WSOP vs. WPT Montreal Trip Report
After WSOP had announced that it would finally return to Canada in 2016, I found out that WPT CSC Main Event would be scheduled on April 29 - May 5. Casino Montreal announced that its WSOP events would be on April 20 - May 1. Playground Poker Club then announced that its Spring Classic would start from April 17, meaning a direct conflict for players like me who wanted to go for both a WSOP ring and a WPT Playground trophy. Casino Montreal turned out to be the biggest loser along with shot-takers, but Playground also lost. With three major series in Montreal this year, it did not make sense to schedule two of them at the same time.
See below for the number of entries in the ten WSOP events (seven $365) with the most comparable Playground and WSOP Lac-Leamy 2013.
Date - - WSOP MTL - Lac-Leamy 2013 - - WPT Playground
Apr 20. . . . . . 132 . . . . 282. . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 ($150 1d)
21, #2. . . . . . 147 . . . . 265 . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 (#2 $220)
22, #3. . . . . . 214 . . . . 163 . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 (#3 $250 1a)
23, $1125 . . . 123 . . . . 165 . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 (1c)
24, $580 . . . . 125 . . . . 170 (avg of 2). . . . . 217 (1e)
25, Monster . . 321 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 (#4 $110)
26, #7. . . . . . 114 . . . . 158 . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 (#5 $550)
27, #8. . . . . . 105 . . . . 237 . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 (#6 $220)
28, ME $1675. 520. . . . 371 . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 (ME $3500; 370 in 2015)
May 1 . . . . . . 151 . . . . 106 . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 (#13 $550)
Except for the Main Event, Casino Montreal had substantially less players than the corresponding event three years ago in the smaller Casino Lac-Leamy. The five regular $365 of Casino Montreal only averaged 142 players, or 30% less than Lac-Leamy's average of 202 players in seven $365. The most number of $365 entries was 214 on Friday, April 22. The new format of Monster Stack and Turbo were relatively popular.
Except for these three days, Playground dominated Casino Montreal every day. Most people I knew chose to play at the Playground 11 am tournaments instead of going for a WSOP ring. Playground is the #1 tournament room in the world, so I would have loved to play both instead of having to choose WSOP, with the Playground nighttime tournaments as my early busto back-up.
The first-ever Seniors Event in Canada (AFAIK) had 151 players on April 29 at Playground, which is more than most of the WSOP Montreal events!
I hope that both Playground and Casino Montreal will include Seniors Events in their future series.
A couple of things that I liked better at WSOP Montreal over best-practices Playground was: all freezeouts except the single re-entry ME, while Playground has a lot of re-entries; using rack covers to prevent any cheating when moving from one table to another. Free things at Casino Montreal included: $50 free CASH for new players, nightly dinner buffet, drinks, card protector, WSOP LED flashlight, WSOP earbuds, WSOP water bottle, and WSOP luggage strap.
I talked to the poker manager of Casino Montreal if WSOP will return next year, and he said that he will look at the numbers. Here are my suggestions:
1) Do NOT go head-to-head against WPT Playground. I would prefer that the WSOP start after the first Day 1 of the WPT ME, or finish before the first Playground side event.
2) IF Casino Lac-Leamy is more popular than Casino Montreal for poker, move the next WSOP back to Lac-Leamy.
3) Apply early to Loto Quebec for approval of English cards; players like me hate the &^%$#@! RDV cards.
4) Unless Loto Quebec changes its policy about discriminating against men with bags
while allowing women's huge bags without inspection, give out a WSOP "man purse" that Security will allow into the casino. After Security disallowed WPT Fallsview bags, plastic bags, transparent bags, etc., I finally found a partypoker bag that Security considered to be a man purse and allowed into the casino. :wav: My lucky man purse propelled me into a final table in both the WSOP and WPT, along with winning a $3,500 WPT entry (sold) and another 11th place finish in the WSOP.
See below for the number of entries in the ten WSOP events (seven $365) with the most comparable Playground and WSOP Lac-Leamy 2013.
