2025 Spring Super Stack – Event #3: $340 Deepstack NLH

It was quite a run for Shane Chief today. He came into the day as the nut low stack with 39k to his name. About 9 hours later, he was sitting behind all 11.6 million in play.

It wasn’t even till the final table that he really turned it on. Through much of the early part of Day 2 he was playing about 10 bigs and just surviving. Then the final table convened, and sudden;y he couldn’t lose. He had a third of the chips in play 5-handed, and 9 million when they were three ways.

It almost went south for him in heads up, though. He was 9:2 ahead to start, but David MacNeil wasn’t going lightly tonight. He chipped up to close to even before the final confrontation saw him wake up with tens against jacks for Chief. Teh jacks held, and Chief still had a slight lead, so the game was his.

This was his third win on the live felt, and it will be his biggest score ever once it’s recorded after the series.

David MacNeil made a valiant comeback attempt. He had a huge deficit coming into heads up with Shane Chief on 9 million to his 2 million. He managed to chip away at Chief’s lead to get close to even, but then it all went south for him on a heads up cooler.

Earlier in the level, as they traded blinds back and forth, MacNeil joked that, eventually, the dealer would have to give them both hands at the same time. That’s what happened when MacNeil woke up with tens against jacks for Chief. The money was in and the board ran clean for the jacks to send MacNeil home in second place.

Second and third place cut a deal just before 3rd was awarded that took $2k from the original payouts for second to add to 3rd, so 3rd place was worth $13,662 while 2nd pocketed $15,228. First place money was unaffected by the deal.

They are heads up in Event #3 now after the anonymous player took 3rd place today. The money went in on the 3♥9♣6♣ flop after a limped family pot pre.

Dabid MacNeil shoved after a couple of checks, and got the call from Anon while leader Shane Chief backed away. MacNeil was drawing to clubs against the nine. Another nine on the turn improved Anon to trips, but the 8♣ river clubbed Anon to the rail.

The game is three ways now after David Bailey ended his day in 4th. He raised the small blind to 325k and the anonymous player called from the big blind. Bailey shoved the 10♣Q♥K♥ flop with king-jack for top pair and the open-ended draw. The snap-call came immediately after from aces in the big blind.

Bailey hit two pair on the J♥ turn, but that gave Broadway to the big blind. 6♠ on the river was a brick and Bailey was done in 4th place.

Shane Chief is on a run. He took a nice-sized pot on the turn after limped preflop action. The 10♣Q♥J♥ flop saw the anonymous player check-raise from 100k to 275k. Chief called to the A♠ turn when, after another check, he bet 500k to get the fold. He showed king-nine for the flopped nuts, then joked that the dealer killed his action with the ace.

In the next hand, he raised the small blind to 250k and David MacNeil called from the big. Chief fired 200k on the 3♠7♠3♥ flop, then shoved when MacNeil reraised to 700k. MacNeil took a few minutes to think but folded after showing a seven. Chief showed ace-three for the trips as he collected the pot.

The game is four-handed now after the exit of Hoshang Sarwary in 5th place tonight. I was out of the room for a minute and missed the action.

David Bailey just took a hit when the anonymous player shoved under the gun and Bailey called off from the big blind. He was ahead with ace-queen over king-ten suited, but the king came on the river to drop him to around 800k while the winner is up over 2 million now.

The players are on a break following Level 27, and I’ve had a chance to count the chips. Shane Chief is still the big leader, but he’s now up to nearly half the chips in play with 5.35 million of 11.6 total. David MacNeil is second with 2.795 million, David Bailey is at 1.56 million for 3rd, while the anon players is 4th with 1.22 million. Hoshang Sarwary is now the short stack on 800k.

They’ll be back in action in about 8 minutes with blinds at 50k/100k/100k.

Shane Chief is having a bit of a sunrun today and it’s a nice reminder that poker is a game of swings and “A chip and a chair” is a real thing. Chief came into the day with just 39k, the smallest stack in the room. Six and a half hours later, he’s in the final five and sitting behind the biggest stack in the room with about 3.8 million in front of him now.

There is a break coming up in about 15 minutes, and I’ll di another round of full counts at that point.

They are down to 5 left now with the exit of Phillip Clingo. I missed the action while I was getting some dinner tonight.

Phillip Clingo raised the hijack to 120k and got a call from David MacNeil in the cutoff as well as big blind Shane Chief. Chief checked the 7♥4♣3♣ flop before Clingo fired 150k.

MacNeil made the call while Chief mucked his hand. Clingo sized up to 250k on the 8♦ turn, then up to 575k on the 5♦ river, getting calls from McNeil the whole way.

“Set,” Clingo said, showing pocket fives. MacNeil rolled over pocket sixes for a straight on the river

Jacqueline Ray ended her day today in 7th place after she shoved ace-five from the middle and got a call from big blind David MacNeil with pocket tens. The tens held and Ray scored $3,976 for 7th tonight.

They are down to 7 left now after Alicia Dodds busted out for 8th place tonight.

Event #3 is down to 8 now after Scott Groome ended his run in 9th place. I haven’t been able to catch any of the FT action so far as I’ve been cleaning up some backend work, but I should be back over there shortly.

They are down to 9 left in Event #3 now after Chris Klementis ended his day in 10th place.

There is one player at the final table who has requested anonymity today, so I won’t be publishing their name or picture. The rest of the final 10 are below.

They are setting the final table now after Marcio Kondo ended his day in 11th place tonight, though I missed the action. I’ll grab some FT pics shortly.

David Bailey looks to have picked up a sizeable pot just before the break, and is now the chip leader with 2.3 million in front of him. Hoshang Sarwary is second with just over 2 million while David MacNeil has just shy of 1.8 million.

In one of the final hands of Level 24, Alicia Dodds limped in from the middle, and was called by both players in the blinds. It checked to Dodds on the Q♦6♠K♦ flop and she fired 90k. David MacNeil called from the small blind while big blind Chris Klementis mucked his hand.

Both remaining players checked the 2♠ turn and after a check from MacNeil on the 8♠ river, Dodds bet 150k. MacNeil had to think about it for a bit, but he made the call with ace-queen for second pair, while Dodds was on a busted diamond draw and gutshot with ten-nine.

They are on the final table bubble now after the exits of Juss Viet and Scott Johnson. Below is a look at the recent cashes.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Scott Johnson	$1,590
13	Viet Do	$1,524
14	Gennady Klimenko	$1,524
15	Gregory Wood	$1,458

Jacqueline Ray shoved the hijack before Gennady Klimenko shoved the small blind with less. Shane Chief hit the tank in the big blind for a bit before mucking.

Klimenko was in tough with jacks against kings for Ray. The 3♦6♥9♦A♠5♣ board ran clean for the kings, and Ray is up to about 600k while Klimenko is at the cage collecting 14th-place money.

Hoshang Sarwary is the chip leader right now by quite a margin. He has 2.4 million in front of him and the next biggest looks to be Phillip Clingo with 1.2 million.

Now that they are at the final two tables, the blinds have bumped up to 40 minutes at the start of this level, and the remaining players will head out for a break at the end of this level in about 30 minutes. I’ll grab exact counts for all remaining stacks then.

It’s been a brutal couple of levels for the start-of-day leader Dave Howat, and he just hit the cage for 15th place today. PArt of the damage came a few minutes ago when he doubled up Jordan Banfield to drop to around 200k. In the final hand, he shoved the small blind, but big blind Scott Groome woke up with an ace and called off the 215k with more.

Howat was on Q♠3♣ against A♦5♠. Groome hit his 5, and that was all he needed to take it down on a board of 5♣8♠K♦4♠4♥.

Place	Player	Prize
16	David Howat	$1,458
17	Jordan Banfield	$1,458
18	Tyler Panas	$1,392

They are down to the final two tables now with 18 players left.

Place	Player	Prize
19	Scott Goodwin	$1,392
20	Christopher Ruddell	$1,392

Dave Howat opened to 25k from the cutoff before Jordan Banfield shoved 260k from the button. Howat made the call for what amounted to a race between his ace-eight and the king-jack of Banfield.

