After five days of action in the CAD$3,300 buy-in, World Poker Tour Montreal main event at the Playground Poker Club, just ten hopefuls out of the starting field of 1,109 remained to battle it out for the CAD$500,000 first-place prize.
Among them were some of the best in the game today, including high-stakes regular Michael Watson, World Series of Poker bracelet winners Mike Leah and Joseph Cheong, two-time last woman standing in the WSOP main event Kelly Minkin, no. 4 on the women’s all-time money list Kristen Bicknell, and 2014 WSOP main event champion Martin Jacobson.
But despite all of that star power at the final table, the title ultimately went to Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Geoffrey Hum, who entered the tournament with just over $50,000 in lifetime earnings.
Hum, who works a day job in Toronto, added $380,648 to his bankroll for the win, incuding a $15,000 entry into the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.
“I’m not a pro by any means, so to come here for a few days and to have this result is obviously not expected, but it’s pretty sweet,” the 30-year-old part-time player admitted to WPT reporters. 'You look at some of these big names that won WPTs, and I’m not nearly as good as them. I totally understand that you have to run hot for four days to win a tournament like this, and I’m happy my run good came here.
Patrick Serda has won the 2018 World Poker Tour Montreal $5,300 CAD buy-in, $5 million guaranteed no-limit hold’em main event. The 28-year-old Canadian poker pro defeated a field of 792 total.
Hum avoided confrontation for most of the final table until play got five-handed and Bicknell ran her pocket kings into his pocket aces. That pot put him near the chip lead with four players left, and he took it over after Watson’s A-Q offsuit fell to his pocket queens. He retained his lead entering heads-up play after his pocket eights out-flopped Cheong’s pocket jacks.
Hum’s heads-up opponent Adedapo Ajayi was relatively unknown compared to most of the final table, but he has been drawing some attention in 2019 after a series of big scores. He opened the year with a runner-up showing in the WSOP Circuit main event at Choctaw for $198,265 and then followed that up with a win at the Wynn Classic. This summer, he finished 39th in the WSOP main event for $211,945, and his second-place result in Montreal was worth another $255,034.
Although Ajayi tried his best to secure the win, after just eight hands of heads-up play, he found himself in a terrible spot. Both players saw a flop of K 6 4, and Ajayi committed the rest of his stack with J 9 for a flush draw. Unfortunately for him, Hum held K 7 for top pair and a bigger flush draw. Another heart on the turn sealed the deal, and Hum came away with the title.
Other notables who made the money included Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (13th), Curt Kohlberg (20th), Jonathan Roy (21st), James Romero (24th), Jerry Wong (33rd), Kitty Kuo (35th), Christian Harder (36th), Jack Salter (37th), Ari Engel (44th), Matt Salsberg (60th), Toby Lewis (65th), Mukul Pahuja (79th), Manig Loeser (94th), Jeff Gross (102nd), Ema Zajmovic (104th), Mike Sowers (120th), and Mike Sexton (138th).
Here are the final table results.
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Geoffrey Hum | $380,648 | 1440 |
| 2 | Adedapo Ajayi | $255,034 | 1200 |
| 3 | Joseph Cheong | $179,126 | 960 |
| 4 | Michael Watson | $137,034 | 720 |
| 5 | Kristen Bicknell | $106,582 | 600 |
| 6 | Martin Jacobson | $83,743 | 480 |
| 7 | Kelly Minkin | $64,711 | 360 |
| 8 | Michael Robar | $51,007 | 240 |
| 9 | Mike Leah | $40,349 | 120 |
*Photo courtesy of the WPT.
The 2018 World Poker Tour Montreal Festival kicked off last week at the Playground Poker Club, and now the first major event of the series is in the books. The WPT500 Montreal $550 CAD buy-in no-limit hold’em event featured a $1,000,000 CAD guarantee, which was easily surpassed when 2,536 total entries were made across the three online and seven live starting flights, building a $934,770 USD prize pool.
In the end, Miguel Goncalo emerged victorious with the title and the largest share of that huge prize pool: $152,596 USD.
The Canadian came into the final day of this event in 27th chip position with 35 players remaining. He won a three-way all-in with the QJ, beating A-K and J-10 with a rivered club flush. He scored a huge knockout with 15 players remaining, winning a coin flip with his A-K beating the pocket sixes of Stephane Blouin-Verroeulst. Goncalo spiked an ace to win the pot and chip up to 7,800,000.
Goncalo grew his stack to nearly 10.5 million by the time the eight-handed final table was set, good for third chip position. He found an early double up through chip leader Trevor Argue, getting all-in on a flop of 1092 with the AA. Argue called with the A10 for top pair, and failed to come from behind. With that Goncalo surged into the lead. He eliminated Thomas Hall in fourth place ($38,851 USD) to grow his stack even further, but Said El-Yousfi knocked out William Blais in third place ($69,431 USD) to overtake the chip lead going into heads-up play.
