The World Poker Tour and partypoker LIVE roll out the first event in a four-year feast of poker as the WPT Montreal gets underway with a successful WPT500 event.
The fun has begun.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) and partypoker LIVE are marching down the Montreal high street, banging drums and cymbals with all the enthusiasm of a group of Hare Krishnas.
Adam Pliska, Lynn Gilmartin and co looked solemnly on as the old WPT took a ride in the morgue elevator. Tony Dunst and Vince Van Patten have declared the last rites.
It’s time for something different.
For the first time in WPT history, the team are firing all three of their barrels at the poker public, and the people of Montreal are the first to benefit from this brave new world.
The Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake is acting as host for the 2018 partypoker WPT Montreal, where players will compete in a WPT500, WPT Main Event and WPT DeepStacks Main Event.
The first of those three is in the books, and it was a raving success.
2,536 entrants competed in the CAD 550 WPT500 event, and Miguel Goncalo denied Said El-Yousfi the opportunity to add a WPT title to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet he won in 2016 when he beat 126-entrants at the Global Casino Championships in North Cherokee.
El-Yousfi began with a 48.4m v 27.7m chip lead, but the pair tossed it around like a couple of eagles doing the same with a mouse named Morris before this happened.
El-Yousfi limped the button, Goncalo raised to 4.25m, and El-Yousfi called. The flop was Qs9d8s, and both players checked. The turn was the 8c, and El-Yousfi called a 3m Goncalo lead. The river was the Jd, Goncalo checked, El-Yousfi bet 9.5m, Goncalo moved all-in, and El-Yousfi called. El-Yousfi showed KcTh for the nut straight, but Goncalo held Qc8d for the full house.
A cooler for only his second ever win.
Goncalo picked up $152,596 and the WPT500 title, not too shabby for a young man who had earned no more than $3,746 in a single tournament before this event.
Here are the final table results.
Final Table
1. Miguel Goncalo – $152,596
2. Said El-Yousfi – $105,337
3. William Blais – $69,431
4. Thomas Hall – $51,120
5. Trevor Argue – $38,912
6. Dave Graham – $30,519
7. Sebastien Lepine – $23,652
8. Jason Harned – $19,075
Three seasoned WPT vets ran deep in this one, and not a single snob amongst them: the Season XII WPT Player of the Year, Mukul Pahuja (20th), two-time WPT Champ, Eric Afriat (26th), and the man who once one the Main Event at this venue, Amir Babakhani (64th)
WPT Main Event Update
The CAD 5,300 buy-in, CAD 5m GTD WPT Main Event is underway.
Day 1A attracted a miserly 80-entrants, and Marius Kikinezhdi (283,500) led 41-players into Day 2 including Shankar Pillai (165,600), Michael Wang (151,200), and Brian Altman (132,400).
Day 1B saw 89 player advance from 172-entrants. Upeshka De Silva (249,000) led the way with the former WPT Player of the Year, Matt Salsberg (237,200) sitting second, and the former WPT Montreal Champion, Maxime Heroux, (198,400) also bagging up a decent stack.
Day 1C begins Wednesday 31 October.
The CAD 1,650 buy-in, CAD 1m GTD WPTDeepStacks event begins Thursday 1 November and comprises of five starting flights.
Sticking with the WPTDeepStacks brand; Dustin Foster has beaten 432-entrants to win the Pittsburgh title at the Rivers Casino. Foster beat Paul Ferdiani to capture a career-high $87,366 live tournament score.
Here are the full results:
1. Dustin Foster – $87,366*
2. Paul Ferdiani – $59,136
3. Mark Bowersock – $38,022
4. Carl Digiorgio – $25,566
5. Blake Napierala – $19,658
6. Matt Emmel – $16,309
7. Brian Patterson – $13,667
8. Jared Palmer – $11,046
9. Peter Vitantonio – $8,437
*Includes a $3k WPTDS Championship Package
