Cassidy Battikha Wins partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Canada
Cassidy Battikha scored the biggest cash of his career and his first tournament cash to hit The HendonMob early Tuesday morning after winning the partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Canada for $84,050.
After a deal three-handed, Battikha took home the trophy.
Day 3 kicked off at 7 p.m. local time in Kahnawake, Quebec, the home of world-renowned poker room, Playground Poker Club. Just 38 of the 2,570 entries remained and Canadian poker pro Mike Leah lead the charge.
The field was quickly reduced to a final table, and by that time, Battikha was sitting on top of the counts.
| Place | Name | Prize (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cassidy Battikha | $84,050 |
| 2 | Karim Abdelhamid | $62,500 |
| 3 | Kevin Zeidler | $53,450+$20,000 |
| 4 | Mike Leah | $25,000 |
| 5 | Leandre St-Laurent | $14,580 |
| 6 | Shahar Ohaion | $10,000 |
| 7 | Emmanuel Kyrkinis | $7,500 |
| 8 | Dilovan Hussein | $6,000 |
| 9 | Kyle Chang | $5,000 |
When the final table formed, just two finalists held the Golden Chip, a bonus offer they received from qualifying online that entered them in a last longer contest for a $20,000 prize. Leah had one and Kevin Zeidler held the other.
Kyle Chang, who entered the day fifth in chips, was the first casualty, falling in ninth place to Battikha. Just a few hands later, when the final eight players moved up to the stage and kicked off the live stream, Dilovan Hussein got frisky with jack-ten, flopping a pair but running into Leah's pair of aces.
Emmanuel Kyrkinis thought he found a good spot to squeeze against Leah and Battikha but unfortunately he ran smack into Zeidler's pocket kings. To make it worse, Kyrkinis actually hit a set of sixes on the river but the board also brought another king for Zeidler. Kyrkinis hit the rail.
Battling with a short stack all day, Shahar Ohaion finally found a premium hand worth putting his tournament life at risk. Ohaion moved all in with ace-king only to see the pocket kings had made their way over to Battikha. Ohaion’s run came to an end in sixth place.
With both players on the short end of the straw, Leah and Leandre St-Laurent got their stacks in the middle. Leah had St-Laurent dominated, ace-king to ace-four. Leah’s hand held and four-handed play began. Leah then lost a big portion of his stack doubling up Battikha. A few hands later Battikha finished off the highly-skilled pro.
With Leah’s elimination, Zeidler was the last person standing with a Golden Chip and was awarded the $20,000 bonus. The final three players paused the clock and negotiated a deal based on an ICM chop. Satisfied with their locked-in numbers, play resumed and Zeidler was the first to depart.
Once heads-up play began, Battikha held a 10-1 chip lead. He was able to seal the victory a few hands later. On the final hand, Battikha open-jammed with jack-eight and Karim Abdelhamid made the call with queen-nine. Battikha flopped a pair of jacks and faded the rest of the board to eliminate Abdelhamid and score the victory.
The focus at the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker LIVE will now shift to the monster $5,000,000 guaranteed partypoker Million North America. Satellites and Phases are currently running online on partypoker and live at Playground.
Starting at 11 a.m on Tuesday and Wednesday at Playground, there is a $550 Phase 1 with the top 10 percent carrying their stack right into Day 1a or Day 1b of the Main Event.
PokerNews will provide daily recaps throughout the festival along with live coverage of the $5,000,000 guaranteed partypoker Million North America.
For full festival details and live updates from the Playground blogging team check out the official blog here.
