Phil Laak & Antonio Esfandari are coming to Playground!

Hi everyone,

Montreal’s Playground Poker Club will be hosting the Laak & Esfandiari Open between March 1-4th. The event is named after well-known pros Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, the guests of honour, who have teamed up with Playground Poker Club to design a top notch event for poker players at all levels.

The event kicks off on Thursday, March 1st with a $2000 + $200 Heads Up Event with a best 2 out of 3 format. With an already sold out field of 32 players and a $64,000 prize pool, this one is not for the weak at heart and is geared towards the more seasoned players.





The Heads Up Event will be broken up into two Day 1′s, giving players the option to start on either Thursday or Friday at 12 noon. To make the event even more exciting for the players, Phil and Antonio have agreed to a humiliation prop bet. Whichever player between the two of them gets knocked out the earliest, will be humiliated in front of the Playground crowd by the other player on Sunday, March 4th. What that form of humiliation will be at this point remains a surprise, but surely it will be entertaining knowing these two characters.

The action stacked weekend will also feature $500 + $50 NLHE Deepstack Event, again with two Day 1′s on Friday March 2nd at 7PM and Saturday March 3rd at 12 noon. To keep with the Laak VS Esfandiari theme, the two Playground Players Club members will have their own personal “team” backing them in their next friendly competition.


Day 1A’s players will represent “Team Laak” while Day 1B’s players will represent “Team Esfandiari”. Although the purpose of the Team format is designed to extend the Laak VS Esfandiari theme throughout the weekend, what good would an event like this be without some friendly competition?


The last man standing in Sunday’s $500 Deepstack final on March 4th will represent either Team Laak or Team Esfandiari, depending on which Day 1 the player advanced from. The losing team will see their team captain humiliated in front of everyone, in yet another friendly prop bet.


This event is surely not one to miss. Also expected to be in attendance at the event are Playground Players Club members – NHL Hall of Famer Guy Carbonneau, Erik Cajelais, Marc Karam, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Philippe Plouffe, George Caragiorgas and Anne-Marie Angelil.


For a full schedule and complete details on the Laak & Esfandiari Open, visit www.PlaygroundPoker.ca

Comments

  • Hi . . . crazykoby is going to Fallsview.
  • Is there a cap on the $500 event? And can you pre register for it?
  • How far is Playground Club from the Windsor Hotel in downtown Montreal, and what's the best way to get there?
  • Popkorn wrote: »
    Is there a cap on the $500 event? And can you pre register for it?

    There is a cap, is was supposed to be 100 per day. It has been increase due to high demand. You can per-register and i suggest you do so in order to guarantee a spot.
    You can email info@playgroundpoker.ca
  • BlondeFish wrote: »
    How far is Playground Club from the Windsor Hotel in downtown Montreal, and what's the best way to get there?

    Its about a 10 minute drive. From the Windsor, you best bet is a cab.
  • Windsor Hotel? What used to be the Windsor Hotel (years ago) is not a hotel any more. Is that the correct name of your hotel?

    Anyhow the best way to get there is to drive, it takes about 20 minutes from downtown. Get on the 720 (Ville-Marie Expressway), then merge onto the 20W. Take the exit for the Mercier Bridge, continue over the bridge to the 138 towards Chateauguay. Playground is on the right a few kilometers along the 138.

    [Edit: or take a cab!]
  • Baaahhhhh ..... Esfandiari is my favourtire player, and I can't make it out to this!!! Anyone else from toronto going? If so let me know, maybe you can get some pictures or swag signed for me if possible?
  • Players are really taking advantage of our new guaranteed $100,000 Bad Beat Jackpot. Five days after $131,174 was won, the BBJ went out again for a staggering $100,000! That’s just under a Quarter Million dollars paid out to Playground players within a five day span. Guess what? It’s starting right back at $100,000 and if the past 5 days are any indication, it could again real soon!

    As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari will be joining us at the club for a weekend full of action from March 1st – 4th 2012. They will start their stay in Montreal by playing in the $2200 Head Up tournament. We all know how competitive these two buddies are, and this time will be no different. Both think they are better than the other, and have agreed that whoever makes it deeper in the Heads Up tournament will send the loser outside, in the winter weather, and drop him in a dunk tank!! You read correctly, the loser will be dropped into a pool of freezing water right outside of Playground Poker Club!

    As long as the loser doesn’t catch pneumonia, they will both be on hand for our $550 Laak & Esfandiari Open 2 day event!

    The weekend closes off on Sunday March 4th with a $200 Bounty and the launch of Playground Poker Club’s monthly Iron-Man competition, which will be kicked off by the original Iron Man and Guinness World Record holder, Phil Laak. The last man standing in this event will walk away with $2500 in cash game buy-ins as well as custom Playground Poker swag!

    For details on all our upcoming events and promotions, log onto www.playgroundpoker.ca
  • Playground wrote: »
    There is a cap, is was supposed to be 100 per day. It has been increase due to high demand. You can per-register and i suggest you do so in order to guarantee a spot.
    You can email info@playgroundpoker.ca

    Thanks for the info, wish there were more tournaments for the series than just 1 HU event and a $500, but after calculating the 5 hour drive plus expenses for 1 tournament, probably will have to pass this time.
  • Popkorn wrote: »
    Thanks for the info, wish there were more tournaments for the series than just 1 HU event and a $500, but after calculating the 5 hour drive plus expenses for 1 tournament, probably will have to pass this time.

    You may want to come down for the Playground Poker Classic which is a 2 week series and has a nice variety of tournaments. The Classic starts at the end of April, however the schedule has not been released yet.
  • Popkorn wrote: »
    Thanks for the info, wish there were more tournaments for the series than just 1 HU event and a $500, but after calculating the 5 hour drive plus expenses for 1 tournament, probably will have to pass this time.

    There's also a $200 (130+20+50) Bounty tournament on Sunday March 4 in the evening. And if the past few weekends are any indication, there will be tons of cash table action as well.
  • They sold out both btw, if anyone is curious for next one. Taking alternates so 200+ for $550. I guess HU sold out awhile back, wondering if they could fill a 64 bracket.

    Seems everyone is dropping to 32, LAPC just did as well.

    2009 COPC was more than 90 for 5k

    2010 was like 61

    2011 was under 32 at 2k BI

    Maybe Playground will get this number backup....

    I think Antonio will outlast Laak fwiw
  • I'm playing on Laak night and fully intend to take down the whole tournament after a long string of bubble finishes in the past few weeks. Time to push through for a good score.

    ;->
  • Hey Guys,

    Take a look at Antonio taking the plunge into a tank of freezing water.
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150601328462233
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