As 2025 draws to a close, it was a pivotal year for the Deerfoot Inn & Casino. Firmly established as Western Canada’s mecca of poker, Deerfoot Inn & Casino regularly hosts some of the biggest tournaments in Canada, with clear market dominance in the local Alberta scene.
Among the biggest stories of the year from Calgary’s top poker spot were big performances from locals Alex Liu & Shane Chief, a dominating Ladies performance from Jenelle Exner, and record fields and sizes throughout the year. The big game in town, the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOP-C), comes to Cowtown twice a year to take over the huge Sundance ballroom at Deerfoot with massive numbers and a brand new October date for the second 2025 series.
Below, I will take a look at five of the biggest stories of the year from the casino with the huge horse outside (with an honourable mention):
- 6. Exner Bags 3rd Ladies
- 5. Super Stack Fields at Record Numbers
- 4. Shane Chief goes Smallest to Biggest in Spring Deepstack
- 3. 2nd Circuit Dates Moved to Oct with Solid Increase to Numbers
- 2. Alex Liu wins Second Main Event Title
- 1. Nearly $13 Million in Deerfoot Prizes in 2025
6. (Honourable Mention): Jenelle Exner Wins 3rd Calgary Ladies Ring
The honourable mention for 2025 has to go to the phenomenal performance of Jenelle Exner in recent ladies events at Deerfoot WSOP-C. In the past four Circuits at Deerfoot, Exner bagged 3 rings and a 3rd place in the fourth game for the most dominating performance of the year on the WSOP-C Ladies side.
After winning both Ladies games in 2024, she had to settle for 3rd place in the January 2025 series. October saw her returning to her winning ways for her 3rd ring over Eun Park, however.
All three of Exner’s career wins are from Calgary Ladies events, and she seems to be something of a Ladies game specialist. Her Hendon Mob shows 10 cashes, with 7 of those coming from Ladies events.
5. Super Stack Events Draw Record Crowds
While the big games at Deerfoot always happen when the WSOP-C comes to town in January & October, Deerfoot also throws two more poker parties every year with Super Stack series in between the Circuit stops. While the numbers for Super Stack series are lower than the much higher-profile WSOP games, the Super Stack games still put up some of the biggest numbers in the market, even without the boost from poker’s most recognizable live tournament brand.
Nearly 5,000 entries were recorded for Super Stack games in 2025, with more than $2.2 million in total prizes awarded between the Spring and Summer series. That included the biggest multi-day field in a Super Stack series since 2022, when 560 entries in the Deepstack game during the Summer series swelled that prize pool to almost $160k for a $340 buy-in.
| Series | Entries | Prizes |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Spring Super Stack | 2,061 | $975,651 |
| 2025 Summer Super Stack | 2,641 | $1,233,039 |
| Totals: | 4,702 | $2,208,690 |
4. Shane is the Chief in Deepstack
There’s a winner every day at a poker series, and it’s always the talk of the day. But in many cases, those wins just become part of a long string of results from a series, buried in with other stories.
Other times, a player pulls off something special, and it’s one for the ages. In the Spring Deepstack game, Shane Chief managed one of the rarest feats in tournament poker — the local grinder came into Day 2 of the game with the nut-low stack from the 47 returning players.
A few hours later, he had all the chips in the game and was celebrating a huge win worth $27,830. That was Chief’s 3rd live win, and his biggest live score to date.
3. October Surprise Boosts Numbers for Second Circuit Series
When the WSOP-C first came to Calgary in January 2022, the tour planned just a single stop in Cowtown every year. However, the massive success of that series, with more than $3.3 million in total prizes for the biggest series in the history of the market, quickly prompted WSOP to change directions, adding a second Calgary stop to the annual schedule.
In 2022/23, the second series was set for May, in the lead-up to the big summer series down in Las Vegas. While the numbers for May were significantly down from the Jan numbers in the early years of the Tour in Calgary, those May WSOP-C series were still significantly bigger than anything the market had ever seen prior to WSOP coming to town.
When 2024 rolled around, a 3rd date was added in August, bringing the total series run between 2022 and the end of 2024 to 7. Over those opening 7 series, more than $27.5 million in prizes were awarded in 100 WSOP-C events.
With the dawn of 2025, the scheduling was switched up a bit with the second annual series moving to October. That move produced the largest second-series in the history of the Calgary WSOP-C events with more than $5 million in total prizes, nearly twice the $2.5 million total from May 2022, and the first time a second series had capped even $4 million in prizes.
That big fall success in 2025 looks to have cemented the October dates for the second Calgary series, so going forward, players should be planning January jaunts and October surprises in 2026 and beyond for Calgary Circuit play.
2025 WSOP-C Calgary Numbers
| Series | Events | Entries | Prizes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 17 | 9592 | $5,740,395 |
| Oct 2025 | 18 | 8078 | $5,034,726 |
| Totals: | 35 | 17,670 | $10,775,121 |
2. Liu Bags Two: Alex Liu is a Double Main Winner
So far in the history of the Calgary stops on the WSOP-C, there has yet to be a double Main Event ring winner. That is still the case after 2025, but local rising star Alex Liu came pretty close to the feat during the Spring Super Stack this past year.
Liu dominated the 2024 Aug WSOP-C Main Event final table, coming into the final day of play with 5 left holding about 2/3rds of the chips in play. That was the biggest win of his career and cemented an already growing legacy on the local MTT poker scene.
Then, in the Spring Super Stack of 2025, he added the cherry on top, bagging his second Deerfoot Main Event title in less than 12 months with his deal with David Swaim at the end of that series’ Main Event. The 2024 Main was his beggest ever score at the time, but since then, he bagged second place for $332,777 in the Lucky 7s game at the 2025 WSOP in Vegas for his #1 score. His 2025 Super Stack Main win was his 3rd biggest lifetime win.
1. Almost $13 Million in Prizes at Deerfoot in 2025 for Biggest Year Ever
| 2025 Series | Prizes | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| WSOP-C Jan | $5,740,395 | 9,592 |
| Spring Super Stack | $975,651 | 2,061 |
| Summer Super Stack | $1,233,039 | 2,641 |
| WSOP-C Oct | $5,034,726 | 8,078 |
| Totals: | $12,983,811 | 22,372 |
Technically, 2024 was a bigger year than 2025, but with three WSOP-C branded events, it isn’t a fair comparison to other years, as the Circuit always draws a far bigger crowd than local series. However, when the two biggest 2024 Circuits are compared to the two 2025 Circuits at Deerfoot, 2025 comes out as the clear winner by more than $1 million in total prizes from nearly 2,000 extra entries.
With the two Super Stack series from 2025 added in, the total for the most recent year of MTT action at Deerfoot Inn & Casino comes in at just shy of $13 million. With the extra Circuit event, 2024 still comes in slightly higher in total prize value, with just over $13.8 million, but that’s less than $1 million more than 2025.
With the strongest two-Circuit performance of any year to date, as well as the biggest Super Stack in recent memory this past August, 2025 can arguably be called the best year for Deerfoot from the WSOP era. Despite being slightly smaller in raw numbers than 2024, the different schedule texture between the two years still leaves 2025 on top in terms of a mix of imported WSOP numbers combined with solid local support for what has easily become the biggest poker room in Western Canada.
Combined WSOP-C Calgary Numbers by Year
| Year | Events | Series | Entries | Prizes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 47 | 3 | 21,495 | $12,906,196 |
| 2025 | 35 | 2 | 17,670 | $10,775,121 |
| 2023 | 28 | 2 | 12,975 | $8,773,838 |
| 2022 | 25 | 2 | 11,000 | $5,886,743 |
| Totals: | 135 | 9 | 63,140 | $38,341,898 |
Predictions for 2026 at Deerfoot Inn & Casino
Poker is a fickle beast, and it’s very hard to make predictions about the future, but coming out of 2025, the fourth year of the WSOP-C era in Calgary, a few things seem like solid predictions for 2026.
- More than $40 Million in Total WSOP-C Calgary Prizes
- Very early in 2026, the WSOP-C era of Calgary poker will surpass a fairly large milestone. With less than $2 million to go, it seems like a lock that Jan 2026 will see the total WSOP-C prizes since 2022 push over the $40 million mark.
- First $6 Million Series
- Since 2022, the WSOP-C series in Calgary have flirted with $6 million in total prizes. Four times, the games have generated more than $5 million in combined prizes, with Jan 2024’s $5.8 million standing atop the rest.
- Jan 2025 was the second biggest series ever in Calgary, coming in just shy of $5.8 million, barely missing the new record, and October 2025 was the first time a second series in Calgary topped $4 million, coming in at better than $5 million total for the fourth biggest series ever.
- While this is a bit more speculative than the opening prediction, it seems like 2026 has every chance of drawing the first combined prize pool of more than $6 million in the Alberta market. Both the January & October 2026 series have the chance to do the deed, but the January 2026 series still seems like the most likely bet, especially with the extra juice that was added into the Main Event and High Roller games in the Oct 2025 series.
- Strong Support for Super Stack Series
- The local poker scene in Calgary has only gotten bigger in the 2020s with the addition of the WSOP-C events. Deerfoot Inn & Casino has been at the epicentre of that explosion of poker in Alberta, and one of the recent beneficiaries has been the numbers at Super Stack events.
- 2025 saw a Summer Super Stack that outstacked any on recent memory, with more than $1.2 million in total prizes from more than 2,600 entries. As 2026 dawns, it looks like a solid year for the local series in the Spring and Summer, with Super Stack prize pools of $1 million or more.
- Bigger & Better Coverage for 2026
- With 2026 looking to be a huge year in the Calgary poker market, one of the things that became obvious in 2025 was the need for more reporting during the epic WSOP-C games. In conjunction with Deerfoot Inn & Casino, poker.pro will be stepping up to the plate to add extra coverage for all Circuit games in 2026.
- My trusted sidekick, Alek Gillies, will be on the team for the entirety of the January Circuit. With Alek kicking the day off on the morning shift, while I preside over the end-of-day festivities on the late shift, there should be start-to-end coverage for every day of the January series.
2025 was a huge year for Deerfoot Inn & Casino, arguably its biggest year ever for tournament poker. With the inaugural Oct Circuit series such a huge success to end 2025, 2026 looks to potentially be even bigger.
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