WSOPC Playground

Event #17: $1,000 Mystery Bounty champion Michael Khan

After the $5,000 High Roller wrapped up and the sun was coming up over Playground, the final two rings of the series were awarded in a pair of Mystery Bounty events.

Event #17 was a $1,000 buy-in which saw 350 entries take their shot at the final really big score of the series, and it was Michael Khan making the most of it, winning the event for $35,842, and then pulling three $10,000 bounties and then some for an added $39,100.

The $74,942 comes just two days after Khan's 14th place finish in the Main Event for $19,690.

Event #17: $1,000 Mystery Bounty final table results:

1. Michael Khan - $35,842 (+$39,100 in bounties)
2. Matthew Osorio - $23,670 
3. Omri Cohen - $16,070 
4. Rocco Smeriglio - $11,150 
5. Gurtej Toor - $7,910 
6. Matthew Metallic - $5,750 
7. Tam Ho - $4,280
8. Garrett Sundberg - $3,260
9. Anthony Williams - $2,550
10. Tommy Nguyen - $2,050 

Event #18: $400 Mystery Bounty champion Jean Bernard Audet

Meanwhile in the $400 buy-in version, Event #18, it was Jean-Bernard Audet topping a field of 288 to claim $14,860 and an additional $4,500 in bounties.

The win is by far Audet's best score amidst a scattering of results since 2012 totaling just over $2,500.

1. Jean-Bernard Audet - $14,860 (+ $4,500 in bounties)
2. Zhiyu Chen - $9,930
3. Mario Strojka - $6,890
4. Jamie Baker - $4,880
5. Gianpaolo Bini - $3,520
6. Nicolas Majdalani - $2,590
7. Jordan Michael Browne - $1,950
8. Jake Laird - $1,490
9. Dany Rochefort - $1,179
10. Mei Yang - $940

Dylan Laird

Event #16: $5,000 Mega Stack High Roller drew a 183-entry field, creating an $841,400 prize pool. Some of the best players on the Canadian poker scene took their shot, with plenty of professionals, ring winners and previous Circuit Main Event champions in the field. In the end, Dylan Laird outlasted them all, defeating Guillaume Nolet heads-up to take down the $194,206 top prize, a career-best live score.

“Feels amazing, really happy," the newly crowned champion told PokerOrg following the win. 

Laird's live tournament scores only date back to 2023, and Laird explained how live tournaments have typically not been his main focus in the past when it comes to poker.

Dylan Laird

“I play a lot of cash games. But I almost exclusively play online. I’ve only started playing live over the last few years. I still don’t do it that much, but maybe I’ll start doing it a little bit more now.”

Laird began the final table with the second-largest stack, and he spoke about a hand when four players remained that gave him an overwhelming chip lead, from which he never looked back.

"There was one hand in particular where we were four-handed, and the big blind was very short. Allen Shen – he’s a really good player, I play with him all the time online, he opened the button. It’s a position where I’m gonna three-bet a lot because the big blind’s so short. So he came for a small four-bet, and then I clicked it and made a five-bet. He went into the tank and folded – I had ace-nine suited that hand, he told me he had ace-deuce suited. It would have been interesting had he gone all in. I think he felt like I was bluffing there. That was a fun one. It was a big pot that gave me a commanding chip lead, and I never looked back from there.”

Allen Shen

Laird would extend that lead soon after with the elimination of previous WSOP Circuit Main Event champion Dustin Melanson in fourth, before Guillaume Nolet took out Shen in third. Laird had roughly a 2:1 advantage over Nolet going into heads-up, and although Nolet briefly seemed like he was closing the gap, Laird was relentlessly aggressive in whittling Nolet back down. 

“He seemed to play well the whole tournament. I felt that I could apply some pressure in certain spots. Generally, heads-up is an aggressive game, and my baseline strategy is probably pretty aggressive. There were some exploits I felt that I could make," Laird said of the heads-up match.

Guillaume Nolet

The final hand of the night was a brutal cooler that saw Nolet turn the nut-straight, only for Laird to river a higher straight. Laird had check-raised the flop and barreled again on the turn, before shoving the river with the nuts. Nolet snap-called with the second-nuts, only to see the bad news and having to settle for second place, while Laird was awarded his first Circuit Ring, and a hard-earned career-best score.

Final table results:

1. Dylan Laird - $194,206
2. Guillaume Nolet - $128,940
3. Allen Shen - $87,990
4. Dustin Melanson - $61,710
5. Robert Mancini - $44,500
6. Cindy Spier - $33,030
7. Mark Bailey - $25,250
8. Ning Ma - $19,900
9. Alex Fortin-Demers - $16,190
10. Santiago Plante - $13,600

Dylan Laird

Dylan Laird has defeated Guillaume Nolet heads-up to take down Event #15: $5,000 Mega Stack High Roller for $194,206, his first WSOP Circuit Ring and a $5,000 package to WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas next month.

Stay tuned for a full recap!

Final table results:

1. Dylan Laird - $194,206
2. Guillaume Nolet - $128,940
3. Allen Shen - $87,990
4. Dustin Melanson - $61,710
5. Robert Mancini - $44,500
6. Cindy Spier - $33,030
7. Mark Bailey - $25,250
8. Ning Ma - $19,900
9. Alex Fortin-Demers - $16,190
10. Santiago Plante - $13,600

Guillaume Nolet

Level 31: 100,000/200,000 (200,000) - 2 remaining

Guillaume Nolet limped in from the button and Dylan Laird checked from the big blind.

The flop came . Laird checked, Nolet bet 200,000, Laird check-raised to 700,000 and Nolet called.

Laird continued for 900,000 on the turn and Nolet called again. On the river Laird shoved with a covering stack, and Nolet snap-called.

Nolet showed a straight with , but Laird had the nut-straight with to win the final hand of the tournament.

• Dylan Laird - 18,300,000
• Guillaume Nolet - eliminated