Boucheville sure seems to be the place to find Canadian Poker Pros these days. 25 year old Jonathan Roy took down the inaugural WPT Montreal and walked away with a massive payday of next to CAN$780k.
He wins the WPT Champions Cup as well as a US$25k seat to the 2013 WPT World Championship at Bellagio in Viva Las Vegas! With nearly 1200 runners here in Montreal at the Playground Poker Club.
The Human Dolphin
Fellow Boucherville resident Jonathan Duhamel was found cheering on close friends Pascal Lefrancois and Jonathan Roy from the rail. And with a good few friends like Jeff Gross, Antonio Esfandiari and Michael Phelps you could say his event went swimmingly.
The human dolphin proved that he was no fish in this interview:
This Is Incredible!
Jonathan Roy remarked later: “This is incredible! – the support here was amazing, the crowd really wanted to keep the title in Quebec and I am so happy to have done that.” going onto say “It was unbelievable to have Michael Phelps on the rail. I got to win the title and shake him by the hand.”
Record Breakers!
A lot of fun was had here as well as a number of records smashed! Nearly 1200 entries made it the third largest WPT event (by number of entries) in history (8 entries off of second spot – 1st and 2nd spot both Borgata, Atlantic City).
It proved to be the largest poker tournament over $1,000 buy in in Canadian poker history and the largest WPT ever in Canada. Hosts Playground Poker Club increased their total capacity by over 75% in the three months approaching the tournament and was optimistically expecting 600 players.
Poker On Ice?
And if that wasnt enough on Day 1B the Playground Poker Club put on some slapstick ice hockey fun featuring Toronto Maple Leafs star Phil Kessel and NHL legend Guy Carbonneau who faced off with Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu and Team PartyPoker pro Marvin Rettenmaier in an ice hockey shooting and keeping contest. Announced by Bruce Buffer, no serious injuries were sustained. Check it out: