Hello everyone,

We're thrilled to be able to announce a new WPT Main Tour stop that will be the headline event in an expanded Playground Winter Festival.

The WPT Playground will be a streamed Main Tour Event in Season XV with a $3,200 + $300 buy-in. This will be our third Main Tour stop of the season! It's set to take place from February 10th to 15th, 2017, and the event will have 2 Day 1 starting flights and play out over 5 tournament days, concluding on February 15th.

The new WPT Playground will be the main event in this year's Playground Winter Festival, which will run from January 29th to February 15th.

The schedule and other details are being finalized now and will be posted as soon as they're ready. That being said, our Festival schedules are fairly consistent, and you should expect approximately 16-17 tournaments total starting with The Wild $150 and it's $100K Guarantee, a few other relatively small buy-in tourneys and at least 3 or 4 with buy-ins over $1,000.

We're looking forward to welcoming everyone to Playground Poker Club once again! See you soon...

Great news, thanks!
Hope the full schedule will be released soon.

Awesome can't wait. Playground hosts such great tournaments.

Hey gang - here's the full schedule!

Playground Winter Festival featuring the partypoker.net WPT Playground

For a full schedule, event details, rules, and other information please visit: https://www.playgroundpoker.ca/winterfestival2017

Event 1: The Wild $150 ($135 + $15 NL Hold'em)*
$100,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Day 1A: Sunday January 29th at 11:00am
Day 1B: Sunday January 29th at 7:00pm
Day 1C: Monday January 30th at 7:00pm
Day 1D: Tuesday January 31st at 7:00pm
Day 2: Wednesday February 1st at 7:00pm
Day 3: Thursday February 2nd 7:00pm

Event 2: $200 + $20 NL Hold'em 8-Max Freeze
$30,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Thursday February 2nd at 7:30pm

Event 3: The $250 Frenzy ($225 + $25 NL Hold'em)*
$200,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Day 1A: Friday February 3rd at 10:00am
Day 1B: Friday February 3rd at 6:00pm
Day 1C: Saturday February 4th at 10:00am
Day 1D: Saturday February 4th at 6:00pm
Day 1E: Sunday February 5th at 10:00am
Day 1F: Sunday February 5th at 6:00pm
Day 2: Monday February 6th at 7:00pm
Day 3: Tuesday February 7th at 7:00pm

Event 4: $100 + $10 NL Hold'em Deepstack Turbo
$7,500 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Monday February 6th at 12:00pm

Event 5: $500 + $50 NL Hold'em Freeze
$50,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Tuesday February 7th at 11:00am

Event 6: $200 + $20 NL Hold'em Survivor
$15,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Tuesday February 7th at 7:00pm

Event 7: $500 + $100 + $500 NL Hold'em 50/50 Bounty
$60,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Wednesday February 8th at 11:00am

Event 8: $300 + $30 NL Hold'em Survivor
$25,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Wednesday February 8th at 7:00pm

Event 9: $500 + $50 PL Omaha 8-Max Re-entry
$15,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Day 1: Wednesday February 8th at 7:30pm
Day 2: Thursday February 9th at 7:00pm

Event 10: partypoker.net WPT Playground ($3,200 + $300 NL Hold'em)**
$1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Day 1A: Friday February 10th at 11:00am
Day 1B: Saturday February 11th at 11:00am
Day 2: Sunday February 12th at 12:00pm
Day 3: Monday February 13th at 12:00pm
Day 4: Tuesday February 14th at 12:00pm
Day 5: Wednesday February 15th at 12:00pm

Event 11: $150 + $30 + $150 NL Hold'em 50/50 Bounty
$15,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Saturday February 11th at 8:00pm

Event 12: $150 + $15 NL Hold'em Seniors' Tournament 50+
$15,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Sunday February 12th at 6:00pm

Event 13: $1,500 + $150 NL Hold'em Second Chance
$150,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Day 1: Monday February 13th at 11:00am
Day 2: Tuesday February 14th at 12:00pm

Event 14: $300 + $30 NL Hold'em Mega Stack Turbo
$30,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Monday February 13th at 7:30pm

