2026 WSOPC Calgary Jan – Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event

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  • Senthuran Vijayaratnam Dismantles the Final Table To Take Down the Main Event ($396,556)

    Alek Gillies
    Main Event Winner Senthuran Vijayaratnam

    To say Senthuran Vijayaratnam was unstoppable would be an understatement. The Ontario native entered the day with the chip lead of of 9,610,000. Pressure was rapid with Weston Pring finding a pair of bustouts to bring the field down to 12. Soon after, Vijayaratnam found an elimination against the short stack Sami Al-Serri to bring play to an unofficial final table.

    From here it turned into Vijayaratnam’s time to shine. He found an early elimination winning a flip against Nizar Tajdin’s two overs with pocket nines. He was the overwhelming chip lead with 16,700,000, and he wouldn’t stop there. With two other players finding a knockout, Vijayaratnam was out for blood. He again had pocket nines against two over and held to send out the short-stacked Rishi Makkar.

    Right after, he flopped an over and flush draw against Weston Prings top pair. He found the overpair on the turn to soar into the equity lead and held to bring play down to four handed. Alen Bakovic was the next opponent left short stacked, and he moved all in with pocket tens. Vijayaratnam called him off with King-Deuce, and smashed the flop finding trip dueces. Not wanting to stop, Vijayaratnam called off the short stacked Graham Lupton. Lupton had him dominated, but a turned two pair gave Vijayaratnam the pot.

    WSOP Jan 2026 Main Event Heads Up

    Both Robin Bergren and Senthuran Vijayaratnam held similar chip stacks heads-up, and neither of the pair were willing to go quietly into the night. They battled evenly for an hour with Bergren finding a chip lead. However, all that would change. Both players turned top pair, and Vijayaratnam blasted the river. His king kicker was best for him to take a commanding 6:1 chip lead.

    Soon after, the short stacked Bergren moved all in with an open ended straight draw. Vijayaratnam’s top pair was ahead, and he asked the dealer for a “red deuce one time.” Harvey answered his prayers as the 2♥ completed the board. Vijayaratnam fell to the floor in relief and celebrated with friends as he took home his biggest ever cash. This year’s main event crushed expectations alongside the series breaking all the records set in prior years. Vijayaratnam took home an astonishing $396,556 for his efforts.

    Main Event Final Table Results

    PlacePlayerPrize
    1 Senthuran Vijayaratnam$396,556
    2 Robin Berger$264,283
    3 Graham Lupton$188,206
    4 Alen Bakovich$135,855
    5 Weston Pring$99,420
    6 Rishi Makkar$73,776
    7 Jiajie Sheng$55,524
    8 David Quang$42,390
    9 Nizar Tajdin$32,835

  • Robin Bergren Eliminated in 2nd Place ($264,283)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:33 (200,000/400,000/400,000)
    Entries:1/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:7:07 PM
    Robin Bergren

    Action was caught after the flop of 10♠7♦4♠, and Robin Bergren moved all in for 6,200,000. Senthuran Vijayaratnam called, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Robin Bergren: 9♦8♠
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: Q♦10♥

    The board ran out A♠2♥, for Bergren to hit the rail.

  • Vijayaratnam Gains a Commanding Lead

    Alek Gillies
    Level:33 (200,000/400,000/400,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:6:31 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 4♠2♦J♣6♣A♠, and Robin Bergren checked to Senthuran Vijayaratnam.

    He fired for 6,500,000 into the 10,000,000 pot. Bergren found the call, and revealed Q♠J♠. Senthuran Vijayaratnam had the better kicker with K♥J♥.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 45,000,000
    Robin Bergren: 7,800,000

  • Vijayaratnam Battles Back

    Alek Gillies
    Level:33 (200,000/400,000/400,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:5:54 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 7♥3♦2♥4♥A♥, and Robin Bergren was quick to check.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam fired for 4,200,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 27,000,000
    Robin Bergren: 25,400,000

  • Bergren Running Away With It

    Alek Gillies
    Level:32 (150,000/300,000/300,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:5:28 PM

    Action was caught after the turn came the Q♥Q♦8♣A♣, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam fired for 750,000. Robin Bergren made the call.

    The river came the 7♠, and both players checked their option. Bergren revealed Q♠3♥ to take the pot.

    Robin Bergren: 33,000,000
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 19,000,000

  • Heads-Up Photos

    Alek Gillies
    Robin Bergren Heads Up
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam Heads Up
    WSOPC Main Event Ring

  • Graham Lupton Eliminated in 3rd Place ($188,206)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:31 (150,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:4:33 PM
    Graham Lupton

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam opened to 1,500,000, and Graham Lupton moved all in for 4,450,000. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Graham Lupton: A♥Q♥
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: Q♠J♠

    The board ran out 8♣Q♣4♥J♦7♠ for Lupton to be sent home.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 29,500,000
    Robin Bergren: 22,000,000

  • Alen Bakovic Eliminated in 4th Place ($135,855)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:31 (150,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:3/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:4:24 PM
    Alen Bakovic

    Alen Bakovic moved all in for 1,050,000, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam made the call.

    Alen Bakovic: 10♣10♦
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: K♥2♦

    The board ran out 2♣2♥9♠7♦Q♦ for Bakovic to hit the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 24,200,000

  • Weston Pring Eliminated in 5th Place ($99,420)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:31 (150,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:4/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:4:13 PM
    Weston Pring

    After the flop of Q♣2♦5♣, Weston Pring checked to Senthuran Vijayaratnam. He moved all in, and Weston called his remaining 1,700,000. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Weston Pring: Q♥8♥
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: K♣J♣

    The board completed with the K♥10♠ to send Pring to the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 25,500,000

  • Rishi Makkar Eliminated in 6th Place ($73,776)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:30 (100,000/200,000/200,000)
    Entries:5/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:3:26 PM
    Rishi Makkar

    Rishi Makkar moved all in for 2,000,000, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Rishi Makkar: A♥Q♦
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 9♣9♠

    The board ran out 7♠3♣4♣7♥5♥ for Makkar to hit the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 19,650,000

  • Jiajie Sheng Eliminated in 7th Place ($55,524)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:30 (100,000/200,000/200,000)
    Entries:6/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:2:54 PM
    Jiajie Sheng Main Event

    Jiajie Sheng moved all in for 1,150,000 from the button, and Alen Bakovic made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Jiajie Sheng: Q♣3♣
    Alen Bakovic: K♥6♥

    The board ran out 4♠5♠J♠9♠8♥ to send Sheng to the rail.

    Alen Bakovic: 7,900,000

  • Updated Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam17,350,000
    Weston Pring11,800,000
    Robin Bergren8,250,000
    Jiajie Sheng5,000,000
    Graham Lupton4,200,000
    Alen Bakovic3,400,000
    Rishi Makkar2,000,000

  • David Quang Eliminated in 8th Place ($42,390)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/150,000/150,000)
    Entries:7/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:2:04 PM
    David Quang

    Late position opened to 350,000, and David Quang moved all in for 2,475,000. Weston Pring moved all in for 6,000,000, and the remaining players made the fold.

    David Quang: 6♦6♣
    Weston Pring: A♦K♥

    The board ran out Q♥2♣A♥A♣3♣ for Pring to take the pot.

    Weston Pring: 9,100,000

  • Nizar Tajdin Eliminated in 9th Place ($32,835)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/150,000/150,000)
    Entries:8/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:1:49 PM
    Nizar Tajdin

    Nizar Tajdin moved all in for 1,225,000, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Nizar Tajdin: Q♣J♥
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 9♠9♥

    The board ran out 3♣7♠5♠2♦10♣ for Tajdin to hit the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 16,700,000

  • Stephen Dauphinais Eliminated in 10th Place ($25,812)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/150,000/150,000)
    Entries:9/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:1:38 PM
    Stephen Dauphinais

    Rishi Makkar moved all in for 1,750,000 from middle position. Stephen Dauphinais called for his remaining 1,400,000 from late position. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Stephen Dauphinais: A♥K♦
    Rishi Makkar: 7♠7♦

    The board ran out 3♥Q♦4♠8♥6♥ for Makkar to take the pot.

    Rishi Makkar: 3,300,000

  • Final Table Faces

    Alek Gillies
    Rishi Makkar
    Robin Bergren
    Nizar Tajdin
    Jiajie Sheng Main Event
    Stephen Dauphinais
    Alen Bakovic
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam
    David Quang
    Graham Lupton
    Weston Pring

  • Sami Al-Serri Eliminated in 11th Place ($25,812)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:10/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:1:15 PM
    Sami Al-Serri

    Sami Al-Serri moved all in for 630,000 from under the gun. Senthuran Vijayaratnam called, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Sami Al-Serri: 9♠7♠
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: A♥J♠

    The board ran out 5♥J♥Q♦7♥2♠, for Vijayaratnam to take the pot.

  • Juan Lamprea Eliminated in 12th Place ($20,597)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:11/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:55 PM
    Juan Lamprea

    Action was caught after the flop of 7♥4♠9♣, and Juan Lamprea checked to Robin Bergren. He fired for 200,000, and Lamprea raised to 700,000. Bergren re-raised to 1,700,000, and Lamrpea moved all in for 3,350,000. Bergren snap called, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Juan Lamprea: A♥9♦
    Robin Bergren: 4♠4♣

    The board ran out 6♦Q♥ to send Lamprea home.

    Robin Bergren: 10,850,000

  • Lupton Finds Top Top

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:12/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:39 PM

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam opened to 250,000, and Graham Lupton defended his big blind.

    The flop came 7♥9♠3♥, and Lupton was quick to check. Vijayaratnam fired for 225,000, and Lupton check-raised to 700,000. He was rewarded with the pot.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 7,500,000
    Graham Lupton: 3,120,000

  • Aleksei Ponomarev Eliminated in 13th Place ($20,597)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:12/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:17 PM
    Aleksei Ponomarev

    Aleksei Ponomarev moved all in for 2,650,000, and Weston Pring made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Aleksei Ponomarev: J♣J♦
    Weston Pring: K♠K♣

    The board ran out 4♦5♦2♠A♣Q♠ for Ponomarev to hit the rail.

    Weston Pring: 6,450,000

  • Xiao Hu Eliminated in 14th Place ($16,686)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:13/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:08 PM
    Xiao Hu

    Xiao Hu moved all in for 700,000, and Weston Pring made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Xiao Hu: A♦5♣
    Weston Pring: A♠10♠

    The board ran out Q♥8♦6♠K♦2♣ for Pring to take the pot.

    Weston Pring: 3,220,000

  • Vijayaratnam Leads 14 Day 3 Stacks

    Alek Gillies

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 3

    Date:Jan 19, Noon
    Blinds:60 Minutes
    Entries:14/1321
    Prizes (1st Place):$2,589,160 ($396,556)

    There are 14 players still alive in this record Main Event, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam is leading the way with almost 10 million. The next closest player is Robin Bergren, with 7.4 million. Jiajie Sheng, Alen Bakovic, and Juan Lamprea round out the top five counts.

    The Day 3 action gets going at noon, and they’ll play to a winner on Monday. Blinds remain at 60 minutes for the rest of the game. There is nearly $400k up top for the winner on Monday, so there is a lot to play for, but everyone returning for Day 3 is guaranteed at least $16,686, with an immediate pay jump to $20,597 after the first player busts on Monday.

    See below for the returning stacks, sorted by table & seat, as well as by name underneath.

    Day 3 Stacks, Sorted by Table & Seat (T-S)

    T-SPlayerChips
    28 – 1Aleksei Ponomarev2,860,000
    28 – 2Xiao Yu Hu701,000
    28 – 4Jiajie Sheng6,885,000
    28 – 5David Quang2,265,000
    28 – 6Robin Bergren7,400,000
    28 – 7Weston Pring2,450,000
    28 – 8Juan Lamprea4,000,000
    29 – 1Senthuran Vijayaratnam9,610,000
    29 – 3Stephen Dauphinais3,325,000
    29 – 5Rishi Makkar2,210,000
    29 – 6Alen Bakovic4,525,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri2,250,000
    29 – 8Graham Lupton1,925,000
    29 – 9Nizar Tajdin2,390,000

    Day 3 Stacks, Sorted by Name

    T-SPlayerChips
    28 – 1Aleksei Ponomarev2,860,000
    29 – 6Alen Bakovic4,525,000
    28 – 5David Quang2,265,000
    29 – 8Graham Lupton1,925,000
    28 – 4Jiajie Sheng6,885,000
    28 – 8Juan Lamprea4,000,000
    29 – 9Nizar Tajdin2,390,000
    29 – 5Rishi Makkar2,210,000
    28 – 6Robin Bergren7,400,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri2,250,000
    29 – 1Senthuran Vijayaratnam9,610,000
    29 – 3Stephen Dauphinais3,325,000
    28 – 7Weston Pring2,450,000
    28 – 2Xiao Yu Hu701,000

    Remaining Payouts for Day 3 Players

    PlacePrize
    1$396,556
    2$264,283
    3$188,206
    4$135,855
    5$99,420
    6$73,776
    7$55,524
    8$42,390
    9$32,835
    10$25,812
    11$25,812
    12$20,597
    13$20,597
    14$16,686

  • 14 Players Return for Day 3; Senthuran Vijayaratnam Leads

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60000/120000/120000)
    Entries:14/1321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:25 PM

    Day 2 of the Main Event is complete, with 14 players remaining for the final day of play on Monday. Senthuran Vijayaratnam leads the way into Day 3 with almost 10 million. See below for a look at the 14 returning stacks, sorted by stack size. Stay tuned later for a Day 3 preview post with full seat assignments.

    PlayerChips
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam9,610,000
    Robin Bergren7,400,000
    Jiajie Sheng6,885,000
    Alen Bakovic4,525,000
    Juan Lamprea4,000,000
    Stephen Dauphinais3,325,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev2,860,000
    Weston Pring2,450,000
    Nizar Tajdin2,390,000
    David Quang2,265,000
    Sami Al-Serri2,250,000
    Rishi Makkar2,210,000
    Graham Lupton1,925,000
    Xiao Yu Hu701,000

  • 15 Minutes to Play in Day 2

    Alek Gillies
    Level:27 (50000/100000/100000)
    Entries:14/1321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:11:40 PM

    There are just under 15 minutes to play in Level 27, and the bags will come out at the end of this level. There are currently 14 players left in Day 2, and it seems likely they won’t lose that many players before the end of the day. There is one more payout at $16,686 before it jumps to $20,597 for 13th place.

    PlacePlayerPrize
    15 Chris Potter$16,686
    16 Anthony Smith$16,686

  • 16 Left in the Main; One Level to Play in Day 2

    Alek Gillies
    Level:26 (40000/80000/80000)
    Entries:16/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:10:50 PM

    The final level of play for Day 2 is about to begin for the Main Event, with 16 players remaining. That means there is about an hour left until the bags come out for Day 3, and it looks like they’ll come back tomorrow with a bit more than the final table remaining.

  • Recent Busts

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    17Rahul Sharma$16,686
    18Adam Balog$13,728
    19Calvin Chow$13,728
    20Shane Patacsil$13,728
    21Paul Waring$13,728
    22Pawan Braich$13,728
    23Brett Worton$13,728
    24Trent Hopper$13,728
    25Dallas Larson$13,728
    26Christopher Bailey$13,728
    27Vincent Lam$11,473
    28Maksim Kniter$11,473
    29Parth Mansukh$11,473
    30Sheraz Nazir$11,473
    31Michael Li$11,473
    32Giuseppe Galluzzo$11,473
    33Ashkan Razavi$11,473

  • Sheng Wins a Massive Three Way All In

    Alek Gillies
    Level:26 (40,000/80,000/80,000)
    Entries:18/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:10:10 PM

    A three way all in occurred with Jiajie Sheng moving all in for 1,300,000. Middle position jammed for 1,900,000, and Stephen Dauphinais made the call covering both. The three players revealed their holdings.

    Jiajie Sheng: A♥A♣
    Middle Position: A♠K♥
    Stephen Dauphinais: Q♣Q♥

    The board ran out 9♠7♦9♥5♥8♣, for Sheng to take the main pot. Dauphinais took the side and found an elimination.

    Stephen Dauphinais: 4,960,000
    Jinjie Sheng: 4,640,000

  • Updated Stacks at the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Robin Bergren4,800,000
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam4,000,000
    Anthony Smith3,700,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev3,500,000
    Xiao Hu3,400,000
    Juan Lamprea3,000,000
    Rishi Makkar2,800,000
    Graham Upton2,600,000
    Nizar Tajdin2,500,000
    Rahul Sharma2,100,000

  • Larson Gets Max Value

    Alek Gillies
    Level:25 (30,000/60,000/60,000)
    Entries:25/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:9:21 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 5♦5♥4♦3♣6♠, and Dallas Larson moved all in for 415,000.

    Late Position went into the tank, but eventually flicked in the call.

    Larson revealed A♥A♦ to find the double.

    Dallas Larson: 1,980,000

  • Bergren Soars to the Chip Lead

    Alek Gillies
    Level:25 (30,000/60,000/60,000)
    Entries:27/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:8:34 PM

    Vince Lam opened to 120,000 from the cutoff, and Robin Bergren three-bet to 350,000 from the big blind. Lam moved all in, and Bergren went into the tank. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Robin Bergren: Q♠Q♣
    Vince Lam: A♣K♣

    The board ran out 9♦10♣10♠7♥9♥ for Bergren to find the double.

    Robin Bergren: 5,440,000
    Vince Lam: 210,000

  • Lam on the Lookout

    Alek Gillies
    Level:24 (25,000/50,000/50,000)
    Entries:28/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:8:17 PM

    After his partner Anne Ngo found a second WSOPC ring in yesterday’s Ladies Event, Vince Lam is looking to keep up the success with a deep run today.

    Action was caught on the turn of 9♣A♦8♦9♠, with both players having checked the two streets.

    The river came the 2♠, and the big blind checked to Lam. He fired for 150,000, and took down the pot.

    Vince Lam: 3,000,000

  • “One Pair at Least” for Hu

    Alek Gillies
    Level:24 (25,000/50,000/50,000)
    Entries:29/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:8:06 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 7♠J♠6♣, and all three players were quick to check.

    The turn came the 6♥, Xiao Hu fired for 160,000 from the big blind. Both his opponents mucked their hands. Hu joked that he had “One pair at least.”

    Xiao Hu: 2,150,000

  • Dauphinais Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:24 (50,000/100,000/100,000)
    Entries:30/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:7:54 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 6♥10♠10♥, and Stephen Dauphinais led out for 250,000 from the small blind. Early position made the call.

    The turn came the Q♥, and Dauphinais checked to early position. They fired for 400,000, and Dauphinais moved all in. After a long tank, early position made the fold. Dauphinais let out a huge sigh of relief as he scooped in the pot.

    Stephen Dauphinais: 3,160,000

  • Updated Stacks at Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam4,000,000
    Anthony Smith3,700,000
    Juan Lamprea3,000,000
    Nazir Tajdin2,600,000
    Robin Bergman2,500,000
    Sami Al-Serri2,500,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev2,300,000
    Christopher Potter2,300,000
    Rishi Makkar2,300,000
    Stephen Dauphinais2,300,000

  • All Eliminations Before Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    34Vo Nguyen$11,473
    35Chen Chen$11,473
    36Antonio Ma$9,741
    37Ryan Andrade$9,741
    38Joel Kogan$9,741
    39John Hewgill$9,741
    40Claude Gaudet$9,741
    41David Anderson$9,741
    42Oleksii Mezhenkov$9,741
    43Ruoxiao Shi$9,741
    44Dustin Melanson$9,741
    45Wille Jonathan Scott$8,406
    46Rene Schmidt$8,406
    47Michael Hooper$8,406
    48Nicholas Ryan Mcewen$8,406
    49Chaudhary Faisal$8,406
    50Cody Cloutier$8,406
    51Tam Ho$8,406
    52Hien Vo$8,406
    53Clayton Robert Mozdzen$8,406
    54George Caragiorgas$7,374

  • Big Defend for Chen

    Alek Gillies
    Level:23 (20,000/40,000/40,000)
    Entries:41/1,321
    Prizes:$329,175
    Local Time:6:05 PM

    Middle position opened to 80,000, and the cutoff made the call. Chen Chen defended his big blind.

    The flop came 3♥J♥7♠, and Chen led out for 140,000. The cutoff made the call.

    Action checked trough to the river of 4♠Q♦. Chen revealed Q♥6♥ to take the pot.

    Chen Chen: 1,040,000

  • Ponomarev Finds the Elimination

    Alek Gillies
    Level:23 (20,000/40,000/40,000)
    Entries:46/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:5:44 PM

    The cutoff opened to 350,000, leaving just 5,000 behind. Aleksei Ponomarev moved all in from the big blind, and the cutoff made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Cutoff: A♦2♠
    Aleksei Ponomarev: 7♠7♥

    The board ran out J♥4♠Q♣3♣4♦ for Ponomarev to find the knockout.

    Aleksei Ponomarev: 2,270,000

  • Mansukh Finds the Hero Call

    Alek Gillies
    Level:22 (15,000/30,000/30,000)
    Entries:49/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:5:24 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 8♠Q♣10♦4♣6♠, and Parth Mansukh checked from the big blind.

    His opponent fired for 250,000, into the 350,000 pot.

    Mansukh went into the tank, before eventually making the call. His 10♥3♥ bested his opponent’s A♥7♣ bluff to take the pot.

    Parth Mansukh: 1,670,000

  • Those Who Have Fallen

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    55Dylan Timothy James Boyer$7,374
    56Krys edd Alipio$7,374
    57Tony Le$7,374
    58William Doherty$7,374
    59Amichai Barer$7,374
    60Angelo Jopek$7,374
    61Garett James Maybery$7,374
    62Dylan Stephen Payne$7,374
    63Kayvan Payman$6,577
    64Lucas Leite Dantas$6,577
    65Arya Ghai$6,577
    66Steve Lukic$6,577
    67Carter Mccauley$6,577
    68Jeffrey Michael Reardon$6,577
    69Charles Shapiro$6,577
    70Richard Bewski$6,577
    71Malachy Hagan$6,577
    72Joshua W Hopkins$5,967
    73Ihor Popyk$5,967
    74Patrick Roger Joseph Tardif$5,967
    75Deven Lane$5,967
    76Youssef Hmama$5,967
    77Adrian Gouveia$5,967
    78Mehmet Siginc$5,967
    79Bradley Davidson$5,967
    80Zhun Chen$5,967
    81Omid Mojaverian$5,508
    82Marc Lavergne$5,508
    83Kyle Ho$5,508
    84Clayton Gaudry$5,508
    85Jolnar Teliani$5,508
    86Seseung Oh$5,508
    87Edward Daniel Sorensen$5,508
    88Jacob Anderson$5,508
    89Zhixiang Li$5,508
    90Daniel A Wojcik$5,175
    91Michael Khan$5,175
    92Clifton George Green$5,175
    93John MacArthur$5,175
    94Norman Shapiro$5,175
    95Scott Carragher$5,175
    96Luteng Li$5,175
    97Ryan Simmonds$5,175
    98Van Quoc Vo$5,175

  • Updated Big Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Rahul Sharma2,300,000
    Pav Braich1,900,000
    Sami Al-Serri1,900,000
    Stephen Dauphinais1,900,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev1,800,000
    Tony Le1,700,000
    Christopher Potter1,600,000
    Nizar Tajdin1,600,000
    Vincent Lam1,600,000
    Sheraz Nasir1,400,000

  • Bullets for Hu

    Alek Gillies
    Level:
    Entries:64/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:3:56 PM

    Under the gun moved all in for 565,000, and Xiao Hu flicked in the call from the big blind.

    Under the Gun: 7♣7♥
    Xiao Hu: A♠A♥

    The board ran out 4♥6♣8♣8♠6♦ for Hu to find the elimination.

    Xiao Hu: 1,215,000

  • Galluzzo Finds the Bluff

    Alek Gillies
    Level:21 (15,000/25,000/25,000)
    Entries:72/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:3:24 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of J♣3♦5♠, and early position led out for 120,000.

    Giuseppe Galluzzo raised to 400,000, and early position went into the tank.

    They eventually made the fold while stating they laided down “Ace Jack.” Galluzzo revealed the J♥ for top pair worse kicker.

    Giuseppe Galluzzo: 735,000

  • Tazdin Joins the Seven Figure Club

    Alek Gillies
    Level:20 (10,000/20,000/20,000)
    Entries:81/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:2:58 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of Q♦9♠8♣A♥, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Nizar Tajdin fired for 175,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Nizar Tajdin: 1,035,000

  • Recent Bustouts

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerChip Count
    99Tyler Panas$4,949
    100Jonathan Isaac Newman$4,949
    101Gordon Wong$4,949
    102Christopher Alcindor$4,949
    103Seong Choi$4,949
    104Hugo Leonan Amaral Soares$4,949
    105Adrian r Baran$4,949
    106Kyle Chang$4,949
    107Pamela Susan Macnaughton$4,949
    108Vivek Sharma$4,949
    109Jatinder Brar$4,949
    110Gennady Klimenko$4,949
    111Alexander Bylicki$4,949
    112Osbert Liu$4,949
    113Christopher Klementis$4,949
    114Wing Yeung$4,949
    115Keera Lee Grabbe$4,949
    116Anthony Hughes$4,949
    117Dhiraj Sharma$4,713
    118Zhiyu Chen$4,713
    119Ryan Smith$4,713
    120Ankhbayar Bayar$4,713
    121AARON HENRY LAM$4,713
    122Drew Buchner$4,713
    123Kris Steinbach$4,713
    124Phong Truong$4,713
    125Kwong Lam$4,713
    126Lanze Chevillard$4,713
    127Daniel Stetski$4,713
    128Callum Roque$4,713
    129Travis Macmillan$4,713
    130Toan Tran$4,713
    131Fredrick Mowatt$4,713
    132Paul Jeyaraz$4,713
    133Aaron Duczak$4,713
    134ARI Benarroch$4,713
    135Mathew Maddalo$4,713

  • Big Stacks After the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Aleksei Ponomarev1,800,000
    Pav Braich1,400,000
    Sami-El Sarri1,400,000
    Vincent Lam1,400,000
    Christopher Potter1,200,000
    Dallas Larson1,100,000
    Stephen Dauphinais1,100,000
    Rahul Sharma935,000
    Angelo Jopek920,000
    Oleksii Mezhenkov900,000

  • Melanson Finds the Double

    Alek Gillies
    Level:19 (1,000/15,000/15,000)
    Entries:115/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:1:42 PM

    Kris Steinbach moved all in, and Dustin Melanson called for his remaining 164,000. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Dustin Melanson: A♣9♥
    Kris Steinbach: Q♠10♣

    The board ran out 2♦3♣A♠10♥7♠ for Melanson to take the pot.

    Dustin Melanson: 368,000

  • Recent Eliminations

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    136Elizabeth Boles$4,713
    137Donald Cowie$4,713
    138Joshua Frazer James$4,713
    139Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram$4,713
    140Yong Yuan Lu$4,713
    141Anthony James Williams$4,713
    142Dawson Chen$4,713
    143Eun Park$4,713
    144Malcolm Bolger$4,713
    145Eric Wallace$4,713
    146Michael Baldwin$4,713
    147Reginaid Lepine$4,713
    148Mishel Nguyen$4,713
    149Aaron Lam$4,713
    150Perry Rouzes$4,713
    151Raymond Lamy$4,713
    152Curtis Singleton$4,713
    153Richard Gilliard$4,713
    154Aaron La$4,713
    155Randy Audette$4,713
    156TYLER FISH$4,713
    157Hassan Issa$4,713
    158Tommy L D Nguyen$4,713
    159Nickolaos Simeonidis$4,713
    160Fenghua Cai$4,713
    161Nohad Teliani$4,713
    162Romualdo Cusano$4,713
    163Joseph Charlebois$4,713
    164Regan Duong$4,713
    165Michael Leah$4,713
    166Dennis Beebe$4,713
    167Joe Basaraba$4,713
    168Craig Patrick Caldwell$4,713
    169Derek Dufour$4,713
    170Ta-Yu Shih$4,713
    171Mehdi Saeed$4,713
    172Chase Bonertz$4,713
    173Gilbert Charles$4,713
    174Roger Thomas Charles Grosset$4,713
    175Anne Ngo$4,713
    176Ryan Jensen$4,713
    177Afshin Majidi$4,713
    178Fat Cheong Wong$4,713
    179Ze Li$4,713
    180Varanpreet Sidhu$4,713

  • Sheng Gets it Through

    Alek Gillies
    Level:18 (6,000/12,000/12,000)
    Entries:143/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:12:44 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 5♣7♣Q♦10♥, and both blinds were quick to check. Jiajie Sheng fired for 70,000 from middle position. Only the small blind made the call.

    The J♥ completed the board, and the small blind checked to Sheng. He moved all in for 140,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Jiajie Sheng: 460,000

  • Bakovic Finds the KO

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:18 (6,000/12,000/12,000)
    Entries:156/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:12:23 PM

    Early position moved all in for 40,000, and Alen Bakovic moved all in over the top for 200,000. The remaining players folded, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Early Position: Q♠J♥
    Alen Bakovic: A♥J♦

    The board ran out K♠K♣K♦8♣6♣ for Bakovic to take the pot.

  • Lee Risks it All

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:18 (6,000/12,000/12,000)
    Entries:173/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:12:10 PM

    Early position opened to 25,000, and Keera Lee three-bet to 50,000. Early position made the call.

    The flop came 5♥4♦6♣, and early position was quick to check. Lee moved all in for 85,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Keera Lee: 199,000

  • Day 2 of the Record Main Event Runs Sunday

    Lyle Bateman

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 2

    Date:Jan 18, noon
    Blinds:60 Minutes
    Entries:180/1,321
    Prizes (1st Place):$2,562,602 ($396,556)

    Day 2 of the Main Event is set, and it’s a huge one. 180 players are coming back for Day 2 play, with two millionaires at the top of the counts. Mehmet Siginc, who won Event #2 and was runner-up in the Monster stack, bagged biggest with 1.1 million, while Jo Teliani is close behind with 1.06 million. Dylan Payne and Pav Braich are both in the 900k range, while Oleksii Mezhenkov has 829k for Day 2. Full stacks and seats will be below.

    Day 2 gets going at noon with the start of Level 18, and they’ll play until the end of Level 27. With 180 players coming back, expect Day 3 to have more than one table returning on Monday. Blinds are 60 minutes for the rest of the game.

    This Main Event turned out to be the biggest prize pool ever, wth more than $2.5 million. That’s around $200k more than the previous record, set in January 2024 with $2.34 million.

    Top Ten Day 2 Stacks

    PlayerChips
    Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    Jo Teliani1,060,000
    Dylan Payne990,000
    Pav Braich923,000
    Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    Jatinder Brar747,000
    David Quang727,000
    Joel Kogan725,000

    Day 2 Stacks, Sorted by Table & Seat (T-S)

    T-SPlayerChips
    21 – 1Antonio Ma375,000
    21 – 2Gordon Wong186,000
    21 – 3Patrick Tardif282,000
    21 – 4Afshin Majidi160,000
    21 – 5Weston Pring317,000
    21 – 6Eric Wallace155,000
    21 – 7Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram260,000
    21 – 8Vincent Lam250,000
    21 – 9Joshua James287,000
    22 – 1John Hewgill84,000
    22 – 2Chase Bonertz105,000
    22 – 3Ryan Jensen16,000
    22 – 4Seseung Oh193,000
    22 – 5Gilbert Charles56,000
    22 – 6Varanpreet Sidhu53,000
    22 – 7Parth Mansukh133,000
    22 – 8Ryan Andrade100,000
    22 – 9Scott Carragher220,000
    23 – 1Clayton Gaudry605,000
    23 – 2Steve Lukic262,000
    23 – 3Cody Cloutier221,000
    23 – 4Ta-Yu Shih73,000
    23 – 5Michael Li422,000
    23 – 6Jatinder Brar747,000
    23 – 7Nickolaos Simeonidis80,000
    23 – 8Jiajie Sheng123,000
    23 – 9Ari Benarroch63,000
    24 – 1Richard Gilliard191,000
    24 – 2Adrian Gouveia211,000
    24 – 3Zhun Chen218,000
    24 – 4Aaron La195,000
    24 – 5Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    24 – 6Jo Teliani1,060,000
    24 – 7Wille Scott358,000
    24 – 8Zhixiang Li183,000
    24 – 9Xiao Yu Hu258,000
    25 – 1Callum Roque178,000
    25 – 2Aaron Duczak182,000
    25 – 3Giuseppe Galluzzo133,000
    25 – 4Ryan Smith383,000
    25 – 5Randy Audette136,000
    25 – 6Jacob Anderson289,000
    25 – 7Tyler Fish115,000
    25 – 8Lanze Chevillard236,000
    25 – 9Christopher Alcindor382,000
    28 – 1Kyle Ho425,000
    28 – 2Perry Rouzes105,000
    28 – 3Drew Buchner191,000
    28 – 4Yong Yuan Lu523,000
    28 – 5Chaudhary Faisal225,000
    28 – 6Malachy Hagan80,000
    28 – 7Luteng Li214,000
    28 – 8Adam Balog212,000
    28 – 9Cliff Green158,000
    29 – 1Fenghua Cai13,000
    29 – 2Annee Ngo183,000
    29 – 3Ihor Popyk298,000
    29 – 4Seong Hoon Choi291,000
    29 – 5George Caragiorgas76,000
    29 – 6Derek Dufour60,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri486,000
    29 – 8Gennady Klimenko399,000
    29 – 9Graham Lupton301,000
    30 – 1Jeffrey Reardon412,000
    30 – 2Christopher Bailey255,000
    30 – 3Norman Shapiro247,000
    30 – 4Adrian Baran281,000
    30 – 5Daniel Paul Stetski482,000
    30 – 6Lucas Dantas316,000
    30 – 7Nizar Tajdin199,000
    30 – 8Tyler Panas400,000
    30 – 9Deven Lane301,000
    31 – 1Nohad Teliani186,000
    31 – 2William Doherty479,000
    31 – 3Roger Grosset171,000
    31 – 4Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    31 – 5John Macarthur240,000
    31 – 6Christopher Potter447,000
    31 – 7Ze Yu Li142,000
    31 – 8Sheraz Nasir247,000
    31 – 9Dennis Beebe102,000
    32 – 1Reginaid Lepine142,000
    32 – 2David Quang727,000
    32 – 3Ashkan Razavi288,000
    32 – 4Senthuran Vijayaratnam166,000
    32 – 5Michael Hooper301,000
    32 – 6Romualdo Cusano153,000
    32 – 7Osbert Liu396,000
    32 – 8Richard Bewski176,000
    32 – 9Ryan Simmonds420,000
    34 – 1Amichai Barer191,000
    34 – 2Malcolm Bolger321,000
    34 – 3Stephen Dauphinais309,000
    34 – 4Fat Cheong Wong89,000
    34 – 5Omid Mojaverian255,000
    34 – 6Clayton Mozdzen198,000
    34 – 7Hassan Issa109,000
    34 – 8Tony Le319,000
    34 – 9Raymond Lamy418,000
    35 – 1Zhiyu Chen65,000
    35 – 2Carter Mccauley275,000
    35 – 3Joshua W Hopkins414,000
    35 – 4Travis Macmillan470,000
    35 – 5Arya Ghai164,000
    35 – 6Brett Worton67,700
    35 – 7Mathew Maddalo118,000
    35 – 8David Anderson254,000
    35 – 9Dallas Larson280,000
    36 – 1Jeff Charlebois30,000
    36 – 2Marc Lavergne156,000
    36 – 3Tommy Nguyen48,000
    36 – 4Donald Cowie314,000
    36 – 5Shane Patacsil50,000
    36 – 6Fredrick Mowatt89,000
    36 – 7Bradley Davidson310,000
    36 – 8Robin Bergren207,000
    36 – 9Kwong Lam528,000
    37 – 1Paul Waring476,000
    37 – 2Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    37 – 3Dylan Payne990,000
    37 – 4Aaron Lam272,000
    37 – 5Hugo Soares366,000
    37 – 6Charles Shapiro210,000
    37 – 7Ankhbayar Bayar135,000
    37 – 8Eun Park218,000
    37 – 9Daniel A Wojcik179,000
    38 – 1Alexander Bylicki438,000
    38 – 2Garett Maybery699,000
    38 – 3Edward Sorensen94,000
    38 – 4Jonathan Newman336,000
    38 – 5Krys Alipio106,000
    38 – 6Phong Truong240,000
    38 – 7Joe Basaraba157,000
    38 – 8Christopher Klementis362,000
    38 – 9Rishi Makkar446,000
    40 – 1Rahul Sharma542,000
    40 – 2Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    40 – 3Vivek Sharma472,000
    40 – 4Michael Baldwin119,000
    40 – 5Kris Steinbach321,000
    40 – 6Dustin Melanson255,000
    40 – 7Curtis Singleton158,000
    40 – 8Anthony Hughes265,000
    40 – 9Trent Hopper565,000
    41 – 1Elizabeth Boles145,000
    41 – 2Kyle Chang170,000
    41 – 3Toan Tran550,000
    41 – 4Youssef Hmama175,000
    41 – 5Michael Leah108,000
    41 – 6Dawson Chen400,000
    41 – 7Pav Braich923,000
    41 – 8Anthony James Williams154,000
    41 – 9Tam Ho417,000
    42 – 1DJ Sharma242,000
    42 – 2Chen Chen218,000
    42 – 3Dylan Boyer236,000
    42 – 4Craig Patrick Caldwell126,000
    42 – 5Vo Nguyen236,000
    42 – 6Regan Duong83,000
    42 – 7Alen Bakovic432,000
    42 – 8Wing Yeung240,000
    42 – 9Anthony Smith400,000
    43 – 1Rene Schmidt278,000
    43 – 2Joel Kogan725,000
    43 – 3Kayvan Payman242,000
    43 – 4Ruoxiao Shi338,000
    43 – 5Mehdi Saeed197,000
    43 – 6Juan Lamprea191,000
    43 – 7Claude Gaudet134,000
    43 – 8Van Quoc Vo360,000
    43 – 9Michael Khan288,000
    44 – 1Calvin Chow409,000
    44 – 2Paul Jeyaraj157,000
    44 – 3Hien Vo404,000
    44 – 4Mishel Nguyen125,000
    44 – 5Pamela Macnaughton210,000
    44 – 6Aaron Lam124,000
    44 – 7Keera Lee Grabbe130,000
    44 – 8Maksim Kniter234,000
    44 – 9Angelo Jopek463,000

    Day 2 Stacks, Sorted by Name

    T-SPlayerChips
    25 – 2Aaron Duczak182,000
    24 – 4Aaron La195,000
    37 – 4Aaron Lam272,000
    44 – 6Aaron Lam124,000
    28 – 8Adam Balog212,000
    30 – 4Adrian Baran281,000
    24 – 2Adrian Gouveia211,000
    21 – 4Afshin Majidi160,000
    31 – 4Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    42 – 7Alen Bakovic432,000
    38 – 1Alexander Bylicki438,000
    34 – 1Amichai Barer191,000
    44 – 9Angelo Jopek463,000
    37 – 7Ankhbayar Bayar135,000
    29 – 2Annee Ngo183,000
    40 – 8Anthony Hughes265,000
    41 – 8Anthony James Williams154,000
    42 – 9Anthony Smith400,000
    21 – 1Antonio Ma375,000
    23 – 9Ari Benarroch63,000
    35 – 5Arya Ghai164,000
    32 – 3Ashkan Razavi288,000
    36 – 7Bradley Davidson310,000
    35 – 6Brett Worton67,700
    25 – 1Callum Roque178,000
    44 – 1Calvin Chow409,000
    35 – 2Carter Mccauley275,000
    37 – 6Charles Shapiro210,000
    22 – 2Chase Bonertz105,000
    28 – 5Chaudhary Faisal225,000
    42 – 2Chen Chen218,000
    25 – 9Christopher Alcindor382,000
    30 – 2Christopher Bailey255,000
    38 – 8Christopher Klementis362,000
    31 – 6Christopher Potter447,000
    43 – 7Claude Gaudet134,000
    23 – 1Clayton Gaudry605,000
    34 – 6Clayton Mozdzen198,000
    28 – 9Cliff Green158,000
    23 – 3Cody Cloutier221,000
    42 – 4Craig Patrick Caldwell126,000
    40 – 7Curtis Singleton158,000
    35 – 9Dallas Larson280,000
    37 – 9Daniel A Wojcik179,000
    30 – 5Daniel Paul Stetski482,000
    35 – 8David Anderson254,000
    32 – 2David Quang727,000
    41 – 6Dawson Chen400,000
    31 – 9Dennis Beebe102,000
    29 – 6Derek Dufour60,000
    30 – 9Deven Lane301,000
    42 – 1DJ Sharma242,000
    36 – 4Donald Cowie314,000
    28 – 3Drew Buchner191,000
    40 – 6Dustin Melanson255,000
    42 – 3Dylan Boyer236,000
    37 – 3Dylan Payne990,000
    38 – 3Edward Sorensen94,000
    41 – 1Elizabeth Boles145,000
    21 – 6Eric Wallace155,000
    37 – 8Eun Park218,000
    34 – 4Fat Cheong Wong89,000
    29 – 1Fenghua Cai13,000
    36 – 6Fredrick Mowatt89,000
    38 – 2Garett Maybery699,000
    29 – 8Gennady Klimenko399,000
    29 – 5George Caragiorgas76,000
    22 – 5Gilbert Charles56,000
    25 – 3Giuseppe Galluzzo133,000
    21 – 2Gordon Wong186,000
    29 – 9Graham Lupton301,000
    34 – 7Hassan Issa109,000
    44 – 3Hien Vo404,000
    37 – 5Hugo Soares366,000
    29 – 3Ihor Popyk298,000
    25 – 6Jacob Anderson289,000
    23 – 6Jatinder Brar747,000
    36 – 1Jeff Charlebois30,000
    30 – 1Jeffrey Reardon412,000
    23 – 8Jiajie Sheng123,000
    24 – 6Jo Teliani1,060,000
    38 – 7Joe Basaraba157,000
    43 – 2Joel Kogan725,000
    22 – 1John Hewgill84,000
    31 – 5John Macarthur240,000
    38 – 4Jonathan Newman336,000
    21 – 9Joshua James287,000
    35 – 3Joshua W Hopkins414,000
    43 – 6Juan Lamprea191,000
    43 – 3Kayvan Payman242,000
    44 – 7Keera Lee Grabbe130,000
    40 – 5Kris Steinbach321,000
    38 – 5Krys Alipio106,000
    36 – 9Kwong Lam528,000
    41 – 2Kyle Chang170,000
    28 – 1Kyle Ho425,000
    25 – 8Lanze Chevillard236,000
    30 – 6Lucas Dantas316,000
    28 – 7Luteng Li214,000
    44 – 8Maksim Kniter234,000
    28 – 6Malachy Hagan80,000
    34 – 2Malcolm Bolger321,000
    36 – 2Marc Lavergne156,000
    35 – 7Mathew Maddalo118,000
    43 – 5Mehdi Saeed197,000
    24 – 5Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    40 – 4Michael Baldwin119,000
    32 – 5Michael Hooper301,000
    43 – 9Michael Khan288,000
    41 – 5Michael Leah108,000
    23 – 5Michael Li422,000
    44 – 4Mishel Nguyen125,000
    40 – 2Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    23 – 7Nickolaos Simeonidis80,000
    30 – 7Nizar Tajdin199,000
    31 – 1Nohad Teliani186,000
    30 – 3Norman Shapiro247,000
    37 – 2Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    34 – 5Omid Mojaverian255,000
    32 – 7Osbert Liu396,000
    44 – 5Pamela Macnaughton210,000
    22 – 7Parth Mansukh133,000
    21 – 3Patrick Tardif282,000
    44 – 2Paul Jeyaraj157,000
    37 – 1Paul Waring476,000
    41 – 7Pav Braich923,000
    28 – 2Perry Rouzes105,000
    38 – 6Phong Truong240,000
    21 – 7Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram260,000
    40 – 1Rahul Sharma542,000
    25 – 5Randy Audette136,000
    34 – 9Raymond Lamy418,000
    42 – 6Regan Duong83,000
    32 – 1Reginaid Lepine142,000
    43 – 1Rene Schmidt278,000
    32 – 8Richard Bewski176,000
    24 – 1Richard Gilliard191,000
    38 – 9Rishi Makkar446,000
    36 – 8Robin Bergren207,000
    31 – 3Roger Grosset171,000
    32 – 6Romualdo Cusano153,000
    43 – 4Ruoxiao Shi338,000
    22 – 8Ryan Andrade100,000
    22 – 3Ryan Jensen16,000
    32 – 9Ryan Simmonds420,000
    25 – 4Ryan Smith383,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri486,000
    22 – 9Scott Carragher220,000
    32 – 4Senthuran Vijayaratnam166,000
    29 – 4Seong Hoon Choi291,000
    22 – 4Seseung Oh193,000
    36 – 5Shane Patacsil50,000
    31 – 8Sheraz Nasir247,000
    34 – 3Stephen Dauphinais309,000
    23 – 2Steve Lukic262,000
    23 – 4Ta-Yu Shih73,000
    41 – 9Tam Ho417,000
    41 – 3Toan Tran550,000
    36 – 3Tommy Nguyen48,000
    34 – 8Tony Le319,000
    35 – 4Travis Macmillan470,000
    40 – 9Trent Hopper565,000
    25 – 7Tyler Fish115,000
    30 – 8Tyler Panas400,000
    43 – 8Van Quoc Vo360,000
    22 – 6Varanpreet Sidhu53,000
    21 – 8Vincent Lam250,000
    40 – 3Vivek Sharma472,000
    42 – 5Vo Nguyen236,000
    21 – 5Weston Pring317,000
    24 – 7Wille Scott358,000
    31 – 2William Doherty479,000
    42 – 8Wing Yeung240,000
    24 – 9Xiao Yu Hu258,000
    28 – 4Yong Yuan Lu523,000
    41 – 4Youssef Hmama175,000
    31 – 7Ze Yu Li142,000
    24 – 8Zhixiang Li183,000
    35 – 1Zhiyu Chen65,000
    24 – 3Zhun Chen218,000

  • 88 Bags for the Main; Siginc Bags Biggest

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:88/639 (180/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:5:35 AM

    Day 1c played the full 17 levels, and managed to cash out 8 players before the bags came out at the end of Level 17. Mehmet Siginc, who won Event #2 earlier in the week and was second in the biggest Monster ever here in Calgary, bagged the big stack from 1c, joining Jo Teliani in the millionaire club. Pav Braich, fresh off back-to-back Main Event wins in Edmonton, bagged the second stack from 1c with 923k.

    Day 1c Payouts

    PlacePlayerPrize
    89 Van Tran$4,439
    90 Raymond Trieu$4,439
    91 Shane Gormley$4,439
    92 Steven Parkin$4,439
    93 Cody Richardson$4,439
    94 Michael Farrow$4,439
    95 Haven Taylor$4,439
    96 Jimmy Lee$4,439

    Day 1c Bags

    PlayerChips
    Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    Pav Braich923,000
    Jatinder Brar747,000
    Clayton Gaudry605,000
    Trent Hopper565,000
    Toan Tran550,000
    Kwong Lam528,000
    Yong Lu523,000
    Daniel Stetski482,000
    William Doherty479,000
    Vivek Sharma472,000
    Travis Macmillan470,000
    Angelo Jopek463,000
    Rishi Makkar446,000
    Alexander Bylicki438,000
    Alen Bakovic432,000
    Kyle Ho425,000
    Michael Li422,000
    Ryan Simmonds420,000
    Tam Ho417,000
    Joshua Hopkins414,000
    Calvin Chow409,000
    Osbert Liu396,000
    Ryan Smith383,000
    Hugo Soares366,000
    Christopher Klementis362,000
    Kris Steinbach321,000
    Weston Pring317,000
    Bradley Davidson310,000
    Graham Lupton301,000
    Ashkan Razavi288,000
    Michael Khan288,000
    Joshua James287,000
    Adrian Baran281,000
    Dallas Larson280,000
    Rene Schmidt278,000
    Anthony Hughes265,000
    Steve Lukic262,000
    Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram260,000
    Xiao Hu258,000
    Omid Mojaverian255,000
    Dustin Melanson255,000
    David Anderson254,000
    Sheraz Nasir247,000
    John Macarthur240,000
    Lanze Chevillard236,000
    Vo Nguyen236,000
    Chaudhary Faisal225,000
    Cody Cloutier221,000
    Scott Carragher220,000
    Adam Balog212,000
    Nizar Tajdin199,000
    Richard Gilliard191,000
    Nu Teliani186,000
    Gordon Wong186,000
    Zhixiang Li183,000
    Aaron Duczak182,000
    Daniel Wojcik179,000
    Callum Roque178,000
    Kyle Chang170,000
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam166,000
    Reginaid Lepine142,000
    Ze Li142,000
    Randy Audette136,000
    Giuseppe Galluzzo133,000
    Keera Grabbe130,000
    Aaron Lam124,000
    Jiajie Sheng123,000
    Mathew Maddalo118,000
    Tyler Fish115,000
    Michael Leah108,000
    Perry Rouzes105,000
    Chase Bonertz105,000
    Dennis Beebe102,000
    Ryan Andrade100,000
    Edward Sorensen94,000
    Fredrick Mowatt89,000
    Nickolaos Simeonidis80,000
    Mal Hagan80,000
    George Caragiorgas76,000
    Ta-Yu Shih73,000
    Ari Benarroch63,000
    Gilbert Charles56,000
    Varanpreet Sidhu53,000
    Shane Patacsil50,000
    Tommy Nguyen48,000
    Ryan Jensen16,000
    Fenghua Cai13,000

  • Final Few Hands of the Night

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:93/639 (185/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:12:20 AM

    They are in the money in Day 1c of the Main, and playing the final few hands of the night. There are 93 players left, but they may still lose one or two more before the end of the night. Stay tuned for Day 1c cashouts and chip counts coming later tonight, as well as a preview of the big Day 2 action tomorrow.

  • 3 Off the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:99/639 (191/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:11:40 PM

    The Main Event 1c is nearing the money now, with about 25 minutes to play in Level 17. This is technically the last level of the night, but they have to at least make it to 96 before they end the night.

  • Less than 20 Off the MOney

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:16 (4000/8000/8000)
    Entries:115/639 (207/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:10:35 PM

    The Main Event Day 1c is on the final break of the day, and they’ll be back for the final two levels of the night in about 10 minutes. They are now 19 off the money spots, so once again, it looks like this flight will barely make it into the money before the end of Level 17, or possibly go into overtime to get to 96.

  • At Least 64 Bags from 1c

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:152/639 (244/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:9:30 PM

    The final numbers are in for Day 1c, and it was a doozie. A total of 639 entries were recorded for 1c prizes of almost 1.2 million, putting the combined total prizes at over $2.5 million.

    That’s not just a record — it’s about $300k higher than the previous record set in Jan 2024, and means this series is well on pace to cap $6 million for the first time. They are closing in on 150 players left, and 96 players will get into the prizes tonight.

    They must play down to 96 before they bag for the night, and they could bag early if they hit 64 players before the end of Level 17. More likely, they’ll finish the day at the end of Level 17 with between 10% & 15% of the field remaining. Players who cash out today can expect to pocket $4,439 on their way out the door.

  • Top Stacks from Sunridge

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Travis McMillan542,000
    Mehmet Siginc375,000
    Richard Gilliard325,000

  • Chan Faces No Resistance

    Alek Gillies
    Level:13 (2,000/4,000/4,000)
    Entries:177/639
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:8:59 PM

    Chan opened to 10,000 from early position, and three players made the call.

    The flop came 2♥2♣Q♠, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Chan blasted for 10,000, and the remaining players made the fold.

    Corey Chan: 355,000

  • Pring Has It

    Alek Gillies
    Level:13 (2,000/4,000/4,000)
    Entries:196/639
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:8:48 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 2♦5♠8♥, and Weston Pring led out for 6,000 from the small blind. The big blind flicked in the call.

    Action slowed down, as both players checked the 5♣ turn.

    The 3♦ completed the board, and Pring fired for 15,000. The big blind made the fold, and Pring revealed A♠5♦ for trips.

    Weston Pring: 197,000

  • Updated Big Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Travis MacMillan523,000
    Mehmet Siginc386,500
    Corey Chan360,000
    Richard Gilliad337,000
    Trent Hopper312,000
    Jiajie Sheng277,000
    Guiseppe Corapi275,000
    Bradley Davidson259,500
    Shivan Ahmad250,000
    David Anderson246,000

  • Hopkins Gets it Through

    Alek Gillies
    Level:12 (1,500/3,000/3,000)
    Entries:216/624
    Prizes:$1,161,888 ($2,533,202 total)
    Local Time:7:58 PM

    Action was caught on the river of [invalid notations], and the small blind was quick to check.

    Joshua Hopkins moved all in for 82,000 from the big blind, and his opponent made the snap fold.

    Joshua Hopkins: 161,000

  • Chevillard Check-Raises to Perfection

    Alek Gillies
    Level:12 ( 1,500/3,000/3,000)
    Entries:229/618
    Prizes:$1,150,716 ($2,521,442 total)
    Local Time:7:45 PM

    Under the gun opened to 6,500, and both blinds made the call.

    The flop came K♦3♥J♦, and action checked to under the gun. He fired for 8,500, and the small blind was quick to fold.

    Lanze Chevillard check-raised to 18,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Lanze Chevillard: 173,500

  • Simmonds Wins the Race

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:242/614
    Prizes:$1,143,268 ($2,513,602 total)
    Local Time:7:28 PM

    Ryan Simmonds moved all in for 17,000, and the button made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Ryan Simmonds: A♥Q♣
    Button: 10♦10♣

    Ryan Simmonds: 40,500

  • Dalphond Doubles

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:263/608
    Prizes:$1,132,096 ($2,501,842 total)
    Local Time:7:07 PM

    Johnny Dalphond moved all in for 18,000, and late position made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Johnny Dalphond: A♠K♥
    Late Position: A♣8♣

    The board ran out Q♥K♣7♦J♥9♥, for Dalphond to take the pot.

    Johnny Dalphond: 43,000

  • Big Stacks at the Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Mehmet Siginc386,500
    Corey Chan297,000
    Lanze Chevillard235,000
    Bradley Davidson220,000
    Dallas Larson215,000
    Angelo Jopek210,000
    Yucheng Zhang201,000
    Vivek Sharma190,000
    Prabakaran Sivablasundaram185,000
    Duff Charette183,500

  • Players On Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies

    Players are headed on a 45 minute dinner break. They return to blinds of 1,000/2,000/2,000, and registration is open for just under three hours.

  • Tran On the Up and Up

    Alek Gillies
    Level:9 (1,000/1,500/1,500)
    Entries:332/574
    Prizes:$1,068,788 ($2,435,202 total)
    Local Time:5:06 PM

    Action was caught after the board came out 9♦J♣9♣K♥2♣, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Van Tran fired for 2,500, and the big blind was quick to fold.

    Van Tran: 103,300

  • Padda Makes a Move

    Alek Gillies
    Level:8 (600/1,200/1,200)
    Entries:370/559
    Prizes:$1,040,858 ($2,405,802 total)
    Local Time:4:24 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 6♠4♠8♥A♠, and early position was quick to check. Harpreet Padda fired for 5,000, and early position made the call.

    The 9♦ completed the board, and early position was quick to check. Padda fired for 17,500, and he was rewarded with the pot.

    Harpreet Padda: 84,200

  • Updated Stacks After Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Corey Chan303,000
    Mehmet Siginc250,000
    Nickolas Simeonidis203,000
    Dallas Larson173,400
    Sakvan Salih161,000
    Per Hindrikes160,700
    Yucheng Zhang159,000
    Dean Morrone158,000
    Duff Charette146,500
    Van Tran145,700

  • Nourzourzian Risks it All

    Alek Gillies
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:372/506
    Prizes:$942,172 ($2,301,922 total)
    Local Time:2:59 PM

    Action was caught after the board came K♣3♣5♣7♥5♦, and early position was quick to check.

    Shahin Nourzouzin moved all in for 28,800, and is opponent went into the tank. Eventually, they made the fold.

    Shahin Nourzouzian: 55,400

  • Giriffin Finds the KO

    Alek Gillies
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:370/485
    Prizes:$903,070 ($2,260,762 total)
    Local Time:2:42 PM

    Action was caught after the board of Q♦10♠K♠2♠7♣, with 25,500 in the pot.

    Without early position checking, Peter Griffin moved all in. His opponent had 18,000, and was given all options. He checked so Griffin’s action stood.

    He made the call, and Griffin revealed K♦Q♥ to take the pot.

    Peter Griffin: 76,500

  • Sorensen Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:5 (300/600/600)
    Entries:376/468
    Prizes:$871,416 ($2,227,442 total)
    Local Time:2:23 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 10♥2♥K♠, and Edward Sorensen led out from early position. Middle position made the call.

    The turn came the 5♥, and Sorensen continued for 10,000. His opponent made the fold.

    Edward Sorensen: 32,700

  • Siffledeen Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:5 (300/600/600)
    Entries:372/439
    Prizes:$817,418 ($2,170,602 total)
    Local Time:2:07 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 6♣3♦3♠9♣, and Quentin Siffledeen fired for 5,000. Middle position maed the call.

    The river came the K♦, and both players were quick to check.

    Quentin Siffledeen: 47,600

  • Carragher Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:4 (300/500/500)
    Entries:367/427
    Prizes:$795,074 ($2,147,082 total)
    Local Time:1:45 PM

    The button opened to 1,500, and Scott Carragher defended his big blind.

    Action checked through on the 10♦4♣J♣Q♦9♦ board.

    Scott Carragher revealed J♥6♥ to take the pot.

    Scott Carragher: 37,900

  • Big Stacks on Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Dallas Larson126,000
    Sakvan Salih120,500
    Giuseppe Galluzzo120,000
    Vincent Tringle-Thibault110,300
    Vikram Gill109,000
    Mehmet Siginc107,000
    Dean Morrone104,600
    Amir Ghafouri104,000
    Andrii Bazhura102,000
    Brayden Brown101,400

  • Bullets for Ghafouri

    Alek Gillies
    Level:3 (200/400/400)
    Entries:336/368
    Prizes:$685,216 ($2,031,442 total)
    Local Time:12:47 PM

    After an initial open, middle position raised to 2,500. Amir Ghafouri four-bet to 7,000, and middle position raised to 18,000. Ghafouri moved all in, and was called. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Middle Position: A♦K♠
    Amir Ghafouri: A♠A♥

    The board ran out [invalid notations]Qs6s7cJcKc[/pc] for Ghafouri to take the pot.

    Amir Ghafouri: 100,900

  • Larson Soars Through the Chip Counts

    Alek Gillies
    Level:2 (200/300/300)
    Entries:309/322
    Prizes:$599,564 ($1,941,282 total)
    Local Time:12:18 PM

    Action was caught on the turn 7♦8♥6♦A♠J♣, and the small blind moved all in for 21,300. Dallas Larson made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Small Blind: J♦9♦
    Dallas Larson: A♥8♦

    The board completed with the J♠ for Larson to take the pot.

  • Tringle-Thibault Flushes Away the Competition

    Alek Gillies
    Level:2 (200/300/300)
    Entries:266/272
    Prizes:$506,464 ($1,843,282 total)
    Local Time:11:53 AM

    Action was caught after the turn of 8♣4♥10♣J♣, and Vincent Tringle-Thibault moved all in for 25,200 from the big blind. Under the gun called for his remaining 20,000, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Under the Gun: J♦J♠
    Vincent Tringle-Thibault: 5♣4♣

    The board completed with the A♣ for Tringle-Thibault to take the pot.

    Vincent Tringle-Thibault: 79,800

  • Kicker Plays for Kim

    Alek Gillies
    Level:1 (100/200/200)
    Entries:203/206
    Prizes:$383,572 ($1,713,922 total)
    Local Time:11:26 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of J♥2♠J♣, and both players were quick to check.

    The turn came the A♠, and Young Kim was quick to check. Middle position fired for 500, and Kim made the call.

    After the board completed with the 4♦, Kim checked to middle position. They continued for 1,200, and Kim made the call. Kim revealed A♣10♥ to best his opponents A♦9♦.

  • Siginic On the Board

    Alek Gillies
    Level:1 (100/200/200)
    Entries:146/146
    Prizes:$271,852 ($1,596,322 total)
    Local Time:11:08 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 3♠6♠5♣K♣, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Mehmet Siginic fired for 1,300 from late position, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Mehmet Siginic: 39,400

  • Final Flight to the Record(?) Main Event Goes Saturday

    Lyle Bateman

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 1C ($1,960 + $240)

    Date:Jan 17, 11 AM
    Blinds:40 Minutes
    Starting Stack:40k
    Late Entry:12 Levels (~8:30)
    Day 1 Ends:17 Levels or 10% of the field; Must play to 15% of the field
    Entries: 54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)

    This Main Event is shaping up to be the biggest game ever at WSOP-C, and by extension, the entire Alberta poker market. Through the first two flights, the game has 682 entries for total prizes of more than $1.3 million.

    The current record holder for prize pools here at Deerfoot was the Jan 2024 Main Event, which got $2.34 million in prizes. After two flights, that game was sitting at $1.17 million, so, at this point in the game, this year’s Main is well ahead of the record prize pool.

    Day 1c will be where the chips go in. At this point in the game, they need fewer than 500 entries on 1c to beat the current record, and given the size of the games so far, that seems like a lock. Just 65 more entries over the 1b total for the final flight will be plenty to push the prizes into record territory, and that increase is generally trivial moving from 1b to 1c.

    The final flight takes off at 11 AM, and players have 12 levels to enter. With breaks included, that will put the last chance to buy in at about 8:30 PM Saturday night. From there, they’ll play to at least 15% of the field. If they get to that number before the end of Level 17, they’ll keep playing and bag up remaining players at the end of 17; otherwise, they’ll keep playing until they hit 15%. In the unlikely event they get to 10% before the end of 17, they’ll bag up early, but that’s a very rare occurrence in a Main Event flight, which typically bag at the end of Level 17 with more than 10% remaining.

    Players get 40k in chips for their $2,200 buy in, and Day 1 levels are 40 minutes long. They’ll have a 45-minute dinner break following Level 9, and players who buy in during dinner sit down in Level 10 with 20 big blinds. Max-late registration during the break following Level 12 will get a player 10 bigs for Level 13.

    Get your feet firmly in the stirrups, Calgary — this Main Event is almost certain to set a new record prize pool. I generally predict a 40-50% increase from flight to flight. Day 1b beat that trend with a 51% increase over the 1a numbers. If 1c gets just a 45% boost over 1b, it will mean a new record prize pool of $2.5 million. Time will tell, but this game looks to be huge by the time entries close on Saturday.

  • Jo Teliani Leads 1b Counts

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:1:50 AM

    Jo Teliani is the only player so far to bag 1 million chips in either flight, and she leads the 1b counts with 1.06 million. Sylan Payne bagged just under a million, with Nicholas McEwan a couple of hundred thousand behind. Below is a look at the full stacks from the second flight to the Main Event.

    PlayerChips
    Jo Teliani1,060,000
    Dylan Payne990,000
    Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    David Quang727,000
    Joel Kogan725,000
    Rahul Sharma542,000
    Paul Waring476,000
    Jeffrey Reardon412,000
    Gennady Klimenko399,000
    Christopher Alcindor382,000
    Jonathan Newman336,000
    Hien Vo404,000
    Richard Bewski176,000
    Donald Cowie314,000
    Mishel Nguyen125,000
    Stephen Dauphinais309,000
    Romualdo Cusano153,000
    Dawson Chen400,000
    Jacob Anderson289,000
    Patrick Tardif282,000
    Carter Mccauley275,000
    Tony Le319,000
    Aaron Lam272,000
    Christopher Bailey255,000
    Dhiraj Sharma242,000
    Wing Yeung240,000
    Phong Truong240,000
    Dylan Boyer236,000
    Hassan Issa109,000
    Maksim Kniter234,000
    Zhun Chen218,000
    Eun Park218,000
    Luteng Li214,000
    Charles Shapiro210,000
    Robin Bergren207,000
    Seseung Oh193,000
    Clayton Mozdzen198,000
    Thi Ngo183,000
    Arya Ghai164,000
    Michael Hooper301,000
    Clifton Green158,000
    Joe Basaraba157,000
    Chen Chen218,000
    Garett Maybery699,000
    Marc Lavergne156,000
    Juan Lamprea191,000
    Regan Duong83,000
    Krys Alipio106,000
    Youssef Hmama175,000
    Drew Buchner191,000
    John Hewgill84,000
    Craig Caldwell126,000
    Pamela Macnaughton210,000
    Paul Jeyaraj157,000

  • Day 1b Payouts

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:1:10 AM
    PlacePlayerPrize
    55 Samuel Chartier$4,447
    56 Alex Liu$4,447
    57 Perry Rouzes$4,447
    58 Shariq Khan$4,447
    59 William Doherty$4,447
    60 Darlene Lee$4,447
    61 Vincent Tringle-Thibault$4,447
    62 Griffin Ristevski$4,447

  • 54 Bags from 1b

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:12:45 AM

    Day 1b is now complete with 54 players moving forward to Day 2 from today’s flight. They join the 38 bags from 1a, and are now waiting on the results of 1c tomorrow for the final Day 2 field.

    Eight players got paid out at the end of the night before Level 17 came to an end. I’m busy over in Chrome with the PLO Bounty for the moment, but I’ll get the Day 1b stacks and payouts updated later in the evening, once the PLO Bounty game is complete.

  • Hand for Hand to the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:63/411 (101/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:11:55 PM

    The clock is paused for Hand-for-hand play withjust under 20 minutes to play in Level 17. They need to lose one more player at least before they end the day, but it looks like 1b will end around the same time as 1a did.

  • 5 Off the Money Spots

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:67/411 (105/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:11:30 PM

    They are 5 off the money with about 30 minutes to play in Level 17. They need to hit 62 players before they bag, but if they get below that number before the end of this Level, the bags will come out at the end of Level 17. Otherwise, they’ll keep playing until they get to 62, no matter how long it takes.

  • 9 Off the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:16 (4000/8000/8000)
    Entries:71/411 (109/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:11:15 PM

    Day 1b of the Main Event is now down to 71 players remaining, putting them 9 off the money. There is less than 10 minutes to play in Level 16, so it’s a bit of a race to see if they make it to 62 before the end of Level 17, or if they play into overtime.

  • 15 Off the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:16 (4000/8000/80000)
    Entries:77/411 (115/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:10:40

    There are two levels to play on the schedule for Day 1b of the Main Event, but they still need to get through at least 15 players before they can call it a night. They are currently on the final break of 1b, with players set to return to the felt in less than 5 minutes.

    If they get down to 62 before the end of Level 17, they’ll bag up at that point, but they’ll have to keep playing if there are more than 62 players left. In the unlikely event they make it to 42 before the end of Level 17, they’ll bag up early, but that seems next to impossible right now.

  • 1b Plays to at Least 62 Players

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:94/411 (132/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:9:30 PM

    With 411 entries on the board, that means that 62 players will get a piece of the Day 1b prize pool. They could play down as low as 42 players before the bags come out, but they must play to at least 62 players before the night ends. That puts them 32 off the money right now, but I expect the pace slow as they close in on the money spots, with the field likely reaching 62 players sometime in Level 17.

  • Field Up To 411

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:100/411 (169/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:9:20 PM

    The field has been adjusted slightly since the end of entries, and with the prize pool now on the board, it looks like the confirmed field for Day 1b was 411 entries. That puts the 1b prizes over $800k, for a combined total of $1.31 million so far.

    The current record prize pool for the Main Event in Calgary is $2.34 million, but with two flights in the books, that game in Jan 2024 had $1.177 million in prizes, putting this game about $150k ahead of that record game at this point.

    Everything will depend on the Day 1c field on Saturday, but they only need to hit 472 entries on 1c for this prize pool to become the new record. Tomorrow will tell the tale, but I’ll be pretty surprised if 1c doesn’t crush the required 472 entries.

  • 409 Entries for 1b of the Main

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:13 (2000/4000/4000)
    Entries:125/409 (194/680)
    Prizes:$801,640 ($1,306,242 total)
    Local Time:8:30 PM

    The Day 1b prize pool crack $800k as the final break of entries finished and the desk shut down for this flight. The final entry tally was 409, with 125 of those players still at the felt for the final 5 levels of the night.

    Assuming the 409 entries are confirmed when the prizes come out, that should mean 62 players in the 1b money, with at least 41 bags at the end of the night. Just as a reminder, the 1b ation will continue until the end of Level 17, assuming players are in the money by then.

    Day 1 flights to the Main must play into the money, so they could go longer than 17 levels if they aren’t at 62 by then, and in theory, they could bag early if they get to 41 players before the end of Level 17, but that scenario almost never happens in the Main. Most often, the finish 17 levels with more than 10% of the field still alive, or have to play overtime to get to 15%.

    Day 1a finished just before the end of Level 17, after spending most of that final level on the money bubble.

  • Main Event 1b Cracks 400 Entries

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:12 (1500/3000/3000)
    Entries:147/401 (216/672)
    Prizes:$785,960 ($1,290,562 total)
    Local Time:7:40 PM

    Level 12 has just begun in Day 1b of the Main, the final Level of entry. There is now less than an hour left to enter this flight, with the final flight tomorrow promising to be much bigger.

    The prizes are now nearing $1.3 million for both days, which keeps this 2026 Main ahead of the current prize pool record holder from Jan 2024. Flight 1c in 2024 got almost 700 entries to bring the combined prizes to $2.234 million, but with the extra money in the buy-in this time around, 1c only needs to get 500 entries for this to be a record prize pool.

  • Not Nothing for Nicholls

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:154/396
    Prizes:$778,120 ($1,282,722 total)
    Local Time:7:23 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of K♥7♦2♠5♥, and early position was quick to check.

    Zachary Nicholls fired for 85,000, leaving just 2,000 behind.

    His opponent went into the tank, but eventually found the fold.

    Zachary Nicholls: 112,000

  • Sharma Breaks Hearts

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:163/397
    Prizes:$778,120 ($1,282,722 total)
    Local Time:7:06 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 10♠6♣3♠, and middle position moved all in for 20,500. DJ Sharma made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Middle Position: K♥K♦
    DJ Sharma: 3♥2♥

    The board ran out 4♥3♣ for Sharma to take the pot.

    DJ Sharma: 244,000

  • Moradi Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:10 (1,000/2,000/2,000)
    Entries:172/396
    Prizes:$776,160 ($1,280,762 total)
    Local Time:6:54 PM

    After an initial open to 4,500, middle position raised to 13,000. Abbas Moradi raised to 31,000, and middle position made the call.

    The flop came J♣5♦3♣, and middle position was quick to check. Moradi moved al in covering his opponents 32,000. His opponent laid down their hand.

    Abbas Moradi: 179,500

  • Big Stacks At Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Arya Ghai292,000
    William Doherty289,500
    Rahul Sharma288,000
    Omid Mojaverian256,000
    Amir Khan245,000
    Clayton Mozden211,000
    Tyler Dorion200,000
    DJ Sharma196,600
    Mishel Nguyen189,500
    Stephen Dauphinais189,000

  • Aggression Pays for Duong

    Alek Gillies
    Level:9 (1,000/1,500/1,500)
    Entries:206/377
    Prizes:$707,560 ($1,212,162 total)
    Local Time:5:11 PM

    Late position raised to 5,000, and Lap Duong three-bet to 15,000, on the button. Late Position made the call.

    The flop came Q♦2♥7♠, and late position checked to Duong. He moved all in for 60,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Lap Duong: 144,300

  • Rouzes Chipping Up

    Alek Gillies
    Level:8 (600/1,200/1,200)
    Entries:221/361
    Prizes:$707,560 ($1,212,162 total)
    Local Time:4:27 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of A♦4♥10♦9♥, and small blind led out for 9,000, Middle position moved all in for 35,000, and Perry Rouzes called from late position. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Middle Position: 8♥7♥
    Perry Rouzes: 10♣9♣

    The river came the 5♠ for Rouzes to take the pot.

    Perry Rouzes: 99,200

  • Bazhura Finds the Elimination

    Alek Gillies
    Level:7 (500/1,000/1,000)
    Entries:224/346
    Prizes:$678,160 ($1,182,762 total)
    Local Time:4:03 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 7♠A♣6♥10♥, and Andrii Bazhura moved all in. The cutoff called for his remaining 25,000, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Cutoff: 10♣8♣
    Andrii Bazhura: J♥J♦

    The river was the 6♠ for Bazhura to take the pot.

    Andrii Bazhura: 79,700

  • Updated Stacks at the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Rahul Sharma240,000
    Stephen Dauphinais197,000
    Kyle Rosnes185,900
    Griffin Ristevski137,500
    Christian Wallmuth135,000
    Napatr Sansaneeyawet133,500
    Jonathan Newman127,600
    Tim Chen122,100
    Toan Tran111,500
    Dawson Chen111,200

  • 38 Players Bag 1a; Oleksii Mezhenkov Leads

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:38/271
    Prizes:$531,160
    Local Time:1:00 AM

    The opening flight to the Main Event nearly went overtime, as they got into a very long bubble. With the clock paused with one elimination to go, they played through most of Level 17 before the bubble finally burst with just over a minute to play in Level 17.

    Oleksii Mezhenkov bagged the big stack from Day 1a with 829k, the only player with 800k or more. Aleksei Ponomarevbagged 777k for second, then there was a big cliff down to 3rd-place Sami Al-Serri at 486k. Chris Potter and Raymond Lamy round out the top five counts.

    There are a total of 38 bags waiting from Day 1a, with three players cashing out today for $4,470.

    Day 1a Cahsers

    PlacePlayerPrize
    39 Gaetano Buda$4,470
    40 Edward Sorensen$4,470
    41 Trent Sapach$4,470

    Day 1a Stacks

    PlayerChips
    Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    Sami Al-Serri486,000
    Christopher Potter447,000
    Raymond Lamy418,000
    Anthony Smith400,000
    Tyler Panas400,000
    Tony Ma375,000
    Van Vo360,000
    Wille Scott358,000
    Ruoxiao Shi338,000
    Malcolm Bolger321,000
    Lucas Dantas316,000
    Deven Lane301,000
    Ihor Popyk298,000
    Seong Choi291,000
    Vincent Lam250,000
    Norman Shapiro247,000
    Kayvan Payman242,000
    Adrian Gouveia211,000
    Mehdi Saeed197,000
    Aaron La195,000
    Amichai Barer191,000
    Roger Grosset171,000
    Afshin Majidi160,000
    Curtis Singleton158,000
    Eric Wallace155,000
    Anthony Williams154,000
    Elizabeth Boles145,000
    Ankhbayar Bayar135,000
    Claude Gaudet134,000
    Parth Mansukh133,000
    Michael Baldwin119,000
    Fat Wong89,000
    Brett Worton67,700
    Zhiyu Chen65,000
    Derek Dufour60,000
    Jeff Charlebois30,000

  • Prizes are In

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:69/271
    Prizes:$531,160
    Local Time:9:20

    The 1a prizes are in, and players cashing out from today’s flight will pocket $4,470. There are no payjumps in the prizes tonight, as the first payjump would come at 27th place, and the bags will come out with 28 remaining, at the latest.

    PlacePrize
    28$4,470
    29$4,470
    30$4,470
    31$4,470
    32$4,470
    33$4,470
    34$4,470
    35$4,470
    36$4,470
    37$4,470
    38$4,470
    39$4,470
    40$4,470
    41$4,470

  • Down to 70 Left

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:70/271
    Prizes:$531,160
    Local Time:9:10 PM

    They are down to 70 players remaining to start Level 14, and including this level, there are 4 levels to play in the scheduled day. The field must play down to at least 41 tonight, and they won’t play any farther than 28 left, but it looks like a safe bet that they’ll be in the money before the end of Level 17, which is about 3 hours away.

  • 271 Entries for 1a

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:13 (2000/4000/4000)
    Entries:82/271
    Prizes:$531,160
    Local Time:8:35 PM

    Entries for Day 1a are now closed, and the final tally was 271. While that doesn’t hit the record for entries in a Day 1a of the Main Event here, the extra juice in the buy-in this year has made it the biggest 1a prize pool ever for the big game, and if the numbers hold through the expected larger 1b/c, then this game will likely end up somewhere between $2.5 & $3 million.

    So far, the record prize pool for a full Main Event looks to be about $2.2 million, and given the state of Day 1a, it looks like that will be surpassed pretty easily by Saturday evening.

    Note that in my start-of-day post, I said this game will play down to 5% of the field. In fact, they’ll bag up when they get to 10% for this game, but no matter what, this flight must at least play down to 15% of the field (41 players) before the bags come out. At least 28 players will be finding a bag from today’s flight.

    Chris Potter looks to be leading with entries closed. He has 361k and leads two other players in the 300k range. Below is a look at the top ten stacks from the final break of entries.

    PlayerChips
    Christopher Potter361,000
    Aaron La310,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev309,000
    Sami Al-Serri280,000
    Thomas Taylor279,000
    Norman Shapiro268,000
    Zhi Yang257,000
    Wille Scott240,000
    Amichai Barer240,000
    Kyle Goodwin230,000

  • 15 Minutes to Enter 1a

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:12 (1500/3000/3000)
    Entries:78/267
    Prizes:$523,320
    Local Time:8:15 PM

    Level 12 has just ended, and the players are on the final break with registration open. When they sit down for Level 13, the 1a field will be set.

  • Final Level of Entry for 1a

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:12 (1500/3000/3000)
    Entries:89/263
    Prizes:$515,480
    Local Time:7:45 PM

    There are about 45 minutes left to get into Day 1a, with the action now in Level 12. The current field is at 263, for prizes of more than $515k, and with the current numbers, it looks like 40 paid spots will be available tonight, with at least 14 bags moving to Day 2, but those numbers could change depending on the entries over the next 45 minutes.

  • Just Over an Hour to Enter 1a

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:11 (1500/2500/2500)
    Entries:99/259
    Prizes:$507,640
    Local Time:7:20 PM

    Level 11 is about half complete, and the field is just shy of 260 entries. That pushes the prizes for today’s flight close to $510k, but the pace of entries has slowed considerably since the dinner break, with only about 10 entries since then.

  • Pace of Entries Slowing

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:10 (1000/2000/2000)
    Entries:112/254
    Prizes:$497,840
    Local Time:6:40 PM

    The 1a players are back from dinner and into the final three levels of entry for Day 1a. The field is now at 254, and the pace of entries is slowing with just under two hours left to enter today’s flight.

    The prizes are closing in on $500k for this flight already, however, which puts this as the largest Day 1a prize pool in Main Event history here in Calgary.

  • Dinner Time With 1a Prizes Ahead of Main Event Record

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:9 (1000/1500/1500)
    Entries:120/251
    Prizes:$491,960
    Local Time:5:40 PM

    The 1a players are on their dinner break, with the field now above 250. That puts the prizes today higher than Day 1a from a year ago, which was the record field for a Main Event here in Calgary.

    There are still about 2 hours and 45 minutes left to enter today’s flight, so it seems likely they’ll get to at least 270 entries, but it could go even higher. The 1a players will be back in action in about 30 minutes for the final three levels of entry.

  • Nearing 250 Entries Before Dinner

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:9 (1000/1500/1500)
    Entries:131/246
    Prizes:$482,160
    Local Time:5:20 PM

    They are just under 10 minutes from the dinner break, with the 1a field at 246. That puts the prizes over $480k, and closing in on the prize pool from Jan 2025, which currently holds the record for the biggest field in a Main Event.

    That game got 319 entries for 1a, but was a smaller buy-in at $1,700. The $2,200 buy-in for this series has juiced up the prizes so that the next entry will push today’s prizes higher than the prizes from Day 1a a year ago.

  • Nearing the Record Day 1a Prizes for Main

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:8 (600/1200/1200)
    Entries:144/237
    Prizes:$464,520
    Local Time:4:40 PM

    While the flight field is still about 80 players off the record field size for Day 1a of the Main Event here, the prize pool is less than $20k away. That’s thanks to the increased buy-in for this series compared to Jan 2025, with it was a $1,700 Main Event.

    This time around, it costs $2,200, and that extra juice has pushed today’s prizes up. In Jan 2025, Day 1a had a bit more than $480k in total prizes, while today’s flight is already closing in on $465k. At this point, while the 319 number may be slightly out of reach (I still expect around 300 by the time entries close), breaking the Jan 2025 1a prize pool seems like a lock this time around.

  • Quads over Quads on T64

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:8 (600/1200/1200)
    Entries:147/234
    Prizes:$458,640
    Local Time:4:30 PM

    It’s one of the grossest spots in poker — when a player hits quads, they sort of expect to win the hand. It’s extremely rare to see a quads over quads hand, but that’s just what happened on Table 64. As reported by Curtis Singleton, pocket eights hit quads on the river, but the opponent in the hand turned quad aces for the best hand.

    It’s a gross spot, but if you play poker and have the eights and don’t go broke in this hand, you should probably consider quitting the game. There are times in poker where you are just SUPPOSED to lose your chips, and this is one of them.

  • 227 Entries

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:8 (600/1200/1200)
    Entries:145/288
    Prizes:$446,880
    Local Time:4:10 PM

    The field is up to 228 entries for Day 1b now, with Level 8 just underway. Entries are still open for more than 4 hours, so there’s still lots of time for that number to creep up into the 300 range for today’s flight.

    Among the players I’ve spotted in the field today are Rob Lothian, Amir Khan, Angelo Jopek, Tommy Nguyen, Deven Lane, Skyler York, Qingwei Meng, Debi Loomer, Giulio Rosati, Thomas Taylor, Nichlas Lee, Kyle Ho, Curtis Singleton, Jeff Reardon, Anthony Smith, Jake “TheSnake” Sujata, Vince Lam, Mike Leah, Brett Worton, Kayvan Payman, and Aidan Klingbeil.

  • 215 Entries on Second Break

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:7 (500/1000/1000)
    Entries:156/215
    Prizes:$421,400
    Local Time:3:20 PM

    The prizes are more than $420k, with players on the break following Level 6. That leaves 6 levels of poker, plus an hour of breaks, until the entries for Day 1a of the Main are closed.

    A few other faces I spotted in today’s flight so far are another former winner of the this event, Alex Liu, as well as Medhi “GitandSos” Saeed, Ash Razavi, who has been deep in this Main Event the last three times it’s run, Stephen Dauphinais, Colten Yamagishi, Michael Khan, Duff Charette, and Kris Steinbach.

  • 200 Entries

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:147/200
    Prizes:$392,000
    Local Time:3:00 PM

    The 1a field just hit 200 entries for the opening flight, with more than 15 minutes to play in Level 6. There are still about 5.5 hours left to enter today’s flight, so that number is sure to grow, but given this is 1a, I wouldn’t expect it to go much past 300 for today’s flight.

    By contrast, the record Main Event field so far at WSOP-C, set in Jan 2025 with a total of 1,571, got 319 entries for Day 1a. It looks like a reasonable bet that today’s flight will be at least close to that record number, given the field size right now.

  • Ahead of October 1a

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:149/190
    Prizes:$372,400
    Local Time:2:40 PM

    The 1a field is now ahead of the same flight from October’s Main Event, with 190 in the field. Among the players who pushed that over the top was DJ Sharma, who has just arrived for his first buy-in. Other familiar faces I’ve spotted in the crowd so far are Joon Park, Craig Caldwell, Tyler Panas, Patrick “Egption” Tardif, Michael Baldwin, Gaetano Buda, Dercon Noksana, Jeff “Ironman” Charlebois, and former Main Event champ Nicholas Teeuwen.

  • Almost 175 Entries So Far

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:5 (300/600/600)
    Entries:148/174
    Prizes:$341,040
    Local Time:2:00 PM

    Day 1a of the Main Event is well underway with the action now in Level 5. The field is at 174 entries, which only puts it 14 entries behind the October Main Day 1a, with about 6.5 hours left to enter today’s flight.

    I expect today’s flight to be relatively small. It will surpass 200 without question, and will likely push towards 300 or more before it closes later today, but I expect to see the truly big flight numbers to come tomorrow and Saturday.

  • Chip Stacks at the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Logan Vo113,500
    Lanze Chevillard109,500
    Jason Dong100,700
    Randy Audette100,600
    Malcolm Bolger95,000
    Eric Dunham90,000
    Zhiyu Chen86,500
    Tyler Panas82,000
    Joshua Hopkins73,800
    Derek Dufour73,500

  • Ngo Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:3 (200/400/400)
    Entries:113/119
    Prizes:$221,578
    Local Time:12:43 PM

    Action was caught after the river came the A♥3♦10♥Q♥8♣, and middle position was quick to check.

    Anne Ngo fired for 20,000, and her opponent went into the tank. Eventually they found the fold for Ngo to take the pot.

    Anne Ngo: 52,700

  • Payman Finds a Double

    Alek Gillies
    Level:3 (200/400/400)
    Entries:113/119
    Prizes:$221,578
    Local Time:12:25 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of K♦10♣Q♦, and small blind led out for 3,000. Kayvan Payman raised to 11,700, and small blind moved all in. Payman made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Kayvan Payman: J♦6♦
    Small Blind: A♠K♥

    The board completed with the 7♦6♥ for Payman to find the double.

    Kayvan Payman: 64,700

  • No Maybes About it for Maybery

    Alek Gillies
    Level:2 (200/300/300)
    Entries:103/105
    Prizes:$195,510
    Local Time:11:54 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 4♠5♠2♥, and small blind led out for 1,500. Middle position made the call, and Garett Maybery raised to 3,800.

    Small blind re-raised to 14,500, and Maybery moved all in for 44,000. After some time, the small blind found the fold.

    Garett Maybery: 63,000

  • Everyone is Weary of Werry

    Alek Gillies
    Level:1 (100/200/200)
    Entries:90/91
    Prizes:$169,442
    Local Time:11:28 AM

    Action was caught after the flop of K♦J♥3♥9♠, and the big blind led out for 4,500.

    James Werry raised to 15,000, and his opponent was quick to make the fold.

    James Werry: 47,700

  • It’s Main Event Time!

    Lyle Bateman

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 1A ($1960 + $240)

    Date:Day 1a: Jan 15, 11 AM
    Blinds:40 Minutes
    Starting Stack:40k
    Late Entry:12 Levels (~8:45 PM)
    Day 1 Ends:17 Levels or 5% of the field (must play to at least 15% of the field)

    The Main Event is on deck for this 2026 WSOP-C Calgary, and it could be one for the record books. The series so far is already well above the current record-holder for the biggest series ever in Jan 2024, but it will be the big games, the Main Event, and the High Roller, that really determine the final outcome.

    Day 1a of the Main Event kicks off on Thursday at 11 AM, and players will have 12 levels to get into the game or rebuy, with the proviso that WSOP-C Main Events have a single-rebuy per flight rule. That limits players to a maximum of two buy-ins per flight, or 6 total across the 3 flights.

    Blinds for Day 1 action are 40 minutes, and jump to an hour for Day 2/3. Players start with 40k in chips, and the day is scheduled for 17 levels. The flight will start paying out prizes at 15% of the field, and will bag up if they get to 5% before the end of Level 17, but players should be aware that flights MUST at least make the money, so Day 1 play may last longer than 17 levels if they haven’t hit 15% by then.

    Travis MacMillan, with rail, after winning Main Event

    Last October, Travis MacMillan came in from Nova Scotia and took the Main Event Ring back home with him. He made it through 910 entries to score more than $312k after a heads-up battle with Vincent Li.

  • Jo Teliani Leads 1b Counts

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:1:50 AM

    Jo Teliani is the only player so far to bag 1 million chips in either flight, and she leads the 1b counts with 1.06 million. Sylan Payne bagged just under a million, with Nicholas McEwan a couple of hundred thousand behind. Below is a look at the full stacks from the second flight to the Main Event.

    PlayerChips
    Jo Teliani1,060,000
    Dylan Payne990,000
    Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    David Quang727,000
    Joel Kogan725,000
    Rahul Sharma542,000
    Paul Waring476,000
    Jeffrey Reardon412,000
    Gennady Klimenko399,000
    Christopher Alcindor382,000
    Jonathan Newman336,000
    Hien Vo404,000
    Richard Bewski176,000
    Donald Cowie314,000
    Mishel Nguyen125,000
    Stephen Dauphinais309,000
    Romualdo Cusano153,000
    Dawson Chen400,000
    Jacob Anderson289,000
    Patrick Tardif282,000
    Carter Mccauley275,000
    Tony Le319,000
    Aaron Lam272,000
    Christopher Bailey255,000
    Dhiraj Sharma242,000
    Wing Yeung240,000
    Phong Truong240,000
    Dylan Boyer236,000
    Hassan Issa109,000
    Maksim Kniter234,000
    Zhun Chen218,000
    Eun Park218,000
    Luteng Li214,000
    Charles Shapiro210,000
    Robin Bergren207,000
    Seseung Oh193,000
    Clayton Mozdzen198,000
    Thi Ngo183,000
    Arya Ghai164,000
    Michael Hooper301,000
    Clifton Green158,000
    Joe Basaraba157,000
    Chen Chen218,000
    Garett Maybery699,000
    Marc Lavergne156,000
    Juan Lamprea191,000
    Regan Duong83,000
    Krys Alipio106,000
    Youssef Hmama175,000
    Drew Buchner191,000
    John Hewgill84,000
    Craig Caldwell126,000
    Pamela Macnaughton210,000
    Paul Jeyaraj157,000

  • Day 1b Payouts

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:1:10 AM
    PlacePlayerPrize
    55 Samuel Chartier$4,447
    56 Alex Liu$4,447
    57 Perry Rouzes$4,447
    58 Shariq Khan$4,447
    59 William Doherty$4,447
    60 Darlene Lee$4,447
    61 Vincent Tringle-Thibault$4,447
    62 Griffin Ristevski$4,447

  • 54 Bags from 1b

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:12:45 AM

    Day 1b is now complete with 54 players moving forward to Day 2 from today’s flight. They join the 38 bags from 1a, and are now waiting on the results of 1c tomorrow for the final Day 2 field.

    Eight players got paid out at the end of the night before Level 17 came to an end. I’m busy over in Chrome with the PLO Bounty for the moment, but I’ll get the Day 1b stacks and payouts updated later in the evening, once the PLO Bounty game is complete.

  • Hand for Hand to the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:63/411 (101/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:11:55 PM

    The clock is paused for Hand-for-hand play withjust under 20 minutes to play in Level 17. They need to lose one more player at least before they end the day, but it looks like 1b will end around the same time as 1a did.

  • 5 Off the Money Spots

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:67/411 (105/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:11:30 PM

    They are 5 off the money with about 30 minutes to play in Level 17. They need to hit 62 players before they bag, but if they get below that number before the end of this Level, the bags will come out at the end of Level 17. Otherwise, they’ll keep playing until they get to 62, no matter how long it takes.

  • 9 Off the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:16 (4000/8000/8000)
    Entries:71/411 (109/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:11:15 PM

    Day 1b of the Main Event is now down to 71 players remaining, putting them 9 off the money. There is less than 10 minutes to play in Level 16, so it’s a bit of a race to see if they make it to 62 before the end of Level 17, or if they play into overtime.

  • 15 Off the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:16 (4000/8000/80000)
    Entries:77/411 (115/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:10:40

    There are two levels to play on the schedule for Day 1b of the Main Event, but they still need to get through at least 15 players before they can call it a night. They are currently on the final break of 1b, with players set to return to the felt in less than 5 minutes.

    If they get down to 62 before the end of Level 17, they’ll bag up at that point, but they’ll have to keep playing if there are more than 62 players left. In the unlikely event they make it to 42 before the end of Level 17, they’ll bag up early, but that seems next to impossible right now.

  • 1b Plays to at Least 62 Players

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:94/411 (132/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:9:30 PM

    With 411 entries on the board, that means that 62 players will get a piece of the Day 1b prize pool. They could play down as low as 42 players before the bags come out, but they must play to at least 62 players before the night ends. That puts them 32 off the money right now, but I expect the pace slow as they close in on the money spots, with the field likely reaching 62 players sometime in Level 17.

  • Field Up To 411

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:100/411 (169/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)
    Local Time:9:20 PM

    The field has been adjusted slightly since the end of entries, and with the prize pool now on the board, it looks like the confirmed field for Day 1b was 411 entries. That puts the 1b prizes over $800k, for a combined total of $1.31 million so far.

    The current record prize pool for the Main Event in Calgary is $2.34 million, but with two flights in the books, that game in Jan 2024 had $1.177 million in prizes, putting this game about $150k ahead of that record game at this point.

    Everything will depend on the Day 1c field on Saturday, but they only need to hit 472 entries on 1c for this prize pool to become the new record. Tomorrow will tell the tale, but I’ll be pretty surprised if 1c doesn’t crush the required 472 entries.

  • 409 Entries for 1b of the Main

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:13 (2000/4000/4000)
    Entries:125/409 (194/680)
    Prizes:$801,640 ($1,306,242 total)
    Local Time:8:30 PM

    The Day 1b prize pool crack $800k as the final break of entries finished and the desk shut down for this flight. The final entry tally was 409, with 125 of those players still at the felt for the final 5 levels of the night.

    Assuming the 409 entries are confirmed when the prizes come out, that should mean 62 players in the 1b money, with at least 41 bags at the end of the night. Just as a reminder, the 1b ation will continue until the end of Level 17, assuming players are in the money by then.

    Day 1 flights to the Main must play into the money, so they could go longer than 17 levels if they aren’t at 62 by then, and in theory, they could bag early if they get to 41 players before the end of Level 17, but that scenario almost never happens in the Main. Most often, the finish 17 levels with more than 10% of the field still alive, or have to play overtime to get to 15%.

    Day 1a finished just before the end of Level 17, after spending most of that final level on the money bubble.

  • Main Event 1b Cracks 400 Entries

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:12 (1500/3000/3000)
    Entries:147/401 (216/672)
    Prizes:$785,960 ($1,290,562 total)
    Local Time:7:40 PM

    Level 12 has just begun in Day 1b of the Main, the final Level of entry. There is now less than an hour left to enter this flight, with the final flight tomorrow promising to be much bigger.

    The prizes are now nearing $1.3 million for both days, which keeps this 2026 Main ahead of the current prize pool record holder from Jan 2024. Flight 1c in 2024 got almost 700 entries to bring the combined prizes to $2.234 million, but with the extra money in the buy-in this time around, 1c only needs to get 500 entries for this to be a record prize pool.

  • Not Nothing for Nicholls

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:154/396
    Prizes:$778,120 ($1,282,722 total)
    Local Time:7:23 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of K♥7♦2♠5♥, and early position was quick to check.

    Zachary Nicholls fired for 85,000, leaving just 2,000 behind.

    His opponent went into the tank, but eventually found the fold.

    Zachary Nicholls: 112,000

  • Sharma Breaks Hearts

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:163/397
    Prizes:$778,120 ($1,282,722 total)
    Local Time:7:06 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 10♠6♣3♠, and middle position moved all in for 20,500. DJ Sharma made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Middle Position: K♥K♦
    DJ Sharma: 3♥2♥

    The board ran out 4♥3♣ for Sharma to take the pot.

    DJ Sharma: 244,000

  • Moradi Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:10 (1,000/2,000/2,000)
    Entries:172/396
    Prizes:$776,160 ($1,280,762 total)
    Local Time:6:54 PM

    After an initial open to 4,500, middle position raised to 13,000. Abbas Moradi raised to 31,000, and middle position made the call.

    The flop came J♣5♦3♣, and middle position was quick to check. Moradi moved al in covering his opponents 32,000. His opponent laid down their hand.

    Abbas Moradi: 179,500

  • Big Stacks At Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Arya Ghai292,000
    William Doherty289,500
    Rahul Sharma288,000
    Omid Mojaverian256,000
    Amir Khan245,000
    Clayton Mozden211,000
    Tyler Dorion200,000
    DJ Sharma196,600
    Mishel Nguyen189,500
    Stephen Dauphinais189,000

  • Aggression Pays for Duong

    Alek Gillies
    Level:9 (1,000/1,500/1,500)
    Entries:206/377
    Prizes:$707,560 ($1,212,162 total)
    Local Time:5:11 PM

    Late position raised to 5,000, and Lap Duong three-bet to 15,000, on the button. Late Position made the call.

    The flop came Q♦2♥7♠, and late position checked to Duong. He moved all in for 60,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Lap Duong: 144,300

  • Rouzes Chipping Up

    Alek Gillies
    Level:8 (600/1,200/1,200)
    Entries:221/361
    Prizes:$707,560 ($1,212,162 total)
    Local Time:4:27 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of A♦4♥10♦9♥, and small blind led out for 9,000, Middle position moved all in for 35,000, and Perry Rouzes called from late position. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Middle Position: 8♥7♥
    Perry Rouzes: 10♣9♣

    The river came the 5♠ for Rouzes to take the pot.

    Perry Rouzes: 99,200

  • Bazhura Finds the Elimination

    Alek Gillies
    Level:7 (500/1,000/1,000)
    Entries:224/346
    Prizes:$678,160 ($1,182,762 total)
    Local Time:4:03 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 7♠A♣6♥10♥, and Andrii Bazhura moved all in. The cutoff called for his remaining 25,000, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Cutoff: 10♣8♣
    Andrii Bazhura: J♥J♦

    The river was the 6♠ for Bazhura to take the pot.

    Andrii Bazhura: 79,700

  • Updated Stacks at the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Rahul Sharma240,000
    Stephen Dauphinais197,000
    Kyle Rosnes185,900
    Griffin Ristevski137,500
    Christian Wallmuth135,000
    Napatr Sansaneeyawet133,500
    Jonathan Newman127,600
    Tim Chen122,100
    Toan Tran111,500
    Dawson Chen111,200

  • Tran Finds the KO

    Alek Gillies
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:234/320
    Prizes:$627,200 ($1,131,802 total)
    Local Time:3:06 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 8♠K♦4♦3♥, and middle position was quick to check. Toan Tran fired for 4,500, and middle position made the call.

    The river came the A♥, and middle position checked to Tran. He moved all in, and the middle position called for less. Tran revealed 9♦8♣ to take down the pot.

  • Everyone Loves a Chopped Pot

    Alek Gillies
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:240/308
    Prizes:$603,680 ($1,108,282 total)
    Local Time:2:45 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 3♥3♠Q♦, and the big blind led out for 6,000. Toan Tran called from middle position, and William Doherty moved all in from late position for 29,000. Tran made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    William Doherty: Q♥J♥
    Toan Tran: Q♠10♣

    The board completed with the Q♣6♠, for Both players to chop.

    Toan Tran: 71,400
    William Doherty: 52,600

  • Klimenko Finds the Double

    Alek Gillies
    Level:5 (300/600/600)
    Entries:248/301
    Prizes:$589,960 ($1,094,562 total)
    Local Time:2:28 PM

    Action was caught after the 8♣10♣4♥2♥, and Klimenko moved all in for 15,900. His opponent made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Gennady Klimenko: K♣6♣
    Middle Position: A♥8♥

    The board completed with the Q♣ for Klimenko to find the double.

    Gennady Klimenko: 43,200

  • Cusano Risks it All

    Alek Gillies
    Level:4 (300/500/500)
    Entries:237/272
    Prizes:$533,120 ($1,037,722 total)

    Action was caught after the turn of 5♦K♥2♠A♠, and Romualdo Cusano checked from middle position. Late Position fired for 4,500, and Cusano made the call.

    The river came the 4♠, and Cusano moved all in for 12,700. His opponent was quick to make the fold.

    Romualdo Cusano: 37,400

  • Early Big Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Chen Chen101,000
    Arya Ghai95,000
    Tim Chen94,800
    Rauno Tahvonen91,000
    Craig Allen90,400
    Zachary Nicholls89,000
    Himanshu Thapar83,500
    Robert Acorn83,000
    Richard Bewski80,200
    David Quang79,300

  • Nguyen Takes It Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:2 (200/300/300)
    Entries:180/196
    Prizes:$384,160 ($888,762 total)
    Local Time:11:52 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 9♠2♣8♣, and Mishel Nguyen checked from late position. The button fired for 3,500, and Nguyen raised to 7,200. The button made the call.

    The turn came the [invalid notations]8h[/[cn], and Nguyen fired for 7,100. She was rewarded with the pot.

    Mishel Nguyen: 37,300

  • Second Shot at a Main Event Bag on Friday

    Lyle Bateman

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 1B ($1960 + $240)

    Date:Day 1b: Jan 16, 11 AM
    Blinds:40 Minutes
    Starting Stack:40k
    Late Entry:12 Levels (~8:45 PM)
    Day 1 Ends:17 Levels or 10% of the field (must play to at least 15% of the field)
    Entries:38/271
    Prizes:$531,160

    One flight to the Main Event has already landed with 38 players now waiting on Day 2. 271 entries showed up for the game on Day 1a, and while there have been a couple of Main Event 1a flights that have had larger fields, the higher buy-in this year means it was the highest prize pool for a Day 1a so far, at more than $530k

    There are still two more flights to Day 2 taking off, with Day 1b on Friday, and 1c on Saturday. Each later flight is usually 40-50% bigger than the previous one, so that could put the 1b total around 400 entries.

    The 1b action runs at 11 am, but players can buy in as late as 8:45 PM. With the 40k starting stack, that still means players entering in Level 12 will start with more than 10 big blinds. Players who buy in during the dinner break following Level 9 come back from dinner with 20 bigs for Level 10.

    There are 17 levels on the Day 1 schedule, but the game must play into the money, so the action could run longer if they don’t hit 15% of the field before Level 18. Alternatively, they could bag up early at 10% of the field, but in the Main Event, that rarely happens, so expect this one to finish with more than 10% remaining at the end of Level 17, as was the case with Day 1a.

    Oleksii Mezhenkov is the big stack from the opening flight, and Day 1b players have a target of 829k if they want to be the biggest stack on Day 2. One other player bagged in the high 700s from 1a, but most of the 1a players are under 500k going into Day 2.

    With the biggest Day 1a prize pool ever, this Main Event is on track to beat the current Main Event prize pool record of $2,234,625 from Jan 2024. The final two days will be the key, but this game is already well on the way to being the biggest ever in Calgary.

  • 88 Bags for the Main; Siginc Bags Biggest

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:88/639 (180/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:5:35 AM

    Day 1c played the full 17 levels, and managed to cash out 8 players before the bags came out at the end of Level 17. Mehmet Siginc, who won Event #2 earlier in the week and was second in the biggest Monster ever here in Calgary, bagged the big stack from 1c, joining Jo Teliani in the millionaire club. Pav Braich, fresh off back-to-back Main Event wins in Edmonton, bagged the second stack from 1c with 923k.

    Day 1c Payouts

    PlacePlayerPrize
    89 Van Tran$4,439
    90 Raymond Trieu$4,439
    91 Shane Gormley$4,439
    92 Steven Parkin$4,439
    93 Cody Richardson$4,439
    94 Michael Farrow$4,439
    95 Haven Taylor$4,439
    96 Jimmy Lee$4,439

    Day 1c Bags

    PlayerChips
    Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    Pav Braich923,000
    Jatinder Brar747,000
    Clayton Gaudry605,000
    Trent Hopper565,000
    Toan Tran550,000
    Kwong Lam528,000
    Yong Lu523,000
    Daniel Stetski482,000
    William Doherty479,000
    Vivek Sharma472,000
    Travis Macmillan470,000
    Angelo Jopek463,000
    Rishi Makkar446,000
    Alexander Bylicki438,000
    Alen Bakovic432,000
    Kyle Ho425,000
    Michael Li422,000
    Ryan Simmonds420,000
    Tam Ho417,000
    Joshua Hopkins414,000
    Calvin Chow409,000
    Osbert Liu396,000
    Ryan Smith383,000
    Hugo Soares366,000
    Christopher Klementis362,000
    Kris Steinbach321,000
    Weston Pring317,000
    Bradley Davidson310,000
    Graham Lupton301,000
    Ashkan Razavi288,000
    Michael Khan288,000
    Joshua James287,000
    Adrian Baran281,000
    Dallas Larson280,000
    Rene Schmidt278,000
    Anthony Hughes265,000
    Steve Lukic262,000
    Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram260,000
    Xiao Hu258,000
    Omid Mojaverian255,000
    Dustin Melanson255,000
    David Anderson254,000
    Sheraz Nasir247,000
    John Macarthur240,000
    Lanze Chevillard236,000
    Vo Nguyen236,000
    Chaudhary Faisal225,000
    Cody Cloutier221,000
    Scott Carragher220,000
    Adam Balog212,000
    Nizar Tajdin199,000
    Richard Gilliard191,000
    Nu Teliani186,000
    Gordon Wong186,000
    Zhixiang Li183,000
    Aaron Duczak182,000
    Daniel Wojcik179,000
    Callum Roque178,000
    Kyle Chang170,000
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam166,000
    Reginaid Lepine142,000
    Ze Li142,000
    Randy Audette136,000
    Giuseppe Galluzzo133,000
    Keera Grabbe130,000
    Aaron Lam124,000
    Jiajie Sheng123,000
    Mathew Maddalo118,000
    Tyler Fish115,000
    Michael Leah108,000
    Perry Rouzes105,000
    Chase Bonertz105,000
    Dennis Beebe102,000
    Ryan Andrade100,000
    Edward Sorensen94,000
    Fredrick Mowatt89,000
    Nickolaos Simeonidis80,000
    Mal Hagan80,000
    George Caragiorgas76,000
    Ta-Yu Shih73,000
    Ari Benarroch63,000
    Gilbert Charles56,000
    Varanpreet Sidhu53,000
    Shane Patacsil50,000
    Tommy Nguyen48,000
    Ryan Jensen16,000
    Fenghua Cai13,000

  • Final Few Hands of the Night

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:93/639 (185/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:12:20 AM

    They are in the money in Day 1c of the Main, and playing the final few hands of the night. There are 93 players left, but they may still lose one or two more before the end of the night. Stay tuned for Day 1c cashouts and chip counts coming later tonight, as well as a preview of the big Day 2 action tomorrow.

  • 3 Off the Money

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:17 (5000/10000/10000)
    Entries:99/639 (191/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:11:40 PM

    The Main Event 1c is nearing the money now, with about 25 minutes to play in Level 17. This is technically the last level of the night, but they have to at least make it to 96 before they end the night.

  • Less than 20 Off the MOney

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:16 (4000/8000/8000)
    Entries:115/639 (207/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:10:35 PM

    The Main Event Day 1c is on the final break of the day, and they’ll be back for the final two levels of the night in about 10 minutes. They are now 19 off the money spots, so once again, it looks like this flight will barely make it into the money before the end of Level 17, or possibly go into overtime to get to 96.

  • At Least 64 Bags from 1c

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:14 (3000/5000/5000)
    Entries:152/639 (244/1,321)
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:9:30 PM

    The final numbers are in for Day 1c, and it was a doozie. A total of 639 entries were recorded for 1c prizes of almost 1.2 million, putting the combined total prizes at over $2.5 million.

    That’s not just a record — it’s about $300k higher than the previous record set in Jan 2024, and means this series is well on pace to cap $6 million for the first time. They are closing in on 150 players left, and 96 players will get into the prizes tonight.

    They must play down to 96 before they bag for the night, and they could bag early if they hit 64 players before the end of Level 17. More likely, they’ll finish the day at the end of Level 17 with between 10% & 15% of the field remaining. Players who cash out today can expect to pocket $4,439 on their way out the door.

  • Top Stacks from Sunridge

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Travis McMillan542,000
    Mehmet Siginc375,000
    Richard Gilliard325,000

  • Chan Faces No Resistance

    Alek Gillies
    Level:13 (2,000/4,000/4,000)
    Entries:177/639
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:8:59 PM

    Chan opened to 10,000 from early position, and three players made the call.

    The flop came 2♥2♣Q♠, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Chan blasted for 10,000, and the remaining players made the fold.

    Corey Chan: 355,000

  • Pring Has It

    Alek Gillies
    Level:13 (2,000/4,000/4,000)
    Entries:196/639
    Prizes:$1,189,818 ($2,562,602 total)
    Local Time:8:48 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 2♦5♠8♥, and Weston Pring led out for 6,000 from the small blind. The big blind flicked in the call.

    Action slowed down, as both players checked the 5♣ turn.

    The 3♦ completed the board, and Pring fired for 15,000. The big blind made the fold, and Pring revealed A♠5♦ for trips.

    Weston Pring: 197,000

  • Updated Big Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Travis MacMillan523,000
    Mehmet Siginc386,500
    Corey Chan360,000
    Richard Gilliad337,000
    Trent Hopper312,000
    Jiajie Sheng277,000
    Guiseppe Corapi275,000
    Bradley Davidson259,500
    Shivan Ahmad250,000
    David Anderson246,000

  • Hopkins Gets it Through

    Alek Gillies
    Level:12 (1,500/3,000/3,000)
    Entries:216/624
    Prizes:$1,161,888 ($2,533,202 total)
    Local Time:7:58 PM

    Action was caught on the river of [invalid notations], and the small blind was quick to check.

    Joshua Hopkins moved all in for 82,000 from the big blind, and his opponent made the snap fold.

    Joshua Hopkins: 161,000

  • Chevillard Check-Raises to Perfection

    Alek Gillies
    Level:12 ( 1,500/3,000/3,000)
    Entries:229/618
    Prizes:$1,150,716 ($2,521,442 total)
    Local Time:7:45 PM

    Under the gun opened to 6,500, and both blinds made the call.

    The flop came K♦3♥J♦, and action checked to under the gun. He fired for 8,500, and the small blind was quick to fold.

    Lanze Chevillard check-raised to 18,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Lanze Chevillard: 173,500

  • Simmonds Wins the Race

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:242/614
    Prizes:$1,143,268 ($2,513,602 total)
    Local Time:7:28 PM

    Ryan Simmonds moved all in for 17,000, and the button made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Ryan Simmonds: A♥Q♣
    Button: 10♦10♣

    Ryan Simmonds: 40,500

  • Dalphond Doubles

    Alek Gillies
    Level:11 (1,500/2,500/2,500)
    Entries:263/608
    Prizes:$1,132,096 ($2,501,842 total)
    Local Time:7:07 PM

    Johnny Dalphond moved all in for 18,000, and late position made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Johnny Dalphond: A♠K♥
    Late Position: A♣8♣

    The board ran out Q♥K♣7♦J♥9♥, for Dalphond to take the pot.

    Johnny Dalphond: 43,000

  • Big Stacks at the Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Mehmet Siginc386,500
    Corey Chan297,000
    Lanze Chevillard235,000
    Bradley Davidson220,000
    Dallas Larson215,000
    Angelo Jopek210,000
    Yucheng Zhang201,000
    Vivek Sharma190,000
    Prabakaran Sivablasundaram185,000
    Duff Charette183,500

  • Players On Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies

    Players are headed on a 45 minute dinner break. They return to blinds of 1,000/2,000/2,000, and registration is open for just under three hours.

  • Tran On the Up and Up

    Alek Gillies
    Level:9 (1,000/1,500/1,500)
    Entries:332/574
    Prizes:$1,068,788 ($2,435,202 total)
    Local Time:5:06 PM

    Action was caught after the board came out 9♦J♣9♣K♥2♣, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Van Tran fired for 2,500, and the big blind was quick to fold.

    Van Tran: 103,300

  • Padda Makes a Move

    Alek Gillies
    Level:8 (600/1,200/1,200)
    Entries:370/559
    Prizes:$1,040,858 ($2,405,802 total)
    Local Time:4:24 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 6♠4♠8♥A♠, and early position was quick to check. Harpreet Padda fired for 5,000, and early position made the call.

    The 9♦ completed the board, and early position was quick to check. Padda fired for 17,500, and he was rewarded with the pot.

    Harpreet Padda: 84,200

  • Updated Stacks After Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Corey Chan303,000
    Mehmet Siginc250,000
    Nickolas Simeonidis203,000
    Dallas Larson173,400
    Sakvan Salih161,000
    Per Hindrikes160,700
    Yucheng Zhang159,000
    Dean Morrone158,000
    Duff Charette146,500
    Van Tran145,700

  • Nourzourzian Risks it All

    Alek Gillies
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:372/506
    Prizes:$942,172 ($2,301,922 total)
    Local Time:2:59 PM

    Action was caught after the board came K♣3♣5♣7♥5♦, and early position was quick to check.

    Shahin Nourzouzin moved all in for 28,800, and is opponent went into the tank. Eventually, they made the fold.

    Shahin Nourzouzian: 55,400

  • Giriffin Finds the KO

    Alek Gillies
    Level:6 (400/800/800)
    Entries:370/485
    Prizes:$903,070 ($2,260,762 total)
    Local Time:2:42 PM

    Action was caught after the board of Q♦10♠K♠2♠7♣, with 25,500 in the pot.

    Without early position checking, Peter Griffin moved all in. His opponent had 18,000, and was given all options. He checked so Griffin’s action stood.

    He made the call, and Griffin revealed K♦Q♥ to take the pot.

    Peter Griffin: 76,500

  • Sorensen Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:5 (300/600/600)
    Entries:376/468
    Prizes:$871,416 ($2,227,442 total)
    Local Time:2:23 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 10♥2♥K♠, and Edward Sorensen led out from early position. Middle position made the call.

    The turn came the 5♥, and Sorensen continued for 10,000. His opponent made the fold.

    Edward Sorensen: 32,700

  • Siffledeen Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:5 (300/600/600)
    Entries:372/439
    Prizes:$817,418 ($2,170,602 total)
    Local Time:2:07 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 6♣3♦3♠9♣, and Quentin Siffledeen fired for 5,000. Middle position maed the call.

    The river came the K♦, and both players were quick to check.

    Quentin Siffledeen: 47,600

  • Carragher Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:4 (300/500/500)
    Entries:367/427
    Prizes:$795,074 ($2,147,082 total)
    Local Time:1:45 PM

    The button opened to 1,500, and Scott Carragher defended his big blind.

    Action checked through on the 10♦4♣J♣Q♦9♦ board.

    Scott Carragher revealed J♥6♥ to take the pot.

    Scott Carragher: 37,900

  • Big Stacks on Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Dallas Larson126,000
    Sakvan Salih120,500
    Giuseppe Galluzzo120,000
    Vincent Tringle-Thibault110,300
    Vikram Gill109,000
    Mehmet Siginc107,000
    Dean Morrone104,600
    Amir Ghafouri104,000
    Andrii Bazhura102,000
    Brayden Brown101,400

  • Bullets for Ghafouri

    Alek Gillies
    Level:3 (200/400/400)
    Entries:336/368
    Prizes:$685,216 ($2,031,442 total)
    Local Time:12:47 PM

    After an initial open, middle position raised to 2,500. Amir Ghafouri four-bet to 7,000, and middle position raised to 18,000. Ghafouri moved all in, and was called. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Middle Position: A♦K♠
    Amir Ghafouri: A♠A♥

    The board ran out [invalid notations]Qs6s7cJcKc[/pc] for Ghafouri to take the pot.

    Amir Ghafouri: 100,900

  • Larson Soars Through the Chip Counts

    Alek Gillies
    Level:2 (200/300/300)
    Entries:309/322
    Prizes:$599,564 ($1,941,282 total)
    Local Time:12:18 PM

    Action was caught on the turn 7♦8♥6♦A♠J♣, and the small blind moved all in for 21,300. Dallas Larson made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Small Blind: J♦9♦
    Dallas Larson: A♥8♦

    The board completed with the J♠ for Larson to take the pot.

  • Tringle-Thibault Flushes Away the Competition

    Alek Gillies
    Level:2 (200/300/300)
    Entries:266/272
    Prizes:$506,464 ($1,843,282 total)
    Local Time:11:53 AM

    Action was caught after the turn of 8♣4♥10♣J♣, and Vincent Tringle-Thibault moved all in for 25,200 from the big blind. Under the gun called for his remaining 20,000, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Under the Gun: J♦J♠
    Vincent Tringle-Thibault: 5♣4♣

    The board completed with the A♣ for Tringle-Thibault to take the pot.

    Vincent Tringle-Thibault: 79,800

  • Kicker Plays for Kim

    Alek Gillies
    Level:1 (100/200/200)
    Entries:203/206
    Prizes:$383,572 ($1,713,922 total)
    Local Time:11:26 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of J♥2♠J♣, and both players were quick to check.

    The turn came the A♠, and Young Kim was quick to check. Middle position fired for 500, and Kim made the call.

    After the board completed with the 4♦, Kim checked to middle position. They continued for 1,200, and Kim made the call. Kim revealed A♣10♥ to best his opponents A♦9♦.

  • Siginic On the Board

    Alek Gillies
    Level:1 (100/200/200)
    Entries:146/146
    Prizes:$271,852 ($1,596,322 total)
    Local Time:11:08 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 3♠6♠5♣K♣, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Mehmet Siginic fired for 1,300 from late position, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Mehmet Siginic: 39,400

  • Final Flight to the Record(?) Main Event Goes Saturday

    Lyle Bateman

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 1C ($1,960 + $240)

    Date:Jan 17, 11 AM
    Blinds:40 Minutes
    Starting Stack:40k
    Late Entry:12 Levels (~8:30)
    Day 1 Ends:17 Levels or 10% of the field; Must play to 15% of the field
    Entries: 54/411 (92/682)
    Prizes:$805,560 ($1,310,162 total)

    This Main Event is shaping up to be the biggest game ever at WSOP-C, and by extension, the entire Alberta poker market. Through the first two flights, the game has 682 entries for total prizes of more than $1.3 million.

    The current record holder for prize pools here at Deerfoot was the Jan 2024 Main Event, which got $2.34 million in prizes. After two flights, that game was sitting at $1.17 million, so, at this point in the game, this year’s Main is well ahead of the record prize pool.

    Day 1c will be where the chips go in. At this point in the game, they need fewer than 500 entries on 1c to beat the current record, and given the size of the games so far, that seems like a lock. Just 65 more entries over the 1b total for the final flight will be plenty to push the prizes into record territory, and that increase is generally trivial moving from 1b to 1c.

    The final flight takes off at 11 AM, and players have 12 levels to enter. With breaks included, that will put the last chance to buy in at about 8:30 PM Saturday night. From there, they’ll play to at least 15% of the field. If they get to that number before the end of Level 17, they’ll keep playing and bag up remaining players at the end of 17; otherwise, they’ll keep playing until they hit 15%. In the unlikely event they get to 10% before the end of 17, they’ll bag up early, but that’s a very rare occurrence in a Main Event flight, which typically bag at the end of Level 17 with more than 10% remaining.

    Players get 40k in chips for their $2,200 buy in, and Day 1 levels are 40 minutes long. They’ll have a 45-minute dinner break following Level 9, and players who buy in during dinner sit down in Level 10 with 20 big blinds. Max-late registration during the break following Level 12 will get a player 10 bigs for Level 13.

    Get your feet firmly in the stirrups, Calgary — this Main Event is almost certain to set a new record prize pool. I generally predict a 40-50% increase from flight to flight. Day 1b beat that trend with a 51% increase over the 1a numbers. If 1c gets just a 45% boost over 1b, it will mean a new record prize pool of $2.5 million. Time will tell, but this game looks to be huge by the time entries close on Saturday.

  • 14 Players Return for Day 3; Senthuran Vijayaratnam Leads

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60000/120000/120000)
    Entries:14/1321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:25 PM

    Day 2 of the Main Event is complete, with 14 players remaining for the final day of play on Monday. Senthuran Vijayaratnam leads the way into Day 3 with almost 10 million. See below for a look at the 14 returning stacks, sorted by stack size. Stay tuned later for a Day 3 preview post with full seat assignments.

    PlayerChips
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam9,610,000
    Robin Bergren7,400,000
    Jiajie Sheng6,885,000
    Alen Bakovic4,525,000
    Juan Lamprea4,000,000
    Stephen Dauphinais3,325,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev2,860,000
    Weston Pring2,450,000
    Nizar Tajdin2,390,000
    David Quang2,265,000
    Sami Al-Serri2,250,000
    Rishi Makkar2,210,000
    Graham Lupton1,925,000
    Xiao Yu Hu701,000

  • 15 Minutes to Play in Day 2

    Alek Gillies
    Level:27 (50000/100000/100000)
    Entries:14/1321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:11:40 PM

    There are just under 15 minutes to play in Level 27, and the bags will come out at the end of this level. There are currently 14 players left in Day 2, and it seems likely they won’t lose that many players before the end of the day. There is one more payout at $16,686 before it jumps to $20,597 for 13th place.

    PlacePlayerPrize
    15 Chris Potter$16,686
    16 Anthony Smith$16,686

  • 16 Left in the Main; One Level to Play in Day 2

    Alek Gillies
    Level:26 (40000/80000/80000)
    Entries:16/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:10:50 PM

    The final level of play for Day 2 is about to begin for the Main Event, with 16 players remaining. That means there is about an hour left until the bags come out for Day 3, and it looks like they’ll come back tomorrow with a bit more than the final table remaining.

  • Recent Busts

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    17Rahul Sharma$16,686
    18Adam Balog$13,728
    19Calvin Chow$13,728
    20Shane Patacsil$13,728
    21Paul Waring$13,728
    22Pawan Braich$13,728
    23Brett Worton$13,728
    24Trent Hopper$13,728
    25Dallas Larson$13,728
    26Christopher Bailey$13,728
    27Vincent Lam$11,473
    28Maksim Kniter$11,473
    29Parth Mansukh$11,473
    30Sheraz Nazir$11,473
    31Michael Li$11,473
    32Giuseppe Galluzzo$11,473
    33Ashkan Razavi$11,473

  • Sheng Wins a Massive Three Way All In

    Alek Gillies
    Level:26 (40,000/80,000/80,000)
    Entries:18/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:10:10 PM

    A three way all in occurred with Jiajie Sheng moving all in for 1,300,000. Middle position jammed for 1,900,000, and Stephen Dauphinais made the call covering both. The three players revealed their holdings.

    Jiajie Sheng: A♥A♣
    Middle Position: A♠K♥
    Stephen Dauphinais: Q♣Q♥

    The board ran out 9♠7♦9♥5♥8♣, for Sheng to take the main pot. Dauphinais took the side and found an elimination.

    Stephen Dauphinais: 4,960,000
    Jinjie Sheng: 4,640,000

  • Updated Stacks at the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Robin Bergren4,800,000
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam4,000,000
    Anthony Smith3,700,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev3,500,000
    Xiao Hu3,400,000
    Juan Lamprea3,000,000
    Rishi Makkar2,800,000
    Graham Upton2,600,000
    Nizar Tajdin2,500,000
    Rahul Sharma2,100,000

  • Larson Gets Max Value

    Alek Gillies
    Level:25 (30,000/60,000/60,000)
    Entries:25/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:9:21 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 5♦5♥4♦3♣6♠, and Dallas Larson moved all in for 415,000.

    Late Position went into the tank, but eventually flicked in the call.

    Larson revealed A♥A♦ to find the double.

    Dallas Larson: 1,980,000

  • Bergren Soars to the Chip Lead

    Alek Gillies
    Level:25 (30,000/60,000/60,000)
    Entries:27/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:8:34 PM

    Vince Lam opened to 120,000 from the cutoff, and Robin Bergren three-bet to 350,000 from the big blind. Lam moved all in, and Bergren went into the tank. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Robin Bergren: Q♠Q♣
    Vince Lam: A♣K♣

    The board ran out 9♦10♣10♠7♥9♥ for Bergren to find the double.

    Robin Bergren: 5,440,000
    Vince Lam: 210,000

  • Lam on the Lookout

    Alek Gillies
    Level:24 (25,000/50,000/50,000)
    Entries:28/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:8:17 PM

    After his partner Anne Ngo found a second WSOPC ring in yesterday’s Ladies Event, Vince Lam is looking to keep up the success with a deep run today.

    Action was caught on the turn of 9♣A♦8♦9♠, with both players having checked the two streets.

    The river came the 2♠, and the big blind checked to Lam. He fired for 150,000, and took down the pot.

    Vince Lam: 3,000,000

  • “One Pair at Least” for Hu

    Alek Gillies
    Level:24 (25,000/50,000/50,000)
    Entries:29/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:8:06 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 7♠J♠6♣, and all three players were quick to check.

    The turn came the 6♥, Xiao Hu fired for 160,000 from the big blind. Both his opponents mucked their hands. Hu joked that he had “One pair at least.”

    Xiao Hu: 2,150,000

  • Dauphinais Takes it Down

    Alek Gillies
    Level:24 (50,000/100,000/100,000)
    Entries:30/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:7:54 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of 6♥10♠10♥, and Stephen Dauphinais led out for 250,000 from the small blind. Early position made the call.

    The turn came the Q♥, and Dauphinais checked to early position. They fired for 400,000, and Dauphinais moved all in. After a long tank, early position made the fold. Dauphinais let out a huge sigh of relief as he scooped in the pot.

    Stephen Dauphinais: 3,160,000

  • Updated Stacks at Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam4,000,000
    Anthony Smith3,700,000
    Juan Lamprea3,000,000
    Nazir Tajdin2,600,000
    Robin Bergman2,500,000
    Sami Al-Serri2,500,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev2,300,000
    Christopher Potter2,300,000
    Rishi Makkar2,300,000
    Stephen Dauphinais2,300,000

  • All Eliminations Before Dinner Break

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    34Vo Nguyen$11,473
    35Chen Chen$11,473
    36Antonio Ma$9,741
    37Ryan Andrade$9,741
    38Joel Kogan$9,741
    39John Hewgill$9,741
    40Claude Gaudet$9,741
    41David Anderson$9,741
    42Oleksii Mezhenkov$9,741
    43Ruoxiao Shi$9,741
    44Dustin Melanson$9,741
    45Wille Jonathan Scott$8,406
    46Rene Schmidt$8,406
    47Michael Hooper$8,406
    48Nicholas Ryan Mcewen$8,406
    49Chaudhary Faisal$8,406
    50Cody Cloutier$8,406
    51Tam Ho$8,406
    52Hien Vo$8,406
    53Clayton Robert Mozdzen$8,406
    54George Caragiorgas$7,374

  • Big Defend for Chen

    Alek Gillies
    Level:23 (20,000/40,000/40,000)
    Entries:41/1,321
    Prizes:$329,175
    Local Time:6:05 PM

    Middle position opened to 80,000, and the cutoff made the call. Chen Chen defended his big blind.

    The flop came 3♥J♥7♠, and Chen led out for 140,000. The cutoff made the call.

    Action checked trough to the river of 4♠Q♦. Chen revealed Q♥6♥ to take the pot.

    Chen Chen: 1,040,000

  • Ponomarev Finds the Elimination

    Alek Gillies
    Level:23 (20,000/40,000/40,000)
    Entries:46/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:5:44 PM

    The cutoff opened to 350,000, leaving just 5,000 behind. Aleksei Ponomarev moved all in from the big blind, and the cutoff made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Cutoff: A♦2♠
    Aleksei Ponomarev: 7♠7♥

    The board ran out J♥4♠Q♣3♣4♦ for Ponomarev to find the knockout.

    Aleksei Ponomarev: 2,270,000

  • Mansukh Finds the Hero Call

    Alek Gillies
    Level:22 (15,000/30,000/30,000)
    Entries:49/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:5:24 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 8♠Q♣10♦4♣6♠, and Parth Mansukh checked from the big blind.

    His opponent fired for 250,000, into the 350,000 pot.

    Mansukh went into the tank, before eventually making the call. His 10♥3♥ bested his opponent’s A♥7♣ bluff to take the pot.

    Parth Mansukh: 1,670,000

  • Those Who Have Fallen

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    55Dylan Timothy James Boyer$7,374
    56Krys edd Alipio$7,374
    57Tony Le$7,374
    58William Doherty$7,374
    59Amichai Barer$7,374
    60Angelo Jopek$7,374
    61Garett James Maybery$7,374
    62Dylan Stephen Payne$7,374
    63Kayvan Payman$6,577
    64Lucas Leite Dantas$6,577
    65Arya Ghai$6,577
    66Steve Lukic$6,577
    67Carter Mccauley$6,577
    68Jeffrey Michael Reardon$6,577
    69Charles Shapiro$6,577
    70Richard Bewski$6,577
    71Malachy Hagan$6,577
    72Joshua W Hopkins$5,967
    73Ihor Popyk$5,967
    74Patrick Roger Joseph Tardif$5,967
    75Deven Lane$5,967
    76Youssef Hmama$5,967
    77Adrian Gouveia$5,967
    78Mehmet Siginc$5,967
    79Bradley Davidson$5,967
    80Zhun Chen$5,967
    81Omid Mojaverian$5,508
    82Marc Lavergne$5,508
    83Kyle Ho$5,508
    84Clayton Gaudry$5,508
    85Jolnar Teliani$5,508
    86Seseung Oh$5,508
    87Edward Daniel Sorensen$5,508
    88Jacob Anderson$5,508
    89Zhixiang Li$5,508
    90Daniel A Wojcik$5,175
    91Michael Khan$5,175
    92Clifton George Green$5,175
    93John MacArthur$5,175
    94Norman Shapiro$5,175
    95Scott Carragher$5,175
    96Luteng Li$5,175
    97Ryan Simmonds$5,175
    98Van Quoc Vo$5,175

  • Updated Big Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Rahul Sharma2,300,000
    Pav Braich1,900,000
    Sami Al-Serri1,900,000
    Stephen Dauphinais1,900,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev1,800,000
    Tony Le1,700,000
    Christopher Potter1,600,000
    Nizar Tajdin1,600,000
    Vincent Lam1,600,000
    Sheraz Nasir1,400,000

  • Bullets for Hu

    Alek Gillies
    Level:
    Entries:64/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:3:56 PM

    Under the gun moved all in for 565,000, and Xiao Hu flicked in the call from the big blind.

    Under the Gun: 7♣7♥
    Xiao Hu: A♠A♥

    The board ran out 4♥6♣8♣8♠6♦ for Hu to find the elimination.

    Xiao Hu: 1,215,000

  • Galluzzo Finds the Bluff

    Alek Gillies
    Level:21 (15,000/25,000/25,000)
    Entries:72/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:3:24 PM

    Action was caught after the flop of J♣3♦5♠, and early position led out for 120,000.

    Giuseppe Galluzzo raised to 400,000, and early position went into the tank.

    They eventually made the fold while stating they laided down “Ace Jack.” Galluzzo revealed the J♥ for top pair worse kicker.

