2025 Summer Super Stack – Event #1: $340 Seniors NLH

After about 13 hours of play, the endgame of the Seniors went like lightning. They went from five-handed to the finish in less than 30 minutes, though in part, that was helped along by the final two players making a deal.

Graham Lupton had most of the chips in play, and had been rocking the big stack for basically all of the final table. When they got heads-up he still had a big advantage, but decided to give up $1,000 to kill the variance and take the win. That reduced his final payout to $11,428.

He included his recently deceased dog in the winner’s photo as a tribute to a lost friend.

The final two players made a deal with Graham Lupton on the big stack. Lupton gave up $1,000 to end the game and take the win, meaning Merv Tunak’s second-place share was upped to $9,529.

The endgame of the Seniors went like lightning, as Gord Chester ended in 3rd place shortly after Julius Roque hit the rail. He was forced in with a short stack playing gappers, but ran into an ace and couldn’t get there.

I arrived back in the room from getting a drink to see Julius Roque head to the cage for his payout in fourth place.

Greg McCartney was the 5th place finisher tonight, but the action happened while I was out of the room getting a drink.

Graham Lupton has a huge lead in the final five with 2.4 million. There are only 4.3 million in play, so Lupton has more than half the total chips.

Kelly Wist ended his run in 6th place in a blind on blind hand against Julius Roque, though I missed the action while writing the previous hand.

Graham Lupton has the big stack and has been playing like it. He’s been raising nearly every hand that folds to him, and he did it again, to 100k, from second position. Merv Tunak shoved for 115k in the big blind, and Lupton called off the extra 15k.

Lupton was dominated with queen-jack into king-jack, but the table joked that he’s been getting there so much tonight, the queen was surely coming. Tunak managed to fade it, however, on a low board of 4♠3♣7♣4♦2♥ left the king-high best and Tunak doubled to about 300k while Lupton is still playing mountains.

There are six players left in the Seniors now after Philip Roque ended his run in 7th place.

Merv Tunak limped early before Philip Roque raised to 60k. Big blind Kelly Wist called, as did Tunak. They all checked the 7♣4♠6♦ flop, and Wist checked the 10♠ turn.

Tunak bet two greens for 50k, but Roque shoved a stack of around 200k. Wist folded quickly from the big blind, but it took Tunak quite a bit longer to reach the same decision.

It was a crazy blind on blind race when Leslie Hollingworth shoved the small blind with pocket nines and Graham Lupton snap-called it with ace-jack. There wasn’t much of a sweat for Hollingworth as Lupton flopped two pair and rivered the boat on a board of 6♦A♣J♠2♥J♥.

Lupton is playing around 2 million chips after the hand, nearly half the chips in play.

It was a crazy hand when Merv Tunak and Greg McCartney got it in. Tunak had ace-jack against ace-ten for McCartney. There was a ten in the window, but also a jack on the flop. A ten turned to put McCartney back in front with trip tens, but then another jack hit the river, to improve them both to a boat, but with Tunak sailing the bigger one.

Jacqueline Ray shoved a short stack with ace-ten, and Graham Lutpon called it off with more chips, and queen-nine. He hit his nine while Ray was unable to improve, and she was the first off the final table.

Terry Chow was next to go, ending his day in 9th place, but I missed the action for this hand.

It was limped blind on blind between Graham Lupton and Merc Tunak. They both checked the Q♦4♠3♠ flop, and Lupton fired 30k on the 10♣ turn.

Lupton checked the K♠ river, and Tunakl checked back, showing a straight with jack-nine against the announced 8-high for Lupton. Tunak said he was worried about the spades coming in on the river, hence the check back.

Meanwhile, on the other table, Allan Hobbins shoved, and Gord Chester called. It was a cooler with Hobbins on ace-jack against ace-queen for Chester. The ace-queen held after Chester flopped a queen. The hand put Chester up to almost 500k, while Hobbins is under 200k now.

