It took Eric Wasylenko 7 years to win his first trophy in Alberta, and now he's just won his second in less than a week. He came close to his first one back in September here at Yellowhead when he was runner-up to Jason Tran in the Main Event, but he secured his first Alberta trophy on the weekend in Event #2 and he just bagged his second here in Event #5 tonight.

The double win also puts Wasy in the driver's seat for Player of the Series with 260 points. Francis Fan now has 165.9 points for second with Rob Lothian still in third with 125.6 now. Fan tried to get some extra points today in the Bounty, but I just had a look at the remaining field in that one and didn't spot him, so it looks like he won't be adding any more points to his total today.

His two wins this week will certainly push his Hendon Mob earnings over $800k but he may need to use some of that for a new suitcase to get all his AB trophies home from this trip.

Final Payouts for Event #5

Eric Wasylenko and Julius Roque finished one-two in chips in the first flight of this event, and when it got down to heads up, it was still Wasylenko and Roque, in that order with the top two stacks. The heads-up phase went quickly with only three hands played before the big confrontation.

In the final hand, Roque limped, then called for his life when Wasy shoved the big stack. It was a race spot with Wasylenko on jacks against the king-queen for Roque. The ten-high board was no help to Roque and the jacks took it down to send Roque to the cage for $10.2k.

They are heads up now after a blind on blind confrontation where Eric Wasylenko jammed the small with the big stack, and David Quang called the big with the small stack. Quang was ahead with king-ten against queen-nine for Wasy, but the nine came on the flop with no help for Quang on turn or river.

Julius Roque flatted the small blind before eric Wasylenko raised the big to 175k. Roque didn't take long to come over the top to 600k and Wasylenko mucked quickly. Wasy is still leading three ways, but Roque isn't far behind him.

Jayvee Lumahan raise-folded for almost half his stack in the previous hand, and then when Eric Wasylenko opened to 100k under the gun, he reraised the button to 265k, leaving only about 60k behind.

Wasylenko shoved the big stack, and Lumahan put in the rest with against . Lumahan flopped a four, but Wasylenko turned his seven and held to send Lumahan out in 4th place for #,##0","3":1},"12":0}">$5,050.

#,##0","3":1},"12":0}">The pot left Wasy with a huge lead and more than half the chips in play.

Lee Clark got his short stack in with ace-six after a raise to 80k from cutoff Eric Wasylenko and a call from button Jayvee Lumahan. On Wasy called with his pocket jacks but Clark spiked his ace, but Wasy turned the straight and held to send Clark to the cage.

I arrived at the action on the river with the board reading with a huge pot already in the middle. Julius Roque checked from the small blind and Jayvee Lumahan slid out a bet of 550k. Roque called quite quickly, and his flopped pair with king-jack was good against the king-queen bricked straight draw for Lumahan.

It came down to a blind-on-blind cooler for Lukas Lacko today when he shoved the small with ace-jack and ran into Julius Roque's ace-queen in the big. He couldn't find his jack and hit the rail in 6th place.

Most of the damage happened in a huge cooler between Francis Fan and Julius Roque. Fan had pocket tens but he ran into kings for Roque and couldn't survive. That left him with about 50k which was all in on the next hand in the big blind and he sent the rest to Jayvee Lumahan.

I picked up the action on the turn with the board reading and Eric Wasylenko check-called for 100k from David Quang. The river saw Wasy check again, but this time he folded when Quang slid out 285k.

Jayvee Lumahan and Eric Wasylenko both have more than 1 million chips not for first and second place. Players are on a break with the end of Level 22 and will be back at the felt in a bit more than 5 minutes for action at 15k/30k/30k.

Eric Wasylenko raised to 50k under the gun and was called by Lee Clark in the hijack and Julius Roque on the big blind. They all checked the flop, but Roque fired 70k on the turn.

Both players called to the river where it checked to Clark. He tanked for a bit before sliding out a bet of 250k and getting a quick fold from Roque and a slightly slower one from Wasy.

Lukas Lacko opened to 50k from the middle and Jayvee Lumahan called from the big blind. They both checked the flop but Lumahan fired 35k on the turn.

He fired again for 60k on the river and Lacko called, mucking when Lumahan showed king-six of diamonds.

