LIVE EVENTS

Cliquez ici pour lire la version française de cet article. The $200 + $20 Grand Prix Canada was the marquee event of Playground’s 9-Year Anniversary Series, featuring an outstanding $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. There were numerous starting flights, both live and online on partypoker. When the Day 1s came to an end, there were a total of 2,696 runners who came from near and far, allowing the prize pool to swell above the guarantee. All players who qualified for Day 2 were in the money, and any player who bagged in multiple flights received a $400 min-cash for each forfeited bag. Play resumed with 366 players on Saturday December 15 to play Day 2. It was a long day of poker as some player’s stacks were being built up while others were being sent to the cashier to collect their payouts. The chip lead changed …

Play is now heads-up between Francois Gauthier and Alexandre Roy. The two players are playing for $80,000 and the champion’s title, with the runner-up receiving $50,000. They asked the tournament staff to work out the ICM chop numbers, but after seeing the numbers, they decided to play on with the original payouts in place. Here are their current stacks: Francois Gauthier: 148,900,000 chips Alexandre Raymond: 112,900,000 chips Good luck to both players.

Kevin Javier played like a beast. At one point, he was in command and looked like he might end up taking it down. But everything can change quickly in tournament poker. After having lost chips, he put it in with a flush draw with on a flop and was called by Gauthier who held . The turn was the and the river was the , and Gauthier knocked out Javier with king high. Javier will collect $35,000 for his third place finish.

Jean Roy uses a miniature Stanley Cup as a card protector, but it didn’t help this time. When Francois Gauthier opened, Roy raised all in, only to be called by Gauthier. Roy: Gauthier: Gauthier wasn’t sure if he was ahead when he made the call but was stoked when he saw Roy’s hand. The board ran out , and Jean Roy finished in fourth place for $25,924. Good game!

Play is now four handed. Alexandre Raymond has a huge chip lead, sitting on just slightly more than 50 big blinds. The players have just had another break and after the chips were counted, they looked at the ICM numbers. In the end, no deal was reached so play continues. The remaining payouts are as follows: 1st place: $80,000 2nd place: $50,000 3rd place: $35,000 4th place: $25,924

Event #6 of the 9-Year Anniversary Series, the $100 + $10 6-Max Re-entry, had a great turnout that contributed a total of 92 entries to this single-day event. The players sprinted out of the gate this afternoon, which helped break the ice on the re-entries before the end of this third level of play. By the time the late registration and re-entry period ended, there had been 23 re-entries. After the first break of the day, it was David Bonneau who rose to ascendance, establishing a huge chip lead over the field. Bonneau maintained his chip lead all the way to the final table. At the final table, Bonneau started with the chip lead, but the stacks quickly leveled out. By the time seven players remained, the stacks were nearly even. The remaining players recognized the situation and negotiated an ICM deal of the remaining …

The remaining players in the 6-Max Re-entry have just agreed to an ICM chop of the remaining prize pool. Their deal leaves an additional $350 for the eventual winner, as well as the coveted 9-Year Anniversary Series ring. The remaining prize pool will be distributed according to the following table.  

The final table has already produced two eliminations. Christian Rho was the first to hit the rail, shortly after doubling up Gaetan Perreault. A couple of hands later, Rho moved all in over the top of David Bonneau’s button raise, and Bonneau made the call. Rho: Bonneau: Board: Rho will collect $420 for his final table appearance. Not long after, Sylvain Berthelette busted following a preflop all in against Yonaton Aloni. Aloni: Berthelette: Board: Berthelette will take home $550 for his sixth place finish.

Following the bubble deal, a series of players hit the rail in quick succession to bring about the formation of the final table. The seven finalists are assured of a payout of at least $420 at this point, but everyone is gunning for the top prize of $2,164. The following players reached the money but fell short of the final table.

After a brief delay for hand-for-hand play, the remaining players in the 6-Max Re-entry proposed a bubble deal. According to the terms of their agreement, $10 will be removed from each position to pay thirteenth place $120. Regular play has resumed, with everyone in the money.

The closing event of Playground’s 9-Year Anniversary Series, the $100 + $20 + $100 6-Max 50/50 Bounty Re-entry, attracted a huge field of players for this single-day event. As with many other bounty events, the action-inducing format led to some wild action in the early levels of play. Players raced to collect bounties and build their stacks, which led to 40 re-entries along the way. By the time the late registration and re-entry period closed, there were 119 players remaining out of 191 total entries. The large turnout allowed 24 players to reach the money, where the prizes ranged from $170 to $3,844 for the eventual champion. The story of the early stages of play was Tu Kham Tran’s dominant play. Tran wasted no time building his stack and maintained the top position on the leaderboard all the way to the final table. But there …

The field is down to the last seven players which means it’s time for the final table. Nicholas Soller went all in with pocket sevens against Tu Kham Tran but came up short as Tran came up with two pairs. Soller goes home in 8th place with $530. Here’s a look at who remains.

The field is down to the final eleven players as level 19 comes to a close. Although Tu Kham Tran has a considerable stack, its hard to tell if he is in the lead as a number of competitors have doubled their stacks. The final table will begin once seven players remain.

Play has resumed after the third break of the night with 17 players remaining. Tu Kham Tran has sustained his lead through 17 levels and shows no signs of slowing down. Tran’s stack of 550,000 in chips is currently worth about 91 big blinds and he has doubled the chip average. Rong Xu is close behind in second after knocking out a few competitors to build his stack and collect their bounties.

The chips are flying! Five eliminations happened almost simultaneously to burst the bubble down to the final 24. All remaining players will walk away with at least $170 plus $100 for each bounty chip they are able to acquire.