After 10 hours of grueling poker, the tournament has come to a close. 272 players came and went, and in the end, Charan Malhotra took the honors. He was the most vocal one during chop talk, and went on to win all-in after all-in as soon as play resumed. After the deal was sealed, every hand saw the all-in card fly, and the heads-up match was no exception: All-in, fold, all-in, call. Pocket pair over pocket pair, the best of which held.

Malhotra played a very good game leading to the final table, taking good care of his chips. Twice, we saw him tank for a long time before folding a hand, regardless of how small a stack that left him with. He always found a way to stay in the action, and was so rewarded with a bit of luck in the final.

Congratulations to our 8-max winner, Charan Malhotra, and our runner-up, François Gagné!

Winner of the $200 + $20 8-max Event: Charan Malhotra – $5,000.00 and Champion’s Trophy

Runner-up: François Gagné – $4,315.00

Last hand of play:

 

Simon Tremblay lost his stack to Charan Malhotra, and the every next hand Leo Hackenbroch lost his to François Gagné. And of course, everything happened pre-flop.

Gagné and Malhotra are now playing heads-up, with the Playground Poker Winter Festival’s trophy on the table. Also on the line is an extra $1,080. Good luck to both!

An agreement was made to re-arrange the prizes according to the ICM numbers that the tournament director brought to the table, upon players’ request. Event 2 has now moved to a winner-take-all event, awarding $1,080 to the winner, and of course the coveted Champion’s Trophy.

As we were writing these lines, a few all-ins were bet and called, as is the norm after such a big chop. All were pre-flop moves, and Charan Malhotra has gained quite a bit from it.

Stuart Taylor: 8th place
Pierre-André Prévost: 7th place
Richard Sysko: 6th place
Francesco Pestra: 5th place

Here are the amounts that our finalists secured:

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Prize
Stuart	Taylor	$5,720.00
Simon	Tremblay	$5,650.00
Pierre-André	Prévost	$3,015.00
Charan	Malhotra	$3,920.00
Richard	Sysko	$4,165.00
Leo	Hackenbroch	$6,825.00
Francesco	Pestra	$4,745.00
François	Gagné	$4,315.00

In a 3-way pre-flop all-in, François gagné tripled up his very short stack with nothing more than Ace high, holding , and facing and Martin Peltier’s . The board didn’t help any of the players, and Gagné takes a nice pot, knocking out Peltier in the process. ICM numbers were looked at, and dismissed.

Martin Peltier: 9th place – $1,095.00

Action was extremely fast in the last level. Soon enough, 10th place Nicholas Pitre ($820) allowed the tournament to move to the final. Players can now enjoy a short break, allowing for strategy refinement. Stuart is now in second place, having conceded the chip lead to none other than Leo Hackenbroch, a regular player here at Playground Poker Club. Here he is, all smiles (he added quite a few chips to his stack since then), and please see below the final table chart, with chip counts:

Here are the seat distribution and chip counts:

 

Here are some photos of players that busted shortly after the formation of the last 2 tables:

14th place: Adam Hussen – $725
13th place: Mihail Tzonev – $725
12th place: Nectarios Lazaris – $820
11th place: Alexandre Beaudette – $820