After a week of battling on the tables of the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Quebec, Henri Balcazar emerged as the champion of the Full Tilt Poker Montreal tournament, taking home nearly $200,000 in the process.
The four days leading up to the tournament (including three Day Ones) saw a number of popular players come out for the event. One of “The Professionals,” Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Chris Moneymaker, and Full Tilt ambassadors Martins Adeniya and Sin Melin were all a part of the proceedings in the early action, but they would not be able to make the final table. There were a few notable names there, however, including the chip leader when the cards hit the air on Thursday.
Poker pro Vinny Pahuja was sitting on a 10.91 million stack when play began and he was followed by some tough competition. Guillaume Rivet (4.865 million) and former World Poker Tour champion Michael Linster (6.765 million) were the most notable names, while Balcazar was located on the lower third of the leaderboard with his 3.48 million in chips.
It would take over an hour of play before the first player would depart from the nine-handed table. Colin Peche pushed the action with pocket eights but Linster would have pocket Jacks that held to dismiss Peche in ninth place. Another hour of play would elapse before Zeng Yi Xie and Eric Despres went to battle. Xie got his chips in with an A♠ 3♠ against Despres’ A-Q off suit and would flop two spades to improve his chances. The turn card brought a deuce, adding some more outs for Xie in a straight draw, but they wouldn’t come home on the river to send Xie to the exits of the Playground in eighth place.
There was another long period of play before the action truly heated up. Roger Lamia, Rivet and Despres got into a pre-flop battle that saw Lamia place a huge three bet into the pot. Rivet made a four-bet, putting himself all in, and Despres got out of the way. Lamia, pot-committed after his three bet, called for less and showed an A-6 to go against Rivet’s pocket Jacks. The board would come down eight high and with no six, sending Lamia out in sixth place.
A few moments later Pahuja, who had bled chips throughout the early action, flopped two pair against Linster but was dismayed to see that Linster had flopped a straight against him. He would fall victim to a flush draw from Balcazar moments after that and finished in sixth place. On the next hand, Bill Kontaratos called Rivet’s all in with just a J-10. Behind Rivet’s A-3, Kontaratos couldn’t find anything to match up with him in leaving in fifth place.
Even though Rivet took out Kontaratos, he was still facing an uphill battle in chips against Linster, Despres and Balcazar. Finding pocket fives four handed, Rivet pushed all in after a bet from Despres, who made the call and tabled an A-K for action. The Q-6-J flop kept Rivet in a slim lead (the door was opened for the straight for Despres), but the King on the turn pushed Despres into the lead. After the river failed to bring either of Rivet’s two outs, he was done in fourth place.
Three-handed, the players looked to discuss chopping up the remaining prize pool. Linster, who held approximately half of the chips in play, was a bit hesitant at first to make the deal with Despres and Balcazar, but eventually decided to sew up better than second place money by taking $200,000. Despres and Balcazar each took $150,000 of the pot, leaving approximately $44,000 and the championship on the table to play for.
It would prove to be a good move for Linster as he was unable to increase his stack once three-handed play began. He would eventually be dismissed in third place Balcazar, who took a 3:1 chip lead to heads up play against Despres. That battle would take all of three hands, with the chips getting in on a 10♦ 4♦ 3♥ flop. Balcazar unveiled a 5♦ 3♦ for bottom pair and a flush draw, which was crushed at that moment by Despres’ pocket Kings. A deuce on the turn wasn’t helpful for Despres (it added outs for Balcazar to the straight), but the J♦ hit on the river to provide the completing flush for Balcazar and eliminate a stunned Despres in second place.
1. Henri Balcazar, $194,046*
2. Eric Despres, $150,000*
3. Mike Linster, $200,000*
4. Guillaume Rivet, $96,151
5. Bill Kontaratos, $74,714
6. Vinny Pahuja, $58,006
7. Roger Lamia, $44,923
8. Zeng Yi Xie, $35,150
9. Colin Peche, $27,269
(All monetary amounts Canadian dollars, * indicates three way deal)