Event 15: $500 + $50 NL Hold'em 6-Max
$45,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Tuesday February 14th at 7:00pm

Event 16: $200 + $30 + $100 NL Hold'em 8-Max Bounty
$35,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Wednesday February 15th at 7:00pm

* This is a next-day re-entry event. A player may play additional Day 1s even if he/she has survived a previous Day 1 with chips. Players may not re-enter during any Day 1 starting flight they have already played, they may only re-enter the tournament on a subsequent Day 1. Players who qualify for Day 2 more than once will restart play on Day 2 with their largest qualifying stack; all other qualifying stacks will be forfeited.

** This is a next day re-entry event with 1 entry and 1 re-entry permitted on each Day 1 starting flight. One same-day re-entry permitted to any player that loses all of their chips or chooses to forfeit their stack prior to the end of the break following level 6. A player may play Day 1B even if he/she has survived Day 1A with chips. Players who qualify for Day 2 more than once will restart play on Day 2 with their largest qualifying stack; all other qualifying stacks will be forfeited.

Buy-in is expressed as an amount to the prize pool plus the tournament fee (plus a bounty amount where applicable).

A 3% staff gratuity will be withheld from the gross prize pool of each of these tournaments.

WPT Playground Satellites during the Playground Winter Festival

Tuesday January 31st at 12:00pm: $135 + $15 NL Hold'em Re-entry, 2 seats guaranteed.
Thursday February 2nd at 12:00pm: $135 + $15 NL Hold'em Deepstack Turbo*Re-entry, 2 Seats Guaranteed.
Sunday February 5th at 8:00pm: $350 + $35 NL Hold'em Re-entry, 2 Seats Guaranteed.
Thursday February 9th at 12:00pm: $135 + $15 NL Hold'em Re-entry, 2 Seats Guaranteed.
Thursday February 9th at 4:00pm: $135 + $15 NL Hold'em Turbo Re-entry, 2 Seats Guaranteed.
Thursday February 9th at 8:00pm: $350 + $35 NL Hold'em Re-entry, 15 Seats Guaranteed.
Friday February 10th at 8:00pm: $350 + $35 NL Hold'em Turbo Re-entry, 5 Seats Guaranteed.

Second Chance Satellite

Sunday February 12th at 8:00pm: $165 + $15 NL Hold'em Re-entry, 5 Seats Guaranteed

For a full schedule, event details, rules, and other information please visit: https://www.playgroundpoker.ca/winterfestival2017

So - the schedule is very much in line with past festivals we've run at this buy-in level that mix some really affordable events with a few higher buy-in events to make it worthwhile for the "bigger" player as well.

A couple of highlights:

- The Wild $150 and the $250 Frenzy are back! These have proven to be amazingly popular over the years - big event poker for a very accessible price.

- Two "Survivor" events this time - people really like these tourneys as well.

- The Seniors' Tourney is back - another one that looks like a perennial success.

- "Hiding" at the end of the schedule, after the bulk of the WPT is done and the Second Chance as well is a $500 + $50 6-Max which should be fantastic. Take a regular one-night structure and apply it to a short-handed tournament, and you get a really really nice deep action-packed event - that should attract enough players to put together a fantastic prize pool. We run a similar structure every Monday, and it's definitely among best of our nightly tournaments (purely in my personal opinion!)

BTW - the online qualifiers have started at partypoker as of tonight.

Is it possible to buy into events through the party poker client?

The WPT yes (not sure if it has been set up yet though) but I'll have to find out about the others. Good question!

Hey everyone - if you're able to play on non-NJ partypoker, WPT Satellites are starting this weekend with the first sat for the WPT Playground on Sunday. As well, check out the Winter Festival page for an important announcement - Winter Festival Tournament Dollar sats! There will be daily sats for what we're calling WFT$ - that can be used to buy in to any event in the Winter Festival.

The events will NOT be in the partypoker client, btw, but you can use your WFT$ either alone or in combo with actual cash money to buy in at any time (i.e., you don't have to buy in a certain period before the event begins or anything like that).

