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 [More...]
$220 8-Max Freeze
Event #16 Champion: Ronald Lei
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 [More...]
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$330 NL Hold’em Bounty
Event #17 Champion: Stephane Bedard
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 [More...]
Recent
$1,100 50/50 Bounty
Event #14 Champion: Kathy Sawers
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 [More...]
