The Main Event of the Playground Winter Festival has come to a close, with Sergio Vigano being crowned champion! Sergio, a poker player who was visiting Playground Poker Club from New Jersey, collected a cool $86,640.00 for the win.
The Main Event was a $1,000 + $100 No Limit Hold’em Re-entry tournament with 2 Day 1s that attracted 494 entries. The field included many top players including Yann Dion, Eric Afriat, Kevin McPhee, among others. By the time Day 2 had started on Sunday, the field had been narrowed to 139 players – with almost all of the notable and more experienced players having qualified.
Play on Day 2 sailed very quickly towards the bubble before the pace of play slowed somewhat. When the bubble was reached in level 19, there were still over 4 full hours left to play according to the schedule, and as it turned out, that took the field down to just 18 players remaining who returned for Day 3.
Throughout the tournament, Sergio had flown under the radar. He was never among the absolute chip leaders in the event – in fact, to start Day 2 he had started as one of the smaller stacks in the entire field. He started Day 3 with just an average stack, but as play began on Day 3 he began to chip up to the point that he was among the leaders as the 10-handed final table was set.
When all was said and done, Sergio continued to accumulate chips and eventually found himself heads-up against local player Hugo Fontaine for the top prize. With just 2 players remaining, both players quickly agreed to reserve $6,640 for the winner and divide the rest of the remaining prize pool evenly – a deal that guaranteed both players $80,000.00!
After only a few minutes of heads-up play between Sergio and Hugo, we saw a hand develop that led to a champion being crowned. Sergio opened to 900,000 on the button, and was 3 bet by Hugo to 1,600,000. Sergio then moved all-in, and found a quick call.
Hugo tabled his lucky pair of 
, which had at two occasions in this tournament won him a huge pot. This time, however, the pair of 3s was not so lucky, as it came second best to Sergio’s 
on a board showing 
.
With that hand, Sergio claimed the victory in this Main Event of the Playground Winter Festival, taking home a sweet $86,640.00 prize!
