Nicholas Lee has had good success at WSOP-C Calgary over the years, but it’s typically in the middle of winter. He won his first ring here in January 2023, and he followed that up with #2 a year later in Jan 2024. His 3rd ring came in this year’s January series, and it looked a bit like January was just Lee’s month.
Now he can add ring #4, won in the fall. It’s also the first time he’s won two in one year, along with his first ring outside of January. He was dominant through much of the final table play tonight, holding the big stack most of the way.
He had a lot of competition from Dylan Ellis (3rd, $35,086) and Kezheng Peng (2nd, $50,104), with him and Ellis very close for a while during three-way play, and actually being down to Peng during heads-up.
He played his trademark patient, calculating game, waiting for the right spots. Peng was a bit of a wildcard during the endgame of the tournament, with a relatively rowdy rail and a boisterous, fun demeanor at the table. For much of the endgame, he and his rail were grunting after every pot won, playing “chimpanzee poker” as they called.
“Toronto Street Poker” was another term bandied about by the Chinese transplant’s rail, which included Kevin Huang, who finished 41st in the game, and who Peng told me he’d swapped with for this series. Peng was railing Huang last night at the Mystery Bounty final table (Huang took 6th for $4,243 in that one), and once he busted, Huang returned the favour for this one, no doubt with an eye on watching his swap grow as Peng laddered through the field.
Lee managed the boisterous rail well and had his own, more sedate rail. Zeyu “Skytrain” Huang was among the players at Lee’s side during the battle and joined him for the winner’s photo.
Lee had to come back from behind to take this one down, however. Peng got the lead shortly after he sent Dylan Ellis to the rail, largely on the back of aggressive play that forced Lee off hands.
Lee picked his spots and pulled some back when he hit a gutshot to the low end of an 8-high straight on the turn, and got two streets of value from Peng for more than 3.5 million added to his stack. Shortly after, he was up to a 3:1 lead, and that led to the final confrontation when Lee limped, then called a raise to 2.1 million, with blinds at 300k/600k/600k.
The money went in for the last time on the two-heart three-four-five flop, and it was a heads-up cooler. Peng flopped the wheel with ace-deuce, including the deuce of hearts, while Lee flopped the heart draw and a gutshot to the 8-high straight with 8♥7♥. The jack og hearts on the river gave Lee the flush and left Peng drawing dead to the 10♥ river.
Lee had just shy of $520k in earnings coming into this one, and once the exchange is worked out, this will likely put him up to about $560k.
Top Ten Results from Mini Main Event
See the Payouts tab for a look at the full prize list from Day 2.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Nicholas Lee | $75,190 |
| 2 |  Kezheng Peng | $50,104 |
| 3 | Dylan Ellis | $35,086 |
| 4 | Pascal Gregoire | $25,015 |
| 5 | Reza Aminabadi | $18,165 |
| 6 | Jacob Parent | $13,439 |
| 7 | Faramarz Ghorbani | $10,134 |
| 8 | Paolo Tana | $7,791 |
| 9 | Gordon Wong | $6,109 |
| 10 |  Russell Watson | $4,888 |
