In the end, Event #20 in the World Cup of Cards ($200 + $20 Single Rebuy) came down to a battle between two friends from Ottawa: Tam Ho and Marc Lavergne. But their fracas was a short and sweet one, determined by their very first hand of heads up play. Before Marc and Tam went head-to-head, Tam bettered Ian Tang after Ian went all in with . Tam made the call holding . When the community cards were dealt , Ian’s night was over. He finished in third place, and that hand set the stage for Tam and Marc’s showdown. On the very first hand, Marc was dealt pocket fives, . Tam had pocket jacks, , and both players went all in. When the competitors turned over their hole cards, Marc sighed. The dealer then snapped the community cards onto the table: . Marc shook his head. “Why did I go […]

Patrick Bernier – who at one point on the final table was down to just 55K in chips – has emerged as the winner of Event #19 in the World Cup of Cards at Playground. The head up match against Stuart Linnen lasted about a half hour during which they kept roughly equal stacks. Eventually, though, a hand came that would signal that the end of the tournament was near (though not yet over). Patrick got it in with after Stuart limped his to trap on the button/sb. Stuart made the call and Patrick saw the bad news – he was dominated. But although poker is primarily a game of skill, luck is involved, and Patrick would benefit in this hand. The window card on the flop was , but the other two cards: and seemed to signal what was to come. Turn: River: Patrick had made his flush! When […]

When the dust settled on the recent spate of eliminations, just two women were left at the table: Manon Lucasnszky and Veronica Dick. During the final table, each doubled up the other at least once, and despite the other talented players left with 5 remaining, both of them remained among the leaders throughout final table play. Heads up play was destined to be a short affair. The blinds were very high relative to the stacks in play – and just as importantly, both of the players had been among the most active throughout the final table. After just a couple of hands between the players in which Veronica had managed to build up a decent chip advantage, the final hand presented itself. Manon pushed with and was quickly called by Veronica with . The flop was pretty rough for Manon – Veronica went way ahead when the dealer put out […]

After outlasting all 583 opponents, Jamie Baker was crowned the champion of the $150 + $25 Strangers in the Night event. Congratulations to him on a very nice night of poker! It was an extremely rapid Day 3 from the get go, seeing six of the twenty starting players eliminated in mere minutes. It took only two hours to reach the final table of ten players, where the real poker began. Although a few players were knocked out of it in the first hour, things slowed down considerably with six players remaining. After about 90 minutes of play, there seemed to be no end in sight, but out of the blue a streak of players were eliminated in rapid succession by former short stack Terence. In the heads-up battle between Jamie and Terence the lead moved back and forth for a short time, but ultimately Jamie wore his opponent down, […]

The final hand may have determined the winner of the WCC Event #13 Deepstack Turbo, but the writing was on the wall several hands earlier when Ernest Kelly hit the full house to fatally wound Eric Perrier. When Eric went in with pocket tens, , his odds of winning the pot looked pretty sound. But Ernest’s hole cards were , and when the community cards were dealt, , Ernest won 90 percent of Eric’s stack. Although Eric valiantly attempted to battle back, Ernest’s big stack was just too much of a hurdle to overcome. When the last hand was played, Ernest raised all in with and Eric called. His hole cards were . But the community cards were on Ernest’s side as they came down . As runner up, Eric’s take of the prize pool was $2,342. As the winner, Ernest takes home $2,650, the trophy, and a champion’s bragging […]