Banfield bricked the flop, but found his jack on the turn of 6♠10♦7♠J♠4♣. The jack gave Banfield the lead, but it also gave Howat a bigger draw to the spades, along with his ace. He bricked the river, however, and sent the double to Banfield, putting the WPT Global streamer up to about 600k and dropping start-of-day leader Howat to about 200k.

I arrived at the table with preflop action complete and Scott Groome at risk against WPT Global streamer Jordan Banfield. Banfield was dominated with ace-queen into ace-king, and the 6♦7♠7♣K♥3♠ improved Groome for the win. Groome has about 525k now while Banfield dropped to around 350k after the hand.

The action has been quick since the break with 7 players hitting the cage for payouts during Level 21 so far. There are a few minutes still left to play in Level 21, and they should be breaking down to 2 tables shortly.

Place	Player	Prize
21	Patricia Kananda	$1,325
22	Ronald Berdusco	$1,325
23	Jordan Matsui	$1,325

Theycame back from the break with 27 left, but within 15 minutes, they were down to 23 left after a few quick busts post-break. Dave Howat and Phillip Clingo were the leaders at break with both players on about 900k.

Place	Player	Prize
24	Andy Truong	$1,259
25	Ivan Chuvyrov	$1,259
26	Kyle Dery	$1,259
27	Michael Capannelli	$1,193

Level 20 is just ticking down to the end and they are breaking down to the final three tables with 27 players left in the action. I’ll have a look around at the break for some stacks — below is a look at the busts that got them to three tables.

Place	Player	Prize
28	Mohsen Shafizadeh	$1,193
29	Chase Cromwell	$1,193

I’ve just had a look around at some of the stacks out there, and it looks like Dave Howat is still leading with 900k in front of him right now. Phillip Clingo isn’t far behind, though, with 875k, David Bailey is playing about 700k while 1a leader Scott Johnson is sitting with 550k right now.

Meanwhile, two more players have hit the rail for payouts recently.

Place	Player	Prize
30	Saeed Ganji	$1,126
31	Tyler Thomas	$1,126

Level 20 is just underway with the field now at 31 players remaining. That clears out the $928 and $1,060 payout levels and gets a start on the $1,126 level. Full prize details are under the Payouts tab with cashers since my last update below.

Place	Player	Prize
32	Simon Mcconnell	$1,126
33	Mathiraj Sabanathan	$1,060
34	David Van Der Torre	$1,060
35	David Crowchild	$1,060
36	Noropal “Golf” Arunyakanon	$994
37	Sebastian Fallu	$994
38	Mark Laforest	$994
39	Marlyn Peet	$928
40	Sandro Guidi Soncini	$928
41	Gilles Paige	$928
42	Wayne Kelley	$861

They are down to 42 remaining now after three more eliminations. There is one more payout at $861 before it jumps to $928 at 41st place.

Place	Player	Prize
43	Nicholas Peterson	$861
44	Ivanna Yatsiuk	$861
45	Terry Langdon	$861

Day 2 is now underway with the action starting with 11:30 remaining in Level 17. The action has kicked off quickly with the first eliminations of the day coming just moments after cards went in the air. The field is now down to 45 left on the final 5 tables.

Place	Player	Prize
46	Joshua Myers	$861
47	Shenhong Yang	$795

The flights have all landed and 47 players are embarking into Day 2. Dave Howat, the leader from the second flight, has the overall lead going into Day 2 and the other two Day 1 leaders are right there with him in the top three as 1a leader Scott Johnson is second and 1c leader Andy Truong is third for the final day of play.

The Day 2 action gets going at noon on Sunday, and play will start in Level 17. Blinds are 30 minutes long to start the day but will move up to 40 minutes when the field hits 18 players.

By the time entries closed on all three flights, the field was set at 465 entries. That meant they are playing for $132,525 in total prizes with $27,830 up top for first. Full prize details can be found under the Payouts tab.

