A 13-day poker festival featuring 17 events sponsored by Full Tilt kicked off in Montreal on September 21 that saw the first scheduled event attract 1,605 players and more than double the guaranteed prize pool of CAN $100,000.
Held at the Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake, the venue is a mere 20 minutes from downtown Montreal. The festival is expected to be perhaps one of the biggest poker events ever staged in Canada.
The headlining Main Event will get underway on Friday, September 27. Three starting days with re-entries permitted will likely see players eliminated on days 1A or 1B take another shot at the CAN $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool on Day 1C at a buy-in of CAN $1,100. Should players advance to Day 2 with more than one entry alive, their largest Day 1 chip stack will be used to begin Day 2 competition.
Satellites and qualifiers are running now both online at Full Tilt, as well as live at the Playground Poker Club. There are also freerolls that allow FTP players the opportunity to go to Montreal and compete in the seven-day Main Event free of charge.
Full Tilt Professional Gus Hansen, as well as a number of tour ambassadors that include Martins Adeniya, Dermot Blain and Danielle Anderson, have committed to playing in the Main Event. Sister site PokerStars will also be represented by several of its pro stars such as Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso and Jonathan Duhamel. Canadian celebrities the likes of retired NHL players Georges Laraque and Matthew Barnaby are also slated to be in attendance.
For those who unfortunately bust out of the Main Event, plenty of side action will be available with tournament buy-ins ranging from CAN $60 to CAN $220. Main Event final tablists, in addition to the guaranteed prize money, will be going home sporting a custom Full Tilt Poker jacket.
Those who can't make it to Montreal but would like to be on the rail via the Internet for the Main Event can check out the live stream at the FullTiltPoker.com blog beginning on September 30 and running until one player has all the chips and first place prize money on October 3.
The Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival marks the second time since its November 6 relaunch that FTP has sponsored a live tournament festival. The successful UKIPT Galway that concluded last month was the first. Expect to see Full Tilt's name associated with additional live events in coming months.
