The 12th Annual Canadian Poker Championships are well underway this evening, with 118 starting entries now battling it out in Day 1b of the $500 No Limit Hold’em and looking for their chance to advance to the money in Sunday’s finals. With a total of 227 entries for Event #2, there will definitely be some five figure paydays worth going after. At the completion of Day 1a, things are already promising to be exciting, with Calgary’s Shane Brotherwood and Edmonton’s Ryan Comely emerging as the chip leaders.
Brotherwood is looking for his third title to come out of Edmonton, having previously won both the Edmonton and Alberta Poker Classic’s hosted by the same casino group, to go along with a dozen other medium limit final table finishes across the country. Comely won’t be looking to hit the rail anytime soon either and as we previously reported in our profile/interview with Ryan, also owns a fist full of championship rings, complete with the bragging rights of being named “Player of the Year” in 2009, while currently leading the same points race again for 2011.
Of course, with a few dozen other players going to Sunday’s finals and all likely having the same goals in mind, even these top dogs will have their work cut out for them; Eric (Ren Ho) Zhang claimed the top spot in Casino Yellowhead’s $1000 Klondike Classic Event and is far from out of this one. Given that Zhang also had a final table finish worth more than $213,000 at the 2011 WSOP just prior to that particular win, we have a pretty good feeling that he won’t go down easy, if it all. Along with a top prize that we roughly estimate should be in the neighborhood of $30,000+, the winner of this event will receive a trophy and champions bracelet valued in the thousands, as will the 1st place finisher of Event #; a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em that will be played on Saturday.
We look forward to seeing who will be joining the 12 players who have already advanced in this one, once play for 1B completes today.
Event #1 wrapped up on Wednesday night, with Hao Wang seeing some very decent return on his $300 entry; his first place finish was worth over $14,000. Looking over the recent history of this mid-week kick-off event, it doesn’t appear that Casino Edmonton and Casino Yellowhead’s recent changes to their re-entry policy have had much, if any effect on the prize-pools.
Looking over the names on the results of the first events below, several “standard” names pop out immediately; Jon Sanborn, Paul Brar, Jody Fayant, Gregory Pelletier and Rob Nilsson are pretty much staples when it comes to Alberta tournament poker results and they all cashed in on this one.
Here is this list of who made the money and chip-counts after Day 1A of the $500:
Event #1, $300 No Limit Hold’em
| 1st | HAO WANG | $14,400 |
| 2nd | BRIAN FLEMMING | $8,000 |
| 3rd | JEREMY SINGLETON | $5,200 |
| 4th | GRANT WALL | $4,000 |
| 5th | DOUG KLEEN | $3,000 |
| 6th | JON SANBORN | $2,400 |
| 7th | IVAN KULUSIC | $2,172 |
| 8th | JASON GARRITTY | $1,900 |
| 9th | KEVIN KUSIAK | $1,700 |
| 10th | GREGORY PELLETIER | $1,500 |
| 11th | PAUL BRAR | $1,300 |
| 12th | THO NGUYEN | $1,100 |
| 13th | JOHN GAGNON | $900 |
| 14th | KEITH FILLER | $900 |
| 15th | JODY FAYANT | $900 |
| 16th | FRANCIS FAN | $800 |
| 17th | JAY MACKENZIE | $800 |
| 18th | ROBERT NILSSON | $800 |
Total Prize-Pool: $51,772 Total Entries: 177
| Event #2, $500 No Limit Hold’em Day 1A CHIP COUNT SHEET | |||
|
FIRST NAME |
LAST NAME |
CHIP COUNT |
|
SHANE |
BROTHERWOOD |
350,500 |
|
RYAN |
COMELY |
262,800 |
|
DAVE |
MCLEOD |
213,600 |
|
RYAN |
CARTER |
140,100 |
|
DOUG |
VERSTRAETE |
117,600 |
|
ERIC |
ZHANG |
83,700 |
|
IVAN |
KULUSIC |
82,200 |
|
DAN |
GLEASON |
71,000 |
|
CORY |
WALKER |
54,400 |
|
ALLEN |
BUTKOVIC |
35,200 |
|
YEPING |
SHAN |
20,200 |
|
CALVIN |
HACZKEWICZ |
15,000 |
|
|
TOTAL CHIPS IN PLAY |
1,446,300 |
||
|
AVERAGE STACK |
120,525 |
||
|
BLINDS ENDED AT 2,000 – 4,000 |
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