David Quang has the chip lead now with about 1 million and Julius Roque looks to be second with about 850k now. Both PoS leaders, Eric Wasylenko and Francis Fan, are also still in the mix, though Fan looks to be the short stack right now while Wasy is in 3rd.

Eric Wasylenko opened to 40k under the gun and David Quang flatted the middle before Resul Dauti went all in for 185k from the small blind. Wasylenko got out of the way, but Quang put in the call.

Resul Dauti:
David Quang:

Quang flopped a club draw then turned his queen to take the lead and hold, sending Dauti to the cage for 8th place money while he chipped up to over 1 million.

Jayvee Lumahan shoved the button before Lee Clark reshoved for more from the small blind. Lumahan was behind with the suited connectors against for Clark. Lumahan hit his nine on the all-diamond flop and had to fade Clark's diamond draw, but he managed it and got the double,

Meanwhile, in the next hand, Moon Lee hit the rail in 9th place for $2,010.

They are down to the final nine players now after three quick exits. Ross Wilson took 12th place before a double knockout on the other table got them down to nine. Shawn Taghavi shoved the cutoff, David Quang called from the button, and Brad Sartison called with less from the small blind.

Brad Sartison:
Shawn Taghavi:
David Quang:

Quang spiked a seven on the turn to take a lock on the hand and send the game to the final table. Stay tuned for some pictures shortly.

Eric Wasylenko is in the lead now with just over 1 million chips, but Julius Roque is right behind with just shy of a million. David Quang looks to be the 3rd place stack now with a bit less than 650k while no one els even has 500k.

Eric Wasylenko opened under the gun to 25k and Resul Dauti was the only caller from the button. Both players checked the flop of and Wasy check-called for 15k on the turn. They went back to checking on the river and Wasy showed queen-seven for bottom pair on the flop, but Dauti was on pocket threes with the and took it down with the baby clubs.

They are down to 12 players left after Weston Pring just hit the rail in 13th place. He pocketed the final payout of $1,570 and the next three eliminations before the final table can expect to pocket $1,790.

Chris Macpherson just hit the rail in 14th place for a score of $1,570. He had just tripled up a short stack when he was all in against Julius Roque and David Quang who checked through the board. Macpherson hit his king on the flop and was best, but the chip-up was short-lived as he was collecting his things just a couple of hands later.

Antonio Manfredi was the most recent exit from Day 2 in 15th place for $1,570. I missed the action but his chips went to the stack of Julius Roque who is down a bit from the last count but still doing well.

There are still 15 players left in the action today with the average stack at 325k right now. That means they are playing 27 bigs on average until the end of this level, which is just over 20 minutes away.

They'll go for another break following this level.

Kali Shuali was the most recent bust from Day 2. I missed the action, but Shuali cashed for $1,400 in 16th place. She won the first event this past summer in Calgary at Deerfoot's Summer Super Stack after taking down a Venetian Deepstack about a month earlier. She went on to have another deep final table run in Calgary as well, so she looks to be having a good year on the felt.

Eric Wasylenko raised to 20k under the gun and only Lee Clark called from the big blind. The flop was and Clark check-called for 15k. The turn was bringing the third spade to the board and both players checked. The river brought a lead of 25k from Clark, and Wasy snap-mucked.

It was a race between the queen-jack suited overs for Shawn Taghavi against the pocket tens for Antonio Manfredi. The low board ran clean for the pocket pair and Manfredi chipped up to about 260k while Taghavi was down to about the same amount.

Shortly after, Moon Lee doubled when his dominated king-jack got there with trip kings against ace-jack.

Julius Roque is still leading, with Weston Pring and Eric Wasyloenko looking near neck-and-neck for second place with just over 600k each. I'll grab complete counts at the upcoming break in about an hour.

Ali Razzaq was the most recent casualty in Day 2 for 17th place worth $1,400. He sent his chips to the growing stack of Julius Roque who is now over 900k.

Danny Bajaj was the most recent bust in 18th place for the first payout at $1,400. Meanwhile, on the same table, Jayvee Lumahan survived all-in versus Shawn Taghavi when Taghavi's tens couldn't hold against the ace-nine suited for Lumahan.

