Miguel Goncalo Denies WSOP Global Champ El-Yousfi WPT500 Montreal Win
The World Poker Tour is currently at Canada’s Playground Poker Club for the WPT Montreal Main Event. Before that tournament got underway, it was preceded by the CAD$500 buy-in WPT500 Montreal, a tournament that attracted 2,536 runners over eight flights, one of which was held online.
In the end, local player Miguel Goncalo denied France’s Said El-Yousfi, who you might recall won the 2016 World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship, the title to capture a $152,596 first-place prize.
Prior to the win, Goncalo had just $18,394 in live tournament earnings including a prior best of just $3,746 for finishing second in the 2017 Playground Poker Event #3: C$220 NLH Freeze.
WPT500 Montreal Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miguel Goncalo | $152,596 |
| 2 | Said El-Yousfi | $105,337 |
| 3 | William Blais | $69,431 |
| 4 | Tom Hall | $51,120 |
| 5 | Trevor Argue | $38,912 |
| 6 | Dave Graham | $30,519 |
| 7 | Sebastien Lepine | $23,652 |
| 8 | Jason Harned | $19,075 |
| 9 | Geoffrey Hum | $14,878 |
WPT500 Montreal Final Day Action
Day 3 of the tournament saw 35 players return to action and play down to a winner. At the time, neither of the final two players even sat with a top ten chip stack, but that didn’t stop them from finding their way to the final table, albeit in the middle of the pack.
With seven players remaining, Sebastien Lepine moved all in from middle position holding king-queen offsuit and El-Yousfi called from the button with ace-eight suited. The flop contained an ace and that was all she wrote for Lepine, who took home $23,652 for his seventh-place finish. El-Yousfi then dispatched Dave Graham in sixth place after the former flopped middle pair against the latter’s top pair.
Goncalo got his first elimination with four players remaining and it was a big one. It happened when Tom Hall, who earlier this month finished fourth in the partypoker MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn for a career-high $394,965, raised preflop under the gun and Goncalo defended his big blind.
The two got it in on a 10♥Q♠J♥ flop with Goncalo holding the Q♦J♣ for two pair and Hall having flopped the nuts with the A♦K♥. Unfortunately for Hall, a queen on the turn gave Goncalo a full house.
After William Blais bowed out in third place, El-Yousfi took a nearly 2-1 chip lead into heads-up play against Goncalo. The two engaged in a back-and-forth match before things came to a head in Level 41 (750,000/1,250,000/1,250,000).
It happened when El-Yousfi limped the button and then called a raise of 4.25 million from Goncalo. Both players checked the 8♠9♦Q♠ flop and Goncalo bet 3 million on the 8♣ turn. El-Yousfi called and then bet 9.5 million after Goncalo checked the J♦ river.
Goncalo check-raised all in for 36.9 million and El-Yousfi called off for 22.3 million total with the K♣10♥ for the nut straight. It was no good though as Goncalo rolled over the Q♣8♦ for a full house.
Others to cash the tournament were Vasilios Gerontakos (12th - $10,872), Mukul Pahuja (20th - $5,341), Eric Afriat (26th - $3,624), Raphael Duval (46th - $1,908), and Amir Babakhani (64th - $1,488).
Images courtesy of WPT.
