With four events finishing over the weekend at the 2026 Spring Super Stack at Deerfoot Inn & Casino in Calgary, the series is now at the midway point. So far, the series has awarded nearly $300k in prizes, with almost 1,100 entries across the 8 events so far in the books.
The big game over the weekend was the conclusion of Event #3, the first multi-flight game of the series. Three starting flights through Saturday drew a crowd of 442 entries, and 44 players returned for action on Sunday’s Day 2 to compete for $125,970 in prizes.
Three other games were completed on the weekend as well. Saturday night saw a huge team game that drew 131 entries for a format that saw team members play their own stacks through the entry period, and combine after entries closed. That led to 39 teams building a prize pool of more than $19k, one of the biggest team events ever at a Super Stack event.
Sunday saw two games running alongside Day 2 of Event #3. The 1Day Deepstack kicked off at 2 PM Sunday, drawing 101 entries for prizes of $28,875, while the NLH/PLO Mix drew a crowd of just under 50 entries for prizes of $18,620.
Todd Oakley Takes Down the First Multi-Day Game
Event #3: $340 Deepstack ($300 + $40)
- Entries: 442
- Prizes: $125,970
- Winner: Todd Oakley ($20,725 after deal)
The biggest game of the series so far finished on Sunday. After three starting flights that drew 442 entries combined, 44 players returned for Day 2 on Sunday, competing for almost $126k in prizes.
Todd Oakley started the final day with a relatively modest stack of 165k, around 20 bigs to start the day, with chip leader Hasanain Al Ghunaim bagging around 5x that stack with 733k. That didn’t slow Oakley down, however, as he built up his stack through the day.
Ramaz Haymour was rocking the big stack for much of the final table, but as the field got shorter, the variance caught up to him, ending his run in 3rd place. In one spot, Haymour was forced to fold a huge pot against Oakley when he faced a pot bet on the river. That started Oakley’s ascent to the top of the podium, and he was largely unstoppable from there.
Haymour eventually hit the rail for 3rd place, but not before the final three players cut a deal that guaranteed everyone $17k, with $3,725 left over to play for. Oakley was then heads up with Phillip Clingo, who got a chunk of his chips after a big hand against one of the start-of-day leaders, Regan Duong.
The final hand was a bit of a heads-up cooler. Oakley shoved the button, and Clingo called off his stack for a race between his ace-queen and pocket sixes for Oakley. Oakley found a set on the flop, and that was all he needed to take down the win.
Final Table Results for Event #3
Full prizes listed under the payouts tab on the Live Reporting page.
| 1 |  Todd Oakley | $20,725* |
| 2 | Phillip Clingo | $17,000* |
| 3 | Ram Haymour | $17,000* |
| 4 | Adam Balog | $8,566 |
| 5 | Regan Duong | $6,676 |
| 6 | Brian Fleming | $5,291 |
| 7 | Karim Ali Chatur | $4,031 |
| 8 | Colby Macdonald | $2,897 |
| 9 | Kyle James | $2,141 |
| 10 | Matthew Robertson | $1,890 |
Alisasis/Edwards Take Down the Team Game
Event #6: $180 Team ($155 + $25)
- Entries: 131
- Prizes: $19,290
- Winner: Dane Alisasis/Gerry Edwards ($4,389 after Chop)
It was among the biggest Team events ever for a Super Stack series here at Deerfoot. The modified format saw all players playing their own stacks during the entry period, with teams combining stacks after entries closed.
By the time entries closed, there were 131 individual entries representing 39 teams, with prizes of more than $19k. The early part of the night went pretty quickly, with the final table starting a bit less than 8 hours after the first hands. They then played another 3 hours on the final table to decide the winner, with the final hand playing out at about 4:45 AM.
Kelly Gall & Maru Somers were chip leaders through much of the early part of the game, but as they got to the final table, the eventual winners, Dane Alisasis & Gerry Edwards, started stacking the biggest. Gall/Somers eventually took 5th place, with Mike Boyes & Brent Taylor coming fourth.
Another team worth a quick mention was Noah & Mike Capannelli. Noah was playing with his father this time around, but when he was here last year, he and his girlfriend, Gianna Taylor, took down the Summer version of this game.
The team of Suzie Markoff & Fred Balic took 3rd place in this one, after a bit of a crazy hand where runners-up Ed Gaetz & Craig Golemblaski sent the ladies home with “live cards”.
That set up heads up between Alisasis/Edwards & Ed Gaetz & Craig Golemblaski. They played a couple of hands heads up before they decided to chop up the prizes, as it was getting quite late. Both teams took $4,389, and Alisasis/Edwards took the win with the biggest stack at the time of the deal.
Final Results for Team Game
| Place | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gerry Edwards & Dane Alisasis | $4,389* |
| 2 | Ed Gaetz & Craig Golemblaski | $4,389* |
| 3 | Suzie Markoff & Fred Balic | $2,508 |
| 4 | Mike Boyes & Brent Taylor | $1,929 |
| 5 | Kelly Galll & Maru Somers | $1,350 |
| 6 | Mike & Noah Capannelli | $694 |
| 7 | Colby & Tim Macdonald | $772 |
| 8 | Susan Webb & Maria Savulescu | $675 |
| 9 | Kelly Wist & Wendy Wilson | $598 |
| 10 | Ellen Brezina & Eddie Guilbault | $521 |
| 11 | Wouter D’Ailly & Teddy Hudson | $463 |
| 12 | Alison & John Senycz | $386 |
| 13 | Michael Wilder & Brandon Chow | $347 |
Ryan Soptak & Josh Bennett Chop the 1Day Deepstack
Event #7: $340 1Day Deepstack ($300 + $40)
- Entries: 101
- Prizes: $28,785
- Winner: Ryan Soptak ($6,909 after Chop)
The first Sunday side game was the 1Day Deepstack, a single-day, turbo version of Event #3, which played Day 2 on Sunday. The game drew 101 entries for prizes of almost $29k, and 10 players got a piece of that prize pool.
The game played for about 10 hours, with the final hand dealt just after midnight. Kevin Kemna got his second final table of the series in this one, taking 5th place to add to his fourth-place chop in the Seniors earlier in the series. Lucas Nickles took fourth place in this one, in just his second live tournament ever.
The final three players chatted about a deal and nearly came to an agreement, but Caleb Simmons decided he wanted to play it out. He took 3rd place shortly after, and the final two players, Ryan Soptak and Josh Bennett, agreed to a chop of $6,909 each before they played the final hand. Bennett still had a chance to come back; Soptak was the leader, but just a single double would have put Bennett back in contention.
He got his final chips in with queen-ten, and was facing ace-three suited for a race against Soptak. Soptak flopped a flush draw and rivered the flush to secure the win.
It looks like this is Soptak’s first live score, as I couldn’t find a Hendon Mob page for him. If so, opening your profile with a win is a pretty decent start to a poker career.
Final Results from 1Day Deepstack
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Soptak | $6,909* |
| 2 | Joshua Bennett | $6,909* |
| 3 | Caleb Simmons | $4,318 |
| 4 | Lucas Nickles | $2,878 |
| 5 | Kevin Kemna | $2,015 |
| 6 | David Ballantine | $1,439 |
| 7 | Anthony Casten | $1,295 |
| 8 | Andy Truong | $1,151 |
| 9 | Graeme Wright | $1,007 |
| 10 | Jeffrey Lamarche | $864 |
Teo Sanchez Takes Another Half & Half Game
Event #8: $450 NLH/PLO ($400 + $50)
- Entries: 49
- Prizes: $18,620
- Winner: Teo Sanchez ($6,703)
There are a few people in the community who seem to excel at the Half & Half game, and Teo Sanchez is certainly on that list. He came through with another dominating performance this time around to repeat his Spring win from last year in this event. Sanchez also just missed out on this title in the Summer series, falling in second to one of the other Half & Half crushers, Julius Roque.
Sanchez put on another dominating performance in this one, taking out all the players in the money. He was the big stack pretty much anytime I looked, and he was both dialed in and running hot.
After dispatching Michael Baldwin (5th, $1,490), Johnny Dalphond (4th, $2,234), and Michael Griffin (3rd, $3,352), he got heads up against Langley, BC’s Mal Hagan. Despite coming into heads up with a big deficit, Hagan made a strong showing, getting a double to come close to even.
He was card dead in the final NLH round, however, and chipped back down again. The final hand came in PLO, with Hagan on aces with a suit against ace-jack-eight-six for Sanchez.
Sanchez flopped the straight, leaving Hagan drawing very thin, and he was dead on the turn. This was Sanchez’s second live win, with his first win being this same event last Spring. The win will push his career earnings over $75k.
Final Results for NLH/PLO Mix
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teo Sanchez | $6,703 |
| 2 | Malachi Hagen | $4,841 |
| 3 | Michael Griffin | $3,352 |
| 4 | John Dalphond | $2,234 |
| 5 | Michael Baldwin | $1,490 |