They are down to 11 left now after Phil Wright and Gord Carter hit the rail shortly after the break concluded.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Gord Carter	$975
13	Phillip Wright	$877

Allan Hobbins is the leader with 13 players left. He’s playing 570k, while Graham Lupton is 80k behind at 490k. Phil Wright and Merv Tunak are playing high 300k stacks, while brothers Julius and Philip Roque are also playing 300k stacks, with Julius near the top end of that range, and Philip on the lower end.

They are down to 13 now after two more eliminations. See below for the payouts so far.

Place	Player	Prize
14	Kevin Kemna	$828
15	Suzie Markoff	$780
16	Monika Hägele	$731
17	Mark Milner	$682

They are down to 15 shortly after the money hit, with Mark Milner and Monika Hägele out in 17th and 16th place respectively.

There was no bubble play tonight as Fred Balic hit the rail just as they were preparing to start hand-for-hand play. That leaves 17 players in, all guaranteed some cash tonight. I’ll grab some chip counts shortly, but Phil Wright still looks to be leading with arond 600k.

17 Players in the Money

They are just three players off the money now with 20 players left. It looks like Phil Wright still has the right stuff with about 640k in front of him for the lead. Julius Roque is on 340k, and Leslie Hollingworth has just over 300k in front of her. Fred Balic is down to a bit under 200k, with Kevin Kemna playing just a bit more than that right now.

I’ll grab full names for the remaining players when they get down to 18 on the final two tables.

Phil Wright has about 600k in front of him now for the lead, while Allan Hobbins looks to be in second with about 410k, and Kevin Kemna has about 370k for what looks like the 3rd stack right now.

The field is down to 25 players left, putting them 8 eliminations off the money spots.

They are down to 27 players remaining in the Seniors game, on the final three tables. That puts them just 10 eliminations away from the first money spot at 17th place.

Fred Balic still looks to be playing more than 200k, but Phil Wright has huge stacks in front of him, playing close to 500k now. Julius Roque is also still sitting in the 250k range.

The field is down to 36 players left on the final four tables, and Fred Balic is now one of the leaders. She’s on about 275k while Allan Hobbins has dropped a bit to about 170k, while Julius Roque still looks to be on about 250k.

They are down to the final five tables in the Seniors game, with 45 players left. That puts the 28 players away from the 17 paid spots with about 10 minutes to play in Level 13.

The players are nearly back from dinner, and the action will be in Level 13 with blinds of 1500/3000/3000 when they return. Allan Hobbins looks to be the big stack right now with about 270k in front of him, but Julius Roque isn’t far behind with about 245k. They looked to be the only stacks bigger than 200k in the room right now.

The Seniors players are on their dinner break now with the field at 50 players. I’ll have a look around on dinner for some big stacks and post them when the break is over.

The numbers are dropping quickly in the Seniors game, with the field down to 54 players on 6 tables. Level 11 is nearly complete, and they’ll take their 45-minute dinner break following this level.

The prizes are up, and the field is confirmed at 171 entries. That’s just two entries short of the Seniors field in April’s Spring Super Stack, so today’s field is right on pace.

That means 17 players will share in $48,735 in prizes later tonight, with the winner set to pocket $12,428. Final table payouts are below, with the full prizes loaded under the Payouts tab shortly.

Entries are now closed for the Seniors game, and the final number on the board is 171 entries. That’s still unofficial, but if it holds, it will mean 17 (possibly 18) players sharing in $48,735 in prizes later tonight. The board says there are 108 players left in the game, but I suspect the real number is a bit lower.

The Seniors players are on the final break with entries open, and the desk will close in about 10 minutes when they sit down for Level 9. The field is now 6 entries shy of $50k in prizes, so it’s an open question if they’ll make it or not.

There is now less than an hour to get into the Seniors game today, with about 10 minutes to play in Level 7. The field is at 163 for prizes of $46,455, and among the recent entries was Jacqueline Ray, in from the left coast for the week. Phil Wright is also in the field today.

They are one entry away from $45k in prizes with 157 entries on the board. There are about 90 minutes left to enter or rebuy in this game so it seems likely they’ll get another 15-20 entries before the desk shuts down at about 3:30 PM.

