Event 22 in the World Cup of Cards hosted at Playground Poker Club has reached heads-up play, as Marc-Etienne McLaughlin and Pierre-Paul Paulin battle it out one-on-one for the title. The winner will take home a cool $76,830 cash prize as well as a WCC Champion’s Trophy, while the runner-up will earn a $53,350 consolation prize.

Marc-Etienne begins heads-up play with the chip advantage, as his 845,000 stack nearly doubles the 475,000 of Pierre-Paul.

Blinds have been switched to 30-minute levels, however the average stack represents a massive 110 big blinds, meaning there is a lot of play left!

Good luck to you both!

Big stacked Marc-Etienne McLaughlin has been putting pressure on his opponents in these late stages of the tournament. Once Pierre-Paul Paulin folded his button, Marc-Etienne moved all-in from the small blind versus short-stack Francois Goulet, who held under 15 big blinds. With a suited one-gapper, Francois decided it was time to make it happen, and he made the call.

Marc-Etienne:
Francois:

Everything was lining up nicely for Francois to double up, until Marc-Etienne caught a straight on the river of a board to score the knockout.

3rd place: Francois Goulet – $34,150.00

François Goulet opened to 14K from the button, and Pierre 3bet to 34K, from the small blind position. With that much invested, they went to the flop: . Pierre made a continuation bet, pushing 22.5K forward. That bet was raised to 65K, which was met by a swift all-in. François had only a few chips more to call at that point, he threw one in, and opened , an open-ended straight draw. Pierre showed . No fear! The rest of the board was no help for François, and he was left with around 120K, the new short stack.

Marc-Étienne McLaughlin just worked Pierre-Paul Paulin in a rare 6bet-fold event. Pierre-Paul limped in 6K from the small blind. Marc raised him to 14K, which was met by a 3bet to 38.5K by Pierre-Paul. Marc 4bet to 104K, and not too long after that, Pierre-Paul brought it up to 178.5K!

Wait, there’s more! Marc tanked for a little bit, and then went all-in. That was a 6bet! Pierre counted his chips. He had about 220K back at that point, and threw his cards in. With that fold, Marc-Étienne now owns more than half the chips!

That’s the kind of action you can only witness in a tournament with such a great structure, populated by such great players. A real treat!

François Goulet took a little over 100K from Marc-Étienne McLaughlin. We missed the action, but on the river, only a Jack was missing to complete a straight, and Ace/Jack was the nuts. François bet 24K, which was raised to 62K by Marc. François moved all-in, and Marc went to the tank.

He was doing all he could to extract information from François with small talk, but wasn’t getting any answers. He ended up folding, and with that pot, the new chip distribution slightly favors François, but not by a lot, and with the average stack showing 88 big blinds, this will be quite a battle!

Martin was now 4th in chips, and needed to find a spot. When Marc-Etienne McLaughlin opened to 11K, Martin Raus 3bet shoved all-in for 96,500, and Pierre-Paul Paulin 4bet shoved over the top. McLaughlin folded.

Pierre-Paul:
Martin:

The board ran

Martin Raus’ pocket eights was more than enough to take his chances, but unfortunately for him, ran into a monster. He goes to the cashier with his 4th place coupon, which he will exchange for $27,750.

Well done!