WFT$ are non-transferrable and expire at the end of the festival, but are very flexible otherwise.

More info: https://www.playgroundpoker.ca/winterfestival2017#tab4

Nice lookin' schedule. Wish the 6-max were a 1k but I'm happy to see a 6 handed tournament on the list

Any chance that there will be a 500 or 1k shootout at some point in the future?

We almost always have a 6-max - but at $550 it's even better!

Shootouts are tough due to space and dealer requirements - but also it's not sure how popular it would be. I would love it - WE would love it, but there are a lot of reasons why it's unlikely that there will be a shootout at that kind of price point. Maybe a mix-max could work better, cause you could expand it as large as you want during late reg and then step the tables down in size once registration is closed. Hmmm...

My friends and I are considering renting a car this week for the long drive from Toronto to Playground. Is anybody happen to be driving back to TO on Friday night or Saturday morning?

wow I only just saw the multi night $550 PLO, thanks a lot for listening guys (finally!) and I look forward to taking it down!

Is there any chance you'll add a $550 Phase 1 to the Millions as part of this schedule (or better yet use either Event 5 or Event 15 as a Phase 1 Millions event)?

I think a lot of local players, myself included, would play as many Phase 1's to the Millions as you guys can organize - at least once per month seems reasonable, thanks.

We're going to have lots of announcements about the Million very very soon. And don't worry, there will be LOTS of Phase 1 tourneys. I am pretty sure none of the Winter Festival events will be converted, but it's all going to fit together well!

By the way - structure PDFs are up on the Winter Festival landing page: https://www.playgroundpoker.ca/winterfestival2017

Our structures are very very consistent from festival to festival, so there will be nothing in there that surprises anyone. But they're very attractive with the Winter Festival branding etc.!

BOOM! We're always listening Harley, just can't always do everything. But when we can... we do!

My friends and I from west of Toronto have rented the same Airbnb house that is better and much cheaper than any of the hotels we've stayed at before (includes kitchen, private bedroom and other home amenities). We are looking for another driver(s) headed for Playground between February 5-7. PM me if interested.

Could you please try to convince Party Poker to run 215 sats to this. The 530 price point made more sense when the hotel was combined but at this point it just prices people out.

Sats for this should run like through the week.

$2 subsats to $22. $22 f/o to $215

$5 rebuys to $215

Sunday:

$2 rebuys to $55 which runs a few hours before $215 on Sunday. 5 seat guarantee for the $55. With this sat program or anything even close to it there will be no chance of an overlay.

+1

I'll definitely pass it along.

You might also consider the Winter Festival Tourney $$ satellites - you can use tournament $ you win there on the WPT as well. That being said, I understand that the opposite problem exists with those - they're small relative to the WPT buy-in so you'd have to win many to add up to a ticket...

https://www.playgroundpoker.ca/winterfestival2017#tab4

I didn't know about this offering. Nice addition... but I'd like to see there be a 1 year expiry on tickets so I can "save up" for a big tourney that Playground runs... perhaps restrict it to tourneys that Party Poker has something to do with.

This is the first time we've done something like T$ with partypoker (we did a smaller version with another sponsor about a year ago) so we're starting slow for the time being. There's a decent chance the whole program expands in the future.

In general, between the "regular" satellite programs, T$, and starting in a matter of days or weeks at worst you'll be able to both deposit AND withdraw via the Playground Poker Club cashier, we're trying to push the boundaries of online/live integration well beyond where it has been before - at least for independent companies like Playground and partypoker.

Can a player use WFT money to enter online sats for WFT money?

example: I play a small satellite and win 110 WFT. Could I then use that 110 and enter ten $11 freezeouts to try and win another 110 WFT seat?

No, sorry, at this point WFT$ are just for actual Winter Festival live events.

With the experience we have this time, the program may expand in the future.

Heading up from VT for at least the 250$ 200k and possibly more + playing cash here and at the Montreal Casino.

Looking to book an Air BnB in Montreal proper so as to also enjoy the city.

If anyone is interested in chopping an Air BnB let me know. I will be driving.