World Poker Tour Live
Goncalo and El-Yousfi traded the lead several times before the decisive hand arose. With blinds of 750,000-1,250,000 and a 1,250,000 big-blind ante, El-Yousfi limped in from the button and Goncalo raised to 4,250,000. El-Yousfi called and the flop brought the Q98. Both players checked and the 8 hit the turn. Goncalo bet 3,000,000 and El-Yousfi called. The J completed the board and Goncalo checked. El-Yousfi bet 9,500,000, only to have Goncalo move all-in over the top. El-Yousfi made the call with the K10 for a rivered straight, but it was no good against Goncalo’s Q8 for a full house made on the turn. With that Goncalo secured the pot and the title, sending El-Yousfi to the rail in second place ($105,337 USD).
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
| 1 | Miguel Goncalo | $152,596 | 600 |
| 2 | Said El-Yousfi | $105,337 | 500 |
| 3 | William Blais | $69,431 | 400 |
| 4 | Thomas Hall | $51,120 | 300 |
| 5 | Trevor Argue | $38,912 | 250 |
| 6 | Dave Graham | $30,519 | 200 |
| 7 | Sebastien Lepine | $23,652 | 150 |
| 8 | Jason Harned | $19,075 | 100 |
| 9 | Geoffrey Hum | $14,878 | 50 |
The WPT500 Montreal was just one of several huge events taking place during this series, with $8,165,000 CAD in guaranteed prize money set to be awarded from Oct. 21 – Nov. 4. The festival is being put on by partypoker LIVE and the WPT, who announced plans to team up for several more like it in the coming years.
“We’re thrilled partypoker LIVE and WPT have agreed to a four-year partnership – two iconic brands of poker coming together to offer players all over the world more choice of where to play,” said Chairman of partypoker Mike Sexton when the schedule was revealed in August. “We’re excited to announce the first event will take place at Playground Poker Club in Montreal, where we will work together to offer three components of the World Poker Tour – WPT Main Tour, WPTDeepStacks, and WPT500.”
In addition to the WPT 500, this series will also see a $1,000,000 CAD guaranteed $1,650 CAD buy-in WPT DeepStacks event running from Nov. 1 – 4. Even with these two seven-figure guaranteed events, the centerpiece of the whole festival will undoubtedly still be the $5,000,000 CAD guaranteed, $5,300 CAD buy-in no-limit hold’em WPT main event, which runs from Oct. 28 – Nov. 4.
The main event features an online starting flight that ran on Oct. 28 on partypoker. The live portion of the tournament got underway the following day, Oct. 29. Those players that make it through to day 2 will combine into one field for Thursday, Nov. 1. The final table is set to take place on Sunday, Nov.4, with a live stream of the event available from the WPT and partypoker LIVE, through the My partypoker LIVE app.
There will also be a $1,000,000 CAD guaranteed high roller, with a $10,300 CAD buy-in. That event will run Nov. 2 – 4.
World Poker Tour Girls
Players will be able to buy into all of these events using partypoker LIVE Dollars (PP LIVE Dollars). PP LIVE Dollars are a flexible currency that can be won in satellites on partypoker and used by players to pay for event buy-ins, travel, hotels, and even visas.
Here is a look at the schedule:
partypoker’s Exciting Rest-of-Year Schedule
Once the WPT Montreal festival comes to an end, the next big series on the agenda is the Caribbean Poker Party (CPP), which is set to take place from Nov. 9-18 at the Baha Mar Casino & Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. There are 13 events set to take place during the festival, but the whole affair is centered around two gigantic tournaments: The $10,000,000 guaranteed $25,500 buy-in MILLIONS World and the $10,000,000 guaranteed $5,300 buy-in Caribbean Poker Party Main Event.
World Poker Tour Champions
“There are many coveted titles in poker, from the EPT and WPT Grand Final titles, to WSOP and WSOPE Main Event and Players Championship bracelets, and not forgetting our own MILLIONS Grand Final crown,” said partypoker LIVE president John Duthie. “However, a $10,000,000 guaranteed, $25.5K buy-in tournament is just as important as any of those. We can’t wait to hand the trophy over to our first winner in November. Let’s hope it’s one of the 100+ online qualifiers partypoker will be sending, as that would be quite some story.'
Following on the heels of that huge series in the Carribean will be the MILLIONS Online. As previously mentioned, the $20 million guaranteed $5,300 buy-in online event will run from Nov. 25 – Dec. 5 and is expected to be the biggest online tournament ever, with $2.5 million going to the eventual champion.
Information about all of these upcoming events can be found on mypartypokerlive.com