The 2025 poker season in Canada kicks off with WSOP Circuit Calgary, starting January 8. Spanning 13 days of thrilling Circuit action in Cowtown, you can stay updated with live coverage by Lyle Bateman right here.
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Manish “Bubs” Ralh Wins Main Event for $312,624
Manish “Bubs” Ralh is relatively new to the game, but he’s already won his first Circuit ring. He had a stellar run heads up against Angelo Jopek in the Main Event Day 3, coming from behind once they got two ways.
His first recorded cash was in 2020, but the rest of his results are from 2024 and he said at the table during heads-up that he’s only recently gotten serious about the game. This is his second win but biggest score by a long shot — his lifetime earnings before tonight were just over $80k USD with a best cash of $44k. Tonight’s win comes close to quadrupling his lifetime earnings before tonight.
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Angelo Jopek Out in 2nd Place for $208,416
Level: 34 (250000/500000/500000) Entries: 1/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek Angelo Jopek was on the run of his life for most of the final table, but when he got heads up against Manish “Bubs” Ralh, it all came crashing down for him. Ralh dominated the heads up portion, taking most of the pots and building a big lead by dinner. Jopek found some life and clawed some chips back on a hand with significant flop action.
The pot was more than 10 million by the end of the flop action, with paired nines and a three on the board. Jopek had been winning pots all day with a nine in his hand, prompting the 4-bet/call action on the flop. It slowed down to checking on the turn and Jopek fired 3.2 million on the river when it ran out ten-four, forcing a fold from Ralh.
That was about all he could get though as Ralh’s relentless aggression, and apparently going card dead, kept Jopek on his heels. It ended on a hand when Ralh raised it to 1.25 million and then snap-called when Jopek shoved. Ralh was miles in front chip-wise, and also with the hand as Jopek was left looking for a king with king-seven against pocket jacks. No help came on the flop and Jopek had to settle for second, though it’s worth noting the players evened the prizes a bit between them.
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Jopek Gets Some Back
Level: 34 (250000/500000/500000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 It was limped preflop to see 9♣3♥9♠. “That’s my card, man,” Angelo Jopek said with a smile as he’s won a few pots tonight with at least one 9 in his hand.
Jopek checked and Manish Ralh bet 500k. Jopek came over the top to 1.6 million before Ralh smiled and said “What, my nine is no good? Kicker problems?”
Ralh pumped it up to 3.5 million and Jopek called. The both checked on the 10♠ turn, and Jopek fired 3.2 million on the 4♦ river. Ralh conceded the hand and Jopek got a few chips back.
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Ralh With Lead at Dinner
Level: 34 (250000/500000/500000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Main Event players are on their dinner break now with Manish Ralh holding a big advantage. The last 30 minutes or so has been a lot of non-showdown hands with Ralh taking the majority and slowly chipping up to more than 40 million while it seems like Angelo Jopek’s rungood has stalled and he is down to 14 million.
They are just about to return to the action shortly.
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Jopek Folds Straight
Level: 33 (200000/400000/400000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek raised to 800k from the button and Manish Ralh called. Ralh check-called for 1 million on the K♦J♥10♦ flop. He check-called again on the A♠ turn for 1.5 million, but when Rahl fired 5 million on the 2♦ river Jopek tanked for a few seconds before folding Q♠4♠ face up. Ralh showed it was a solid fold as he tabled 9♦5♦ for the rivered straight.
The players have now taken a quick break with the stacks virtually even though Jopek still has about 2 million more.
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“You Play That Shit?”
Level: 33 (200000/400000/400000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 In a pretty funny hand, both players limped it preflop, then checked through a board of 6♦Q♥7♥8♦7♦. On the river Angelo Jopek said “No balls, you win. Five high.”
Manish Ralh hesitated for the few seconds, showing his own five high with five-three. Jopek tables five-three as well. “You play that shit?” he joked as they chopped the pot.
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Heads Up Players
Heads up WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025 Main Event Mansih Ralh Heads Up in the Main Angelo Jopek Heads Up in the Main It’s a battle heads up now. Angelo Jopek is still leading but Manish Ralh has some chips to work with as well.
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Ashkan Razavi Out in 3rd Place for $147,340
Level: 32 (150000/300000/300000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Ashkan Razavi Ashkan Razavi was 4th in this event in Aug 2024, and he just went one better today with 3rd place. After big stack Angelo Jopek folded the button, Mansih Ralh raised the small blind to 850k then tank-called when Razavi shoved the big for 7.725 million.
It was a gross spot for Razavi with nines into pocket tens for Ralh. The board ran dry for both hands leaving the tens in front and Razavi on the rail in 3rd.
Jopek is still sitting behind a mountain of chips, but Ralk is now on close to 20 million after collecting Razavi’s stack.
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Ralh Chips Up
Level: 32 (150000/300000/300000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Manish Ralh opened the button to 700k and Angelo Jopek defended his big blind. Jopek check-called for 400k on the 8♠K♣10♠ flop and again for 1.5 million on the 6♦ turn. They both checked the 2♥ river and Rlah announced “King” showing K♣9♦ while Jopek fired his cards to the muck after spending about 20 seconds staring at his hand and the board.
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Jopek Loses One, Wins One
Level: 32 (150000/300000/300000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 In the first hand, Angelo Jopek raised to 600k from the button and Ashkan Razavi called from the big blind. Razavi check-called for 400k on the 8♥3♠A♠ flop and they both checked the Q♥ turn. When the 3♣ river paired the board, both players checked again and Jopek mucked when Razavi showed A♦6♦.
“I wanted to bluff, but that river was terrible,” Jopek said.
The next hand Manish Ralh raised to 700k from the button and Jopek called from the big blind. They both checked the 5♠Q♣7♣ flop, and Ralh folded after Jopek check-raised the 2♥ turn from 800k to 2.1 million.
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Jopek Has 70% of the Chips
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek is on the run of his life today. He now has 70% of the chips in play at the final table with more than 38 million. Neither of his competitors has 10 million, so he;s got a stranglehold on the final three.
They’ll be back for Level 32 (150k/300k/300k) in a bit more than 5 minutes.
T-S PlayerChips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 9,025,000 32 – 3 Angelo Jopek 38,450,000 32 – 7 Manish Ralh 7,475,000 -
Jopek Has it Again
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek looks unstoppable now. He just rivered a flush against Manish Ralh to take a big pot worth more than 7 million.
Ralh raised the button to 600k preflop and Jopek called to see a flop of Q♣K♣J♥. He check-raised from 600k to 1.65 million and Ralh called.
They both checked the Q♥ turn, but Jopek slid out 3.65 million on the 7♣ river. Ralh called but mucked when Jopek showed J♣9♣ for the rivered flush.
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Pascal Gregoire Out in 4th Place for $105,691
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Pascal Gregoire Angelo Jopek is on the run of his life now, playing well and hitting cards when he has to. He just sent Pascal Gregoire to the rail by cracking his pocket kings. Jopek called off with ten-nine and turned trip nines for a huge win. I’ll grab exact counts in about 10 minutes when they go on break, but Jopek now has at least half the chips in play.
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Scott Johnson Out in 5th Place for $76,945
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 4/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Scott Johnson They are four ways now after Scott Johnson followed Greg Taylor to the rail today. I missed the action as he busted while I was writing the previous hand, but he took the final 5-digit payout tonight with the remaining players now all guaranteed at least $105,691.
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Greg Taylor Out in 6th Place for $56,864
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 5/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Greg Taylor They are down to five now after Greg Taylor shoved under the gun and Ashkan Razavi called from the big blind for a not-so-classic race between ace-jack for Razavi and king-queen for Taylor. The board ran dry for both hands and Razavi’s ace held for the win.
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Johnson Holds
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Manish Ralh raised to 550k from the middle before Scott Johnson shoved 1.2 million from the hijack. Ralh called for a race between his J♠10♠ and pocket sevens for Johnson. Ralh flopped some hope with backdoor spades, but when the 9♠4♣2♣A♣4♠ runout was done, the sevens were still good.
Johnson doubled to a bit more than 3 million while Ralh is still playing a bit more than 10 million after the hand. There is a break coming in about 20 minutes and I’ll do another full round of counts while they are away from the table, but it’s safe to say Angelo Jopek is still the big stack as he has a stack of plaques in front of him plus several stacks of blues.
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Jopek On a Run
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek has been on a run for the past 39 minutes or so, stacking chips like crazy. He is now playing close to half the chips in play with just shy of 24 million in front of him and only about 55 million in play.
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Johnson Finds a Double
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Greg Taylor raised to 1 million under the gun, the snapped it off when Scott Johnson shoved the small blind for 1.5 million. Taylor was dominated with ace-jack into ace-king and the board missed both hands to leave the ace-king in front. Taylor was left with about 5.1 million while Johnson is up to about 4 million.
They are still pretty deep on the final table with more than 200 big blinds in play right now.
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Rus King Out in 7th Place for $42,669
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Rus King The are down to seven left after Angelo Jopek raised the small blind to 400k, then snapped it off when Rus King shoved the big with less. King was dominated with king-seven into ace-king, but the 2♥5♥5♠10♠A♣ didn’t bring any joy for King and Jopek chipped up a bit more as King hit the rail for 7th place.
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Robin Bergren Out in 8th Place for $32,516
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 7/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Robin Bregren They are down to 7 remaining in the Main Event after Robin Bergren shoved ace-eight and was called off by queen-nine. He had about 5 bigs and looked in decent shape to double in what amounted to roughly a race. The nine came on the river to send Bergren to the cage for 8th place tonight.
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Nikhil Madadi Out in 9th Place for $25,172
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 8/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Nikhil Madadi Nikhil Madadi shoved and Rus King called with more from his left. Madadi needed a king or diamonds with K♦Q♦ against pocket queens for King. The board paired jacks but there was no king or diamonds coming for Madadi and he was out in 9th place tonight.
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Michael Lim Out in 10th Place for $19,800
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 9/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Michael Lim Michael Lim was the first player to exit the final table today in 10th place. I missed the action while I was processing the pictures, but he’s had a bit of a rollercoaster today with his stack up and down.
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Final Table Faces
Scott Johnson Rus King Robin Bregren Pascal Gregoire Nikhil Madadi Michael Lim Manish Ralh Greg Taylor Ashkan Razavi Angelo Jopek -
Weston Pring Out in 11th Place for $19,800
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 10/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Weston Pring laddered up a couple of spots today but ended his day just before the final table. I missed the action while getting chip counts done from the break. Stay tuned for some final table faces coming soon.
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Johnny Dalphond Out in 12th Place for $15,829
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 11/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Johnny Dalphond hit the rail just before the break for 12th place, though I missed the action while I was writing the previous bust. I’ve just had a look at all the remaining stacks with Ash Razavi still out in front and Manish Ralh also playing more than 10 million.
T-S Player Chips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 13,550,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 1,250,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 2,250,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 2,250,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 1,825,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 3,050,000 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 5,375,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 4,425,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 3,825,000 38 – 4 Rus King 6,025,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 10,225,000 -
Dennis Ashmore Out in 13th Place for $15,829
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 12/1371 Prizes: $2,077,65 Dennis Ashmore was one of the shorties coming into today, but he managed to ladder up one pay jump at least. Pascal Gregoire shoved the hijack for 1.575 million and Dennis Ashmore called with less from the small blind. He was in trouble with pocket fours into pocket sixes and the board missed both hands to send Ashmore out in 13th place.
The remaining 12 players will be on their first break of the day in a couple of minutes, and I’ll grab chip counts while they are away from the table.
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Lim Turns it to Stay Alive
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 13/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Michael Lim was down to just over 1.5 million when he got it in with suited connectors and Johnny Dalphond called it off with ace-queen off. Lim flopped huge with a flush and straight draws on 5♠3♠2♥ then turned the spades on the K♠10♣ runout with his seven-six of spades.
Lim is up to about 3.5 million now while Dalphond dropped to 2.66 million.
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Michael “Berny” Bernstein Out in 14th Place for $12,865
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 13/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 13 and everyone is now guaranteed almost $16k with the pay jump at 13th place. Michael Bernstein came into today with the short stack and he did his best to grab a double, putting his final 500k into the middle with pocket sevens from the button. Scott Johnson called it off from the big blind with king-nine, then spike two pair on the 6♣K♥9♦3♦J♥ board. Berny couldn’t find his seven and hit the rail in 14th place today.
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Pring Doubles through Razavi in Crazy Runout
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Ashkan Razavi was on pocket tens against the pocket aces for Weston Pring when the money went in preflop. Razavi smashed the flop with a ten to jump into the lead as Pring let out a loud sigh. That changed toa cheer when the ace hit the turn to re-pop Pring to the top. He held for a huge double to stay alive in a hand that initially looked like it would bad-beat him to the rail for the min-cash today.
Estimated Chips
T-S Player Chips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 10,500,000 32 – 2 Dennis Ashmore 1,200,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 3,200,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 3,500,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 2,300,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 1,400,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 3,300,000 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 5,300,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 4,000,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 4,500,000 38 – 4 Rus King 5,000,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 5,000,000 38 – 6 Michael Bernstein 1,000,000 38 – 7 John Dalphond 3,300,000 -
Ralh Has It & Flops It; Pring Gets it Through
Level: 28 (60000/120000/120000) Entries: 14/1731 Prizes: $2,077,035 Rus King opened the hijack to 300k then called when Manish Ralh raised it up from the cutoff to 1.3 million. The flop was 7♠9♠Q♦ and King checked to Ralh, then folded when Ralh put out 1.35m. Ralh showed pocket queens for the flopped set.
Meanwhile, on the other table, Ashkan Razavi opened the hijack to 240k, then folded when Weston Pring shoved for a bit less than 2 million.
The opening level of Day 3 is nearly complete with action moving to 100k/150k/150k in about a minute.
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Ace Doesn’t Scare Lim
Level: 28 (60000/120000/120000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Scott Johnson opened the cutoff to 275k before Michael Lim reraised the small blind to 600k. Big blind Rus King said “Easy fold” as he mucked his hand, but Johnson called to see a flop of 4♥A♦10♦.
Lim fired 500k and Johnson laid down his hand. Lim rolled over pocket kings as he collected the pot, showing that the ace on the flop didn’t scare him.
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Final Day of Play at WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025
Level: 28 (60000/120000/120000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 It’s the final day of play here at WSOP-C Calgary for Jan 2025 and that means there’s some money on the table. One of the players seated around the final two tables of the Main Event will pocket more than $311k later today, but all 14 of them have already secured a decent score of at least $12,865.
Ashkan Razavi comes into Day 3 with the lead and he’s been here before — He was 4th last August in this event so he’ll be looking to go a few spots deeper than that today. Scott Johnson and Rus King are his closest competitors with stacks in the 6 million range but every player in the game today has the chips and skills to take it all the way.
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Ashkan Razavi Leads Day 3 Stacks
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, Noon
Day 3: Jan 20, NoonBlinds: 60 Minutes Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 There are 14 players left in the Main Event for Day 3 and Ashkan Razavi, who took 4th in the August Main, is the chip leader to start Day 2. He has 8.575 million to start the day with Scott Johnson his closest competitor with 6.68 million. Rus King also has more than 6 million while Michael Lim and Robin Bergeron are playing stacks in the 5 million range.
Day 3 action starts at noon on Monday in the Chrome room and they’ll play it down to a winner on Monday. Blinds will remain at 60 minutes throughout the day and everyone returning is guaranteed at least $12,865. That will be the first payout before it jumps to $15,829 at 13th place. See the Payouts tab for a look at all the prizes awarded on Day 2.
Day 3 Players, Seats, and Stacks
32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 8,575,000 32 – 2 Dennis Ashmore 1,580,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 1,945,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 5,365,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 3,010,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 2,050,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 2,480,000 — — — 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 6,680,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 3,995,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 5,640,000 38 – 4 Rus King 6,160,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 2,680,000 38 – 6 Michael Bernstein 725,000 38 – 7 John Dalphond 3,855,000 Day 3 Prizes
Place Prize 1 $312,624 2 $208,416 3 $147,340 4 $105,691 5 $76,945 6 $56,864 7 $42,669 8 $32,516 9 $25,172 10 $19,800 11 $19,800 12 $15,829 13 $15,829 14 $12,865 Event 16 -
Ashkan Razavi Leads Final 14
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Day 2 is over with 14 players still in action for the final day of play on Monday. Vancouver’s Ashkan Razavi bagged the big stack today with more than 8.5 million. That’s almost 2 million ahead of the second-place player Scott Johnson who has 6.68 million. Rus King also has more than 6 million for 3rd.
It’s worth noting that Razavi made Day 3 of this event in August of 2024, finishing his run in 4th place. In that one, he started Day 3 looking way up at the eventual winner Alex Liu who came into Day 3 with about half the chips in play five-handed. This year, everyone else will be looking up at Razavi.
Final 14 Stacks & Seats for the Main
Table-Seat Player Chips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 8,575,000 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 6,680,000 38 – 4 Rus King 6,160,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 5,640,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 5,365,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 3,995,000 38 – 7 John Dalphond 3,855,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 3,010,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 2,680,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 2,480,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 2,050,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 1,945,000 32 – 2 Dennis Ashmore 1,580,000 38 – 6 Michael Bernstein 725,000 -
Down to 14
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The dream od a repeat for Alex Liu is now dead as he hit the rail in 15th place tonight. He was the winner of the most recent Main Event last August, and made a pretty deep run in this one as the last winner still in action. That means that WSOP-C Calgary still has not had a repeat winner and this year will be a new player once again.
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Down to 15 with 20 Minutes to Go
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 15/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 15 with just over 20 minutes left in Day 2 after Steve Zhang hit the rail for 16th place tonight.
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16 Left with 35 Minutes to Play
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 16/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 16 left with about 35 minutes to play until the Day 2 bags come out. Terry Goode and Romualdo Cusano were the most recent busts to bring them to 16.
Place Player Prize 17 Romualdo Cusano $12,865 18 Terry Goode $10,633 -
Final Level of the Night
Level: 27 (50000/10000/10000) Entries: 17/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Level 27 has just kicked off and this will be the final level of the night. It looks like Rus King is the leader now with about 6.85 million in front of him while Greg Taylor, two to his right, is on about 5.2 million. Ashkan Razavi (who was 4th in the August 2024 Main) and Pascal Gregoire are both playing stacks in the 4 million range.
There are now about 50 minutes left until they bag up for the night.
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Gregoire Doubles through Lim
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 17/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Michael Lim raised early to 165k and it folded around to Pascal Gregoire in the big blind. He put out the call to see J♣7♣K♠ on the flop.
Gregoire checked to Lim who bet 230k. Gregoire tanked for a bit before announcing all in with the smaller stack.
“Fuck,” Lim muttered under his breath, and the dealer double-checked to make sure he didn’t say “call.” He eventually did say “Call” and he was drawing to straight clubs with eight-seven against top pair for Gregoire with king-nine of hearts.
The 4♠2♦ runout were bricks and Gregoire’s king held up for the win and the double. Lim was the leader with over 6 million, but he shipped about 2.5 million of that over to Gregoire, putting Lim down to about 4 million with Gregoire up to a bit more than that.
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Pring Puts Liu to Test
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 18/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Weston Pring opened to 200k from the middle and August champ Alex Liu raised to 500k from the hijack. It folded back to Pring and he shoved more than Liu had behind. Liu hit the tank, checking the clock and the other table to assess the situation before folding after a couple of minutes in the tank.
“If it dropped to 17, I’d just call,” Liu said after the hand, as there is a $2,200 pay jump for 17th place tonight. Liu is relatively short at the moment, but he’s still in the running to be the first player to win two Main Event rings in Calgary.
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Final Two Tables
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 18/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to the final two tables with 18 players left now.
