Last night saw the end of the festivities at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Canada, prior to the start of the Thanksgiving holiday as poker pro Jonathan Jaffee earned the championship of the World Poker Tour partypoker.net WPT Montreal.
Jaffee, who had dominated the three days of play leading up to this final table, came in as the leader with 7.495 million in chips. That was nearly equaled by the second place member of the final table, Ratharam Sivagnanam, and his 6.845 million chip stack. The other four members of the official WPT final table – Samuel Chartier (2.065 million), Guillaume Nolet (2.06 million), Mukul Pahuja (1.9 million) and Kevin MacPhee (1.57 million) – were going to have to make some moves early if they were to get back in contention for the title.
Only ten hands into the day’s proceedings, one of the six men would take his leave from the Playground. After Nolet raised out of the cutoff and Pahuja defended his big blind, a seemingly innocent 5-3-2 flop hit the felt. Pahuja check-raised a 190K bet out of Nolet, pushing his remaining chips into the center and forcing Nolet to a difficult decision. With both men nearly equal in stacks, Nolet made the call and showed an A-J for several winning options (two over cards, gut shot straight draw and draw to a heart nut flush) while Pahuja mustered a 6-5 for top pair and a gut shot straight draw. A red ten came on the turn (but it was a diamond) and, after a black eight came on the river, Nolet was left with a single bet in front of him. He would depart on the next hand in sixth place.
One of the popular Canadian players in attendance for the WPT Montreal, Chartier was unable to get much going on Wednesday. He would end up putting his tournament life on the line with pocket sevens but, after Sivagnanam woke up on the button with pocket Queens, his destiny was all but determined. Once the board ran out Ace high with no help, Chartier headed for the doors of the Playground in fifth place.
With his knockout of Chartier, Sivagnanam took over the lead from Jaffee (8.37 million to 7.85 million) while Pahuja (3.71 million) and MacPhee (2.005 million) scrambled to maintain the pace of the chip leaders. There was still a great deal of action left to come from the Playground, however.
After Jaffee made a button raise, MacPhee read him for a steal and pushed his stack in from the small blind. After Jaffee called and showed a real hand – A♣ Q♣ – MacPhee wasn’t in too bad shape with his K-10 off suit heading to the flop. That flop was tough for MacPhee, coming down A-Q-8, but some doors opened to a straight draw that would earn MacPhee the double. Those dreams were dashed when another Ace came on the turn, leaving MacPhee drawing dead; once a seven completed the board, MacPhee was out in fourth place and Jaffee retook the lead.
Although he had battled admirably, Pahuja couldn’t keep up with either Jaffee or Sivagnanam. The reigning WPT Player of the Year met his demise on Hand 54 when he five-bet his stack all in against Jaffee with an A-Q. The problem was is Jaffee held pocket Kings and, when a King showed his face in the window to give Jaffee a set, Pahuja almost immediately began collecting his belongings. Once the board paired on the turn, it was over for Pahuja as he was eliminated in third place.
Jaffee took almost a 3:1 lead to heads up play against Sivagnanam (16 million to 5.935 million), but there was still more to come from these two combatants. While it took only 54 hands to reach heads up, Jaffee and Sivagnanam would tussle for 81 hands between themselves alone. After swapping the lead several times between each other, Jaffee would take the tournament down on Hand 135.
On that hand, Sivagnanam limped in and Jaffee pushed out a 1.4 million chip bet. Sivagnanam pondered his decision for a moment before committing his final chips and Jaffee almost immediately called. Jaffee had Sivagnanam where he wanted him, Jaffee’s Big Slick ruling over Sivagnanam’s attempted steal with 10-8 and, after a 6-4-3-J-Q board, Jonathan Jaffee had captured his first WPT championship in Montreal.
1. Jonathan Jaffee, $463, 432
2. Ratharam Sivagnanam, $313,318
3. Mukul Pahuja, $201, 920
4. Kevin MacPhee, $149,340
5. Samuel Chartier, $111,820
6. Guillaume Nolet, $90,350