2024 marks an unusual year on the World Series of Poker (WSOP) International Circuit with Calgary playing host to an extra series this year. Since the city burst onto the Circuit in Jan 2022 with the biggest poker series Calgary had ever seen, the Alberta poker mecca has played host to two Circuit series per year.
Typically those have run in January and May, in the traditional time slots previously held by the Winter and Spring Super Stack events from Deerfoot Inn & Casino. This year for 2024, an extra series has been added to the schedule for a 3rd Calgary Circuit in August with action kicking off on Aug 7.
The latest Circuit event in Calgary runs for 13 days and has a schedule that will be very familiar to regulars on the tour with the series opening and closing with Big 30 Stack events, a two-day $1k event with a Turbo $1k running on Day 2 of the two-day, the ever-popular 4-Flight, and the $1,700 Main Event. Throw in a Seniors, a Ladies, and a High Roller, along with PKO, Mystery, and regular bounty action as well as some four-card poker, and there will be something on the schedule for every player.
WSOP-C Calgary Aug 2024 Summary
- WSOP-C Calgary Aug 2024
- Dates: Aug 7 – 19, 2024
- Venue: Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Events: 16
- Estimated Prizes: $4 million +
- Estimated Main Event Prize Pool: $1.7 million +
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16 Events in 13 Days
While August marks new dates for a Calgary Circuit event, the schedule will look very familiar to anyone who has been in Calgary for previous Circuits. It starts and ends with a Big 30 Stack and includes fan favorites like the 4-Flight, Monster Stack, and $1k events.
There’s something new on the schedule this time around, however — a live progressive knockout game. While the Calgary Circuit has hosted Mystery and regular bounty events, this is the first time a PKO format has appeared in the series, and with a $200 base bounty, it could be a lucrative game for the bounty specialists.
Other familiar favorites on the list include seniors and ladies events, the $2,200 High Roller, a mixed PLO/NLH game, the somewhat divisive Flip & Go and a PLO Bounty game, among others. That is all capped off, of course, by the $1,700 Main Event which should easily break $1.7 million in prizes (the average of the prize pools in the six series so far) and should approach $2 million or more.
The Main Event
- Dates: Aug 15 – 19, 2024
- Buy-In: $1,700 ($1,515 + $185)
- Day 1s
- Day 1a: Aug 15, 11 AM
- Day 1b: Aug 16, 11 AM
- Day 1c: Aug 17, 11 AM
- Day 2: Aug 18, Noon
- Day 3: Aug 19, Noon (if required)
- Past Prize Range: $1,371,163 (May 2022) – $2,234,625 (Jan 2024)
The first of three Day 1 flights for the Main Event kicks off on Thu, Aug 15 at 11 AM, the following two days play host to the remaining flights. Sunday marks Day 2 and Day 3 will run, if required (it will be lol), on Monday, Aug 19 alongside Day 2 of the High Roller. Day 2 and Day 3 both start an hour later than Day 1.
While the August Main Event is a new phenomenon, based on previous series, the $1.7 million estimate seems plausible and possibly a lowball. Time will tell, and with this being the first year for an August series, the numbers may not be indicative of the strength of the dates going forward.
Live reporting for the series will be run on Main Event Travel and hosted by Poker Pro — check out the main reporting page.
Seventh Circuit in Cowtown
To date, there have been six Circuit events completed in Calgary at Deerfoot Inn & Casino with every event so far coming in bigger than any series the city had previously seen. A pattern emerged over the three years so far that saw the January event get significantly larger numbers than the May event, which finishes less than a month from the start of the big summer series in Vegas.
This new August series marks the seventh running overall in Calgary, and the third in 2024. That will be an unusual total, as the rumour is that the venue will go back to two events again for 2025. The 2025 difference will likely be that the two events will be in January and August, with the May dates reverting to the Spring Super Stack series once again.
Year over Year Success
The Circuit started out big in Calgary and has only built since then. After a record Jan 2022 that saw the biggest poker series and poker tournaments Calgary had ever witnessed, the May 2022 numbers were somewhat disappointing — but only in comparison. While the nearly $3.25 million awarded in the first Circuit blew the local records out of the water, without that series, the May 2022 total of more than $2.5 million with almost $1.4 million in the Main Event, would have still been a record breaker.
2023 saw massive growth in both series with more than 60% growth in the January series. 2024 had more modest growth, but this year still saw the games grow.
| Date | Events | Entries | Total Prizes | Main Event Prizes | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2022 | 12 | 6,510 | $3,324,335 | $1,786,362 | — |
| May 2022 | 13 | 4,490 | $2,562,408 | $1,371,163 | — |
| Jan 2023 | 15 | 7,480 | $5,322,735 | $2,169,303 | 60.11% |
| May 2023 | 13 | 5,495 | $3,451,103 | $1,433,792 | 34.68% |
| Jan 2024 | 15 | 9,464 | $5,808,951 | $2,234,625 | 9.13% |
| May 2024 | 16 | 6,220 | $3,659,945 | $1,380,165 | 6.05% |
| Totals | 39,659 | $24,129,477 | $10,375,410 |
August is the New May
With this new series, it looks like the May dates will be retired going forward, and the August series will become the default 2nd stop for Calgary annually. While the May dates have been bigger than anything the city saw prior to arrival of the Circuit, it’s no secret that the reduction in numbers from January is something the tour and venue wanted to address.
The new dates in August may be just the ticket. August is the height of summer for Calgary, and while the city is often seen as a winter destination with world-class skiing, dog-sledding, skating, and other winter activities galore for January visitors, what may be less well known is that the same terrain that gives southern Alberta some of the best skiing in the world translates to some of the best mountain biking and hiking in the world when the sun comes out and the snow melts.
The venue, Deerfoot Inn & Casino provides an integrated entertainment destination for Calgary. Just minutes from downtown, there is also easy access to destinations outside the city from Deerfoot, but players may well not want to leave the facility. The WSOP-C action is just a few steps down the hall from the guest rooms and the hotel has world-class south-western cuisine, as well as one of the best Prime Rib dinners around, in the Mohave Grill and Cactus Lounge.
Check out the city this August, and get ready for summers in Calgary going forward!
