The heads up match between Charan Malhotra and Nicholas Soller lasted three levels.  The chips were exchanging hands every now and then, but mostly, both players were waiting for a decent hand. Charan started with a sizable lead on Nicholas, who only had 900,000 of the total 3,575,000 chips in play.  Mid-way through the two-man contest, Nicholas doubled-up and Charan was badly hurt.  The two experienced players played back and forth for a while, never doing much harm to each other, and seemed to be quite content to play on, even after 10 hours of play. Tournament structure in the late stages has an uncanny ability to put an end to the festivities: the blinds go up.  It is universal truth that all good things must come to an end; and heads-up matches are no exception.  Things started to get a little less comfortable when the blinds hit the 60K / […]

It all started at noon today and by the time the late registration period was over, there were a total of 78 players (including 17 re-entries), which allowed the prize pool to swell to a total of $7,326. 10 players were to be paid today. As the 6-max is an aggressive and fun format, the lead shifted from one player to another throughout the course of the day. When the tournament had funneled down to 7 players, the final table was formed. Being the last day of the March Power Weekend, many of the Playground dealers who were not scheduled to work joined the action as they rarely get a chance to play. The regular clientele however played a tough game and gave the dealers some fierce competition, doing everything possible to secure a win. Mission accomplished as heads-up play was between former dealer André Dupuis and Playground regular customer […]

The heads up action between Dany Debs and Serge Roy was cool and relaxed. Both players exchanged chips, went all-in, folded, and let the button go back and forth for about 20 minutes. But, before long, Serge was running out of chips. His options were limited and something had to be done. He shoved all-in with his remaining chips and Dany made a swift call. Both men tabled their hands. Dany: Serge: The flop included a pair: and the on the turn gave each man a second pair. Now Serge was in trouble; his deuce was useless and he quickly figured out that he absolutely needed either a Jack or a Queen for a boat or any aAce to kick in. Unfortunately for him a little sealed his fate and he had to settle for 2nd place. So congratulations to Dany Debs, who takes the win in Event #6 $100 […]

After Peter Maltais had doubled up with his hand, he was sitting on a 1M+ chip stack and he kept the pedal to the metal and shoved the next hand. Patrick made the call. Peter had shoved and was called by Patrick with .  Once again, Patrick was way ahead.  The board came , Peter hit his J and again Patrick lost with the best hand pre-flop, and Peter was now over 2mil in chips. Then Peter raised it up on the next hand to 400K, Patrick shoved his stack, and Peter made the call. Patrick: Peter: Board: and all of the sudden, with a ton of run good, Peter now had almoast all of the chips in play. On the last hand of play, Patrick shoved his remaining 300k dark and Peter snap called with .  The board stayed clean, and, just like that, we crowned the champion in […]

The Playground 100 was one of the highlight events in the March 2019 Power Weekend, boasting a guarantee of $25,000 over 3 starting flights. A total of 496 entries joined the event, nearly doubling the guarantee, and 51 made Day 2 – all of which were “in the money”. The day started with heavy action as many short stacks had snuck their way into the money, and with this pressure now off their shoulders, they were able to open up their game in an attempt to make their way to the final table. After 8 levels of play, the 10-handed final table was formed with Carl Gagne-Lizotte at the head of the pack. Luigi Fantigrossi came out swinging and did some damage to his table mates before ending his run in 5th place. He was followed by WSOP Bracelet winner Michael Malm in 4th and Joel Berard in 3rd before […]

After the players returned from their short break, play resumed. Unfortunately for Harrison Kaczka, his luck was not changing. He tried to grind, fold and squeeze some value from the little hands that were favorable to him, but to no avail. Eventually, he just ran out of chips. He decided to go all in when he had 85,000 chips left, and Jean-René made the obvious call. In the end, all it took was a pair of jacks to crown Jean-René champion. Jean-René Gonzalez: Harrison Kaczka: Board: Event #3 Champion: Jean-René Gonzalez, $2,276 The last hand of play Second Place: Harrison Kaczka, $1,610

