In the short while since Playground Poker Club has opened its doors, the Montreal poker club has surpassed expectations and established itself as a favourite poker destination in Canada. The inaugural Playground Poker Classic Tournament series has attracted many poker players as well as accomplished pros from the poker community, a testament to its growing success. The Playground Poker Classic is a series of 15 tournaments leading up to the signature $3,000 NLH Deepstack Event.
The Classic kicked off with on April 29 with a $150 NLH tourney that attracted 337 players and Daniel Moquin became the first winner. The series continued with impressive turnouts.
Here is a list of event winners to some of the events:
- $40 Rebuy – M. Abbruzzo
- $150 6-Max – Marc Dupre
- $100 6-Max PLO – Cedric Sebbag
- $200 Deepstack – Louis Varoutsos
- $5,000 Freebuy – Real Villeneuve
- $750 Deepstack – Normand Gauthier
- $100 NLH – Jean-Philippe Piquette
- $100 Deep Turbo – Gavin Smith
- $300 Bounty – Michael Korovine
Former Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien and members of the René Angélil family were in attendance during the earlier events including Jean-Pierre Angélil Anne-Marie Angélil along with her husband singer Marc Dupré, who shipped one of the tournaments.
The $500 Heads-up tournament on Friday maxed out at 32 players, creating a prize pool of $16,000. After many hours and five rounds of play, Montrealer Anthony Greco defeated Rob Brown in the final heads up match. Anthony had a pair of Queens against Jack 5. 3AQ on the flop and the turn was a 4. A King came down on the river. Anthony’s win gave him a bracelet as well as $7,500, Rob Brown won $3,700, while Levon Dedeyan and Fuyuki Ikura each got $1,600.
Here were the first round matchups.
- Arthur Walker vs. Marc-Etienne McLaughlin
- Levon Dedeyan vs. Garen Galanti
- Fabrizzio Bruno vs. Allan Puzantian
- Fuyuki Ikura vs. Philippe Plouffe
- Rob Brown vs. Jordan Lande
- Jonathan Driscoll vs. Vlad
- Gregory Baksic vs. Anthony Greco
- Jason Turcot vs. Carlo Nini
- Gabriel Morin vs. Gavin Smith
- Martin Primeau vs. Nector Lazarus
- Eric Theroux vs. Francois Laperriere
- Noy vs. Nicolas Soudre
- Jay Kay vs. Pinto S
- Jason Hallee vs. Ron Farber
- Alex Morin vs. Benjamin Leblond
- Karine Clermont vs. Michael Lawson
The $3,000 NLH Deepstack attracted a field of 75 players. Many familiar faces here from the poker world played in this event including: Gavin Smith, Anh Van Nguyen, Pascal LeFrancois, Samuel Chartier, Benjamin Leblond, Shayne Khanna, Brian Hodhod, Jonathan Driscoll, Eric Afriat, Levon Dedeyan, George Caragiorgas, Philippe Plouffe, and Jean-Louis Arseneau.
LeFrancois was an early chip leader for a fair part of the tournament before handing off the lead to Chanracy Khun later in the evening. Gavin played a short stack throughout much of the tournament before getting eliminated in level 10, but he did leave the Classic with a win under his belt.
At the end of 11 levels this Saturday, 20 players will return on Sunday at 1:00PM from the original 75 to play down to a winner. The new chip leader is Matthew O Brien.
Players making it to Day 2 include:
| Player Name | Count |
| Matthew O Brien | 331,100 |
| Chanracy Khun | 239,700 |
| Jiachen Gong | 238,500 |
| George Caragiorgas | 193,100 |
| Adam Coviensky | 192,600 |
| Carlo Nini | 191,700 |
| Stephane Arbour | 172,700 |
| Steven Umansky | 146,100 |
| Jacob Meyer | 133,800 |
| Anh Van Nguyen | 129,800 |
| Jason Hallee | 120,200 |
| Glen Hammers | 114,200 |
| Pascal Lefrançois | 112,400 |
| Dave Tremblay | 111,200 |
| Patrick Braga | 92,500 |
| Benjamin Lebond | 90,300 |
| Vlad Faubert | 54,200 |
| Jean-Sebastien Bergeron | 40,200 |
The payout structure is as follows:
- $72,000
- $46,500
- $30,000
- $20,000
- $15,000
- $10,500
- $6,500
- $5,000
- $4,500
Stay tuned for updates on Day 2 as the field gets narrowed down. The event had a very positive response and the tournament is very well organized and with good structures.
Here are some short profiles of some of the more notable names who have played in the $3,000 NLH Deepstack event:
Brian Hodhod from Montreal with over $160,000 in career tournament winnings with four of his cashes at last year’s WSOP.
Pascal LeFrancois from Rosemère, Quebec, with over $1.2M in career tournament winnings last year he made two very big cashes at the WSOP that included a WSOP bracelet and an 11th-place finish in the Main Event just missing the final table.
Gavin Smith is one of the most accomplished Canadian poker pros with almost $6M in career tournament winnings and just last summer won his first WSOP bracelet. This is Gavin’s 2nd poker trip to Montreal in the past couple of months where in addition to the Playground Poker Classic where he already won a tournament he also played for charity at the Miriam Foundation Montreal Poker Open.
Samuel Chartier is from Montreal and has over $800K in tournament cashes to his credit his biggest cash being in 2009 at a WSOP Circuit event in Atlantic City. This year Samuel won a PLO tournament at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas winning just under $100K.
Shayne Khanna is a regular in the Montreal poker scene having cashed in several local tournaments. Like Samuel Shayne also cashed at the PCA this year for $87,500. Shayne is a rising star.
Philippe Plouffe is also a local rising star with some good tournament placements. He was also at the 2011 PCA where he earned an 8th place finish in the PCA Main Event that earned him $202,000.
Eric Afriat is from Montreal and has over $200K in winnings to his credit. His best cash was at last year’s WPT Bellagio Cup where he finished 6th and was at the same final table as Phil Ivey. Eric will be heading for Vegas again this summer to play at the WSOP.
Anh Van Nguyen is a pro from Toronto with over $700,000 in career tournament winnings. Last February he was in Montreal where he finished 3rd in a tournament winning him $27K and the month before that a 2nd place $34K finish at the PCA.
Jean-Louis Arseneau is a regular in the Montreal poker scene having cashed in multiple tournaments including winning the Royal Series at the Montreal Casino.
Jonathan Driscoll is from Blainville, Quebec, and is another Quebecer who cashed in last year’s WSOP Main Event winning $206,000 for finishing in 39th spot. He has had numerous other cashes at various tournaments in the USA.
George Caragiorgas is from Laval, Quebec, and enjoys the local poker scene but has excelled in different tournaments in the USA. In 2009 George had a series of cashes which also included a 20th-place finish in the WSOP Main Event that paid him $352,000.
Levon Dedeyan from Montreal is a regular at Playground Poker where he took down a $1,000 Deepstack tournament in March. Levon has had a number of cashes both in Vegas and in Canada.
Benjamin Leblond is from Ottawa but a regular in the Montreal poker community. He is a very accomplished and respected player with several wins including a cash at this year’s PCA obviously a favourite destination for Canadian poker players. Probably his most notable tournament win was at the 2009 Canadian Open Poker Championship $5,000 Heads-Up tournament where he beat pro Jeff Madsen to win 1st place and take $100,000 in prize money.
