Playground Winter Festival 2017

Winter Festival News

Sixty-four and counting…

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Tonight’s huge WPT Playground satellite gets underway in less than an hour – and with 15 seats guaranteed, the real question is how many more seats will be awarded tonight?

Today’s two daytime satellites at Noon and 4pm awarded 5 and 4 seats respectively, contributing to a massive 64 total seats that have been awarded in satellite tournaments for this WPT event! And as every poker player knows – lots of satellite winners means huge +EV for the target tournament.

Tonight’s satellite is a $350 + $35 tournament that will get underway at 8:00pm. If history is any indication, it’s sure to be a blockbuster. Good luck to everyone playing tonight!

Satellite Day starts now

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Today is the latest in a long tradition in poker festivals hosted at Playground Poker Club – Satellite Day!

The WPT Playground gets underway tomorrow – so today is dedicated to giving as many players as possible the ability to win their way in to the tournament for a greatly reduced buy-in amount. There are three satellites today – two that will cost just $135 + $15 to join, and the big one tonight at 8:00pm with a $350 + $35 buy-in.

The satellite starting now in the Tournament Hall has a 2 seat guarantee, as does the Turbo satellite that will start at 4:00pm. Tonight’s satellite is a much bigger affair – with 15 seats guaranteed, and a very high likelihood of a lot more than that being awarded, it’s one of the best opportunities available to win your way in to the WPT Playground.

Good luck to all playing today!

Event 7 Champion: Jordan Saccucci

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It took 26 levels of play for Jordan Saccucci to best a field of 145 and emerge as the Event 7 champion. The $140,650 prize-pool generated for this event was divided into two parts – half was reserved for the payouts, and the other half was awarded through $500 bounty chips.

The top 15 secured a cash-prize in the payouts, but players were also awarded a $500 bonus every time they eliminated a player. This structure in turn generated a lot of action, as there was a considerable amount of money available to be won throughout the entirety of the tournament.

Mounzer Awada went on a rampage early in the event, picking up a handful of bounties along the way. Mid-way though the day, he slowed down his pace as other players began catching up to his chip count, but once play neared the money-bubble, he turn on beast-mode once again and collected a few more knockouts along the way to his 4th place finish.

Paul Mohorea arrived at the final table as the chip-leader after mistakingly getting involved in a huge 3-way pot when play was in-the-money, however a few misfortunate hands on the final table saw him take 6th place.

Dustin Melanson pulled a few miracles out of the bag in the final table, and spun up his short stack to carry him all the way into 3rd place.

Once heads-up play started, Omid Shahbazian held over 2/3 of the chips in play, however Jordan came from behind in two big hands to win it all, taking home the stunning Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy for his victory.

On the first hand, Jordan bested 10 of Spades 10 of Diamonds with his Ace of Clubs 9 of Hearts to flip the stacks. Now with 2/3 of the chips in play, he 4-bet shoved with Ace of Diamonds 10 of Hearts and was met with a call from King of Clubs King of Diamonds. He found the card he was looking for on the turn as the dealer rung out a 6 of Diamonds 4 of Spades 2 of Clubs Ace of Spades 9 of Clubs board, ending the tournament in the process.

Omid took home 6 bounty chips along with his $12,925 2nd place prize, while Jordan cashed in 11 bounties and a first place prize of $17,000.

Congratulations!

Event 7 Champion: Jordan Saccucci – $17,000.00 (plus 11 bounty chips of $500 each)

Event 7 runner-up: Omid Shahbazian – $12,925.00 (plus 6 bounty chips of $500 each)

Omid Shahbazian

Last hand of play

Vigderhous books his ticket

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The Champion’s Freeroll has ended and local luminary (and, ironically, PLO master) Dan Vigderhous has emerged as the winner of a ticket to the inaugural WPT Playground, a $3,500 value. In third place in this tournament was none other than WPT Montreal Champion Mike Sexton.

Congratulations, Dan!

Dan Vigderhous

Just 4 left in the Freeroll

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There are just 4 players left of the 13 that began this (short) journey in the Champion’s Freeroll. Mike Sexton, the WPT Montreal Champion, is still among the active players – but local player Jean-Philippe Piquette is not.

JPP 3bet shoved with Ace of Clubs 8 of Hearts and was called by 5 of Clubs 5 of Spades, and finished 5th on a board that ran out King of Diamonds Queen of Clubs Queen of Diamonds 7 of Spades 10 of Spades.

There’s one seat at stake tonight – but remember there are a total of 19 Guaranteed seats – and probably many more – at stake tomorrow in the 3 WPT Playground satellites on offer throughout the day. Play in a $135 + $15 Satellite (2 Seats GTD) at 12:00pm, a $135 = $15 Turbo Satellite (2 Seats GTD) at 4:00pm, or the big one, a $350 + $35 Satellite with a huge 15 Seat GTD at 8:00pm.

The Champion’s Freeroll… rolls along

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Thirteen of the invited 16 players managed to be at Playground Poker Club for the Champion’s Freeroll and play is well underway – in fact, the players have reached their first break of the evening. At last check, all 13 players were still alive in this tournament, seated according to the table below.

One particularity in place tonight – by Kahnawake Gaming Commission rules, a player can not play in 2 different tournaments at the same time. So, which Daune Fernandez has a stack in the Freeroll, he may not play it at the moment, because he is still in action in today’s 50/50 Bounty tournament. If he does get eliminated, he will be able to take his seat in the Freeroll… if he has any chips left, that is – his stack is being blinded out while he is unable to play.

First Name | PrénomLast Name | NomSeat | Siège
ChrisAnnisTable 51 - Seat 2
DanVigderhousTable 51 - Seat 3
Jean-PhilippePiquetteTable 51 - Seat 5
MohamedTTable 51 - Seat 6
KaramSalehTable 51 - Seat 8
KeithLaflamTable 51 - Seat 10
Jean-FrancoisJodoinTable 54 - Seat 3
FrancoisGratton-ValiquetteTable 54 - Seat 4
DauneFernandezTable 54 - Seat 5
Placide JuniorSanonTable 54 - Seat 6
JasonTrottierTable 54 - Seat 8
BobTaylorTable 54 - Seat 9
MikeSextonTable 54 - Seat 10