Alex Liu Brings Main Event Back Home

The 3rd running of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOP-C) Calgary for 2024 was completed last week and it was a big series. With 16 events over 13 days, there was always going to be a lot of poker action packed into the series, and nearly 6,000 entries showed up for the summer show.

While it was a smaller series than some previous outings, it was still a big two weeks by pre-Circuit standards. With more than $1.25 million in the Main Event prize pool and nearly $3.5 million in total prizes, the series would have come in as one of the biggest ever in the pre-2022 era of Calgary poker.

The big winner in the series was Alex Liu who put on a commanding performance on Day 2 and 3 of the Main Event to take it down and bring the Main Event title back to Alberta. Other big stories from the week included Jenelle Exner going back-to-back in the Ladies event, as well as other multiple ring winners Duff Charette and David Labchuk.

Of the seven WSOP-C events run in Calgary so far, the Aug 2024 event compares favorably, coming as the fifth biggest Circuit series in Calgary history. January of this year was the biggest game ever in Calgary with more than $5.8 million in total prizes over 15 events, the August series beat both of the 2022 series (which set local records at the time) and was within about $15k of the prize total from May 2024.

Aug 2024 WSOP-C Calgary Summary Data

WSOP-C Calgary Aug 2024 Summary
Total Prizes	$3,437,300
Total Entries	5,811
Total 1st Place	$636,422

Results per Event for Aug 2024 WSOP-C Calgary

Event	Event Name	Entries	Prizes	Winner	1st Place Prize
1	$400 Big 30 Stack	363	$119,790	David Labchuk	$24,338
2	$600 NLH/PLO Mix	222	$114,330	Kevin Li	$26,458
3	$600 Mystery Bounty	261	$134,415	Youssef Hmama	$18,207
4	$400 4-Flight	905	$298,650	Phillip Louie	$47,068
5	$400 Seniors	332	$109,560	Scott Calvank	$22,835
6	$400 Black Chip Bounty	269	$88,770	Sean Cardoso	$13,628
7	$1,000 $1k	268	$234,500	Gurpreet(Sunny) Lubana	$51,568
8	$500 PKO	166	$69,720	Antoine Saddleback	$7,386
9	$400 Monster Stack	881	$290,730	Zhi(George) Yang	$45,940
10	$1,000 $1k Turbo	105	$91,875	Theodore(Teddy) Thalhuber	$24,487
11	$1,700 Main Event	828	$1,254,420	Alex Liu	$214,873
12	$250 Flip & Go	344	$72,240	Duff Charette	$16,097
13	$400 PLO Bounty	274	$90,420	Manfred Gunther	$13,764
14	$400 Ladies	80	$26,400	Jenelle Exner	$7,572
15	$2200 High Roller	192	$377,280	Homan Mohammadi	$88,743
16	$400 Big 30 Stack	321	$64,200	Lapchi(Lap) Duong	$13,458

Liu Brings Main Back Home

After 5 straight Main Events where the top prize stayed right here in Alberta, in May, Nicholas Teeuwen came in from Ontario to take the big prize away from the home province. That was short-lived however, as Alex Liu has given Alberta 6 out of the seven Main Event titles so far.

The win comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched Liu play, but casual fans may be forgiven for thinking it came out of nowhere after a look at Liu’s Hendon Mob page showing ~$40k in earnings before this win. Liu is a nice reminder that Hendon isn’t always accurate or complete, and in Liu’s case, he has another ~40k+ in earnings not reported during a period pre-pandemic when Liu requested anonymity while playing.

The nearly $215k he won in this one still represents his biggest score yet, but Liu is a great reminder that players may well have unreported earnings hidden behind a “meager” Hendon Mob profile — anyone who looked at his Hendon profile and decided he was a “rec without many results” would be mistaken. He put on a powerhouse performance on Day 2 and 3 of the big game this time around, amassing a big lead on Day 2 to take half the chips in play into the five-handed Day 3.

From there it was smooth sailing for Liu as the other players were always going to have a tough time toppling his mountain of chips. Runner-up Aleksei Ponomarev and 3rd place Chris Klementis gave him a run for the money, but Liu’s mountain was just too big. Honourable mention goes to 4th place Ashkan Razavi who took one of the big stacks into Day 2, but then hit a late-day cooler with kings into aces to drop him to about 2 big blinds.

