2025 WSOPC Calgary Oct – Event #16: $500 NLH Freezout

David Katzov came out the winner for his first Circuit ring in the Freezeout tonight, but it took more than 3 levels of heads-up play to do it. He and runner-up Xerxes Ng went at it for more than an hour as the blinds shrank.

They each had their chances to end it, but the cards wouldn’t cooperate, sending doubles to the short stack over and over. In the final level of play, there were fewer than 30 big blinds in play, and the lead swapped back and forth with just blinds and antes.

After a fairly quick run from the final table down to 3 players, things stalled a bit three-handed. It took two levels of short-stack doubles before Vikram Gill’s luck ran out. He actually built up the biggest stack three ways at one point, then ran into the short-stack double problem.

After he busted in Level 28, it looked like it should have been a fairly quick end. Ng started heads up as a big leader, but the lead flipped around a lot during the final phase. In the end, it was an unconventional flip that ended it when Ng called his button, Katzov shoved, and Ng called it off.

Ng had ace-eight against king-nine for Katzov, and Katzov spiked his nine on the flop of 9♣7♥J♠2♥2♦ to end the game nearly 13 hours after the first hands were dealt.

David Katzov had chipped up to a small lead before he flopped top pair against two pair for Xerxes Ng. He tank called with Ng shoved on the turn, and Ng held to double to nearly 5 million.

The next hand, Katsov doubled back to about 2 million.

Xerxes Ng is still in the lead with about a 2:1 lead. There haven’t been many showdowns with most hands either being folded preflop, or a shove followed by a fold.

They limped to a flop of 4♣K♠8♣. Xerxes Ng check-called for 150k, then did it again for 350k on the 9♣ turn. The same action came on the 4♥ river, this time for 800k. David Katsov showed ten-high with the ten of clubs, but Ng had a king for the win.

Shortly after, Katzov was all-in and behind, but hit a straight to double again.

It looked like the night might be over when David Katzov shoved with ace-five and Xerxes Ng called with ace-queen. They both hit the ace on the flop, but Katsiv also flopped a wheel draw. He turned his five, and the river bricked for Ng.

A huge cooler sent Vikram Gill to the rail tonight. Xerxes Ng shoved the small blind and Gill snapped the big with less. Gill had ace-jack suited, but he ran into aces. He flopped a heart draw, but bricked the black turn and river to end his night in 3rd place.

Vikram Gill is still leading with about half the chips in play.

Vikram Gill has about half the chips in play after Xerxes Ng raised the small blind to 250k, then called when Gill shoved 1.74 million. Gill had ace-king of diamonds against the off-suit king-nine for Ng. Neither player hit the board, so the ace took it, and Gill has more than 3.5 million.

Vikram Gill shoved his button, and David Katsov snap-called with less. Gill was dominated with ace-eight into ace-queen, and Katzov spiked two pair on the 3♣2♣Q♠A♠10♦ board for the win.

Gill then doubled his remaining stack through Xerxes Ng, and again through Katzov to get right back in it.

Immediately after the exit if Normal Butterfield, Linyang Song got it in with a dominated king and couldn’t find any help on his kicker. He ended his day in 4th.

It had to happen sometime. It was limped four ways to the flop of 3♦8♣J♥. After a check from small blind Linyang Song, Norman Butterfield shoved the big blind. David Katzov called it off with more, while Sing mucked.

Butterfield was open-ended with ten-nine, while Katzov was on top pair with jack-nine. The pair held and Butterfield was out in 5th.

The chips have been flying at the final table with multiple all-ins on nearly every hand, but the short stack is always holding. Vikram Gill got one with sixes into ace-king for Norman Butterfield. Xerxes Ng had folded to the shove, and claimed he had pocket fives, with the turn and river coming five-five. Had he called, he’d have eliminated two players and jumped to the big leader.

Butterfield then doubled back through Linyang Song with queen-jack against queen-nine. I’m finally finished the end-of-day work, and am starting to watch the game more closely.

Shariq Khan is out in 6th place after he lost a big hand to David Katzov. Khan was in with pocket fours, but Katzov woke up with jacks and held for the big double up. Khan was still alive after the hand, but on fumes, and he was out on the next hand.

I’m still finishing up work on the end-of-day for the Main and the High Roller, but here is a look at the final 6 counts, taken on the break after Level 24.

Clark McKay (8th, $2,596), and Chris Clisby (7th, $3,371) have busted from the final table, but I’m still working on the end-of-night for the Main Event and the High Roller games, so I haven’t caught any of the action.

