Day 2 of the January 2026 WSOP-C Calgary is now complete, and the big news is that Manitoba’s Claire Leclerc took down the only ring awarded on Day 2. The remaining action on Thursday was the opening flight to the Mini Main Event, which played down to 5% of the field without awarding a ring today.
Both games had solid turnout, with the Black Chip getting 290 entries, and Day 1a running up to 319, beating the 1a total for both the October Mini Main and the January 4-Flight in 2025.
Claire Leclerc Denies 3rd Ring to Graham Lupton in Black Chip Bounty
- Entries: 290
- Prizes: $120,350 in prizes plus $29,000 in bounties
- Winner: Claire Leclerc ($25,986)
It was Claire Leclerc’s first Circuit ring and second career win on the live felt tonight as she was the last player standing in the Black Chip Bounty. She got her first live win in 2024 at 701 Poker Tour Season 5, West Fargo, and that year also saw her get within striking distance of a ring here in Calgary.
She was heads up in the August edition of the two-day $1k against Saskatoon crusher and philanthropist Sunny Lubana, and fell just short of earning her first ring in that one. That cash worth $34,379 was her best score, and it will remain there; however, today’s win of $25,986 will easily slot in at #2 on her all-time list.
She didn’t have an easy table in the endgame, and was one of the shortest stacks for much of the FT. She picked her spots and laddered up consistently through the night, never really building a big stack.
Her heads-up opponent, two-time ring winner Graham Lupton, was the one building a stack through most of the final table. Though he occasionally had some competition from Adrian Gouveia and Mehrad Khalajzadeh, he was the big stack for most of the final phase.
That continued into heads-up, where he started with about a 3:1 lead over Leclerc, and held it through most of the heads-up, until he ran into slow-played aces. He’d actually had his own success with slow-played aces earlier in the night to send Khalajzadeh to the rail in 3rd place.
While it wasn’t the final hand of the game, it was the pivotal spot for Leclerc. With trip threes showing on the flop, Leclerc checked it, with Lupton checking behind. On the deuce turn, she check-called for 600k, then led the river nine for 1.1 million.
That sent Lupton into a bit of a tank, with his speech indicating that if she hit the nine on the river, it might be good. He eventually put in the call, but joked, “You didn’t have a nine” when she showed pocket aces. Lupton didn’t show his hand, so it’s unclear what he called with, but a pocket pair lower than nines, or a deuce, seems like a good bet. An ace-high might also make sense if Leclerc wasn’t playing two of them.
The hand left Lupton on the short stack, with less than a million. It didn’t take long for him to shove his button with 915k, but he ran into an ace for Leclerc and got a call. Lupton was suited and paired his eight on the flop, but Leclerc found her ace as well, and the turn and river didn’t change anything.
That left Leclerc stacking all the chips and trying on her first Circuit Ring. She was joined in the final table photos by ring-winner and PlayNow Poker Champion (2018), Dylan Ellis, as well as her husband Leo, who was also at this final table, finishing in 8th place for $2,620.
Top Ten Results from Black Chip Bounty
The full prizes for the Black Chip Bounty can be found under the Payouts tab on the event page.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Claire Leclerc | $25,986 |
| 2 | Graham Lupton | $17,310 |
| 3 | Mehrad Khalajzadeh | $11,969 |
| 4 | Anthony Blaise | $8,452 |
| 5 | Evan Thomas | $6,099 |
| 6 | Joseph Cosco | $4,499 |
| 7 | Adrian Gouveia | $3,394 |
| 8 | Leo Leclerc | $2,620 |
| 9 | Glen Moller-Nielsen | $2,071 |
| 10 | Brendan Wolovick | $1,677 |
Ankhbayar Bayar Leads Day 1a Stacks in Big Mini Main Opener
- Day 1a Entries: 319
- Day 1a Prizes: $100,007
- Chip Leader: Ankhbayar Bayar (1,425,000)
The side action on Thursday was the opening flight to the Mini Main Event. The $400 game drew big crowds for the first flight, with 319 entries and prizes that just capped $100k.
With 319 entries, there should have been at least 16 bags at the end of the night, as the hard stop would come when they hit 5% of the field or got to the end of Level 22. With the clock paused for bubble play with 17 left, there was a three-way all in that saw two players exit on the same hand, Hongwei Liu in 17th, and Timothy Smith in 16th.
That meant there were only 15 bags at the end of the day, and it finished up a bit earlier than expected. The clock was paused at the end of the night with 18:12 remaining in Level 21, so 15k/25k/25k are the biggest the Day 2 blinds can start at. If one of the subsequent flights finishes earlier, that will be adjusted, but if they all go longer, then Day 2 will start at that point.
There were two players at the end of the night with more than 1 million in chips, chip leader Ankhbayar Bayar & Kyle Crego, and all players in the top five are playing more than 850k. See the second-last post from Day 1a for a look at the players who cashed out from the opening flight.
Qualifiers from Day 1a
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Ankhbayar Bayar | 1,425,000 |
| Kyle Crego | 1,125,000 |
| Bradley Bishop | 910,000 |
| Karandev Bhullar | 870,000 |
| Sandy Lam | 855,000 |
| Yafei Jian | 850,000 |
| Josh Myers | 695,000 |
| Regan Duong | 540,000 |
| Kyle Rosnes | 485,000 |
| Shane Chief | 440,000 |
| Robert Buckingham | 375,000 |
| Parth Mansukh | 375,000 |
| Shannon Vargo | 300,000 |
| Travis Kruger | 235,000 |
| Evan Taylor | 90,000 |
