There are four events in the books at the opening of the Grande Poker Series at Ace Casino Airport, including the first multi-day event, the Mini Grande. The 50+ crowd also crowned a champion on Thursday, and two more side events have awarded trophies.
So far, the opening tilt at Ace has seen a fairly decent turnout for this series. Poker Room Manager Jonathan Kunaman confirmed to me that the numbers for the early events are up over the last series and that was confirmed anecdotally in the events I played. “I was hoping for 20% over December. We are well past that right now,” Kunaman confirmed via text message.
There have been more than 600 entries through the first four events with the big number coming in the Mini Grande. After a solid Day 1a that saw nearly 100 entries (of which I was 3, lol) Day 1b capped that for a final total of 227 entries for the event.
- Read more: Grande Start for 2025 at Ace Casino Airport
Singleton Becomes Doubleton
A few weeks ago across the city at Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Curtis Singleton was putting a Ring on his young poker career with a huge Circuit win worth almost $70k. That was not only his first Circuit ring but also his first outright win on the live poker felt.
His first results in live poker came in Sep 2023 with a modest finish in a PPT event in Edmonton. By the end of that year, he was showing he was a force to be reckoned with by taking third place in the Turbo Event #6 at that year’s PPT Tournament of Champions.
He followed that up with a 2024 that saw him at 6 final tables throughout the year from 8 cashes at all three big major Alberta Series, including a fourth place here at Ace in October. But when 2024 ended, he was still on the hunt for his first win on the live felt.
That didn’t take long to correct when 2025 kicked off. He came into the opening Circuit event of 2025 with a mission, and secured his first win in the Monster Stack. It seems to agree with him as, just a few weeks later, he’s now booked his second live win.
He took down a well-attended Mini Grande on Sunday after building a solid stack on Friday’s Day 1a. I played with him for part of the day and got a first-hand look at his early assaults. He was sporting a new duck with a serious attitude as a card protector in this event and it seemed to pay off for him.
He took down Taylor Kang after a heads-up deal saw them chop the pot evenly and run an all-in blind hand for the trophy. Singleton took down that final hand to book his second lifetime win and push his Hendon earnings over $75k.
A few honourable mentions from the deep end of this game. 2024 API Player of the Year (by a mile!) Mike Malm continued his assault on the 2025 title with third place, just missing out on the HU deal. Among the other notable cashers were Justin Meng (5th), Andy Truong (6th), Ty Adams (7th), Mohsen Shafizadeh (8th), Kyle Dery, who has final-tabled the last couple of multi-days that I’ve also been at, bagged 14th place, and WPT Global streamer Jordan Banfield (who also won his first Ring back in January) was the min-casher in 15th.
Three More Winners Round Out Early Action
At the start of Week 2 of the series, there are a total of four events in the books at the Grande Poker Series. Jamal Borhot took down the opening game of the series (no picture was available) with a couple of future E3 final tablists in the mix as well. E3 runner-up Taylor Kang took 3rd in this one, while E3 8th-place finisher Mohsen Shafizadeh was 4th.
The second event of the series was the 50+ Seniors game, taken down by Ranko Zec for $8,350 over Dale Foyle and local printer Bill Thomson. Gord Chester, Debi Loomer, and Ron Lauzon also figured in the deep end of the Seniors.
Finally, Event #4 was the first Sunday Madness of the series with Blair Roque emerging as the winner for $7.5k over Tony Pereira. Mohsen Shafizadeh bagged his 3rd cash of the series in this one (and 3rd FT) with an 8th place. Tyler Panas, who also pocketed his first Ring in January and was a repeat winner here at Ace in 2024, added a 4th place to his Hendon in what must now be his favorite poker room.
