In addition to the CAD $1,100 Prime Championship and CAD $3,500 Championship Event, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Playground also hosted a CAD $10,500 High Roller, a tournament that attracted 31 entries and awarded a CAD $640,000 prize pool, more than triple the CAD $200K guarantee.
The final table was dominated by Canadians with one exception, Australia’s Cooper Henry Bryant. However, the Aussie ended up falling in third place, one spot better than Chanracy Khun, who poker fans may remember defeated Doug Polk heads-up to win the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #8: $25,000 HU NLH Championship for $507,020 and a bracelet.
Speaking of WSOP bracelets, Canada’s Pascal Lefrancois won one by taking down the 2010 WSOP Event #8: $1,500 NLH for $568,974. In addition, Lefrancois won the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS in Barcelona in 2018 and was runner-up in the 2012 WPT Montreal, and he actually took down the 2020 $25,500 WPT Super High Roller at Seminole Hard Rock for $315,812.
Lefrancois made a deep run in the Playground High Roller, but ultimately fell to Kevin Rabichow in heads-up play.
Prior to the win, Rabichow had $4.15 million in lifetime tournament earnings dating back to 2011 according to The Hendon Mob, though he has been playing online since 2005. That includes a career-high $1,210,487 for finishing second to Michael Addamo in the 2021 WSOP Event #87: $100,000 High Roller. Rabichow also placed second to Ethan Yau in the 2022 WPT Wynn $25,000 High Roller for $518,940.
It wasn’t Rabichow’s first taste of success at Playground. Back in May 2019, he took second in the partypoker MILLIONS North America CAD $10,300 Main Event for $484,460.
A University of Chicago graduate with a degree in economics, Rabichow headed north to Toronto after Black Friday in order to continue playing online where he’s won millions. He’s also established himself as one of the industry’s premier coaches, and in 2022 he released a poker training course "The Game Plan" on Run It Once, which he talked about in this episode of the PokerNewsPodcast.
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Rabichow | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | $211,120 |
| 2 | Pascal Lefrancois | St. Therese, Quebec, Canada | $154,640 |
| 3 | Cooper Henry Bryant | Sydney, Australia | $84,800 |
| 4 | Chanracy Khun | Blainville, Quebec, Canada | $57,600 |
| 5 | Stephen Nahm | Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada | $44,800 |
| 6 | Tommy Nguyen | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | $35,200 |
| 7 | Dustin Melanson | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | $28,800 |
| 8 | Joshua Andrew Justin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | $23,040 |
*Photos courtesy of Playground