Date - - WSOP MTL - Lac-Leamy 2013 - - WPT Playground
Apr 20. . . . . . 132 . . . . 282. . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 ($150 1d)
21, #2. . . . . . 147 . . . . 265 . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 (#2 $220)
22, #3. . . . . . 214 . . . . 163 . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 (#3 $250 1a)
23, $1125 . . . 123 . . . . 165 . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 (1c)
24, $580 . . . . 125 . . . . 170 (avg of 2). . . . . 217 (1e)
25, Monster . . 321 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 (#4 $110)
26, #7. . . . . . 114 . . . . 158 . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 (#5 $550)
27, #8. . . . . . 105 . . . . 237 . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 (#6 $220)
28, ME $1675. 520. . . . 371 . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 (ME $3500; 370 in 2015)
May 1 . . . . . . 151 . . . . 106 . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 (#13 $550)
Except for the Main Event, Casino Montreal had substantially less players than the corresponding event three years ago in the smaller Casino Lac-Leamy. The five regular $365 of Casino Montreal only averaged 142 players, or 30% less than Lac-Leamy's average of 202 players in seven $365. The most number of $365 entries was 214 on Friday, April 22. The new format of Monster Stack and Turbo were relatively popular.
Except for these three days, Playground dominated Casino Montreal every day. Most people I knew chose to play at the Playground 11 am tournaments instead of going for a WSOP ring. Playground is the #1 tournament room in the world, so I would have loved to play both instead of having to choose WSOP, with the Playground nighttime tournaments as my early busto back-up.
The first-ever Seniors Event in Canada (AFAIK) had 151 players on April 29 at Playground, which is more than most of the WSOP Montreal events!
I hope that both Playground and Casino Montreal will include Seniors Events in their future series.A couple of things that I liked better at WSOP Montreal over best-practices Playground was: all freezeouts except the single re-entry ME, while Playground has a lot of re-entries; using rack covers to prevent any cheating when moving from one table to another. Free things at Casino Montreal included: $50 free CASH for new players, nightly dinner buffet, drinks, card protector, WSOP LED flashlight, WSOP earbuds, WSOP water bottle, and WSOP luggage strap.
I talked to the poker manager of Casino Montreal if WSOP will return next year, and he said that he will look at the numbers. Here are my suggestions:
1) Do NOT go head-to-head against WPT Playground. I would prefer that the WSOP start after the first Day 1 of the WPT ME, or finish before the first Playground side event.
2) IF Casino Lac-Leamy is more popular than Casino Montreal for poker, move the next WSOP back to Lac-Leamy.
3) Apply early to Loto Quebec for approval of English cards; players like me hate the &^%$#@! RDV cards.
4) Unless Loto Quebec changes its policy about discriminating against men with bags
while allowing women's huge bags without inspection, give out a WSOP "man purse" that Security will allow into the casino. After Security disallowed WPT Fallsview bags, plastic bags, transparent bags, etc., I finally found a partypoker bag that Security considered to be a man purse and allowed into the casino. :wav: My lucky man purse propelled me into a final table in both the WSOP and WPT, along with winning a $3,500 WPT entry (sold) and another 11th place finish in the WSOP.
Comments
The action was ok, waitresses are very nice and the food was alright. If you like tournaments, maybe its a better destination.
How did you make out Mad Max ??? what event was it ??
WSOP Main Event, I got 6th place for 32k. Lost a pretty big pot right away and had to tighten up until the short stacks busted. If I wasnt considering ICM it could have been a much better result. Next time I play for the win! Playing with Brian Altman one of the best players in the world for 2 days straight has enlightened me and most definitely will make me a better player going forward. I could have busted him om day 2 when I had KJ and folded to his 3-bet shove pre-flop, he showed pocket 77's..I'm kind of glad I kept him around lol.
Congrats, Still a great result !!!
i played underground with Erik for years. Henis a decent cash game player but he has really worked on his tourny game. Glad he got a nice payday, he just got married last year.
Yeah...right move wrong time. Kid to my left slow played AA's by not betting the flop and I ripped it into Brian who could have had anything there lol. I just happened to run into their top ranges...if AA's bets the flop I dont make that move and I make an extra 10k.
On a sadder note, for the first time in over a dozen WPT events I've gone to since the 2011 WPT Celebrity Invitational with Melanie Iglesias, there were no Royal Flush Girls or partypoker models at the partypoker WPT Playground for the Season XV opener. I talked to some RFG and it appears that the WPT has flushed them all away and not renewing any contracts.
It was WPT Montreal 2013 that forumer lynx5 and I attended, with the RFG, partypoker models, Playground waitresses and masseuse, which converted me from being an exclusive online grinding hermit to trying to qualify to as many fun live WPT events. The RFG was a business differentiator that set the WPT apart from the many competing tours in a declining poker industry. Thanks for the memories, RFGs Ivy, Kat, Miss Universe Guam Brittany, Tugba, Angelique, Jeannie, Melanie, Jennifer, Raysa, and the European RFGs Dalia, Ana and Violet.