Duff Charette must like coming to Calgary. He's just won his second ring here in as many series and this was also his second deep run this week. Back in May, he was the winner of the Mystery Bounty game for $19,100 and he was 5th in the Flip & Go game that series as well.

This time around he was heads-up in the $1k Turbo, but had to settle for second place on that occasion. Today he made it through for his second Circuit Ring, both won here in Calgary.

He took this one down over a pretty tough final table that included recent Edmonton Main Event winner Ryan Cairns, the always-dangerous Trent Hopper, KKPoker rep Chris Alcindor, Talal Shoush, Shane Brotherwood, and eventual runner-up Michael Khan. The player who bested Charette in the $1k Turbo earlier in the week, Teddy Thalhuber, was 10th, just missing out on the final table.

Charette was never really the leader today until the very end, but he was rarely short either, playing a maintenance game that kept him with a healthy stack throughout most of the final table. He was behind when he got heads-up with Khan, though there wasn't much between them and the blinds were getting pretty big, In the final level there were only about 50 big blinds in play so they were pretty short.

They traded small pots for the first part of heads up, but it all ended on race. Charette pulled ahead when he flopped a pair, turned gutshot and flush outs, then rivered the straight for the win. He didn't quite need the win for this one, but it was pretty close. When play was five-handed he joked that he needed fifth to "almost break even" after firing at least 13 flips before he found a stack. That doesn't seem unusual for this event, however, as May's winner David Ko also took it down after 13 bullets.

Charette may have had another horseshoe for tonight. He's usually seen drinking Coronas while he plays, but they were conspicuously absent for most of the day today. Part way through heads-up he finally put in his Corona order, and then took the tournament down as his beer was delivered. As a result, the lucky Corona is part of the winners photo tonight.

The game is over now, and Michael Kahn had to settle for second tonight as he ran into a surging Duff Charette. Kahn came to heads up with the lead, but there wasn't that much in it and the blinds were getting big. They traded small pots for a bit with mostly blinds and antes moving around the table.

It all ended in a race after Charette took a small lead and woke up with pocket eights. He limped, then snap-called the shove from Kahn. Kahn had overs with but bricked the board to send the rest of the chips to Charette.

It's a tight game and neither player is giving an inch. Duff Charette just took a small lead after a limped pot took them to a flop. Charette check-called for 125k and again for 250k on the turn. They both checked the river and Kahn mucked when Charette showed for the straight. Charette had both gutshot and flush outs on the turn in addition to his pair of fives.

Michael Kahn has a bit of a lead heads-up against Duff Charette now with about 20 minutes to play in Level 19. Both players know each other from the Ottawa poker scene.

The "Great big ones" couldn't save Hopper tonight, but it took a cooler to get him off the table. The money was in preflop with Hopper on kings and Michael Kahn on ace-jack. Kahn hit his ace in the window and Hopper couldn't catch up.

That will give Kahn a big lead for heads-up play. I'll update the chips shortly.

Duff Charette limped from the small blind and Trent Hopper checked the big. Michael Kahn had folded his button and joked "I should have tried to steal."

Charette made a quick bet of 100k on the flop and Hopper almost beat him into the pot with the call. They both checked the turn and river and after the river checks Charette mucked his hand.

"You win, ten-high." Hopper showed jack-high and Kahn laughed.

"Snapping with jack-high!" he joked.

"I got balls," replied Hopper. "Great big ones."

They are down to just three left in the GO Stage now after Talal Shoush hit the rail for 4th. He was runner-up in this event in January, and now this fourth makes his second final table out of three runs for this game.

Michael Kahn has the lead now at the end of Level 17.

Ryan Cairns was left short after doubling up Michael Khan a while ago, and he just lost his final 430k to hit the rail in 5th place. There are mow about 7 minutes left in Level 16.

Talal Shoush and Duff Charette are the leaders with Michael Kahn a few hundred thousand behind.

It was blind on blind when Talal Shoush called and Duff Charette checked his option. Should led for 60k on the flop and Charette called to the turn. Shoush bet 210k and got another call to see on the river. Shoush checked before Charette slid out 250k. After a few seconds, Shoush called but mucked when Charette showed ace-seven for flopped top pair.

Shane Brotherwood and John Ertner have ended their day in the Flip & Go with the field at 5 remaining now.

Talal Shoush is looking to do one better than his January result in this event when he was second behind Nicholas Lee. He has more than 2 million in front of him now after an odd hand where he tried to raise but didn't put out enough and ended up just limping the cutoff. Duff Charette called the button, as did Michael Kahn from the big blind.

The action checked around on the flop and Kahn led for 90k on the turn and only Shoush came along to the river. Both players went back to checking and Kahn showed queen-ten but he was pipped out by the jack-ten for Shoush who turned two-pair.

It was a huge cooler that saw a massive pile of chips move over to Michael Kahn. Ryan Cairns was in with ace-king but ran into pocket kings for Kahn. The kings held and the pot dropped Cairns to about 400k while Kahn now has more than 2 million for a big lead.

Michael McIntyre and Chris Alcindor were the first to players to bust the final table while I was uploading pictures. There are now 7 players left in the Flip & GO.

