Marc Lavergne turned a $55 WPT Global satellite into a $50,000 score at the WPT Montreal Championship and the high school dropout turned small business owner doesn't plan to stop there.
Jikai Zhang defeated 18-year-old Adam Cader in heads-up play to win the WPT Montreal Championship for C$165,070, beating out a final table that also included WPT Global Ambassador Brad Owen.
Lavergne, who qualified on WPT Global for $55, finished in fifth place for $50,000 — the culmination of a dream come true for a poker grinder and WPT fan from Montreal.
The always energetic Lavergne — who had to wait until the return of his voice after his WPT final table appearance before he participated in an interview — sat down to talk with PokerOrg to talk about the life-changing experience.
'You're still a degenerate'
"That was the first WPT I played," Lavergne shared on a Zoom call from a poker table in his backyard.
Lavergne, now a father and the owner of Top Notch Moving Services, has been grinding the Montreal poker scene for some time. Most of his recorded cashes come from Playground Poker Club, where WPT Montreal was first held in 2012, including the big score that changed his poker life.
"I won a free ticket on partypoker and it was an $11 ticket. I turned it into a $100 ticket, and then I turned that into a $1,000 ticket. I told my girlfriend, ‘Babe, I’m playing the biggest tournament of my life.’ She hated it. So I said I wasn’t going to play."
Lavergne temporarily caved on poker for what might have been the last time.
"She said 'I don’t give a fuck, you're still a degenerate.' I decided to play to prove to her that I was going to crush it. I shipped it for 40K Canadian. They even wrote a blog about me."
From the 'gutters of Ottawa'
The hometown hero has always needed perseverance, and a lot of the challenges he faces in the standard poker tournament are stress-free compared to his early life.
"I came from the gutters of Ottawa — eight years old running around the streets and stealing from stores. I was living on my own at 13 years old after my dad kicked me out. I was sleeping on park benches and friend's couches."
Lavergne was eventually a high school dropout, and he moved furniture throughout his youth as a primary source of income.
"I would go to these truckstops and get picked up and go unload furniture. I had been doing that my whole life since I was a kid."
That experience built up over time and eventually, Laverge started his own business — which he has run for over 10 years.
'I want to see the world'
Lavergne qualified on WPT Global in a $55 satellite and turned it into another core memory.
"It was an epic experience. Being at Playground and being on WPT is such a proud moment. I grew up with those guys, so being a part of that is a huge deal for me."
From here, Lavergne plans to continue to find his place in the poker world, both at home and overseas. He has already traveled to The Bahamas for WSOP Paradise and to Dublin for the Irish Poker Open. Lavergne cashed in both and has plans for his first trip to Vegas this summer before a trip to August's European Poker Tour stop in Barcelona.
"It’s always been my dream. I want to see the world. I didn’t see an ocean until three years ago. I had never been on an airplane."