They are down to 8 in the Freezeout, but I’m not watching the action yet as I’m trying to get the Main Event Day 3 sorted out first. The first two players to bust from the final table were John Nielsen and KKPoker’s Chris Alcindor.

Place	Player	Prize
9	Chris Alcindor	$2,046
10	John Nielsen	$1,651
11	Tyler Hapke	$1,651
12	Arvhin Malinab	$1,365
13	Julius Roque	$1,365
14	Craig Watson	$1,156
15	Shreesh Hebbar	$1,156
16	Barbara Dubnyk	$1,156

The Freezeout game is just returning from break for Level 21, with 14 players remaining. With the Main Event on its final level of Day 2, it looks like I will be catching some of this one later after all. Xerxes Ng looks to be the leader now, with more than 1 million chips.

Place	Player	Prize
15	Shreesh Hebbar	$1,156
16	Barbara Dubnyk	$1,156

They are down to 16 remaining in the Freezeout now, with Level 19 ticking down to the end.

Place	Player	Prize
17	Ashkan Razavi	$1,156
18	Brayden Brown	$1,005
19	Logan Lee	$1,005
20	Zeyu Huang	$1,005
21	Alan Zhu	$1,005
22	Fat-Cheong Wong	$1,005
23	Robert Wong	$1,005
24	Frederic Robert	$1,005
25	Scott Stuve	$1,005
26	Troy Christiansen	$1,005
27	Toms Varghese	$957

They are down to the final three tables in the Freezeout, and the action has moved into the Chrome room with the other two games. I still won’t be watching it very closely, however, as I’m following the Main Event.

Place	Player	Prize
28	Gondon Wong	$957
29	Sen Viajyaratnam	$957
30	Rodney Dyck	$957

The Freezeout field is down to 30 players remaining, with the action playing out across the casino in the Sundance room. Less than 10 minutes remain in Level 16, with a break to follow the level.

Shariq Khan looks to be the leader right now with 425k, but keep in mind, I’m basing that off the chip counts in the WSOP+ app, as I don’t have eyes on this game. KKPoker rep Chris Alcindor also looks to be playing a bit more than 400k.

Place	Player	Prize
31	Harpreet Padda	$957
32	Talal Shoush	$957
33	Ivanna Yatsiuk	$957
34	Zbigniew Paszkowski	$957
35	Mohsen Shafizadeh	$957

They are in the money and down to 35 left in the Freezeout game, with about 20 minutes to play in Level 16. Below is the first look at the cashers, with the full list under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
36	Jason Manggunio	$957
37	Tyler Bourassa	$957
38	Jacob Parent	$957
39	Raghav Sharma	$957
40	Fangren Yu	$957
41	Blanca Garcia	$957
42	Roberto Zenteno	$957

About 20 minutes remain on the dinner break following Level 12, with entries closed at 278 players. That means 42 players will get a piece of $116,760 later tonight. The field has 60 players left on the break, so they are 18 off the money when they return.

Top 10 Prizes for the Freezeout

There’s more than $110k in prizes now in the Freezeout game, running in the Sundance room. Entries close in about 45 minutes, but I expect the pace of entries to slow at this point.

There’s more than $100k in prizes now for the Freezeout game, with the field just shy of 250 players. A bit less than 2 hours remain in entries, so this field could potentially see 300 entries before it closes.

The third-to-last game at the October edition of WSOP-C Calgary is a freezeout, somewhat appropriate for a Sunday that saw snow overnight and temperatures below 0 today. With action in Level 4, the field is over 200 for prizes of $84,420.

I won’t be watching this one very closely, at least not until later. If this is still running when the Main completes, I’ll cover the end of this one, but I suspect this game may finish before the Main bags for the night.

Event #16: NLH Freezout ($420 + $80)

For players who don’t have a Day 2 bag, and for whom the $3,500 High Roller isn’t of interest, the $500 Freezeout runs at 11 AM on Sunday. This game allows late entries through the first 10 levels of play, but players should be aware that it is a one-and-done freezeout format, so no reentries will be allowed.

Blinds will be 30 minutes long, and players start the day with 25k in chips. This is a new game on the schedule for this series, so I can’t compare it to other numbers, but it seems reasonable to guess they’ll get 150+ players for this one.

My attention for Sunday will be firmly focused on Day 2 of the Main Event, so other than updates on the numbers and prizes, I don’t expect to see much action in this one. If it goes late, however, I’ll finish my night here after the Main bags for Day 3 and the High Roller Day 1 completes.

