We’re happy to announce our first ever Chips For Trips Startup Poker Champion: Corbin Church! Here he is holding the trophy that he spent the night fighting for:

We started the evening with 41 poker players seated across 6 tables, and finally sometime past midnight we were down to just Corbin and young Max Finder. After stealing a few blinds from Max, Corbin went in for the kill holding a King / Nine. Max went all in with him and Corbin ended up hitting King / Nine on the flop, and that was all she wrote. Here’s the winning hand:

Thanks to all of the attendees for coming out and joining us for an evening of fun. And please pat yourselves on the back because with raised $1100 for our first ever Chips For Trips Travel Grant. Details will be announced soon as to how a Montreal entrepreneur can apply for this grant to fund a conference / business trip of their choosing. And of course another thanks goes out to our sponsors for supplying our lucky entrepreneur with free entry to any one of the following conferences: INTEROP, Cloud Connect, Enterprise 2.0, and O’Reilly conferences Web 2.0, Where 2.0, and OSCON 2011.

In addition to the gorgeous trophy pictured above, Corbin has won entry to the Bitnorth conference scheduled for the end of August, north of Montreal. Max’s second place finish wins him ten O’Reilly ebooks of his choosing! Not bad, not bad at all.

Here’s a list of the Top 10 finishers:

1. Corbin Church

2. Max Finder

3. Ross Noble

4. JS Cournoyer

5. Tara Hunt

6. Patrick Forget

7. Patrick Barbeau

8. Lauren McLeod

9. Raymond Luk

10. Ian Rae

If you couldn’t make it, here are some more pics from the evening:

Special thanks to Jeff Talajic, Robin Ahn, Peter Bailey and Raymond Luk for organizing! We would also like to thank the fine folks at The Sparrow for hosting us–the service was great. And an extra special thanks to Michael Boyle and Julian Haber for training our excellent dealers and providing attendees new to poker with a first-class crash course on how to play Hold ‘Em.

Our first Chips for Trips Poker Tournament is sold out after just 4 days! Clearly there’s an appetite for helping out entrepreneurs in Montreal, and coupled with a fun night of poker, that’s a combo that just can’t be beat. If you are still interested in attending, we are still looking for dealers.

Dealers get free entry and will be trained on the dos and don’ts of poker dealing. It’s a pretty simple job and still affords you a chance to network and have fun. And of course, we’ll feed you as well.

Lastly, there is a waiting list for those who still want to play in the poker tournament. If that list fills up we may just try to hustle and find a few more chairs and tables to accomodate everyone, so don’t be shy and sign up.

The first ever Chips for Trips poker tournament is happening July 19th at 6:30pm in Montreal! All members of the startup community who are looking to have fun, meet new people and reconnect with old friends are welcome.

Newbies to poker are encouraged to come out and learn the game! A friendly poker lesson and free play will be offered before the tournament begins, and of course the emphasis is on having fun and bringing the community together.

Space is limited, so register right away if you’re interested.

Where: The Sparrow, 5322 St-Laurent (map)

When: 6:30-11:00pm Monday, July 19, 2010

What: No Limit Texas Hold’Em, tournament style

Cost for players:$25 entry free (includes pizza!) and $20 re-buys.

Prizes:  Will be awarded to the top finishers based on the number of prizes we have. Eg if we have 3 prizes the top 3 players will get to pick their prize. Prizes for the tournament include free entry to Bitnorth ($300 value), and ten free O’Reilly ebooks ($350 value)

More info…

Chips for Trips is happy to announce more sponsors and prizes! Because we’re all about sending entrepreneurs on trips, we’re thrilled to offer free admission to following conferences as prizes:

Many thanks to our many sponsors for their generosity.

O’Reilly Media has generously stepped up as a sponsor by offering some very exciting prizes for the first edition of Chips for Trips in Montreal:

• Passes to upcoming O’Reilly Conferences: Web 2.0 2011, Where 2.0 2011, and OSCON 2011.
• 10 O’Reilly eBooks of your choosing. Recent bestsellers include iPad: the Missing Manual, Best Android Apps, and Head First Java.