WSOP-C Playground

Thomas Bennett

The final WSOP Circuit ring has been awarded in the early hours of the morning here at the WSOPC Playground in Quebec, Canada. Thomas Bennett was the last player standing from a field of 422 entries, last-defeating Amir Khan in a two-hour heads-up duel to win the top prize of $26,000, his first WSOP Circuit ring and an entry to the Tournament of Champions.

“Oh my god, it’s fantastic." Bennett answered when asked how he felt following the win. "I’ve been trying to get this for a couple years now and it’s great. I feel great. Really tired, it’s been a long week. But I really enjoyed it”

The heads-up duel seemed to be heading for an early end after Khan took a big hit and was reduced to two big blinds. From that point Khan won successive all-ins and grinded his way back, even taking a small lead over Bennett at one point. Bennett commented about how not sticking to any one playstyle was key in grinding Khan back down before eventually cementing the win.

“I just wanted to keep on playing my game. I had a strategy in mind. I was trying to change things up and not let him get familiar with the way I was playing."

$400 Monster Stack final table results:

1. Thomas Bennett - $26,000
2. Amir Khan - $18,000
3. Zhengyang Wu - $12,210
4. Michael St Pierre-Porter - $8,500
5. Manuel Fernandez - $6,950
6. Jordan Schneible - $5,700
7. Haralambos Margaritis - $4,600
8. Brigitte Korak - $3,550
9. Giuseppe Galluzzo - $2,600
10. Marilou St Jean - $1,800

Ala'Eddin Hammoud

As late registration was set to close in the $400 Mystery Bounty, the last of 18 Circuit events here at the WSOPC Playground, Ala'Eddin Hammoud entered at the last-possible second, immediately after busting from Day 2 of the $400 Monster Stack. Hammoud made the most of his final opportunity of the series by overcoming the 189-entry field and last-defeating Marcello Iacovella heads-up to win the top prize of $8,000, a further $3,500 in bounties, his first WSOP Circuit ring and an entry to the Tournament of Champions.

“I am feeling extremely satisfied, extremely happy and extremely humbled” Hammoud told PokerOrg following the win. “I was not expecting this. It feels good to have a ring.”

Interestingly, Hammoud described a massive loss at the final table as the turning point that eventually led to his victory. “Funny enough the really pivotal hand is a hand three-handed that I lost. I called an all-in and lost and went down to 5% of my stack. I went down from 1,000,000 to 150,000 at the 40,000 big blind level. It’s not a winning hand that was pivotal for me; it was that hand. After I was able to double twice, and I took it from there.”

Hammoud continued, describing his mindset following the massive loss three-handed. 

“At that point I had nothing to lose. I was the last person to register for this tournament. I was playing Day 2 of the Monster Stack, I lost that one and the staff said “are you interested in playing, there’s one more spot for the Mystery Bounty”. My stack was already in play when I got there, at the last possible moment before the end of late registration.”

Playground has been Hammoud’s home casino for nearly a decade, and he touched on his admiration for the card room.

“I’ve been coming here for close to ten years. In my opinion this is one of the top rooms in the world, bar-none. I feel the structure of management and the dealers are elite. They know what they’re doing here. They’re extremely friendly, extremely helpful.”

$400 Mystery Bounty final table results

1. Ala'Eddin Hammoud - $8,000
2. Marcello Iacovella - $5,800
3. Zhi-Lin Lin - $3,220
4. Luciano Iacovella - $2,100
5. DJ Sharma - $1,700
6. Carlos Flores - $1,400
7. Stephen Oates - $1,150
8. Behrooz Salemi - $950
9. Jeremy Bertrand - $800
10. Marc Andre Larouche - $700

Johnny Yu

The second and final PKO event of the series has concluded here at the WSOPC Playground in Quebec, Canada. Johnny Yu was the last player standing from a field of 167 entries in the $1,000 PKO event, taking home the top prize of $14,000 for the win on top of a further $18,000 in bounties, his first WSOP Circuit ring and an entry to the Tournament of Champions.

