Johnny Mazzaferro Winner of Playground Poker Spring Classic Event 5

Event #5 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic came to a close last night. The final ten out of the 252 starters entered to stage for a shot of the remaining $196,215 of the total $244,440 prize pool. The final table was played on stage overlooking Day 1A of the prestigious WPT Canadian Spring Championship. The incoming chipleader with 1.23M chips was Jason Duval starting in seat 2 who sniped out the last four players back to back the evening before. Duval was trailed by Christopher Annouza who started the final day in seat 3 with 1M chips. Although the big stacks had commanding chip leads over the short stacks, it was the shorts who would end on top in the end.

The final table progressed very slowly up until they were five-handed where the tournament director stopped the clock so that a deal could be discussed between the remaining five players. After about 30 minutes of discussion, a five-way deal was made between David Dineen, Kyle Zechner, Sol Bergren, Geoffrey McNeely, and the new chip leader Johnny Mazzaferro. The players divided the remaining $157,465 but with some of the pressure lifted, would continue to play for $10,000 and the bracelet. $8,000 to the winner and $2,000 would go to the runner up.

David Dineen, Kyle Zechner, and Sol Bergren were eliminated fairly quickly leaving a heads up match between Geoffrey McNeely versus  Johnny Mazzaferro that would last more than two hours.

In the final hand of the match, two hours into heads up play, Johnny Mazzaferro shoved all-in on the river and Geoffrey McNeely called. Mazzaferro revealed his cards, he hit a full house on the turn and Geoffrey could not beat it.

It was a great tournament in true Playground fashion and once again a very impressive prize pool.

Congratulations to the winners!

Playground Poker Spring Classic Event #5 $1,000 +$100 NLH Deepstack Results

* 5-way chop