Thursday’s action at the 2026 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOP-C) Calgary saw two big games on the schedule, as well as a packed Chrome room for satellite action. The only ring awarded on Thursday came with the conclusion of the massive Monster Stack game, but Main Event players started their quest for the big ring with the opening flight to Sunday’s Day 2.
Those were the only ring games on the schedule for Thursday, but the afternoon and evening also saw the Chrome room jam-packed with satellite players. Two games ran on Thursday, with the cash equivalent of Main Event tickets as their prizes.
Both the 2 PM and the 6 PM games were well attended, with multiple Main Event prizes handed out in each. That should beef up the numbers for the remaining flights to the Main Event, a game that is on pace after Day 1a to be the biggest Main Event prize pool ever.
Allen Shen Wins Record Monster Stack for $78k
- Entries: 1,656
- Prizes: $546,480
- Winner: Allen Shen ($78,020)
It was quite a run for Allen Shen through the Monster Stack. It was the biggest Monster Stack field ever here in Calgary, topping out at 1,656, including a massive four-digit field for Day 1b of the game.
Jiajie Sheng bagged a huge stack on Day 1b, and was nearly 3:2 ahead of the second-place stack in the game, belonging to Dennis Didow, with just over 2 million, while local crusher and High Roller winner from Oct, Andy Trung, bagged third for 1.9 million.
Shen came into the day 5th in chips with 1.75 million, and that was plenty to propel him through to the final table. Sheng was there as well, along with James Ward (6th stack) and Jackson Oniske (10th stack) from the top ten stacks to start the day.
Big stack Sheng ended his run in 6th place, with Mehmet Siginc (who won the NLH/PLO ring on the opening day of this series) leading the counts when they got five ways, and Shen on the second stack. Short-stack James Ward was the next to go, doubling up his short 2 million stack before losing it all shortly after with blinds at 250k/500k/500k.
That left them four ways, with a big discrepancy between stacks. Siginc and Shen were on the big stacks by quite a bit, while Oniske and Philip Dobrikin were both playing very short stacks of barely 10 big blinds or less.
Dobrikin and Oniske traded doubles a couple of times before Oniske shoved queen-ten with about 8 bigs, and was called by Dobrikin’s nines. The nines held, and they were three ways, but Dobrikin was still quite short compared to the other two remaining players.
Shortly after, Dobrikin sent his chips to Siginc after he flopped an ace, but Siginc hit two pair for the win. That put Siginc and Shen heads up for the ring, with Siginc holding a big lead to start.
Heads up didn’t last long, as they got into a big cooler after just a few hands. Siginc shoved the turn on a board with paired aces, and three clubs on board, and Shen called it off.
Shen was on trip aces, looking to boat up to stay alive, as Siginc hit the nut club flush on the turn with king-eight of clubs. The board paired on the river to give him the full house and a huge double up to the lead, and Siginc lost his fumes shortly after for second place.
This was Shen’s second ring, after winning one online in Ontario. He was heads up for a ring here in May 2024 against Julius Roque in the NLH/PLO Mix game (the same game that gave Siginc his ring earlier in this series), but had to settle for second. His online ring came in 2022 in a PLO game during the WSOP.CA WSOP ONLINE Winter Circuit Ontario.
Shen was railed at the end by a huge contingent of fellow players from out east. Among the players on his rail were May 2024 Main Event winner Nicholas Teeuwen and WPT Global streamer Patrick “Egption” Tardif.
Final Table Results from the Monster Stack
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Allen Shen | $78,020 |
| 2 | Mehmet Siginc | $52,010 |
| 3 | Philip Dobrikin | $35,285 |
| 4 | Jackson Oniske | $24,454 |
| 5 | James Ward | $17,321 |
| 6 |  Jiajie Sheng | $12,546 |
| 7 | Devon Rissling | $9,297 |
| 8 | Joshua Lindberg | $7,956 |
| 9 | Jimmy Lee | $5,479 |
| 10 | Cuong Lieu | $4,362 |
Big Prizes for Day 1a of the Main Event
- Entries: 38/271
- Prizes: $531,160
With the final weekend of the series on the horizon, that means it’s time to get the Main Event underway. The opening flight to the Main Event ran on Thursday, and drew a decent crowd of 271 entries.
That was plenty to push the Day 1a prizes into record territory, with the $531k collected in this year’s 1a, a bit above the previous record, set in Jan 2024. The true test for the size of this Main will come with the results of 1b/c, but the opening flight bodes well for the biggest Main Event in Calgary history.
Oleksii Mezhenkov was the big stack from 1a, with Aleksei Ponomarev joining him near the top. Mezhenkov bagged more than 800k, while Ponomarev bagged a bit less than that, but the rest of the field were all under half a million when the game ended.
Day 1a almost went into overtime, with the bubble play coming in Level 17, the final level on the schedule. In the end, they made it down below 15% of the field just as Level 17 was coming to an end. The day ended with about a minute to play in the final Day 1 level, and 38 players put chips in a bag, with three players cashing out from the 1a flight.
Payouts from Day 1a
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | Gaetano Buda | $4,470 |
| 40 | Edward Sorensen | $4,470 |
| 41 | Trent Sapach | $4,470 |
Top Ten Day 1a Stacks
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Oleksii Mezhenkov | 829,000 |
| Aleksei Ponomarev | 777,000 |
| Sami Al-Serri | 486,000 |
| Christopher Potter | 447,000 |
| Raymond Lamy | 418,000 |
| Anthony Smith | 400,000 |
| Tyler Panas | 400,000 |
| Tony Ma | 375,000 |
| Van Vo | 360,000 |
| Wilie Scott | 358,000 |