Day 2 Stacks by Name

Day 2 Stacks by Seat

It was quite a run for Shane Chief today. He came into the day as the nut low stack with 39k to his name. About 9 hours later, he was sitting behind all 11.6 million in play.

It wasn’t even till the final table that he really turned it on. Through much of the early part of Day 2 he was playing about 10 bigs and just surviving. Then the final table convened, and sudden;y he couldn’t lose. He had a third of the chips in play 5-handed, and 9 million when they were three ways.

It almost went south for him in heads up, though. He was 9:2 ahead to start, but David MacNeil wasn’t going lightly tonight. He chipped up to close to even before the final confrontation saw him wake up with tens against jacks for Chief. Teh jacks held, and Chief still had a slight lead, so the game was his.

This was his third win on the live felt, and it will be his biggest score ever once it’s recorded after the series.

David MacNeil made a valiant comeback attempt. He had a huge deficit coming into heads up with Shane Chief on 9 million to his 2 million. He managed to chip away at Chief’s lead to get close to even, but then it all went south for him on a heads up cooler.

Earlier in the level, as they traded blinds back and forth, MacNeil joked that, eventually, the dealer would have to give them both hands at the same time. That’s what happened when MacNeil woke up with tens against jacks for Chief. The money was in and the board ran clean for the jacks to send MacNeil home in second place.

Second and third place cut a deal just before 3rd was awarded that took $2k from the original payouts for second to add to 3rd, so 3rd place was worth $13,662 while 2nd pocketed $15,228. First place money was unaffected by the deal.

They are heads up in Event #3 now after the anonymous player took 3rd place today. The money went in on the 3♥9♣6♣ flop after a limped family pot pre.

Dabid MacNeil shoved after a couple of checks, and got the call from Anon while leader Shane Chief backed away. MacNeil was drawing to clubs against the nine. Another nine on the turn improved Anon to trips, but the 8♣ river clubbed Anon to the rail.

The game is three ways now after David Bailey ended his day in 4th. He raised the small blind to 325k and the anonymous player called from the big blind. Bailey shoved the 10♣Q♥K♥ flop with king-jack for top pair and the open-ended draw. The snap-call came immediately after from aces in the big blind.

Bailey hit two pair on the J♥ turn, but that gave Broadway to the big blind. 6♠ on the river was a brick and Bailey was done in 4th place.

Shane Chief is on a run. He took a nice-sized pot on the turn after limped preflop action. The 10♣Q♥J♥ flop saw the anonymous player check-raise from 100k to 275k. Chief called to the A♠ turn when, after another check, he bet 500k to get the fold. He showed king-nine for the flopped nuts, then joked that the dealer killed his action with the ace.

In the next hand, he raised the small blind to 250k and David MacNeil called from the big. Chief fired 200k on the 3♠7♠3♥ flop, then shoved when MacNeil reraised to 700k. MacNeil took a few minutes to think but folded after showing a seven. Chief showed ace-three for the trips as he collected the pot.

The game is four-handed now after the exit of Hoshang Sarwary in 5th place tonight. I was out of the room for a minute and missed the action.

David Bailey just took a hit when the anonymous player shoved under the gun and Bailey called off from the big blind. He was ahead with ace-queen over king-ten suited, but the king came on the river to drop him to around 800k while the winner is up over 2 million now.

The players are on a break following Level 27, and I’ve had a chance to count the chips. Shane Chief is still the big leader, but he’s now up to nearly half the chips in play with 5.35 million of 11.6 total. David MacNeil is second with 2.795 million, David Bailey is at 1.56 million for 3rd, while the anon players is 4th with 1.22 million. Hoshang Sarwary is now the short stack on 800k.

They’ll be back in action in about 8 minutes with blinds at 50k/100k/100k.

Shane Chief is having a bit of a sunrun today and it’s a nice reminder that poker is a game of swings and “A chip and a chair” is a real thing. Chief came into the day with just 39k, the smallest stack in the room. Six and a half hours later, he’s in the final five and sitting behind the biggest stack in the room with about 3.8 million in front of him now.

