The World Poker Tour carries off a successful DeepStacks debut in Argentina and adds five more stops to the North American Season 5 schedule.
Have you ever been to Tenby?
The small network of alleyways makes it look like a really crap Venice. It’s also cold this time of the year. On Saturday, I was walking along the road with my daughter in my arms. The coastal winds hit her so hard it nearly peeled her face off. The thought of it. One minute you have this symmetrical beauty, and the next, nothing but bone.
I came home early.
Too bloody cold.
And I wanted to watch Black Panther.
On the way back to the car, that looked like an igloo hidden beneath seagull shit that smelled like fish finger sandwiches; I saw a World Poker Tour (WPT) pinball machine. The silver balls of Mike and Vince. The Royal Flush Girls. It looked out of place, like ice in a cup of tea.
I wanted to play it so badly, but the shop was boarded up.
I wonder if they play pinball in Argentina?
The WPTDeepStacks and the Argentine Experience
Back in October, the WPT announced a series of South American events, including a $1,500 buy-in WPTDeepStacks event in the Casino Iguaźu.
It’s just happened.
The event attracted 327 entrants.
Sporting an Argentina football shirt, Cristian Vilches, began the final table third in chips, and patiently bided his time as Oscar Ferreyra turned into a one-man wrecking crew.
The pair met in an even-steven heads-up encounter that went the way of the man I am focusing more attention on. 33-year-old Vilches picked up $84,992 for his win, his most significant to date. His two previous best scores include an 8/924 finish in last year’s World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event at the same venue for $14,530. Before this hot handle of a tournament, Vilches best performance was runner-up to Ramiro Petrone in an event at the City Center Casino in Rosario where he banked $56,094 back in 2016.
Brazil Poker Live sponsored the event.
Rumour has it; it was a lot warmer than Tenby.
Final Table Results
1. Cristian Vilches – $84,992
2. Oscar Ferreyra – $56,675
3. Daniel Klachuk – $41,580
4. Afif Domingos Lemos Do Prado – $30,895
5. Raul Alejandro Manzano – $23,250
6. Martín Piñeiro – $17,725
888Poker Ambassador Bruno Foster finished 28th.
WPTDeepStacks Announce Second Half of Season 5 North American Schedule
The award-winning WPTDeepStacks (WPTDS) team has announced another five North American stops to bring the full total of Season 5 events to 13.
The five additional events take place at Montreal, Houston, Edmonton, San Diego and Calgary. There is a silly law in place that hacks off the WPT part of the WPTDS acronym from the events in Edmonton and Calgary, but we know, don’t we. Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.
Here is the minutiae:
The WPTDS will offer more than $2m in guarantees for the newest kids on this particular block.
The WPTDeepStacks turns up at the doors of the Playground Poker Club in Montreal for the first time. A C$1,650 buy-in Main Event takes place Aug 31-Sep 5.
Another WPTDeepStacks first sees the tour land in Houston, where a $1,000 buy-in Main Event and $100,000 Guarantee takes place at the FreeRolls Poker Club, Sep 21-25.
The WPT then hides as the DSPT takes over the reins Oct 5-8 for a C$1,100 Main Event with a C$300,000 Guarantee live and direct from the lovely titled Casino Yellowhead, in Edmonton.
The WPT links back up with the DSPT for a visit to San Diego (date TBD) for a $1,100 buy-in $200,000 Guaranteed Main Event at Oceans 11.
Finally, the WPTDS Championship returns to Calgary for the first time since 2016. For legal reasons, the WPT has to GTF, as the Grey Eagle Resort & Casino in Calgary hosts a C$2,500 buy-in, C$1 million Guaranteed Main Event. Two years ago, the event attracted 712 entrants, and Duff Charette won the C$284,095 first prize.
Here is the full schedule.