They started the day across from each other on the same table, but after the redraw the top two players in the PoS race are now side-by-side on Table 2 with Eric Wasylenko in Seat 6 and Francis Fan to his left in Seat 7.

Meanwhile. chip leader Julius Roque is on the other table, away from the PoS combatants but still sitting pretty,

They are doing a two-table redraw now after the elimination of Tina Nguyen in 19th place. She took the final payout of $1,290 and the next player to bust will pocket $1,400.

They are down to 19 players left now after the recent exit of Jeff Scruton in 20th place for $1,290. One more player will earn that prize before they hit the redraw and it jumps to $1,400.

Andy Li was among the casualties from Day 2 of Event #5 to bring the field down to 20 remaining. Li took the first payout of $1,180, while Rob Lothian and Tim Salangsang took the rest of the payouts at that level. Lothian got his stack in with tens, but the big blind was priced in to call with jack-eight and hit his jack to send Lothian to the rail.

Additionally, Ron Lauzon hit the rail in 21st place when his pocket sixes couldn't hold against ace-five to take the first payout at $1,290.

Julius Roque is running pure now with a stack of about 600k after his pocket kings sent David Chau to the rail for the min-cash spot worth $1,100. Chau was very short on Day 1b but managed to spin it up for a decent stack to start today so while he would surely have liked to go a bit deeper, getting the min-cash is a decent score considering he wan near felted on 1b.

The bubble-bursting hand against Preston Stevenson just before the current break was enough to send Julius Roque into the chip lead with more than half a million. Eric Wasylenko is hovering around his start stack for today while Francis Fan has dropped a bit. Rob Lothian is sitting at just over 100k now.

The PoS race is very much still on today, and while there are still a number of events left to score points in, if Fan, Wasy, or Lothian win this one they will almost certainly have a stranglehold on the lead.

They are now in the money after a quick hand for hand phase that lasted only a single hand. Preston Stevenson found himself in a race against Julius Roque with Stevenson's ace-king looking to hit against the pocket tens of Roque. The board ran clean for the tens and Stevenson was the last player to bust outside the money today.

Players are now on a ten-minute break following hand-for-hand, and they'll return for almost three full levels of poker before the next break.

They are down to 26 players after the elimination of Sopheak Heang on the soft bubble. The clock is now paused with 2 minutes coming off manually for each hand played.

They are down to 27 players left in Day 2 no after Leo Zhang couldn't spin up his shirt stack early today. They'll go hand-for-hand to the money after the next elimination and while there is a break on the schedule for the end of this level, that break will be moved until the end of hand-for-hand play.

It looks like the top three players in the Player of the Series standings will be playing together for a whole today as the redraw has been moved to the final two tables since they did a redraw for the start today. Since the top three are all on Table 1, that table won't break after the first elimination so while they may be moved away from each other do to balancing, they'll be facing each other down on the same table for at least the first few hands today.

It's worth noting that Francis Fan looks to be a bit late to the game today as his seat is still empty with play now underway.

The Day 2 players are taking their seats now with the action set to start very shortly. There are 28 players returning to fight for 25 paid spots, and they will do the full three-table redraw after the first elimination today when they get to 27 left.

It was a bit of a storybook ending for the two starting flights in this one. Player of the Series leader Eric Wasylenko bagged the big stack on Day 1a, and will be playing the most chips to start Day 2. Wasy is in a neck-and-neck battle with Francis Fan for the top on the PoS though, with Fan just .3 points behind him, and Fan was the chip leader to end Day 1b.

Julius Roque, who also bagged big on 1a, is in between them in the counts, but no doubt both Fan and Wasy will have an eye to each other's stacks through the day, and they won't have to look far to start the day either as they are seated at the same table. That may not last long however as with 28 players coming back they'll be redrawing after the first elimination.

Day 2 starts with most of Level 16 to play before they jump to the 40-minute blinds for Level 17. The action gets underway at 1 pm but players are asked to be in the Pearl room by 12:45 to get the bags open so play can begin on time.

Day 2 Players by Seat

Day 2 Players by Stack

Day 2 Players by Name

Payouts for Event #5

Player of the Series Standings After 5 Events