There is a break coming up in about 15 minutes, and I’ll di another round of full counts at that point.

They are down to 5 left now with the exit of Phillip Clingo. I missed the action while I was getting some dinner tonight.

Phillip Clingo raised the hijack to 120k and got a call from David MacNeil in the cutoff as well as big blind Shane Chief. Chief checked the 7♥4♣3♣ flop before Clingo fired 150k.

MacNeil made the call while Chief mucked his hand. Clingo sized up to 250k on the 8♦ turn, then up to 575k on the 5♦ river, getting calls from McNeil the whole way.

“Set,” Clingo said, showing pocket fives. MacNeil rolled over pocket sixes for a straight on the river

Jacqueline Ray ended her day today in 7th place after she shoved ace-five from the middle and got a call from big blind David MacNeil with pocket tens. The tens held and Ray scored $3,976 for 7th tonight.

They are down to 7 left now after Alicia Dodds busted out for 8th place tonight.

Event #3 is down to 8 now after Scott Groome ended his run in 9th place. I haven’t been able to catch any of the FT action so far as I’ve been cleaning up some backend work, but I should be back over there shortly.

They are down to 9 left in Event #3 now after Chris Klementis ended his day in 10th place.

There is one player at the final table who has requested anonymity today, so I won’t be publishing their name or picture. The rest of the final 10 are below.

They are setting the final table now after Marcio Kondo ended his day in 11th place tonight, though I missed the action. I’ll grab some FT pics shortly.

David Bailey looks to have picked up a sizeable pot just before the break, and is now the chip leader with 2.3 million in front of him. Hoshang Sarwary is second with just over 2 million while David MacNeil has just shy of 1.8 million.

In one of the final hands of Level 24, Alicia Dodds limped in from the middle, and was called by both players in the blinds. It checked to Dodds on the Q♦6♠K♦ flop and she fired 90k. David MacNeil called from the small blind while big blind Chris Klementis mucked his hand.

Both remaining players checked the 2♠ turn and after a check from MacNeil on the 8♠ river, Dodds bet 150k. MacNeil had to think about it for a bit, but he made the call with ace-queen for second pair, while Dodds was on a busted diamond draw and gutshot with ten-nine.

They are on the final table bubble now after the exits of Juss Viet and Scott Johnson. Below is a look at the recent cashes.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Scott Johnson	$1,590
13	Viet Do	$1,524
14	Gennady Klimenko	$1,524
15	Gregory Wood	$1,458

Jacqueline Ray shoved the hijack before Gennady Klimenko shoved the small blind with less. Shane Chief hit the tank in the big blind for a bit before mucking.

Klimenko was in tough with jacks against kings for Ray. The 3♦6♥9♦A♠5♣ board ran clean for the kings, and Ray is up to about 600k while Klimenko is at the cage collecting 14th-place money.

Hoshang Sarwary is the chip leader right now by quite a margin. He has 2.4 million in front of him and the next biggest looks to be Phillip Clingo with 1.2 million.

Now that they are at the final two tables, the blinds have bumped up to 40 minutes at the start of this level, and the remaining players will head out for a break at the end of this level in about 30 minutes. I’ll grab exact counts for all remaining stacks then.

It’s been a brutal couple of levels for the start-of-day leader Dave Howat, and he just hit the cage for 15th place today. PArt of the damage came a few minutes ago when he doubled up Jordan Banfield to drop to around 200k. In the final hand, he shoved the small blind, but big blind Scott Groome woke up with an ace and called off the 215k with more.

Howat was on Q♠3♣ against A♦5♠. Groome hit his 5, and that was all he needed to take it down on a board of 5♣8♠K♦4♠4♥.

Place	Player	Prize
16	David Howat	$1,458
17	Jordan Banfield	$1,458
18	Tyler Panas	$1,392

They are down to the final two tables now with 18 players left.

Place	Player	Prize
19	Scott Goodwin	$1,392
20	Christopher Ruddell	$1,392

Dave Howat opened to 25k from the cutoff before Jordan Banfield shoved 260k from the button. Howat made the call for what amounted to a race between his ace-eight and the king-jack of Banfield.

