After 4 levels, and 2 levels away from the end of the registration period, we found 4 players that have doubled their initial stack or more.

Ivan Driard found a ace-queen-5 gin flop where his bottom set got the best of Josh Brueckner’s top 2-pair, for all the chips. Brueckner is still around, on survival mode. Jonathan Bussières, on full throttle, found his way to the top of the leaderboard, despite doubling someone earlier.

With 100 players in the field, the guarantee has officially been met. Every entry from the next 2 levels will serve towards boosting the prizes.

Matthew Bellsmith was down some chips early in the $500, but just found a way to come back to average. He went all-in on the river against Jonathan Bussières, for about 6.5K into a 10K pot. Bussières thought for a moment, trying to put him on a range of hands.

On a board, he made the call, and mucked quickly when Bellsmith showed the .

Recent photographs:

Today’s $500 + $50 was bound to attract some high-profile players. We noticed a few in the field, and are expecting many more throughout the week-end. Here is a sample:

These boys have been around the block – all of them have a pretty good road map.

As the Event enters level 3, 62 entries have taken place, with 2 more hours to the registration period.

The $500 Freeze has already lost a player, meaning we have a clear chip leader. We missed the hand, but know that if Shawn Spiegel lost his stack in the first level, it must have been quite a hand. Joshua Brueckner now holds his chips, and we think that he will use them to put tremendous pressure on his opponents, especially this early when the table is still short-handed.

Remember that there are 6 levels of registration, allowing all night owls to join us late. 100 players are guaranteed, and we are now up to a 45-player field.

Here is a look at the early crowd:

The Winter Festival 2018 is in full swing. Today marks the coming of bigger buy-in Events. Today is the 1-day $500 +$50 Freeze tournament, with a $50,000 guarantee. The prize pool will be beefy – getting a chunk of it would get you all set up for the upcoming PG1000, in case you were on the fence about playing that one.

The $500 + $50 is a classic at Playground Poker Club. Not pricey enough to exclude a majority of our players, but just enough to produce an amazing payout table. It will play to its conclusion today, and we will bring you updates until the crowning of our champion.

The tournament director is giving the introductory announcement, and as soon as the words: ”Shuffle up and Deal” are chanted, cards will be in the air. Have a great poker day!

Event #9 – $500 + $50 NL Hold’em Freeze

$50,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool

Wednesday January 24th at 11:00am