Mathieu Boucher just left the tournament hall, our first final table casualty. His found a match in Kevin MacDonald’s . They ended up all-in pre-flop, after a raising war. The flop favored Mathieu, but Kevin caught up quickly, filling up on the turn:

Mathieu was left with 1 big blind, which was doubled up, then lost. He cashes $1,500.00 for his final table appearance.

As these lines were being written, George Kazarian fell in combat. We unfortunately missed the hand, but we know his 9th place finish made him $1,850.00 richer!

Congratulations to both!

 

 

Players are now returning from break. Moments before the break, 2 quick eliminations led to the formation of the final table. Albert N went out in 12th place, and cashed $1,350.00 for his run. Douli Elie Rizkalla followed him to the cashier not long after with a receipt worth $1,500.00, the 11th place prize. Congratulations to both!

Now 10 players are left, and Shaan Siddiqui leads comfortably with over a million in chips! He has more than twice as many chips as his closest rival, having taken advantage of Paul El-Khouri’s downward spiral.

Here is the seating chart of the final table, including exact counts at the moment of the break.

Play resumes now, with $19,500.00 up top for the winner! Good luck!

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Seat | Siège	Stack | Tapis
George	Kazarian	Seat 01	260,000
William	Blais	Seat 02	152,000
Shaan	Siddiqui	Seat 03	1,105,000
Marton	Szlavy	Seat 04	282,000
Behrouz	Ghaedi	Seat 05	372,000
Mathieu	Boucher	Seat 06	447,000
Ruben	Perceval	Seat 07	422,000
Kevin	MacDonald	Seat 08	436,000
David	Bonneau	Seat 09	356,000
Siamak	S	Seat 10	321,000

 

Not too long ago, Paul El-Khouri was on cloud nine, sitting on top of the leaderboard. But poker is cruel. In a catastrophic chain of events, he misread a hand, then made a call that he now regrets, and finally got outdrawn for his last chips. Here is Paul’s final hand, in a pre-flop all-in pot:

Paul El-Khouri:
William Blais:    

Board: . Paul takes $1,200.00 for his efforts.

Shortly after, Jake Labonte, another former crushing leader, hit the rail after his fell to . Jake completed a straight on the river, but that river also gave his opponent a straight flush! Jake’s 13th place got him $1,350.00.

 

Event 5 of the Playground Poker Winter Festival is now in the money. After forming the last 2 tables, players were instantly hand-for-hand, as 17 players were getting paid today. That order of things lasted for about 20 minutes, until David Sorgente picked up on the button. The action folded to him, so he did not wait long before he pushed his 116K in the middle, representing 11.6 big blinds. However, David Bonneau had a little surprise for him. He woke up with , and immediately made the call.

Board:

Sorgente found no help, and so he stood up, congratulated everyone, and walked away like a gentleman.

Shortly after, David Bonneau put his new found riches to work. When we got to the table, he was all-in for 220K, with about 125K in the pot, and his Marton Szlavy was in the tank. The board was . Marton pondered for quite a while, and finally elected to make the call.

David Bonneau:
Marton Szlavy:  

As Bonneau was screaming ”No heart!”, the dealer obliged, and put down the . He then proceeded to push 550K towards David Bonneau. Play has now picked up the pace, and the shortest stacks are being pushed.

Stay tuned!

Our 20 remaining players in the $500 + $50 Freeze are now returning from break and will resume play at 5K/10K/a1K. We prepared a list of full counts. As you can see in the table below, there are a few players who are quite low in chips, considering the new blinds, so the tournament should drop to two 9-handed tables soon enough. Paul El-Khouri keeps adding chips to his stack and is still in the lead, with almost half a million chips to his name.

First Name | Prénom	Last Name | Nom	Stack | Tapis
Paul	El-Khouri	424,000
Shaan	Siddiqui	376,000
William	Blais	353,000
Marton	Szlavy	349,000
Behrouz	Ghaedi	345,000
Siamak	S	335,000
Silvio	La Palerma	260,000
Jake	Labonte	204,000
Ruben	Perceval	199,000
Albert	N	185,000
George	Kazarian	151,000
Martin	Dej	146,000
Kevin	MacDonald	138,000
Howard	Kotchie	124,000
Richard	Myron	123,000
David	Sorgente	114,000
David	Bonneau	103,000
Douli	Elie Rizkalla	78,000
Mathieu	Boucher	77,000
Patrick	Braga	64,000

With some recent eliminations, Event 5 has dropped under 27 players. Our last 3 tables have formed, and Paul El-Khouri is still in the lead, although Siamak S is quickly catching up to him.

Jason Comtois fell when his failed to improve to a pair in his pre-flop all-in battle against Marton Szlavy’s . The board brought him no help, even adding insult to injury when the river appeared.

Pascal Cornaz also went out. His elimination was a brutal one, as his got undone when the board brought a much needed river for Howard Kotchie’s .

Our 27 remaining players will go on break in 45 minutes.