Vincent Lecavalier brings his poker tourny to the Montreal Casino

Reported by Simon Gravel
August 16th, 2009

Montréal, Canada

Vincent Lecavalier will be playing in Montreal this September. The big center player Habs' fans have been dreaming about is organizing a Texas Hold'em tourny at the Montreal Casino for his foundation. Instead of cheering him from the stands, poker lovers have a chance to face him on the felt. La Classique Vincent Lecavalier will take place on September 1st in the Montreal Casino poker room, starting at noon. The buy-in is 350$ and there is 200 seats available.

The tournament organizer, Vincent Lecavalier, is a fierce competitor at the poker table. He plays once a week during the summer break, sometimes at the Mirage golf club, which belongs to his friend and poker mentor René Angélil. Lecavalier made the cover of Royal Poker this winter and discussed his passion for poker in an interview for the magazine.

The 2004 Stanley Cup winner raised 120 000$ with his tournament last year, at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, in Florida. The Main Event winner of 2007, Jerry Yang, who participates in a number of charity tournaments, took part in the event. Profits went to the All Children's Hospital and its Vincent Lecavalier Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Vincent Lecavalier was awarded the King Clancy trophy in 2008 by the National Hockey League for his humanitarian work. He also won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy in 2007, for his on ice prowesses, when he finished top goal scorer of the 2006-07 season with 52 goals.

The Tampa Bay Lightning captain, is from l'Île-Bizard, near Montreal, and he will invite his friends to play poker against him. Quite a few hockey players and personalities enjoy poker as a hobby, such as Guillaume Latendresse, Maxim Lapierre, Guy Carbonneau, Michel Bergeron, Vincent Damphousse, Karl Dykhuis or Pierre Rinfret, who all have some experience of Texas Hold'Em. The new Canadiens' star Mike Cammalleri is also a poker player, as well as strong man Georges Laraque and famous goalies Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo. This summer at the World Series of poker in Las Vegas, Luongo finished runner-up to Scott Hartnell when the NHL had a poker tournament.

La Classique Vincent Lecavalier
Where : Montreal Casino poker room
When : September 1st 2009
Tournament starts at : noon
Buy-in : 300$ + 50$
Prizes: 60 000$
Rebuys and add on* : 150$ each
Number of seats : 200
Starting stack : 3000 chips
Blind increase : every 20 minutes

* Four 150$ rebuys max, for 3000 chips each. The add on costs 150$ for 6000 chips. More details on the Montreal Casino web site.