2025 WSOPC Calgary – Event #17: $400 Big 30 Stack NLH

Steven Labelle recognized when he got heads up that he was against a more skilled player in Michael Malm, and said as much out loud on several occasions during the final table. He also said he was dead tired more than once, and his strategy to deal with both those problems was to shove nearly every hand.

He mostly adopted a shove-or-fold strategy for the heads-up phase, as excellent strategy for anyone who feels outmatched heads up as it removes the possibility for the more skilled player to steal pots on late streets. The strategy kept Malm on his heels, mostly having to fold to the shoves and giving up his calls or raises.

That let Labelle chip back up, and despite Malm doubling into the lead a few times, Labelle was always able to chip back up through his aggression. On the final hand, Malm called off the shove with a hand that had Labelle dominated but the poker Gods are fickle, and Labelle found his kicker for a three-outer win. He had a slightly bigger stack at the time and the ring was his.

That’s a wrap from Deerfoot Inn & Casino for the January 2025 WSOP-C Calgary — I’ll tidy up some final posts and admin work on Tuesday, but that’s another successful Circuit stop for Calgary in the books.

It was a tough heads-up battle for Michael Malm tonight. He was going for his second ring in this series but ran into the unconventional play of Steven Labelle. Labelle said multiple times during heads up that he was very tired, and his strategy was to shove most hands.

Malm had the patience of a saint, waiting for the right spot against the aggression of Labelle. He doubled into the lead a couple of times over the night, but folding to the shoves in between chipped his opponent back up again.

In the final hand he was set to double into a huge lead with most of the chips in the middle. Labelle shoved with ace-ten and Malm went to domination nation with ace-queen. Unfortunately for Malm, Labelle spiked a ten and held for the win as he had Malm slightly outstacked at the time.

Malm won the $1k earlier in the series, and he’s also been heads up in this event before as well. Last time it was Lap Chi Duong he had to hand the ring over to, but it seems pretty likely he’ll be in the hunt for more rings here in Calgary when the WSOP-C returns in October.

Steven Labelle is up to about 4 million after he shoved 1.77 million with jacks and Michael Malm called off with queen-six. The jacks held and Labelle doubled, but Malm is still leading by about 2:1.

Steven Labelle shoved and Mike Malm called for a race between his ace-queen suited and pocket deuces. He flopped an ace and held to drop Labelle to about 1.5 million.

Steven Labelle shoved and Michael Malm called. It was ace-three for Labelle against king-six suited for Malm and the ace held for the double. That puts them roughly even now.

Steve Labelle shoved and Mike Malm called with the dominating hand. Malm had ace-king against king-nine of diamonds and the ace-king held for a double.

It was limped to the flop of 5♠6♣2♦ and Michael Malm led for 250k. Steven Labelle called to the [invalid notations] river, but called when Labelle bet 425k. Labelle showed 10♠3♠ for the backdoor flush win.

It’s heads up now between Michael Malm and Steven Labelle with Labelle on about a 2 million chip lead to start heads up. Morgan McLellan was 3rd place tonight/

Chris Alcindor was looking for his second ring this series after taking down the HORSE last week. Unfortunately he fell short with 4th place tonight in a blind-on-blind hand against Morgam McLellan. McLellan had him dominated with the best king.

Michael Malm and Griffin Ristevski got it in with Malm on ace-three against king-ten of diamonds for Ristevski. Malm held to send Ristevski out in 5th.

There are five left now after Charlie Schwalm took sixth place. I missed the action while writing the last hand.

They are down to 6 now after Hai Oan shoved under the gun and Morgan McLellan reshoved a it more to isolate from the button. He was ahead with A♠J♠ against K♠7♦. Oan flopped a 7, but McLellan rivered a jack for the win.

There are seven left now as three players busted while I was getting the photos uploaded.

Place	Player	Prize
8	Ben Field	$2,619
9	Darcey Beaucage	$2,068
10	Marc-Andre Kudjick-Paquin	$1,673

They are down to the final table now after Tyler Thomas bubbled the final ten. Thomas won this event last January when it was a $250 buy-in but he won’t be doing the year-on-year repeat this year.

Mike Malm is back in the lead with nearly 4 million now after his kings held against ace-king for a big double. They are now down to 11 on the final table bubble.

Recent Payouts (Full list on the Payouts tab)

Place	Prize	Player
12	Chris Duffy	$1,387
13	Weston Pring	$1,387
14	Dean May	$1,180
15	Jeff Saunders	$1,180
16	Cody Cloutier	$1,180
17	Jacob Watrich	$1,180
18	Dongwoo Ko	$1,031

There are two players still left in the final event who have a shot at winning their second ring of the series. Chris Alcindor took down the first HORSE tournament on Alberta soil earlier in the series, while Mike Malm took down the $1k event. Malm is also chip-leading at the moment with around 3 million after sending Weston Pring to the rail in 13th place.

Pring opened, then called off when Malm raised enough to force him in. It was a race between ace-six for Pring and fours for Malm and the fours held.

They are now three off the final table with 13 players left. The average stack is creeping up towards 20 big blinds for the first time in a couple of hours at least, but that will change again when the blinds go up in 3 minutes.

The players are back from the break and Level 24 is just underway. I had a look around at the break and it looked like Morgan McLellan was the chip leader with about 1.3 million, but Mike Malm had about 1.1 million and just sent Jeff Saunders to the rail. Saunders was also playing about a million, so Malm is now the clear leader with almost 2.3 million.

Marc-Andre Kudjick-Paquin is also fairly big playing about 1.2 million while HORSE winner Chris Alcindor folded a big hand before the break to McLellan, keeping about 900k back to play with.

They are down to the final two tables with 18 players left. I don’t have a full list of players remaining yet, but among the players still alive are Mike Malm and Weston Pring, who were 1 and 2 in the API race last year, as well as Tyler Thomas who has won this event in a previous series when it was a $250 buy-in.

Recent Payouts

Place	Player	Prize
19	Donald Arsenault	$1,031
20	Ricky Chow	$1,031
21	Wai Chan	$1,031
22	Scott Gallant	$1,031
23	Ngoc Nguyen	$1,031
24	Joel Kogan	$1,031
25	Ksenia Shuali	$1,031
26	Jonnathan Brownlee	$1,031
27	Edwin Seagris	$925
28	Barry Bay	$925
29	Jean-Pierre Hetu	$925
30	Ryan Parker	$925
31	Joshua Frazer	$925
32	Raymond Trieu	$925
33	Kendrick Arason	$925

They are dropping quickly in this event with the average stack still pretty short at 15 big blinds. Below is a look at the recent payouts (fill a full list under the Payouts tab). One player to note is Youssef Hmama, who booked his seventh cash of the series tonight. He started the series off with 2nd place in Event #2, and while he hasn’t been that deep again, he found six more money finishes.

Recent Payouts

Place	Player	Prize
34	Youssef Hmama	$925
35	Kalil Geha	$925
36	Deepak Chaunkaria	$853
37	Baowei Sun	$853
38	Riley Tobin	$853
39	Frank Szelepcsenyi	$853
40	Ghislaine Johnson	$853
41	Jason Kelson	$853
42	Julius Roque	$853
43	Curtis Singleton	$853
44	Steven Parkin	$853
45	Hee Lee	$812

The action is moving fast since the bubble with the field down to 45 now. The average stack is a bit less than 20 big blinds, so that is driving the action a bit at this point.

First 15 Payouts in Final Event

Place	Player	Prize
46	George Lagos	$812
47	Linda The	$812
48	Roneen Shaffer	$812
49	Vikram Gill	$812
50	Adrian Chan	$812
51	Erin Pulchinski	$812
52	Chris Fabris	$812
53	Marc-Andre Yelle	$812
54	Ian Monahoyios	$812
55	Giuseppe “The Don” Galluzzo	$812
56	Nicholas Ruiz	$812
57	Maksim Kniter	$812
58	Derek Dufour	$812
59	Gerry Edwards	$812
60	Trent Hopper	$812

They are in the money in the final game of this 2025 WSOP-C Calgary event. The field is down to 54 and I’ll get the prizes updated shortly in the Payouts tab.

The field for the final event is set at 400 entries. That means 60 players will share in $132k in prizes later tonight with the winner set to take home more than $26k.

Big 30 Stack Prize Summary

The final ring event of the series kicks off at 4 PM on Monday. The Big 30 Stack bookends the series as the opening and closing events.

Players buy into the final event for 30k in chips and they play 20-minute levels until one player has all the chips. This game likely goes to 2 or 3 AM depending on numbers, so look for a late one today. Players can enter late until the start of Level 12, which means the last chance to buy into WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025 will be at about 8:10 PM.

I won’t be watching this series very closely until after both the Main Event and the High Roller have awarded their rings, but expect some late-night endgame action here to finish off my series.