T-S Player Prize 19 Sam Raz $10,633 20 Zeyu James Du $10,633 -
Final 20 Stacks
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 20/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 T-S Player Chips 19 – 2 Steve Zhang 950,000 19 – 3 Scott Johnson 2,175,000 19 – 4 Terry Goode 795,000 19 – 5 Weston Pring 3,015,000 19 – 6 Sam Raz 530,000 19 – 8 Michael Won Taek Lim 4,975,000 19 – 9 Michael Bernstein 2,945,000 26 – 2 Robin Bergren 4,025,000 26 – 3 Ashkan Razavi 4,325,000 26 – 5 Dennis Ashmore 1,560,000 26 – 6 Romualdo Cusano 1,405,000 26 – 7 Manish Rach 2,150,000 26 – 8 Angelo Jopek 3,340,000 26 – 9 Alex Liu 1,875,000 27 – 1 Pascal Gregoire 2,265,000 27 – 3 John Dalphond 4,325,000 27 – 4 Rus King 4,650,000 27 – 6 Greg Taylor 5,650,000 27 – 8 Zeyu James Du 580,000 27 – 9 Nikhil Madadi 3,340,000 -
20 Players Left
Level: 25 (30000/60000/60000) Entries: 20/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 20 players left with 10 minutes to play in Level 25. Recent payouts are below and stay tuned for a look at the remaining players in the field and how they are seated.
Place Player Prize 21 Sarath Samarasekera $10,633 22 Gavin Li $10,633 23 Stephen Dauphinais $10,633 24 Sean O’Reilly $10,633 25 Jeremy Lyons $10,633 -
Moved to Chrome with 25 Left
Level: 25 (30000/60000/60000) Entries: 25/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 25 left and play has moved into the Chrome room now. They cleared out of Sundance when they got down to the final two tables, but two more players have busted as I was getting set up in Chrome. See below for the recent payouts and check the Payouts tab for the full list from today.
Place Player Prizes 26 Aleksei Ponomarev $10,633 27 Pasquale Dicosmo $8,940 28 Giuilo Piredda Rosati $8,940 29 Jae Lee $8,940 -
Nearing 3 Tables
Level: 24 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 29/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are now two eliminations off the final three tables after Dunstin Centanni ran into it to end his day in 30th place. He was deep in the tank on the turn of a board reading 8♣7♦J♣2♥ until the clock was finally called on him after around 6 minutes. He made the call before time ran down, but his two pair with seven-eight was behind a set of eights for his opponent.
The river bricked out and Centanni was left short. The remainder went in a couple of hands later and he hit the rail for 30th place. Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois also hit the rail recently for 32nd place, but as previously mentioned, no matter how deep he went here today, he’s running pretty good in life right now.
Recent Payouts for the Main
Place Player Prize 30 Dustin Centanni $8,940 31 Tien Phung $8,940 32 Jeff (Ironman) Charlebois $8,940 -
Down to 32
Level: 24 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 32/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 32 remaining now in the Main — see below for the recent prizes and check the Payouts tab for the full payouts for Day 2. Once the field is down to the final three tables I’ll do my best to get full counts for the remaining players.
Place Player Prize 33 Alemu Makonen $8,940 34 Hee “Sunny” Lee $8,940 35 Thomas Taylor $8,940 -
Four More Levels in Day 2
Level: 24 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 35/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The players are now back from their dinner break with 35 players left on four tables. Rus King still looks to be leading with more than 4 million in front of him while Ashkan Razavi looks to be playing about 3 million. Angelo Jopek has about 2 million in front of him, and the August champ Alex Liu is playing just over a million. Meanwhile, Thomas Taylor has just hit the rail for 35th place.
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Charlebois is Running Great
Level: 23 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 35/1371 Prizes: $2,099,065 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois at the final table of the 6-Max event in Jan 2022 at WSOP-C Calgary One player who is still around at the final four tables of play today is Jeff Charlebois. He’ll be recognizable to most players here at Deerfoot Inn & Casino thanks to his ubiquitous Ironman mask, which debuted during the COVID restrictions back in Jan 2022.
He’s already having a pretty decent run in the Main Event this year with almost $9k already locked in, but the truth is, no matter how deep he goes in this one, he’s running well in life at the moment as he’s just beaten cancer.
Charlebois has spent the last 6 months in chemotherapy for a grapefruit-sized tumour, but on the first Friday of the series he received good news from his doctor — the tumour is now nothing but scar tissue. He spent the day calling friends and family to relay the good news, then decided to get into his car and drive all night for some poker here at Deerfoot.
Obviously, beating cancer has given Charlebois a new lease on life, and while his first few days at the series were a bit rough with exhaustion, he’s found his second wind with three cashes so far. But more than that, he said the 6 months he spent in treatment were a real eye-opener for him as he was going through chemo with 41 other people, seeing them for six hours every three weeks during his treatments.
While Charlebois had a good chance at recovering as a result of the chemo sessions, many of the people he was sitting with weren’t so lucky, going through the grueling process with far less hope of recovery. He said he realized just how blessed he was after watching his fellow patients struggle.
Cancer is a bitch, and it’s not always possible to write a “feel-good” story about it. Charlebois is a great example that it can be beaten, at least in some cases, but he also wants to remind people that life is short and it can take sharp turns when we least expect it. Glad to see you back in action Jeff — the local community hopes to be seeing you at the tables for a long time coming.
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Four Tables Left on Dinner
Level: 23 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 35/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Main Event players are on their dinner break now with the end of Level 23 and they are down to the final four tables. In theory, there are still chips at five tables as they got down to 35 with two busts on the final hand before dinner, so they’ll break a table as soon as they get back in about 30 minutes.
Recent Payouts from the Main
Place Player Prize 36 Rauno Tahvonen $7,647 37 Shane Brotherwood $7,647 38 Malachy Hagan $7,647 -
O’Reilly Doubles
Level: 23 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 38/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Sean O’Reilly might be living the life of Reilly right now as he just survived with a double after cracking aces. He shoved the hijack over a raise from the middle, but his [invalid notations] was in trouble against pocket aces. The flop didn’t look good for O’Reilly, but one diamond gave him a glimmer of hope, and when the turn and river also sparkled he found a double to stay alive today.
Recent Payouts from Main Event
Place Player Prize 39 Nicholas Lee $7,647 40 Gordon Johnson $7,647 41 Kevin Huang $7,647 42 Zhi Yang $7,647 43 Aaron Quon $7,647 44 Michael Letal $7,647 -
Bergren Leads Final 44
Level: 22 (15000/30000/30000) Entries: 44/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is down to the final five tables tonight with about 20 minutes to play in Level 22. Robin Bergren just sent a player to the rail to bump his stack to about 4 million and what looks like the lead right now. Greg Taylor and Rus King are both playing around 3.8 million while recent PPT Main Event winner Stephen Dauphinais has about 2 million in front of him. Giulio Rosati is playing just shy of that, while the August Champion Alex Liu is on about 1.3 million and sitting next to one of his compatriots from that final table, Ashkan Razavi who has about 2 million right now.
Recent Payouts
Place Player Prize 45 Joshua Frazer $6,658 46 Saeed Ganji $6,658 47 Gennady Klimenko $6,658 48 Andrew Fahey $6,658 49 Cuong Nguyen $6,658 50 Colten Yamagishi $6,658 51 Shawn Leis $6,658 -
51 Remain at Second Break
Level: 22 (15000/30000/30000) Entries: 51/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Main Event players are on their second break of the day now with 51 players left in the action. They will be back at the felt in about 5 minutes for Level 22 with 6 levels to play in Day 2.
Recent Payouts for the Main
Place Player Prize 52 Kris Steinbach $6,658 53 Wai Chan $6,658 54 Chun Kwan $5,902 55 Ruoxiao Shi $5,902 56 David Swirski $5,902 57 Alen Bakovic $5,902 -
Down to 57 Left
Level: 21 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 57/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 57 players left in the Main Event with 20 minutes to play in Level 21. There is another break following this level with six levels of play remaining in the day after the break.
I’ve been spending some time today catching up on the series results in my combined spreadsheets, and the numbers for this year are looking decent. It looks like the total will be a bit down from the 2024 numbers this year as the combined prizes for the series are sitting at just over $5 million from nearly 9,000 entries with two events to go. With the High Roller and Last Chance yet to play, it’s likely that total will end up over 9,000 entries with somewhere around $5.6 million in total prizes.
Recent Payouts from the Main
Place Player Prize 58 Joshua Hopkins $5,902 59 Sunny Lubana $5,902 60 Connor Daynard $5,902 61 Jay Glass $5,902 62 Christopher Charlton $5,902 63 Matthew Busch $5,329 64 Teo Sanchez $5,329 65 Donald Arsenault $5,329 66 Garrett Gilmurray $5,329 -
66 Remain in Day 2 of Main
Level: 20 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 66/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 66 players left in the Main Event with about 5 minutes to play in Level 20. The action has slowed a little bit as the field dwindles, but there’s still a pretty steady stream of players heading to the Payout desk to get their slips signed.
Recent Payouts from Main Event
Place Player Prize 67 Robert Kliss $5,329 68 Haochen Zhou $5,329 69 Ke’Andre Willis $5,329 70 Rocco Smeriglio $5,329 71 Ron Campbell $5,329 72 Steven Filipovic $4,901 73 Scott Dyck $4,901 74 Nader Aram Panahi $4,901 75 Clinton Cockburn $4,901 76 Roman Gallivan $4,901 77 Trent Hopper $4,901 78 Gaetano Buda $4,901 79 Talal Shoush $4,901 80 Dylan Payne $4,901 81 David Quang $4,595 -
Down to 81
Level: 20 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 81/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is still dropping pretty fast here on Day 2 with just 81 players left in the game and 40 minutes to play in Level 20.
Recent Payouts (Full Prizes Under Payouts Tab)
Place Player Prize 82 Yiming Nie $4,595 83 Bemjamin Cooper $4,595 84 Ryan Parungao $4,595 85 Jacob Watrich $4,595 86 Mehmet Seginc $4,595 87 Jimmy Lee $4,595 88 Glenn Baker $4,595 89 Yiquan Zhong $4,595 90 Giuseppe Galluzzo $4,392 91 Robert Lothian $4,392 -
91 Remain at First Break
Level: 20 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 91/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is down to 91 players at the first break of Day 2 and the action at the Payouts desk is slowing somewhat for the first time today. Players will be back at the felt in about 10 minutes for Level 20, but in the meantime, below is a look at recent payouts.
Place Player Prize 92 Frank Almond $4,392 93 Chad Lummerding $4,392 94 Hassan Issa $4,392 95 Yong Lu $4,392 96 Faisal Al Qutub $4,392 97 Roger Grosset $4,392 98 Mike Leah $4,392 99 Cody Mckay $4,281 100 Gordon Wong $4,281 101 Renmei Liu $4,281 102 Kevin Kelso $4,281 103 Richard Rex $4,281 -
103 Remain
Level: 19 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 103/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 103 players left in the game with 20 minutes to play in Level 19. Recent prizes are below with the full list under the Payouts tab.
Place Player Prize 104 Karamjeet Shergill $4,281 105 Cole Neufeld $4,281 106 Louis Collette $4,281 107 Jackson Oniske $4,281 108 Rafael Stern $4,078 109 Jorge-Alberto Artiga-Pacheco $4,078 110 Christopher Bush $4,078 111 Rami Hammoud $4,078 -
111 Remain
Level: 19 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 111/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is nearing double-digits now with more than 45 players hitting the rail since the start of the day. The second level of Day 2 has about 40 minutes remaining with the first break of the day scheduled following this level.
Recent Day 2 Payouts
Place Player Prize 112 Pavlo Vertiiko $4,078 113 Kevin Javier $4,078 114 Ryan Cairns $4,078 115 David Swaim $4,078 116 Dongwoo Ko $4,078 117 Scott Stuve $4,078 118 Richard Mullen $4,078 119 Marc-Andre Yelle $4,078 120 Steven Labelle $4,078 121 Zilong Zhao $4,078 122 Hoang Quach $4,078 123 Jeremie Bilodeau $4,078 124 Francis Fortin $4,078 125 Ning Ma $4,078 126 Steven Desjarlais $4,078 -
More than 30 Players Gone in First Level
Level: 18 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 126/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The action is moving quickly here on Day 2 with the field down to 126 already and still 10 minutes to play in the opening level. As usual, recent payouts are below with the complete prizes so far (and full prize numbers to first) are under the Payouts tab.
Place Player Prize 127 Bryan Lin $4,078 128 Trevor Morrisette $4,078 129 Alexander Wong $4,078 130 Keith Mcintosh $4,078 131 Christopher Bowers $4,078 132 Kyle Chang $4,078 133 Marco Carreira $4,078 134 Zofimo Xavier $4,078 135 Andy Truong $4,078 136 Kip Howard $4,078 137 Dylan Boyer $4,078 138 Jayvee Lumahan $4,078 139 Harpreet Padda $4,078 140 Wayne Hoffert $4,078 141 Colin Burton $4,078 142 Daniel Lefebvre $4,078 -
Dropping Fast
Level: 18 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 142/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The payouts have been coming fast so far today with the field already down to 142 and barely 20 minutes gone in the opening level of play. Below is a look at the early prizes today and the full prize numbers, along with results so far, are listed on the Payouts tab.
Place Player Prize 143 Luting Li $4,078 144 Don Lee $4,078 145 Gregory Liow $4,078 146 Michael Hooper $4,078 147 Jacob Hobday $4,078 148 Aidan Klingbeil $4,078 149 Michael Retuya $4,078 150 Raymond Cawaling $4,078 151 Steven Mager $4,078 152 Julius Roque $4,078 153 Tianshu Liu $4,078 154 John Lawford $4,078 155 Harman Jassal $4,078 156 Kayvan Payman $4,078 157 Joe Basaraba $4,078 158 Bryan Robitaille-Fequet $4,078 159 Brayden Brown $4,078 -
$312,624 for the Winner
Level: 18 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 147/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The prizes are in and the winner at the end of the game is going to pocket $312k for their troubles this series. The numbers are dropping quickly with 12 players hitting the rail since the start of play about 15 minutes ago. I’m still working on getting the Payouts page updated with all the numbers, but look for a fairly long list of early payouts coming shortly.
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159 Players Return for Day 2 of the Main
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, Noon
Day 3: Jan 20, NoonBlinds: 60 Minutes Entries: 159/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Day 2 field is set with 159 players returning all in the money. There are two big stacks that everyone is looking up at — Michael Lin and Sunny Lubana are the only players with more than a million, and they both have at least 1.1 million. Rauno Tahvonen came oh-so-close to the million mark with 995k while Glenn Baker has 970k for 4th and Sarath Samakasekera is just shy of 900k for fifth.
Day 2 action gets underway at noon at the start of Level 18 since all three flights in this one went the distance. The blinds will move to 60 minutes at the start of play and remain there through the final hand on Monday. Day 2 is scheduled to play until the end of Level 27 and all remaining players will bag for Day 3 on Monday.
Day 2 Stacks by Name
Table-Seat Player Chips 65 – 9 Aaron Quon 538,000 52 – 7 Aidan Klingbeil 86,000 48 – 9 Aleksei Ponomarev 566,000 50 – 5 Alemu Makonen 297000 59 – 8 Alen Bakovic 454,000 45 – 6 Alex Liu 425,000 55 – 8 Alexander Wong 72,000 61 – 5 Andrew Fahey 404,000 57 – 2 Andy Truong 177,000 65 – 4 Angelo Jopek 865,000 49 – 2 Ashkan Razavi 765,000 57 – 8 Ben Cooper 445,000 64 – 4 Brayden Brown 109,000 62 – 3 Brian Robitaille Fequet 186,000 62 – 7 Bryan Lin 341,000 48 – 8 Chad Lummerding 273,000 47 – 7 Chris Bowers 368,000 62 – 5 Chris Charlton 233,000 56 – 2 Christopher Bush 211,000 48 – 5 Chun Kit Kwan 579,000 56 – 5 Clint Cockburn 66000 60 – 2 Cody McKay 285,000 54 – 7 Cole Neufelf 528,000 65 – 8 Colin Burton 246,000 54 – 9 Colten Yamagishi 623,000 54 – 1 Connor Daynard 210,000 59 – 9 Corey Chan 571,000 60 – 8 Cuong Nguyen 360,000 57 – 5 Daniel Lefebvre 126,000 62 – 2 David Ko 315,000 55 – 7 David Quang 308,000 57 – 9 David Swaim 413,000 47 – 4 David Swirski 399,000 45 – 4 Dennis Ashmore 284,000 60 – 5 Don Donghoon Lee 570,005 65 – 5 Donald Arsenault 265,000 46 – 9 Dustin Centanni 238,000 57 – 7 Dylan Boyer 133,000 47 – 1 Dylan Payne 306,000 51 – 7 Failsal Al Qutub 380,000 61 – 4 Francis Fortin 333,000 50 – 1 Frank Almond 115,000 56 – 7 G Klimenko 405,000 47 – 3 Gaetano Buda 462,000 64 – 9 Garrett Gilmurray 188,000 55 – 1 Giulio Rosati 561,000 59 – 7 Giuseppe Galluzzo 215,000 65 – 1 Glenn Baker 970,000 46 – 2 Gordon Johnson 514,000 62 – 1 Gordon Wong 875,000 56 – 6 Greg Liow 87,000 51 – 5 Greg Taylor 433,000 49 – 6 Haochen Zhou 374,000 47 – 2 Harman Jassal 380,000 46 – 3 Harpreet Padda 160,000 59 – 4 Hassan Issa 480,000 45 – 1 Hee Sun Lee 805,000 45 – 7 Hoang Quach 81,000 52 – 4 Jackson Oniske 179,000 45 – 9 Jacob Hobday 105,000 56 – 4 Jacob Watrich 368,000 61 – 8 Jae Whan Lee 214,000 46 – 4 Jashua Frazer-James 374,000 61 – 6 Jay Glass 364,000 61 – 2 Jayvee Lumahan 111,000 54 – 5 Jeet Shergill 279,000 47 – 5 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois 274,000 48 – 2 Jeremie Bilodeau 169,000 47 – 9 Jeremy Lyons 169,000 52 – 3 Jimmy Lee 406,000 51 – 8 Joey Basaraba 249,000 50 – 2 John Dalphond 435,000 55 – 6 John Lawford 124,000 51 – 2 Jorge Artiga Ocheco 347,000 46 – 7 Joshua Hopkins 465,000 52 – 5 Julius Roque 79,000 52 – 1 Kayvan Payman 124,000 65 – 7 Ke’Andre Willis 154,000 57 – 1 Keith McIntosh 96,000 54 – 4 Kevin Javier 243,000 54 – 2 Kevin Jeffrey Huang 480,000 55 – 3 Kevin Keiso 418,000 61 – 3 Kip Howard 205,000 55 – 5 Kris Steinbach 501,000 51 – 6 Kyle CHang 130,000 60 – 1 Louis Collette 61,000 50 – 9 Luteng Li 123,000 51 – 3 Ma Ning 319000 52 – 8 Mal Hagan 137,000 46 – 6 Manish Rach 220,000 45 – 8 Marc-Andre Yelle 185,000 54 – 6 Marco Carreira 142,000 61 – 1 Matthew Busch 256,000 64 – 3 Mehmet Ali Siginc 373,000 52 – 2 Michael Bernstein 600,000 49 – 9 Michael Hooper 180,000 62 – 4 Michael Letal 812,000 64 – 1 Michael Retuya 88,000 49 – 5 Michael Won Taek Lim 1,187,000 50 – 3 Mike Leah 544,000 61 – 7 Nader Aram-Pamaki 578,000 46 – 8 Nicholas Lee 692,000 60 – 6 Nikhil Madadi 231,000 59 – 1 Pascal Gregoire 886,000 64 – 7 Pat DiCosneo 587,000 48 – 1 Pavlo Vertiiko 593,000 45 – 5 Rafael Stern 404,000 60 – 3 Rami Hammoud 187,000 48 – 3 Rauno Tahvonen 995,000 50 – 6 Raymond Cawaling 92,000 64 – 2 Renmei Liu 710,000 59 – 3 Richard Mullen 279,000 50 – 7 Richard Rex 97,000 46 – 1 Rob Lothian 282,000 49 – 1 Robert Kliss 136,000 47 – 8 Robin Bergren 677,000 50 – 8 Rocco Smeriglio 290,000 52 – 6 Roger Grosset 282,000 55 – 2 Roman Gallivan 176,000 56 – 9 Romualdo Cusano 606,000 56 – 1 Ron Campbell 243,000 51 – 9 Ruoxiao SHi 316,000 57 – 6 Rus King 396,000 51 – 4 Ryan Cairns 48,000 59 – 2 Ryan Parungao 120,000 55 – 4 Saeed Ganji 185000 52 – 9 Sam Raz 258,000 57 – 4 Sarath Samakasekera 893,000 48 – 7 Scott Dyck 326,000 48 – 6 Scott Johnson 550,000 62 – 9 Scott Stuve 83,000 56 – 8 Sean O’Reilly 161,000 51 – 1 Shane Brotherwood 634,000 59 – 5 Shawn Leis 115,000 45 – 2 Stephen Dauphinais 345,000 46 – 5 Steve Dejarlais 176,000 64 – 8 Steve Labelle 240,000 62 – 6 Steve Mager 119,000 65 – 2 Steve Zhang 326,000 60 – 4 Steven Filipovic 872,000 56 – 3 Sunny Lubana 1,100,000 49 – 8 Talal Shoush DNR 57 – 3 Teo Sanchez 359,000 47 – 6 Terry Goode 409,000 54 – 3 Thomas Taylor 477,000 49 – 3 Tianshu Liu 379,000 65 – 6 Tier Cong Phung 429,000 54 – 8 Trent Hopper 240,000 64 – 5 Trevor Morrisette 333,000 62 – 8 Wayne Hoffert 135,000 59 – 6 Weston Pring 358,000 55 – 9 Yiming Nie 132,000 65 – 3 Yiquan Zhong 258,000 48 – 4 Yong Lu 499,000 60 – 7 Zeyu Du 257,000 49 – 7 Zhi Xiang Li 70,000 50 – 4 Zhigang George Yang 363000 49 – 4 Zilong Zhao 347,000 45 – 3 Zofimo Xavier 259,000 Day 2 Chips by Seat
Table-Seat Player Chips 45 – 1 Hee Sun Lee 805,000 45 – 2 Stephen Dauphinais 345,000 45 – 3 Zofimo Xavier 259,000 45 – 4 Dennis Ashmore 284,000 45 – 5 Rafael Stern 404,000 45 – 6 Alex Liu 425,000 45 – 7 Hoang Quach 81,000 45 – 8 Marc-Andre Yelle 185,000 45 – 9 Jacob Hobday 105,000 46 – 1 Rob Lothian 282,000 46 – 2 Gordon Johnson 514,000 46 – 3 Harpreet Padda 160,000 46 – 4 Joshua Frazer-James 374,000 46 – 5 Steve Dejarlais 176,000 46 – 6 Manish Rach 220,000 46 – 7 Joshua Hopkins 465,000 46 – 8 Nicholas Lee 692,000 46 – 9 Dustin Centanni 238,000 47 – 1 Dylan Payne 306,000 47 – 2 Harman Jassal 380,000 47 – 3 Gaetano Buda 462,000 47 – 4 David Swirski 399,000 47 – 5 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois 274,000 47 – 6 Terry Goode 409,000 47 – 7 Chris Bowers 368,000 47 – 8 Robin Bergren 677,000 47 – 9 Jeremy Lyons 169,000 48 – 1 Pavlo Vertiiko 593,000 48 – 2 Jeremie Bilodeau 169,000 48 – 3 Rauno Tahvonen 995,000 48 – 4 Yong Lu 499,000 48 – 5 Chun Kit Kwan 579,000 48 – 6 Scott Johnson 550,000 48 – 7 Scott Dyck 326,000 48 – 8 Chad Lummerding 273,000 48 – 9 Aleksei Ponomarev 566,000 49 – 1 Robert Kliss 136,000 49 – 2 Ashkan Razavi 765,000 49 – 3 Tianshu Liu 379,000 49 – 4 Zilong Zhao 347,000 49 – 5 Michael Won Taek Lim 1,187,000 49 – 6 Haochen Zhou 374,000 49 – 7 Zhi Xiang Li 70,000 49 – 8 Talal Shoush DNR 49 – 9 Michael Hooper 180,000 50 – 1 Frank Almond 115,000 50 – 2 John Dalphond 435,000 50 – 3 Mike Leah 544,000 50 – 4 Zhigang George Yang 363000 50 – 5 Alemu Makonen 297000 50 – 6 Raymond Cawaling 92,000 50 – 7 Richard Rex 97,000 50 – 8 Rocco Smeriglio 290,000 50 – 9 Luteng Li 123,000 51 – 1 Shane Brotherwood 634,000 51 – 2 Jorge Artiga Ocheco 347,000 51 – 3 Ma Ning 319000 51 – 4 Ryan Cairns 48,000 51 – 5 Greg Taylor 433,000 51 – 6 Kyle CHang 130,000 51 – 7 Failsal Al Qutub 380,000 51 – 8 Joey Basaraba 249,000 51 – 9 Ruoxiao SHi 316,000 52 – 1 Kayvan Payman 124,000 52 – 2 Michael Bernstein 600,000 52 – 3 Jimmy Lee 406,000 52 – 4 Jackson Oniske 179,000 52 – 5 Julius Roque 79,000 52 – 6 Roger Grosset 282,000 52 – 7 Aidan Klingbeil 86,000 52 – 8 Mal Hagan 137,000 52 – 9 Sam Raz 258,000 54 – 1 Connor Daynard 210,000 54 – 2 Kevin Jeffrey Huang 480,000 54 – 3 Thomas Taylor 477,000 54 – 4 Kevin Javier 243,000 54 – 5 Jeet Shergill 279,000 54 – 6 Marco Carreira 142,000 54 – 7 Cole Neufelf 528,000 54 – 8 Trent Hopper 240,000 54 – 9 Colten Yamagishi 623,000 55 – 1 Giulio Rosati 561,000 55 – 2 Roman Gallivan 176,000 55 – 3 Kevin Keiso 418,000 55 – 4 Saeed Ganji 185000 55 – 5 Kris Steinbach 501,000 55 – 6 John Lawford 124,000 55 – 7 David Quang 308,000 55 – 8 Alexander Wong 72,000 55 – 9 Yiming Nie 132,000 56 – 1 Ron Campbell 243,000 56 – 2 Christopher Bush 211,000 56 – 3 Sunny Lubana 1,100,000 56 – 4 Jacob Watrich 368,000 56 – 5 Clint Cockburn 66000 56 – 6 Greg Liow 87,000 56 – 7 G Klimenko 405,000 56 – 8 Sean O’Reilly 161,000 56 – 9 Romualdo Cusano 606,000 57 – 1 Keith McIntosh 96,000 57 – 2 Andy Truong 177,000 57 – 3 Teo Sanchez 359,000 57 – 4 Sarath Samakasekera 893,000 57 – 5 Daniel Lefebvre 126,000 57 – 6 Rus King 396,000 57 – 7 Dylan Boyer 133,000 57 – 8 Ben Cooper 445,000 57 – 9 David Swaim 413,000 59 – 1 Pascal Gregoire 886,000 59 – 2 Ryan Parungao 120,000 59 – 3 Richard Mullen 279,000 59 – 4 Hassan Issa 480,000 59 – 5 Shawn Leis 115,000 59 – 6 Weston Pring 358,000 59 – 7 Giuseppe Galluzzo 215,000 59 – 8 Alen Bakovic 454,000 59 – 9 Corey Chan 571,000 60 – 1 Louis Collette 61,000 60 – 2 Cody McKay 285,000 60 – 3 Rami Hammoud 187,000 60 – 4 Steven Filipovic 872,000 60 – 5 Don Donghoon Lee 570,005 60 – 6 Nikhil Madadi 231,000 60 – 7 Zeyu Du 257,000 60 – 8 Cuong Nguyen 360,000 61 – 1 Matthew Busch 256,000 61 – 2 Jayvee Lumahan 111,000 61 – 3 Kip Howard 205,000 61 – 4 Francis Fortin 333,000 61 – 5 Andrew Fahey 404,000 61 – 6 Jay Glass 364,000 61 – 7 Nader Aram-Pamaki 578,000 61 – 8 Jae Whan Lee 214,000 62 – 1 Gordon Wong 875,000 62 – 2 David Ko 315,000 62 – 3 Brian Robitaille Fequet 186,000 62 – 4 Michael Letal 812,000 62 – 5 Chris Charlton 233,000 62 – 6 Steve Mager 119,000 62 – 7 Bryan Lin 341,000 62 – 8 Wayne Hoffert 135,000 62 – 9 Scott Stuve 83,000 64 – 1 Michael Retuya 88,000 64 – 2 Renmei Liu 710,000 64 – 3 Mehmet Ali Siginc 373,000 64 – 4 Brayden Brown 109,000 64 – 5 Trevor Morrisette 333,000 64 – 7 Pat DiCosneo 587,000 64 – 8 Steve Labelle 240,000 64 – 9 Garrett Gilmurray 188,000 65 – 1 Glenn Baker 970,000 65 – 2 Steve Zhang 326,000 65 – 3 Yiquan Zhong 258,000 65 – 4 Angelo Jopek 865,000 65 – 5 Donald Arsenault 265,000 65 – 6 Tier Cong Phung 429,000 65 – 7 Ke’Andre Willis 154,000 65 – 8 Colin Burton 246,000 65 – 9 Aaron Quon 538,000 Event 12 -
Michael Lim Leads 1c Stacks & Day 2
Day 1c is complete with 75 players bagging chips for Day 2 and 23 players getting Day 1 payouts. Michael Lim bagged the big stack from the final flight and it was enough to push Day 1a leader Sunny Lubana off the top spot but Lim and Lubana are the only players bringing a million or more into Day 2.
Rauno Tahvonen, Glenn Baker, Sarath Samakasekera, and Gordon Wong round out the 1c top five counts. I spotted two former champions in today’s field. Nicholas Teeuwen won the May 2024 Main and the first, and so far only, player from outside Alberta to bag a Calgary Main, was the final player to collect a cash on Day 1c, but Cody McKay, who won the first-ever Main Event ring in Calgary bagged more than 20 bigs for Day 2.
See below for a look at all the advancing stacks as well as the Day 1c Payouts.
Day 1c Bags
Player Chips Michael Won Taek Lim 1,187,000 Rauno Tahvonen 995,000 Glenn Baker 970,000 Sarath Samakasekera 893,000 Gordon Wong 875,000 Steven Filipovic 872,000 Angelo Jopek 865,000 Michael Letal 812,000 Hee Sun Lee 805,000 Renmei Liu 710,000 Robin Bergren 677,000 Pat DiCosneo 587,000 Nader Aram-Pamaki 578,000 Don Donghoon Lee 570,005 Scott Johnson 550,000 Aaron Quon 538,000 Cole Neufelf 528,000 Gordon Johnson 514,000 Alen Bakovic 454,000 Tier Cong Phung 429,000 Kevin Keiso 418,000 Andrew Fahey 404,000 Harman Jassal 380,000 Mehmet Ali Siginc 373,000 Chris Bowers 368,000 Jay Glass 364,000 Cuong Nguyen 360,000 Jorge Artiga Ocheco 347,000 Stephen Dauphinais 345,000 Bryan Lin 341,000 Francis Fortin 333,000 Trevor Morrisette 333,000 Steve Zhang 326,000 David Ko 315,000 Cody McKay 285,000 Chad Lummerding 273,000 Donald Arsenault 265,000 Yiquan Zhong 258,000 Sam Raz 258,000 Zeyu Du 257,000 Matthew Busch 256,000 Joey Basaraba 249,000 Colin Burton 246,000 Ron Campbell 243,000 Steve Labelle 240,000 Dustin Centanni 238,000 Chris Charlton 233,000 Nikhil Madadi 231,000 Jae Whan Lee 214,000 Christopher Bush 211,000 Connor Daynard 210,000 Kip Howard 205,000 Garrett Gilmurray 188,000 Rami Hammoud 187,000 Brian Robitaille Fequet 186,000 Michael Hooper 180,000 Jackson Oniske 179,000 Steve Dejarlais 176,000 Ke’Andre Willis 154,000 Robert Kliss 136,000 Wayne Hoffert 135,000 Daniel Lefebvre 126,000 John Lawford 124,000 Steve Mager 119,000 Frank Almond 115,000 Shawn Leis 115,000 Jayvee Lumahan 111,000 Brayden Brown 109,000 Richard Rex 97,000 Raymond Cawaling 92,000 Michael Retuya 88,000 Scott Stuve 83,000 Hoang Quach 81,000 Louis Collette 61,000 Ryan Cairns 48,000 Day 1c Payouts
Place Player Prize 76 Nicholas Teeuwen $3,415 77 Nicholas Peterson $3,415 78 Thomas Bona $3,415 79 Ben Locker $3,415 80 Minh Lieu $3,415 81 Ngoc Nguyen $3,415 82 Anthony Mar $3,415 83 Aaron Duczak $3,415 84 Morgan Mclellan $3,415 85 Xingchao Chen $3,415 86 Zachary Loxterkamp $3,415 87 Arkadii Vasylevskyi $3,415 88 Ricky Chow $3,415 89 Dallas Larson $3,415 90 Kalyan Cheekuri $3,415 91 Tiago Luis $3,415 92 Karim Chatur $3,415 93 Rishi Lal Makkar $3,415 94 Jeremy Poon $3,415 95 Youssef Hmama $3,415 96 Aaron Van-Male $3,415 97 Vincent Lam $3,415 98 Mark Bell $3,415 -
In the Money
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 98/649 (182/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) They are now in the money with a bit more than 30 minutes left in the night. One of the players who just made the money is Anthony Mar, a DJ from Vancouver. He had a bit of an epic story a couple of years ago, bagging 1a, flying back to Vancouver to DJ all weekend, and flying back in Sunday morning to cash on Day 2. He might be writing another story this year as he’s been here the whole time and cashed 1a and 1b so far. He’s now in the money on 1c as well for a minimum of three cashes, but he’s going for max value with cashing two flights and then bagging the whole thing on Day 3.
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Bubble Time!
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 99/649 (183/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The clock is paused with 43:24 remaining in Level 17 with action now on the hand-for-hand money bubble. They’ll take two minutes off the clock for each hand played now until the unfortunate bubble player hits the rail. The first-ever WSOP-C Calgary Main Event winner, Cody McKay, is still in the field looking to clear his first hurdle on the repeat win.
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Big Stacks Side-by-Side
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 100/649 (184/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) There’s an interesting dynamic developing on one table tonight as they near the bubble. Glenn Baker and Sunny Lee have both been playing big stacks fro most of the night, and now they are seated next to each other. Lee has position on Baker’s left, but he’s still playing a somewhat shorter stack than Baker who looks to be nearing a million now.
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Level 17 Has Begun 2 Off the Money
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 100/649 (184/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The final Level of play for 1c has just begun with the field two off the Day 1 money. There are 100 players left alive right now so the clock should pause very soon after the next elimination.
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Five Off the Money
Level: 16 (4000/8000/8000) Entries: 103/649 (187/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) Day 1c pay is just five eliminations away now with about 5 minutes to play in Level 16. Bubble play should be coming up shortly.
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Less the 10 from the Money
Level: 16 (4000/8000/8000) Entries: 107/649 (191/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) They are down to 107 players left in 1c of the Main with about 20 minutes to play in Level 16. It now looks likely that it will be late in this level or early in 17 when the clock pauses for hand-for-hand play.
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Inaugural Winner Stacking Chips
Level: 16 (4000/8000/8000) Entries: 112/649 (196/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) They are 14 off the money with players on the break following Level 16. This is the final break of the night with two more levels on the schedule. Bubble play in Level 16 still looks likely and one player who’ll be eyeing that mark and beyond is the inaugural winner of this event in Jan 2022, Cody McKay. He’s in the action today and playing about 220k right now, looking to be the first repeat Main Event winner at WSOP-C Calgary. McKay won a bit more than $290k for that one, but the win this year should easily be worth more than $300k.
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Likely More than $300k for the Winner
Level: 15 (3000/6000/6000) Entries: 113/649 (197/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) I likely won’t have eyes on the prizes tonight since they won’t be able to even start doing the final prize pool until they know how many players bag up tonight. That means no one will likely know the prizes until sometime Sunday morning, but they’ll be on the board when Day 2 players return to the Sundance room at noon Sunday.
Based on previous editions of the Main Event, however, it looks like a lock that the top prize for the Main this time around will be more than $300k. Based on the percentage from Jan 2024, 1st place would by just over $310k — that number may vary slightly when the final prizes come out on Sunday, but it looks certain to be over $300k.
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Baker & Lee on Big Stacks
Level: 15 (3000/6000/6000) Entries: 117/649 (201/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) As they near the money bubble, the early leader Sunny Lee looks to have dropped to second place. He’s playing about 780k right now, up from his previous big stack but Glen Baker has chipped up to the lead with about 900k in front of him.
They are now less than 20 players to the money with about 10 minutes to play before the final break of the night, so bubble play in Level 16 still looks on track.
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30(ish) off the Money
Level: 15 (3000/6000/6000) Entries: 129/649 (213/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The board says they are 31 away from the money now, but the truth is it’s less than 30 as they are only updating the board when a table breaks. Money starts getting handed out at 98th place tonight so my guess is the bubble play happens sometime in Level 16 after the final break of the night.
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Day 1c Prizes Confirmed
Level: 14 (3000/5000/5000) Entries: 153/649 (237/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The numbers for 1c are confirmed and 649 entries for more than $980k in prizes on the final flight. That puts the total prize pool at $2.077 million.
There are 98 paid spots from today’s action with at least 65 players going through to tomorrow’s Day 2. If they hit 65 before the end of Level 17 the bags will come out early, otherwise the remaining players will bag at the end of 17. The only thing that might mess with that schedule would be if they don’t make it to 98 before the end of 17. Day 1c MUST hit the money, so if they aren’t in the money by the end of 17, they’ll keep playing until 98 players are left, and then bag for the night.
Day 1c Prizes
Place Prize 1-65 Day 2 66-71 $3,586 72-98 $3,415 -
A Few More Notable Stacks & Some Hands from Alex
Level: 14 (3000/5000/5000) Entries: 171/649 (255/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) Alex has been wandering around watching some of the action as well and he just relayed a couple of interesting hands to me. Steve Zhang just won a hand with trips over trips blind on blind when both players rivered trip sixes. Ryan Jensen preserved his tournament life by open-folding a set of eights on a seven-nine-three-eight-six board, He would have been at risk with a call on the very straight-y board and elected for discretion over valour.
Notable Stacks
Kalyan Cheekuri 140,000 Shawn Leis 130,000 Weimin Hou 120,000 Anthiny Mar 110,000 Jodie Dunfield 100,000 Chris Bowers 235,000 Steve Dejarlais 200,000 Richard Rex 120,000 Matt Hall 200,000 Colin Burton 300,000 Marc Lavergne 210,000 -
Teeuwen Defends
Level: 13 (2000/4000/4000) Entries: 180/649 (264/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The cutoff opened to 8k and big blind and ME champ Nicholas Teeuwen called to see a flop of 3♠9♦J♣. He checked it over to the cutoff who fired 6k, but then folded to the check-raise to 22k. Teeuwn won this event in May 2024 to be the first non-Alberta player to bag the Main Event here in Calgary and he’s sitting at a table that includes Cuong Lieu, who was runner-up in the May 2022 Main Event, Youssef Hmama, Ben Locker, Jackson Oniske, and Jayvee Lumahan.
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649 (Unoffocial) for 1c
Level: 13 (2000/4000/4000) Entries: 214/649 (298/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) Entries for the Main Event are now closed with the final unofficial tally for Day 1c at 649 entries. That will be confirmed later tonight when the 1c prizes are posted, but if it holds it should mean 98 paid spots from today with at least 65 players bagging for tomorrow’s Day 2.
While there are a lot of familiar faces in the crowd who have been here for most of the series, there are a couple of players I’ve seen today for the first time. Weimin Hou, who picked up a ring here in the mix NLH/PLO event in 2022, Sinan Tawfik, and Anthony Mar are all here for the final few days of play.
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Entries Nearly Closed for the Main
Level: 12 (1500/3000/3000) Entries: 232/647 (316/1369) Prizes: $980,205 ($2,074,035) There are about 10 minutes left in the break following Level 12 with entries to the Main Event set to close when they sit down for Level 13. The prizes are just shy of $2.1 million at the moment, and it doesn’t look like it will quite hit that mark before it shuts down for the night, but it’s still a decent turnout.
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Some Notable and Big Stacks from Alex and Nick
Level: 12 (1500/3000/3000) Entries: 235/640 (319/1362) Prizes: $969,600 ($2,063,430) The prizes are pushing towards $2.1 million today with the field up to 1,362 combined and 640 for 1c alone. I’ve gotten a bit of help from Alex again here in the Main Event room, along with double-ring winner Nicholas Lee. They’ve just grabbed some chip counts for me and it looks like Sunny Lee is the chip leader so far today with 550k in front of him. See below for a few other stacks thanks to Akex and Nick.
Player Chips Shariq Khan 40,000 David Ko 110,000 Cuong Lieu 100,000 Chris Clisby 90,000 Aaron Quon 175,000 Stephen Dauphinais 306,000 Phillip Louie 61,000 Sam Gottiparthi 40,000 Mehmet Siginc 305,000 Takuma Bergeron 240,000 Bash Ramahi 131,000 Joey Basaraba 220,000 Mike Malm 125,000 Michael Hooper 325,000 Reg Hampton 170,000 Harmon Jassal 270,000 -
More than $2.05 Million
Level: 11 (15008/2500/2500) Entries: 243/633 (327/1355) Prizes: $958,995 ($2,052,825) The prize pool is now over $2.05 million with about an hour left to enter the game. The 1c field is over 630 entries now for a total of 1,355 across all three starting days. They need 45 more entries to hit 1,400 total which would put the prizes over $2.12 million.
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90 Minutes Left in Reg
Level: 11 (1500/2500/2500) Entries: 262/626 (346/1348) Prizes: $948,390 ($2,042,220) The combined prizes are pushing close to $2.05 million now with 626 entries for 1c and 1,348 across all days. There are about 30 minutes left in Level 11 with the entry desk shutting down at the start of Level 13 os the end of entries is now about 90 minutes away.
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Back from Dinner
Level: 10 (1000/2000/2000) Entries: 295/615 (379/1337) Prizes: $931,725 ($2,025,555) The combined prizes are now over $2.025 million with 615 entries on the board today and 1,337 across all three starting days. There are just under 2 hours left to get your stack into the Main Event now with entries set to close for good at 8:3o PM tonight.
Also, check out the contemporaneous coverage of the Ladies event going on now as well. Alek Gillies is in the Chrome room following all the Ladies action and he’ll be on the case until they award the ring later tonight.
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More than $2 Million in Prizes
Level: 10 (1000/2000/2000) Entries: 329/604 (413/1326) Prizes: $915,060 ($2,008,890) The 1c players are less than 5 minutes away from sitting down for Level 10 and the final three levels of entry for this Main Event. The 1c field just pushed over 600 for prizes of more than $2 million across all starting days but it’s likely we’ll see a few more entries before the desk shuts for the night.
The combined field is now at 1,326, less than 75 away from 1,400, so that’s not an impossible number to hit with a bit more than 2 hours to get into the game.
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Nearing 600 Entries for 1c
Level: 9 (1000/1500/1500) Entries: 315/590 (399/1312) Prizes: $893,850 ($1,987,680) The 1c field is up to 590 now for more than 1,300 in total. That puts the combined prizes less that $15k away from $2 million with about 15 minutes to play in Level 9.
The 1c players will take a dinner break following this level, then return for three more levels of entry after dinner before the Main Event field is set in stone at the start of Level 13.
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$1.95 Million in Prizes
Level: 8 (600/1200/1200) Entries: 411/571 (495/1293) Prizes: $865,065 ($1,958,895) Day 1c prizes are now over $865k for a combined total of more than $1.95 million for the Main right now. There are about 4 hours of entry left on this Main so passing $2 million seems like a lock with ~25 more entries required to push past that.
The room(s) is full of familiar faces with the entirety of Sundance full to the rafters and several Main Event spillover tables over in Chrome playing out alongside the Ladies event. Alek Gillies is in the house over in Chrome following the Ladies for the night, so make sure to check out his coverage and give the Ladies some love as well.
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Nearing $2 Million in Prizes
Level: 7 (500/1000/1000) Entries: 390/550 (474/1272) Prizes: $833,250 ($1,927,080) As expected, Day 1c is a big one with 550 entries on the board and 390 remaining in play. That puts the combined field at 1,272, just 200 off the 2024 combined total of 1,475. The combined prizes are just shy of $2 million now and they need another 49 entries today to cap $2 million.
That number seems like it will be hit easily — it remains to be seen if they can find 200 entries to match last year. Registration is still open for more than 4 hours.
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Final Flight to the Main Goes on Saturday
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, 11 AM
Day 3: Jan 20, 11 AMBlinds: 40/60 Minutes Starting Stack: 40k Late Entry: 12 Levels (~8:30 PM) Day 1 Ends: 17 Levels (~12:10 AM) Entries: 84/722 Prizes: $1,093,830 There are two flights to the Main Event now in the books with the field at 722 entries and prizes of nearly $1.1 million. There are now 84 players waiting for Day 2 after 35 players advanced from the first flight and 49 more found bags in 1b.
That leaves the final shot coming Saturday at 11 am and it promises to be a big one. So far, Days 1a and b have fallen a bit short of expectations with the field now 55 smaller than the 2024 numbers after 2 flights. Sunny Lubana is still the stack to beat after bagging 1.1 million on 1a while 1b leader Pascal Gregoire is second after two flights.
Players sit down with 40k in chips to play 40-minute levels on Day 1. Players can enter for 12 levels during Day 1, meaning the entry desk should close around 8:30 PM. After that, they’ll play 5 more levels on Day 1 (at most) but they’ll bag early if they hit 10% of the field before then. Note that’s a change from most events in the series where bags come out at 5%.
I will be in the Sundance room for most of 1c, though I will be late to the floor after what is expected to be a late night with the PLO Bounty on Friday night.
Event 12 -
49 Players Bag from 1b; Pascal Gregoire Bags Biggest
Day 1b went the distance with 17 full levels of play. They made it into the money but fell 8 players short of hitting the 10% early cutoff point.
Pascal Gregoire bagged the big stack on 1b, but he’s still looking up at the 1a bag of Sunny Lubana. Gregoire bagged 886k for what will be the second best stack so far on Day 2 after Lubana’s 1.1 million. Ashkan Razavi, who was at the final table of the Main in August and finished 4th after a short-stack comeback, Nicholas Lee (2 rings), Romualdo Cusano, and Chun Kit Kwan (2 rings and a WPT title) round out the 1b top five.
Full payouts for 1b as well as the 49 stacks are below — seat assignments won’t be posted until the end of day 1c.
Day 1b Payouts
Place Player Prize 50 Holly Lingel $3,421 51 Dj Sharma $3,421 52 Jeffrey Eldred $3,421 53 Daniel Martel $3,421 54 Anthony Mar $3,421 55 Anthony Williams $3,421 56 Ian Monahoyios $3,421 57 D. Nguyen $3,421 58 Conner Daynard $3,421 59 Mahar Al-Mouselly $3,421 60 Ryan Johal $3,421 61 Serge Noel $3,421 Day 1b Bags
Player Chips Pascal Gregoire 886,000 Ashkan Razavi 765,000 Nicholas Lee 692,000 Romualdo Cusano 606,000 Chun Kit Kwan 579,000 Corey Chan 571,000 Aleksei Ponomarev 566,000 Giulio Rosati 561,000 Yong Lu 499,000 Kevin Jeffrey Huang 480,000 Hassan Issa 480,000 John Dalphond 435,000 Greg Taylor 433,000 Alex Liu 425,000 David Swaim 413,000 Terry Goode 409,000 Rafael Stern 404,000 Failsal Al Qutub 380,000 Tianshu Liu 379,000 Teo Sanchez 359,000 Weston Pring 358,000 Ma Ning 319000 David Quang 308,000 Dylan Payne 306,000 Alemu Makonen 297000 Roger Grosset 282,000 Rob Lothian 282,000 Jeet Shergill 279,000 Richard Mullen 279,000 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois 274,000 Zofimo Xavier 259,000 Trent Hopper 240,000 Manish Rach 220,000 Giuseppe Galluzzo 215,000 Marc-Andre Yelle 185,000 Saeed Ganji 185000 Andy Truong 177,000 Sean O’Reilly 161,000 Marco Carreira 142,000 Mal Hagan 137,000 Dylan Boyer 133,000 Yiming Nie 132,000 Luteng Li 123,000 Ryan Parungao 120,000 Greg Liow 87,000 Aidan Klingbeil 86,000 Julius Roque 79,000 Zhi Xiang Li 70,000 Clint Cockburn 66,000 -
403 Entries for 1b; 117 Remain
Level: 14 (3000/5000/5000) Entries: 117/403 (152/722) Prizes: $610,545 ($1,093,830) Day 1b entries ended with the combined prizes just shy of $1.1 million. There were 403 entries on 1b for $610k in 1b prizes. That means there are 61 paid spots from today with at least 40 moving on to Day 2. I’ll have the names of Day 1 payouts and bagging players later in the evening.
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Just Shy of 400
Level: 12 (1500/3000/3000) Entries: 162/397 (197/716) Prizes: $601,455 ($1,084,740) There are just under 30 minutes left in Level 12 with entries set to close on Day 1b at the start of Level 13. They’ll take a 15-minute break following this level with entries open until the end of the break. Right now, it looks like there will be ~60 paid spots with at least 40 players advancing, but that may change if numbers ramp up in the final 45 minutes of entry.
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385 Entries in Level 11
Level: 11 (1500/2500/2500) Entries: 180/385 (215/704) Prizes: $583,275 ($1,066,560) There are about 20 minutes to play in Level 11 in 1b of the Main Event. The 1b field is at 385 entries now for 704 across both flights and $1.066 million in prizes.
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Final Three Levels of Entry for 1b
Level: 10 (1000/2000/2000) Entries: 209/376 (244/695) Prizes: $569,640 ($1,052,925) The Main Event 1b players are back from their dinner break now so there are three levels of entry remaining. The reg-desk will stay open through the 15-minute break following Level 12 but will close at the start of Level 13 around 8:30 PM.
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Main Event 1b at 369 Entries
Level: 9 (1000/1500/1500) Entries: 228/369 (263/688) Prizes: $559,035 ($1,042,320) The 1b field is up to 369 entries with the action in Level 9. They’ll go for the dinner break following this level, then return for three more levels of entry before the second flight closes at the start of Level 13. The current combined prizes are just shy of $1.05 million.
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More than $1 Million in Prizes
Level: 7 (500/1000/1000) Entries: 249/349 (284/668) Prizes: $528,735 ($1,012,020) The combined prizes are now over $1 million for the Main Event with Day 1b at just shy of 350 entries. There are about 5 minutes to play in Level 7 and entries are still open for more than 4 hours so I expect to see another 50+ entries at least before the desk shuts down at about 8:30 PM.
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Sunny Lubana Bags Biggest on 1a
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 35/319 Prizes: $483,285 It looks like Sunny Lubana bagged the biggest stack from Day 1a with 35 players advancing to Day 2 from the opening flight. He had 1.1 million in his bag at the end of the night, the only player in seven digits.
Shane Brotherwood, Colten Yamagishi, and Michael “Berny” Bernstein bagged in the 600k range with Pavlo Vertiiko rounding out the top five with 593k. Full qualifying stacks for Day 1a are below with the caveat that there was no chip count on one bag so Talal Shoush is listed as DNR, but he for sure has a bag in play for Day 2.
Day 1a Qualifying Stacks
Player Chips Talal Shoush DNR Sunny Lubana 1,100,000 Shane Brotherwood 634,000 Colten Yamagishi 623,000 Michael Bernstein 600,000 Pavlo Vertiiko 593,000 Mike Leah 544,000 Kris Steinbach 501,000 Thomas Taylor 477,000 Joshua Hopkins 465,000 Gaetano Buda 462,000 Ben Cooper 445,000 Jimmy Lee 406,000 G Klimenko 405,000 David Swirski 399,000 Rus King 396,000 Haochen Zhou 374,000 Joshua Frazer-James 374,000 Jacob Watrich 368,000 Zhigang George Yang 363000 Zilong Zhao 347,000 Scott Dyck 326,000 Ruoxiao Shi 316,000 Rocco Smeriglio 290,000 Dennis Ashmore 284,000 Kevin Javier 243,000 Roman Gallivan 176,000 Jeremie Bilodeau 169,000 Jeremy Lyons 169,000 Harpreet Padda 160,000 Kyle Chang 130,000 Kayvan Payman 124,000 Jacob Hobday 105,000 Keith McIntosh 96,000 Alexander Wong 72,000 Day 1a Payouts (Complete)
Place Player Prize 36 Glen Slater $3,459 37 Trevor Morrisette $3,459 38 Eun Park $3,459 39 Jason Chan $3,459 40 Kelly Becker $3,459 41 Fat Wong $3,459 42 Robert Kliss $3,459 43 Dave Mcleod $3,459 44 Anthony Mar $3,459 45 Nicholas Peterson $3,459 46 Michael Farrow $3,459 47 Yan Lin $3,459 48 Maurizio Candeloro $3,459 -
15 Minutes Left in the Night
Level: (17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 37/319 Prizes: $483,285 The Day 1a field is confirmed at 319 entries for prizes of $483,285 and they are now less than 15 minutes from the end of the scheduled day. There are 5 more players left until they hit 10% of the field, so it looks like 1a will go the distance and bag more than 10%.
Day 1a Payouts So Far
Place Player Prize 38 Eun Park $3,459 39 Jason Chan $3,459 40 Kelly Becker $3,459 41 Fat Wong $3,459 42 Robert Kliss $3,459 43 Dave Mcleod $3,459 44 Anthony Mar $3,459 45 Nicholas Peterson $3,459 46 Michael Farrow $3,459 47 Yan Lin $3,459 48 Maurizio Candeloro $3,459 -
319 Entries for Day 1a
Level: 13 (2000/4000/4000) Entries: 102/319 Prizes: $483,285 Entries for the opening flight to the Main Event are now closed with 319 entries on the board. That number is still unofficial, but if it holds it should mean 48 paid spots from today with at least 32 moving forward to Day 2.
I’ll confirm the numbers later once the Day 1a prizes are posted. They now have a bit less than 5 levels left in the schedule, with the early exit at 32 players if they get there before the end of Level 17. Note that Level 17 is a one-hour level.
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Up to 314
Level: 11 (1000/1500/1500) Entries: 117/314 Prizes: $475,710 The prize pool is now over $475k with 314 entries on the board and about 5 minutes to play in Level 11. Level 12 is the final level of entry for today’s flight with the desk open through the break following that level and will be closed when they sit down for Level 13.
The 2024 target number is 342 so it’s looking a little less likely they’ll hit that number before it closes, but 28 entries in the next hour isn’t out of the question.
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Just Shy of 300 Entries
Level: 9 (1000/1500/1500) Entries: 180/299 Prizes: $452,985 The 1a field is just shy of 300 entries now for more than $450k in the kitty so far. Level 9 has about 25 minutes to play, and dinner is scheduled following this level. Once they finish dinner, three levels of poker are left before the entry desk shuts down for 1a.
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Up to 288 Entries
Level: 7 (500/1000/1000) Entries: 198/288 Prizes: $436,320 The Main Event opening flight is up to 288 entries now with Level 7 nearly complete. There are still five levels of poker in the entry period with the desk set to shut down at about 8:30 tonight.
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274 Entries in Level 6
Level: 6 (400/800/800) Entries: 199/274 Prizes: $415,110 The prizes are now over $400k for the opening day of play in the WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025 Main Event with 274 entries on the board. There are a bit more than 5 hours still left in the reg period for today’s flight, so it’s still looking good to beat the 2024 number of 342.
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1a up to 258 Entries
Level: 5 (300/600/600) Entries: 197/258 Prizes: $390,870 There are more than 250 entries for Day 1a now with Level 5 nearly complete. The 1a field is up to 258 wth 197 remaining in play right now. They are now less than 85 entries away from the 2024 1a total with the prizes pushing $400k already.
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Less than 100 from 2024
Level: 5 (300/600/600) Entries: 207/244 Prizes: $369,660 The field is up to 244 entries in Level 5 with about 20 minutes left in the level. There are 207 players left in the game over in Sundance and more than 6 hours left for entries.
2024 Day 1a saw 342 entries, so the field this year is already less than 100 entries away from the break that number, so it’s looking good for another event to go past last year’s numbers.
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Nearly 200 Entries Before First Break
Level: 3 (200/400/400) Entries: 197/197 Prizes: $298,455 The Main Event players are just about head out for their first break of Day 1a as the end of Level 3 approaches. There are just shy of 200 entries on the board as the clock ticks down with the 2024 target set at 342 entries. At this point, it’s looking very good to smash that number, but time will tell. Entries remain open until the end of Level 12, which should be about 8:30 PM tonight, with two more starting flights to run before Day 2 is set.
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It’s Time for the Big Show!
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, 11 AM
Day 3: Jan 20, 11 AMBlinds: 40/60 Minutes Starting Stack: 40k Late Entry: 12 Levels (~8:30 PM) Day 1 Ends: 17 Levels (~12:10 AM) It’s time for the Main Event. Day 1a action gets going at 11 AM on Jan 16 with two more starting flights on Jan 18 and Jan 19. Players sit down with 40k in chips to play 40-minute levels on Day 1.
Players can enter for 12 levels during Day 1, meaning the entry desk should close around 8:30 PM. After that, they’ll play 5 more levels on Day 1 (at most) but they’ll bag early if they hit 10% of the field before then. Note that’s a change from most events in the series where bags come out at 5%.
I likely won’t be watching Day 1a or 1b very closely as there are Day 2s running on both of those days, but I should be there for the duration of 1c (with a likely late start).
Event 12
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49 Players Bag from 1b; Pascal Gregoire Bags Biggest
Day 1b went the distance with 17 full levels of play. They made it into the money but fell 8 players short of hitting the 10% early cutoff point.
Pascal Gregoire bagged the big stack on 1b, but he’s still looking up at the 1a bag of Sunny Lubana. Gregoire bagged 886k for what will be the second best stack so far on Day 2 after Lubana’s 1.1 million. Ashkan Razavi, who was at the final table of the Main in August and finished 4th after a short-stack comeback, Nicholas Lee (2 rings), Romualdo Cusano, and Chun Kit Kwan (2 rings and a WPT title) round out the 1b top five.
Full payouts for 1b as well as the 49 stacks are below — seat assignments won’t be posted until the end of day 1c.
Day 1b Payouts
Place Player Prize 50 Holly Lingel $3,421 51 Dj Sharma $3,421 52 Jeffrey Eldred $3,421 53 Daniel Martel $3,421 54 Anthony Mar $3,421 55 Anthony Williams $3,421 56 Ian Monahoyios $3,421 57 D. Nguyen $3,421 58 Conner Daynard $3,421 59 Mahar Al-Mouselly $3,421 60 Ryan Johal $3,421 61 Serge Noel $3,421 Day 1b Bags
Player Chips Pascal Gregoire 886,000 Ashkan Razavi 765,000 Nicholas Lee 692,000 Romualdo Cusano 606,000 Chun Kit Kwan 579,000 Corey Chan 571,000 Aleksei Ponomarev 566,000 Giulio Rosati 561,000 Yong Lu 499,000 Kevin Jeffrey Huang 480,000 Hassan Issa 480,000 John Dalphond 435,000 Greg Taylor 433,000 Alex Liu 425,000 David Swaim 413,000 Terry Goode 409,000 Rafael Stern 404,000 Failsal Al Qutub 380,000 Tianshu Liu 379,000 Teo Sanchez 359,000 Weston Pring 358,000 Ma Ning 319000 David Quang 308,000 Dylan Payne 306,000 Alemu Makonen 297000 Roger Grosset 282,000 Rob Lothian 282,000 Jeet Shergill 279,000 Richard Mullen 279,000 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois 274,000 Zofimo Xavier 259,000 Trent Hopper 240,000 Manish Rach 220,000 Giuseppe Galluzzo 215,000 Marc-Andre Yelle 185,000 Saeed Ganji 185000 Andy Truong 177,000 Sean O’Reilly 161,000 Marco Carreira 142,000 Mal Hagan 137,000 Dylan Boyer 133,000 Yiming Nie 132,000 Luteng Li 123,000 Ryan Parungao 120,000 Greg Liow 87,000 Aidan Klingbeil 86,000 Julius Roque 79,000 Zhi Xiang Li 70,000 Clint Cockburn 66,000 -
403 Entries for 1b; 117 Remain
Level: 14 (3000/5000/5000) Entries: 117/403 (152/722) Prizes: $610,545 ($1,093,830) Day 1b entries ended with the combined prizes just shy of $1.1 million. There were 403 entries on 1b for $610k in 1b prizes. That means there are 61 paid spots from today with at least 40 moving on to Day 2. I’ll have the names of Day 1 payouts and bagging players later in the evening.
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Just Shy of 400
Level: 12 (1500/3000/3000) Entries: 162/397 (197/716) Prizes: $601,455 ($1,084,740) There are just under 30 minutes left in Level 12 with entries set to close on Day 1b at the start of Level 13. They’ll take a 15-minute break following this level with entries open until the end of the break. Right now, it looks like there will be ~60 paid spots with at least 40 players advancing, but that may change if numbers ramp up in the final 45 minutes of entry.
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385 Entries in Level 11
Level: 11 (1500/2500/2500) Entries: 180/385 (215/704) Prizes: $583,275 ($1,066,560) There are about 20 minutes to play in Level 11 in 1b of the Main Event. The 1b field is at 385 entries now for 704 across both flights and $1.066 million in prizes.
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Final Three Levels of Entry for 1b
Level: 10 (1000/2000/2000) Entries: 209/376 (244/695) Prizes: $569,640 ($1,052,925) The Main Event 1b players are back from their dinner break now so there are three levels of entry remaining. The reg-desk will stay open through the 15-minute break following Level 12 but will close at the start of Level 13 around 8:30 PM.
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Main Event 1b at 369 Entries
Level: 9 (1000/1500/1500) Entries: 228/369 (263/688) Prizes: $559,035 ($1,042,320) The 1b field is up to 369 entries with the action in Level 9. They’ll go for the dinner break following this level, then return for three more levels of entry before the second flight closes at the start of Level 13. The current combined prizes are just shy of $1.05 million.
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More than $1 Million in Prizes
Level: 7 (500/1000/1000) Entries: 249/349 (284/668) Prizes: $528,735 ($1,012,020) The combined prizes are now over $1 million for the Main Event with Day 1b at just shy of 350 entries. There are about 5 minutes to play in Level 7 and entries are still open for more than 4 hours so I expect to see another 50+ entries at least before the desk shuts down at about 8:30 PM.
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$1 Million in Sight
Level: 6 (400/800/800) Entries: 252/328 (287/647) Prizes: $496,920 ($980,205) There is more than $980k in prizes now with the 1b field at 328. That puts the combined field at almost 650 with players heading out for the break following Level 6.
In 2024, 1b got 435 entries so this year is still about 100 entries away from last year’s numbers, but entries are still open for more than 5 hours today.
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More than $900k in Prizes
Level: 5 (300/600/600) Entries: 252/296 (287/615) Prizes: $448,440 ($931,725) The 1b field is closing in on 300 entries with action in Level 5. That puts the 1b prizes just shy of $450k with the field 23 off the 1a numbers. Combined, the two flights are over 600 entries for prizes of more than $930k already.
I expect today’s flight to push that well above $1 million in total prizes with at least 100 more entries today, but time will tell what the final numbers will be.
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Second Flight to the Main Event Now Boarding
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, 11 AM
Day 3: Jan 20, 11 AMBlinds: 40/60 Minutes Starting Stack: 40k Late Entry: 12 Levels (~8:30 PM) Day 1 Ends: 17 Levels (~12:10 AM) Entries: 35/319 Prizes: $483,285 The opening flight to the Main Event is in the books and 35 players advanced to Day 2 from a starting field of 319 entries. The stack to beat at the moment belongs to Sunny Lubana (who donates 10% of all his winnings to an educational charity that puts underprivileged kids through school in his homeland of India) with 1.1 million
Players sit down with 40k in chips to play 40-minute levels on Day 1. Players can enter for 12 levels during Day 1, meaning the entry desk should close around 8:30 PM. After that, they’ll play 5 more levels on Day 1 (at most) but they’ll bag early if they hit 10% of the field before then. Note that’s a change from most events in the series where bags come out at 5%.
I likely won’t be watching Day 1a or 1b very closely as there are Day 2s running on both of those days, but I should be there for the duration of 1c (with a likely late start).
Event 12
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Michael Lim Leads 1c Stacks & Day 2
Day 1c is complete with 75 players bagging chips for Day 2 and 23 players getting Day 1 payouts. Michael Lim bagged the big stack from the final flight and it was enough to push Day 1a leader Sunny Lubana off the top spot but Lim and Lubana are the only players bringing a million or more into Day 2.
Rauno Tahvonen, Glenn Baker, Sarath Samakasekera, and Gordon Wong round out the 1c top five counts. I spotted two former champions in today’s field. Nicholas Teeuwen won the May 2024 Main and the first, and so far only, player from outside Alberta to bag a Calgary Main, was the final player to collect a cash on Day 1c, but Cody McKay, who won the first-ever Main Event ring in Calgary bagged more than 20 bigs for Day 2.
See below for a look at all the advancing stacks as well as the Day 1c Payouts.
Day 1c Bags
Player Chips Michael Won Taek Lim 1,187,000 Rauno Tahvonen 995,000 Glenn Baker 970,000 Sarath Samakasekera 893,000 Gordon Wong 875,000 Steven Filipovic 872,000 Angelo Jopek 865,000 Michael Letal 812,000 Hee Sun Lee 805,000 Renmei Liu 710,000 Robin Bergren 677,000 Pat DiCosneo 587,000 Nader Aram-Pamaki 578,000 Don Donghoon Lee 570,005 Scott Johnson 550,000 Aaron Quon 538,000 Cole Neufelf 528,000 Gordon Johnson 514,000 Alen Bakovic 454,000 Tier Cong Phung 429,000 Kevin Keiso 418,000 Andrew Fahey 404,000 Harman Jassal 380,000 Mehmet Ali Siginc 373,000 Chris Bowers 368,000 Jay Glass 364,000 Cuong Nguyen 360,000 Jorge Artiga Ocheco 347,000 Stephen Dauphinais 345,000 Bryan Lin 341,000 Francis Fortin 333,000 Trevor Morrisette 333,000 Steve Zhang 326,000 David Ko 315,000 Cody McKay 285,000 Chad Lummerding 273,000 Donald Arsenault 265,000 Yiquan Zhong 258,000 Sam Raz 258,000 Zeyu Du 257,000 Matthew Busch 256,000 Joey Basaraba 249,000 Colin Burton 246,000 Ron Campbell 243,000 Steve Labelle 240,000 Dustin Centanni 238,000 Chris Charlton 233,000 Nikhil Madadi 231,000 Jae Whan Lee 214,000 Christopher Bush 211,000 Connor Daynard 210,000 Kip Howard 205,000 Garrett Gilmurray 188,000 Rami Hammoud 187,000 Brian Robitaille Fequet 186,000 Michael Hooper 180,000 Jackson Oniske 179,000 Steve Dejarlais 176,000 Ke’Andre Willis 154,000 Robert Kliss 136,000 Wayne Hoffert 135,000 Daniel Lefebvre 126,000 John Lawford 124,000 Steve Mager 119,000 Frank Almond 115,000 Shawn Leis 115,000 Jayvee Lumahan 111,000 Brayden Brown 109,000 Richard Rex 97,000 Raymond Cawaling 92,000 Michael Retuya 88,000 Scott Stuve 83,000 Hoang Quach 81,000 Louis Collette 61,000 Ryan Cairns 48,000 Day 1c Payouts
Place Player Prize 76 Nicholas Teeuwen $3,415 77 Nicholas Peterson $3,415 78 Thomas Bona $3,415 79 Ben Locker $3,415 80 Minh Lieu $3,415 81 Ngoc Nguyen $3,415 82 Anthony Mar $3,415 83 Aaron Duczak $3,415 84 Morgan Mclellan $3,415 85 Xingchao Chen $3,415 86 Zachary Loxterkamp $3,415 87 Arkadii Vasylevskyi $3,415 88 Ricky Chow $3,415 89 Dallas Larson $3,415 90 Kalyan Cheekuri $3,415 91 Tiago Luis $3,415 92 Karim Chatur $3,415 93 Rishi Lal Makkar $3,415 94 Jeremy Poon $3,415 95 Youssef Hmama $3,415 96 Aaron Van-Male $3,415 97 Vincent Lam $3,415 98 Mark Bell $3,415 -
In the Money
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 98/649 (182/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) They are now in the money with a bit more than 30 minutes left in the night. One of the players who just made the money is Anthony Mar, a DJ from Vancouver. He had a bit of an epic story a couple of years ago, bagging 1a, flying back to Vancouver to DJ all weekend, and flying back in Sunday morning to cash on Day 2. He might be writing another story this year as he’s been here the whole time and cashed 1a and 1b so far. He’s now in the money on 1c as well for a minimum of three cashes, but he’s going for max value with cashing two flights and then bagging the whole thing on Day 3.
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Bubble Time!
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 99/649 (183/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The clock is paused with 43:24 remaining in Level 17 with action now on the hand-for-hand money bubble. They’ll take two minutes off the clock for each hand played now until the unfortunate bubble player hits the rail. The first-ever WSOP-C Calgary Main Event winner, Cody McKay, is still in the field looking to clear his first hurdle on the repeat win.
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Big Stacks Side-by-Side
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 100/649 (184/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) There’s an interesting dynamic developing on one table tonight as they near the bubble. Glenn Baker and Sunny Lee have both been playing big stacks fro most of the night, and now they are seated next to each other. Lee has position on Baker’s left, but he’s still playing a somewhat shorter stack than Baker who looks to be nearing a million now.
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Level 17 Has Begun 2 Off the Money
Level: 17 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 100/649 (184/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The final Level of play for 1c has just begun with the field two off the Day 1 money. There are 100 players left alive right now so the clock should pause very soon after the next elimination.
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Five Off the Money
Level: 16 (4000/8000/8000) Entries: 103/649 (187/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) Day 1c pay is just five eliminations away now with about 5 minutes to play in Level 16. Bubble play should be coming up shortly.
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Less the 10 from the Money
Level: 16 (4000/8000/8000) Entries: 107/649 (191/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) They are down to 107 players left in 1c of the Main with about 20 minutes to play in Level 16. It now looks likely that it will be late in this level or early in 17 when the clock pauses for hand-for-hand play.
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Inaugural Winner Stacking Chips
Level: 16 (4000/8000/8000) Entries: 112/649 (196/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) They are 14 off the money with players on the break following Level 16. This is the final break of the night with two more levels on the schedule. Bubble play in Level 16 still looks likely and one player who’ll be eyeing that mark and beyond is the inaugural winner of this event in Jan 2022, Cody McKay. He’s in the action today and playing about 220k right now, looking to be the first repeat Main Event winner at WSOP-C Calgary. McKay won a bit more than $290k for that one, but the win this year should easily be worth more than $300k.
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Likely More than $300k for the Winner
Level: 15 (3000/6000/6000) Entries: 113/649 (197/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) I likely won’t have eyes on the prizes tonight since they won’t be able to even start doing the final prize pool until they know how many players bag up tonight. That means no one will likely know the prizes until sometime Sunday morning, but they’ll be on the board when Day 2 players return to the Sundance room at noon Sunday.
Based on previous editions of the Main Event, however, it looks like a lock that the top prize for the Main this time around will be more than $300k. Based on the percentage from Jan 2024, 1st place would by just over $310k — that number may vary slightly when the final prizes come out on Sunday, but it looks certain to be over $300k.
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Baker & Lee on Big Stacks
Level: 15 (3000/6000/6000) Entries: 117/649 (201/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) As they near the money bubble, the early leader Sunny Lee looks to have dropped to second place. He’s playing about 780k right now, up from his previous big stack but Glen Baker has chipped up to the lead with about 900k in front of him.
They are now less than 20 players to the money with about 10 minutes to play before the final break of the night, so bubble play in Level 16 still looks on track.
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30(ish) off the Money
Level: 15 (3000/6000/6000) Entries: 129/649 (213/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The board says they are 31 away from the money now, but the truth is it’s less than 30 as they are only updating the board when a table breaks. Money starts getting handed out at 98th place tonight so my guess is the bubble play happens sometime in Level 16 after the final break of the night.
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Day 1c Prizes Confirmed
Level: 14 (3000/5000/5000) Entries: 153/649 (237/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The numbers for 1c are confirmed and 649 entries for more than $980k in prizes on the final flight. That puts the total prize pool at $2.077 million.
There are 98 paid spots from today’s action with at least 65 players going through to tomorrow’s Day 2. If they hit 65 before the end of Level 17 the bags will come out early, otherwise the remaining players will bag at the end of 17. The only thing that might mess with that schedule would be if they don’t make it to 98 before the end of 17. Day 1c MUST hit the money, so if they aren’t in the money by the end of 17, they’ll keep playing until 98 players are left, and then bag for the night.
Day 1c Prizes
Place Prize 1-65 Day 2 66-71 $3,586 72-98 $3,415 -
A Few More Notable Stacks & Some Hands from Alex
Level: 14 (3000/5000/5000) Entries: 171/649 (255/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) Alex has been wandering around watching some of the action as well and he just relayed a couple of interesting hands to me. Steve Zhang just won a hand with trips over trips blind on blind when both players rivered trip sixes. Ryan Jensen preserved his tournament life by open-folding a set of eights on a seven-nine-three-eight-six board, He would have been at risk with a call on the very straight-y board and elected for discretion over valour.
Notable Stacks
Kalyan Cheekuri 140,000 Shawn Leis 130,000 Weimin Hou 120,000 Anthiny Mar 110,000 Jodie Dunfield 100,000 Chris Bowers 235,000 Steve Dejarlais 200,000 Richard Rex 120,000 Matt Hall 200,000 Colin Burton 300,000 Marc Lavergne 210,000 -
Teeuwen Defends
Level: 13 (2000/4000/4000) Entries: 180/649 (264/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) The cutoff opened to 8k and big blind and ME champ Nicholas Teeuwen called to see a flop of 3♠9♦J♣. He checked it over to the cutoff who fired 6k, but then folded to the check-raise to 22k. Teeuwn won this event in May 2024 to be the first non-Alberta player to bag the Main Event here in Calgary and he’s sitting at a table that includes Cuong Lieu, who was runner-up in the May 2022 Main Event, Youssef Hmama, Ben Locker, Jackson Oniske, and Jayvee Lumahan.
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649 (Unoffocial) for 1c
Level: 13 (2000/4000/4000) Entries: 214/649 (298/1371) Prizes: $983,235 ($2,077,065) Entries for the Main Event are now closed with the final unofficial tally for Day 1c at 649 entries. That will be confirmed later tonight when the 1c prizes are posted, but if it holds it should mean 98 paid spots from today with at least 65 players bagging for tomorrow’s Day 2.
While there are a lot of familiar faces in the crowd who have been here for most of the series, there are a couple of players I’ve seen today for the first time. Weimin Hou, who picked up a ring here in the mix NLH/PLO event in 2022, Sinan Tawfik, and Anthony Mar are all here for the final few days of play.
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Entries Nearly Closed for the Main
Level: 12 (1500/3000/3000) Entries: 232/647 (316/1369) Prizes: $980,205 ($2,074,035) There are about 10 minutes left in the break following Level 12 with entries to the Main Event set to close when they sit down for Level 13. The prizes are just shy of $2.1 million at the moment, and it doesn’t look like it will quite hit that mark before it shuts down for the night, but it’s still a decent turnout.
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Some Notable and Big Stacks from Alex and Nick
Level: 12 (1500/3000/3000) Entries: 235/640 (319/1362) Prizes: $969,600 ($2,063,430) The prizes are pushing towards $2.1 million today with the field up to 1,362 combined and 640 for 1c alone. I’ve gotten a bit of help from Alex again here in the Main Event room, along with double-ring winner Nicholas Lee. They’ve just grabbed some chip counts for me and it looks like Sunny Lee is the chip leader so far today with 550k in front of him. See below for a few other stacks thanks to Akex and Nick.
Player Chips Shariq Khan 40,000 David Ko 110,000 Cuong Lieu 100,000 Chris Clisby 90,000 Aaron Quon 175,000 Stephen Dauphinais 306,000 Phillip Louie 61,000 Sam Gottiparthi 40,000 Mehmet Siginc 305,000 Takuma Bergeron 240,000 Bash Ramahi 131,000 Joey Basaraba 220,000 Mike Malm 125,000 Michael Hooper 325,000 Reg Hampton 170,000 Harmon Jassal 270,000 -
More than $2.05 Million
Level: 11 (15008/2500/2500) Entries: 243/633 (327/1355) Prizes: $958,995 ($2,052,825) The prize pool is now over $2.05 million with about an hour left to enter the game. The 1c field is over 630 entries now for a total of 1,355 across all three starting days. They need 45 more entries to hit 1,400 total which would put the prizes over $2.12 million.
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90 Minutes Left in Reg
Level: 11 (1500/2500/2500) Entries: 262/626 (346/1348) Prizes: $948,390 ($2,042,220) The combined prizes are pushing close to $2.05 million now with 626 entries for 1c and 1,348 across all days. There are about 30 minutes left in Level 11 with the entry desk shutting down at the start of Level 13 os the end of entries is now about 90 minutes away.
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Back from Dinner
Level: 10 (1000/2000/2000) Entries: 295/615 (379/1337) Prizes: $931,725 ($2,025,555) The combined prizes are now over $2.025 million with 615 entries on the board today and 1,337 across all three starting days. There are just under 2 hours left to get your stack into the Main Event now with entries set to close for good at 8:3o PM tonight.
Also, check out the contemporaneous coverage of the Ladies event going on now as well. Alek Gillies is in the Chrome room following all the Ladies action and he’ll be on the case until they award the ring later tonight.
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More than $2 Million in Prizes
Level: 10 (1000/2000/2000) Entries: 329/604 (413/1326) Prizes: $915,060 ($2,008,890) The 1c players are less than 5 minutes away from sitting down for Level 10 and the final three levels of entry for this Main Event. The 1c field just pushed over 600 for prizes of more than $2 million across all starting days but it’s likely we’ll see a few more entries before the desk shuts for the night.
The combined field is now at 1,326, less than 75 away from 1,400, so that’s not an impossible number to hit with a bit more than 2 hours to get into the game.
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Nearing 600 Entries for 1c
Level: 9 (1000/1500/1500) Entries: 315/590 (399/1312) Prizes: $893,850 ($1,987,680) The 1c field is up to 590 now for more than 1,300 in total. That puts the combined prizes less that $15k away from $2 million with about 15 minutes to play in Level 9.
The 1c players will take a dinner break following this level, then return for three more levels of entry after dinner before the Main Event field is set in stone at the start of Level 13.
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$1.95 Million in Prizes
Level: 8 (600/1200/1200) Entries: 411/571 (495/1293) Prizes: $865,065 ($1,958,895) Day 1c prizes are now over $865k for a combined total of more than $1.95 million for the Main right now. There are about 4 hours of entry left on this Main so passing $2 million seems like a lock with ~25 more entries required to push past that.
The room(s) is full of familiar faces with the entirety of Sundance full to the rafters and several Main Event spillover tables over in Chrome playing out alongside the Ladies event. Alek Gillies is in the house over in Chrome following the Ladies for the night, so make sure to check out his coverage and give the Ladies some love as well.
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Nearing $2 Million in Prizes
Level: 7 (500/1000/1000) Entries: 390/550 (474/1272) Prizes: $833,250 ($1,927,080) As expected, Day 1c is a big one with 550 entries on the board and 390 remaining in play. That puts the combined field at 1,272, just 200 off the 2024 combined total of 1,475. The combined prizes are just shy of $2 million now and they need another 49 entries today to cap $2 million.
That number seems like it will be hit easily — it remains to be seen if they can find 200 entries to match last year. Registration is still open for more than 4 hours.
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Final Flight to the Main Goes on Saturday
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, 11 AM
Day 3: Jan 20, 11 AMBlinds: 40/60 Minutes Starting Stack: 40k Late Entry: 12 Levels (~8:30 PM) Day 1 Ends: 17 Levels (~12:10 AM) Entries: 84/722 Prizes: $1,093,830 There are two flights to the Main Event now in the books with the field at 722 entries and prizes of nearly $1.1 million. There are now 84 players waiting for Day 2 after 35 players advanced from the first flight and 49 more found bags in 1b.
That leaves the final shot coming Saturday at 11 am and it promises to be a big one. So far, Days 1a and b have fallen a bit short of expectations with the field now 55 smaller than the 2024 numbers after 2 flights. Sunny Lubana is still the stack to beat after bagging 1.1 million on 1a while 1b leader Pascal Gregoire is second after two flights.
Players sit down with 40k in chips to play 40-minute levels on Day 1. Players can enter for 12 levels during Day 1, meaning the entry desk should close around 8:30 PM. After that, they’ll play 5 more levels on Day 1 (at most) but they’ll bag early if they hit 10% of the field before then. Note that’s a change from most events in the series where bags come out at 5%.
I will be in the Sundance room for most of 1c, though I will be late to the floor after what is expected to be a late night with the PLO Bounty on Friday night.
Event 12
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Ashkan Razavi Leads Final 14
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Day 2 is over with 14 players still in action for the final day of play on Monday. Vancouver’s Ashkan Razavi bagged the big stack today with more than 8.5 million. That’s almost 2 million ahead of the second-place player Scott Johnson who has 6.68 million. Rus King also has more than 6 million for 3rd.
It’s worth noting that Razavi made Day 3 of this event in August of 2024, finishing his run in 4th place. In that one, he started Day 3 looking way up at the eventual winner Alex Liu who came into Day 3 with about half the chips in play five-handed. This year, everyone else will be looking up at Razavi.
Final 14 Stacks & Seats for the Main
Table-Seat Player Chips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 8,575,000 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 6,680,000 38 – 4 Rus King 6,160,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 5,640,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 5,365,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 3,995,000 38 – 7 John Dalphond 3,855,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 3,010,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 2,680,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 2,480,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 2,050,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 1,945,000 32 – 2 Dennis Ashmore 1,580,000 38 – 6 Michael Bernstein 725,000 -
Down to 14
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The dream od a repeat for Alex Liu is now dead as he hit the rail in 15th place tonight. He was the winner of the most recent Main Event last August, and made a pretty deep run in this one as the last winner still in action. That means that WSOP-C Calgary still has not had a repeat winner and this year will be a new player once again.
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Down to 15 with 20 Minutes to Go
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 15/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 15 with just over 20 minutes left in Day 2 after Steve Zhang hit the rail for 16th place tonight.
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16 Left with 35 Minutes to Play
Level: 27 (50000/100000/100000) Entries: 16/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 16 left with about 35 minutes to play until the Day 2 bags come out. Terry Goode and Romualdo Cusano were the most recent busts to bring them to 16.
Place Player Prize 17 Romualdo Cusano $12,865 18 Terry Goode $10,633 -
Final Level of the Night
Level: 27 (50000/10000/10000) Entries: 17/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Level 27 has just kicked off and this will be the final level of the night. It looks like Rus King is the leader now with about 6.85 million in front of him while Greg Taylor, two to his right, is on about 5.2 million. Ashkan Razavi (who was 4th in the August 2024 Main) and Pascal Gregoire are both playing stacks in the 4 million range.
There are now about 50 minutes left until they bag up for the night.
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Gregoire Doubles through Lim
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 17/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Michael Lim raised early to 165k and it folded around to Pascal Gregoire in the big blind. He put out the call to see J♣7♣K♠ on the flop.
Gregoire checked to Lim who bet 230k. Gregoire tanked for a bit before announcing all in with the smaller stack.
“Fuck,” Lim muttered under his breath, and the dealer double-checked to make sure he didn’t say “call.” He eventually did say “Call” and he was drawing to straight clubs with eight-seven against top pair for Gregoire with king-nine of hearts.
The 4♠2♦ runout were bricks and Gregoire’s king held up for the win and the double. Lim was the leader with over 6 million, but he shipped about 2.5 million of that over to Gregoire, putting Lim down to about 4 million with Gregoire up to a bit more than that.
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Pring Puts Liu to Test
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 18/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Weston Pring opened to 200k from the middle and August champ Alex Liu raised to 500k from the hijack. It folded back to Pring and he shoved more than Liu had behind. Liu hit the tank, checking the clock and the other table to assess the situation before folding after a couple of minutes in the tank.
“If it dropped to 17, I’d just call,” Liu said after the hand, as there is a $2,200 pay jump for 17th place tonight. Liu is relatively short at the moment, but he’s still in the running to be the first player to win two Main Event rings in Calgary.
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Final Two Tables
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 18/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to the final two tables with 18 players left now.
T-S Player Prize 19 Sam Raz $10,633 20 Zeyu James Du $10,633 -
Final 20 Stacks
Level: 26 (40000/80000/80000) Entries: 20/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 T-S Player Chips 19 – 2 Steve Zhang 950,000 19 – 3 Scott Johnson 2,175,000 19 – 4 Terry Goode 795,000 19 – 5 Weston Pring 3,015,000 19 – 6 Sam Raz 530,000 19 – 8 Michael Won Taek Lim 4,975,000 19 – 9 Michael Bernstein 2,945,000 26 – 2 Robin Bergren 4,025,000 26 – 3 Ashkan Razavi 4,325,000 26 – 5 Dennis Ashmore 1,560,000 26 – 6 Romualdo Cusano 1,405,000 26 – 7 Manish Rach 2,150,000 26 – 8 Angelo Jopek 3,340,000 26 – 9 Alex Liu 1,875,000 27 – 1 Pascal Gregoire 2,265,000 27 – 3 John Dalphond 4,325,000 27 – 4 Rus King 4,650,000 27 – 6 Greg Taylor 5,650,000 27 – 8 Zeyu James Du 580,000 27 – 9 Nikhil Madadi 3,340,000 -
20 Players Left
Level: 25 (30000/60000/60000) Entries: 20/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 20 players left with 10 minutes to play in Level 25. Recent payouts are below and stay tuned for a look at the remaining players in the field and how they are seated.
Place Player Prize 21 Sarath Samarasekera $10,633 22 Gavin Li $10,633 23 Stephen Dauphinais $10,633 24 Sean O’Reilly $10,633 25 Jeremy Lyons $10,633 -
Moved to Chrome with 25 Left
Level: 25 (30000/60000/60000) Entries: 25/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 25 left and play has moved into the Chrome room now. They cleared out of Sundance when they got down to the final two tables, but two more players have busted as I was getting set up in Chrome. See below for the recent payouts and check the Payouts tab for the full list from today.
Place Player Prizes 26 Aleksei Ponomarev $10,633 27 Pasquale Dicosmo $8,940 28 Giuilo Piredda Rosati $8,940 29 Jae Lee $8,940 -
Nearing 3 Tables
Level: 24 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 29/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are now two eliminations off the final three tables after Dunstin Centanni ran into it to end his day in 30th place. He was deep in the tank on the turn of a board reading 8♣7♦J♣2♥ until the clock was finally called on him after around 6 minutes. He made the call before time ran down, but his two pair with seven-eight was behind a set of eights for his opponent.
The river bricked out and Centanni was left short. The remainder went in a couple of hands later and he hit the rail for 30th place. Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois also hit the rail recently for 32nd place, but as previously mentioned, no matter how deep he went here today, he’s running pretty good in life right now.
Recent Payouts for the Main
Place Player Prize 30 Dustin Centanni $8,940 31 Tien Phung $8,940 32 Jeff (Ironman) Charlebois $8,940 -
Down to 32
Level: 24 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 32/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 32 remaining now in the Main — see below for the recent prizes and check the Payouts tab for the full payouts for Day 2. Once the field is down to the final three tables I’ll do my best to get full counts for the remaining players.
Place Player Prize 33 Alemu Makonen $8,940 34 Hee “Sunny” Lee $8,940 35 Thomas Taylor $8,940 -
Four More Levels in Day 2
Level: 24 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 35/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The players are now back from their dinner break with 35 players left on four tables. Rus King still looks to be leading with more than 4 million in front of him while Ashkan Razavi looks to be playing about 3 million. Angelo Jopek has about 2 million in front of him, and the August champ Alex Liu is playing just over a million. Meanwhile, Thomas Taylor has just hit the rail for 35th place.
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Charlebois is Running Great
Level: 23 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 35/1371 Prizes: $2,099,065 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois at the final table of the 6-Max event in Jan 2022 at WSOP-C Calgary One player who is still around at the final four tables of play today is Jeff Charlebois. He’ll be recognizable to most players here at Deerfoot Inn & Casino thanks to his ubiquitous Ironman mask, which debuted during the COVID restrictions back in Jan 2022.
He’s already having a pretty decent run in the Main Event this year with almost $9k already locked in, but the truth is, no matter how deep he goes in this one, he’s running well in life at the moment as he’s just beaten cancer.
Charlebois has spent the last 6 months in chemotherapy for a grapefruit-sized tumour, but on the first Friday of the series he received good news from his doctor — the tumour is now nothing but scar tissue. He spent the day calling friends and family to relay the good news, then decided to get into his car and drive all night for some poker here at Deerfoot.
Obviously, beating cancer has given Charlebois a new lease on life, and while his first few days at the series were a bit rough with exhaustion, he’s found his second wind with three cashes so far. But more than that, he said the 6 months he spent in treatment were a real eye-opener for him as he was going through chemo with 41 other people, seeing them for six hours every three weeks during his treatments.
While Charlebois had a good chance at recovering as a result of the chemo sessions, many of the people he was sitting with weren’t so lucky, going through the grueling process with far less hope of recovery. He said he realized just how blessed he was after watching his fellow patients struggle.
Cancer is a bitch, and it’s not always possible to write a “feel-good” story about it. Charlebois is a great example that it can be beaten, at least in some cases, but he also wants to remind people that life is short and it can take sharp turns when we least expect it. Glad to see you back in action Jeff — the local community hopes to be seeing you at the tables for a long time coming.
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Four Tables Left on Dinner
Level: 23 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 35/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Main Event players are on their dinner break now with the end of Level 23 and they are down to the final four tables. In theory, there are still chips at five tables as they got down to 35 with two busts on the final hand before dinner, so they’ll break a table as soon as they get back in about 30 minutes.
Recent Payouts from the Main
Place Player Prize 36 Rauno Tahvonen $7,647 37 Shane Brotherwood $7,647 38 Malachy Hagan $7,647 -
O’Reilly Doubles
Level: 23 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 38/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Sean O’Reilly might be living the life of Reilly right now as he just survived with a double after cracking aces. He shoved the hijack over a raise from the middle, but his [invalid notations] was in trouble against pocket aces. The flop didn’t look good for O’Reilly, but one diamond gave him a glimmer of hope, and when the turn and river also sparkled he found a double to stay alive today.
Recent Payouts from Main Event
Place Player Prize 39 Nicholas Lee $7,647 40 Gordon Johnson $7,647 41 Kevin Huang $7,647 42 Zhi Yang $7,647 43 Aaron Quon $7,647 44 Michael Letal $7,647 -
Bergren Leads Final 44
Level: 22 (15000/30000/30000) Entries: 44/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is down to the final five tables tonight with about 20 minutes to play in Level 22. Robin Bergren just sent a player to the rail to bump his stack to about 4 million and what looks like the lead right now. Greg Taylor and Rus King are both playing around 3.8 million while recent PPT Main Event winner Stephen Dauphinais has about 2 million in front of him. Giulio Rosati is playing just shy of that, while the August Champion Alex Liu is on about 1.3 million and sitting next to one of his compatriots from that final table, Ashkan Razavi who has about 2 million right now.
Recent Payouts
Place Player Prize 45 Joshua Frazer $6,658 46 Saeed Ganji $6,658 47 Gennady Klimenko $6,658 48 Andrew Fahey $6,658 49 Cuong Nguyen $6,658 50 Colten Yamagishi $6,658 51 Shawn Leis $6,658 -
51 Remain at Second Break
Level: 22 (15000/30000/30000) Entries: 51/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Main Event players are on their second break of the day now with 51 players left in the action. They will be back at the felt in about 5 minutes for Level 22 with 6 levels to play in Day 2.
Recent Payouts for the Main
Place Player Prize 52 Kris Steinbach $6,658 53 Wai Chan $6,658 54 Chun Kwan $5,902 55 Ruoxiao Shi $5,902 56 David Swirski $5,902 57 Alen Bakovic $5,902 -
Down to 57 Left
Level: 21 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 57/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 57 players left in the Main Event with 20 minutes to play in Level 21. There is another break following this level with six levels of play remaining in the day after the break.
I’ve been spending some time today catching up on the series results in my combined spreadsheets, and the numbers for this year are looking decent. It looks like the total will be a bit down from the 2024 numbers this year as the combined prizes for the series are sitting at just over $5 million from nearly 9,000 entries with two events to go. With the High Roller and Last Chance yet to play, it’s likely that total will end up over 9,000 entries with somewhere around $5.6 million in total prizes.
Recent Payouts from the Main
Place Player Prize 58 Joshua Hopkins $5,902 59 Sunny Lubana $5,902 60 Connor Daynard $5,902 61 Jay Glass $5,902 62 Christopher Charlton $5,902 63 Matthew Busch $5,329 64 Teo Sanchez $5,329 65 Donald Arsenault $5,329 66 Garrett Gilmurray $5,329 -
66 Remain in Day 2 of Main
Level: 20 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 66/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 66 players left in the Main Event with about 5 minutes to play in Level 20. The action has slowed a little bit as the field dwindles, but there’s still a pretty steady stream of players heading to the Payout desk to get their slips signed.
Recent Payouts from Main Event
Place Player Prize 67 Robert Kliss $5,329 68 Haochen Zhou $5,329 69 Ke’Andre Willis $5,329 70 Rocco Smeriglio $5,329 71 Ron Campbell $5,329 72 Steven Filipovic $4,901 73 Scott Dyck $4,901 74 Nader Aram Panahi $4,901 75 Clinton Cockburn $4,901 76 Roman Gallivan $4,901 77 Trent Hopper $4,901 78 Gaetano Buda $4,901 79 Talal Shoush $4,901 80 Dylan Payne $4,901 81 David Quang $4,595 -
Down to 81
Level: 20 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 81/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is still dropping pretty fast here on Day 2 with just 81 players left in the game and 40 minutes to play in Level 20.
Recent Payouts (Full Prizes Under Payouts Tab)
Place Player Prize 82 Yiming Nie $4,595 83 Bemjamin Cooper $4,595 84 Ryan Parungao $4,595 85 Jacob Watrich $4,595 86 Mehmet Seginc $4,595 87 Jimmy Lee $4,595 88 Glenn Baker $4,595 89 Yiquan Zhong $4,595 90 Giuseppe Galluzzo $4,392 91 Robert Lothian $4,392 -
91 Remain at First Break
Level: 20 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 91/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is down to 91 players at the first break of Day 2 and the action at the Payouts desk is slowing somewhat for the first time today. Players will be back at the felt in about 10 minutes for Level 20, but in the meantime, below is a look at recent payouts.
Place Player Prize 92 Frank Almond $4,392 93 Chad Lummerding $4,392 94 Hassan Issa $4,392 95 Yong Lu $4,392 96 Faisal Al Qutub $4,392 97 Roger Grosset $4,392 98 Mike Leah $4,392 99 Cody Mckay $4,281 100 Gordon Wong $4,281 101 Renmei Liu $4,281 102 Kevin Kelso $4,281 103 Richard Rex $4,281 -
103 Remain
Level: 19 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 103/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 103 players left in the game with 20 minutes to play in Level 19. Recent prizes are below with the full list under the Payouts tab.
Place Player Prize 104 Karamjeet Shergill $4,281 105 Cole Neufeld $4,281 106 Louis Collette $4,281 107 Jackson Oniske $4,281 108 Rafael Stern $4,078 109 Jorge-Alberto Artiga-Pacheco $4,078 110 Christopher Bush $4,078 111 Rami Hammoud $4,078 -
111 Remain
Level: 19 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 111/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The field is nearing double-digits now with more than 45 players hitting the rail since the start of the day. The second level of Day 2 has about 40 minutes remaining with the first break of the day scheduled following this level.
Recent Day 2 Payouts
Place Player Prize 112 Pavlo Vertiiko $4,078 113 Kevin Javier $4,078 114 Ryan Cairns $4,078 115 David Swaim $4,078 116 Dongwoo Ko $4,078 117 Scott Stuve $4,078 118 Richard Mullen $4,078 119 Marc-Andre Yelle $4,078 120 Steven Labelle $4,078 121 Zilong Zhao $4,078 122 Hoang Quach $4,078 123 Jeremie Bilodeau $4,078 124 Francis Fortin $4,078 125 Ning Ma $4,078 126 Steven Desjarlais $4,078 -
More than 30 Players Gone in First Level
Level: 18 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 126/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The action is moving quickly here on Day 2 with the field down to 126 already and still 10 minutes to play in the opening level. As usual, recent payouts are below with the complete prizes so far (and full prize numbers to first) are under the Payouts tab.
Place Player Prize 127 Bryan Lin $4,078 128 Trevor Morrisette $4,078 129 Alexander Wong $4,078 130 Keith Mcintosh $4,078 131 Christopher Bowers $4,078 132 Kyle Chang $4,078 133 Marco Carreira $4,078 134 Zofimo Xavier $4,078 135 Andy Truong $4,078 136 Kip Howard $4,078 137 Dylan Boyer $4,078 138 Jayvee Lumahan $4,078 139 Harpreet Padda $4,078 140 Wayne Hoffert $4,078 141 Colin Burton $4,078 142 Daniel Lefebvre $4,078 -
Dropping Fast
Level: 18 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 142/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The payouts have been coming fast so far today with the field already down to 142 and barely 20 minutes gone in the opening level of play. Below is a look at the early prizes today and the full prize numbers, along with results so far, are listed on the Payouts tab.
Place Player Prize 143 Luting Li $4,078 144 Don Lee $4,078 145 Gregory Liow $4,078 146 Michael Hooper $4,078 147 Jacob Hobday $4,078 148 Aidan Klingbeil $4,078 149 Michael Retuya $4,078 150 Raymond Cawaling $4,078 151 Steven Mager $4,078 152 Julius Roque $4,078 153 Tianshu Liu $4,078 154 John Lawford $4,078 155 Harman Jassal $4,078 156 Kayvan Payman $4,078 157 Joe Basaraba $4,078 158 Bryan Robitaille-Fequet $4,078 159 Brayden Brown $4,078 -
$312,624 for the Winner
Level: 18 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 147/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The prizes are in and the winner at the end of the game is going to pocket $312k for their troubles this series. The numbers are dropping quickly with 12 players hitting the rail since the start of play about 15 minutes ago. I’m still working on getting the Payouts page updated with all the numbers, but look for a fairly long list of early payouts coming shortly.
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159 Players Return for Day 2 of the Main
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, Noon
Day 3: Jan 20, NoonBlinds: 60 Minutes Entries: 159/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Day 2 field is set with 159 players returning all in the money. There are two big stacks that everyone is looking up at — Michael Lin and Sunny Lubana are the only players with more than a million, and they both have at least 1.1 million. Rauno Tahvonen came oh-so-close to the million mark with 995k while Glenn Baker has 970k for 4th and Sarath Samakasekera is just shy of 900k for fifth.
Day 2 action gets underway at noon at the start of Level 18 since all three flights in this one went the distance. The blinds will move to 60 minutes at the start of play and remain there through the final hand on Monday. Day 2 is scheduled to play until the end of Level 27 and all remaining players will bag for Day 3 on Monday.
Day 2 Stacks by Name
Table-Seat Player Chips 65 – 9 Aaron Quon 538,000 52 – 7 Aidan Klingbeil 86,000 48 – 9 Aleksei Ponomarev 566,000 50 – 5 Alemu Makonen 297000 59 – 8 Alen Bakovic 454,000 45 – 6 Alex Liu 425,000 55 – 8 Alexander Wong 72,000 61 – 5 Andrew Fahey 404,000 57 – 2 Andy Truong 177,000 65 – 4 Angelo Jopek 865,000 49 – 2 Ashkan Razavi 765,000 57 – 8 Ben Cooper 445,000 64 – 4 Brayden Brown 109,000 62 – 3 Brian Robitaille Fequet 186,000 62 – 7 Bryan Lin 341,000 48 – 8 Chad Lummerding 273,000 47 – 7 Chris Bowers 368,000 62 – 5 Chris Charlton 233,000 56 – 2 Christopher Bush 211,000 48 – 5 Chun Kit Kwan 579,000 56 – 5 Clint Cockburn 66000 60 – 2 Cody McKay 285,000 54 – 7 Cole Neufelf 528,000 65 – 8 Colin Burton 246,000 54 – 9 Colten Yamagishi 623,000 54 – 1 Connor Daynard 210,000 59 – 9 Corey Chan 571,000 60 – 8 Cuong Nguyen 360,000 57 – 5 Daniel Lefebvre 126,000 62 – 2 David Ko 315,000 55 – 7 David Quang 308,000 57 – 9 David Swaim 413,000 47 – 4 David Swirski 399,000 45 – 4 Dennis Ashmore 284,000 60 – 5 Don Donghoon Lee 570,005 65 – 5 Donald Arsenault 265,000 46 – 9 Dustin Centanni 238,000 57 – 7 Dylan Boyer 133,000 47 – 1 Dylan Payne 306,000 51 – 7 Failsal Al Qutub 380,000 61 – 4 Francis Fortin 333,000 50 – 1 Frank Almond 115,000 56 – 7 G Klimenko 405,000 47 – 3 Gaetano Buda 462,000 64 – 9 Garrett Gilmurray 188,000 55 – 1 Giulio Rosati 561,000 59 – 7 Giuseppe Galluzzo 215,000 65 – 1 Glenn Baker 970,000 46 – 2 Gordon Johnson 514,000 62 – 1 Gordon Wong 875,000 56 – 6 Greg Liow 87,000 51 – 5 Greg Taylor 433,000 49 – 6 Haochen Zhou 374,000 47 – 2 Harman Jassal 380,000 46 – 3 Harpreet Padda 160,000 59 – 4 Hassan Issa 480,000 45 – 1 Hee Sun Lee 805,000 45 – 7 Hoang Quach 81,000 52 – 4 Jackson Oniske 179,000 45 – 9 Jacob Hobday 105,000 56 – 4 Jacob Watrich 368,000 61 – 8 Jae Whan Lee 214,000 46 – 4 Jashua Frazer-James 374,000 61 – 6 Jay Glass 364,000 61 – 2 Jayvee Lumahan 111,000 54 – 5 Jeet Shergill 279,000 47 – 5 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois 274,000 48 – 2 Jeremie Bilodeau 169,000 47 – 9 Jeremy Lyons 169,000 52 – 3 Jimmy Lee 406,000 51 – 8 Joey Basaraba 249,000 50 – 2 John Dalphond 435,000 55 – 6 John Lawford 124,000 51 – 2 Jorge Artiga Ocheco 347,000 46 – 7 Joshua Hopkins 465,000 52 – 5 Julius Roque 79,000 52 – 1 Kayvan Payman 124,000 65 – 7 Ke’Andre Willis 154,000 57 – 1 Keith McIntosh 96,000 54 – 4 Kevin Javier 243,000 54 – 2 Kevin Jeffrey Huang 480,000 55 – 3 Kevin Keiso 418,000 61 – 3 Kip Howard 205,000 55 – 5 Kris Steinbach 501,000 51 – 6 Kyle CHang 130,000 60 – 1 Louis Collette 61,000 50 – 9 Luteng Li 123,000 51 – 3 Ma Ning 319000 52 – 8 Mal Hagan 137,000 46 – 6 Manish Rach 220,000 45 – 8 Marc-Andre Yelle 185,000 54 – 6 Marco Carreira 142,000 61 – 1 Matthew Busch 256,000 64 – 3 Mehmet Ali Siginc 373,000 52 – 2 Michael Bernstein 600,000 49 – 9 Michael Hooper 180,000 62 – 4 Michael Letal 812,000 64 – 1 Michael Retuya 88,000 49 – 5 Michael Won Taek Lim 1,187,000 50 – 3 Mike Leah 544,000 61 – 7 Nader Aram-Pamaki 578,000 46 – 8 Nicholas Lee 692,000 60 – 6 Nikhil Madadi 231,000 59 – 1 Pascal Gregoire 886,000 64 – 7 Pat DiCosneo 587,000 48 – 1 Pavlo Vertiiko 593,000 45 – 5 Rafael Stern 404,000 60 – 3 Rami Hammoud 187,000 48 – 3 Rauno Tahvonen 995,000 50 – 6 Raymond Cawaling 92,000 64 – 2 Renmei Liu 710,000 59 – 3 Richard Mullen 279,000 50 – 7 Richard Rex 97,000 46 – 1 Rob Lothian 282,000 49 – 1 Robert Kliss 136,000 47 – 8 Robin Bergren 677,000 50 – 8 Rocco Smeriglio 290,000 52 – 6 Roger Grosset 282,000 55 – 2 Roman Gallivan 176,000 56 – 9 Romualdo Cusano 606,000 56 – 1 Ron Campbell 243,000 51 – 9 Ruoxiao SHi 316,000 57 – 6 Rus King 396,000 51 – 4 Ryan Cairns 48,000 59 – 2 Ryan Parungao 120,000 55 – 4 Saeed Ganji 185000 52 – 9 Sam Raz 258,000 57 – 4 Sarath Samakasekera 893,000 48 – 7 Scott Dyck 326,000 48 – 6 Scott Johnson 550,000 62 – 9 Scott Stuve 83,000 56 – 8 Sean O’Reilly 161,000 51 – 1 Shane Brotherwood 634,000 59 – 5 Shawn Leis 115,000 45 – 2 Stephen Dauphinais 345,000 46 – 5 Steve Dejarlais 176,000 64 – 8 Steve Labelle 240,000 62 – 6 Steve Mager 119,000 65 – 2 Steve Zhang 326,000 60 – 4 Steven Filipovic 872,000 56 – 3 Sunny Lubana 1,100,000 49 – 8 Talal Shoush DNR 57 – 3 Teo Sanchez 359,000 47 – 6 Terry Goode 409,000 54 – 3 Thomas Taylor 477,000 49 – 3 Tianshu Liu 379,000 65 – 6 Tier Cong Phung 429,000 54 – 8 Trent Hopper 240,000 64 – 5 Trevor Morrisette 333,000 62 – 8 Wayne Hoffert 135,000 59 – 6 Weston Pring 358,000 55 – 9 Yiming Nie 132,000 65 – 3 Yiquan Zhong 258,000 48 – 4 Yong Lu 499,000 60 – 7 Zeyu Du 257,000 49 – 7 Zhi Xiang Li 70,000 50 – 4 Zhigang George Yang 363000 49 – 4 Zilong Zhao 347,000 45 – 3 Zofimo Xavier 259,000 Day 2 Chips by Seat
Table-Seat Player Chips 45 – 1 Hee Sun Lee 805,000 45 – 2 Stephen Dauphinais 345,000 45 – 3 Zofimo Xavier 259,000 45 – 4 Dennis Ashmore 284,000 45 – 5 Rafael Stern 404,000 45 – 6 Alex Liu 425,000 45 – 7 Hoang Quach 81,000 45 – 8 Marc-Andre Yelle 185,000 45 – 9 Jacob Hobday 105,000 46 – 1 Rob Lothian 282,000 46 – 2 Gordon Johnson 514,000 46 – 3 Harpreet Padda 160,000 46 – 4 Joshua Frazer-James 374,000 46 – 5 Steve Dejarlais 176,000 46 – 6 Manish Rach 220,000 46 – 7 Joshua Hopkins 465,000 46 – 8 Nicholas Lee 692,000 46 – 9 Dustin Centanni 238,000 47 – 1 Dylan Payne 306,000 47 – 2 Harman Jassal 380,000 47 – 3 Gaetano Buda 462,000 47 – 4 David Swirski 399,000 47 – 5 Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois 274,000 47 – 6 Terry Goode 409,000 47 – 7 Chris Bowers 368,000 47 – 8 Robin Bergren 677,000 47 – 9 Jeremy Lyons 169,000 48 – 1 Pavlo Vertiiko 593,000 48 – 2 Jeremie Bilodeau 169,000 48 – 3 Rauno Tahvonen 995,000 48 – 4 Yong Lu 499,000 48 – 5 Chun Kit Kwan 579,000 48 – 6 Scott Johnson 550,000 48 – 7 Scott Dyck 326,000 48 – 8 Chad Lummerding 273,000 48 – 9 Aleksei Ponomarev 566,000 49 – 1 Robert Kliss 136,000 49 – 2 Ashkan Razavi 765,000 49 – 3 Tianshu Liu 379,000 49 – 4 Zilong Zhao 347,000 49 – 5 Michael Won Taek Lim 1,187,000 49 – 6 Haochen Zhou 374,000 49 – 7 Zhi Xiang Li 70,000 49 – 8 Talal Shoush DNR 49 – 9 Michael Hooper 180,000 50 – 1 Frank Almond 115,000 50 – 2 John Dalphond 435,000 50 – 3 Mike Leah 544,000 50 – 4 Zhigang George Yang 363000 50 – 5 Alemu Makonen 297000 50 – 6 Raymond Cawaling 92,000 50 – 7 Richard Rex 97,000 50 – 8 Rocco Smeriglio 290,000 50 – 9 Luteng Li 123,000 51 – 1 Shane Brotherwood 634,000 51 – 2 Jorge Artiga Ocheco 347,000 51 – 3 Ma Ning 319000 51 – 4 Ryan Cairns 48,000 51 – 5 Greg Taylor 433,000 51 – 6 Kyle CHang 130,000 51 – 7 Failsal Al Qutub 380,000 51 – 8 Joey Basaraba 249,000 51 – 9 Ruoxiao SHi 316,000 52 – 1 Kayvan Payman 124,000 52 – 2 Michael Bernstein 600,000 52 – 3 Jimmy Lee 406,000 52 – 4 Jackson Oniske 179,000 52 – 5 Julius Roque 79,000 52 – 6 Roger Grosset 282,000 52 – 7 Aidan Klingbeil 86,000 52 – 8 Mal Hagan 137,000 52 – 9 Sam Raz 258,000 54 – 1 Connor Daynard 210,000 54 – 2 Kevin Jeffrey Huang 480,000 54 – 3 Thomas Taylor 477,000 54 – 4 Kevin Javier 243,000 54 – 5 Jeet Shergill 279,000 54 – 6 Marco Carreira 142,000 54 – 7 Cole Neufelf 528,000 54 – 8 Trent Hopper 240,000 54 – 9 Colten Yamagishi 623,000 55 – 1 Giulio Rosati 561,000 55 – 2 Roman Gallivan 176,000 55 – 3 Kevin Keiso 418,000 55 – 4 Saeed Ganji 185000 55 – 5 Kris Steinbach 501,000 55 – 6 John Lawford 124,000 55 – 7 David Quang 308,000 55 – 8 Alexander Wong 72,000 55 – 9 Yiming Nie 132,000 56 – 1 Ron Campbell 243,000 56 – 2 Christopher Bush 211,000 56 – 3 Sunny Lubana 1,100,000 56 – 4 Jacob Watrich 368,000 56 – 5 Clint Cockburn 66000 56 – 6 Greg Liow 87,000 56 – 7 G Klimenko 405,000 56 – 8 Sean O’Reilly 161,000 56 – 9 Romualdo Cusano 606,000 57 – 1 Keith McIntosh 96,000 57 – 2 Andy Truong 177,000 57 – 3 Teo Sanchez 359,000 57 – 4 Sarath Samakasekera 893,000 57 – 5 Daniel Lefebvre 126,000 57 – 6 Rus King 396,000 57 – 7 Dylan Boyer 133,000 57 – 8 Ben Cooper 445,000 57 – 9 David Swaim 413,000 59 – 1 Pascal Gregoire 886,000 59 – 2 Ryan Parungao 120,000 59 – 3 Richard Mullen 279,000 59 – 4 Hassan Issa 480,000 59 – 5 Shawn Leis 115,000 59 – 6 Weston Pring 358,000 59 – 7 Giuseppe Galluzzo 215,000 59 – 8 Alen Bakovic 454,000 59 – 9 Corey Chan 571,000 60 – 1 Louis Collette 61,000 60 – 2 Cody McKay 285,000 60 – 3 Rami Hammoud 187,000 60 – 4 Steven Filipovic 872,000 60 – 5 Don Donghoon Lee 570,005 60 – 6 Nikhil Madadi 231,000 60 – 7 Zeyu Du 257,000 60 – 8 Cuong Nguyen 360,000 61 – 1 Matthew Busch 256,000 61 – 2 Jayvee Lumahan 111,000 61 – 3 Kip Howard 205,000 61 – 4 Francis Fortin 333,000 61 – 5 Andrew Fahey 404,000 61 – 6 Jay Glass 364,000 61 – 7 Nader Aram-Pamaki 578,000 61 – 8 Jae Whan Lee 214,000 62 – 1 Gordon Wong 875,000 62 – 2 David Ko 315,000 62 – 3 Brian Robitaille Fequet 186,000 62 – 4 Michael Letal 812,000 62 – 5 Chris Charlton 233,000 62 – 6 Steve Mager 119,000 62 – 7 Bryan Lin 341,000 62 – 8 Wayne Hoffert 135,000 62 – 9 Scott Stuve 83,000 64 – 1 Michael Retuya 88,000 64 – 2 Renmei Liu 710,000 64 – 3 Mehmet Ali Siginc 373,000 64 – 4 Brayden Brown 109,000 64 – 5 Trevor Morrisette 333,000 64 – 7 Pat DiCosneo 587,000 64 – 8 Steve Labelle 240,000 64 – 9 Garrett Gilmurray 188,000 65 – 1 Glenn Baker 970,000 65 – 2 Steve Zhang 326,000 65 – 3 Yiquan Zhong 258,000 65 – 4 Angelo Jopek 865,000 65 – 5 Donald Arsenault 265,000 65 – 6 Tier Cong Phung 429,000 65 – 7 Ke’Andre Willis 154,000 65 – 8 Colin Burton 246,000 65 – 9 Aaron Quon 538,000 Event 12
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Manish “Bubs” Ralh Wins Main Event for $312,624
Manish “Bubs” Ralh, Winner of WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025 Main Event Manish “Bubs” Ralh shows off the WSOP-C bling after winning the Main Manish “Bubs” Ralh is relatively new to the game, but he’s already won his first Circuit ring. He had a stellar run heads up against Angelo Jopek in the Main Event Day 3, coming from behind once they got two ways.
His first recorded cash was in 2020, but the rest of his results are from 2024 and he said at the table during heads-up that he’s only recently gotten serious about the game. This is his second win but biggest score by a long shot — his lifetime earnings before tonight were just over $80k USD with a best cash of $44k. Tonight’s win comes close to quadrupling his lifetime earnings before tonight.
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Angelo Jopek Out in 2nd Place for $208,416
Level: 34 (250000/500000/500000) Entries: 1/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek Angelo Jopek was on the run of his life for most of the final table, but when he got heads up against Manish “Bubs” Ralh, it all came crashing down for him. Ralh dominated the heads up portion, taking most of the pots and building a big lead by dinner. Jopek found some life and clawed some chips back on a hand with significant flop action.
The pot was more than 10 million by the end of the flop action, with paired nines and a three on the board. Jopek had been winning pots all day with a nine in his hand, prompting the 4-bet/call action on the flop. It slowed down to checking on the turn and Jopek fired 3.2 million on the river when it ran out ten-four, forcing a fold from Ralh.
That was about all he could get though as Ralh’s relentless aggression, and apparently going card dead, kept Jopek on his heels. It ended on a hand when Ralh raised it to 1.25 million and then snap-called when Jopek shoved. Ralh was miles in front chip-wise, and also with the hand as Jopek was left looking for a king with king-seven against pocket jacks. No help came on the flop and Jopek had to settle for second, though it’s worth noting the players evened the prizes a bit between them.
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Jopek Gets Some Back
Level: 34 (250000/500000/500000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 It was limped preflop to see 9♣3♥9♠. “That’s my card, man,” Angelo Jopek said with a smile as he’s won a few pots tonight with at least one 9 in his hand.
Jopek checked and Manish Ralh bet 500k. Jopek came over the top to 1.6 million before Ralh smiled and said “What, my nine is no good? Kicker problems?”
Ralh pumped it up to 3.5 million and Jopek called. The both checked on the 10♠ turn, and Jopek fired 3.2 million on the 4♦ river. Ralh conceded the hand and Jopek got a few chips back.
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Ralh With Lead at Dinner
Level: 34 (250000/500000/500000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 The Main Event players are on their dinner break now with Manish Ralh holding a big advantage. The last 30 minutes or so has been a lot of non-showdown hands with Ralh taking the majority and slowly chipping up to more than 40 million while it seems like Angelo Jopek’s rungood has stalled and he is down to 14 million.
They are just about to return to the action shortly.
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Jopek Folds Straight
Level: 33 (200000/400000/400000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek raised to 800k from the button and Manish Ralh called. Ralh check-called for 1 million on the K♦J♥10♦ flop. He check-called again on the A♠ turn for 1.5 million, but when Rahl fired 5 million on the 2♦ river Jopek tanked for a few seconds before folding Q♠4♠ face up. Ralh showed it was a solid fold as he tabled 9♦5♦ for the rivered straight.
The players have now taken a quick break with the stacks virtually even though Jopek still has about 2 million more.
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“You Play That Shit?”
Level: 33 (200000/400000/400000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 In a pretty funny hand, both players limped it preflop, then checked through a board of 6♦Q♥7♥8♦7♦. On the river Angelo Jopek said “No balls, you win. Five high.”
Manish Ralh hesitated for the few seconds, showing his own five high with five-three. Jopek tables five-three as well. “You play that shit?” he joked as they chopped the pot.
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Heads Up Players
Heads up WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025 Main Event Mansih Ralh Heads Up in the Main Angelo Jopek Heads Up in the Main It’s a battle heads up now. Angelo Jopek is still leading but Manish Ralh has some chips to work with as well.
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Ashkan Razavi Out in 3rd Place for $147,340
Level: 32 (150000/300000/300000) Entries: 2/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Ashkan Razavi Ashkan Razavi was 4th in this event in Aug 2024, and he just went one better today with 3rd place. After big stack Angelo Jopek folded the button, Mansih Ralh raised the small blind to 850k then tank-called when Razavi shoved the big for 7.725 million.
It was a gross spot for Razavi with nines into pocket tens for Ralh. The board ran dry for both hands leaving the tens in front and Razavi on the rail in 3rd.
Jopek is still sitting behind a mountain of chips, but Ralk is now on close to 20 million after collecting Razavi’s stack.
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Ralh Chips Up
Level: 32 (150000/300000/300000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Manish Ralh opened the button to 700k and Angelo Jopek defended his big blind. Jopek check-called for 400k on the 8♠K♣10♠ flop and again for 1.5 million on the 6♦ turn. They both checked the 2♥ river and Rlah announced “King” showing K♣9♦ while Jopek fired his cards to the muck after spending about 20 seconds staring at his hand and the board.
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Jopek Loses One, Wins One
Level: 32 (150000/300000/300000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 In the first hand, Angelo Jopek raised to 600k from the button and Ashkan Razavi called from the big blind. Razavi check-called for 400k on the 8♥3♠A♠ flop and they both checked the Q♥ turn. When the 3♣ river paired the board, both players checked again and Jopek mucked when Razavi showed A♦6♦.
“I wanted to bluff, but that river was terrible,” Jopek said.
The next hand Manish Ralh raised to 700k from the button and Jopek called from the big blind. They both checked the 5♠Q♣7♣ flop, and Ralh folded after Jopek check-raised the 2♥ turn from 800k to 2.1 million.
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Jopek Has 70% of the Chips
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek is on the run of his life today. He now has 70% of the chips in play at the final table with more than 38 million. Neither of his competitors has 10 million, so he;s got a stranglehold on the final three.
They’ll be back for Level 32 (150k/300k/300k) in a bit more than 5 minutes.
T-S PlayerChips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 9,025,000 32 – 3 Angelo Jopek 38,450,000 32 – 7 Manish Ralh 7,475,000 -
Jopek Has it Again
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek looks unstoppable now. He just rivered a flush against Manish Ralh to take a big pot worth more than 7 million.
Ralh raised the button to 600k preflop and Jopek called to see a flop of Q♣K♣J♥. He check-raised from 600k to 1.65 million and Ralh called.
They both checked the Q♥ turn, but Jopek slid out 3.65 million on the 7♣ river. Ralh called but mucked when Jopek showed J♣9♣ for the rivered flush.
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Pascal Gregoire Out in 4th Place for $105,691
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 3/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Pascal Gregoire Angelo Jopek is on the run of his life now, playing well and hitting cards when he has to. He just sent Pascal Gregoire to the rail by cracking his pocket kings. Jopek called off with ten-nine and turned trip nines for a huge win. I’ll grab exact counts in about 10 minutes when they go on break, but Jopek now has at least half the chips in play.
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Scott Johnson Out in 5th Place for $76,945
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 4/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Scott Johnson They are four ways now after Scott Johnson followed Greg Taylor to the rail today. I missed the action as he busted while I was writing the previous hand, but he took the final 5-digit payout tonight with the remaining players now all guaranteed at least $105,691.
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Greg Taylor Out in 6th Place for $56,864
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 5/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Greg Taylor They are down to five now after Greg Taylor shoved under the gun and Ashkan Razavi called from the big blind for a not-so-classic race between ace-jack for Razavi and king-queen for Taylor. The board ran dry for both hands and Razavi’s ace held for the win.
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Johnson Holds
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Manish Ralh raised to 550k from the middle before Scott Johnson shoved 1.2 million from the hijack. Ralh called for a race between his J♠10♠ and pocket sevens for Johnson. Ralh flopped some hope with backdoor spades, but when the 9♠4♣2♣A♣4♠ runout was done, the sevens were still good.
Johnson doubled to a bit more than 3 million while Ralh is still playing a bit more than 10 million after the hand. There is a break coming in about 20 minutes and I’ll do another full round of counts while they are away from the table, but it’s safe to say Angelo Jopek is still the big stack as he has a stack of plaques in front of him plus several stacks of blues.
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Jopek On a Run
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Angelo Jopek has been on a run for the past 39 minutes or so, stacking chips like crazy. He is now playing close to half the chips in play with just shy of 24 million in front of him and only about 55 million in play.
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Johnson Finds a Double
Level: 31 (150000/250000/250000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Greg Taylor raised to 1 million under the gun, the snapped it off when Scott Johnson shoved the small blind for 1.5 million. Taylor was dominated with ace-jack into ace-king and the board missed both hands to leave the ace-king in front. Taylor was left with about 5.1 million while Johnson is up to about 4 million.
They are still pretty deep on the final table with more than 200 big blinds in play right now.
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Rus King Out in 7th Place for $42,669
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 6/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Rus King The are down to seven left after Angelo Jopek raised the small blind to 400k, then snapped it off when Rus King shoved the big with less. King was dominated with king-seven into ace-king, but the 2♥5♥5♠10♠A♣ didn’t bring any joy for King and Jopek chipped up a bit more as King hit the rail for 7th place.
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Robin Bergren Out in 8th Place for $32,516
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 7/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Robin Bregren They are down to 7 remaining in the Main Event after Robin Bergren shoved ace-eight and was called off by queen-nine. He had about 5 bigs and looked in decent shape to double in what amounted to roughly a race. The nine came on the river to send Bergren to the cage for 8th place tonight.
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Nikhil Madadi Out in 9th Place for $25,172
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 8/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Nikhil Madadi Nikhil Madadi shoved and Rus King called with more from his left. Madadi needed a king or diamonds with K♦Q♦ against pocket queens for King. The board paired jacks but there was no king or diamonds coming for Madadi and he was out in 9th place tonight.
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Michael Lim Out in 10th Place for $19,800
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 9/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Michael Lim Michael Lim was the first player to exit the final table today in 10th place. I missed the action while I was processing the pictures, but he’s had a bit of a rollercoaster today with his stack up and down.
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Final Table Faces
Scott Johnson Rus King Robin Bregren Pascal Gregoire Nikhil Madadi Michael Lim Manish Ralh Greg Taylor Ashkan Razavi Angelo Jopek -
Weston Pring Out in 11th Place for $19,800
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 10/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Weston Pring laddered up a couple of spots today but ended his day just before the final table. I missed the action while getting chip counts done from the break. Stay tuned for some final table faces coming soon.
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Johnny Dalphond Out in 12th Place for $15,829
Level: 30 (100000/200000/200000) Entries: 11/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Johnny Dalphond hit the rail just before the break for 12th place, though I missed the action while I was writing the previous bust. I’ve just had a look at all the remaining stacks with Ash Razavi still out in front and Manish Ralh also playing more than 10 million.
T-S Player Chips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 13,550,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 1,250,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 2,250,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 2,250,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 1,825,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 3,050,000 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 5,375,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 4,425,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 3,825,000 38 – 4 Rus King 6,025,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 10,225,000 -
Dennis Ashmore Out in 13th Place for $15,829
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 12/1371 Prizes: $2,077,65 Dennis Ashmore was one of the shorties coming into today, but he managed to ladder up one pay jump at least. Pascal Gregoire shoved the hijack for 1.575 million and Dennis Ashmore called with less from the small blind. He was in trouble with pocket fours into pocket sixes and the board missed both hands to send Ashmore out in 13th place.
The remaining 12 players will be on their first break of the day in a couple of minutes, and I’ll grab chip counts while they are away from the table.
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Lim Turns it to Stay Alive
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 13/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Michael Lim was down to just over 1.5 million when he got it in with suited connectors and Johnny Dalphond called it off with ace-queen off. Lim flopped huge with a flush and straight draws on 5♠3♠2♥ then turned the spades on the K♠10♣ runout with his seven-six of spades.
Lim is up to about 3.5 million now while Dalphond dropped to 2.66 million.
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Michael “Berny” Bernstein Out in 14th Place for $12,865
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 13/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 They are down to 13 and everyone is now guaranteed almost $16k with the pay jump at 13th place. Michael Bernstein came into today with the short stack and he did his best to grab a double, putting his final 500k into the middle with pocket sevens from the button. Scott Johnson called it off from the big blind with king-nine, then spike two pair on the 6♣K♥9♦3♦J♥ board. Berny couldn’t find his seven and hit the rail in 14th place today.
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Pring Doubles through Razavi in Crazy Runout
Level: 29 (100000/150000/150000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Ashkan Razavi was on pocket tens against the pocket aces for Weston Pring when the money went in preflop. Razavi smashed the flop with a ten to jump into the lead as Pring let out a loud sigh. That changed toa cheer when the ace hit the turn to re-pop Pring to the top. He held for a huge double to stay alive in a hand that initially looked like it would bad-beat him to the rail for the min-cash today.
Estimated Chips
T-S Player Chips 32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 10,500,000 32 – 2 Dennis Ashmore 1,200,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 3,200,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 3,500,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 2,300,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 1,400,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 3,300,000 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 5,300,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 4,000,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 4,500,000 38 – 4 Rus King 5,000,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 5,000,000 38 – 6 Michael Bernstein 1,000,000 38 – 7 John Dalphond 3,300,000 -
Ralh Has It & Flops It; Pring Gets it Through
Level: 28 (60000/120000/120000) Entries: 14/1731 Prizes: $2,077,035 Rus King opened the hijack to 300k then called when Manish Ralh raised it up from the cutoff to 1.3 million. The flop was 7♠9♠Q♦ and King checked to Ralh, then folded when Ralh put out 1.35m. Ralh showed pocket queens for the flopped set.
Meanwhile, on the other table, Ashkan Razavi opened the hijack to 240k, then folded when Weston Pring shoved for a bit less than 2 million.
The opening level of Day 3 is nearly complete with action moving to 100k/150k/150k in about a minute.
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Ace Doesn’t Scare Lim
Level: 28 (60000/120000/120000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 Scott Johnson opened the cutoff to 275k before Michael Lim reraised the small blind to 600k. Big blind Rus King said “Easy fold” as he mucked his hand, but Johnson called to see a flop of 4♥A♦10♦.
Lim fired 500k and Johnson laid down his hand. Lim rolled over pocket kings as he collected the pot, showing that the ace on the flop didn’t scare him.
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Final Day of Play at WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025
Level: 28 (60000/120000/120000) Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 It’s the final day of play here at WSOP-C Calgary for Jan 2025 and that means there’s some money on the table. One of the players seated around the final two tables of the Main Event will pocket more than $311k later today, but all 14 of them have already secured a decent score of at least $12,865.
Ashkan Razavi comes into Day 3 with the lead and he’s been here before — He was 4th last August in this event so he’ll be looking to go a few spots deeper than that today. Scott Johnson and Rus King are his closest competitors with stacks in the 6 million range but every player in the game today has the chips and skills to take it all the way.
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Ashkan Razavi Leads Day 3 Stacks
Event 12: $1,700 Main Event ($1,515 + $185) Date: Day 1a: Jan 16, 11 AM
Day 1b: Jan 17, 11 AM
Day 1c: Jan 18, 11 AM
Day 2: Jan 19, Noon
Day 3: Jan 20, NoonBlinds: 60 Minutes Entries: 14/1371 Prizes: $2,077,065 There are 14 players left in the Main Event for Day 3 and Ashkan Razavi, who took 4th in the August Main, is the chip leader to start Day 2. He has 8.575 million to start the day with Scott Johnson his closest competitor with 6.68 million. Rus King also has more than 6 million while Michael Lim and Robin Bergeron are playing stacks in the 5 million range.
Day 3 action starts at noon on Monday in the Chrome room and they’ll play it down to a winner on Monday. Blinds will remain at 60 minutes throughout the day and everyone returning is guaranteed at least $12,865. That will be the first payout before it jumps to $15,829 at 13th place. See the Payouts tab for a look at all the prizes awarded on Day 2.
Day 3 Players, Seats, and Stacks
32 – 1 Ashkan Razavi 8,575,000 32 – 2 Dennis Ashmore 1,580,000 32 – 4 Weston Pring 1,945,000 32 – 6 Robin Bergren 5,365,000 32 – 7 Pascal Gregoire 3,010,000 32 – 8 Nikhil Madadi 2,050,000 32 – 9 Angelo Jopek 2,480,000 — — — 38 – 1 Scott Johnson 6,680,000 38 – 2 Greg Taylor 3,995,000 38 – 3 Michael Won Taek Lim 5,640,000 38 – 4 Rus King 6,160,000 38 – 5 Manish Ralh 2,680,000 38 – 6 Michael Bernstein 725,000 38 – 7 John Dalphond 3,855,000 Day 3 Prizes
Place Prize 1 $312,624 2 $208,416 3 $147,340 4 $105,691 5 $76,945 6 $56,864 7 $42,669 8 $32,516 9 $25,172 10 $19,800 11 $19,800 12 $15,829 13 $15,829 14 $12,865 Event 16
Place | Player | Prize |
---|---|---|
1 | Manish “Bubs” Ralh | $312,624 |
2 | Angelo Jopek | $208,416 |
3 | Ashkan Razavi | $147,340 |
4 | Pascal Gregoire | $105,691 |
5 | Scott Johnson | $76,945 |
6 | Gregory Taylor | $56,864 |
7 | Rus King | $42,669 |
8 | Robin Bergren | $32,516 |
9 | Nikhil Madadi | $25,172 |
10 | Won(Michael) Lim | $19,800 |
11 | Weston Pring | $19,800 |
12 | Johnny Dalphond | $15,829 |
13 | Dennis Ashmore | $15,829 |
14 | Michael Bernstein | $12,865 |
15 | Alex Liu | $12,865 |
16 | Ye(Steve) Zhang | $12,865 |
17 | Romualdo Cusano | $12,865 |
18 | Terry Goode | $10,633 |
19 | Sam Raz | $10,633 |
20 | Zeyu James Du | $10,633 |
21 | Sarath Samarasekera | $10,633 |
22 | Gavin Li | $10,633 |
23 | Stephen Dauphinais | $10,633 |
24 | Sean O’Reilly | $10,633 |
25 | Jeremy Lyons | $10,633 |
26 | Aleksei Ponomarev | $10,633 |
27 | Pasquale Dicosmo | $8,940 |
28 | Giuilo Piredda Rosati | $8,940 |
29 | Jae Lee | $8,940 |
30 | Dustin Centanni | $8,940 |
31 | Tien Phung | $8,940 |
32 | Jeff (Ironman) Charlebois | $8,940 |
33 | Alemu Makonen | $8,940 |
34 | Hee “Sunny” Lee | $8,940 |
35 | Thomas Taylor | $8,940 |
36 | Rauno Tahvonen | $7,647 |
37 | Shane Brotherwood | $7,647 |
38 | Malachy Hagan | $7,647 |
39 | Nicholas Lee | $7,647 |
40 | Gordon Johnson | $7,647 |
41 | Kevin Huang | $7,647 |
42 | Zhi Yang | $7,647 |
43 | Aaron Quon | $7,647 |
44 | Michael Letal | $7,647 |
45 | Joshua Frazer | $6,658 |
46 | Saeed Ganji | $6,658 |
47 | Gennady Klimenko | $6,658 |
48 | Andrew Fahey | $6,658 |
49 | Cuong Nguyen | $6,658 |
50 | Colten Yamagishi | $6,658 |
51 | Shawn Leis | $6,658 |
52 | Kris Steinbach | $6,658 |
53 | Wai Chan | $6,658 |
54 | Wai Chan | $5,902 |
55 | Ruoxiao Shi | $5,902 |
56 | David Swirski | $5,902 |
57 | Alen Bakovic | $5,902 |
58 | Joshua Hopkins | $5,902 |
59 | Sunny Lubana | $5,902 |
60 | Connor Daynard | $5,902 |
61 | Jay Glass | $5,902 |
62 | Christopher Charlton | $5,902 |
63 | Matthew Busch | $5,329 |
64 | Teo Sanchez | $5,329 |
65 | Donald Arsenault | $5,329 |
66 | Garrett Gilmurray | $5,329 |
67 | Robert Kliss | $5,329 |
68 | Haochen Zhou | $5,329 |
69 | Ke’Andre Willis | $5,329 |
70 | Rocco Smeriglio | $5,329 |
71 | Ron Campbell | $5,329 |
72 | Steven Filipovic | $4,901 |
73 | Scott Dyck | $4,901 |
74 | Nader Aram Panahi | $4,901 |
75 | Clinton Cockburn | $4,901 |
76 | Roman Gallivan | $4,901 |
77 | Trent Hopper | $4,901 |
78 | Gaetano Buda | $4,901 |
79 | Talal Shoush | $4,901 |
80 | Dylan Payne | $4,901 |
81 | David Quang | $4,595 |
82 | Yiming Nie | $4,595 |
83 | Bemjamin Cooper | $4,595 |
84 | Ryan Parungao | $4,595 |
85 | Jacob Watrich | $4,595 |
86 | Mehmet Seginc | $4,595 |
87 | Jimmy Lee | $4,595 |
88 | Glenn Baker | $4,595 |
89 | Yiquan Zhong | $4,595 |
90 | Giuseppe Galluzzo | $4,392 |
91 | Robert Lothian | $4,392 |
92 | Frank Almond | $4,392 |
93 | Chad Lummerding | $4,392 |
94 | Hassan Issa | $4,392 |
95 | Yong Lu | $4,392 |
96 | Faisal Al Qutub | $4,392 |
97 | Roger Grosset | $4,392 |
98 | Mike Leah | $4,392 |
99 | Cody Mckay | $4,281 |
100 | Gordon Wong | $4,281 |
101 | Renmei Liu | $4,281 |
102 | Kevin Kelso | $4,281 |
103 | Richard Rex | $4,281 |
104 | Karamjeet Shergill | $4,281 |
105 | Cole Neufeld | $4,281 |
106 | Louis Collette | $4,281 |
107 | Jackson Oniske | $4,281 |
108 | Rafael Stern | $4,078 |
109 | Jorge-Alberto Artiga-Pacheco | $4,078 |
110 | Christopher Bush | $4,078 |
111 | Rami Hammoud | $4,078 |
112 | Pavlo Vertiiko | $4,078 |
113 | Kevin Javier | $4,078 |
114 | Ryan Cairns | $4,078 |
115 | David Swaim | $4,078 |
116 | Dongwoo Ko | $4,078 |
117 | Scott Stuve | $4,078 |
118 | Richard Mullen | $4,078 |
119 | Marc-Andre Yelle | $4,078 |
120 | Steven Labelle | $4,078 |
121 | Zilong Zhao | $4,078 |
122 | Hoang Quach | $4,078 |
123 | Jeremie Bilodeau | $4,078 |
124 | Francis Fortin | $4,078 |
125 | Ning Ma | $4,078 |
126 | Steven Desjarlais | $4,078 |
127 | Bryan Lin | $4,078 |
128 | Trevor Morrisette | $4,078 |
129 | Alexander Wong | $4,078 |
130 | Keith Mcintosh | $4,078 |
131 | Christopher Bowers | $4,078 |
132 | Kyle Chang | $4,078 |
133 | Marco Carreira | $4,078 |
134 | Zofimo Xavier | $4,078 |
135 | Andy Truong | $4,078 |
136 | Kip Howard | $4,078 |
137 | Dylan Boyer | $4,078 |
138 | Jayvee Lumahan | $4,078 |
139 | Harpreet Padda | $4,078 |
140 | Wayne Hoffert | $4,078 |
141 | Colin Burton | $4,078 |
142 | Daniel Lefebvre | $4,078 |
143 | Luting Li | $4,078 |
144 | Don Lee | $4,078 |
145 | Gregory Liow | $4,078 |
146 | Michael Hooper | $4,078 |
147 | Jacob Hobday | $4,078 |
148 | Aidan Klingbeil | $4,078 |
149 | Michael Retuya | $4,078 |
150 | Raymond Cawaling | $4,078 |
151 | Steven Mager | $4,078 |
152 | Julius Roque | $4,078 |
153 | Tianshu Liu | $4,078 |
154 | John Lawford | $4,078 |
155 | Harman Jassal | $4,078 |
156 | Kayvan Payman | $4,078 |
157 | Joe Basaraba | $4,078 |
158 | Bryan Robitaille-Fequet | $4,078 |
159 | Brayden Brown | $4,078 |