WSOP Circuit at Playground
https://www.pokernews.com/news/2019/07/the-world-series-of-poker-circuit-returns-to-playground-34866.htm?itm_content=pn-hp-hero-8
Official Playground link:
https://www.playground.ca/poker/wsopc-playground-poker-tournament-2019?utm_source=pn&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=eng&utm_campaign=WSOP-C2019
Partypoker link has structures at the bottom:
https://partypokerlive.com/en/event/wsop-c-montreal-2019/overview
Official Playground link:
https://www.playground.ca/poker/wsopc-playground-poker-tournament-2019?utm_source=pn&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=eng&utm_campaign=WSOP-C2019
Partypoker link has structures at the bottom:
https://partypokerlive.com/en/event/wsop-c-montreal-2019/overview
Comments
Schedule
#1 WSOP-C Main Event - CA$1,000+100
CA$2M ($1.5M ) GTD
#2 Colossus - CA$300+30
CA$1M ($765.6K ) GTD
#3 Monster Stack - CA$600+60
CA$150K ($114.8K ) GTD
#4 Super High Roller - CA$5,000+300
CA$250K ($191.4K ) GTD
#5 Closer - CA$300+30
CA$300K ($229.7K ) GTD
#6 High Roller - CA$2,000+200
CA$250K ($191.4K ) GTD
#7 Pot Limit Omaha - CA$500+50
CA$50K ($38.3K ) GTD
I assume they are all ring events.
One of my Mastercards also works for deposit
- Either buy-in direct to Main Event Day 1D (Dead money!!), or play the Sat's on the 29th and 30th to get a starting stack on one of the Day 2s (also, dead money!)
- The negative of this is that a starting stack on Day 2 is only just over 30BB, so you'd be pretty short to start.
- Sadly, I'm not able to play a Sat into the Main Event Day 1 (unless I do so online)
- If I bust out of all that, play one of the Closer Day 1s.
- Cash games otherwise.
Instead, I'll likely be hosting a game the Saturday of the long week, or going to a game that weekend.
Hey Comp... MuchBetter app works well. if you e-transfer you pay no fee
Nicole and I met up with Ed the Ted for breakfast at 10am. He's been here since the series began.
My day started so slow and was card dead for most of the first 6 hours. I was as low as 24k at one point due to my KQ losing to K7 on a king high flop. She went runner runner 7s to have a full house.
Then I ran that up to 70k by dinner break.
500 / 1000.
We had just started level 10, the last level of the night. Blinds are now 600 / 1200 and I have 180k. On the button with Ac 5c and call a 3000 raise and 4 of us see the flop.
Flop comes As-8c-3c
It checks to me and I bet 8k, BB calls, utg+1, the lady who got the full house against me makes it 30k, I call and SB shoves, and lady shoves.
I have them both both covered and would be left with 80k if i lose. If I win, I'll have 400k.
I call.... SB had a set of 3s and lady has A7os.
The turn brings a beautiful club and I hold for almost 400k
My day 2 is Saturday, so we are spending Friday in Montreal.
I have $394,500 and blinds will be 700 / 1400 when play resumes.
Nicole is doing a fantastic job of coaching you into a winning player. Keep up the good work Nicole.
good luck D.J. Kick some ass.
If you guys enjoy Indian food there is an amazing place on crescent street called Devi. Very reasonable prices and delicious food. There is also bar right across the street called Thursday’s..... it is a great spot to grab a drink on the patio on Montreal’s best party street.
Thanks - I take all the credit.
DSC09005-1024x576.jpg
He’s sitting around 7th in chips!!
I am not Nicole but as of 7:30 they had his stack listed at 450k.... still top 15 for the day. Keep it up.and don’t be afraid to put your foot on the gas a little. Aggressive is good at this stage when the shorty’s are just trying to make the end of the day. Raise raise raise when in position.
You can can do it DJ.
He’s in the top 20 or so.
264,000 in chips and the blinds will be 4k /8k with 8k ante.
