The new season of partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America tour kicked off Saturday in Montreal and already crowned its first winner. Beating 79 high-stakes poker players including quite tough competition on the final table, David Eldridge from the United States won the CA$10,300 buy-in High Roller event and took home the first place prize of CA$300,000.
Starting at noon on Saturday, April 21, the High Roller attracted a total of 80 entrants, who paid the CA$10,000+CA$300 buy-in. Although the event had a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million, the total amount that was collected was $970,000. Just 26 of the players survived for Day 2 on Sunday, with Irelandās Darren Elias leading the pack with 6,200,000 in chips, followed closely by Marc MacDonnell (6,135,000) and David Eldridge (6,000,000). Other quite familiar faces returning to the tables on Day 2 were Viktor Blom, partypoker Sponsored Pro Kristen Bicknell, Chris Moorman, Parker Talbot, Anthony Zinno, Victor Ramdin, and Martin Jacobson.
Unfortunately, not all famous players could emerge victorious after the action on the opening day. Among the casualties of the tough competition were big poker names such as Brian Yoon, Alex Foxen, Jonathan Duhamel, partypoker Sponsored Pro Roberto Romanello and partypoker Ambassador Joao Simao. The 26 players who qualified resumed their play on 4 tables and after only two eliminations, they balanced down to 3 tables. Only 11 of them made it to the money bubble, winning at least $20,000 in cash. MacDonnel was eliminated in 11th place, taking home the minimum guarantee, followed by Louis Boutin who busted at 10th place and received $22,500 in prize money.
Among the final nine players were Eldridge, Ramdin, Moorman and Kevin Hobbs. In the heads-up duel, Eldridge defeated Victor Ramdin, taking the trophy and the first place prize of $300,000, or roughly US$235,000. The runner-up settled for quite an attractive prize, as well, totalling $180,000. The High Roller is just one of six events that are taking place during the 2018 CA$15 GTD MILLIONS North America festival by partypoker LIVE at Montrealās Playground Poker Club. It runs through May 2, with online satellites underway until April 25. Poker pros and enthusiasts can qualify for as little as $0,50 or buy in directly (CA$5,300) for the Main Event. Starting April 24, it features a guaranteed prize pool of CA$10 million.
Tough Competition at the Final Table
Holding the chip lead on the final, nine-seated table, David Eldridge (United States) was ahead of the rest with more than 15.5 million in chips while the second largest stack (almost 12.7 million) was held by Victor Ramdin (United States). After eliminating Christopher Kruk (Canada) in the 9th place, Ramdin took the chip lead with over 21 million and Kruk took home $27,500. Online poker superstar Chris Moorman busted in 8th place after being defeated by Kevin Hobbs. He received $35,000 and after almost two hours of play, a dinner break paused the action.
Canadaās Ami Alibay (7th, $45,000) was the next to leave the final table after being eliminated by Eldridge who brought his stack to a cool 30.7 million in chips. Another Canadian player was sent home ā Parker Talbot was eliminated by Hobbs and banked $57,500 for his 6th place. Swedenās high-stakes online pro Victor Blom, known as Isildur1, was the next to go and for his 5th position, he received $72,500. He was eliminated by Eldridge who then took a massive lead to over 50 million chips. Jon Van Fleet (United States) was the next to leave the table, busting at 4th place and taking home $90,000. Hobbs followed at 3rd place and a cash prize of $120,000. Both were eliminated by Ramdin, who remained for the final heads-up battle against David Eldridge.
With a slight chip lead over David Eldridge, Victor Ramdin lost quite quickly with the final hand coming suddenly. Eldridge held a nice 10-10 against Ramdinās Ace-3, while the board showed 10-9-6. After a 7 and a Jack came up on the turn, Ramdin had no chance against Eldridgeās pair and busted, finishing 2nd and taking home $180,000. The High Roller winner was crowned ā David Eldridge took the first partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America trophy and a nice bounty of $300,000.
With the win, which is his highest live tournament score, Eldridge takes his live career earnings up to more than US$1 million. Other big cash finishes for him were the CA$300,982 (around US$229,058) when he took the second spot at the 2017 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic $5,000 Main Event in Niagara Falls and the US$146,100 first-place prize at the $1,100 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August 2015.