Banfield bricked the flop, but found his jack on the turn of 6♠10♦7♠J♠4♣. The jack gave Banfield the lead, but it also gave Howat a bigger draw to the spades, along with his ace. He bricked the river, however, and sent the double to Banfield, putting the WPT Global streamer up to about 600k and dropping start-of-day leader Howat to about 200k.

I arrived at the table with preflop action complete and Scott Groome at risk against WPT Global streamer Jordan Banfield. Banfield was dominated with ace-queen into ace-king, and the 6♦7♠7♣K♥3♠ improved Groome for the win. Groome has about 525k now while Banfield dropped to around 350k after the hand.

The action has been quick since the break with 7 players hitting the cage for payouts during Level 21 so far. There are a few minutes still left to play in Level 21, and they should be breaking down to 2 tables shortly.

Place	Player	Prize
21	Patricia Kananda	$1,325
22	Ronald Berdusco	$1,325
23	Jordan Matsui	$1,325

Theycame back from the break with 27 left, but within 15 minutes, they were down to 23 left after a few quick busts post-break. Dave Howat and Phillip Clingo were the leaders at break with both players on about 900k.

Place	Player	Prize
24	Andy Truong	$1,259
25	Ivan Chuvyrov	$1,259
26	Kyle Dery	$1,259
27	Michael Capannelli	$1,193

Level 20 is just ticking down to the end and they are breaking down to the final three tables with 27 players left in the action. I’ll have a look around at the break for some stacks — below is a look at the busts that got them to three tables.

Place	Player	Prize
28	Mohsen Shafizadeh	$1,193
29	Chase Cromwell	$1,193

I’ve just had a look around at some of the stacks out there, and it looks like Dave Howat is still leading with 900k in front of him right now. Phillip Clingo isn’t far behind, though, with 875k, David Bailey is playing about 700k while 1a leader Scott Johnson is sitting with 550k right now.

Meanwhile, two more players have hit the rail for payouts recently.

Place	Player	Prize
30	Saeed Ganji	$1,126
31	Tyler Thomas	$1,126

Level 20 is just underway with the field now at 31 players remaining. That clears out the $928 and $1,060 payout levels and gets a start on the $1,126 level. Full prize details are under the Payouts tab with cashers since my last update below.

Place	Player	Prize
32	Simon Mcconnell	$1,126
33	Mathiraj Sabanathan	$1,060
34	David Van Der Torre	$1,060
35	David Crowchild	$1,060
36	Noropal “Golf” Arunyakanon	$994
37	Sebastian Fallu	$994
38	Mark Laforest	$994
39	Marlyn Peet	$928
40	Sandro Guidi Soncini	$928
41	Gilles Paige	$928
42	Wayne Kelley	$861

They are down to 42 remaining now after three more eliminations. There is one more payout at $861 before it jumps to $928 at 41st place.

Place	Player	Prize
43	Nicholas Peterson	$861
44	Ivanna Yatsiuk	$861
45	Terry Langdon	$861

Day 2 is now underway with the action starting with 11:30 remaining in Level 17. The action has kicked off quickly with the first eliminations of the day coming just moments after cards went in the air. The field is now down to 45 left on the final 5 tables.

Place	Player	Prize
46	Joshua Myers	$861
47	Shenhong Yang	$795

The flights have all landed and 47 players are embarking into Day 2. Dave Howat, the leader from the second flight, has the overall lead going into Day 2 and the other two Day 1 leaders are right there with him in the top three as 1a leader Scott Johnson is second and 1c leader Andy Truong is third for the final day of play.

The Day 2 action gets going at noon on Sunday, and play will start in Level 17. Blinds are 30 minutes long to start the day but will move up to 40 minutes when the field hits 18 players.

By the time entries closed on all three flights, the field was set at 465 entries. That meant they are playing for $132,525 in total prizes with $27,830 up top for first. Full prize details can be found under the Payouts tab.

Day 2 Stacks by Name

Day 2 Stacks by Seat