The closing event of the May Power Weekend, the 50/50 6-Max Bounty, brought out a huge field of 171 players. The action-inducing format-6 players per table, each with $100 bounty chips-surpassed all expectations and made for a lively and raucous atmosphere in the tournament hall. The players filled the room quickly at the beginning of the evening, and many of them left almost as fast as they arrived. The bounty chips went in the middle early and often, causing the field to shrink surprisingly quickly. The tournament staff handled it all in (rapid) stride, as they balanced and broke tables at high pace to keep everything running smoothly. Hadi Ghattas bolted out of the gate to run up a triple-average stack before the first break, and he managed to maintain his momentum all the way to the final table. Most of the other players at the final table found ways […]

The Playground 200, over several Power Weekends, has become an established event. The format is a great blend of classical structure and a modern take on poker tournaments, one that brings online and live poker together. There were four Day 1s, including one online, and 133 players came back on Sunday afternoon for Day 2. Out of that number, just 20 made it to the final day, tonight’s Day 3. Play was fast at the beginning, and from the 3 starting tables, players were soon confined to 2 short-handed tables and playing for a spot on the Playground 200 final table and its big prizes. Once our finalists were decided, the game was about dodging Mathieu Boucher’s attacks and earning some pay jumps. Boucher is an experienced tournament player who knows exactly what to do when given a massive lead. He took no quarter and steamrolled the table with incessant […]

Event #8, the $60 + $10 NL Hold’em Single Rebuy, brought a field of 70 runners, enough to easily surpass the $3,000 guarantee for this event. The action was predictably aggressive for this type of tournament, but only 13 players took advantage of the re-buy option. Play at the final table was particularly snug, but things opened up once the blinds reached 8K/16K. Following a flurry of eliminations that quickly reduced the field to three players, Victor Soumis, Brigitte Metivier and Normand Plessis Belair, who agreed to an ICM chop of the prize pool. Although Soumis had controlled the biggest stack for a large part of the final table, by the time negotiations had started Plessis had taken over the chip lead and got the lion’s share of the prize pool according to the ICM chop. Not long after the chop was concluded, Soumis hit the rail as a victim of […]

Tonight’s event was a 50/50 Bounty that attracted a staggering 245 players. 31 of them got paid, but many more went home with their money back or a small profit from the collected $100 bounty chips. The money was reached without any hand-for-hand play after 2 players busted simultaneously, and from there the eliminations came in at a fast pace, until the tournament moved to a 2-table affair. After so many fast busts, it was natural to see the progression slow down, and this moderation was supported by the fact that players where trying to play low-risk poker to earn a seat in the finals. The last table was eventually reached, and provided a good amount of drama. Frédéric Normand mistook a bounty chip for a regular chip, and threw it in as a call. The bounty chip, however, is always an all-in bet and that mistake cost him the […]

Event #6, the $70 + $10 NL Hold’em Freezeout, brought out a huge crowd of 202 entries, enough to nearly triple this afternoon’s $5,000 guarantee. The 20-table field dominated the tournament hall, making the remaining field in the Playground 200 look small by comparison. The Freezeout lasted for 24 levels, as the players left the field at a slow and steady pace. Unlike many other events, without the potential or re-entries or the enticement of bounty chips, the Freezeout charted its own course, and most eliminations came as the result of a short stack moving all-in for a handful of blinds. There were a few big stacks that led the way for significant portions of the afternoon; Alexandre Menard held the chip lead throughout the early stages. Menard gave way to Stephen Langlois as afternoon became evening, but by the time the sun had set Jonathan Tremblay had taken charge […]

Event #5 was a shootout tournament, a format that is gaining some serious traction during Playground tournament series. Players needed to win their sit & go table to participate in the 16-player final where everybody got a payout. Some tables finished very quickly, others were playing rather tightly and went the distance. When all 16 spots were taken, round 2 began. 16 players dropped to 8, and that’s when the flow of bust outs halted. For almost an hour, every single all-in saw the shortest stack survive, until there were 6 big blinds in the average stack. Then, of course, everything happened really fast. After the series of eliminations that brought the shootout to a 3-way affair, players decided to reduce the variance by accepting ICM numbers. Jordan Chartrand – $2,845 Chrishan Sivasundaram – $2,661 Rong Xu – $2,570 There was another $300 reserved for the winner, which was decided […]

Today is Day 1C in the Playground 200 tournament during the May Playground Power Weekend. This is the final starting flight in the event, and represents players’ last chance to qualify for Day 2 in the tournament – or to improve their chip holdings going to Day 2 for those that have already qualified. As a re-entry event, any player, whether or not they have qualified for Day 2 already, may join Day 1C and attempt to build a dominant stack to take with them to Day 2. The event can already be counted as a great success. With 360 entries so far, the day should open up very close to the total number of entries required to match the guarantee, and from there, the prize pool simply increases, one buy-in at a time. Of the 360 entries, there are 78 players currently qualified for Day 2. This includes Mathieu […]

Event 4 in the May Power Weekend was a $50 + $10 NL Hold’em Rebuy tournament. Players could rebuy an unlimited amount of time during the first 4 levels, directly at the table, making for an interesting dynamic. When the rebuy period was over, players started to be a little more cautious with their plays, until the final table was reached. A deal was struck 10-way that brought a lot of action. Every final tableist was secured a payment and the only extra money was at the very top – all were playing for a $509 extra. Eight busts later, Cole Skye and Ranjeev M were heads-up and they gave quite a show. The first thing they did was to reduce the variance to the maximum. They added $192 to their secured amount and played for $125. Even though the bounty was massively reduced, both players put on their best […]