On my last trip around the room, I spotted Jeet Shergill, Trevor Simpson, Shane Brotherwood, Pete Fylyma, Brett Worton, Don McCall, Rob Limpert, MIke Lonigro, and Raphael “Raph Raph” Verdugo.

There are about 5 minutes remaining on the first break with the field at 142 entries. That puts the prizes at $40,470 with more than two hours left to enter today.

It’s looking like the field will easily cap 160 entries today, with 180+ within reach. 160 entries would mean a prize pool of more than $45k, while 180 entries would dig the pool deeper than $51k.

Among the players in their seats for Level 5 are Peggy Sue, Don Fulita, Reg Hampton, Cindy Kerslake, Jason Roth, John Hansmeyer, Pam MacNaughton, Fred Balic, Suzie Markoff, Scott Calvank, and Terry Langdon. That’s still only a small sample of the familiar faces out there today.

The Seniors game is off to a great start with more than 130 entries on the board before the first break of the day. That puts more than $27k into the prize pool, and there are almost 3 hours left to enter today’s game.

It’s a pretty familiar field so far. Among the players I’ve seen are Bill Thomson, Paul Sokoloff, Barry Frey, Todd “The Rock”, Treena Angelski, Kelly Gall, and Julius Roque. That barely scratches the surface, but it’s a start.

2025 Summer Super Stack – Event #1: $340 Seniors NLH ($300 + $40)

It’s Seniors First this summer at Deerfoot Inn & Casino. The 2025 Summer Super Stack gets underway with the Seniors game for players 50 years of age or older. It’s an earlybird special as well, with cards going in the air at 11 AM.

Players sit down with 25k in chips, and blind levels will last 30 minutes. There are 8 levels of open entry, which will put the last chance to get into this one at 3:30 PM. The dinner break will come after Level 12, at about 5:30 PM.

Back in the Spring Super Stack earlier this year, Russ King & Gary Hellard chopped the Seniors heads up, but if David Labchuk shows up, he’ll be one to watch as well. He has three Circuit rings here in Calgary, and two of them are from the Seniors event, so he knows the 50+ games here at Deerfoot pretty well.

After about 13 hours of play, the endgame of the Seniors went like lightning. They went from five-handed to the finish in less than 30 minutes, though in part, that was helped along by the final two players making a deal.

Graham Lupton had most of the chips in play, and had been rocking the big stack for basically all of the final table. When they got heads-up he still had a big advantage, but decided to give up $1,000 to kill the variance and take the win. That reduced his final payout to $11,428.

He included his recently deceased dog in the winner’s photo as a tribute to a lost friend.

The final two players made a deal with Graham Lupton on the big stack. Lupton gave up $1,000 to end the game and take the win, meaning Merv Tunak’s second-place share was upped to $9,529.

The endgame of the Seniors went like lightning, as Gord Chester ended in 3rd place shortly after Julius Roque hit the rail. He was forced in with a short stack playing gappers, but ran into an ace and couldn’t get there.

I arrived back in the room from getting a drink to see Julius Roque head to the cage for his payout in fourth place.

Greg McCartney was the 5th place finisher tonight, but the action happened while I was out of the room getting a drink.

Graham Lupton has a huge lead in the final five with 2.4 million. There are only 4.3 million in play, so Lupton has more than half the total chips.

Kelly Wist ended his run in 6th place in a blind on blind hand against Julius Roque, though I missed the action while writing the previous hand.

Graham Lupton has the big stack and has been playing like it. He’s been raising nearly every hand that folds to him, and he did it again, to 100k, from second position. Merv Tunak shoved for 115k in the big blind, and Lupton called off the extra 15k.

Lupton was dominated with queen-jack into king-jack, but the table joked that he’s been getting there so much tonight, the queen was surely coming. Tunak managed to fade it, however, on a low board of 4♠3♣7♣4♦2♥ left the king-high best and Tunak doubled to about 300k while Lupton is still playing mountains.

There are six players left in the Seniors now after Philip Roque ended his run in 7th place.

Merv Tunak limped early before Philip Roque raised to 60k. Big blind Kelly Wist called, as did Tunak. They all checked the 7♣4♠6♦ flop, and Wist checked the 10♠ turn.

