Dustin Melanson Captures World Cup of Cards 50/50 Bounty Title
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Early Friday morning at Playground Poker Club, Dustin collected his final bounty of the 2017 World Cup of Cards Event #10: $1,100 NL Hold'em 50/50 Bounty, topping a field of 144 entries to claim the Champion's trophy and a top prize of $16,750.
Final Table Results:
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dustin Melanson | Canada | 16,750 CAD |
| 2 | Alexandre Lavigne | Canada | 12,840 CAD |
| 3 | Clayton Grunberg | Canada | 9,500 CAD |
| 4 | Patrick Braga | Canada | 7,100 CAD |
| 5 | Lucas Drolet | Canada | 5,400 CAD |
| 6 | Alexandre Blanc | Canada | 4,000 CAD |
| 7 | George Caragiorgas | Canada | 3,050 CAD |
| 8 | Bradley Copestake | Canada | 2,300 CAD |
| 9 | Sofiane Boulila | Canada | 1,700 CAD |
Melanson picked up nine bounties en route to his victory, adding an extra $4,500 to his first place prize. For Melanson, this is his first-ever live-recorded tournament victory. Melanson also almost doubles his career live-recorded tournament earnings, currently sitting at just over $19,000.
Impressively, Melanson was down to just five big blinds before the event reached the money, quadrupling up in a four-way all-in where his pair of fours held against ace-nine, ace-king, and jack-ten. Melanson survived again on the money bubble, doubling up with ace-queen against ace-jack.
Another of the more popular events at Playground, the 50/50 Bounty attracted a field with numerous familiar faces and notables. Defending champion Mitchael Ferguson, partypoker ambassador Kristen Bicknell, William Blais, David Ormsby, Rodney Ramalho, and Ruben Perceval are just a few players to enter and fizzle out before the money.
Once down to the bubble, the final 16 players played hand-for-hand for over an hour, playing a total of 30 hands on each table. Patrick Braga would finally break it open after making a flush with ace-seven of clubs against Spencer Jean-Baptiste's pocket nines.
As expected, the average stack dropped significantly and a post-bubble bust-out bonanza kicked off with the next four players busting within minutes of each other.
The final table was set when Steven Martin ran ace-king into Alexandre Blanc's pocket aces. Tanvir Ahmed, who had been the shortest stack for quite some time, nursing just a few big blinds would bust soon after, making the final table official.
Next to depart was Sofiane Boulila, who three-bet jammed with ace-jack but found Braga waking up with pocket queens. Eighth place belonged to Bradley Copestake after he check-jammed a flop with a flush draw and couldn't get there against Clayton Grunberg's top pair.
Dustin Melanson got the best of a blind versus blind to bust George Caragiorgas in seventh place and soon after Alexandre Blanc fell to Melanson as well. Falling victim to a sick tens versus queens cooler against Alexandre Lavigne, Lucas Drolet was left with less than one big blind which Lavigne came back for the next hand, dropping Drolet in fifth.
Braga would then be eliminated by Melanson before Lavigne took out Grunberg to set up a heads-up battle. Lavigne began the match with a slight chip advantage but Melanson quickly closed the gap and took a 2-to1 chip lead.
On the final hand, Melanson three-bet jammed with ace-four and held against Lavigne's king-queen to claim the title, Champion's trophy, and all the glory.