Hey Marc - have you come out to play one of the PM tourneys? They are relatively fast, but plenty of people see value in them. We get anywhere from 30-60 players daily for the afternoon tournaments on non-holiday weekdays.

In other news, coming up in June is a kind of mini-festival, the Playground Power Weekend.

It consists of a $300 + $30 Freeze on Friday at noon, a $135 + $15 Mix Max on Saturday at noon, and a $270 + $30 Tag Team event on Sunday at noon.

The last $330 Freeze (in January) attracted over 360 runners and had a prize pool north of $100K. It's hard to imagine we'll hit that kind of number this time, but there is a pent-up demand for bigger one-day tourneys like this so I expect turnout to be pretty strong.

The Mix Max format means that the tournament starts out 10-handed, but when it gets down to 80 remaining it moves to 8 max, and then eventually to 6-max and 4-max. You should draw your own conclusions about the impact of this - but put it this way, as a player with quite a bit of short-handed experience I'm really looking forward to this.

The Tag Team is as usual - players play their own stacks for the first 6 levels, and then each player per two-person team plays a level before alternating with their partner. This is always a super-popular event, and we created a separate Facebook Event for this so people can register their two-person teams.

Here's the Fb event for the whole weekend:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1445682372393774/

and for the Tag Team you can get more info and register your team here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1433040920347698/

Hi gang,

Tons going on here at Playground lately!

1. The BBJ has grown over $410K!!!

2. We have a "Power Weekend" coming up with special events from Thursday night through Sunday. It gets underway at 7pm on July 23rd with a $200 + $20 Freeze. See http://www.playgroundpoker.ca/blog/1...eekend-is-back for more info.

3. There are a couple of new promos using the MegaWheel and in just 6 weeks over 30K has already been distributed: http://www.playgroundpoker.ca/promotions

4. Last but certainly not least: we've just announced the Montréal Poker Expo, from August 21st to September 2nd. See http://www.playgroundpoker.ca/montrealpokerexpo2015 for more info, and stay tuned to the site for some pretty sick announcements that we'll be making over the next few weeks. We plan on having some guests!

FYI the Primary BBJ is now up over $500K for the first time ever at Playground! It's looking like a perfect storm is brewing - a huge Jackpot may still be in place when all the players for the Montréal Poker Expo arrive! We'll see if it survives another two weeks - Playground has been pretty wild in the past few days with tons of cash games every night and during the day as well.

Can anybody speak on how the Omaha game is over there? From lurking on the website I see there's a 1-2-5 game that seems to run pretty regularly. Good action? Worth the 5 hr drive from the 6ix?

Will be in Montreal this week for work and have Thursday night to myself with no work on Friday and a late afternoon flight out.

Heard about this room watching WPN, looking forward to checking it out. Anything special planned for this Thursday?

Lookup their web site, you'll know what to expect.

Can't from work, firewall blocks most poker sites. How 2+2 gets thru I don't know, and don't ask.

Hi EvilGreebo - our next festival, the Montreal Poker Expo, gets underway on Friday so if you're only around on Thursday night (and don't, for example, extend your trip!) you'll be able to play in our regular Thursday night tourney, which is a $90 + $10 + $5 Freezeout starting at 7:30pm. It has a $7K guaranteed prize pool.

There's a pretty decent chance you'd prefer to play a cash game though, because the BBJ is near $550K and so the action is as hot as it gets - particularly with festival players added to the mix.

Thanks Mike! Unfortunately Friday is definitely out for me as my flight leaves Friday night, but I'm looking forward to checking out the room on Thursday!

Hey, quick question about the 1/2nl games: is the buy-in capped at $200? Really looking forward to coming up next weekend. Thanks!

Yes, max buy-in 200$ for 1/2.

I never followed up on my earlier post, but I did get here on my trip to Montreal.

What a phenomenal room! Couldn't have been better! You're going to love it!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Also MrSawyer - uberkuber's confirmation of the max buy-in at $1/$2 is correct - it's $200. When you arrive you can buy your chips at the cashier when you put your name on a list to play (lists almost always move very quickly) or you can just have a chip runner go get them for you at the table when you get there.

What's are the caps for the rest of the cash games?

best (or cheapest) way of getting to playground from Hochelega?

Or can anyone recommend a spot to stay which won't cost $35+ to taxi/uber down there? I've checked out some places on airbnb but the only nice ones seem to be in the downtown area and further north

Hey kiderino - it's generally 100bb for small stakes but for $5-$5 the cap is $1,000 and for $5-$10 it's $3,000. Both of those games can play pretty large.


dsquirrels - the cheapest way to get here from anywhere in Montreal is to take the Metro to the end of the Green Line (Angrignon) and then hop a CITSO (South Shore) bus - it stops directly in front of the club. Lots of people do this and it seems to work pretty well.

If you're planning on being here during the festival, keep in mind that it's quite common for players to split cab fare with one or two others, esp from Playground to Montreal.

Ty

is this the recommended path when coming from the airport? does the metro have a stop at the airport? what is the approximate travel time by cab from airport to the hotels nearby playground?

-just searched and see there are no hotels nearby, is that because they are all booked already or there really is no hotels near to playground

Coinflipper - the directions given apply to travelling from downtown. The metro doesn't go as far west as the airport, and I'm not sure there is a bus or anything from the airport to that metro station.

The best way to get from the airport to Playground is in a cab. If you're going downtown first, you can take the 747 Bus to downtown - here's more info: http://www.stm.info/en/info/networks...-ville-shuttle

There are a couple of motels nearby but most people stay downtown - there are hotel deals on the Fall Classic mini-site: http://www.playgroundpoker.ca/fallclassic2015

We just announced a new cash game promo today.

First, though, the Wheel is going into temporary retirement and all promos using the wheel will end on Sunday.

The new cash game promo is Wicked Wednesdays - every Wed, the high hand every hour from noon to 8pm gets $250. And then on the last Wed of the month it's every half hour, and from 10am to 10pm - and then for two hours it will be $500 every half hour.

what can you tell me about the 1-2-5 plo i see listed on bravo? how often it runs, how it plays? min/max buyin


also is this pretty much only plo game in town?

The 1-2-5 PLO goes off quite frequently - almost every day in the past few months. And when it goes it's generally open for at least 6-7 hours.

I arrived one morning last week at 10 and it was still on from the night before... and then they hit the Omaha BBJ and the game broke.

The buy-in limits are from $200 - $1000, and the game is generally pretty big.

I heard that the playground doesn't issue tax forms when cashing in a tournament. I am an American so does that mean they don't report anything to the IRS? What are my options as an American? I know I am obligated to report all earnings, but you know what i mean

AFAIK, no Canadian casino issues tax forms. We dont tax gambling up North at all.

I don't know about the first sentence, but the second one isn't necessarily true. While it's true that punctual lotto/gambling gains aren't taxed, someone who would gain from poker on a regular basis (a.k.a. being a professional poker player) is subject to being taxed.