Richard Figiel Wins partypoker $500,000 Guarantee Canadian Grand Prix ($49,385)
Richard Figiel is the winner of the partypoker $500,000 Guarantee Canadian Grand Prix at Playground Poker Club. He took the top spot earning $49,385, in a field of 3,341 players who qualified in both live and online Day 1 flights.
The event was a $109 tournament with a massive guarantee and over 50 starting flights. Players also had the option to buy in directly to Day 2 and start with 50 big blinds for $1,100. Figiel did just that, but only after he had played four of the starting flights. He didn't know that until he was heading out the door, but decided to come back on Day 2 and rolled that $1,100 into almost $50,000.
Day 3 started with 46 players returning and Dimitri Tchakarov leading the way. Figiel was one of the top five stacks entering the day. Figiel made the final table as the chip leader and would go on to win the tournament after making a deal six-handed, then winning the $10,000 left on top. Below is a breakdown of the payouts for the final table.
| Place | Name | Payout (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Figiel | $49,385 |
| 2 | Paul Mohorea | $30,165 |
| 3 | Richard Monreau | $37,655 |
| 4 | Neil Macleod | $34,945 |
| 5 | Kegan Cummings | $37,160 |
| 6 | Karla Leduc | $32,780 |
| 7 | Daniel Dagenais | $10,300 |
| 8 | Adam Cader | $7,800 |
| 9 | Mark Sloane | $5,970 |
| 10 | Sofian Boulila | $4,630 |
The first player eliminated from the final ten was Sofiane Boulila. He was busted by Richard Monreau when Monreau hit a flush to beat Boulila's pair.
Then, Mark Sloane was also eliminated by Monreau. Monreau made a full house with 
and eliminated Sloane who got all in preflop with 
. Monreau kept it up, eliminating Adam Cader next with queens and making a full house against Cader's trips with an ace.
Finally, someone else started knocking players out and it was Kegan Cummings who sent Daniel Dagenais home in seventh place. Dagenais had lost most of his stack when he was part of a hand that tripled up Karla Leduc, and was all in the next hand with ten-high. Cummings had 
and won the hand to eliminate Dagenais.
At this point, Monreau had 30,000,000 chips and was about to run away with the first prize, but after a series of double ups and lay downs, the stacks got close to even. At this point, the six players decided to make a deal. They were about to just end the tournament with a chop, but decided to take a little out of each players prize and play for an extra $10,000.
An interesting side note is that two of the players, Karla Leduc and Neil MacLeod each had a golden chip. This was part of a partypoker promotion and if either of those players had won the tournament, the chip would have been good for an addiontal $50,000 added to the first place prize. When the players decided instead to make a deal where each player got at least $30,000, the golden chip was void and the remaining prize would stay at only $10,000.
They agreed and play sped to a finish. Karla Leduc was first to go when she was eliminated by Richard Monreau, who went four cards to a straight to beat the pocket kings Leduc held.
Then Kegan Cummings got all in with pocket kings, but Richard Figiel hit an ace to knock him out. The next hand, Figiel knocked out Neil MacLeod, who had an ace with a lower kicker against Figiel's 
.
Figiel then knocked out the other Richard with pocket fives against queen-six. Monreau failed to connect with the board and was eliminated in third. After a short heads up match, Paul Mohorea was eliminated when Figiel shoved the turn and Mohorea called with two pair. Figiel had flopped trips and would stay ahead to win the tournament and snag the extra $10,000 as well as the World Cup of Cards trophy.
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