Norbert Rosario Wins PlayNow Championship Winnipeg $300 Turbo Bounty ($8,300)
The $300 Turbo Bounty is now in the books. Norbert Rosario locked up the trophy and $8,300, but Kyle Hartree locked up the biggest cash with $10,000 when the final four struck a deal that guaranteed payouts based on the chips stacks at the time, but left the trophy and player of the series points on the table to play for.
It was a fast paced affair from the start of the day. The final table of Day 2 of Event 1 was still playing out on one table as the Event 2 got underway. With $50 bounties on every player's head, and a fast blind structure, it's one of the most popular events on the PNPC calendar.
When the bell sounded to start Round 1, there were already 200 players in their seats, and by the time the rebuy period ended a little over two hours later, the total number had swelled to 251. That put more than $50,000 into the prize pool, and set the expected top prize at just under $15,000.
Twenty-six players shared in that prize pool, and it took around six hours to play down from 251 to 26. Matt Perin burst the bubble with a double knockout during hand for hand play when his pocket kings were able to hold against two opponents and send them to the rail.
The action didn't slow down once the bubble burst either. The eliminations were fast and furious and the ten-handed final table was set by 10 p.m. One notable bustout prior to the final table was Micky Gagic, who completed a fairly decent day by coming 15th in the bounty event after winning the first event earlier in the day. Norbert Rosario took the biggest stack of more than half a million chips to the final table, while Kyle Hartree limped into the final ten with barely four big blinds.
The Final Table Lineup
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ron Lauzon | 374,000 |
| 2 | Deven Lane | 303,000 |
| 3 | Matt Perin | 206,000 |
| 4 | Ken Hunter | 110,000 |
| 5 | Ken Cung | 240,000 |
| 6 | Maurice Gingras | 330,000 |
| 7 | Suzanne Martin | 218,000 |
| 8 | Les Skoden | 124,000 |
| 9 | Kyle Hartree | 65,000 |
| 10 | Norbert Rosario | 526,000 |
The players finally started to slow down a bit once the final table was set, but not by that much. Within 90 minutes, the tournament was five-handed after Deven Lane found a great spot with ace-king against the ace-queen of Maurice Gingras and the ace-four of Ron Lauzon. Lane and Lauzon were both at risk in the hand, but Lane's big slick held for a huge triple up, and sending Lauzon to the rail at the same time.
It took another half hour to get down to four-handed play when Ken Cung got out pipped by Kyle Hartree for the rest of his stack, and once the game got four-handed, they started looking at a chop. Despite coming to the final table with barely four big blinds, Hartree entered four-handed play as the chip leader by a fairly large margin, and he locked up $10,000 in the deal. Maurice Gingras guaranteed himself $8,600 while Norbert Rosario took $8,300 and Deven Lane pocketed $7,900.
That settled the money, but it didn't settle the tournament. They went right back to the felt to play for the trophy, as well as the player of the series points, which go toward the added prize of a free slate of buy-ins for the next PNPC series in spring 2020. Gingras was the first to go, taking the fourth place spot, and Kyle Hartree bowed out in third. Deven Lane and Norbert Rosario did have a bit of a heads up match, but in the end, Rosario spiked a six when he got his ace-six in against the suited ace-queen of Lane. Lane had to settle for second place while Rosario got the hardware.
Next up for the 2019 Fall PlayNow Poker Championship is the $1,100 Main Event. Cards go in the air at 12:05 p.m. CT Saturday, and they'll play 15 levels before they bag and tag for the night in the marquee event of the series. Follow all the action live right here as pokernews Canada will be on the floor from the first hand to the last.