Alexandre Lavigne is an exceptionally gifted poker player who came out of nowhere to book some amazing results in events here at Playground Poker Club over the past 3 years. Though his 16th place finish in the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event isn’t at the top of his list of successes, it’s at least on the list!
16th place: Alexandre Lavigne, $5,050.00
Alexandre Lavigne
Marco Sousa had his stack reduced to one of the smallest in the tournament through the early action today and on the first hand back after the redraw he was eliminated in 18th place.
Several minutes later, Danny Kalpakis (who you may remember from the documentary “Grinders” a couple of years ago) crippled Ryan McGarry with a full double as his 
held against Ryan’s 
on a 
board. The following hand saw Ryan hit the rail in 17th place.
17th place: Ryan McGarry, $5,050.00
Ryan McGarry
18th place: Marco Sousa, $5,050.00
Marco Sousa
Seating in the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event has been redrawn as the event is down to 2 full tables of 9 players each. Here is the new seating arrangement.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège |
|---|---|---|
| Alexandre | Lavigne | Table 66 - Seat 1 |
| Daniel | Charette | Table 66 - Seat 2 |
| Grant | Pazarka | Table 66 - Seat 3 |
| Philipp | Daze | Table 66 - Seat 4 |
| Danny | Kalpakis | Table 66 - Seat 5 |
| Benoit | Jean | Table 66 - Seat 6 |
| Charles-Etienne | Gagnon | Table 66 - Seat 7 |
| Ryan | McGarry | Table 66 - Seat 8 |
| Maxime | Lejeune Hebert | Table 66 - Seat 9 |
| Eric | Borduas | Table 70 - Seat 1 |
| Jiachen | Gong | Table 70 - Seat 2 |
| Michael | Korovine | Table 70 - Seat 3 |
| William | Molson | Table 70 - Seat 4 |
| Dean | Murphy | Table 70 - Seat 5 |
| Christopher | Hudson | Table 70 - Seat 6 |
| Jessie | Wheatley | Table 70 - Seat 7 |
| Mathieu | Gagniere | Table 70 - Seat 8 |
| Marco | Sousa | Table 70 - Seat 9 |
Ron Farber had spent much of the day among the short stacks in the tournament, and even a recent double up didn’t change matters that much for him. He ended up all in on a Jack-high flop with two clubs holding King Jack (no club) and was called – after much hesitation, by Christopher Hudson with 
for middle pair and the club draw – which he hit, to eliminate Farber in 19th.
Tournament staff is now performing a full tournament redraw – we’ll have the new seating arrangements soon.
19th place: Ron Farber, $4,500.00
Ron Farber
Play in the Main Event has been stalled on the “bubble” before the tournament moves to 2 tables, which will be reached when the next player is eliminated. The players recently took a break and we managed to get full counts for the field during their absence from the table.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benoit | Jean | Table 65 - Seat 6 | 1,991,000 |
| Eric | Borduas | Table 66 - Seat 7 | 1,910,000 |
| Maxime | Lejeune Hebert | Table 70 - Seat 8 | 1,359,000 |
| Jessie | Wheatley | Table 70 - Seat 5 | 1,302,000 |
| Dean | Murphy | Table 70 - Seat 7 | 1,165,000 |
| Grant | Pazarka | Table 65 - Seat 4 | 978,000 |
| Daniel | Charette | Table 66 - Seat 6 | 867,000 |
| William | Molson | Table 70 - Seat 9 | 755,000 |
| Charles-Etienne | Gagnon | Table 65 - Seat 1 | 742,000 |
| Alexandre | Lavigne | Table 70 - Seat 6 | 689,000 |
| Christopher | Hudson | Table 66 - Seat 2 | 665,000 |
| Jiachen | Gong | Table 66 - Seat 1 | 602,000 |
| Ryan | McGarry | Table 70 - Seat 1 | 584,000 |
| Philipp | Daze | Table 65 - Seat 9 | 480,000 |
| Marco | Sousa | Table 65 - Seat 5 | 300,000 |
| Michael | Korovine | Table 65 - Seat 2 | 296,000 |
| Danny | Kalpakis | Table 65 - Seat 8 | 271,000 |
| Mathieu | Gagniere | Table 66 - Seat 5 | 242,000 |
| Ron | Farber | Table 66 - Seat 4 | 238,000 |
Most of the eliminations so far in Day 3 of the Main Event have been players who started with relatively short stacks – but now one of the day’s leaders has been eliminated, which signals a definite change in the dynamic of the tournament as 2-table play approaches.
