2018 Playground Winter Festival News

Event #17 Champion: Stephane Bedard

2018/02/01 - 4:54 by Shawn McCrory

The $330 Bounty is a consistently popular tournament and this edition kept up the tradition. This closing tournament of the 2018 Playground Winter Festival brought 135 players to the felts, building a prize pool that easily surpassed the $30,000.00 guarantee.

Bounty hunting was the theme of the early levels, as the $100 bounty chips enticed players to try everything to bust out their opponents. Play continued in this fashion until the field narrowed down to three tables. From there the mantra “tight is right” seemed to take over as the players dug in and waited for strong hands; the hunt for bounties became an afterthought once the prize money was on the horizon. Every decision then became a painstaking calculation.

In the end, Stephane Bedard outlasted all the others. Even after an ICM chop was negotiated when three players remained, Bedard stayed focused on his goal: the Champion’s trophy. After Bedard eliminated the third place finisher, Alberto Dumitru, it was a heads-up match between two Playground regulars, Bedard and Ben Menache. They traded a few blinds back and forth before Menache decided he had a good hand to gamble with and called off his stack to Bedard’s pre-flop all in. It was for Bedard and for Menache. Neither player connected with the board and Bedard’s king high was good enough for the win.

Bedard is a seasoned poker veteran who is well known in the local poker community who was playing for pride and the trophy more than the prize money. And as the champion, he gets all three! Congratulations!

Event #17 Champion: Stephane Bedard – $5,230.00 and the champion’s trophy

Runner up: Ben Menache – $4,995.00

Last hand of play:

Event #16 Champion: Ronald Lei

2018/01/31 - 21:56 by Shawn McCrory

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:

Jaered Besse is the Playground 1000 Champion!

2018/01/31 - 19:55 by

After an epic heads-up battle, Jaered Besse has emerged as the ultimate champion of the Playground 1000 in the 2018 Playground Winter Festival!

Jaered started the heads up portion of the tournament as a 35M to 15M underdog, but he battled hard and a couple of 30-minute levels in, he had a chip lead. He would relinquish that lead, however, and Jaered and opponent Ruben Perceval found themselves at exactly 50% – 50% with blinds up to 500K/1M!

The relative evenness of the stacks didn’t prevent anyone from trying to push the edge, and a few hands into level 36, Ruben open shoved from the button/small blind – only to find an instant call from Jaered.

Ruben:
Jaered:

Ruben was way behind, and couldn’t gain any ground on the flop and the turn/river sealed it for Jaered – he stacked the pot of the tournament and Ruben was left with nothing but scraps.

Those scraps hit the felt on the very next hand and Jaered made the call.

Ruben:
Jaered:

Community Cards:

Jaered’s Jack-high was good and the tournament was over!

Playground 1000 Champion: Jaered Besse, $79,070.00

2nd place: Ruben Perceval, $77,500.00

Final hand of the tournament

Perceval v Besse – heads up action

Level: 33
Small Blind: 250K
Big Blind: 500K
Button Ante: 250K
Chip Average: 25M
Remaining: 2
Entries: 499

2018/01/31 - 17:59 by

So it has all come down to this – Ruben Perceval and Jaered Best playing heads up for the win!

Their paths to this point today were strikingly different – Ruben taking and keeping the lead while Jaered stayed very quiet and sought at first to ladder up and then to find opportunities to gain chips and maybe bink a spot in the standings.

As soo n as play got down to 2 players, Ruben opened up the question of a deal. The clock was paused and stack sizes determined, and eventually the players agreed to a modified ICM chop that sees $10,000 and the Champion’s Trophy reserved for the winner and locks in $77,500.00 for Ruben and $69,070.00 for Jaered.

Heads up play has now begun.

Event #15 Champion: Nicholas Soller

2018/01/31 - 4:11 by Shawn McCrory

Event #15 of the Winter Festival, the $220 Deepstack Turbo, drew 115 entries. Given the turbo structure, it’s no surprise that it led to fast play as the early levels of the tournament saw a steady stream of bustouts. The players came ready for the dynamics of a turbo tournament, and they did not let opportunities to gather chips pass them by.

Even though the eliminations came at a steady clip, no one player built a dominating stack. Many players rose well above the chip average, but no one was able to separate themselves from the field for long; the chips moved from one player to the next as the blinds crept up.

Play slowed down significantly once two tables remained and the money bubble was in sight. The players agreed to a deal when 14 players remained to pay a “double bubble” so the thirteenth and fourteenth place finishers would have something to show for their trouble. This deal opened the floodgates and several players hit the rail in short order. Another deal put the brakes on the action once again at the final table. The top seven finishers agreed to an ICM chop when the amount of the big blind approached the value of a starting stack. Once that deal was concluded, there was a pre-flop all in on virtually every hand. With the exception of a handful of folds, the flips continued until only our champion, Nicholas Soller, remained.

Event #15 Champion: Nicholas Soller – $$3,320.00 and the champion’s trophy

Runner-up: Daniel Briand – $1,980.00

Last hand of play:

Event #14 Champion: Kathy Sawers

2018/01/31 - 3:42 by Shawn McCrory

Event #14 of Playground Winter Festival, the $1,100 50-50 Bounty, attracted 84 entries. This was a two-day event, and there was a stark contrast in the play from the first day to the second.

Day 1 was all about bounty hunting; the players were ready to gamble in thin spots for the chance to scoop an opponent’s $500 bounty chip. As a result, most of the field was eliminated on Day 1 and only 18 players bagged chips.

Day 2 had a different tone altogether as the players tightened up and tried to outlast each other with the hope of taking home the championship trophy. Each pot was hard fought, as the bounties had less and less appeal with the prize money in sight.

When the field was down to three players, they agreed to an ICM chop of the remaining prize pool. But even with their money guaranteed, nobody was interested in giving up. While it didn’t take long to get from three players to heads-up action, the battle between Kathy Sawers and Isham Yamani was one to remember. Sawers entered heads-up play with a healthy chip lead, thanks to her hot run on the final table, but the chips moved back and forth as they battled it out for over an hour. Despite their determination, the mood was friendly and jovial as both players were clearly having a lot of fun. Ultimately, it came down to a familiar tournament situation; a race between a big ace and middle pair. In this case, the ace prevailed, and Kathy Sawers claimed victory.

Even #14 Champion: Kathy Sawers – $15,000.00 and the winner’s trophy

Runner up: Isham Yamani – $9,790.00

Last hand of play: