The Tournament Hall and the additional seating area have been filling up at a constant rate all day, and this is certain to continue as both of today’s tournaments allow entry and re-entry until the end of the break following level 9 – both events are about half way to that point. Immediately following the first break, partypoker Chairman Mike Sexton took to the microphone to welcome all of the players to the MILLIONS North America, and on behalf of all players, he added some extremely kind words about Playground Poker Club, and in particular the fantastic dealer corps on staff here. Mike is no stranger to Playground, and for our part it’s wonderful to be able to continue our relationship in this way. Here are a couple of shots of Mike (and the media scrum that surrounded him) This post was published first on this Playground Event Blog: MILLIONS […]
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The MILLIONS has arrived!
After months of anticipation and preparation, the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America is ready to begin! The action in the first two full Events in the MILLIONS North America will begin today at 12:00pm. Today’s events are Event #1, the $1,000 + $100 MILLIONS Open Day 1A and Event #2, the $10,000 + $300 MILLIONS High Roller Day 1. Both tournaments feature a $1,000,000 Guaranteed prize pool. This is the first of two Day 1s in the MILLIONS Open, and players are permitted 1 entry and 1 re-entry on each Day 1. The registration period on each Day 1 continues through the end of the break following level 9, so players have until 6:45pm to enter (and possibly re-enter). Blinds in the event will increase every 40 minutes and there will be 15-minute breaks following every 3rd level of play. Satellites have been running for the MILLIONS Open since Wednesday, […]
Confirmed: Viktor Blom aka Isildur1
Any list of top players over the past decade would certainly have Isildur1 – known in the real world as Viktor Blom – near the top. The Swedish online pro is best known for playing nosebleed stakes heads-up cash games, but he has also had tremendous success in a limited number of live tournament appearances as well. The legend of Isildur1 begins with tales of a previously unknown player, known only by his username, playing at the highest stakes online in late 2009. He continued playing anonymously – enduring some wild swings along the way – in high stakes NL Hold’em and PLO games for over a year before he revealed his identity at the PCA in early 2011. While Blom’s exploits as Isildur1 remain legendary online, he has also had success on the live tournament scene, despite never having played a full schedule. In 2012, he won a $100K […]
5 Deerfoot players through to Day 3
Our partners at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino ran the first Days 1 and 2 in the MILLIONS Main Event on Tuesday and Wednesday, and with those now complete, full attention shifts back to Playground Poker Club for the rest of the tournament. Five players in Calgary managed to book their way into Day 3 (out of a total of 29 Day 1 and Day 2 entries), including Ashkan Razavi with an impressive 14.18M (71bb) in chips and Thomas Taylor, who accumulated over 6M (30bb) by the time level 17 came to an end. Click/Tap here for Full Day 2 Results. Each of the 5 players has earned a $1,200 travel bonus (not taken from the prize pool) and will make their way to Montreal for Day 3. Meanwhile at Playground, attention will begin focused on Events #1, #2, and #3 – the Main Event (#4) will resume with Day […]
The Main Event begins… at Deerfoot!
One of the innovative elements in the 2018 MILLIONS Main Event is the partnership with Calgary’s Deerfoot Inn & Casino. Not only did Deerfoot run several satellites for the $5,300 Main Event, they’re also hosting a Day 1 and Day 2 in the tournament. Day 1 kicked off today at 12:00pm (MDT) and will continue through 8 levels today, just like any other Day 1 in the tournament. Of course all of the rules and structure are identical at Deerfoot to those in place for the rest of the Main Event at Playground, which means that late registration continues throughout Day 1 and will remain open through the first 4 levels of play on Day 2. So far, there are 20 entries with 19 currently remaining at the tables. Today’s field includes at least 1 Player to Watch – Thomas “Sandy” Taylor. Taylor has been one of the more prolific […]
Announcing the Monster Series!
