Ronald Lei has just been crowned champion of Event #16, the 8-Max Freeze. The afternoon tourney on the final day of the Winter Festival drew a robust turnout of 95 players, allowing the prize pool to easily surpassed the $5,000.00 guarantee. Given the format, the action was quite aggressive throughout the day, as the players in the field clearly adjusted their ranges for 8-handed play.
This event had an unprecedented finish: two Playground dealers playing heads up for the trophy. At the end, it came down to Raphael Breton and Ronald Lei. The two dealers are both products of the same training school so they have known each other just slightly longer than they have been dealing for Playground. Once they made it to heads-up play, both players relaxed and cracked jokes, but they were both determined to win. But Lei had a huge chip lead, one that he would not relinquish. He played his stack well, putting pressure on Breton and stealing blinds. Eventually, Breton was down to only a handful of blinds, and called off his stack after Lei moved all in. Lei’s 
bested Breton’s 
, and Lei claimed the champion’s trophy.
Event #16 Champion: Ronald Lei – $2,165.00 and the Champion’s trophy
Runner-up: Raphael Breton – $1,700.00
Last hand of play:
was up against Lei’s 
. This time, however, played out differently than the last. The flop, 
, was eerily familiar, but the turn and river, the 
and 
, did not deliver for Douville, who left in fourth place. Douville will collect $1,050.00 for his final table appearance.
.
, provided relief to Sylvain, but it was to be short lived. The 
on the turn gave Douville a gutshot straight draw, and the 
river delivered Douville’s four-outer. And with that Sylvain busted in fifth place, good for $830.00.
7c. He defended to an opening raise from Alexandre Douville, and they saw a flop of 
. From there, Semaan rose from his seat and put on his coat to watch the 
turn and 
river hit the felt. Semaan will take home $320.00 for his ninth place finish.