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Event #3 of Playground’s 9-Year Anniversary Series, the $100 + $10 Megastack Turbo Re-entry, brought out a large field of players that contributed a total of 96 entries to this single-day event. The prize pool guarantee of $5,000 was easily surpassed, as over $9,000 in prizes was awarded to the top 12 players.

Throughout the afternoon, many different players had turns as the chip leader, as nobody was able to hang on to that lead for very long. The turbo structure kept the chips moving around the tables at a brisk pace, putting most players on a white-knuckled ride just to keep pace with the blinds. So it was only fitting that the two players who managed to stay on the leaderboard for most of the afternoon, Mathieu Legault and Silvio La Palerma, would meet in a heads-up battle at the final table.

Legault, who emerged victorious in Event #2 of the 9-Year Anniversary Series, the 6-Max Re-entry, got off to a fast start and kept his foot on the gas pedal all the way to the final table. La Palerma built up a significant stack before taking down a huge preflop all in against another player who briefly held the chip lead this afternoon, Panagiotis Anastasopoulos, to surpass Legault and take the chip lead when the field was down to 30 players. But both players fell off the pace in the late stages, as other players took turns with the chip lead. 

When six players remained, they agreed to an ICM chop of the remaining prize pool. Following their deal, the players took an aggressive approach in nearly every situation, with Legault and La Palerma capitalizing on the situation. When they finally made it to heads-up play, they were nearly even in chips, but that was only the beginning of their seesaw battle. The chips moved back and forth with ease, as each player managed to make big hands at key moments. At one point, Legault held a chip lead of nearly 6:1 over La Palerma. But La Palerma battled back until the blinds caught up and forced the action, leading to a preflop all in. La Palerma had the best of it when the chips went in and managed to avoid Legault’s outs to emerge victorious. Congratulations!

Megastack Turbo Re-entry Champion: Silvio La Palerma, $1,670

Runner-up: Mathieu Legault, $1,295

Last Hand of Play: