WPT Playground Main Event Won by Michael Wang for $300,000

The biggest event of Canada’s year in poker concluded last night as Michael Wang won his first World Poker Tour (WPT) event for almost $300,000. The WPT Playground Montreal Main Event featured six superb final table players, as the poker professional Michael Wang used all of his experience to get his way up the leaderboard before beating three Canadians in the final four.

Bumper Field for Returning Main Event

“You had to fold – you had no money in there.”

There were 840 entries in the 2024 Playground Festival Main Event in Montreal, with a prizepool of $1,932,400 gathered in. A top prize of $276,625 ended up being on offer at the close after a heads-up deal but at the start of the final table action, it was the Canadian player Baron Ha who was laughing, sat on 11,625,000, the equivalent of 78 big blinds.

The chip leader was followed by Jordan Grant (61BB), Michael Wang (51BB) and Zachary Fischer (38BB) in the field while Santiago Plante (31BB) and Amirpasha Emami (21BB) both had a little ground to make up but with very playable stacks. As it happened, the stacks looked fairly level but play progressed much quick than expected, with an elimination almost straight away.

All-in in the fourth hand of the final table, Amirpasha Emami’s ran into the premium hand of Jordan Grant’s . There was no catching the better hand across the board but one player was heartbroken, as Santiago Plante admitted that he folded Big Slick – ace-king.

“You had to fold,” said the chip leader Baron Ha.  “You had no money in there.”

Emami was nowhere near interested in the minutiae of the hand as he slid away with a score of $60,450 in sixth place.

Fischer Checks Out

It had taken just four hands to produce an elimination, but it took another 110 to send Zachary Fischer out in fifth place for $79,900. Fischer could not have got his chips in with a better hand, moving all-in from under-the-gun with . Called by Jordan Grant with , there was a sweat from the nightmare flop of for Fischer. The open-ended straight draw came in on the turn, killing the hand and ending the hopes of Fischer long before the completed the board.

Winning that hand was no springboard for Grant, whose fortune with pocket tens was not mirrored in a coinflip hand a few orbits later. Shoving for 6.8 million chips with , Grant was called by Michael Wang and the eventual winner stayed ahead on the , albeit revealing a draw to the nut flush to go with two overs for Grant. A on the turn was perfect as it gave Wang the unbeatable full house and a on the river meant nothing.

As Jordan Grant rose to shake his opponent’s hand before heading to the cash desk to collect $105,100, there were three players left. Michael Wang had the crucial chip lead, piling up 23 million chips to Santiago Plante (12 million) and Baron Ha (7.2 million), as both of Wang’s opponents’ combined stacks amounted to less than that belonging to the leader.

Wang Wins as Plante Cut Down

“So many legends. I’m so happy to add my name.”

Baron Ha had come into the six-handed final with a strong chip lead but No Limit Hold’em can turn a big winner into a loser inside two hands and it only took one to send the overnight leader home.

All-in with , Ha started his final hand well behind Michael Wang, with the eventual winner holding . A board of sent Ha home in third place for $141,100 before a deal was struck between the two remaining players. Starting ahead, Wang had built his lead to around 7:1 when he shoved with .

Santiago Plante made the correct call with but a board of wasn’t enough to save him as Wang’s pair of queens on the flop held to end the event in the Americans favor.

Wang was super proud to get his name on the prestigious Mike Sexton’s WPT Champions Cup.

“There are so many legends on this trophy,” he said. “I was playing with Darren Elias in this tournament, and he ran deep. He’s got his name on this [too many times]. Like, let someone else have it, buddy! So many legends. I’m so happy to add my name.”

With the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) and WPT World Championship festivals right around the corner, Wang’s entry into the latter is already paid for courtesy of his victory here.

“[There’s] no rest for the weary and it’s not a bad thing to strike while the iron is hot,” he said. “I saw the previous champion was [wearing his belt] and it actually looks pretty good on him. I was like, wow, that’s a cool look. So, I’m not ruling it out. That’s not usually my style, but he was rocking it!”

With the World Poker Tour now gearing up for their year-ending WPT World Championships, Michael Wang will be hoping his success in major tournaments in 2024 isn’t over yet.

*includes a seat in the WPT World Championship in December 2024.