WPT Montreal News

As experienced tournament players have seen in the past, they must sign a form to acknowledge the Media Terms & Conditions before participating in an event. The Media Release is a standard element related to all modern poker tours; you can read the partypoker LIVE Media Terms & Conditions here: https://partypokerlive.com/en/media-policy.

Recently, partypoker LIVE implemented a new, streamlined procedure by which players may “sign” this Media Release using their partypoker LIVE website or App. This new procedure will be mandatory for the WPT Montreal, and you can save some valuable time by simply going online or opening the App and taking care of things before you arrive at Playground. All you have to do is sign in and check the “Agree” box related to the Media Policy preference.

If you already have a partypoker LIVE account, you will be prompted to update your Media Policy preference the next time you sign in – and if you don’t, all you have to do is create a new account – setting this preference is part of the process.

When you get to Playground, partypoker LIVE representatives will be on hand to verify that you’ve completed the process and they will add a sticker to your Playground Player’s Card as confirmation. If you don’t get your sticker from partypoker LIVE staff in advance don’t worry – we’ll make sure you’re covered when you take your seat.

Best of all – no matter which partypoker LIVE events you play, you only have to do this once! Click “Agree” and you’re covered for all events, around the world!

Sign up online: https://partypokerlive.com/
OR
Download the App via iTunes or the Google Play store.

The WPT Montreal is finally here! At Playground, we are extremely excited to host the WPT500, the WPT Main Tour, and the WPTDeepStacks, all grouped together in a first-of-its-kind festival, and while the WPT500 Day 1s Online have already been played (see the results here), the live portion of the festival starts Friday! Make sure to follow the action on our Event Blog, where live updates will be posted throughout the festival! 

The festival, kicking off the new 4-year partnership between partypoker LIVE and WPT, presents 7 official World Poker Tour Events, with combined guarantees of over $8,000,000. The Main Event has a $5000 + $300 buy-in and a cool $5,000,000 in its own guaranteed prize pool! Check out the full schedule here.

Qualify on partypoker

There are a number of ways to play the Main Event at a much reduced cost. partypoker has one more satellite tree on their online schedule, and it rolls on Sunday, October 28:

• 9:00AM – Cent Roll
• 10:00AM – $1.10
• 11:00AM & 12:00PM – $5.50
• 1:00PM & 2:00PM – $22
• 3:00PM – $109

The journey ends with the WPT Montreal Main Event Satellite that starts at 5:00PM and has a 5-seat guarantee. Of course, you can also qualify online through partypoker LIVE Dollars satellites, and that comes with some amazing added value: if you buy into any of the first 3 events with partypoker LIVE Dollars and win, you receive a sponsorship of up to $100,000! Check out the details here.

Qualify at Playground

Playground has also put together a 2-day Satellite Frenzy, positioned right before the festival on October 24 and October 25, where you can win seats to the WPT500, the Main Event, and the WPTDeepStacks. Mega Satellites to the Main Event and the High Roller will also run throughout the festival. From here on out, a total of 182 seats are guaranteed at Playground! Click here to see the full schedule of satellites taking place at Playground.

The big blind ante

This festival will also introduce the big blind ante to Playground, an exciting novelty for our venue. The big blind ante is similar to the button ante, but instead of being asked from the player on the button, it is the player in the big blind who has to pay it. Read up on the big blind ante here.

$12K Overlay

Within the WPT Montreal, you will also find a unique opportunity to qualify for the Caribbean Poker Party: a $1,200 + $100 Overlay Satellite with one package to the famous poker festival under the sun for every 10 entries, plus an added $12K package! That’s right, this satellite guarantees an overlay of $12,000 in the prize pool! The package breakdown:

1. One (1) $5,300 Main Event seat.
2. Nine (9) nights, Bed & Breakfast for two people, at Baha Mar.
3. $1,000 resort credit.
4. $2,000 travel expenses.

This is one cool package to hold, and the Overlay Satellite at the WPT Montreal is your best chance at winning one.

The WPT Montreal descends on Playground this week and presents 7 Events and 15 satellites. Make your schedule. Enter the history books.

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Playground is pleased to announce that partypoker LIVE has officially implemented the big blind ante. All partypoker LIVE Events around the world will move to big blind ante, and that includes the WPT Montreal that descends on Playground on October 26th.

