Montreal’s Playground Poker Club is hosting the first annual “NLH Faceoff” tournament on September 11th; a specially designed and unique event that will feature 5 teams of players; each represented by a Professional Hockey Player, an Assistant Captain who will be represented by a Professional Poker Player and the remainder of the team made up by those who choose to claim their seat in the event.
“If you’re a serious player, don’t be fooled by the goodwill behind this charitable event!” say the organizers at Playground Poker Club, “This is a serious tournament, created by players, for players. At Playground Poker Club, we know what players want, so we’ve created two separate prize pools; One for the charities and one specifically for the players. Teams play together for the charity (5 different charities) chosen by their Team Captains. Players will play as individuals for a crack at the Player Prize Pool.”
To help the hype and add to the suspense, the names of the Team Captain’s and Assistant Captains will be released one week at a time, with each pair being announced on the Playground Poker Club website each Monday leading up to the event. Setting the tone for the day, Teams will be “drafted” by the Captain and Assistant Captain at 11:00 am on the day of the tournament.
So far, former New York Islander, Canadian bred, multiple consecutive Stanley Cup winning goal scorer Mike Bossy has been announced as the first “Team Captain”, with Montreal Poker Professional and WSOPE Bracelet owner and Top 20 All Time Canadian Tournament Money Earner Erik Cajelais filling the role of Mike’s “Assistant Captain. The next pair of superstars will be announced on August 1st.
Each Team will consist of up to 22 players, plus the 2 Captains with a field of 120 players. Points will be awarded to players by order of elimination; the first to go gets 1 point, second gets 2 points…all the way up to 120 points for the last player standing. The team with the most points wins the charity money, trophy and bragging rights, though the player prize-pool is awarded on an individual finish basis. The winning team will also play a private $5,000 free-roll, the date of which to be announced. In addition, to sweeten the deal and competitive spirit of both games, each celebrity pro (captains) will be wearing a hockey jersey with their teams colors; when eliminated that jersey will be put on the player who sent them to the rail and signed by the hockey or poker star on the spot!
The event is NLH (No Limit Hold’em), with a $250 Buy-in for a t10,000 starting stack, with re-buys for $125 and a t20,0000 add-on for an additional $125. All add-on money and tournament fees go towards charity prize pool. $10,000 from the August Tournament Leader Board will be applied towards the total prize pool.
Over the month of August, players who frequent the events at Playground Poker Club will have a chance to earn themselves one of 10 FREE spots up for grabs to September’s fun, just by earning “Tournament Leader Board” (TLB) points over the regular evening and weekend events. The top 40% of each tournament in August will be awarded points using the following weighted formula: 3 x the square root (1500*(bc+n)/r)), where “bc” is the cost of the tournament entry, “n” is the number of players in the tournament and “r” is rank (the position the player busted).
With a combined 20 spots already reserved for the August point leaders, Team Captain and Assistant Captains, only 100 seats will be available for direct buy-in. Those that are interested in participating will want to mark their calendars for August 22nd, when registration begins for this rare and charitable event that is sure to be filled with great times and stories, regardless of individual player results.
Playground Poker Club has built a reputation for some of the best cash game action in the country and the attached Coal Fired Bistro, “The Rail” has highly recommended dishes for any pallet, making the trip to Montreal is sure to satisfy.
For additional details, prize-pool breakdowns for this special tournament, directions, menus and regular events at Playground Poker Club, visit Playgroundpoker.ca