With hour long blinds you can afford to take a couple of hits and still be in good shape.
Tomorrow is run it up day.
Pimp. Thanks for bringing back memories mentioning Thursday's.
On Sunday, Aug 25 I drove 7 hours, checked in at the AirBnB, and then drove to Playground Poker to enter the final ‘regular’ entry of the Colossus (there was a final turbo entry later in the evening). Eventually, this would have around 3538 total entries.
Although the Colossus is known for all the re-entries people make and the rapid play, I think it is a decently structured tournament. You start with 20K, the blinds are every half hour and the blinds start at 50/100 which is 200 bb! Not bad, really. At the beginning of the 3rd hour (level 5) they are 300 which is still 66 bb.
We played from 4:30 pm to around 1 am. Here are a couple of hands:
At one point I doubled up to 40k, courtesy of the passive / aggressive player I called the “sticky guy”. I believe the blinds are 125/250. He limps, I am in the cutoff and raise to 700 with A 10, 2 callers. Flop comes 8,8,A (2 diamonds) he checks, I bet 1200 one caller then he goes “all in.” I had to think because he could have an 8, but in that case he should have called for value, not shove to try and push me off the hand. Someone called time, I called (other player folded). He had 72 diamonds and did not make the flush so I knocked him out. Yes!
Had no cards for quite a while, then doubled up again to around 70k. I raised with QK and one caller. I hit two pair QK and the other guy had hit 2 pair, Q6. 3 hearts were on the board. He jammed and I did not believe he had a flush so I called and won.
Here is a link to a story they wrote about me. A big hand that kept me in toward the end of Day 1.
https://www.playgroundnews.ca/wsop-c-2019/parkinson-triples-up-and-thanks-his-opponents/?fbclid=IwAR0uW3b0-pRCtA9sb7TVymPFI9a5VdKAjgmjFBr7AzGwv8UJa2JqHtOl3mc
I made it to day 2 with 48,000 in chips!
Jishant Sapra is the guy who busted me out of the Colossus and he made the final table. He had been raising almost every hand, calling every raise and usually hitting the board well, or having many high pocket pairs. Really insane luck. Of course, he had doubled me up a couple of times, for example when my A4 beat his AJ (4 on the river!). In this case, he’d raised, I called with A4 in one of the blinds and when an ace came on the flop I jammed since I was short-stacked. He called but the river saved me.
Final hand, Sapra raises (which he was doing constantly) and the guy to my right goes all in. I look down at AK and go all in. Sapra calls! Guy to my right has A 10, I turn over AK and Sapra has....AA. Ooops. You have to be a little lucky to win tournaments so I’m out in 218th place.
Everyone who made day 2 got $600 and I wound up cashing for $1000 which I thought was a pretty good return for my ‘one bullet’ $330 entry.
Day 1 Monster Stack
After getting knocked out of the Colossus, I had about 40 minutes to have lunch at the fabulous Rail Grill and then bought into the Monster Stack. This is my favourite tournament: you start with 30K in chips, first blinds are 75/150 or 200 big blinds and all levels are 40 min. Last year I made 20th place out of around 550 entries. This year I think we had about 430 entries.
I had a headache most of the day, so wore my sunglasses which helped, sat next to a very “aggro” player, a woman who talked a lot about her playing skill, called almost every raise and managed to always make a pair or two and knocked out several people. I’m pretty sure she verbally goaded at least two or three players into going all-in because of her constantly berating them (and the table in general). I really wanted to take advantage of her incredibly loose style and did take some chips off her, but had almost no playable cards for most of the day. Strangely, or inevitably, she was chip leader after the third break but did not make the money! The hours I sat at that table were among the most bizarre I’ve spent playing poker, for sure. For example, there was a guy at the other end of the table who had his own, uh, idiosyncrasies, and they were trash talking for several hands. Eventually, she said she was going all in without looking at her cards and she encouraged him to do the same (I guess to prove he was man enough, or something). He actually shoved all-in without looking and he had 7,2! She turned over pocket 9s. Hmmmm. I suspect she had looked at her cards but cannot confirm. Anyway, she knocked him out!
