Winter Festival

Twitter is abuzz…

Level: 2

Small Blind: 75

Big Blind: 150

Ante: 0

Chip Average: 31.1K

Remaining: 110

Entries: 114

2016/02/05 - 12:28 by

The TonyBet Winter Festival is brand new and that’s just one reason there’s been a lot of buzz about the Main Event on Twitter recently. Here are some of the recent tweets from players in the action today:

Feels good to be back in Montreal at @PlaygroundPoker for @TonyBetPoker #Poker Winter Festival! See you all there 🙂 https://t.co/jUGMj5VXYn

— Isabelle Mercier (@IsabelleNoMercy) February 5, 2016

Here we go again. Hoping for better rungood than Wednesday. @PlaygroundPoker @TonyBet #MainEvent pic.twitter.com/329OVevd0Z

— Chris Lichti (@LixHabFan) February 5, 2016

@PlaygroundPoker @TonyBetPoker won my seat to the main event! pic.twitter.com/1SCNMojm9E

— dave rathwell ❤️♠️♦️ (@daverathwell) February 5, 2016

@PlaygroundPoker finally won satellite seat to Tonybet main event good return on $125??? pic.twitter.com/ooPZfu4tDa

— Tyler Lee (@tazman014) February 5, 2016

I am returning to the felt in Montreal this weekend for @PlaygroundPoker @TonyBet Main Event!!! 🙂 LFG! #GrindTime pic.twitter.com/66qRjeyB2C

— Maximilian Droege (@MaxTheMush) February 4, 2016

Welcome to Day 1a of the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event

Level: 1

Small Blind: 50

Big Blind: 100

Ante: 0

Chip Average: 30K

Remaining: 83

Entries: 83

2016/02/05 - 11:06 by

Players have taken their seats and play has just begun in Day 1a of the Main Event of the TonyBet Winter Festival. This is the first of three Day 1 starting flights – Day 1b will begin at 11am on Saturday and Day 1c will begin at 11am on Sunday. This is a 4-Day event, with Days 2 to 4 to be held from Monday to Wednesday. This event has a $500,000 prize pool guarantee.

There are currently 83 players at the tables who have begun play with starting stacks of 30,000 tournament chips. Late registration is open until the break following level 6 today, which is to say that you may late register for the tournament until 4pm. Players who choose to late reg will receive full starting stacks.

This is a next-day re-entry event, which means that players are welcome to try to qualify for Day 2 via one, two, or all three starting flights – and a player who has already qualified is welcome to make another attempt to qualify for Day 2 with a larger stack. If a player does qualify more than once, only his or her largest stack remains in the tournament – all other chips are forfeited.

Cards are in the air and players continue to join the event at a regular pace, which should remain the case throughout the late reg period. There were well over 200 satellite seats awarded for this event, and between the large number of online and live qualifiers and the $500K guarantee, there’s a ton of value for poker players in this, the first ever TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event.

Good luck!

It’s Satellite Day at the TonyBet Winter Festival!

2016/02/04 - 8:13 by

It has become a tradition at festivals we host at Playground Poker Club to reserve the day before the Main Event for an intensive run of satellite tournaments, back to back to back. Anyone interested in playing in the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event who has not yet secured a ticket has the ability to play their way in – for as little as $80!

There are three scheduled satellites today:

12:00pm: $70 + $10 NL Hold’em Re-entry with 5 Seats Guaranteed
4:00pm: $110 + $10 NL Hold’em Re-entry Turbo with 5 Seats Guaranteed
7:30pm: $110 + $10NL Hold’em Re-entry with 30 Seats Guaranteed

Good luck to all!

The survivors!

2016/02/04 - 3:23 by

The Survivor event has concluded with 9 winners in Event 7 of the TonyBet Winter Festival. This was not a prize pool chop by choice – this result is built in to the design of the “Survivor” format, which pays an equal amount to 10% of the starting field. The tournament concluded as soon as the 10% mark was reached.

Each player earned $1,940 for their efforts this evening, and there was a little cash left over ($776.00) which was paid to the “bubble” player, Kenneth Legue, who finished 10th.

Here is the list of tonight’s winners:

Duff Charette
Jean-Philippe Sauvageau
Ryan Fisler
Samuel Picard
Valérie F
Sylvain Gauthier
Rong Xu
Kamal Sadaka
Daune Fernandez

Event 7 Survivors

Event 7 – Results & Payouts

2016/02/04 - 3:21 by

Event 7 in the TonyBet Winter Festival was a $200 + $20 NL Hold’em Survivor event. This is a special format in which play stops when 10% of the field remains and each player remaining gets an even payout. Any additional prize money goes to the “bubble” player.

This event had 94 players, resulting in a top prize of $1,940 plus $776 for the player who finished 10th.