Steven Labelle recognized when he got heads up that he was against a more skilled player in Michael Malm, and said as much out loud on several occasions during the final table. He also said he was dead tired more than once, and his strategy to deal with both those problems was to shove nearly every hand.

He mostly adopted a shove-or-fold strategy for the heads-up phase, as excellent strategy for anyone who feels outmatched heads up as it removes the possibility for the more skilled player to steal pots on late streets. The strategy kept Malm on his heels, mostly having to fold to the shoves and giving up his calls or raises.

That let Labelle chip back up, and despite Malm doubling into the lead a few times, Labelle was always able to chip back up through his aggression. On the final hand, Malm called off the shove with a hand that had Labelle dominated but the poker Gods are fickle, and Labelle found his kicker for a three-outer win. He had a slightly bigger stack at the time and the ring was his.

That’s a wrap from Deerfoot Inn & Casino for the January 2025 WSOP-C Calgary — I’ll tidy up some final posts and admin work on Tuesday, but that’s another successful Circuit stop for Calgary in the books.

It was a tough heads-up battle for Michael Malm tonight. He was going for his second ring in this series but ran into the unconventional play of Steven Labelle. Labelle said multiple times during heads up that he was very tired, and his strategy was to shove most hands.

Malm had the patience of a saint, waiting for the right spot against the aggression of Labelle. He doubled into the lead a couple of times over the night, but folding to the shoves in between chipped his opponent back up again.

In the final hand he was set to double into a huge lead with most of the chips in the middle. Labelle shoved with ace-ten and Malm went to domination nation with ace-queen. Unfortunately for Malm, Labelle spiked a ten and held for the win as he had Malm slightly outstacked at the time.

Malm won the $1k earlier in the series, and he’s also been heads up in this event before as well. Last time it was Lap Chi Duong he had to hand the ring over to, but it seems pretty likely he’ll be in the hunt for more rings here in Calgary when the WSOP-C returns in October.

Steven Labelle is up to about 4 million after he shoved 1.77 million with jacks and Michael Malm called off with queen-six. The jacks held and Labelle doubled, but Malm is still leading by about 2:1.

Steven Labelle shoved and Mike Malm called for a race between his ace-queen suited and pocket deuces. He flopped an ace and held to drop Labelle to about 1.5 million.

Steven Labelle shoved and Michael Malm called. It was ace-three for Labelle against king-six suited for Malm and the ace held for the double. That puts them roughly even now.

Steve Labelle shoved and Mike Malm called with the dominating hand. Malm had ace-king against king-nine of diamonds and the ace-king held for a double.

It was limped to the flop of 5♠6♣2♦ and Michael Malm led for 250k. Steven Labelle called to the [invalid notations] river, but called when Labelle bet 425k. Labelle showed 10♠3♠ for the backdoor flush win.

It’s heads up now between Michael Malm and Steven Labelle with Labelle on about a 2 million chip lead to start heads up. Morgan McLellan was 3rd place tonight/

Chris Alcindor was looking for his second ring this series after taking down the HORSE last week. Unfortunately he fell short with 4th place tonight in a blind-on-blind hand against Morgam McLellan. McLellan had him dominated with the best king.

Michael Malm and Griffin Ristevski got it in with Malm on ace-three against king-ten of diamonds for Ristevski. Malm held to send Ristevski out in 5th.

There are five left now after Charlie Schwalm took sixth place. I missed the action while writing the last hand.

They are down to 6 now after Hai Oan shoved under the gun and Morgan McLellan reshoved a it more to isolate from the button. He was ahead with A♠J♠ against K♠7♦. Oan flopped a 7, but McLellan rivered a jack for the win.

There are seven left now as three players busted while I was getting the photos uploaded.

Place	Player	Prize
8	Ben Field	$2,619
9	Darcey Beaucage	$2,068
10	Marc-Andre Kudjick-Paquin	$1,673

They are down to the final table now after Tyler Thomas bubbled the final ten. Thomas won this event last January when it was a $250 buy-in but he won’t be doing the year-on-year repeat this year.

Mike Malm is back in the lead with nearly 4 million now after his kings held against ace-king for a big double. They are now down to 11 on the final table bubble.

