2013 WSOPc Vancouver Sees Top Talent at Tough Final Tables So Far

Halfway through the series, WSOPc Vancouver can claim already claim some of the toughest, talent packed and exciting final tables the Canadian events have seen so far over 2013; we haven’t seen any record shattering fields as of yet, but there has been no lack “local heroes” and long time grinders of the poker community have squaring off in some of the year’s most exciting title seeking competition.

Perhaps the most celebrated rail of the champions gold rings awarded came in Event 2, at arguably one of the toughest tables of Canadian talent seen in years as multiple FTOPS jersey winner Chris “maxxscam” Back, 2 time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Idema, 2007 $1,500 NLHE bracelet as well as Sunday Million winner Robert Cheung and rising star Jason Mann occupied almost half of the available seats.

Watching Twitter feeds light up in support of one or the other, or a combination of all of the above, it was clear the ring was going to go to a fan favorite. Eventually, heads up play would find the two players chasing their first gold in an intense battle for bragging that would last several hours. Both had plenty at stake as Back was Canada’s “most often in the money finisher” in 2012, yet without a career major title to call his own, while the Edgewater’s 5k High Roller champ Mann was coming off a year of more than $350,000 worth of deep, oh-so-close WSOP & WSOPE finishes.

Despite being the shortest stack of the final 25 players, Chris Back would emerge the victor of this one however; along with the second largest pay-out of first 6 events, he also threw the “title monkey” (if there really is such a thing) off his back, much like fellow online pro Jason Lavallee recently did in the EPT London High-Roller. As many top pros have coined 2013 as the “Year of Science”, both victories add merit to the mantra that fundamentally sound poker will eventually prevail.

Only a few days later, another monster sweat took place as 2013 bracelet winner Calen McNeil faced Lorne Willment “Mano a Mano” for the title in Event 5, a $365 No Limit Hold’em with 419 starting entries. Calen, who’s first WSOP bling came this summer in via an Omaha Hi/Lo event, was looking to accessorize with the gold ring from this one, but would have to wait another day as Langley’s Willment slammed that door hard, grabbing more than $27,600 with his new ring.

Also hailing from Langley, Sukhpaul Dhaliwal has been racking up the cash with a runner up finish in Event #1, a $365 NLHE, and then doing one place better in Event #6, a $580 Pot Limit Omaha to seal the deal in scoring his title ring.  All told the two excellent performances were worth almost $42,000 combined…not bad for a few days work.

The biggest pay-day of the first half still belongs to Kelowna’s Jordan Hamilton though, who scored roughly $66,000 for taking down the 275 player field in the 1k event.  Hamilton has had some deep runs out west, finish well in both the West Coast Poker Championship and BCPC Main Events, so it seems deserved and overdue that he takes down the title here.

The $1,675 Main Event, which seen over 1,000 runners for it’s inaugural Vancouver running in 2012 has closed registration for Day 1a at the time of writing, drawing 273 players so far and with everybody being allowed to re-enter again on 1b & 1c, there is a great chance the field will climb to four figures once again.

While we wait and see, here are the results from the first 6 tournaments, totaling more than $903,000 in prize money already:

Event 1 –  $365 No Limit Hold’em    511 Entries for $153,300 Prize-Pool

Event 2 – $580 No Limit Hold’em     343 Entries for $171,500 Prize-Pool

Event 3 – $365 No Limit Hold’em     328 Entries for $98,400 Prize-Pool

Event 4 – $1,125 No Limit Hold’em      275 Entries for $275,000 Prize-Pool

Event 5 – $365 No Limit Hold’em     419 Entries for $125,700 Prize-Pool

Event 6 – $580 Pot Limit Omaha        159 Entries for $79,500 Prize-Pool