Maxime Heroux Wins World Poker Tour Montreal
Maxime Heroux became the latest member of the World Poker Tour Champions Club after taking down WPT Montreal at Playground Poker. Heroux, a Montreal local, won CA$403,570 — about $317,000 — for besting the field of 606 entries in the CA$3,850 reentry event.
Heroux had just about $40,000 in cashes coming into the event but topped a final table that included former WPT champion Eric Afriat and super high rolling pro David Peters.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxime Heroux | CA$403,570* |
| 2 | Pat Quinn | CA$271,030 |
| 3 | Derek Wolters | CA$173,220 |
| 4 | Brendan Baksh | CA$124,310 |
| 5 | Eric Afriat | CA$95,370 |
| 6 | David Peters | CA$78,050 |
*includes $15,000 Tournament of Champions entry
The tournament carried a guarantee of CA$2 million and just barely inched past that number with a prize pool of $2,057,730. There were 76 places paid out and some of those fortunate to cash in the Canadian-heavy field were Kevin MacPhee, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Christian Harder, Sam Chartier, Michael Mizrachi, Mike Leah, Ari Engel and Manig Loeser.
Curt Kohlberg very nearly made his fifth official WPT final table after coming into the penultimate day second in chips out of 16. According to the live updates, he lost most of his stack running ace-king into aces, and he and bracelet winner Justin Liberto wound up being the two players to bubble the unofficial final table.
Heroux entered that final table racing with Pat Quinn for the lead and nothing much changed as they remained the top two stacks after the eliminations of Brady Hinnegan, [Removed:321] Abu-Hadbah and Bradley Ellis. Afriat, after starting the day in first and dropping to a short stack, managed to grind back up and make his fourth WPT final table.
Final Table Action
Peters was certainly the most feared and accomplished player at the final table, with over $18 million in cashes and numerous titles to his credit, and he came in with a solid stack of nearly 60 big blinds to boot. However, he ran into rough waters early on and handed out a couple of doubles that sank him into the danger zone.
By the time Hand #40 rolled around, Peters had just seven big blinds to his credit and he put them in with K♥Q♥. Quinn called him with A♣J♦ and while an ace flopped, Peters got a sweat with a board of A♠7♥6♣4♥ on the turn. The river brought a blank 10♣ to send the top pro packing.
Eighteen hands later, Afriat's dream of a second WPT title — his first came back in 2014 at Seminole Hard Rock — ended with a fifth-place finish. He got his last few blinds in there ahead with A♠8♣ against the J♠9♠ of Derek Wolters but the latter flopped a jack, turned another and rivered the last one to bust Afriat quads-style.
Brendan Baksh survived numerous all-in pots as a short stack and looked likely to survive another when Wolters put him all in for about 10 big blinds with Q♦2♦ in a battle of blinds and Baksh called with A♥4♠. The 10♣7♣10♦ flop was safe enough for Baksh, but the Q♠ turn ended things for him with a fourth-place finish.
Heroux maintained his lead into three-handed play, but everyone was between 5 million and 7.4 million with blinds of 60,000/120,000/20,000, so it remained anyone's game. Wolters and Heroux traded the lead a few times and they would ultimately play the pot that proved most critical to Heroux's eventual win.
With both leaders around 7 million at 75,000/150,000/25,000, Quinn raised on the button to 350,000 and Heroux called. Wolters made it 1.2 million, Quinn folded, and Heroux jammed. Wolters called it off with A♦K♥ and was racing for about 75 percent of the chips against 7♥7♣. The board ran out Q♠J♠9♦2♣2♠, enabling Heroux to dodge 10 outs on the turn and river to eliminate Wolters and go heads up with a huge lead.
Quinn never got any real traction to erase the lead. He started the match just over 20 big blinds and was down to about 11 when the final hand went down. They got it in after a limped pot and a 6♦5♦4♣ flop with Heroux holding 4♦2♦ for a pair plus combo draw and Quinn 9♦7♠ for an open-ender and overcards. The turn and river both brought deuces to make Heroux a full house and force the Canadian restaurant-owner to settle for second place, and the victory went to Heroux.
Photo courtesy of WPT
