2025 WSOPC Calgary – Event #9: $500 NLH Progressive K.O.

Brett Worton had to come from behind for his first ring tonight both in terms of chips and hands. They started heads up pretty close to even, though David Zhao had a slight advantage. He stayed in the lead for most of heads up until a huge hand turned the tide.

They both woke up with an ace and the money went in. Worton was behind with ace-eight into ace-jack but he spiked an eight on the flop to take it down. That gave him a huge double and left Zhao on fumes. Zhao doubled back once, and looked to do it a second time when he got it in with queens and Worton was priced in for any two.

Those two were the nine-three of diamonds and even though Zhao flopped a set, Worton ran out to the Flush and the big win. This was his second live win, but he’s been close to a ring before. He’s been heads up in the Seniors ring game three times here, and he’s also bagged a couple of other final tables at WSOP-C Calgary, so he was pretty happy to finally make it through to the win.

David Zhao was left on fumes after doubling up Brett Worton, but he had a shot at a double when he got his fumes in with queens and Worton was priced in to call with any two. Those two were diamonds and board ran out to running diamonds to send Zhao to the rail in second.

Brett Worton mow has a big lead with nearly all the chips in play after his ace-eight got there over ace-jack for David Zhao with an eight on the flop. Worton had chipped up to 3.3 million and left Zhao on fumes.

There haven’t been very many showdowns during heads up, but the momentum is on David Zhao’s side. He’s slowly chipped up over the last level and is now playing about 4.5 million to 2.5 million for Brett Worton.

David Zhao limped and Brett Worton raised to 250k. Zhao pulled the limp-reraise and pumped it up to 750k. Worton called to the A♣5♦3♠ flop but then check-folded to a bet of 350k to leave him with about 2.5 million.

The game is heads up now after Nancy Asselin was unable to run up her short stack after the bad beat against Brett Worton. Worton is now heads up against David Zhao for the ring with Zhao in a slight lead.

Brett Worton raised to 150k and Nancy Asselin called from the small blind. She check-called for 100k on the Q♦Q♠6♣ flop and they both checked the K♦ turn. Asselin fired 275k on the [invalid notations]Jd[/pcn river and Worton snap-mucked.

A couple of hands later, the pair got it in against each other with Worton at risk and playing an underpair of nines against Asselin’s jacks. Worton turned a nine to flip the script and got the double, leaving Asselin short.

David Zhao leads with more than half the chips in play right now. He has 3.765 million to 1.895 million for Brett Worton and 1.36 million for Nancy Asselin.

Graham Lupton shoved under the gun for less than 500k and David Zhao called. He was on pocket deuces against ten-seven for Lupton. The board bricked for the overcards and Lupton hit the rail in 4th place, just shy of his third ring

Action was on the turn with the board reading 6♦A♥3♥4♣. Graham Lupton bet 250k and David Zhao called before DJ Sharma shoved for 1.1 million. Lupton tank-folded, and Zhao hit the tank for a while too before calling. Sharma had ace-jack, but he was behind the two pair for Zhao with ace-six. The river bricked and Zhao now has a commanding chip lead.

David Zhao just got a massive chip up to the lead. The action was all in before the flop with Zhao on pocket queens, big stack Graham Lupton on ace-king, and Guneet Singh at risk to both stacks with king-ten. The board ran out 7♣6♦2♦J♥8♦ and the queens held. Zhao got a full double on 1.2 million from Lupton as well as Singh’s stack, giving him the lead.

Brett Worton raised to 90k from the cutoff, and David Zhao called from the big blind. They checked it through the 6♥8♥K♦8♦4♣ until the river when Zhao fired 110k.

Worton tanked for a bit before putting in the call. “You’re good,” Said Zhao and Worton showed six-five of clubs for the win.

They are down to 6 now after Doug Cornelson couldn’t win a race with his pocket fours. Action opened with a limp from Brett Worton in the middle before David Zhao raised to 80k from the button.

Cornelson was on the small blind and shoved, which forced out big blind Guneet Singh as well as Worton, but Zhao snapped it off with ace-king. The ace came on the flop and Cornelson couldn’t improve. He was no doubt hoping to go deeper, but this marks another solid cash for the DIe Hard Poker League from BC.

Allan Hobbins was running hot just before the final table, but it all came to end for him and Kenny Enns in the same hand. Enns and Hobbins were at risk to Brett Worton with Hobbins on fours, Enns on 9♣8♣ and Worton on sevens.

Worton flopped a set and held for the huge win. Hobbins took 9th place while Enns took 8th place.

Fred Werezak just hit the rail for 10th place, sending his stack over to David Zhao. Approximate chips are below for the remaining 9.

