Seth Davies Wins partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship! (CAD $274,540)

The 2016 partypoker World Poker Tour Canadian Spring Championship at the Playground Poker Club – the first event on the Season XV schedule – kicked off nearly a week ago with 417 entries. After three starting flights and five days of play, Seth Davies emerged victorious to capture a $226,893 first-place prize, which includes a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

Davies, who notched his first major win after seven years as a poker professional, also captures a WPT Champions trophy, the Playground championship belt, and will forever have his name inscribed on the WPT Champions Cup.

Prior to the win Davies, who also earned 1,000 WPT Player of the Year points, had $291,560 in lifetime earning with his best cash being $59,100 for a fifth-place finish in the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Event #22: $2,650 No-Limit Hold’em. He’s also cashed three other times — all from last year — out of the 10 times he’s played on the WPT: 16^th in the WPT Borgata Winter Open for $20,054, 13^th in the WPT LAPC for $57,180, and 51^st in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star for $19,000.

The CAD $3,500 Main Event attracted dozens of notable players, many of who finished in the money at the top 54. Among those to earn a payday were Danny “Miami Boss” Suied (51^st – $4,8 43), Ari Engel (50^th – $4,843), Andy Frankenberger (48^th – $4,843), Jeff Gross (44^th – $5,686), Amir Babakhani (31^st – $6,529), Antonio Esfandiari (24^th – $8,537), and Jason Lavallee (11^th – $15,496).

On Thursday, the final six players returned to battle down to a winner, and it took 31 hands for the first elimination to occur. That is when, in Level 27 (25,000/50,000/5,000), Thomas Taylor opened for 100,000 under the gun, Davies called from middle position, and partypoker ambassador Tony Dunst shoved from the cutoff.

Taylor folded, Davies called with pocket tens, and Dunst was at risk with ace-jack. It was a flip, but the host of the WPT’s Raw Deal came up empty and was denied his second WPT title. Dunst took home $42,479 for his sixth-place finish.

A dozen hands later, a rare double knockout hand took place. It happened when Guillaume Nolet moved all in for 695,000 from the button holding ace-seven suited, Taylor three-bet all in over the top for roughly 2.5 million holding pocket nines in the small blind, and Davies woke up with kings in the big. The cowboys held and Nolet and Taylor fell in fifth and fourth place respectively.

Joel Miller was the next to go – the results of running pocket queens into Ruben Perceval’s pocket kings – and that set up a heads-up match with Davies holding 6.78 million to Perceval’s 5.68 million.

The two battled back and forth for a while, but eventually Davies made some headway. In what would be the final hand of the tournament, which occurred on Hand #99 in Level 31 (60,000/120,000/20,000), Davies raised to 275,000, Perceval called, and the flop fell . Perceval checked, Davies bet 375,000, and Perceval check-raised to 1.075 million.

Davies made the call and then called when Perceval bet 800,000 on the  turn. When the  completed the board on the river, Perceval shoved all in for his last 2.88 million and Davis called with the  for a pair or tens, which bested his opponents pair of sevens with the .

Final Table Results

1^st: Seth Davies – CAD $274,540* (US $226,893*)

2^nd: Ruben Perceval – CAD $180,088 (US $148,833)

3^rd: Joel Miller – CAD $115,570 (US $95,512)

4^th: Thomas Taylor – CAD $85,460 (US $70,628)

5^th: Guillaume Nolet – CAD $64,160 (US $53,025)

6^th: Tony Dunst – CAD $51,400 (US $42,479)

*First-prize amount includes a US $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

Thanks to both partypoker and the Playground Poker Club for hosting a fun and exciting event to kick off Season XV of the WPT.

Next up on the schedule is the WPT Amsterdam at Holland Casino from May 10-14. Like the partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship, that event, which features a €3,000 + €300 buy-in, will have its feature table live stream across the world.