Razavi managed to find the smallest Day 3 bag, however, and some ladders for a very respectable 4th place worth $70k. That means the Vancouver high roller laddered for more than $50k from his crushing cooler late on Day 2.

Jenelle Exner Goes Back-to-Back in Ladies’ Event

In May, Jenelle Exner was a bit of an unknown quantity at WSOP-C Calgary. It was the first time I saw her deep in one of the games and, with Liu’s cautionary caveat in mind, her Hendon Mob was pretty light coming into the May series where she picked up her first Circuit ring with a powerful performance in the Ladies’ Event.

While May might have been written off as “beginner’s luck”, any thought of that should be dispelled now after she went back-to-back, taking down this Ladies’ Event in a similarly dominating fashion. She had a big lead for most of the end game, only giving it up briefly while short-handed when runner-up Barb Walser made some brief runs.

Exner’s Hendon Mob profile is still looking a little sparse with just $17k in total earnings so far. But with the two most recent entries being ring wins in back-to-back events, it seems reasonable to suspect she’ll be filling up that profile nicely in the coming years.

Multiple Ring Winners

While this series didn’t have any double-ring winners within the series, a couple of players bagged their second, or better, Circuit ring in Calgary in August. David Labchuk was the first to pick up a multiple in this series, taking down the opening Big 30 Stack game on the first day of the series. Labchuk picked up his first two rings in Seniors’ events here at the Deerfoot WSOP-C games, with #1 coming in Jan 2022 and #2 coming in Jan 2024.

That also means this win was his first open ring and second ring in 2024. Labchuk also bagged a final-table finish in May’s Main Event, so he’s having a pretty solid 2024 on the WSOP-C felt. Interestingly Scott Calvank was deep in the battle for that Big 30 Stack ring on opening day, ultimately falling in 3rd place. He was desperately looking for his first ring that night but was able to assuage the disappointment by taking down the Seniors’ event (where Labchuk won his first two rings) a few days later.

Duff Charette was the other player who bagged a multiple in Calgary this series. He bagged a Day 2 stack in the Flip & Go and took it down on the final day for his second ring from Calgary. While he didn’t have to win the event to profit in this one, he did joke during five-handed play that he was “almost breaking even” at that point after firing a possible record number of Day 1 Flips before finding a bag. David Ko, who won this same event in May, also fired a huge number of Flips before finally getting the Go so a pattern is emerging of the biggest Day 1 arsenal taking it down, but from a bankroll management perspective, I’m not sure it’s a strategy I can fully get behind.

It’s worth noting that night was a bit of an Ottawa show. Charette was heads-up with fellow Ottawa player Michael Khan, while across the room, Ottawa’s Manfred Gunther was in the process of winning the PLO Bounty side event. This wasn’t Charette’s first deep run of the series either — earlier in the week he was also heads-up for the ring in the $10k Turbo but watched it go to Teddy Thalhuber from Minnesota.

$1k Win Helps Educate Children in India

The feel-good story of the series came from Sunny Lubana. Lubana is a well-known quantity in these parts and is one of the most feared opponents at the local tables in terms of his poker skill. No one, not even his fellow top rivals in Western Canada, ever wants to see Lubana on their left.

But it’s only because of his skill at acquiring poker chips. From every other perspective, there’s no better player to have at your table than the quiet, thoughtful player from Saskatoon who always has a friendly demeanor at the tables with a quick, if quiet, wit that will often find the perfect response in the moment.

More than that, off the table, Lubana is 100% one of the “good guys” in the game. His family runs a charity in their native India that selects specific at-need children to sponsor for their entire education and 10% of his winnings go straight to the fund. Thanks to Lubana’s win in the Two-Day $1k in this series, some Indian kids will have about $5k more in their education fund.

There were even more stories from this latest series at Deerfoot Inn & Casino like Phillip Louie emerging from his brother’s shadow with the 4-Flight win and Vancouver’s Homan Mohammadi picking up his first ring in the High Roller after more than a decade of trying at various Circuit stops. Check out the full live coverage, hosted by PokerPro and powered by Main Event Travel, for all the details and see the recap video below for a quick overview as well as my WSOP-C Live playlist page for looks at specific events through the series..