    Giuseppe Galluzzo: 735,000

  • Tazdin Joins the Seven Figure Club

    Alek Gillies
    Level:20 (10,000/20,000/20,000)
    Entries:81/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:2:58 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of Q♦9♠8♣A♥, and the big blind was quick to check.

    Nizar Tajdin fired for 175,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Nizar Tajdin: 1,035,000

  • Recent Bustouts

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerChip Count
    99Tyler Panas$4,949
    100Jonathan Isaac Newman$4,949
    101Gordon Wong$4,949
    102Christopher Alcindor$4,949
    103Seong Choi$4,949
    104Hugo Leonan Amaral Soares$4,949
    105Adrian r Baran$4,949
    106Kyle Chang$4,949
    107Pamela Susan Macnaughton$4,949
    108Vivek Sharma$4,949
    109Jatinder Brar$4,949
    110Gennady Klimenko$4,949
    111Alexander Bylicki$4,949
    112Osbert Liu$4,949
    113Christopher Klementis$4,949
    114Wing Yeung$4,949
    115Keera Lee Grabbe$4,949
    116Anthony Hughes$4,949
    117Dhiraj Sharma$4,713
    118Zhiyu Chen$4,713
    119Ryan Smith$4,713
    120Ankhbayar Bayar$4,713
    121AARON HENRY LAM$4,713
    122Drew Buchner$4,713
    123Kris Steinbach$4,713
    124Phong Truong$4,713
    125Kwong Lam$4,713
    126Lanze Chevillard$4,713
    127Daniel Stetski$4,713
    128Callum Roque$4,713
    129Travis Macmillan$4,713
    130Toan Tran$4,713
    131Fredrick Mowatt$4,713
    132Paul Jeyaraz$4,713
    133Aaron Duczak$4,713
    134ARI Benarroch$4,713
    135Mathew Maddalo$4,713

  • Big Stacks After the Break

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Aleksei Ponomarev1,800,000
    Pav Braich1,400,000
    Sami-El Sarri1,400,000
    Vincent Lam1,400,000
    Christopher Potter1,200,000
    Dallas Larson1,100,000
    Stephen Dauphinais1,100,000
    Rahul Sharma935,000
    Angelo Jopek920,000
    Oleksii Mezhenkov900,000

  • Melanson Finds the Double

    Alek Gillies
    Level:19 (1,000/15,000/15,000)
    Entries:115/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:1:42 PM

    Kris Steinbach moved all in, and Dustin Melanson called for his remaining 164,000. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Dustin Melanson: A♣9♥
    Kris Steinbach: Q♠10♣

    The board ran out 2♦3♣A♠10♥7♠ for Melanson to take the pot.

    Dustin Melanson: 368,000

  • Recent Eliminations

    Alek Gillies
    PositionPlayerPrize
    136Elizabeth Boles$4,713
    137Donald Cowie$4,713
    138Joshua Frazer James$4,713
    139Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram$4,713
    140Yong Yuan Lu$4,713
    141Anthony James Williams$4,713
    142Dawson Chen$4,713
    143Eun Park$4,713
    144Malcolm Bolger$4,713
    145Eric Wallace$4,713
    146Michael Baldwin$4,713
    147Reginaid Lepine$4,713
    148Mishel Nguyen$4,713
    149Aaron Lam$4,713
    150Perry Rouzes$4,713
    151Raymond Lamy$4,713
    152Curtis Singleton$4,713
    153Richard Gilliard$4,713
    154Aaron La$4,713
    155Randy Audette$4,713
    156TYLER FISH$4,713
    157Hassan Issa$4,713
    158Tommy L D Nguyen$4,713
    159Nickolaos Simeonidis$4,713
    160Fenghua Cai$4,713
    161Nohad Teliani$4,713
    162Romualdo Cusano$4,713
    163Joseph Charlebois$4,713
    164Regan Duong$4,713
    165Michael Leah$4,713
    166Dennis Beebe$4,713
    167Joe Basaraba$4,713
    168Craig Patrick Caldwell$4,713
    169Derek Dufour$4,713
    170Ta-Yu Shih$4,713
    171Mehdi Saeed$4,713
    172Chase Bonertz$4,713
    173Gilbert Charles$4,713
    174Roger Thomas Charles Grosset$4,713
    175Anne Ngo$4,713
    176Ryan Jensen$4,713
    177Afshin Majidi$4,713
    178Fat Cheong Wong$4,713
    179Ze Li$4,713
    180Varanpreet Sidhu$4,713

  • Sheng Gets it Through

    Alek Gillies
    Level:18 (6,000/12,000/12,000)
    Entries:143/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:12:44 PM

    Action was caught after the turn of 5♣7♣Q♦10♥, and both blinds were quick to check. Jiajie Sheng fired for 70,000 from middle position. Only the small blind made the call.

    The J♥ completed the board, and the small blind checked to Sheng. He moved all in for 140,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Jiajie Sheng: 460,000

  • Bakovic Finds the KO

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:18 (6,000/12,000/12,000)
    Entries:156/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:12:23 PM

    Early position moved all in for 40,000, and Alen Bakovic moved all in over the top for 200,000. The remaining players folded, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Early Position: Q♠J♥
    Alen Bakovic: A♥J♦

    The board ran out K♠K♣K♦8♣6♣ for Bakovic to take the pot.

  • Lee Risks it All

    Lyle Bateman
    Level:18 (6,000/12,000/12,000)
    Entries:173/1,321
    Prizes:$2,562,602
    Local Time:12:10 PM

    Early position opened to 25,000, and Keera Lee three-bet to 50,000. Early position made the call.

    The flop came 5♥4♦6♣, and early position was quick to check. Lee moved all in for 85,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Keera Lee: 199,000

  • Day 2 of the Record Main Event Runs Sunday

    Lyle Bateman

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 2

    Date:Jan 18, noon
    Blinds:60 Minutes
    Entries:180/1,321
    Prizes (1st Place):$2,562,602 ($396,556)

    Day 2 of the Main Event is set, and it’s a huge one. 180 players are coming back for Day 2 play, with two millionaires at the top of the counts. Mehmet Siginc, who won Event #2 and was runner-up in the Monster stack, bagged biggest with 1.1 million, while Jo Teliani is close behind with 1.06 million. Dylan Payne and Pav Braich are both in the 900k range, while Oleksii Mezhenkov has 829k for Day 2. Full stacks and seats will be below.

    Day 2 gets going at noon with the start of Level 18, and they’ll play until the end of Level 27. With 180 players coming back, expect Day 3 to have more than one table returning on Monday. Blinds are 60 minutes for the rest of the game.

    This Main Event turned out to be the biggest prize pool ever, wth more than $2.5 million. That’s around $200k more than the previous record, set in January 2024 with $2.34 million.

    Top Ten Day 2 Stacks

    PlayerChips
    Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    Jo Teliani1,060,000
    Dylan Payne990,000
    Pav Braich923,000
    Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    Jatinder Brar747,000
    David Quang727,000
    Joel Kogan725,000

    Day 2 Stacks, Sorted by Table & Seat (T-S)

    T-SPlayerChips
    21 – 1Antonio Ma375,000
    21 – 2Gordon Wong186,000
    21 – 3Patrick Tardif282,000
    21 – 4Afshin Majidi160,000
    21 – 5Weston Pring317,000
    21 – 6Eric Wallace155,000
    21 – 7Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram260,000
    21 – 8Vincent Lam250,000
    21 – 9Joshua James287,000
    22 – 1John Hewgill84,000
    22 – 2Chase Bonertz105,000
    22 – 3Ryan Jensen16,000
    22 – 4Seseung Oh193,000
    22 – 5Gilbert Charles56,000
    22 – 6Varanpreet Sidhu53,000
    22 – 7Parth Mansukh133,000
    22 – 8Ryan Andrade100,000
    22 – 9Scott Carragher220,000
    23 – 1Clayton Gaudry605,000
    23 – 2Steve Lukic262,000
    23 – 3Cody Cloutier221,000
    23 – 4Ta-Yu Shih73,000
    23 – 5Michael Li422,000
    23 – 6Jatinder Brar747,000
    23 – 7Nickolaos Simeonidis80,000
    23 – 8Jiajie Sheng123,000
    23 – 9Ari Benarroch63,000
    24 – 1Richard Gilliard191,000
    24 – 2Adrian Gouveia211,000
    24 – 3Zhun Chen218,000
    24 – 4Aaron La195,000
    24 – 5Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    24 – 6Jo Teliani1,060,000
    24 – 7Wille Scott358,000
    24 – 8Zhixiang Li183,000
    24 – 9Xiao Yu Hu258,000
    25 – 1Callum Roque178,000
    25 – 2Aaron Duczak182,000
    25 – 3Giuseppe Galluzzo133,000
    25 – 4Ryan Smith383,000
    25 – 5Randy Audette136,000
    25 – 6Jacob Anderson289,000
    25 – 7Tyler Fish115,000
    25 – 8Lanze Chevillard236,000
    25 – 9Christopher Alcindor382,000
    28 – 1Kyle Ho425,000
    28 – 2Perry Rouzes105,000
    28 – 3Drew Buchner191,000
    28 – 4Yong Yuan Lu523,000
    28 – 5Chaudhary Faisal225,000
    28 – 6Malachy Hagan80,000
    28 – 7Luteng Li214,000
    28 – 8Adam Balog212,000
    28 – 9Cliff Green158,000
    29 – 1Fenghua Cai13,000
    29 – 2Annee Ngo183,000
    29 – 3Ihor Popyk298,000
    29 – 4Seong Hoon Choi291,000
    29 – 5George Caragiorgas76,000
    29 – 6Derek Dufour60,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri486,000
    29 – 8Gennady Klimenko399,000
    29 – 9Graham Lupton301,000
    30 – 1Jeffrey Reardon412,000
    30 – 2Christopher Bailey255,000
    30 – 3Norman Shapiro247,000
    30 – 4Adrian Baran281,000
    30 – 5Daniel Paul Stetski482,000
    30 – 6Lucas Dantas316,000
    30 – 7Nizar Tajdin199,000
    30 – 8Tyler Panas400,000
    30 – 9Deven Lane301,000
    31 – 1Nohad Teliani186,000
    31 – 2William Doherty479,000
    31 – 3Roger Grosset171,000
    31 – 4Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    31 – 5John Macarthur240,000
    31 – 6Christopher Potter447,000
    31 – 7Ze Yu Li142,000
    31 – 8Sheraz Nasir247,000
    31 – 9Dennis Beebe102,000
    32 – 1Reginaid Lepine142,000
    32 – 2David Quang727,000
    32 – 3Ashkan Razavi288,000
    32 – 4Senthuran Vijayaratnam166,000
    32 – 5Michael Hooper301,000
    32 – 6Romualdo Cusano153,000
    32 – 7Osbert Liu396,000
    32 – 8Richard Bewski176,000
    32 – 9Ryan Simmonds420,000
    34 – 1Amichai Barer191,000
    34 – 2Malcolm Bolger321,000
    34 – 3Stephen Dauphinais309,000
    34 – 4Fat Cheong Wong89,000
    34 – 5Omid Mojaverian255,000
    34 – 6Clayton Mozdzen198,000
    34 – 7Hassan Issa109,000
    34 – 8Tony Le319,000
    34 – 9Raymond Lamy418,000
    35 – 1Zhiyu Chen65,000
    35 – 2Carter Mccauley275,000
    35 – 3Joshua W Hopkins414,000
    35 – 4Travis Macmillan470,000
    35 – 5Arya Ghai164,000
    35 – 6Brett Worton67,700
    35 – 7Mathew Maddalo118,000
    35 – 8David Anderson254,000
    35 – 9Dallas Larson280,000
    36 – 1Jeff Charlebois30,000
    36 – 2Marc Lavergne156,000
    36 – 3Tommy Nguyen48,000
    36 – 4Donald Cowie314,000
    36 – 5Shane Patacsil50,000
    36 – 6Fredrick Mowatt89,000
    36 – 7Bradley Davidson310,000
    36 – 8Robin Bergren207,000
    36 – 9Kwong Lam528,000
    37 – 1Paul Waring476,000
    37 – 2Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    37 – 3Dylan Payne990,000
    37 – 4Aaron Lam272,000
    37 – 5Hugo Soares366,000
    37 – 6Charles Shapiro210,000
    37 – 7Ankhbayar Bayar135,000
    37 – 8Eun Park218,000
    37 – 9Daniel A Wojcik179,000
    38 – 1Alexander Bylicki438,000
    38 – 2Garett Maybery699,000
    38 – 3Edward Sorensen94,000
    38 – 4Jonathan Newman336,000
    38 – 5Krys Alipio106,000
    38 – 6Phong Truong240,000
    38 – 7Joe Basaraba157,000
    38 – 8Christopher Klementis362,000
    38 – 9Rishi Makkar446,000
    40 – 1Rahul Sharma542,000
    40 – 2Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    40 – 3Vivek Sharma472,000
    40 – 4Michael Baldwin119,000
    40 – 5Kris Steinbach321,000
    40 – 6Dustin Melanson255,000
    40 – 7Curtis Singleton158,000
    40 – 8Anthony Hughes265,000
    40 – 9Trent Hopper565,000
    41 – 1Elizabeth Boles145,000
    41 – 2Kyle Chang170,000
    41 – 3Toan Tran550,000
    41 – 4Youssef Hmama175,000
    41 – 5Michael Leah108,000
    41 – 6Dawson Chen400,000
    41 – 7Pav Braich923,000
    41 – 8Anthony James Williams154,000
    41 – 9Tam Ho417,000
    42 – 1DJ Sharma242,000
    42 – 2Chen Chen218,000
    42 – 3Dylan Boyer236,000
    42 – 4Craig Patrick Caldwell126,000
    42 – 5Vo Nguyen236,000
    42 – 6Regan Duong83,000
    42 – 7Alen Bakovic432,000
    42 – 8Wing Yeung240,000
    42 – 9Anthony Smith400,000
    43 – 1Rene Schmidt278,000
    43 – 2Joel Kogan725,000
    43 – 3Kayvan Payman242,000
    43 – 4Ruoxiao Shi338,000
    43 – 5Mehdi Saeed197,000
    43 – 6Juan Lamprea191,000
    43 – 7Claude Gaudet134,000
    43 – 8Van Quoc Vo360,000
    43 – 9Michael Khan288,000
    44 – 1Calvin Chow409,000
    44 – 2Paul Jeyaraj157,000
    44 – 3Hien Vo404,000
    44 – 4Mishel Nguyen125,000
    44 – 5Pamela Macnaughton210,000
    44 – 6Aaron Lam124,000
    44 – 7Keera Lee Grabbe130,000
    44 – 8Maksim Kniter234,000
    44 – 9Angelo Jopek463,000

    Day 2 Stacks, Sorted by Name

    T-SPlayerChips
    25 – 2Aaron Duczak182,000
    24 – 4Aaron La195,000
    37 – 4Aaron Lam272,000
    44 – 6Aaron Lam124,000
    28 – 8Adam Balog212,000
    30 – 4Adrian Baran281,000
    24 – 2Adrian Gouveia211,000
    21 – 4Afshin Majidi160,000
    31 – 4Aleksei Ponomarev777,000
    42 – 7Alen Bakovic432,000
    38 – 1Alexander Bylicki438,000
    34 – 1Amichai Barer191,000
    44 – 9Angelo Jopek463,000
    37 – 7Ankhbayar Bayar135,000
    29 – 2Annee Ngo183,000
    40 – 8Anthony Hughes265,000
    41 – 8Anthony James Williams154,000
    42 – 9Anthony Smith400,000
    21 – 1Antonio Ma375,000
    23 – 9Ari Benarroch63,000
    35 – 5Arya Ghai164,000
    32 – 3Ashkan Razavi288,000
    36 – 7Bradley Davidson310,000
    35 – 6Brett Worton67,700
    25 – 1Callum Roque178,000
    44 – 1Calvin Chow409,000
    35 – 2Carter Mccauley275,000
    37 – 6Charles Shapiro210,000
    22 – 2Chase Bonertz105,000
    28 – 5Chaudhary Faisal225,000
    42 – 2Chen Chen218,000
    25 – 9Christopher Alcindor382,000
    30 – 2Christopher Bailey255,000
    38 – 8Christopher Klementis362,000
    31 – 6Christopher Potter447,000
    43 – 7Claude Gaudet134,000
    23 – 1Clayton Gaudry605,000
    34 – 6Clayton Mozdzen198,000
    28 – 9Cliff Green158,000
    23 – 3Cody Cloutier221,000
    42 – 4Craig Patrick Caldwell126,000
    40 – 7Curtis Singleton158,000
    35 – 9Dallas Larson280,000
    37 – 9Daniel A Wojcik179,000
    30 – 5Daniel Paul Stetski482,000
    35 – 8David Anderson254,000
    32 – 2David Quang727,000
    41 – 6Dawson Chen400,000
    31 – 9Dennis Beebe102,000
    29 – 6Derek Dufour60,000
    30 – 9Deven Lane301,000
    42 – 1DJ Sharma242,000
    36 – 4Donald Cowie314,000
    28 – 3Drew Buchner191,000
    40 – 6Dustin Melanson255,000
    42 – 3Dylan Boyer236,000
    37 – 3Dylan Payne990,000
    38 – 3Edward Sorensen94,000
    41 – 1Elizabeth Boles145,000
    21 – 6Eric Wallace155,000
    37 – 8Eun Park218,000
    34 – 4Fat Cheong Wong89,000
    29 – 1Fenghua Cai13,000
    36 – 6Fredrick Mowatt89,000
    38 – 2Garett Maybery699,000
    29 – 8Gennady Klimenko399,000
    29 – 5George Caragiorgas76,000
    22 – 5Gilbert Charles56,000
    25 – 3Giuseppe Galluzzo133,000
    21 – 2Gordon Wong186,000
    29 – 9Graham Lupton301,000
    34 – 7Hassan Issa109,000
    44 – 3Hien Vo404,000
    37 – 5Hugo Soares366,000
    29 – 3Ihor Popyk298,000
    25 – 6Jacob Anderson289,000
    23 – 6Jatinder Brar747,000
    36 – 1Jeff Charlebois30,000
    30 – 1Jeffrey Reardon412,000
    23 – 8Jiajie Sheng123,000
    24 – 6Jo Teliani1,060,000
    38 – 7Joe Basaraba157,000
    43 – 2Joel Kogan725,000
    22 – 1John Hewgill84,000
    31 – 5John Macarthur240,000
    38 – 4Jonathan Newman336,000
    21 – 9Joshua James287,000
    35 – 3Joshua W Hopkins414,000
    43 – 6Juan Lamprea191,000
    43 – 3Kayvan Payman242,000
    44 – 7Keera Lee Grabbe130,000
    40 – 5Kris Steinbach321,000
    38 – 5Krys Alipio106,000
    36 – 9Kwong Lam528,000
    41 – 2Kyle Chang170,000
    28 – 1Kyle Ho425,000
    25 – 8Lanze Chevillard236,000
    30 – 6Lucas Dantas316,000
    28 – 7Luteng Li214,000
    44 – 8Maksim Kniter234,000
    28 – 6Malachy Hagan80,000
    34 – 2Malcolm Bolger321,000
    36 – 2Marc Lavergne156,000
    35 – 7Mathew Maddalo118,000
    43 – 5Mehdi Saeed197,000
    24 – 5Mehmet Siginc1,100,000
    40 – 4Michael Baldwin119,000
    32 – 5Michael Hooper301,000
    43 – 9Michael Khan288,000
    41 – 5Michael Leah108,000
    23 – 5Michael Li422,000
    44 – 4Mishel Nguyen125,000
    40 – 2Nicholas Mcewen760,500
    23 – 7Nickolaos Simeonidis80,000
    30 – 7Nizar Tajdin199,000
    31 – 1Nohad Teliani186,000
    30 – 3Norman Shapiro247,000
    37 – 2Oleksii Mezhenkov829,000
    34 – 5Omid Mojaverian255,000
    32 – 7Osbert Liu396,000
    44 – 5Pamela Macnaughton210,000
    22 – 7Parth Mansukh133,000
    21 – 3Patrick Tardif282,000
    44 – 2Paul Jeyaraj157,000
    37 – 1Paul Waring476,000
    41 – 7Pav Braich923,000
    28 – 2Perry Rouzes105,000
    38 – 6Phong Truong240,000
    21 – 7Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram260,000
    40 – 1Rahul Sharma542,000
    25 – 5Randy Audette136,000
    34 – 9Raymond Lamy418,000
    42 – 6Regan Duong83,000
    32 – 1Reginaid Lepine142,000
    43 – 1Rene Schmidt278,000
    32 – 8Richard Bewski176,000
    24 – 1Richard Gilliard191,000
    38 – 9Rishi Makkar446,000
    36 – 8Robin Bergren207,000
    31 – 3Roger Grosset171,000
    32 – 6Romualdo Cusano153,000
    43 – 4Ruoxiao Shi338,000
    22 – 8Ryan Andrade100,000
    22 – 3Ryan Jensen16,000
    32 – 9Ryan Simmonds420,000
    25 – 4Ryan Smith383,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri486,000
    22 – 9Scott Carragher220,000
    32 – 4Senthuran Vijayaratnam166,000
    29 – 4Seong Hoon Choi291,000
    22 – 4Seseung Oh193,000
    36 – 5Shane Patacsil50,000
    31 – 8Sheraz Nasir247,000
    34 – 3Stephen Dauphinais309,000
    23 – 2Steve Lukic262,000
    23 – 4Ta-Yu Shih73,000
    41 – 9Tam Ho417,000
    41 – 3Toan Tran550,000
    36 – 3Tommy Nguyen48,000
    34 – 8Tony Le319,000
    35 – 4Travis Macmillan470,000
    40 – 9Trent Hopper565,000
    25 – 7Tyler Fish115,000
    30 – 8Tyler Panas400,000
    43 – 8Van Quoc Vo360,000
    22 – 6Varanpreet Sidhu53,000
    21 – 8Vincent Lam250,000
    40 – 3Vivek Sharma472,000
    42 – 5Vo Nguyen236,000
    21 – 5Weston Pring317,000
    24 – 7Wille Scott358,000
    31 – 2William Doherty479,000
    42 – 8Wing Yeung240,000
    24 – 9Xiao Yu Hu258,000
    28 – 4Yong Yuan Lu523,000
    41 – 4Youssef Hmama175,000
    31 – 7Ze Yu Li142,000
    24 – 8Zhixiang Li183,000
    35 – 1Zhiyu Chen65,000
    24 – 3Zhun Chen218,000

  • Senthuran Vijayaratnam Dismantles the Final Table To Take Down the Main Event ($396,556)

    Alek Gillies
    Main Event Winner Senthuran Vijayaratnam

    To say Senthuran Vijayaratnam was unstoppable would be an understatement. The Ontario native entered the day with the chip lead of of 9,610,000. Pressure was rapid with Weston Pring finding a pair of bustouts to bring the field down to 12. Soon after, Vijayaratnam found an elimination against the short stack Sami Al-Serri to bring play to an unofficial final table.

    From here it turned into Vijayaratnam’s time to shine. He found an early elimination winning a flip against Nizar Tajdin’s two overs with pocket nines. He was the overwhelming chip lead with 16,700,000, and he wouldn’t stop there. With two other players finding a knockout, Vijayaratnam was out for blood. He again had pocket nines against two over and held to send out the short-stacked Rishi Makkar.

    Right after, he flopped an over and flush draw against Weston Prings top pair. He found the overpair on the turn to soar into the equity lead and held to bring play down to four handed. Alen Bakovic was the next opponent left short stacked, and he moved all in with pocket tens. Vijayaratnam called him off with King-Deuce, and smashed the flop finding trip dueces. Not wanting to stop, Vijayaratnam called off the short stacked Graham Lupton. Lupton had him dominated, but a turned two pair gave Vijayaratnam the pot.

    WSOP Jan 2026 Main Event Heads Up

    Both Robin Bergren and Senthuran Vijayaratnam held similar chip stacks heads-up, and neither of the pair were willing to go quietly into the night. They battled evenly for an hour with Bergren finding a chip lead. However, all that would change. Both players turned top pair, and Vijayaratnam blasted the river. His king kicker was best for him to take a commanding 6:1 chip lead.

    Soon after, the short stacked Bergren moved all in with an open ended straight draw. Vijayaratnam’s top pair was ahead, and he asked the dealer for a “red deuce one time.” Harvey answered his prayers as the 2♥ completed the board. Vijayaratnam fell to the floor in relief and celebrated with friends as he took home his biggest ever cash. This year’s main event crushed expectations alongside the series breaking all the records set in prior years. Vijayaratnam took home an astonishing $396,556 for his efforts.

    Main Event Final Table Results

    PlacePlayerPrize
    1 Senthuran Vijayaratnam$396,556
    2 Robin Berger$264,283
    3 Graham Lupton$188,206
    4 Alen Bakovich$135,855
    5 Weston Pring$99,420
    6 Rishi Makkar$73,776
    7 Jiajie Sheng$55,524
    8 David Quang$42,390
    9 Nizar Tajdin$32,835

  • Robin Bergren Eliminated in 2nd Place ($264,283)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:33 (200,000/400,000/400,000)
    Entries:1/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:7:07 PM
    Robin Bergren

    Action was caught after the flop of 10♠7♦4♠, and Robin Bergren moved all in for 6,200,000. Senthuran Vijayaratnam called, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Robin Bergren: 9♦8♠
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: Q♦10♥

    The board ran out A♠2♥, for Bergren to hit the rail.

  • Vijayaratnam Gains a Commanding Lead

    Alek Gillies
    Level:33 (200,000/400,000/400,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:6:31 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 4♠2♦J♣6♣A♠, and Robin Bergren checked to Senthuran Vijayaratnam.

    He fired for 6,500,000 into the 10,000,000 pot. Bergren found the call, and revealed Q♠J♠. Senthuran Vijayaratnam had the better kicker with K♥J♥.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 45,000,000
    Robin Bergren: 7,800,000

  • Vijayaratnam Battles Back

    Alek Gillies
    Level:33 (200,000/400,000/400,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:5:54 PM

    Action was caught after the board ran out 7♥3♦2♥4♥A♥, and Robin Bergren was quick to check.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam fired for 4,200,000, and was rewarded with the pot.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 27,000,000
    Robin Bergren: 25,400,000

  • Bergren Running Away With It

    Alek Gillies
    Level:32 (150,000/300,000/300,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:5:28 PM

    Action was caught after the turn came the Q♥Q♦8♣A♣, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam fired for 750,000. Robin Bergren made the call.

    The river came the 7♠, and both players checked their option. Bergren revealed Q♠3♥ to take the pot.

    Robin Bergren: 33,000,000
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 19,000,000

  • Heads-Up Photos

    Alek Gillies
    Robin Bergren Heads Up
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam Heads Up
    WSOPC Main Event Ring

  • Graham Lupton Eliminated in 3rd Place ($188,206)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:31 (150,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:2/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:4:33 PM
    Graham Lupton

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam opened to 1,500,000, and Graham Lupton moved all in for 4,450,000. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Graham Lupton: A♥Q♥
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: Q♠J♠

    The board ran out 8♣Q♣4♥J♦7♠ for Lupton to be sent home.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 29,500,000
    Robin Bergren: 22,000,000

  • Alen Bakovic Eliminated in 4th Place ($135,855)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:31 (150,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:3/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:4:24 PM
    Alen Bakovic

    Alen Bakovic moved all in for 1,050,000, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam made the call.

    Alen Bakovic: 10♣10♦
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: K♥2♦

    The board ran out 2♣2♥9♠7♦Q♦ for Bakovic to hit the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 24,200,000

  • Weston Pring Eliminated in 5th Place ($99,420)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:31 (150,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:4/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:4:13 PM
    Weston Pring

    After the flop of Q♣2♦5♣, Weston Pring checked to Senthuran Vijayaratnam. He moved all in, and Weston called his remaining 1,700,000. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Weston Pring: Q♥8♥
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: K♣J♣

    The board completed with the K♥10♠ to send Pring to the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 25,500,000

  • Rishi Makkar Eliminated in 6th Place ($73,776)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:30 (100,000/200,000/200,000)
    Entries:5/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:3:26 PM
    Rishi Makkar

    Rishi Makkar moved all in for 2,000,000, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Rishi Makkar: A♥Q♦
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 9♣9♠

    The board ran out 7♠3♣4♣7♥5♥ for Makkar to hit the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 19,650,000

  • Jiajie Sheng Eliminated in 7th Place ($55,524)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:30 (100,000/200,000/200,000)
    Entries:6/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:2:54 PM
    Jiajie Sheng Main Event

    Jiajie Sheng moved all in for 1,150,000 from the button, and Alen Bakovic made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Jiajie Sheng: Q♣3♣
    Alen Bakovic: K♥6♥

    The board ran out 4♠5♠J♠9♠8♥ to send Sheng to the rail.

    Alen Bakovic: 7,900,000

  • Updated Stacks

    Alek Gillies
    PlayerChip Count
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam17,350,000
    Weston Pring11,800,000
    Robin Bergren8,250,000
    Jiajie Sheng5,000,000
    Graham Lupton4,200,000
    Alen Bakovic3,400,000
    Rishi Makkar2,000,000

  • David Quang Eliminated in 8th Place ($42,390)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/150,000/150,000)
    Entries:7/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:2:04 PM
    David Quang

    Late position opened to 350,000, and David Quang moved all in for 2,475,000. Weston Pring moved all in for 6,000,000, and the remaining players made the fold.

    David Quang: 6♦6♣
    Weston Pring: A♦K♥

    The board ran out Q♥2♣A♥A♣3♣ for Pring to take the pot.

    Weston Pring: 9,100,000

  • Nizar Tajdin Eliminated in 9th Place ($32,835)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/150,000/150,000)
    Entries:8/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:1:49 PM
    Nizar Tajdin

    Nizar Tajdin moved all in for 1,225,000, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Nizar Tajdin: Q♣J♥
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 9♠9♥

    The board ran out 3♣7♠5♠2♦10♣ for Tajdin to hit the rail.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 16,700,000

  • Stephen Dauphinais Eliminated in 10th Place ($25,812)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/150,000/150,000)
    Entries:9/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:1:38 PM
    Stephen Dauphinais

    Rishi Makkar moved all in for 1,750,000 from middle position. Stephen Dauphinais called for his remaining 1,400,000 from late position. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Stephen Dauphinais: A♥K♦
    Rishi Makkar: 7♠7♦

    The board ran out 3♥Q♦4♠8♥6♥ for Makkar to take the pot.

    Rishi Makkar: 3,300,000

  • Final Table Faces

    Alek Gillies
    Rishi Makkar
    Robin Bergren
    Nizar Tajdin
    Jiajie Sheng Main Event
    Stephen Dauphinais
    Alen Bakovic
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam
    David Quang
    Graham Lupton
    Weston Pring

  • Sami Al-Serri Eliminated in 11th Place ($25,812)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:29 (100,000/250,000/250,000)
    Entries:10/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:1:15 PM
    Sami Al-Serri

    Sami Al-Serri moved all in for 630,000 from under the gun. Senthuran Vijayaratnam called, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Sami Al-Serri: 9♠7♠
    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: A♥J♠

    The board ran out 5♥J♥Q♦7♥2♠, for Vijayaratnam to take the pot.

  • Juan Lamprea Eliminated in 12th Place ($20,597)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:11/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:55 PM
    Juan Lamprea

    Action was caught after the flop of 7♥4♠9♣, and Juan Lamprea checked to Robin Bergren. He fired for 200,000, and Lamprea raised to 700,000. Bergren re-raised to 1,700,000, and Lamrpea moved all in for 3,350,000. Bergren snap called, and both players revealed their holdings.

    Juan Lamprea: A♥9♦
    Robin Bergren: 4♠4♣

    The board ran out 6♦Q♥ to send Lamprea home.

    Robin Bergren: 10,850,000

  • Lupton Finds Top Top

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:12/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:39 PM

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam opened to 250,000, and Graham Lupton defended his big blind.

    The flop came 7♥9♠3♥, and Lupton was quick to check. Vijayaratnam fired for 225,000, and Lupton check-raised to 700,000. He was rewarded with the pot.

    Senthuran Vijayaratnam: 7,500,000
    Graham Lupton: 3,120,000

  • Aleksei Ponomarev Eliminated in 13th Place ($20,597)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:12/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:17 PM
    Aleksei Ponomarev

    Aleksei Ponomarev moved all in for 2,650,000, and Weston Pring made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Aleksei Ponomarev: J♣J♦
    Weston Pring: K♠K♣

    The board ran out 4♦5♦2♠A♣Q♠ for Ponomarev to hit the rail.

    Weston Pring: 6,450,000

  • Xiao Hu Eliminated in 14th Place ($16,686)

    Alek Gillies
    Level:28 (60,000/120,000/120,000)
    Entries:13/1,321
    Prizes:$2,575,796
    Local Time:12:08 PM
    Xiao Hu

    Xiao Hu moved all in for 700,000, and Weston Pring made the call. Both players revealed their holdings.

    Xiao Hu: A♦5♣
    Weston Pring: A♠10♠

    The board ran out Q♥8♦6♠K♦2♣ for Pring to take the pot.

    Weston Pring: 3,220,000

  • Vijayaratnam Leads 14 Day 3 Stacks

    Alek Gillies

    Event #12: $2,200 NLH Main Event Day 3

    Date:Jan 19, Noon
    Blinds:60 Minutes
    Entries:14/1321
    Prizes (1st Place):$2,589,160 ($396,556)

    There are 14 players still alive in this record Main Event, and Senthuran Vijayaratnam is leading the way with almost 10 million. The next closest player is Robin Bergren, with 7.4 million. Jiajie Sheng, Alen Bakovic, and Juan Lamprea round out the top five counts.

    The Day 3 action gets going at noon, and they’ll play to a winner on Monday. Blinds remain at 60 minutes for the rest of the game. There is nearly $400k up top for the winner on Monday, so there is a lot to play for, but everyone returning for Day 3 is guaranteed at least $16,686, with an immediate pay jump to $20,597 after the first player busts on Monday.

    See below for the returning stacks, sorted by table & seat, as well as by name underneath.

    Day 3 Stacks, Sorted by Table & Seat (T-S)

    T-SPlayerChips
    28 – 1Aleksei Ponomarev2,860,000
    28 – 2Xiao Yu Hu701,000
    28 – 4Jiajie Sheng6,885,000
    28 – 5David Quang2,265,000
    28 – 6Robin Bergren7,400,000
    28 – 7Weston Pring2,450,000
    28 – 8Juan Lamprea4,000,000
    29 – 1Senthuran Vijayaratnam9,610,000
    29 – 3Stephen Dauphinais3,325,000
    29 – 5Rishi Makkar2,210,000
    29 – 6Alen Bakovic4,525,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri2,250,000
    29 – 8Graham Lupton1,925,000
    29 – 9Nizar Tajdin2,390,000

    Day 3 Stacks, Sorted by Name

    T-SPlayerChips
    28 – 1Aleksei Ponomarev2,860,000
    29 – 6Alen Bakovic4,525,000
    28 – 5David Quang2,265,000
    29 – 8Graham Lupton1,925,000
    28 – 4Jiajie Sheng6,885,000
    28 – 8Juan Lamprea4,000,000
    29 – 9Nizar Tajdin2,390,000
    29 – 5Rishi Makkar2,210,000
    28 – 6Robin Bergren7,400,000
    29 – 7Sami Al-Serri2,250,000
    29 – 1Senthuran Vijayaratnam9,610,000
    29 – 3Stephen Dauphinais3,325,000
    28 – 7Weston Pring2,450,000
    28 – 2Xiao Yu Hu701,000

    Remaining Payouts for Day 3 Players

    PlacePrize
    1$396,556
    2$264,283
    3$188,206
    4$135,855
    5$99,420
    6$73,776
    7$55,524
    8$42,390
    9$32,835
    10$25,812
    11$25,812
    12$20,597
    13$20,597
    14$16,686
2025 WSOP Circuit Calgary Anne Ngo and rail
No Caption
Manish “Bubs” Ralh shows off the WSOP-C bling after winning the Main
WSOP Calgary 2024 Ed Seagris
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WSOP Circuit Calgary 2025 Deerfoot Casino
Deerfoot Casino
WSOPC Calgary 2024 KKPoker Hat
No Caption
2025 WSOP Circuit Calgary Anne Ngo and rail
WSOP Calgary 2024 Ed Seagris
WSOP Circuit Calgary 2025 Deerfoot Casino
WSOPC Calgary 2024 KKPoker Hat
PlacePlayerPrize
1 Senthuran Vijayaratnam$396,556
2 Robin Berger$264,283
3 Graham Lupton$188,206
4 Alen Bakovich$135,855
5 Weston Pring$99,420
6 Rishi Makkar$73,776
7 Jiajie Sheng$55,524
8 David Quang$42,390
9 Nizar Tajdin$32,835
10 Stephen Dauphinais$25,812
11 Sami Al-Serri$25,812
12 Juan Lamprea$20,597
13 Aleksei Ponomarev$20,597
14 Xiao Hu$16,686
15 Chris Potter$16,686
16 Anthony Smith$16,686
17 Rahul Sharma$16,686
18 Adam Balog$13,728
19 Calvin Chow$13,728
20 Shane Patacsil$13,728
21 Paul Waring$13,728
22 Pav Braich$13,728
23 Brett Worton$13,728
24 Trent Hopper$13,728
25 Dallas Larson$13,728
26 Christopher Bailey$13,728
27 Vincent Lam$11,473
28 Maksim Kniter$11,473
29 Parth Mansukh$11,473
30 Sheraz Nazir$11,473
31 Michael Li$11,473
32 Giuseppe Galluzzo$11,473
33 Ashkan Razavi$11,473
34 Vo Nguyen$11,473
35 Chen Chen$11,473
36 Antonio Ma$9,741
37 Ryan Andrade$9,741
38 Joel Kogan$9,741
39 John Hewgill$9,741
40 Claude Gaudet$9,741
41 David Anderson$9,741
42 Oleksii Mezhenkov$9,741
43 Ruoxiao Shi$9,741
44 Dustin Melanson$9,741
45 Wille Scott$8,406
46 Rene Schmidt$8,406
47 Michael Hooper$8,406
48 Nicholas Mcewen$8,406
49 Chaudhary Faisal$8,406
50 Cody Cloutier$8,406
51 Tam Ho$8,406
52 Hien Vo$8,406
53 Clayton Mozdzen$8,406
54 George Caragiorgas$7,374
55 Dylan Boyer$7,374
56 Krys Edd Alipio$7,374
57 Tony Le$7,374
58 William Doherty$7,374
59 Amichai Barer$7,374
60 Angelo Jopek$7,374
61 Garett Maybery$7,374
62 Dylan Payne$7,374
63 Kayvan Payman$6,577
64 Lucas Dantas$6,577
65 Arya Ghai$6,577
66 Steve Lukic$6,577
67 Carter Mccauley$6,577
68 Jeffrey Reardon$6,577
69 Charles Shapiro$6,577
70 Richard Bewski$6,577
71 Mal Hagan$6,577
72 Joshua W Hopkins$5,967
73 Ihor Popyk$5,967
74 Patrick Tardif$5,967
75 Deven Lane$5,967
76 Youssef Hmama$5,967
77 Adrian Gouveia$5,967
78 Mehmet Siginc$5,967
79 Bradley Davidson$5,967
80 Zhun Chen$5,967
81 Omid Mojaverian$5,508
82 Marc Lavergne$5,508
83 Kyle Ho$5,508
84 Clayton Gaudry$5,508
85 Jolnar Teliani$5,508
86 Seseung Oh$5,508
87 Edward Sorensen$5,508
88 Jacob Anderson$5,508
89 Zhixiang Li$5,508
90 Daniel A Wojcik$5,175
91 Michael Khan$5,175
92 Cliff Green$5,175
93 John Macarthur$5,175
94 Norman Shapiro$5,175
95 Scott Carragher$5,175
96 Luteng Li$5,175
97 Ryan Simmonds$5,175
98 Van Quoc Vo$5,175
99 Tyler Panas$4,949
100 Jonathan Newman$4,949
101 Gordon Wong$4,949
102 Christopher Alcindor$4,949
103 Seong Hoon Choi$4,949
104 Hugo Soares$4,949
105 Adrian Baran$4,949
106 Kyle Chang$4,949
107 Pamela Macnaughton$4,949
108 Vivek Sharma$4,949
109 Jatinder Brar$4,949
110 Gennady Klimenko$4,949
111 Alexander Bylicki$4,949
112 Osbert Liu$4,949
113 Christopher Klementis$4,949
114 Wing Yeung$4,949
115 Keera Lee Grabbe$4,949
116 Anthony Hughes$4,949
117 Dj Sharma$4,713
118 Zhiyu Chen$4,713
119 Ryan Smith$4,713
120 Ankhbayar Bayar$4,713
121 Aaron Lam$4,713
122 Drew Buchner$4,713
123 Kris Steinbach$4,713
124 Andy Truong$4,713
125 Kwong Lam$4,713
126 Lanze Chevillard$4,713
127 Daniel Stetski$4,713
128 Callum Roque$4,713
129 Travis Macmillan$4,713
130 Toan Tran$4,713
131 Fredrick Mowatt$4,713
132 Paul Jeyaraj$4,713
133 Aaron Duczak$4,713
134 Ari Benarroch$4,713
135 Mathew Maddalo$4,713
136 Elizabeth Boles$4,713
137 Donald Cowie$4,713
138 Joshua James$4,713
139 Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram$4,713
140 Yong Yuan Lu$4,713
141 Anthony Williams$4,713
142 Dawson Chen$4,713
143 Eun Park$4,713
144 Malcolm Bolger$4,713
145 Eric Wallace$4,713
146 Michael Baldwin$4,713
147 Reginaid Lepine$4,713
148 Mishel Nguyen$4,713
149 Aaron Lam$4,713
150 Perry Rouzes$4,713
151 Raymond Lamy$4,713
152 Curtis Singleton$4,713
153 Richard Gilliard$4,713
154 Aaron La$4,713
155 Randy Audette$4,713
156 Tyler Fish$4,713
157 Hassan Issa$4,713
158 Tommy Nguyen$4,713
159 Nickolaos Simeonidis$4,713
160 Fenghua Cai$4,713
161 Nu Teliani$4,713
162 Romualdo Cusano$4,713
163 Joseph Charlebois$4,713
164 Regan Duong$4,713
165 Michael Leah$4,713
166 Dennis Beebe$4,713
167 Joe Basaraba$4,713
168 Craigcaldwell$4,713
169 Derek Dufour$4,713
170 Ta-Yu Shih$4,713
171 Mehdi Saeed$4,713
172 Chase Bonertz$4,713
173 Gilbert Charles$4,713
174 Roger Grosset$4,713
175 Thi Ngo$4,713
176 Ryan Jensen$4,713
177 Afshin Majidi$4,713
178 Fat Cheong Wong$4,713
179 Ze Yu Li$4,713
180 Varanpreet Sidhu$4,713
181 Gaetano Buda$4,470
182 Trent Sapach$4,470
183 Samuel Chartier$4,447
184 Shariq Khan$4,447
185 Darlene Lee$4,447
186 Alex Liu$4,447
187 Griffin Ristevski$4,447
188 Vincent Tringle-Thibault$4,447
189 Michael Farrow$4,439
190 Shane Gormley$4,439
191 Jimmy Lee$4,439
192 Steven Parkin$4,439
193 Cody Richardson$4,439
194 Haven Dionne Taylor$4,439
195 Van Nghi Tran$4,439
196 Raymond Trieu$4,439
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