Outside Montreal, Quebec at Playground Poker Club, the PokerStars Canada Cup $3,300 Main Event Champion has been crowned! The $30 PokerStars online satellite winner, Robert Notkin has claimed the Canada Cup title, trophy, and the $366,660 first place prize. The $2,000,000 guaranteed Main Event saw 578 entries and in the end, one of the most epic hands ever between the final four players, turned the spotlight towards family man Robert Notkin.
In the final hand, with blinds 100k/200k, Robert Notkin limped in under-the-gun, Justin Miller shoves from the button for three big blinds, Vincent Jacques re-shoved in the small blind for 7.5M, Ryan Rivers thought for a moment before moving his 1.25M stack into the middle, and Notkin snap-called putting all three players at risk.
Rivers: :8c :8h
Jacques: :Ah :Td
Miller: :Ks :Qh
Notkin: :Kc :Kh
Notkin was crushing his three opponents and as the board ran out, destiny and fate were with the Doc. The dealer fanned :Js :7d :3h :7h :5c and Robert Notkin scooped the massive 17.3m chip pot, $366,660 and the PokerStars Canada Cup Main Event title.
1st Robert Notkin $366,660
2nd Vincent Jacques $257,280
3rd Ryan Rivers $165,280
4th Justin Miller $122,410
5th Rayan Chamas $91,760
6th Ankush Mandavia $73,520
7th Thiago Nishijima $61,300
8th Francois Goulet $48,880
9th James Armstrong $36,660
This was the first time the PokerStars Canada Cup was played in a live setting from start to finish. Originally an online tournament that suspended play with the final nine players and played out a live final table at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure festival, Playground Poker Club was the perfect setting for such a national tournament.
Day 1A of the PokerStars Canada Poker Cup Main Event came to an end with 47 left of the 129 entries registered. Jeremy Thompson emerged with the chip lead bagging up 260,000. Following behind were Marco Caza and PokerStars Team Online Pro Marc Andre Ladouceur. Some familiar faces surviving the day include Jonas “donut604” Mackoff, Paul Klann, Johnny Mazzaferro, John Andress, Jeff Gross, Jeff Rossiter, Carter “cswidler” Swidler, and Andrew Chen.
Notable players unsuccessful on Day 1A included PokerStars Team Pro Jonathan Duhamel, WSOP Big One for One Drop $18,000,000 winner Antonio Esfandiari, David Yan, Timothy Adams, Chris McClung, Samuel Chartier, Ami Alibay, Mike Watson, Nick Petrangelo, Eric Afriat, Jordan Westmorland, Yann Dion, Sam Greenwood and Sylvain Siebert.
62 players from Day 1B moved on to Day 2. Charles Sylvestre bagged up 222,200 to end the night with the top stack. Also ending play near the top were Playground tournament legend Sylvain Siebert, Francois Goulet, Louis Boutin, and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari. Team PokerStars Pro and 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel is also among the leaders.
Notable players qualifying for Day 2 were Shyam “G’s Zee” Srinivasan, Ami Alibay, Ankush Mandavia, Jason “Bebe Chien” Duval, Julian Thomas, TJ Ulmer, Philippe “takechip” D’Auteuil, Dean Murphy, Eric Place, Russell “rdcrsn” Carson, and 2014 Playground Spring Championship winner Jason Comtois.Players unable to survive Day 1B were Mike Leah, Timothy Adams, Samuel Chartier, Jordan Westmorland, Mario Lim, David Yan, Mike Watson, Chanracy Khun, Ryan Hall, Steve Kerr, Eric Afriat, Sam Greenwood, and Chris McClung.
288 total entries registered for play Saturday’s Day 1C. 131 were left bagging and tagging their stacks at night’s end. Leading the way was Alex Cordero with 244,400. Joining Cordero at the top were Domenico Agatiello, Marcello Delgrasso, Francois Binette, and Riyaz Abdulla. Notables qualifying for Sunday’s Day 2 were Amir Babakhani, Chanracy Khun, Danny Lauzon, Erik Cajelais, Jonathan Roy, Jordan Westmorland, Mike Watson, Pascal Lefrancois, and Ryan Hall. Those not so fortunate and busting on Day 1C were PokerStars Team Pro Victor Ramdin, Timothy Adams, Team IveyPoker Pro Mike Leah, 2013 November Niner Marc Etienne McLaughlin, Ami Alibay, Philipe Boucher, Sam Greenwood, Samuel Chartier, Mario Lim, Daniel Gagne, David Yan, and Stephen Chidwick.
Day 2 ended when the tournament was down to the final 72 players. Play had been suspended with 23 minutes remaining in Level 17. Day 2 started with 240 hopefuls and when the dust cleared Jeremie Bilodeau was sitting on the top stack in the room. Bilodeau bagged 819,500 to end the day. Other top stacks were Rayan Chamas, Sylvain Siebert, Thiago Nishijima, and Jonathan Driscoll.
Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel and Team PokerStars Online Pro Marc Andre Ladouceur made the money and returned on Monday for Day 3 action. Joining them were Antonio Esfandiari, Jonas Mackoff, Ankush Mandavia, Ami Alibay, Amir Babakhani, Carter Swidler, Mike Watson, Pascal Lefrancois, Sylvain Siebert, and Will Molson.
Players busting short of the money included Yann Dion, Chanracy Khun, Kevin MacPhee, Russell Carson, Jeff Rossiter, Andrew Chen, Eric Afriat, Charles Sylvestre, Jeff Gross, Jonathan Roy, Ryan Hall, Elliott Smith, TJ Ulmer, and Paul Klann
Day 3 began with 72 players all in the money, as Day 2 had ended at the bursting of the money bubble. The Day 3 chip leader was Rayan Chamas with 2.6M. Joining Chamas on top of the leaderboard were Francois Goulet, PokerStars online satellite qualifier Robert Notkin, Thiago Nishijima, and Vincent Jaques. WSOP “Big One for One Drop” winner Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari and RDS poker analyst Laurence “LadyLuckPoker” Grondin were also in the top ten.
PokerStars Team Pro Jonathan Duhamel and Team Online Pro Marc Andre Ladouceur were still alive as well. Other notable pros still in the mix were Ankush Mandavia, Jonas “donut604” Mackoff, Amir Babakhani, and Steven Silverman. Day 3 saw the end for a number of familiar faces. Sylvain Siebert, Pascal Lefrancois, Mike Watson, Carter Swidler, Will Molson, and Ami Alibay.
Day 4 started with 27 players left in the field. There were some big names among them. PokerStars Team Online Pro Marc Andre Ladouceur busted in 19th for $16,490 and PokerStars Team Pro Jonathan Duhamel finished 25th for $12,990. Antonio Esfandiari was the unfortunate final table “bubble boy” busting in 10th. Jonas Mackoff, Steven Silverman, and Laurence Grondin all made deep runs but fell short of the final table.
Heading into the final table, Brazilian Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima held a very slim chip lead, covering American Justin Miller by one ante. The final table was full of PokerStars online millionaires. The chip leader Nishijima, had won over 2.6 million on PokerStars, Ankush “pistons87” Mandavia over $2 million, Rayan “zebest_666” Chamas over 1.1 million, and Vincent “vluff” Jacques just over $700k in career PokerStars online earnings. Rounding out the final table was the short stack Ryan Rivers, Francois Goulet, James Armstrong, and Robert Notkin.