Marco started with over 1M in chips, but in the first level of the action he lost a huge pot to Daniel Charette. Marco’s not a player known to nurture and re-grow a small stack and so was out relatively soon thereafter.
20th place: Marco Caza, $4,500.00
Marco Caza
Action in the Main Event has moved rapidly as another 3 players have been eliminated. Marc Saddik, Jeremy Dufour, and David Ormsby have all been sent to the tournament desk to receive their payout tickets in the past while.
Marc Saddik with his payout ticket
Troy Vandaalen was among the smaller stacks to start the day and he was the first player to be eliminated in today’s Day 3 action.
The hand began with a raise from Troy and a re-raise from Ryan McGarry on the button, who was one of the big stacks to start the day. Action came back to Troy who re-raised all-in and found a call from Ryan.
Troy: 
Ryan: 
Troy was well ahead, but this was short-lived as the flop was dealt: 
which vaulted Ryan into the lead. The turn and river 
did nothing to change the results and Troy hit the rail in 25th ($3,500.00).
Since this hand occurred, Charle-Alexandre Bergeron has also been eliminated, leaving 23 players at the tables. There will be a redraw with 18 players remaining.
There are just 25 players remaining in the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event and their Day 3 restart is set to go in just 10 minutes.
The top 4 players still in the event all have over a million chips in play. Two of the top 4 are well known here at Playground Poker Club – both Benoit Jean and Marco Caza have achieved some success here, and each has achieved a lot of success elsewhere – both are touring poker veterans.
However it’s not only the top of the leaderboard that should be of concern to the remaining players. Also found in the field are experienced players like Will Molson, Jiachen Gong, and David Ormsby who all have very rich poker CVs, not to mention players like Ron Farber and Dean Murphy, both of whom have more than enough experience in high stakes poker to be threats to anyone’s tournament success.
Cards are in the air in just minutes – good luck to all 25 players returning today.
Day 1 has concluded in Event 10, a $500 + $50 NL Hold’em tournament in the TonyBet Winter Festival. Play will restart on February 9th at 7pm with 21 players left in the event.
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diana | Shamshoum | Table 36 - Seat 1 | 143,000 |
| Mike | Lafable | Table 36 - Seat 2 | 170,000 |
| Yaseen | Siddiqui | Table 36 - Seat 3 | 306,000 |
| Jean-Philippe | Piquette | Table 36 - Seat 4 | 33,000 |
| Nicolas | Aubut | Table 36 - Seat 5 | 195,500 |
| Senthuran | Jeyaralingam | Table 36 - Seat 6 | 107,500 |
| Jeremie | Bilodeau | Table 36 - Seat 7 | 200,000 |
| Shaan | Siddiqui | Table 39 - Seat 1 | 388,000 |
| Viken | Artinian | Table 39 - Seat 2 | 107,000 |
| Todd | Pierce | Table 39 - Seat 3 | 143,500 |
| Steven | Joudry | Table 39 - Seat 4 | 175,500 |
| Daniel | Kwon | Table 39 - Seat 5 | 351,000 |
| Riyaz | Abdulla | Table 39 - Seat 6 | 225,500 |
| Guillaume | Laroche | Table 39 - Seat 7 | 120,500 |
| Levi | Stevens | Table 40 - Seat 1 | 57,000 |
| Ali | Jouni | Table 40 - Seat 2 | 180,500 |
| Zheng | Wei | Table 40 - Seat 3 | 85,000 |
| Marc Andre | Larouche | Table 40 - Seat 4 | 83,000 |
| Gary | Yeghiayan | Table 40 - Seat 5 | 170,000 |
| Patrick | Cartier | Table 40 - Seat 6 | 37,500 |
| George | Kazarian | Table 40 - Seat 7 | 101,000 |
