Charles La Boissonniere Takes Down Playground1000 $1M Guaranteed!
Eight days of poker, 867 entries and 86.7 million chips. What's left? One winner!
The $1,100 No Limit Hold'em partypoker Playground1000 $1,000,000 Guaranteed event has just wrapped up and Charles La Boissonniere has earned the title, the trophy and a first-place prize worth $200,000!
In the last hand, the champ had most of the chips in play and woke up to pocket sevens, up against Garrett Dansereau's ace-six off-suit. The board ran out dry and Dansereau settled for a payday worth $120,000 for his runner-up finish. He rallied all the way to heads-up play after finding himself short a number of times. Dansereau held on, and with the presence of his vocally supportive rail behind him, managed to climb his way into second place.
La Boissonniere ended the tournament on a quiet note, hanging out with his friend Jonathan Bussieries on the rail and pounding back some well-earned vegetables and dip to celebrate! He's a quiet guy, but most certainly well-liked among the locals. La Boissonniere just finished studying to complete his MBA in Strategy and Innovation and is now unsure as to what comes next.
The newly-crowned champion booked his first live tournament win, and clearly loves the tournament scene. When asked how he felt about his success today La Boissonniere said "It feels very good. I came in very short for today. I counted the chips - I needed to 40-times my stack when I arrived" he laughed.
In 2017 alone, La Boissonniere booked cashes in the Bahamas, Rozvadov, Barcelona and even finished in the money for $40,000 in the World Series of Poker Main Event. When we asked what he prefers to play he said "Just tournaments - chasing the scores." Le Boissonniere has now tripled his live earnings and plans to play the Canadian Poker Championships starting in a couple of days.
The Road to the Final Table
The day began with 24 players gunning for a deep run in the 20th event at the 2017 World Cup of Cards at the ever-popular Playground Poker Club in beautiful Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. The top 100 players made their way into the money just after the first break on Day 3, locking up at least $2,000 for a min-cash. Coming into Day 4, the remaining contenders were guaranteed $6,250.
Leading the way after a big end to Day 3 was Aaron Czaja with more than 10% of the chips in play and a hefty lead over the majority of the field.
Eliminations and double-ups were steady in both directions. Faisal Khan ran ace-queen into aces for a cooler early on and was one of the first few players to go. It was then 2017 Grand Prix Canada runner-up Debra Ann Holman who got it in good with ace-queen against ace-jack but Donghai Lu flopped one jack and rivered another to stop her from making another major final-table appearance.
Another familiar face to finish deep in the money today was Kevin Rivest. He flopped top pair but ran into a set and he would eventually fall just shy of the big money. Several more bust-outs happened before Michel Lacasse took a tumble. He picked up two eights and didn't believe Tomas Magni had a hand, prompting him to call a shove on a ten-high board. Unfortunately for him, he was up against two queens and that brought the final two tables together.
Genores carried his lead through to the final 16 players and Michael Khan made some big moves to show a four-high bluff and build on his stack. A series of short-stacks doubled up including partypoker Team Pro Natalia Breviglieri. The Brit got it in with ace-ten against king-queen to double, and then eventually eliminated Magni with aces against his ace-queen.
La Boissonniere eventually picked off a big bluff from Czaja with top pair and clinched the chip-lead, leaving him with one of the shortest stacks. It was then four-time World Cup of Cards champion Dave Jeanneau-Cyr who found himself on the rail next. He was short and ran ace-nine into tens, failing to hold and settling for 12th place, just short of the final table.
With just 10 players left on the final table bubble, play was fairly snug but there were a few short stacks looking to hold on. One of them belonged to Kyle Janisse and he decided to get his stack in the middle with queen-ten. Lu woke up to nines in the blinds and although Janisse flopped a straight-draw to go with his over cards, he couldn't get there and settled for 10th place.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player Name | Country | Prize (CAD)* |
| 1 | Charles La Boissonniere | Canada | $200,000 |
| 2 | Garrett Dansereau | Canada | $120,000 |
| 3 | Jason Mandanici-Turcot | Canada | $80,000 |
| 4 | Donghai Lu | Canada | $54,500 |
| 5 | Natalia Breviglieri | United Kingdom | $40,000 |
| 6 | Marc Guerbilsky | Canada | $30,000 |
| 7 | Carlos Gerones | Canada | $22,500 |
| 8 | Aaron Czaja | Canada | $15,000 |
| 9 | Alexander Puchalski | Canada | $10,000 |
Notable players to make the money in his event but were unable to make it to the final table included Dave Jeanneau-Cyr (12th - $8,500), Tomas Magni ($7,750), Kevin Rivest (6,250), Debra Ann Holman ($6,250), Faisal Khan ($6,250), Joe Tehan ($6,250), Jean-Philippe Piquette ($5,500), Armand 'Oyster King' King (34th - $5,500), David Guay ($4,500), and Sam Chartier ($3,500).
Since only a small percentage of the field makes any money, the majority of the field hit the rail with empty pockets including partypoker Team Pro Kristen Bicknell, WSOP Main Event Champions Jonathan Duhamel and Ryan Riess, Peter Chien and Pierre Paul Paulin.
Final Table Action
Once the final table of nine came together, it was Donghai Lu on top with almost a quarter of the chips in play. Almost right away, Alexander Puchalski (9th - $10,000), got it in with queen-ten but couldn't improve against La Boissonniere's ace-king. A couple of hands later, a very short Aaron Czaja got his remaining chips in with two fives, but was unfortunate enough to run into Dansereau's aces to hit the rail in 8th place ($15,000).
About an hour went by before Carlos Gerones lost the majority of his stack to Jason Mandanici-Turcot. He didn't table his hand, but Gerones paid off a bet where Mandanici-Turcot revealed a boat and he couldn't recover. Gerones was the Day 2 start-of-day chip leader but eventually settled for 7th place, taking home $22,500 for his deep run.
The next elimination found Marc Guerbilsky (6th - $30,000) on the bad end of a cooler. He called a four-bet jam from La Boissonniere with aces and was up against two kings. Unfortunately for him the flop came king-high and he was eliminated.
Shortly after, partypoker Team Pro Natalia Breviglieri limped from the small blind and called a shove from La Boissonniere. She held ace-four suited but couldn't improve against pocket sevens. The pro pocketed $40,000 for 5th place. More notably, this is her third cash in a row while playing partypoker $1 million guarantee events. She was also the last woman standing in the field today, and sits at the top of the leader board for most partypoker live cashes with 10 thus far.
Four-handed play was paused to discuss a deal, but the remaining players couldn't come to an agreement. Right after that, La Boissonniere took a massive pot from Lu with pocket tens and really pulled away from his opponents with a massive lead. Eventually Lu got it in with king-nine but couldn't improve against ace-jack and found himself on the rail in 4th place ($54,500).
Three-handed play began with La Boissonniere sitting on 54 million of the 86.7 million chips in play. The chip leader kept shoving and eventually Mandanici-Turcot had enough and called off with ace-nine. Unfortunately La Boissonniere held ace-king and he would settle for third place ($80,000).
The heads-up match didn't last long, with Dansereau holding ace-high and jamming his short-stack in against sevens. The board ran out dry and Dansereau pocketed $120,000 for his runner-up finish.
Thanks for sticking with the PokerNews live reporting team throughout all of the action. Join us tomorrow while we cover Day 2 of the $10,300 No Limit Hold'em 8-Max Re-Entry High Roller as it plays down to a winner!