Got moved to a new (quiet!!) table at the end of the day. After about 30 minutes mid position raised, late position called and I was in the big blind with A3 so I called as well. Flop came A38. Yes! However, they were all spades so I decided to go all-in and the initial raiser went into the tank for 2-3 minutes. Eventually he called and the other guy folded. Caller tuned over AJ with no spades. Yes! I doubled up at that point.
My major achievement later in the evening (after making it up to around 90k in chips) was to get it all in with KK against AA and A9 (which made the spade nut flush) and survive! My KsKc made the second nut flush and I knocked out the AA guy (who was the same unlucky fellow I doubled up against with my A3). Yikes! (The A9 of spades guy had a shorter stack which is how I survived).
So between day 2 of the Colossus and Day 1 of the Monster Stack, I played about 13 hours of poker on Monday and we started day 2 of the Monster Stack at 1 pm, Tuesday.
End of Day one: 58,800k
Day 2 of Monster Stack.
I played pretty well but bad things can happen. I raised with AQ, C-bet on a KQ8 board and a guy goes all in. It was his 4th all in within 40 min so he was fairly aggressive in trying to build up a stack. I tanked for 2-3 minutes and really thought about it. There were two diamonds and I finally decided he did not have the K and was on a diamond draw so I called. I was correct, he had called my raise with 4,7 of diamonds. No more diamonds came, but he made a straight and knocked me out.
I was 62% to win so I made a great call. However, his 37% gave him the win which is unfortunate.
After getting knocked out of the Monster Stack I went back to my AirBnB and binge-watched the rest of Russian Doll. Restorative.
I decided to play in the $125 satellite to the Main Event on Tues evening which started at 8 pm. I figure these satellite’s involve more than a little luck but what the heck, eh? And, again, the structure is not so bad for 20 min blinds and you start with 20K in chips.
One guy gave me a lot of chips in a couple of hands. Hand 1: hijack raises, I just call with AQ in late position and the button calls. Flop comes AQ6. Not bad! Initial raiser bets 2000, I just call and the big blind re-raises to 10K! Initial raiser folds, I go all-in and get called. I turn over AQ and the big blind turns over Q6. So we both flopped two pair, but my pair was better.
Later, the same guy gave me another 10K of chips when my 33 made a set on the flop and a boat by the river, but he had paired the Jack (the lone high card).
So I caught a few hands and made it from 380 entries down to 45 and they were giving out 38 $1100 seats into the Main Event. I think I played very well and got some cards when I needed them. But now it is 4 am! And the pace of play has really slowed down which is irritating. The blinds go up every 20 minutes and it is taking some people 2 minutes to decide just to call or raise! In fact I called clock on a couple of people and so did another guy because it was really insane to only get in 5 or 6 hands per orbit! They really need a 1 minute limit at this point but I know that is difficult to enforce.
I have about 120K and the blinds are 5/10K. So it’s 12bb, but you also have to put in the 10K ante so each round costs you 25K which gives me an M factor of 5 which is not much. I pick up KK and think “great, I’ll raise and if someone jams all-in, so much the better”. However, the guy 2 seats to my right goes ‘all in’. The same guy had AA about an hour earlier when he went all-in and I had AJ. At that point I’d said to him “can’t you just raise and we can see a flop” and he said something like “you’ll thank me” so I folded and he showed the AA. Here he is again going all-in with the same expression. I really wondered if he had AA and considered folding KK. In fact, if we had been 3 away from the ‘money’ I really would have tried talking to him a bit to get information and possibly folded. But it is pretty hard to fold KK and it was probably going to take one or two more hours to get another 7 people out. So I called with KK and….he turned over AA! No king came and that’s all she wrote so I get back to my AirBnB at 4:30 am. Brutal.
<Interlude>At this point I stopped to work out some interesting poker statistics: since arriving on Sunday night I’d played approximately 32 hours of poker. A normal poker hand takes between 2 - 3 minutes to play. So let's say 30 hands per hour x 32 hours = 960 hands that I have been dealt. Whoa.