Kicking off on April 29, 2018, the second edition of the partypoker Monster Series is serving up 41 events and a total of 123 tournaments over the course of eight action-packed days. Between the range of formats, small buy-ins and huge guarantees, the Monster Series has something for everyone. This series will feature a range of in-demand formats, like 6-Max and 8-Max Progressive Knockouts, in response to player feedback. Also, for the first time, the Monster Series will feature 3 special Ladies events. Depositing Player Ticket Giveaway Besides the popular formats, this series offers something that is always popular with players: free giveaways! All new depositing players will receive $25 worth of tickets for the Monster Series on top of their welcome bonus of up to $500. The Monster Series runs from April 29 until May 6, offering buy-ins as low as $0.44 and guarantees as high as the $300,000 […]
Lefrançois wins the MILLIONS Grand Final Main Event
Season One of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS series wrapped up in Barcelona today with the final table of the €10,300 Main Event. After a very long day of poker, Quebec pro Pascal Lefrançois emerged as the last player standing out of 1,175 entries in the tournament – the Champion was crowned! The word “epic” is sometimes used rather lightly in the poker world, but today’s action on the final table truly deserves that description. The action started with 8 players, and it took more than 4 hours for the first elimination to occur – Belgian Thomas Boivin was sent to the rail in 8th place for a €225,000 payout. Countryman Davidi Kitai followed just a few minutes later. But even with these two eliminations, it would still be more than 10 more hours before the end of the tournament arrived. Along the way, two of the greatest stars of the […]
More MILLIONS Main Event Satellites Scheduled
Playground Poker Club and partypoker LIVE have today released an updated satellite schedule for the MILLIONS Main Event. New satellites and increased guarantees have been added every day from April 21st to April 26th, further ensuring that every player who wants to join the event will have a great chance to do so with a satellite ticket! There are now a total of 118 guaranteed seats for the Main Event being offered in Step 2 Satellites during the MILLIONS North America, which is an increase of 53 seats compared with the initial published schedule! Considering that guaranteed seats are a minimum for these satellites, it’s clear that the new Main Event satellite schedule will funnel a massive number of entries into the $10,000,000 guaranteed event! Live satellites for the Main Event have been running since late 2017 using a two-step format. Step 1 Satellites feature a $120 buy-in and award […]
Sam Greenwood comes back to win the MILLIONS Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller!
Canadian Sam Greenwood has continued his winning ways in partypoker LIVE events today with a victory in the €50,000 Super High Roller! The tournament attracted 57 players, and when the final table was formed (after a grueling bubble the previous night), Sam was one of four short stacks at the table. He fell to as low as 600K in chips when blinds had already risen to 250K/500K with five players left! But no stack is too small for Sam, and he came back to win the Event and take home a cool €1,000,000! Greenwood arrived in Barcelona for the MILLIONS Grand Final as the leader of the MILLIONS Season 1 Leaderboard after a monster week in Punta Cana last November. The MILLIONS Caribbean saw him take 3rd in the High Roller for $124,100, 2nd in the Super High Roller for $242,750, and then he took down the Main Event title […]
More stars coming for MILLIONS
As we close in on the MILLIONS, the list of confirmed players gets longer as more and more players let us know they’re coming or secure their Main Event seats via satellite. We constantly strive to offer the best poker experience in North America, and having these individuals within our walls is our hard-earned reward. Antonio Esfandiari As we are closing in on the MILLIONS North America, the list of confirmed players gets longer as players from around the world win their seats in the Main Event. We constantly strive to offer the best poker experience in North America, and having these individuals within our walls is our hard-earned reward. Antonio is currently ranked 4th on the All Time Money List. His $27M in Live Earnings include, of course, his win at The Big One for One Drop in 2012, worth $18,346,673 – the largest single payout to date. He […]
Big day for the Omaha BBJ Winners
The payouts for the Omaha Bad Beat Jackpot that was hit on Monday night are now available, and both the winner and the loser of the hand were at Playground today to pick up their winnings. Here are some shots of Spencer (winner of the hand) and Maxime Boulais (loser of the hand) receiving their oversized novelty cheques – to be replaced by normal-sized ones to take to the bank.
Another World Champ!
This tweet from Scott Blumstein was nice to see the other day: I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never been to Canada before. Excited that will change in a few weeks when I visit @PlaygroundPoker for the Party Poker 10 mil guarenteed tourney. #MILLIONSNorthAmerica — Scott Blumstein (@SBlum2711) April 5, 2018 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Scott Blumstein is a name that should be familiar to anyone remotely interested in the poker scene. Blumstein is the reigning World Champion, having bested a field of 7,221 players in the Main Event at the 48th World Series of Poker in 2017 – the third largest field in history. Before his unbelievable run that snagged him the most coveted prize in the game – plus $8,150,000 in cash – his biggest prize came from his win in the $560 buy-in $1 Million Deepstack Kick Off at the Borgata Summer Poker Open in July of 2016. The sweet […]