David Katzov came out the winner for his first Circuit ring in the Freezeout tonight, but it took more than 3 levels of heads-up play to do it. He and runner-up Xerxes Ng went at it for more than an hour as the blinds shrank.

They each had their chances to end it, but the cards wouldn’t cooperate, sending doubles to the short stack over and over. In the final level of play, there were fewer than 30 big blinds in play, and the lead swapped back and forth with just blinds and antes.

After a fairly quick run from the final table down to 3 players, things stalled a bit three-handed. It took two levels of short-stack doubles before Vikram Gill’s luck ran out. He actually built up the biggest stack three ways at one point, then ran into the short-stack double problem.

After he busted in Level 28, it looked like it should have been a fairly quick end. Ng started heads up as a big leader, but the lead flipped around a lot during the final phase. In the end, it was an unconventional flip that ended it when Ng called his button, Katzov shoved, and Ng called it off.

Ng had ace-eight against king-nine for Katzov, and Katzov spiked his nine on the flop of 9♣7♥J♠2♥2♦ to end the game nearly 13 hours after the first hands were dealt.

David Katzov had chipped up to a small lead before he flopped top pair against two pair for Xerxes Ng. He tank called with Ng shoved on the turn, and Ng held to double to nearly 5 million.

The next hand, Katsov doubled back to about 2 million.

Xerxes Ng is still in the lead with about a 2:1 lead. There haven’t been many showdowns with most hands either being folded preflop, or a shove followed by a fold.

They limped to a flop of 4♣K♠8♣. Xerxes Ng check-called for 150k, then did it again for 350k on the 9♣ turn. The same action came on the 4♥ river, this time for 800k. David Katsov showed ten-high with the ten of clubs, but Ng had a king for the win.

Shortly after, Katzov was all-in and behind, but hit a straight to double again.

It looked like the night might be over when David Katzov shoved with ace-five and Xerxes Ng called with ace-queen. They both hit the ace on the flop, but Katsiv also flopped a wheel draw. He turned his five, and the river bricked for Ng.

A huge cooler sent Vikram Gill to the rail tonight. Xerxes Ng shoved the small blind and Gill snapped the big with less. Gill had ace-jack suited, but he ran into aces. He flopped a heart draw, but bricked the black turn and river to end his night in 3rd place.

Vikram Gill is still leading with about half the chips in play.

Vikram Gill has about half the chips in play after Xerxes Ng raised the small blind to 250k, then called when Gill shoved 1.74 million. Gill had ace-king of diamonds against the off-suit king-nine for Ng. Neither player hit the board, so the ace took it, and Gill has more than 3.5 million.

Vikram Gill shoved his button, and David Katsov snap-called with less. Gill was dominated with ace-eight into ace-queen, and Katzov spiked two pair on the 3♣2♣Q♠A♠10♦ board for the win.

Gill then doubled his remaining stack through Xerxes Ng, and again through Katzov to get right back in it.

Immediately after the exit if Normal Butterfield, Linyang Song got it in with a dominated king and couldn’t find any help on his kicker. He ended his day in 4th.

It had to happen sometime. It was limped four ways to the flop of 3♦8♣J♥. After a check from small blind Linyang Song, Norman Butterfield shoved the big blind. David Katzov called it off with more, while Sing mucked.

Butterfield was open-ended with ten-nine, while Katzov was on top pair with jack-nine. The pair held and Butterfield was out in 5th.

The chips have been flying at the final table with multiple all-ins on nearly every hand, but the short stack is always holding. Vikram Gill got one with sixes into ace-king for Norman Butterfield. Xerxes Ng had folded to the shove, and claimed he had pocket fives, with the turn and river coming five-five. Had he called, he’d have eliminated two players and jumped to the big leader.

Butterfield then doubled back through Linyang Song with queen-jack against queen-nine. I’m finally finished the end-of-day work, and am starting to watch the game more closely.

Shariq Khan is out in 6th place after he lost a big hand to David Katzov. Khan was in with pocket fours, but Katzov woke up with jacks and held for the big double up. Khan was still alive after the hand, but on fumes, and he was out on the next hand.

I’m still finishing up work on the end-of-day for the Main and the High Roller, but here is a look at the final 6 counts, taken on the break after Level 24.

Clark McKay (8th, $2,596), and Chris Clisby (7th, $3,371) have busted from the final table, but I’m still working on the end-of-night for the Main Event and the High Roller games, so I haven’t caught any of the action.