Rank \| Pos	First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Prize \| Bourse
1	Daune	Fernandez	$1,940.00
1	Duff	Charette	$1,940.00
1	Jean-Philippe	Sauvageau	$1,940.00
1	Kamal	Sadaka	$1,940.00
1	Rong	Xu	$1,940.00
1	Ryan	Fisler	$1,940.00
1	Samuel	Picard	$1,940.00
1	Sylvain	Gauthier	$1,940.00
1	Valerie	F	$1,940.00
10	Kenneth	Legue	$776.00

Hand for Hand action – the bubble approaches

2016/02/04 - 2:21 by

The Survivor event is approaching its climactic moment: the bubble and hand for hand play. There are just 12 players left in the action and only 10 will be paid – the 9 top players will take $1,940 while the player in 10th will take home $776.00.

There are currently 2 players with extra-short stacks – Thibault Delmarle with 69K and Daniel Gates with 37K. Likewise, there are 2 players who seem almost assured of cashing in the event: Valeri F (385K) and Jean-Philippe Sauvageau (295K). But as all tournament players know – no result is fixed until it’s final!

Event 6 Champion: Real Cantin

2016/02/04 - 1:34 by Playground Poker

115 players came in today with the intention of becoming the Event 6 champion, however they all knew there was only enough room for 1 of them to accomplish their mission. Action went on for 14 full hours, and many hopes and dreams of winning were shattered in the process, as is the case in every poker tournament.

Once the field was reduced to just 4 players, they opted for an ICM chop of the prize pool. Jonathan Bussieres, who was the massive chip leader at the time, agreed to take $6,995, while Jeff Rosenblatt pocketed $5,690 for his second place stack. The two shorter stacks at the time, Ruben Perceval and Real Cantin, locked in $4,780 and $4,275 respectively. Given that the structure of the tournament requires at least 2% of the prize pool to be left for the eventual winner, the final 4 played the tourney to the end leaving $675 and the TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy for the finalist.

Real must have felt compelled to win the event, given he received the shortest end of the deal, as he then began staging what turned out to be a successful comeback. He first doubled up through Jeff, and then won a huge 3-way all-in which brought him down to head-up versus Jonathan.

Real maintained the lead until he finally found a call to his 3bet all-in preflop, and went on to beat Jonathan’s with his pair of . With that hand, Real claimed victory in Event 6, while Jonathan locked in the biggest prize of the tournament.

Congratulations!

Event 6 Champion: Real Cantin – $4,950.00

Event 6 Runner-Up: Jonathan Bussieres – $6,995

Jonathan Bussieres

Last hand of play

Event 6 – Results & Payouts

2016/02/04 - 1:32 by

Event 6 in the TonyBet Winter Festival was a $300 + $30 NL Hold’em Deepstack event that began on February 3rd at 11am and played out as scheduled as a one-day event. There were a total of 115 players in the tournament, contributing to a prize pool of $33,465.00 which was distributed according to the following table.

Note there were two player deals of note. First, with 13 players left they chose to remove some money from the first 5 spots and make a new payout for the player in 13th place. Second, with 4 players remaining they chose to reserve $675 and the TonyBet Champion’s trophy for the winner and distribute the remaining prize pool via ICM chop. This is reflected in the following payout table, and accounts for the fact that the player who finished in first place was paid less than the player in 2nd place.

Rank \| Pos	First Name \| Prénom	Last Name \| Nom	Prize \| Bourse
1	Real	Cantin	$4,950.00
2	Jonathan	Bussieres	$6,995.00
3	Jeff	Rosenblatt	$5,690.00
4	Ruben	Perceval	$4,780.00
5	Levi	Stevens	$2,700.00
6	Nicolas	Aubut	$2,100.00
7	Pierre Olivier	Guay	$1,620.00
8	Andre	Bilodeau	$1,250.00
9	Roger	Lamia	$900.00
10	Martin	Casaubon	$750.00
11	Patrick	St-Onge	$750.00
12	Marckenley	Bastien	$650.00
13	Jacques	Bigonesse	$330.00

Heads-Up: Real Cantin vs Jonathan Bussieres

Level: 25

Small Blind: 15K

Big Blind: 30K

Ante: 5K

Chip Average: 1.4M

Remaining: 2

Entries: 115

2016/02/04 - 1:03 by Playground Poker

Event 6 is down to just two players, as Real Cantin (1,915,00) is battling it out versus Jonathan Bussieres (960,000) for the TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy, as well as the additional $675 left after the deal.

Jonathan has already locked in $6,995, as he was the chip leader at the time of the 4-way deal, while Real Cantin, who was the short stack at the time, has locked in $4,275.

Good luck!

: Real Cantin

: Jonathan Bussieres

3rd place: Jeff Rosenblatt

Level: 25

Small Blind: 15K

Big Blind: 30K

Ante: 5K

Chip Average: 1.4M

Remaining: 2

Entries: 115

2016/02/04 - 0:52 by Playground Poker

A huge hand just occurred on this final table, leading to Jeff Rosenblatt’s elimination.

Jonathan opened to 80,000 from the button, and Jeff moved all-in for 325,000. Real then 4bet all-in for 800,000, which put Jonathan into the tank. After a few moments he announced the call, putting both players at risk of elimination.

Jeff:
Real:
Jonathan: