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

It was a bit more than 13 hours from start to finish, but a relative newcomer to the game, Chris Potter, took down his first ring at his first WSOP-C event in just his fourth recorded live cash. And he looked a bit like a freight train doing it.

There was no stopping the Die Hard Poker League member tonight. While I didn’t catch much of the early action, pretty much whenever I looked at chips, Potter’s name was on top. The action I did see at the final table was hand after hand of either pushing the much shorter stacks off their hands, or just having it when he needed to, it was pretty clear he was going to be around at the end.

His opponent head-up was certainly motivated to take this one down. This was Caldwell’s fourth final table here at WSOP-C in Calgary, and his second time heads up. Earlier in the day, he’d busted just before the final table in the TORSE game, and he jumped into this one. While he didn’t ride the big stack all day, needing doubles to stay alive earlier in the, he found a way to get to the final table, a few hours after his TORSE cash.

From the beginning of the FT, it seemed like they were destined to be heads up. Potter was miles ahead of the field, but Caldwell had no competition for second through most of the FT, either. The rest of the table was pretty short, and the FT played out pretty quickly once they got there.

The action had stalled for more than an hour 14-handed, but once that logjam was cleared, the game finished in barely an hour. And it was Potter doing most of the damage. He took out 7 of the final eight players tonight, though to be fair, he had a lot of help from Caldwell on one of those when Caldwell doubled through Nicola Tassone to leave Tassone on fumes.

Caldwell was the one who got them heads up, though. He found a heart flush on the river against Deb “Queen Bee” Vanneste, and sent her out in 3rd place.

That set up the two-way game, with Potter still in a commanding lead. Caldwell was about 3:1 down in heads-up, so he needed at least a couple of doubles to get to a lead. The two-way play was surprisingly passive, especially after the wrecking ball performance from both against the shorter stacks leading up to the end.

They folded six hands successively, walking the big blind each time, before they finally played a flop. It would be the only flop they saw. Caldwell opened the button to 240k, and Potter called to see 4♣Q♥2♣ on the flop.

He checked, Caldwell bet 310k, and Potter called. It all kicked off on the turn A♥ when Potter check-called the shove from Caldwell. “Queen is good,” Caldwell sighed as the call went in, but he was ahead with pocket tens when the money went in.

“I’m drawing,” Potter said, showing 6♥5♥ for the gutshot and heart draws. 9♥ on the river was the death knell for Caldwell’s ring hopes in this one.

While Potter’s Hendon Mob profile might seem short, the DHPL hat shows he plays with some tough competition at home. Members of BC’s Die Hard Poker League are fairly frequent visitors to the Sundance room late at night for WSOP-C winners’ photos here at Deerfoot, including founder Darren Kennedy’s ring from January of this year. I’m not exactly sure how many rings DHPL members have won here, but they might need a small closet to store them all now.

Deb Vanneste shoved the small blind and Craig Caldwell called from the big. Caldwell was dominated with K♥5♥ against K♠8♥. The hearts would matter when the board ran 2♥4♥J♦5♠3♥ and Caldwell rivered his flush for the win.

Dave McLeod shoved his small blind, and Chris Potter called in the big. Potter had K♠Q♦ against Q♠8♥, and by the time the board of 9♣5♦8♣10♦Q♣ was out, Potter had the king-high straight for the win.

Nicola Tassone was left short just before the break after doubling up Craig Caldwell, and immediately after the break, he lost the rest to Chris Potter, who hit two pair with ten-eight to cap the pair for Tassone.

During the break, Potter cashed in $5,750 in bounties from tonight’s action, while Deb Vanneste cashed in $1,725.

Debi Loomer shoved early, and it folded around to Deb Vanneste in the big blind. She asked for a count, and when she found out she covered Loomer, she called with pocket eights. The eights held to send Loomer out in 6th place.

Final Five Stacks

Craig Caldwell got a double with aces against the tens of Nicola Tassone.

It was a three-way all-in between Daniel Bong on the short stack, Michael Khan in the middle, and Chris Potter with the big stack. Khan was on ace-king against king-jack for Bong, but Potter was ahead with pocket fives. Bong nailed his five on the flop, and that was all he needed to bring the game to six left.

Deb Vanneste shoved 80k second to act, and Debi Loomer flat called two to her left. It folded to Chris Potter in the big blind, on the big stack, and he shoved. Loomer called off the rest of her stack, worth 250k.

Deb Vanneste: Q♣10♠
Debi Loomer: 9♦8♦
Chris Potter: A♥8♣

Loomer hit her nine on the flop before Vanneste ran out to the king-high straight on a board of 9♣3♠2♥J♦K♥. That gave Vanneste the triple up with the main pot, while Loomer doubled her 250k with the side pot.

Chris Potter has more than 3x his closest competitor right now. He has 2.6 million, with Craig Caldwell in second on 805k.

Steven Dejarlais got his stack in with pocket sixes, but ran into the pocket jacks for Chris Potter. The jacks held, with Potter getting the king-high straight by the end of the board.

They are down to 9 left now, after the game stalled at 14 for a while, then quickly went down to the final table. Roberto Suarez was the first player off the FT, leaving 9 remaining. See below for a look at the recent payouts, and I think I have Tuesday’s games sorted, so I’ll be watching the action fairly soon.

Place	Player	Prize
10	Roberto Suarez	$909
11	Hoang Nguyen	$909
12	Maksym Hlazko	$757
13	Erich Leidums	$757
14	Cameron Peebles	$650

They are down to 14 in the PKO, but I am still trying to get Tuesday’s action sorted out and posted, so I’m not watching the game very closely. It looks like Chris Potter is still leading, but he’s down under 1 million, while Debi Loomer looks to be in second with around 600k.

Place	Player	Prize
15	Bret Haacke	$650
16	Douglas Cornelson	$650
17	Karen Bond	$650

Chris Potter has the big stack, with almost twice as many chips as the next player, Nicola Tassone. Craig Caldwell, working on cash #2 today, is 3rd right now.

They are down to 17 players left on the final two tables now. See below for the recent cashouts, and see the Payouts tab for a look at all the prizes today.

Place	Player	Prize
18	Shoaib Syed	$575
19	Craig Watson	$575
20	Van-Bau Ta	$575
21	James Cruickshank	$575
22	Danesh Luthra	$575
23	Mal Hagan	$575
24	Thomas Dratwa	$575
25	Ivan Chan	$575
26	Guneet Singh	$575

They are down to 26 left on the final three tables now, with just under 15 minutes to play in Level 17. See below for a look at the long list of cashouts so far tonight, with the full prizes now loaded under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
27	Ta-Yu Shih	$525
28	Yusei Shida	$525
29	Arya Ghai	$525
30	Craig Macfarlane	$525
31	Matthew Wilkins	$525
32	Micah Quinn	$525
33	Gary Biggar	$525
34	Youssef Hmama	$525
35	David Quang	$525
36	Donald Kehler	$500
37	Calen Mcneil	$500
38	Paul Jeyaraj	$500
39	Rodney Poirier	$500
40	Tristan Buchanan	$500
41	Scott Carragher	$500
42	Allan Hobbins	$500
43	Eugene Zanozin	$500
44	Evan Thomas	$500
45	Liana Galaszkiewicz	$500
46	Nickolaswilliam Stewart	$500
47	Quinn Kannekens	$500
48	Brent Grabher	$500
49	Yeping Shan	$500

The PKO side game tonight got 325 entries for $136,500 in combined prizes ($71,500 for prizes later tonight). Craig Caldwell is among the players still in the game, working on his second cash of the day. He cashed the TORSE for 8th place and $1,965, and immediately jumped into this one.

He just picked up a massive spot with pocket jacks. It was a four-way all-in, but he was up against aces, as well as ace-king and sixes. Caldwell called for the jack and got it on the flop, holding to crack the aces and collect the bounty of Youssef Hmama. The other two players had more than Caldwell, so they survived after paying off his near quadruple up, with Caldwell now playing around 550k.

The prizes and payouts so far will be updated shortly under the Payouts tab.

The PKO game is well underway with Level 3 just beginning. The field is already at 169 entries for combined prizes of more than $70k, and about 3:20 remaining in entries. I won’t be watching the action on this one very closely until the TORSE game finishes tonight, but it seems likely I’ll make it here for action at the end of the night.

Event #9: $500 NLH Progressive K.O. ($220 + $200 + $80)

Monday’s evening game is a Progressive Knockout. Full details are on the structure sheet, but the basic idea is that all players start with $200 on their heads, and that bounty grows progressively as they knock players out. 50% of the bounty is added to the winning player, so for the first elimination, the winner will pocket $100 while their bounty grows to $300. If that player is then knocked out, the winner pockets $150, and their bounty goes to $350 (assuming it was their first bounty).

Players get 20k to start and play 25-minute levels until the end of the game. The action starts at 5 PM, and there are 9 levels to buy into this one, with entries set to close at 9:40 PM.

In January, Brett Worton won this one over a field of 352. He took down the top prize of $13,240 plus more than $11k in bounties, as well as his first Circuit ring.

I likely won’t be watching this one until late in the action when Day 2 of the TORSE ends. However, this one is my second focus of the day, so I should catch some of the endgame action.