Steve Dejarlais was the bubble to the final table tonight. They are now 10-handed on one table, and I’ll grab pics and names shortly.

They are down to 11 left now with the action moving pretty quickly. Full payouts since the last update are below, but Deepak Chaunkaria hit the rail in 14th after another Hobbins special. Chaunkaria shoved with queens, and Hobbins reshoved more with ace-four and found an ace on the flop for another bounty.

Place	Player	Prize
12	Raymond Burns	$855
13	Yonatan Basin	$855
14	Deepak Chaunkaria	$721
15	Antoine Saddleback	$721
16	Nicholas Andreas	$721
17	Marc-Andre Kudjick-Paquin	$721
18	Donald Blair	$623

The action just went huge on Table 19 as Allan Hobbins sent two to the rail in one hand. Nicholas Andreas raised to 80k early before Marc-Andre Kudjick-Paquin shoved a shorter stack from the cutoff. It folded to Allan Hobbins in the blinds and he shoved a stack that covered both, and Andreas called.

Hobbins had kings against ace-queen for Andreas and eight-nine of diamonds for Kudjick-Paquin. Kudjick-Paquin turned open-ended but bricked the river and Hobbins kings held for the double bounty

There was some major chip movement just before the break, and Graham Lupton now has a massive stack. He got a double through Antoine Saddleback when his queens held over Saddleback’s fives. That gave Lupton 1.43 million and dropped Saddleback to around 100k. Guneet Singh also has a good stack with 875k while DJ Sharma is playing 635k.

They are down to the final two tables now with 18 players left in the game. Antoine Saddleback still looks to be leading and, with a break coming up in about 8 minutes, I’ll grab an exact count of his stack then, as well as a few other big ones.

Payouts Since Last Update

Place	Player	Prize
19	Edgar Zurawell	$623
20	Benn Locker	$623
21	Greg Liow	$623
22	Sinisa Kovacevic	$623

It looks like Antoine Saddleback is the chip leader right now with around 800k in front of him. He’s already picked up a ring this series in the opening Big 30 Stack (and he won his first ring here last year) so he’s on pace to pick up his second Ring this series. DJ Sharma is also still rocking a nice stack of more than 400k.

The PKO field is down to 22 left now with just over 10 minutes to play in Level 18.

PKO Prizes Since Last Update

Place	Player	Prize
23	Malachy Hagan	$623
24	Aaron Duczak	$623
25	Andrew Kalydy	$623
26	Jeremy Lyons	$623
27	Matthew Hall	$551
28	Shane Rawlins	$551
29	Jordan Banfield	$551
30	Xiaoyi Wang	$551
31	Martin Sayle	$551
32	Rishi Makkar	$551
33	Sevon Zargarian	$551
34	Manfred Gunther	$551
35	William Reny	$551
36	Donald Hart	$525

They are well into the money in the PKO now with just four tables left. I’m still getting things sorted out for Day 2 of the $1k so I’m not watching the action very closely, but it looks like DJ Sharma is among the chip leaders with around 400k in front of him.

Payouts So Far

Place	Player	Prize
37	Mehrnoush Alemzadeh	$525
38	Trevor Otterson	$525
39	Varanpreet Sidhu	$525
40	Allen Shen	$525
41	Nicholas Milkovich	$525
42	James Reynolds	$525
43	Carlos Gerones Sancehz	$525
44	Craig Caldwell	$525
45	Kevin Reghenas	$525
46	Kayvan Payman	$525
47	Hoang Quach	$525
48	Sean Godley	$525
49	Jinrong Zhang	$525
50	David Kumar	$525
51	David Quang	$525
52	Mark Lofthouse	$525
53	Edward Cook	$525

I haven’t had a lot of time to watch this one, but they are closing in on the money. There were 352 entries for this one putting almost $150k into the combined prizes with the prize pool portion of that at $77,440. There will be 53 players getting a piece of the money, and they are just 4 away from that now.

PKO Payouts

The side game on Monday night is the Progressive Knockout game. Unlike the traditional bounty games, in this one half the bounty gets added to a player’s head. Players start the day with a $200 bounty and when they knock out a player, $100 will go into their pocket while the other $100 gets added to their own bounty, putting them at $300 when they get knocked out.

The game starts with 20k chips for 25-minute levels and players will have 9 levels of late entry before the desk shuts down tonight. That should put the final chance to buy in at about 9:15 PM tonight.

After that it will be a race to the ring with the game scheduled to finish late Monday night. I likely won’t be watching this one very closely until the very end as I’ll be working on the HORSE and Day 1 of the $1k.