The day started at 11 this morning in the 1st event of the March Power Weekend, a $100 + $10 freezeout, which attracted 60 players, allowing it to surpass the guaranteed prize pool of $5,000, generating a total of $5,820 to be paid to the top 8 finishers. The final table saw the two who were the chip leaders all afternoon, Giovanni Petrella and Ron S., holding a substantial lead over the others. As expected, the short stacks shoved away and the field started to narrow down. Ron S. went on a crazy roller coaster ride, seeing his stack drop to 8K, then go back up to almost 300K, before busting out in 4th place. Dylan Thibault, a regular visitor from Ontario who likes to come play most of the Playground events, made a solid deep run, just as he often does, but ultimately busted out in 3rd place ($910). […]

Event #5, a $200 + $20 Deepstack Freezeout started at 11 AM, featuring a 30,000 chip starting stack and 20 minute levels.  Although the weather was not the best today, 113 players made the trip to Playground to enjoy a Sunday afternoon of tournament poker. There was a guaranteed prize pool of $15,000 that ended up swelling to $21,922! There were many local grinders mixed in with out of town players competing for a top prize of $5,252.  The day played out slowly, with many players grinding similar sized stacks. Cameron Wilson from Kitchener, Ont., had started to run away from the pack in the later stages.  Mike Saragossi then started to build a monster stack heading into the final table.  Ahmad Baalbaki was playing patiently, nursing a below average sized stack as we were down to the last 3 tables. he never gave up hope and was able to […]

Stephane Blouin-Verroeulst has won the Playground 200 in the February 2019 Playground Power Weekend, defeating David Bolduc Hamel in a tough heads up battle between two players that were clearly playing at the top of their game. Stephane had started the heads up match with a slight lead, and this was maintained through the initial level of 2-way play until the break – he had about a 3:2 chip lead. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. However during the break, he seems to have found a new focus, and within 10 minutes of play (perhaps even a little less), Stephane was up to a 5:1 advantage and the writing was on the wall. The final hand of the tournament came when Stephane called in the small blind, and then snapped off David’s shove from the bb. Stephane: David: Community cards: Just like that, Stephane became the Playground 200 […]

The heads up action was set up to be quick, with Yannick Bourque Patry having a huge lead on Denyse Mignault. Both players were obviously starting to show signs of fatigue, and the end seemed near. Right off the bat, Denyse doubled up in the first hand, armed with pocket Kings and 520,000 chips. After this quick hand, she managed to go all in 6 of the next 8 hands. Yannick seemed unable to get his hands on any decent cards at all. The blinds went up to 30K/60K and the pace intensified even more. Yannick stayed stone-faced and impassive throughout the match up, and tried as much as he could to prevent his chips from bleeding into Denyse’s stack. But it was a loosing battle. After 5 or 6 hands Denyse was now chip leader and was showing no signs of easing off the pedal. Every time Yannick raised […]

During heads-up play, the players decided to make another small deal; instead of $400 going to 1st place, they agreed to re-adjust and leave $300 for 1st and $100 for 2nd. The two players battled back and forth for an orbit or two, and finally they were both all-in: Jonathan had and Normand had .  Jonathan was happy to smash the flop, hitting 2 pair, but as seasoned tournament poker players know, in most all-in situations, there seems to always be a sweat. He was not happy to see the spade draw and wanted the dealer to keep it clean. The on the turn was a brick, but the on the river made a flush for Normand, and, all of the sudden, we had our champion. Event #3 Champion: Normand Plessis Belair, $1,715 Last hand of play 2nd place: Jonathan English, $1,500

An epic heads-up battle took place between Jean-Pascal Gauthier and Anish Sood to close out the action in Event #1 in the February 2019 Playground Power Weekend. Along the way, the two remaining players looked at the ICM chop numbers, but in the end, they decided to just play on. Anish was dominating up until the last hand before break, but with only 10 seconds to go before the break was to start, an important hand was dealt.  Anish was on the button and looked down at and shoved.  Jean-Pascal woke up with and, as expected, snap called!  The Queens held and Jean-Pascal received a nice double-up, adding almost 300k to his stack. Returning from their last break, chips moved back and forth until Anish went all in with Big Slick. Jean-Pascal called, holding a hand that was clearly dominated:  King high, 8 kicker. The dealer fanned out a King-high […]