They are down to the final nine now with 20 minutes remaining in Level 12. Teddy Thalhuber picked up his second score of the week as the bubble to the final table tonight. I'll get final table pics up shortly.

Michael Khan opened early to 40k and Teddy Thalhuber called from the big blind. Thalhuber check-raised the flop from 30k to 85k. Kahn called after a few seconds of thought and the turn was .

Thalhuber checked again and elected just to call the 60k bet from Kahn. The river double-paired the board and both players checked it Thalhuber showed but then muck his hand when Kahn showed pocket nines.

They are down to 10 Left now after James (Zeyu) Du ran into a nasty cooler. He had ace-queen but was up against ace-king for Talal Shoush and pocket queens for Duff Charette. Shoush hit his king to take the main pot for a triple, while Charette's queens held to take the rest of Du's chips. Meanwhile, on the other table at the same time, Robert Johnson busted his short stack.

The final 12 players are on dinner now  and it looks like Ryan Cairns is still in the lead. Shane Brotherwood lost a few chips right before dinner when  his flopped fours couldn't beat pocket nines for Michael Khan, who now looks to have the second stack with Brotherwood right on his heels now. Trent Hopper and Duff Charette are also sitting with decent stacks right now. See below for a full look at all of the remaining 12 stacks.

There are 12 players left now, three off the nine-handed final table. Most WSOP-C FTs play 10-handed, but that's because the games are nine-handed and WSOP goes to FT at one extra. With this game playing eight-handed, it means the final table will be nin-handed.

Ryan Cairns still looks to be in the lead, and Shane Brotherwood looks to be close behind with about 1.1 million, not least thanks to Alek (Will) Gillies chips a few minutes ago. Trent Hopper is also stacking up chips, as is the Turbo $1k winner, Teddy Thalhuber, who will be adding some more "funny money" to his trip after this one.

They are down to 13 left now with just under 20 minutes to play in Level 10. Peter O'Leary and Adrienn Guinto (Dionisio) were the recent busts.

They are down to 15 remaining now on the final 2 tables after the recent exits of Xinrui Cui, Chun Kwan, and Alek Gillies. Alek Gillies told me on his way out that he "Got set up by Brotherwood, with the dealer involved."

It looks like Ryan Cairns has the big stack right now with around 1 million in front of him. Trent Hopper is also sitting pretty big with around 700k. While I was looking at the stacks I also watch Talal Shoush scoop up a double when his nines held over ace-king for Cuong Nguyen. Nguyen was short after the double and hit the rail shortly after for 20th place.

DJ Sharma was the most recent exit from the Flip & GO for 20 players remaining now.

About 5 minutes remain in Level 7 now with 21 remaining. Deven Lane from Regina was among the recent players to hit the rail.

Saskatchewan's John Hashem was the most recent exit from the Flip & Go game with the field now down to 23 remaining. 

My brain is a little slow today obviously. This is an eight-handed game so they didn't break tables at 27. However, they are now down to 24 and HAVE drawn for the final three tables. Jay Tran and Jay Glass were the recent busts to bring them to 24.

They are down to 26 remaining now with a bot more than 10 minutes to play in Level 6. Georg Jancev , Aidan Hartnett, who is also part of the Minnesota crew, and David Ko.

There are about 5 minutes to play in Level 5 and they are down to 29 players left now. 3rd place from the Monster Stack, Jack Dick, and Sheraz Nasir are among the recent busts, as was Aidan Ferguson, who is part of the crew who drove in from Minnesota earlier in the week.

Ronnie Dattani and Alex Liu were the most recent exits from the GO Stage today to bring the field down to 32 remaining. The first pay jump of the day comes at 27th place.

They are down to 34 players left with about 15 minutes to play in Level 4. Full prizes so far are posted under the Payouts tab.

Peter Griffin was the first player out of the Flip & GO today for a min-cash of $689. The prizes and stacks are now updated under Chip Counts and Payouts with the first cash recorded.

The GO Stage is on and action is underway in Level 1. There are 39 players returning with 4 double stacks. Robert Johnson, John Ertner, Srinivas Gottiparthi, and DJ Sharma all bagged 320k for the game while the rest of the players bagged 160k.

Full starting chips should be in the backend under Chip Counts shortly, and prizes will be updated shortly as well.

40 players are returning for the GO Stage of the Flip & GO after an extra 5 players got there this morning for Day 2 stacks in the final run of flips. I don't have eyes on the new players yet, but I just heard DJ Sharma telling the room he got in this morning, so he'll be at least one of the new names.

Action is set to get underway shortly and I'll update the starting players shortly once I have eyes on the final list.

The Flip & Go has been running flop stages all week with the final flips running from 10 am to noon on Friday. So far, 35 players have bagged stacks, and two of those, John Ertner and Srinivas Gottiparthi, have bagged double stacks worth 320k, while the rest will be playing 160k tomorrow, unless they fire again before noon.

Prize pool details will be available tomorrow after the final flips run, but with 37 flips run so far it looks like the prizes are sitting at $62,160 with 296 entries. That's likely to increase a bit on Friday before the GO stage kicks off. I should be watching this one until it finishes.