"Oh my god. I'm on such a high" an elated Yu told PokerOrg following his victory. "I've had such a rough two weeks. I've been here since the Colossus. All my hands were just getting run over. Aces cracked, sets cracked by running flushes... just running so bad. So this last PKO tournament before I leave tomorrow, it's a series saver but also a mental saver, because I was going crazy. It was all worth it in the end for this."

Yu described how he took a careful approach to the final table until the action got short-handed at which point he started ramping up the aggression.

"I was just trying to navigate and see who was going to be aggressive and who was being passive. I didn't want to get into any big flips because ninth place didn't pay that much. So I navigated the final table until we got five-handed and then I used my experience to just push these guys. I don't think any of them had a lot of experience."

Yu highlighted a heads-up bluff as of the pivotal moments from the final table that helped propel him to victory.

"So I had nine-deuce of diamonds. I missed the board and had nothing. I was floating him and then an ace came on the river. When he checked, that was what I was waiting for and I shoved on him. It was a huge pot, that was the momentum shift. He was short after that and I just chipped him down from there”.

$1,000 PKO final table results:

1. Johnny Yu - $14,000
2. Henry Alexander Li - $14,000
3. Khac Nguyen - $7,460
4. Patrick Carter - $5,900
5. Matthew Hall - $4,900
6. Devesh Thapar - $4,200
7. Eric Massie - $3,550
8. Daniel Le - $2,950
9. Robert Szeredai - $2,400
10. Hayden Toole - $1,900

Senthuran Vijayaratnam

One of the most prestigious rings of the WSOPC Playground was awarded in the very early hours of the morning today. Senthuran Vijayaratnam was the last player standing from a field of 214 entries in the $3,300 Mega Stack High Roller, taking home a career-best score of $145,000 for the victory alongside his first WSOP Circuit ring and an entry to the Tournament of Champions.

 “Honestly, I don’t even think it’s hit me yet” Vijayaratnam told PokerOrg following the victory. “This is my first-ever six-figure score. It’s been an unreal feeling and unreal journey. My first ring man.”

 Vijayaratnam described how he’s been chasing his first six-figure score, something that was only possible with an outright win in this tournament.

 “I always told my boys that it’s first or nothing for me, everyone knows that. I’ll never chop, and second place was $99,000, and I’ve never had a six-figure score. What are the chances of that? So if I came second that means I’d have fell short again. Honestly, it’s just been an amazing journey.”

 Vijayaratnam came into the final table with the chip lead but with the presence of local crusher Shaan Siddiqui and WSOP Main Event finalist Griffin Benger at the final table his path to victory was far from easy. Despite the stiff competition Vijayaratnam managed to get to heads-up against David Burnard with a slight lead. The heads-up battle that ensued took nearly two hours and saw the chip lead change hands multiple times.

David Burnard

 “He played amazing to be honest” Vijayaratnam said of his heads-up opponent. “In the end I won a flip, essentially for the ring. First of all, he’s a super nice guy. The heads-up battle went for quite a bit, back-and-forth.”

Vijayaratnam looked to have the heads-up match locked up at one point, holding against Burnard’s on a jack-high flop with a covering stack. Burnard spiked a three-outer to double up back into the lead and Vijayaratnam talked about how he never lost his composure despite taking the brutal beat heads-up with the ring at stake.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life. At the end of the day, it’s just poker. There’s people in this world who don’t have food or shelter. I come from Sri Lanka and I ended up playing poker. How could you complain? I just kept fighting back. I always give myself a pep talk when I take a bad beat. I tell myself “Get back to work Sen, get back to work.” For the past couple of years that’s been helping me mentally.”

Senthuran Vijayaratnam and his rail

Vijayaratnam had one more thing to add before closing out the winner’s interview.

 “This is really important to me. I just wanted to say that I’m nothing without Jesus Christ, and all glory goes to him. Thank you.”

$3,300 High Roller Final Table Results

1. Senthuran Vijayaratnam - $145,000
2. David Burnard - $99,000
3. Tony Stratopoulos - $67,100
4. Aaron Parsons - $47,000
5. Shaan Siddiqui - $33,000
6. Vladmir Perovic - $24,000
7. Griffin Benger - $18,000
8. Gianluca Cedolia - $14,500
9. Toan Tran - $11,500