Tunak bet two greens for 50k, but Roque shoved a stack of around 200k. Wist folded quickly from the big blind, but it took Tunak quite a bit longer to reach the same decision.

It was a crazy blind on blind race when Leslie Hollingworth shoved the small blind with pocket nines and Graham Lupton snap-called it with ace-jack. There wasn’t much of a sweat for Hollingworth as Lupton flopped two pair and rivered the boat on a board of 6♦A♣J♠2♥J♥.

Lupton is playing around 2 million chips after the hand, nearly half the chips in play.

It was a crazy hand when Merv Tunak and Greg McCartney got it in. Tunak had ace-jack against ace-ten for McCartney. There was a ten in the window, but also a jack on the flop. A ten turned to put McCartney back in front with trip tens, but then another jack hit the river, to improve them both to a boat, but with Tunak sailing the bigger one.

Jacqueline Ray shoved a short stack with ace-ten, and Graham Lutpon called it off with more chips, and queen-nine. He hit his nine while Ray was unable to improve, and she was the first off the final table.

Terry Chow was next to go, ending his day in 9th place, but I missed the action for this hand.

It was limped blind on blind between Graham Lupton and Merc Tunak. They both checked the Q♦4♠3♠ flop, and Lupton fired 30k on the 10♣ turn.

Lupton checked the K♠ river, and Tunakl checked back, showing a straight with jack-nine against the announced 8-high for Lupton. Tunak said he was worried about the spades coming in on the river, hence the check back.

Meanwhile, on the other table, Allan Hobbins shoved, and Gord Chester called. It was a cooler with Hobbins on ace-jack against ace-queen for Chester. The ace-queen held after Chester flopped a queen. The hand put Chester up to almost 500k, while Hobbins is under 200k now.

They are down to 11 left now after Phil Wright and Gord Carter hit the rail shortly after the break concluded.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Gord Carter	$975
13	Phillip Wright	$877

Allan Hobbins is the leader with 13 players left. He’s playing 570k, while Graham Lupton is 80k behind at 490k. Phil Wright and Merv Tunak are playing high 300k stacks, while brothers Julius and Philip Roque are also playing 300k stacks, with Julius near the top end of that range, and Philip on the lower end.

They are down to 13 now after two more eliminations. See below for the payouts so far.

Place	Player	Prize
14	Kevin Kemna	$828
15	Suzie Markoff	$780
16	Monika Hägele	$731
17	Mark Milner	$682

They are down to 15 shortly after the money hit, with Mark Milner and Monika Hägele out in 17th and 16th place respectively.

There was no bubble play tonight as Fred Balic hit the rail just as they were preparing to start hand-for-hand play. That leaves 17 players in, all guaranteed some cash tonight. I’ll grab some chip counts shortly, but Phil Wright still looks to be leading with arond 600k.

17 Players in the Money

They are just three players off the money now with 20 players left. It looks like Phil Wright still has the right stuff with about 640k in front of him for the lead. Julius Roque is on 340k, and Leslie Hollingworth has just over 300k in front of her. Fred Balic is down to a bit under 200k, with Kevin Kemna playing just a bit more than that right now.

I’ll grab full names for the remaining players when they get down to 18 on the final two tables.

Phil Wright has about 600k in front of him now for the lead, while Allan Hobbins looks to be in second with about 410k, and Kevin Kemna has about 370k for what looks like the 3rd stack right now.

The field is down to 25 players left, putting them 8 eliminations off the money spots.

They are down to 27 players remaining in the Seniors game, on the final three tables. That puts them just 10 eliminations away from the first money spot at 17th place.

Fred Balic still looks to be playing more than 200k, but Phil Wright has huge stacks in front of him, playing close to 500k now. Julius Roque is also still sitting in the 250k range.

The field is down to 36 players left on the final four tables, and Fred Balic is now one of the leaders. She’s on about 275k while Allan Hobbins has dropped a bit to about 170k, while Julius Roque still looks to be on about 250k.