Probability of getting KK is 221 - 1. And out of those 960 hands I think I have seen KK about 4 times which is fairly average.
Now the odds of you being up against AA when you hold KK are about 4%. But in my small data sample it has actually been 50%!
The odds of KK beating AA are about 18%. In my case, it's been 50%. </Interlude>
While playing the Main Event I picked up KK a few more times and don’t believe it ran into AA again. :-)
The Main Event:
You start with 50K and one hour blinds so the structure is quite good. However, the buy in is ‘only’ $1100 and many people treat it like a big re-buy tournament. And you are allowed one re-entry per flight plus multiple day ones and tons of satellites so the play can be pretty aggressive.
After almost 6 hours I was up from 50k starting stack to about 81k so things were going well so far. Dinner break soon, and then we play 4 more levels (one hour each).
This trip report has been long enough as it is, so I’ll consolidate my experience since it revolves, rather elegantly, around various people flopping a set of Queens.
To get from 50K to 81K I flopped a set of Queens which turned into a full house (Queens over 5s) and wound up getting it all in with an unfortunate player who had a lower full house (8s over 5s).
Towards the end of the third last level of the day, my flopped set of Queens wound up losing to a flush! I was knocked out.
So with two more levels left I re-bought (everyone seemed to be doing it!) and ran the 50K up to 75K by the end of the night.
Day 2:
I started with 48 bb which was ok. I played for a couple of hours before my AA lost to…..a flopped set of Queens! That turned me into a short stack and I played for another three hours, doubling up a couple of times, but never getting over 45K.
Eventually I jammed in the cutoff position with AdJd and was called by AQ and QQ. In fact, a diamond came on the flop and turn, so if I’d rivered one I would have been up over 100K but that did not happen.
Overall, I believe my play was solid and I took notes on a number of hands and have ideas about how to improve. It is a rare opportunity to play with a ton of different people and see different styles (some good, some crazy). It is, however, a long grind if you want to play the Colossus, Monster Stack and Main Event. It was disappointing to get knocked out, but also very nice to drive home and spend the weekend with my family.
-
Guy to my immediate right is raising every hand it seems. After about the 5th time he starts showing (AK, KK, QQ, AQ), the guy is a card rack for the first 40 minutes or so.
-
I blind down to 210k or so and pick up AcQc UTG+3 - guy to my right raises to 18k and I try to decide between just calling, raising or jamming. If I 3 bet him, it would be to 45 or 50k and do I really fold if he jams ? If I call, there are still five people to act after me. So I choose the all in option, folds back to him and he flips over AA - I get a club on the flop, a club on the turn but alas, no club on the river and I am out in 210th place for a min cash ($2000)
-
From there we head over to Casino Montreal and Nicole has the best session ever. I think she cashed out for over $900 at her 1/2 table. Then we play the daily deep stack turbo for $95 and she finished 18th out of 180 players for $200. Casino Montreal really does have worse players than the Playground
-
On Monday, Playground had a promotion of $500 high hands all day, every half hour and a seat draw every hour for a minimum $500 and up to $5000 - After taking my seat just after noon at table 45, seat 2, the 1pm draw comes and they call my table and seat ! Only won the minimum of $500 but still a nice way to start the day !
-
Tried my luck at the $330 bounty tourney and was knocked out when my AJ was called by QT for half his stack and hit a ten on the river to knock me out.
-
All in all , it was a great trip. Did some sight seeing in Montreal, played a ton of poker and made some money all with my favourite girl. Can't ask for much more than that.
Good job, it’s tough when a guy is raising every hand like that. At a certain point you have to stand up to the bully, you just got unlucky that he woke up with a monster. Glad you and Nicole had a good time .
Casino Montreal may be my favourite poker room ever. To say I was catching cards is an understatement. We went twice and I had good sessions both days.
Also had a straight flush there and got a $200 bonus. Wish it was closer for more regular visits.
Was a great time!