It’s been quite a run for Peter Darlington so far in this WSOP-C. In the span of two days this week, he’s won two Circuit Rings in two different games.
In the lead-up to Sunday’s Day 2 of the 4-Flight game, he bagged the chip lead in Day 1c with more than 1 million chips. He brought that into Sunday’s Day 2 as a top-five stack and managed to parlay that into the win.
The next day, he swapped two cards for four to jump into the PLO side game. About ten hours later, he was posing for his second winner’s photo in as many days.
It wasn’t an easy run for him in either case. Both games were rollercoasters for the aggressive player, whose style of big bets for both bluffs and value makes him very hard to read. He was nearly felted a few times in both games but managed to hold on and come back.
In the 4-Flight victory, his final table was particularly stacked with more than $1.3 million in winnings around the table from top local talent like Mal Hagan, who seems to cash every event he plays lately, Deven Lane, and Ian “Tang Jooce” Tang. Up-and-comers like Zeyu “Skytrain” Huang and grinders like Terry Langdon rounded out a very tough final table.
It wasn’t any easier for him in the PLO, either. Among the opponents he had to get through was Greg Genge, who rarely misses a local PLO game and seems to make final tables at will with four cards. Ty Adams, Darrell Moore, and Matt Kwong were among the other tough opponents he had to best.
In one notable hand from the endgame of the PLO, he sent three players to the rail on the same hand when he cracked three different players’ pairs with running trip threes. That said, it wasn’t always a case of him “getting there” – his style of play also allowed him to extract value in spots that might have been more difficult for other players.
After the second ring, Darlington acknowledged his run-good in the series and said that while responsibilities off the tables – he runs a net-zero renovation company called Solar Homes – will keep him from firing every remaining event, he’ll be trying to parlay the run-good into a third ring this series in a few of the one-day events this weekend.
If he can manage that feat, he will be the first player to book three rings in the same series here in Calgary. Either way, he already looks to be the first player to win rings here in consecutive days. In May of 2022, two players bagged double rings, Ryan Smith and Kathy Sawers, but both of those cases were a couple of days apart.
Darlington had a bit more than $50k in winnings coming into these two events, so once things get updated, he should be flirting with $100k or more.
- Check out how Darlington took down the 4-Flight and the PLO, as well as all the action and payouts from the events.
Labchuk Wins Second Calgary Seniors Title
Darlington isn’t the only player to book multiple rings, though he is the only one so far to get two in this series. David Labchuk picked up his second career ring this year in the Seniors event after taking down the very first Seniors ring here in Calgary back in January of 2022.
He took down ring #2 over a pretty decent final table that included Seniors crusher Gerald Chung, who has won several Seniors events on another local tour, and regularly goes deep in the 50+ games, as well as Alla Hobbins, Leo Leclerc, and Phil Wright.
Labchuk had five career wins going into this game, and this win will be his third-best score.
See the limited coverage for the Seniors game on our Live Reporting pages.
Griffin Wins Second Career Ring
It’s been a week for players winning multiple rings. At the end of the Two-Day $1k event last night, Peter Griffin was the proud owner of his second Circuit ring as well.
He picked up his first ring here in Calgary in the inaugural WSOP-C in Jan 2022 when he won the 4-Flight for his biggest-ever score. The $1k Ring from this year will come in third on his cash list, after the 2022 ring and a 2nd place from an Edmonton Deepstacks tournament in 2016.
Griffin was facing down some top opponents when he got to the endgame of this one, with players like Stephen Dauphinais, Shannon Lazorko, Brett Worton, David Ko, Teo Sanchez, Jerome Makonen, Roman Brar, Roman Gallivan, and runner-up Jeff Eldred filling out the final table.
- Read all about the Two-Day $1k action to find out how Peter Griffin found his second ring.
Main Event Begins Thursday
There is still a lot of action left in this edition of WSOP-C Calgary. Main Event flights begin Thursday, May 9 with one flight daily through Saturday, May 11 and Day 2 playing out on Sunday.
This will be the 6th running of the Main Event here in Calgary, and so far, all previous five Mains have been won by local Albertan players. It remains to be seen if this year’s title will stay here in Wild Rose Country.
In addition to the Main, there are numerous side events still running, with one highlight being the $2,000 High Roller starting on Sunday and finishing on Monday. There is also a PLO Bounty game on Friday evening and a Ladies ring up for grabs on Saturday evening.
