Mike 'Timex' McDonald Wins partypoker MILLION North America High Roller
Canada's own Mike McDonald took down the $10,300 partypoker MILLION North America High Roller for CA$200,000 on Friday night, topping a field of 53 total entries that created a prizepool of $530,000.
McDonald defeated Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault heads-up after barely an hour of play. Perrault began with the chip lead, but the two Canadian pros swapped stacks a number of times before McDonald eventually came out on top. In the final hand, McDonald flopped a set of sixes while Perrault backed into a smaller full house. All of the money went in on the river in a massive cooler, but Perrault took the beat very well and accepted his consolation prize of CA$130,000.
High Roller Results
| Place | Player Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike McDonald | Canada | $200,000 |
| 2 | Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault | Canada | $130,000 |
| 3 | Sorel Mizzi | Canada | $84,100 |
| 4 | Roberto Romanello | United Kingdom | $50,000 |
| 5 | Benoit Galland | Canada | $30,000 |
| 6 | Vishal Singh Maini | United Kingdom | $20,000 |
The high roller, which was a last-minute addition to the schedule this week, had a guaranteed prizepool of $500,000. The tournament began with only seven entries but quickly increased to 46 by the time play completed on Day 1. Since registration was open until the end of the first level on Day 2, there was no doubt there would be some last-minute entries. The final number reached 53, allowing the tournament to pay six spots with CA$200,000 for first place.
With seven players remaining, play tightened up since they were on the money bubble. Ryan Yu was quite short already and decided to run with a couple of paint cards. Unfortunately for him, McDonald woke up to ace-king on the button and he was unable to pull ahead.
After the elimination of Yu in 7th place, the remaining six players guaranteed a payout of CA$20,000. The first player to go was Vishal Singh Maini, who was the next shortest stack after Yu. Maini began the day with the second-most chips and made his way to the final table, but was unable to get anything going. He got it in good against Sorel Mizzi, but unfortunately for him, the river gave Mizzi a flush, and Maini was the first player to collect a payout.
Benoit Galland was quite aggressive for the majority of the final table, and eventually fell at the hands of McDonald on a failed bluff attempt. McDonald slow-played a set and backed into a boat, all while getting Galland to ship his stack in on the river. Galland had slightly less chips than McDonald and found himself out in 5th place for CA$30,000.
Four-handed play last for about 90 minutes before partypoker's own Roberto Romanello was eliminated. He got his chips in the middle in a flip with two suited over cards to Perrault's pocket sevens but couldn't catch up. The pro pocketed CA$50,000 for his deep run in 4th place.
Sorel Mizzi got into a few big pots with Perrault and eventually became the short stack three-handed. He ended up getting his stack in the middle with ace-jack suited but Perrault went with a suited queen and flopped a pair, sending Mizzi home with CA$84,100 for 3rd place.
McDonald then took down Perrault heads-up to claim victory on his home turf.
Even though the high roller is over, the action is just heating up in the Main Event! With CA$5,000,000 guaranteed in the prizepool, and at least CA$1,000,000 for the winner, the high rollers have plenty of time to hop in to Live Day 1b Saturday at noon, or register within the first two levels of Day 2 on Sunday at noon. Players have the chance to buy in on each starting day, along with one reentry per day, and carry their biggest stack over to Day 2.
Keep following along as the PokerNews team continues to report all of the action on the journey to crowning Canada's first partypoker MILLION North America winner!
