It’s been four years since a World Poker Tour tournament has been held on Canadian soil, but considering the record-setting field that massed at the Playground Poker Club for the WPT Montreal, the WPT will likely make Canada a regular stop on the tour. Thanks to the two starting days, a reentry format, and the WPT’s usual “get out the vote” campaign, the final tally of 1,173 entries for the WPT Montreal broke several records.

In a venue that could accommodate roughly 500 poker players, the WPT decided to offer players two starting days, and after 478 players registered on Day 1a, tournament officials were confident that the WPT Montreal could top the WSOPC Main Event that took place earlier this year in Vancouver as the largest “major” tournament in Canadian history. The WSOPC Vancouver tournament was a $1,500 buy-in event that attracted 1,032 players; the WPT Montreal was a $3,300 buy-in event that attracted 1,173 entrants, basically tripling the size of the prize-pool, as well as setting the Canadian attendance record.

The WPT Montreal nearly broke the record for the largest WPT tournament in the tour’s 11-year history. The current record-holder is the Borgata Poker Open, which reset the record this year when 1,181 players entered the event, a mere eight entries ahead of the Montreal event! Not bad for a first-time tournament and the first WPT event in Canada since the tour held an event in Niagara Falls back in 2008.

The field for the WPT Montreal was large and boasted some of the biggest names in poker, with recognizable players like Jeff Gross, Amanda Musumeci, Christian Harder, Antonio Esfandiari, and Mike Watson all ending their respective Day 1 flights near the top of the leader-board.

Day 1a chip-leaders:

1. Patrick Lelievre — 326,100

2. Kerry Shears — 299,300

3. Jean-Louis Forino — 272,000

4. Marc-Andre Ladouceur — 247,300

5. Ben Armstrong — 221,700

6. Guillaume Decaen — 214,200

7. Kevin MacDonald — 212,200

8. Mike Watson — 207,300

9. Tamer Alkamli — 204,600

10. Antonio Esfandiari — 197,400

 

Day 1b chip-leaders:

1. Kalpesh Raichura — 314,200

2. Jeff Gross — 284,000

3. Glen Cymbaluk — 270,700

4. Everol Davis — 243,900

5. Louis Rousseau — 236,200

6. Daniel Ricci — 231,900

7. Josh Kimmel — 210,000

8. Amanda Musumeci — 149,500

9. Matthew Burnitz — 143,000

10. Christian Harder — 132,400

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The other benefit a huge field is the prize-money, and the WPT Montreal will award a massive $750,000 purse to the winner of the event, with all six players at the final table walking away with six-figure scores:

* 1st place — $754,162

* 2nd place — $470,922

* 3rd place — $317,449

* 4th place — $211,746

* 5th place — $146,359

* 6th place — $113,157

 

Tags: Antonio Esfandiari, Attendance Record, Canadian History, Canadian Soil, Jeff Gross, Kevin Macdonald, Ladouceur, Lelievre, Mike Watson, Musumeci, Poker Club, poker players, Prize Pool, Recognizable Players, Several Records, Time Tournament, Tournament Officials, Vote Campaign, World Poker Tour, WPT

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2012 at 9:43 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.