Recent Payouts (Full list on the Payouts tab)

Place	Prize	Player
12	Chris Duffy	$1,387
13	Weston Pring	$1,387
14	Dean May	$1,180
15	Jeff Saunders	$1,180
16	Cody Cloutier	$1,180
17	Jacob Watrich	$1,180
18	Dongwoo Ko	$1,031

There are two players still left in the final event who have a shot at winning their second ring of the series. Chris Alcindor took down the first HORSE tournament on Alberta soil earlier in the series, while Mike Malm took down the $1k event. Malm is also chip-leading at the moment with around 3 million after sending Weston Pring to the rail in 13th place.

Pring opened, then called off when Malm raised enough to force him in. It was a race between ace-six for Pring and fours for Malm and the fours held.

They are now three off the final table with 13 players left. The average stack is creeping up towards 20 big blinds for the first time in a couple of hours at least, but that will change again when the blinds go up in 3 minutes.

The players are back from the break and Level 24 is just underway. I had a look around at the break and it looked like Morgan McLellan was the chip leader with about 1.3 million, but Mike Malm had about 1.1 million and just sent Jeff Saunders to the rail. Saunders was also playing about a million, so Malm is now the clear leader with almost 2.3 million.

Marc-Andre Kudjick-Paquin is also fairly big playing about 1.2 million while HORSE winner Chris Alcindor folded a big hand before the break to McLellan, keeping about 900k back to play with.

They are down to the final two tables with 18 players left. I don’t have a full list of players remaining yet, but among the players still alive are Mike Malm and Weston Pring, who were 1 and 2 in the API race last year, as well as Tyler Thomas who has won this event in a previous series when it was a $250 buy-in.

Recent Payouts

Place	Player	Prize
19	Donald Arsenault	$1,031
20	Ricky Chow	$1,031
21	Wai Chan	$1,031
22	Scott Gallant	$1,031
23	Ngoc Nguyen	$1,031
24	Joel Kogan	$1,031
25	Ksenia Shuali	$1,031
26	Jonnathan Brownlee	$1,031
27	Edwin Seagris	$925
28	Barry Bay	$925
29	Jean-Pierre Hetu	$925
30	Ryan Parker	$925
31	Joshua Frazer	$925
32	Raymond Trieu	$925
33	Kendrick Arason	$925

They are dropping quickly in this event with the average stack still pretty short at 15 big blinds. Below is a look at the recent payouts (fill a full list under the Payouts tab). One player to note is Youssef Hmama, who booked his seventh cash of the series tonight. He started the series off with 2nd place in Event #2, and while he hasn’t been that deep again, he found six more money finishes.

Recent Payouts

Place	Player	Prize
34	Youssef Hmama	$925
35	Kalil Geha	$925
36	Deepak Chaunkaria	$853
37	Baowei Sun	$853
38	Riley Tobin	$853
39	Frank Szelepcsenyi	$853
40	Ghislaine Johnson	$853
41	Jason Kelson	$853
42	Julius Roque	$853
43	Curtis Singleton	$853
44	Steven Parkin	$853
45	Hee Lee	$812

The action is moving fast since the bubble with the field down to 45 now. The average stack is a bit less than 20 big blinds, so that is driving the action a bit at this point.

First 15 Payouts in Final Event

Place	Player	Prize
46	George Lagos	$812
47	Linda The	$812
48	Roneen Shaffer	$812
49	Vikram Gill	$812
50	Adrian Chan	$812
51	Erin Pulchinski	$812
52	Chris Fabris	$812
53	Marc-Andre Yelle	$812
54	Ian Monahoyios	$812
55	Giuseppe “The Don” Galluzzo	$812
56	Nicholas Ruiz	$812
57	Maksim Kniter	$812
58	Derek Dufour	$812
59	Gerry Edwards	$812
60	Trent Hopper	$812

They are in the money in the final game of this 2025 WSOP-C Calgary event. The field is down to 54 and I’ll get the prizes updated shortly in the Payouts tab.

The field for the final event is set at 400 entries. That means 60 players will share in $132k in prizes later tonight with the winner set to take home more than $26k.

Big 30 Stack Prize Summary

The final ring event of the series kicks off at 4 PM on Monday. The Big 30 Stack bookends the series as the opening and closing events.

Players buy into the final event for 30k in chips and they play 20-minute levels until one player has all the chips. This game likely goes to 2 or 3 AM depending on numbers, so look for a late one today. Players can enter late until the start of Level 12, which means the last chance to buy into WSOP-C Calgary Jan 2025 will be at about 8:10 PM.

I won’t be watching this series very closely until after both the Main Event and the High Roller have awarded their rings, but expect some late-night endgame action here to finish off my series.