They are down to 8 in the Freezeout, but I’m not watching the action yet as I’m trying to get the Main Event Day 3 sorted out first. The first two players to bust from the final table were John Nielsen and KKPoker’s Chris Alcindor.

Place	Player	Prize
9	Chris Alcindor	$2,046
10	John Nielsen	$1,651
11	Tyler Hapke	$1,651
12	Arvhin Malinab	$1,365
13	Julius Roque	$1,365
14	Craig Watson	$1,156
15	Shreesh Hebbar	$1,156
16	Barbara Dubnyk	$1,156

The Freezeout game is just returning from break for Level 21, with 14 players remaining. With the Main Event on its final level of Day 2, it looks like I will be catching some of this one later after all. Xerxes Ng looks to be the leader now, with more than 1 million chips.

Place	Player	Prize
15	Shreesh Hebbar	$1,156
16	Barbara Dubnyk	$1,156

They are down to 16 remaining in the Freezeout now, with Level 19 ticking down to the end.

Place	Player	Prize
17	Ashkan Razavi	$1,156
18	Brayden Brown	$1,005
19	Logan Lee	$1,005
20	Zeyu Huang	$1,005
21	Alan Zhu	$1,005
22	Fat-Cheong Wong	$1,005
23	Robert Wong	$1,005
24	Frederic Robert	$1,005
25	Scott Stuve	$1,005
26	Troy Christiansen	$1,005
27	Toms Varghese	$957

They are down to the final three tables in the Freezeout, and the action has moved into the Chrome room with the other two games. I still won’t be watching it very closely, however, as I’m following the Main Event.

Place	Player	Prize
28	Gondon Wong	$957
29	Sen Viajyaratnam	$957
30	Rodney Dyck	$957

The Freezeout field is down to 30 players remaining, with the action playing out across the casino in the Sundance room. Less than 10 minutes remain in Level 16, with a break to follow the level.

Shariq Khan looks to be the leader right now with 425k, but keep in mind, I’m basing that off the chip counts in the WSOP+ app, as I don’t have eyes on this game. KKPoker rep Chris Alcindor also looks to be playing a bit more than 400k.

Place	Player	Prize
31	Harpreet Padda	$957
32	Talal Shoush	$957
33	Ivanna Yatsiuk	$957
34	Zbigniew Paszkowski	$957
35	Mohsen Shafizadeh	$957

They are in the money and down to 35 left in the Freezeout game, with about 20 minutes to play in Level 16. Below is the first look at the cashers, with the full list under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
36	Jason Manggunio	$957
37	Tyler Bourassa	$957
38	Jacob Parent	$957
39	Raghav Sharma	$957
40	Fangren Yu	$957
41	Blanca Garcia	$957
42	Roberto Zenteno	$957

About 20 minutes remain on the dinner break following Level 12, with entries closed at 278 players. That means 42 players will get a piece of $116,760 later tonight. The field has 60 players left on the break, so they are 18 off the money when they return.

Top 10 Prizes for the Freezeout

There’s more than $110k in prizes now in the Freezeout game, running in the Sundance room. Entries close in about 45 minutes, but I expect the pace of entries to slow at this point.

There’s more than $100k in prizes now for the Freezeout game, with the field just shy of 250 players. A bit less than 2 hours remain in entries, so this field could potentially see 300 entries before it closes.

The third-to-last game at the October edition of WSOP-C Calgary is a freezeout, somewhat appropriate for a Sunday that saw snow overnight and temperatures below 0 today. With action in Level 4, the field is over 200 for prizes of $84,420.

I won’t be watching this one very closely, at least not until later. If this is still running when the Main completes, I’ll cover the end of this one, but I suspect this game may finish before the Main bags for the night.

Event #16: NLH Freezout ($420 + $80)

For players who don’t have a Day 2 bag, and for whom the $3,500 High Roller isn’t of interest, the $500 Freezeout runs at 11 AM on Sunday. This game allows late entries through the first 10 levels of play, but players should be aware that it is a one-and-done freezeout format, so no reentries will be allowed.

Blinds will be 30 minutes long, and players start the day with 25k in chips. This is a new game on the schedule for this series, so I can’t compare it to other numbers, but it seems reasonable to guess they’ll get 150+ players for this one.

My attention for Sunday will be firmly focused on Day 2 of the Main Event, so other than updates on the numbers and prizes, I don’t expect to see much action in this one. If it goes late, however, I’ll finish my night here after the Main bags for Day 3 and the High Roller Day 1 completes.