Two GGPoker qualifiers make the final of Canada's largest ever tournament

Over in Montreal, the Playground Poker Club hosted the largest tournament in Canadian poker history. The $5,000 CAD WSOP-C Super Circuit Playground event attracted a record field of 2,844 players.

Of which 507 of those players had qualified for their seat. Two made the final table and walked away with almost $1 million CAD between them.

Jonathan Bussieres and Felipe Baraky both won their package via the $150 WSOPE Express qualifiers at GGPoker. Bussieres finished 5th for $500,000 CAD and Baraky finished 6th for $400,000 CAD.

The event was won by Mayukh Chakraborty who took down $1.5 million CAD after beating Benjamin Veenstra heads-up.

The final table also featured ACR Pro Chance Kornuth, who finished fourth for $600,000 CAD.

It's nice to see operators taking satellite qualifiers seriously and sending so many of them to such a landmark event.

Payout changes mid tournament

Although it was the biggest tournament ever seen in Canada, it was not without controversy. With the poker world watching, the event amazingly changed its structure and prize pool deep into the event.

The tournament had originally earmarked a $2 million CAD first prize, which was an error. Well, after the min-cashes had started paying out, the top prize was corrected to $1.5 million CAD, and the rest of the final table prizes were also flattened. The final table went from awarding 47% of the total prize pool to 42.5% of the total prize pool.

Anyone who understands ICM knows that this does actually dramatically change the strategy. A more top-heavy prize pool incentivizes a more loose, aggressive style of play. A flatter prize pool rewards a slightly tighter approach to the game.