After 3 full days of poker, the starting field of 1,109 players has been reduced to just one single player: Mathieu Fontaine Raposo.

Mathieu arrived into Day 3 as a healthy stack, but a few levels in he started considerably building his stack. By the time the stage was set for the final table, he was inches behind chip leader Nick-Real Seide, and a clear threat to his opponents. As play continued, he remained quite passive, yet maintained his healthy chip stack.

The clock was paused when action fell to 6 players, and a deal was negotiated. Given that stacks were relatively even, with no real short stack in play, the 6 players agreed to lock in $12,000 each, and leave an additional bonus to the eventual first and second place finishers. Although this normally leads to a more aggressive style of play, given the money pressure is no longer a big factor, the players actually seemed to maintain their strong play, showing that every one of them wanted the win.

It took a few levels before play reached heads-up, and Mathieu was faced with Michael Moussis for the grand finale. Mathieu started with the chip lead, and increased his lead fairly quickly before Michael staged his first comeback. Michael then took over the chip lead before the tipping point of heads-up play occurred. Holding , he called Mathieu’s all-in on a board, but couldn’t improve on his straight or flush draws, and lost to . He was left with only 675,000, but then staged his second comeback. He doubled up on three hands in a row, and became once again a threat in this heads-up match. Play continued for several more hands before Michael found what he was hoping to be his big chance to take over the lead, as he was faced with a 3bet all-in holding the ultimate hand, . Mathieu tabled , but somehow managed to run a straight on the board to win the pot, the tournament, the big cash prize, the TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy, and bragging rights!

Congratulations!

All-Stars for Starlight Champion: Mathieu Fontaine Raposo – $14,900

All-Stars for Starlight runner-up: Michael Mossis – $13,722

Michael Moussis

Last hand of play

The All-Stars for Starlight event is down to just 2 players, as Mathieu Fontaine Raposo is heads-up versus Michael Moussis.

Mathieu is starting the heads-up match with the chip lead, but his 12,900,000 is only slightly ahead of the 9,375,000 of Michael. Although the difference in prizes between first and second has been greatly reduced after the 6-way deal made earlier, they are still playing for a little over $1,150 and a TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy – oh, and lets not forget bragging rights!

Congratulations on making it this far!

Jeremie Benoit put himself in a difficult spot when he 3bet Mathieu Fontaine Raposo’s button raise, but he felt compelled to make the call after having already invested 2 million chips. As he feared, his was well-behind the of his opponent, and the board was not favourable to him, bringing 4 spades by the turn.

Board:

He found himself all-in shortly after with , but once again was drawing dead by the turn as Michael Moussi and his paired the board to bring this tournament down to heads-up.

3rd place: Jeremie Benoit – $12,000

Jeremie Benoit

Nick-Real Seide went from chip lead to broke in just two hands, which is often the case when play is short-handed as it is now.

On the first hand, he doubled Michael Moussis up after check-shoving on a turn, finding a quick call. His was good at the time, however Michael had many outs, as his gave him straight and flush draws. The river brought the , completing Michael flush, and Nick’s stack was cut in half.

On the next hand, he 3bet all-in with , but ran into the of Mathieu Fontaine Raposo.

4th place: Nick-Real Seide – $12,000

Nick-Real Seide

Since the deal has been made, we’ve lost Andrey Vainer in 6th place, collecting the agreed-upon $12,000. Nick-Real Seide has taken back the chip lead, as he now sits on roughly 7.5 million. Michael Moussis is the shortest stack, holding around 2 million, while the other 3 sit on roughly 4 million each.

6th place: Andrey Vainer – $12,000

Andrey Vainer