A bit of history

About a year and a half ago, consolidated antes made their appearance. Aria and partypoker LIVE were among the first to use the format, and Playground followed shortly after. It spread like a wildfire but was received by most like a breath of fresh air, a much-needed reform to effectively speed up the game and allow a significant increase in hands per hour. The only question that was left was whom to ask it from? The world was divided; about half went for the button ante, and the other half went for the big blind ante.

Because both formats require the same amount of chips per round, it was hard to really discern which version’s advantages outweighed the other’s. Should the pain of having to put chips in before seeing your cards be spread out on three hands, or should it be done and over with in just two? Should the ante be posted by the player who is already largely invested (the big blind), making defending ranges an interesting debate, or should it be posted by the player in the best position to get it back (the button)?

Players on board

In the end, after nearly a year and half of analysis and player feedback, most top Tournament Directors, including Matt Savage, founder of the Tournament Directors Association, WPT Executive Tour Director, and fervent defender of the big blind ante since the beginning, agree that the deciding factors lean towards the big blind ante, for two reasons:

1. There is a player in the big blind position every hand, while there are situations where no one is on the button. The big blind ante ensures that chips are in the centre before the cards are dealt, without exception.
2. The whole idea of implementing consolidated antes in the first place was about saving time, and two players are faster than three.

John Duthie, President of partypoker LIVE, ran a survey on Twitter last month. Out of 6,769 votes, 52% preferred the big blind ante, while 27% preferred the button ante, and 21% wished they could go back to traditional antes. Players have spoken, and partypoker LIVE listened.

Three of Playground’s four annual festivals are presented by partypoker LIVE: the MILLIONS North America, the WSOP-C Playground, and the upcoming WPT Montreal. The latter, coming to Playground on October 26, will lead the way. Note that online Day 1s will continue with traditional antes, as always.

Application

The big blind ante will be applied on all tournaments that are part of the WPT Montreal festival. That is seven WPT Montreal events, eight Mega Satellites, and one Caribbean Poker Party Overlay Satellite.

At the WPT Montreal, some players will experience their first big blind ante tournament. It is important to know that the player in the big blind puts up the ante before posting the big blind. Therefore, in rare short-stack cases, it is still possible to be in a situation where you are all-in on the ante and can only win your chips back.

Playground counts on local players to be open-minded about the new format and to relay their comments to dealers and floor persons. These comments will be escalated to our Tournament Director, who will then decide upon the question of adoption.

The WPT Montreal, with its $8,000,000 in combined guarantees, starts in just a few days. Enjoy the festival!
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The WPT Montreal is finally here! This Sunday, October 21, partypoker presents the WPT500 Day 1A – Online, the first of 3 online Day 1s for Event #1 of the WPT Montreal. The event is guaranteed at $1,000,000!

The WPT500 has a very accessible buy-in of $500 + $50 and presents a total of 10 starting flights, the first 3 of which are held online on partypoker:

• Sunday October 21 at 9:00pm – WPT500 Day 1A – Online
• Monday October 22 at 9:00pm – WPT500 Day 1B – Online
• Tuesday October 23 at 9:00pm – WPT500 Day 1C – Online

A single re-entry per flight is permitted, which means that you can fire up to 6 bullets online into the tournament with the widest buy-in/guarantee ratio in the whole series. This is one Day 2 you don’t want to miss! The 7 live starting flights will be held from Friday, October 26 to Monday, October 29.

Once you have secured a spot into the WPT500 Day 2, you can focus on the WPT Montreal Main Event, which has a $5,000,000 guarantee! The Main Event also has an online portion: The Main Event Day 1A – Online is held on Sunday, October 28 at 9pm. Live Day 1s are held October 29 to 31. Direct satellites are running daily on partypoker with 40 seats guaranteed weekly, but if you prefer trying a live qualifier, check out our 2-step qualifiers and direct satellites here.

Don’t forget, buying into any of the first 3 events – the WPT500, the WPT Main Event, and the WPTDeepStacks – with PP LIVE Dollars gives you access to some pretty amazing added value. You can win up to $100,000 in PP LIVE Dollars! Find out more here.