They are down to the final five tables in the Seniors game, with 45 players left. That puts the 28 players away from the 17 paid spots with about 10 minutes to play in Level 13.

The players are nearly back from dinner, and the action will be in Level 13 with blinds of 1500/3000/3000 when they return. Allan Hobbins looks to be the big stack right now with about 270k in front of him, but Julius Roque isn’t far behind with about 245k. They looked to be the only stacks bigger than 200k in the room right now.

The Seniors players are on their dinner break now with the field at 50 players. I’ll have a look around on dinner for some big stacks and post them when the break is over.

The numbers are dropping quickly in the Seniors game, with the field down to 54 players on 6 tables. Level 11 is nearly complete, and they’ll take their 45-minute dinner break following this level.

The prizes are up, and the field is confirmed at 171 entries. That’s just two entries short of the Seniors field in April’s Spring Super Stack, so today’s field is right on pace.

That means 17 players will share in $48,735 in prizes later tonight, with the winner set to pocket $12,428. Final table payouts are below, with the full prizes loaded under the Payouts tab shortly.

Entries are now closed for the Seniors game, and the final number on the board is 171 entries. That’s still unofficial, but if it holds, it will mean 17 (possibly 18) players sharing in $48,735 in prizes later tonight. The board says there are 108 players left in the game, but I suspect the real number is a bit lower.

The Seniors players are on the final break with entries open, and the desk will close in about 10 minutes when they sit down for Level 9. The field is now 6 entries shy of $50k in prizes, so it’s an open question if they’ll make it or not.

There is now less than an hour to get into the Seniors game today, with about 10 minutes to play in Level 7. The field is at 163 for prizes of $46,455, and among the recent entries was Jacqueline Ray, in from the left coast for the week. Phil Wright is also in the field today.

They are one entry away from $45k in prizes with 157 entries on the board. There are about 90 minutes left to enter or rebuy in this game so it seems likely they’ll get another 15-20 entries before the desk shuts down at about 3:30 PM.

On my last trip around the room, I spotted Jeet Shergill, Trevor Simpson, Shane Brotherwood, Pete Fylyma, Brett Worton, Don McCall, Rob Limpert, MIke Lonigro, and Raphael “Raph Raph” Verdugo.

There are about 5 minutes remaining on the first break with the field at 142 entries. That puts the prizes at $40,470 with more than two hours left to enter today.

It’s looking like the field will easily cap 160 entries today, with 180+ within reach. 160 entries would mean a prize pool of more than $45k, while 180 entries would dig the pool deeper than $51k.

Among the players in their seats for Level 5 are Peggy Sue, Don Fulita, Reg Hampton, Cindy Kerslake, Jason Roth, John Hansmeyer, Pam MacNaughton, Fred Balic, Suzie Markoff, Scott Calvank, and Terry Langdon. That’s still only a small sample of the familiar faces out there today.

The Seniors game is off to a great start with more than 130 entries on the board before the first break of the day. That puts more than $27k into the prize pool, and there are almost 3 hours left to enter today’s game.

It’s a pretty familiar field so far. Among the players I’ve seen are Bill Thomson, Paul Sokoloff, Barry Frey, Todd “The Rock”, Treena Angelski, Kelly Gall, and Julius Roque. That barely scratches the surface, but it’s a start.

2025 Summer Super Stack – Event #1: $340 Seniors NLH ($300 + $40)

It’s Seniors First this summer at Deerfoot Inn & Casino. The 2025 Summer Super Stack gets underway with the Seniors game for players 50 years of age or older. It’s an earlybird special as well, with cards going in the air at 11 AM.

Players sit down with 25k in chips, and blind levels will last 30 minutes. There are 8 levels of open entry, which will put the last chance to get into this one at 3:30 PM. The dinner break will come after Level 12, at about 5:30 PM.

Back in the Spring Super Stack earlier this year, Russ King & Gary Hellard chopped the Seniors heads up, but if David Labchuk shows up, he’ll be one to watch as well. He has three Circuit rings here in Calgary, and two of them are from the Seniors event, so he knows the 50+ games here at Deerfoot pretty well.