Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival gears up to go live

MONTREAL -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival is expected to be one of the largest poker events ever to be held on Canadian soil.

The 13-day festival, which began Sept. 21, got off to a record-breaking beginning with the first event, a $135 + $15 no-limit Hold'em tournament, attracting 1,605 runners across three start days. This more than doubled the $100,000 guaranteed prize pool and broke the attendance record for Playground Poker Club.

The inaugural festival is headlined by the $1,000,000 guaranteed Main Event, starting Sept. 27. In addition to Full Tilt Poker Professional Gus Hansen, sponsored players and a full stable of Tour Ambassadors, the rich prize pool has attracted several Team PokerStars Pros and personalities from Montreal's sports and entertainment community.

Among those representing Full Tilt Poker on the Canadian baize are Dermot Blain, Martins Adeniya, Danielle Anderson, Leo Martins, Carlos Mavca, Larissa Metran, Andras Nemeth, and Hana Soljan.

Team PokerStars Pros in the line-up include Jonathan Duhamel, Vanessa Rousso, Chris Moneymaker, Victor Ramdin and David Williams. While Canadian sports and entertainment personalities Jean-Michel Anctil and Jean-Thomas Jobin (comedians), Jean-Nicolas Verreault (actor), Marc Dupré and Émily Bégin (singer/songwriters), and retired NHL players Matthew Barnaby and Georges Laraque have also signed up for the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Montreal Festival Main Event.

Main Event coverage including live reporting, photographs and videos can be found on the Full Tilt Poker blog from Sept. 27, with a live stream of the action kicking off on September 30th and running until a champion is crowned on Oct. 3.

The $1,000,000-guaranteed Main Event is a re-entry tournament featuring three start days, allowing players who are knocked out on either of the first two start days to take another shot at a piece of the massive prize pool. There are also side events running throughout the 13-day festival with buy-ins ranging from $50 + $10 through $200 + $20.

There is still time to qualify for the Main Event via live satellites at Playground Poker Club. Alternatively, players can buy in directly for $1,000 + $100.