2026 WSOPC Calgary Jan – Event #16: $500 NLH Freezout

It was a bit of a roller-coaster as they got to the end of the table, with three-handed play taking around an hour before Josh Hopkins hit the rail for 3rd. Mehdi Saeed, a steamer from Toronto who Twitches under the name “GitandSos”, was the leader for most of three-way play, but by the time they got heads up, Romualdo Cusano had taken the lead.

That started with a huge hand where he needed to get there to survive, and he did it in a massive way. Just before Hopkins hit the rail in 3rd, Saeed, who had been shoving most hands with the big stack, handcuffing the other players, shoved again. Cusano decided it was time to call, but he was up against it with queen-seven, while Saeed looked good initially with ace-eight of spades.

That all changed in a big way when the flop came queen-seven-seven to give Cusano the flopped full house, leaving Saeed drawing very thin. He was dead on the turn, and Cusano doubled. Once they got heads up, Cusano had a big lead with about 8 million to 2.5 million for Saeed.

A few hands later, they both found an ace, with Cusano out-pipping Saeed with ace-nine over ace-eight. While there were choportunities between the hands, the board ran clean for the nine to play, and Cusano had the ring.

This looks to be Cusano’s first live win, and therefore his first ring as well. He had just shy of $50k USD in earnings going into this series, so the $37k and change he won tonight should increase that total by 50% or so, once the exchange is factored in.

Aaron Warwyk was one of the short stacks at the last break, and he followed Abbas Moradi to the cage. I missed the action while I was writing the previous bust.

Abbas Moradi was the short stack coming back from the break, with just 375k. That went in when he woke up with a pair of sevens after Richard Berenbaum raised it up early to 125k.

Berenbaum called for a race with ace-king. The 8♥2♠J♦10♥A♣ board looked good for Moradi until the ace on the river sunk him for 9th place.

The final table is now set with 9 players remaining in the Freezeout. Josh Hopkins is leading the way right now with 2.2 million, and Kayvan Payman is playing almost 1.6 million.

Place	Player	Prize
10	Anthony Williams	$2,101
11	Mitchell Janes	$2,101
12	Sukhbinder Singh	$1,730

The Freezeout game is nearing the final table, with 12 players left now. Level 24 is just beginning, and it looks like they’ll find a final table sometime in this level.

Place	Player	Prize
13	Benny Sarnelli	$1,730
14	Jamie Lam	$1,465
15	Zhixiang Li	$1,465
16	Glenn Slater	$1,465
17	James Thorson	$1,465
18	Albert Hahn	$1,276
19	Ratharam Sivagnanam	$1,276
20	Kip Howard	$1,276

They are down to 20 left in the Freezeout now, with Level 22 just underway. There are three more payouts at $1,276 before the prizes jump to $1,465 for 17th place.

Place	Player	Prize
21	Bogdan Szafranowicz	$1,276
22	Alexander Mcnichol	$1,276
23	Kevin Hendricks	$1,276
24	Andrew Goosen	$1,276
25	Cody Mckay	$1,276
26	Garry Chan	$1,276
27	Tsz Hin Fung	$1,144

The final three tables have now moved to the Chrome room to finish out the night. Level 20 is nearly complete, with action moving to 15k/25k/25k shortly.

Place	Player	Prize
28	Chris Hak	$1,144
29	Craig Caldwell	$1,144
30	Jen Peters	$1,144

The Freezeout field is down to 30 left, with the action slowing a bit since they hit four tables. Anthony Williams has more than 700k for the chip lead right now, while Mini Main Event winner Benny Sarnelli is playing more than 500k right now.

Place	Player	Prize
31	Dennis Murphy	$1,144
32	Cherry Torrico	$1,144
33	Hassan Jassal	$1,144
34	Xing He	$1,144
35	Aaron Ryan	$1,144
36	Anthony Casten	$1,057

The Freezeout game is playing pretty quickly so far, with the field already down to the final four tables.

Place	Player	Prize
37	Mark Byczkiw	$1,057
38	Philip Dobrikin	$1,057
39	Matthew Osorio	$1,057
40	Mathiraj Sabanathan	$1,057
41	Lisa Hood	$1,057
42	Jordan Johnstone	$1,057
43	Romica Mihailov	$1,057
44	Arvhin Malinab	$1,057
45	Dj Sharma	$1,007
46	Sreenath Cheruku	$1,007
47	Vincent Tringle-Thibault	$1,007
48	Ryan Marra	$1,007
49	Zeyu Du	$1,007
50	Scot Munro	$1,007
51	Michael Phovixayboulom	$1,007

The Freezeout game is down to 51 players left at the end of Level 16, and the players are on a short break. The first batch of cashers is below (as always, the full list will be under the Payouts tab).

I’ve been tidying up some of the total numbers for this series, and I can officially announce that this Jan 2026 WSOP-C is already the biggest series ever in Alberta, even without counting the High Roller or tomorrow’s Double Stack Closer. I thought it would be the High Roller that pushed it over the top, but with that game still registering, the Freezeout prize pool was enough to cap the Jan 2024 previous record.

So far, it’s just barely over the record value, with about $30k extra right now, but with two more prize pools to add, the final number will be well over $6 million. With entries still open, the High Roller is already at more than $500k, while the current series total is about $165k away from $6 million. Between the High Roller and the closer, it looks like this series could near $6.5 million by the time the dust settles.

Freezeout Prizes So Far

Place	Player	Prize
52	Donald Cowie	$1,007
53	Melissa Lagana	$1,007
54	Hiro Harada	$1,007
55	Hasanain Al Ghunaim	$1,007
56	Donald Franks	$1,007
57	Scott Serwa	$1,007
58	Ran Yi	$1,007
59	Adam Worr	$1,007
60	Trevor Simpson	$1,007
61	Shariq Khan	$1,007
62	Paul Sokoloff	$1,007
63	Fat Cheong Wong	$1,007
64	Robert Zenone	$1,007
65	Devon Morgan	$1,007

The Freezeout game is in the money after just a couple of hands on the bubble. 15 Minutes remain in Level 16, and all remaining players are now guaranteed at least $1,007.

The prizes are in, but I’d been calculating them incorrectly to this point, with the wrong buy-in in my spreadsheet. That has been corrected, and the total prizes for Event #16 came out to just over $180k.

More than $37k is up top for the winner, with 65th place set to get $1,007 for the min-cash, and the first 20 players to bust in the money will pocket that amount. The full prizes are loaded under the payouts tab, with the final table payouts below.

The Freezeout game is 3 off the money now, with 68 players left. Level 15 is nearly complete, so it looks like the bubble play will start sometime in Level 16.

The Freezeout field is down to 80 players now, just 15 off the money spots. Among the players still in the game are Anthony Casten, Kayvan Payman, Craig Caldwell, Garry Chan, Hiro Harada, Hari Aujla, Chris Watson, Benny Sarnelli, Bogdan Szafanowicz, DJ Sharma, Peter Amic, Jen Peters, and Paul Sokoloff.

The freezeout players are back from the dinner break, and they are playing towards the money with 100 players left and 65 getting paid. Level 13 has just begun with blinds at 2k/4k/4k, and it looks like Anthony Williams is the leader right now.

He looks to be one of two players with 300k or more, as Josh Hopkins is also playing more than 300k.

The flop came 9♥5♠7♥, and late position led out for 10,000. Andrew Eastley moved all in for 27,000, and late position went into the tank. Eventually they made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

Late Position: 3♠3♦
Andrew Eastley: A♦A♥

The board completed with the 4♠J♦ for Eastley to take the pot.

Andrew Eastley: 49,800

Action was caught after the flop of 5♦6♠4♣, and the big blind was quick to check. Randall Alwood fired for 600 from the button, and the big blind flicked in the call.

The turn came the 10♦, and the big blind checked to Alwood. He blasted for 2,400, and he was rewarded with the pot.

Randall Alwood: 25,200

$500 NLH Freezout ($420 + $80)

The early game on Sunday is a classic freezeout, meaning players can only buy in once, and once they lose their chips, the game is over for them. The action gets going at 11 AM, and they’ll play to a winner.

Players start with 25k to play 30-minute levels throughout the game. They have 10 levels to buy in, but no rebuys are allowed.

This game may well get lost in the shuffle a bit on Sunday, as Day 2 of the Main Event and Day 1 of the High Roller will be playing out alongside it. This game should be the second priority after the Main Event, and numbers updates will come at least once an hour.

In October, David Katzov went heads up for more than an hour against Xerxes Ng before he finally took down his first ring. The game got 278 entries for prizes of $116,760.

It was a bit of a roller-coaster as they got to the end of the table, with three-handed play taking around an hour before Josh Hopkins hit the rail for 3rd. Mehdi Saeed, a steamer from Toronto who Twitches under the name “GitandSos”, was the leader for most of three-way play, but by the time they got heads up, Romualdo Cusano had taken the lead.

That started with a huge hand where he needed to get there to survive, and he did it in a massive way. Just before Hopkins hit the rail in 3rd, Saeed, who had been shoving most hands with the big stack, handcuffing the other players, shoved again. Cusano decided it was time to call, but he was up against it with queen-seven, while Saeed looked good initially with ace-eight of spades.

That all changed in a big way when the flop came queen-seven-seven to give Cusano the flopped full house, leaving Saeed drawing very thin. He was dead on the turn, and Cusano doubled. Once they got heads up, Cusano had a big lead with about 8 million to 2.5 million for Saeed.

A few hands later, they both found an ace, with Cusano out-pipping Saeed with ace-nine over ace-eight. While there were choportunities between the hands, the board ran clean for the nine to play, and Cusano had the ring.

This looks to be Cusano’s first live win, and therefore his first ring as well. He had just shy of $50k USD in earnings going into this series, so the $37k and change he won tonight should increase that total by 50% or so, once the exchange is factored in.

Aaron Warwyk was one of the short stacks at the last break, and he followed Abbas Moradi to the cage. I missed the action while I was writing the previous bust.

Abbas Moradi was the short stack coming back from the break, with just 375k. That went in when he woke up with a pair of sevens after Richard Berenbaum raised it up early to 125k.

Berenbaum called for a race with ace-king. The 8♥2♠J♦10♥A♣ board looked good for Moradi until the ace on the river sunk him for 9th place.

The final table is now set with 9 players remaining in the Freezeout. Josh Hopkins is leading the way right now with 2.2 million, and Kayvan Payman is playing almost 1.6 million.

Place	Player	Prize
10	Anthony Williams	$2,101
11	Mitchell Janes	$2,101
12	Sukhbinder Singh	$1,730

The Freezeout game is nearing the final table, with 12 players left now. Level 24 is just beginning, and it looks like they’ll find a final table sometime in this level.

Place	Player	Prize
13	Benny Sarnelli	$1,730
14	Jamie Lam	$1,465
15	Zhixiang Li	$1,465
16	Glenn Slater	$1,465
17	James Thorson	$1,465
18	Albert Hahn	$1,276
19	Ratharam Sivagnanam	$1,276
20	Kip Howard	$1,276

They are down to 20 left in the Freezeout now, with Level 22 just underway. There are three more payouts at $1,276 before the prizes jump to $1,465 for 17th place.

Place	Player	Prize
21	Bogdan Szafranowicz	$1,276
22	Alexander Mcnichol	$1,276
23	Kevin Hendricks	$1,276
24	Andrew Goosen	$1,276
25	Cody Mckay	$1,276
26	Garry Chan	$1,276
27	Tsz Hin Fung	$1,144

The final three tables have now moved to the Chrome room to finish out the night. Level 20 is nearly complete, with action moving to 15k/25k/25k shortly.

Place	Player	Prize
28	Chris Hak	$1,144
29	Craig Caldwell	$1,144
30	Jen Peters	$1,144

The Freezeout field is down to 30 left, with the action slowing a bit since they hit four tables. Anthony Williams has more than 700k for the chip lead right now, while Mini Main Event winner Benny Sarnelli is playing more than 500k right now.

Place	Player	Prize
31	Dennis Murphy	$1,144
32	Cherry Torrico	$1,144
33	Hassan Jassal	$1,144
34	Xing He	$1,144
35	Aaron Ryan	$1,144
36	Anthony Casten	$1,057

The Freezeout game is playing pretty quickly so far, with the field already down to the final four tables.

Place	Player	Prize
37	Mark Byczkiw	$1,057
38	Philip Dobrikin	$1,057
39	Matthew Osorio	$1,057
40	Mathiraj Sabanathan	$1,057
41	Lisa Hood	$1,057
42	Jordan Johnstone	$1,057
43	Romica Mihailov	$1,057
44	Arvhin Malinab	$1,057
45	Dj Sharma	$1,007
46	Sreenath Cheruku	$1,007
47	Vincent Tringle-Thibault	$1,007
48	Ryan Marra	$1,007
49	Zeyu Du	$1,007
50	Scot Munro	$1,007
51	Michael Phovixayboulom	$1,007

The Freezeout game is down to 51 players left at the end of Level 16, and the players are on a short break. The first batch of cashers is below (as always, the full list will be under the Payouts tab).

I’ve been tidying up some of the total numbers for this series, and I can officially announce that this Jan 2026 WSOP-C is already the biggest series ever in Alberta, even without counting the High Roller or tomorrow’s Double Stack Closer. I thought it would be the High Roller that pushed it over the top, but with that game still registering, the Freezeout prize pool was enough to cap the Jan 2024 previous record.

So far, it’s just barely over the record value, with about $30k extra right now, but with two more prize pools to add, the final number will be well over $6 million. With entries still open, the High Roller is already at more than $500k, while the current series total is about $165k away from $6 million. Between the High Roller and the closer, it looks like this series could near $6.5 million by the time the dust settles.

Freezeout Prizes So Far

Place	Player	Prize
52	Donald Cowie	$1,007
53	Melissa Lagana	$1,007
54	Hiro Harada	$1,007
55	Hasanain Al Ghunaim	$1,007
56	Donald Franks	$1,007
57	Scott Serwa	$1,007
58	Ran Yi	$1,007
59	Adam Worr	$1,007
60	Trevor Simpson	$1,007
61	Shariq Khan	$1,007
62	Paul Sokoloff	$1,007
63	Fat Cheong Wong	$1,007
64	Robert Zenone	$1,007
65	Devon Morgan	$1,007

The Freezeout game is in the money after just a couple of hands on the bubble. 15 Minutes remain in Level 16, and all remaining players are now guaranteed at least $1,007.

The prizes are in, but I’d been calculating them incorrectly to this point, with the wrong buy-in in my spreadsheet. That has been corrected, and the total prizes for Event #16 came out to just over $180k.

More than $37k is up top for the winner, with 65th place set to get $1,007 for the min-cash, and the first 20 players to bust in the money will pocket that amount. The full prizes are loaded under the payouts tab, with the final table payouts below.

The Freezeout game is 3 off the money now, with 68 players left. Level 15 is nearly complete, so it looks like the bubble play will start sometime in Level 16.

The Freezeout field is down to 80 players now, just 15 off the money spots. Among the players still in the game are Anthony Casten, Kayvan Payman, Craig Caldwell, Garry Chan, Hiro Harada, Hari Aujla, Chris Watson, Benny Sarnelli, Bogdan Szafanowicz, DJ Sharma, Peter Amic, Jen Peters, and Paul Sokoloff.

The freezeout players are back from the dinner break, and they are playing towards the money with 100 players left and 65 getting paid. Level 13 has just begun with blinds at 2k/4k/4k, and it looks like Anthony Williams is the leader right now.

He looks to be one of two players with 300k or more, as Josh Hopkins is also playing more than 300k.

The flop came 9♥5♠7♥, and late position led out for 10,000. Andrew Eastley moved all in for 27,000, and late position went into the tank. Eventually they made the call, and both players revealed their holdings.

Late Position: 3♠3♦
Andrew Eastley: A♦A♥

The board completed with the 4♠J♦ for Eastley to take the pot.

Andrew Eastley: 49,800

Action was caught after the flop of 5♦6♠4♣, and the big blind was quick to check. Randall Alwood fired for 600 from the button, and the big blind flicked in the call.

The turn came the 10♦, and the big blind checked to Alwood. He blasted for 2,400, and he was rewarded with the pot.

Randall Alwood: 25,200

$500 NLH Freezout ($420 + $80)

The early game on Sunday is a classic freezeout, meaning players can only buy in once, and once they lose their chips, the game is over for them. The action gets going at 11 AM, and they’ll play to a winner.

Players start with 25k to play 30-minute levels throughout the game. They have 10 levels to buy in, but no rebuys are allowed.

This game may well get lost in the shuffle a bit on Sunday, as Day 2 of the Main Event and Day 1 of the High Roller will be playing out alongside it. This game should be the second priority after the Main Event, and numbers updates will come at least once an hour.

In October, David Katzov went heads up for more than an hour against Xerxes Ng before he finally took down his first ring. The game got 278 entries for prizes of $116,760.