WPT Montreal Faces in the Field – sponsored by Party Poker

“Andre Boyer Is Looking To Trade Up”

Montreal’s Andre Boyer has played a ton of poker since he retired at 42 and found himself spending 18 years in Las Vegas, but despite having more than $1,250,000 in career earnings and owning a WSOP bracelet for winning a $3,000 No Limit Hold’em in 2005, he doesn’t consider himself a pro.

He plays almost exclusively tournament poker for the challenge of the game and he’s here playing WPT Montreal in the hopes of trading up. Boyer is pretty sure the Champion’s belt would look a lot nicer around his waist than the accessory he wore today.

Boyer loves the “thrill and exposure” that comes with winning big field championship poker and when he’s not dropping a line in his trout pond, he’s doing a little fishing for titles on the felts. Andre lives in both Vegas and at his acreage near Montreal, following the big circuit stops when he wants to play some cards. He most recently played World Poker Tour Borgata but is quite pleased to have this kind of action going on his own turf.

“I think this is the beginning of a new era for poker in Canada and I wouldn’t be shy to tell anyone from anywhere in world to come play here at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal. This is international caliber event and it’s nice for a change to have this quality of poker and go home after the game to sleep in my own bed.”

He played in the World Poker Tour last time it was in Canada and has admittedly missed the option. “It’s also great that we don’t have withholding taxes on winnings. I’m still waiting on about $30,000 and the process seems to be slowing down.”

“Somebody needed to take the initiative to hold world class events. Playground Poker Club built the facilities and offered to the players and naturally they have come.”

Andre took a bit of a bad beat late on Day 1a when his QQ was smashed by JJ and his opponent flopped Quads; he’s not disheartened though and is back to try for the trophy and belt on Day 1b. After that, he’ll be looking for a little warmer climate to grind in. “When I see the geese flying south, I follow them” he laughs.

Good Luck on getting the upgrade today Andre!

Gavin Smith’s Slap-shot Sleeps In

We brought you pictures from the Playground Poker Celebrity Hockey Shootout earlier today and it turns out Players Club Member and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Gavin Smith would have liked to join in the fun of launching a few pucks at Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak, but he told us he “forgot his left hand stick and alarm clock.”

He did go check out the ice, however, to fire a few in the net with the Royal Flush Girls and was here in plenty time to look to add to his massive career WPT winnings.

“Les Isabelles”

We have a few ladies named Isabelle in the field and both are tough competitors. Isabelle “NoMercy” Mercier is one of Canada’s top all-time tournament players, whether you’re looking at the Woman’s only or not.

As her nickname implies, she pulls no punches at the poker table and certainly isn’t intimidated by anyone in this WPT Montreal field.

She’s originally hails from Victoriaville, Quebec but has been spending a lot of time over in Europe as both a player and a spokesperson for popular events as she is also consider one of the best in the industry on the other side of the felt.

She’s back for Day 2 sporting her PartyPoker gear, however, she recently took a big hit to her chip stack that’s going to mean a hard grind to get back up to the better side of average.

Isabelle Tremblay on the other hand is the only woman driver in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and we can assume that as she told reporter Marie-Andrée Ayotte of AutoVenus.com, in competition, there are only the participants. Whether it’s behind the wheel or on the tables she expects that “The guys don’t play nice with me just because I’m a girl. The same rules apply to everyone.” She also came to win at WPT Montreal, but unfortunately has been run of the track.

Samuel Chartier and Trishelle Cannatella

Local Samuel Chartier has won more than $1.5 million on the world circuit, quite a bit of it over in Europe, but enough in the USA through his own play and horses that he’s been waiting three and half years to collect on six figures of withholdings. Needless to say he’s more than thrilled to have a record setting World Poker Tour event in his own backyard. He’s been eliminated from play in this one, but still has several reasons to stick around on the rail for Day 2. His good friend Marc-André Ladouceur is making a go of today, along with a few other players he has a stake in.

Most importantly his significant other, Trishelle Cannatella is wearing the poker pants today and has run a formidable chip count to take a run at the title and more than $750,000 up top. She’s already put up a few poker flags around the globe, including a 3rd place finish in the WPT Celebrity Invitational and 1st place in the “Trash Talk Championship of the World”, it certainly would be interesting to see what kind of fun the TV personality would have with owning a great big shiny Championship Belt and World Poker Title.

Day 1 Chipleader Patrick Lelievre drove 12 hours to play

We had a chance to speak with Patrick Lelievre who was the chipleader after Day 1 of the WPT Montreal Main Event. He played a starting field of 473 players on Day 1A and is holding $326k chips entering Day 2, more than 3 times the average and about 13k more than closest competitor who lead Day 1B.

This is Patrick’s first WPT event and he got here by playing $100 rebuy satellites this summer at Playground Poker Club. It cost him a total of $400 in buyins to get his seat.

Patrick drove more than 12 hours all the way from Sept-Iles in the Northeastern part of Quebec with some of his friends who are playing today.

He says he is really impressed with the club calling Playground a very special place.

He is very excited about being a part of this event and with his game so far and hopes that this tournament could be the start of a professional poker career.