of Spades

Prosper Azoulay: Ace of Diamonds 5 of Clubs

Sébastien Gélinas: 8 of Clubs 8 of Spades

Board: 3 of Clubs 4 of Clubs 9 of Clubs Jack of Hearts 7 of Spades

Fabien’s Queens held and both other players were eliminated.

 

Event 13 Champion: Fabien Domenech, $3,935$ (+ 9 Bounties)

2nd place: Prosper Azoulay, $3,420 (+ 3 Bounties)

 

3rd place: Sébastien Gélinas, $3,540$ (+ 3 Bounties)

Last hand of play

Event 13 – Results & Payouts

- by

The final event in the TonyBet Winter Festival was Event 13, a $100 + $20 + $100 NL Hold’em $100 50/50 Bounty tournament. There were 245 players in the event, adding up to a main prize pool of $23,765.00. This does not include the $100 Bounty chips that each player received with their buy-in, and gave to the player that eliminated them.

Note there was a chip-chop made between the players with 5 players remaining. The adjusted prizes are reflected in the following payout table.

Rank | PosFirst Name | PrénomLast Name | NomPrize | Bourse
1FabienDomenech$3,935.00
2ProsperAzoulay$3,420.00
3SebastienGelinas$3,540.00
4DavidSorgente$2,765.00
5PatricePrimeau$1,975.00
6Marc AntoineLevesque$1,220.00
7Jean-PhilippePiquette$920.00
8ErikWeaner$690.00
9AlecBrandstatter$520.00
10PeterKasamis$390.00
11DomenicDurante$390.00
12Jean HuguesFournier$360.00
13DgianniDi-Re$360.00
14JasonConforti$330.00
15DanyAkl$330.00
16MarcelloIacovella$310.00
17VasiliosSklavounos$310.00
18BobT$280.00
19BrianPinheiro Lopez$280.00
20ApostolosBakalis$260.00
21EricBenhamron$260.00
22MathieuLeclerc$240.00
23EddieDaldalian$240.00
24MichaelKorovine$220.00
25FabianLacroix$220.00

A deal and 2 eliminations

  • Level: 23
  • Small Blind: 40K
  • Big Blind: 80K
  • Ante: 5K
  • Chip Average: 900K
  • Remaining: 3
  • Entries: 245


    • - by

    With 4 players remaining, a chip chop was proposed and the players all agreed to take their own bounty chips off the table ($100 each). $475 was reserved for the eventual winner, as all TonyBet Winter Festival events must be played to an eventual champion.

    • Sébastien Gélinas: $3,540
    • Fabian Domenech: $3,460
    • Proper Azoulay: $3,420
    • David Sorgente: $2,765
    • Patrice Primeau: $1,975

    After the deal was made, the pace of play picked up even more than it had played at earlier – and almost immediately was the first battle.

     

    Patrice Primeau: 5 of Diamonds 5 of Clubs
    David Sorgente: Ace of Hearts 7 of Spades

    The board brought a 7 on the turn: 9 of Diamonds 10 of Diamonds 2 of Clubs 7 of Clubs Jack of Clubs and Patrice Primeau was eliminated.

    5th place: Patrice Primeau, $1,975.00 (+ 4 bounties)

    The next elimination was straight forward.

    David Sorgente: Ace of Diamonds 8 of Spades
    Prosper Azoulay: Ace of Hearts King of Clubs

    Board: 10 of Spades Ace of Spades 2 of Clubs 5 of Spades 6 of Hearts

    4th place: David Sorgente, $2,765.00 (+ 6 bounties)

    Leaders at the first break

  • Level: 5
  • Small Blind: 200
  • Big Blind: 400
  • Ante: 0
  • Chip Average: 22.8K
  • Remaining: 215
  • Entries: 245


    • - by

    The first break – and late registration in the event – has ended, and as play resumes there are 245 players in the tournament and the chip average is 22,800 chips. Here are the early leaders in the event.

    1. Stéphane Houle: 63,375 chips
    2. Jessie Wheatley: 56,600 chips
    3. Andrew Boujaoude: 55,100 chips
    4. Marc Saddik: 54,400 chips
    5. Stéphane Leblanc: 49,750 chips

     

    First photos of the 50/50 Bounty

  • Level: 3
  • Small Blind: 100
  • Big Blind: 200
  • Ante: 0
  • Chip Average: 20.6K
  • Remaining: 210
  • Entries: 216


    • - by

    Here are some photos taken during the first level of Event 13, the 50/50 Bounty.

    Tonight! The 50/50 Bounty!

    - by

    Badge-Event-13-EN

    Tonight at 7pm is the final event of the 2016 TonyBet Winter Festival, a $100 + $20 + $100 NL Hold’em $100 50/50 Bounty tournament. The 50/50 in the name of the tournament refers to the fact that of each player’s buy-in, half goes to the shared prize pool, and half goes to a $100 Bounty chip, which a player must give to the player who eliminated him or her in the course of the action.

    This event is always among the highlights in any festival at Playground Poker Club, and the fact that the bounty is so huge relative to the buy-in just adds to the fun.

    Late registration is open until the break following level 4, which means that you can register until 8:30 for the event. If you haven’t played in an event yet – maybe now’s the time!

    Event 12 – Results & Payouts

    - by

    Event 12 in the TonyBet Winter Festival was a $300 + $30 Pot Limit Omaha Single Rebuy tournament that saw 47 players take the table, and of those 47 there were 10 rebuys. This added to a prize pool of $16,587.00 which was distributed according to the following payout table.

    Rank | PosFirst Name | PrénomLast Name | NomPrize | Bourse
    1ChrisArvanitis$3,897.00
    2AndyD'Alessandro$3,475.00
    3EricDoyle$3,500.00
    4MiltiadisMavrigiannakis$3,475.00
    5NathanSalois$1,140.00
    6Jean-PhilippePiquette$740.00
    7SylvainBouchard$360.00

    Jiachen Gong wins the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event

    - by

    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


    • - by

    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


    • - by

    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

    Playground Poker on Facebook

    Playground Poker on Facebook

    Contact Us

    Playground Poker Club

    1500 Route 138,
    Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0
    +1-450-635-7653
    info@playgroundpoker.ca

    TonyBet Winter Festival