This is ring #3 for David Ko. He won his first ring in Jul of 2023 in London, then he came to Calgary in January and took down the opening event of the series. Now, he's just completed the hat trick with a win tonight in the Go stage of Event #12.

He was getting razzed a bit before the game today, as it took him some effort to bag his 160k. While I haven't confirmed how many bullets the rest of the field fired, Ko took 13 tries before he finally managed to bag a win in the flip stage, and somewhat unlikely run of bad luck given that, by straight odds, he should be winning 1 in 8 tries.

The effort was clearly worth it though and he has no concerns about making a profit, regardless of the number of bullets. The final hand saw him get a free look at a turn card that hit him square in the gut for a straight against the two-pair of the runner-up. It was the second time he's won a ring here in Calgary with a gutshot straight as his Big 30 Stack win earlier in the year finished in similar fashion.

This was his third-biggest live score, after his previous two ring wins, and just ahead of a win in February in Edmonton on the PPT. The prize tonight should push his lifetime earnings into the $125k range.

He doesn't want to be identified, but the runner-up tonight was looking for at least his second win here at Deerfoot when he got heads up against David Ko tonight. Regular followers of my work might remember a similar "back of the head" winner's photo last year, and I can confirm this was the same person.

The final hand was a bit brutal for him. He flopped two pair on , and checked to trap, but got a check back from Ko. He led the turn for 300k and Ko called. On the river, he led for 600k, then called it all off when Ko shoved with more.

It was bad news when Ko flipped over for the turned gutshot and our unidentified player had to settle for second tonight.

Most of the damage happened in the hand just before the bust when David Ko raised his button to 160k and Ryder Marzyk called from the small blind. He check-called for 120k on the flop and they both checked the turn. Marzyk checked again on the river and then hit the tank hard when David Ko went big with a 540k bet.

Marzyk eventually called, but mucked when Ko rolled over king-jack for flopped trips. That left Marzyk very short, and he was out the next hand.

They are down to the final three now after Srinivas Gottiparthi called off the shove in the big blind with pocket tens, but lost to the three outer with king-ten when a king hit the flop.

David Ko called the small blind, then called again when big blind Ryder Marzyk raised to 170k. Ko check-called for 175k on the flop and against for 450k on the turn.

After a check from Ko on the river, Marzyk shoved and Ko called off with more, but mucked when Marzyk showed for the turned two pair and a big chip up.

David Ko has about half the chips in play with action four-handed at the break now while Srinivas Gottiparthi is the short stack at the table.

For personal reasons, seat 1 has asked that he remain anonymous, hence the "back of the head" picture, but he just picked up a double in a brutal spot. I arrived with the board already out showing and Seat 1 was debating his bet size. He finally opted for a shove of 570k, and David Ko, the other player in the hand, snapped him off.

Ko was in brutal shape, though, holding the bottom end of a ten-high straight against the top end of the same straight with queen-jack for seat 1.

It's been crazy this level as they are now down to 4 players left after Duff Charette just hit the rail in 5th place. The remaining players will go on another break following this level.

It was blind on blind when Kathleen Charlton limped the small, then shoved over the 200k raise from big blind David Ko. He called it off for a race between ace-ten and her pocket nines. Ko flopped an ten and that was all he needed to send Charlton to the cash cage.

They are six-handed now after a flurry of bustouts within a few minutes of each other with Jerry Li as the most recent bust. There is still late entry time for the PLO Bounty game, and odds are the PLO ring and bracelet winner will be in a PLO seat shortly.

The action has suddenly picked up after a couple of orbits of 9-handed play. Doug McGinnis jammed 120k and was called by Ryder Marzyk. McGinnis flopped an ace to go with his ace-six, but the ten-seven for Marzyk turned trip tens for the win.

I missed the action while I was writing up the last hand, but Shane Brotherwood was left pretty short after his aces were cracked earlier in the level, and he just lost the rest of his chips for a 9th place finish tonight.

Duff Charette, who won the Mystery Bounty earlier in the series, raised to 80k early and it folded around to big blind Kathleen Charlton who called. She check-called for 50k on the flop and both players checked the turn. The river brought a bet of 200k from Charlton, and after a few seconds of thought, Charette folded his pocket sixes face up.

"Nice bluff," he said, showing his hand, but Charlton didn't confirm or deny the assertion.

Shane Brotherwood opened to 100k under the gun, and the only caller was big blind Ryder Marzyk. He only had 155k behind after the call, and he check-called off his stack when Brotherwood bet 200k on the flop.

Brotherwood had against for Marzyk, and he flushed the aces on the river of the runout.

They just broke down to the final table as Level 11 is ending after Stephen Coughlan from Cork hit the rail in 10th place tonight. FT pictures should be up shortly.

They are still 10-handed on the dinner break with David Ko leading. He has 1.4 million, but Kathleen Charlton and Shane Brotherwood are close to 1 million for second and third.

There are 10 players left now in the Flip & Go, on the bubble to the final table with Jaqueline Ray ending her run today in 11th place.

As this game is 8-handed, they'll go to the final table with 9 players left today. They are down to 11 now after the recent busts of Karol Kelly, Curtis Singleton, Tedde Ballanger, Chad Hallett, and Jacob Johnston. Full prize details are under the Payouts tab, but the most recent bust, Johnston, got the first four-figure payout of $1,138.

They are down to 16 players on the final two tables in the Flip & Go with a bit more than 12 minutes left in Level 7. They just did the two-table redraw with one more payout to go at the $806 level before it jumps to $948 at 15th place.

They are down to 19 remaining now with Level 7 just underway. Ring runner-up Andrew Goosen and ring winner Krystian Hady were the most recent busts from Day 2.

They are down to 22 left in E12 now with 10 minutes to play in Level 6. Stefan Maloney, Daniel O'Leary, Garrett Birch, and Wei Hou were among the recent busts with full payouts to 23rd place in the Payouts tab shortly.

They are down to 25 players left with about 10 minutes to go in Level 5. They'll take their first break of the day following this level. Stefan Maloney and Daniel O'Leary were among the recent players to exit the game $561 richer.

They are down to 28 players left now and among the recent players to collect some money were Michael Khan, Joe Basaraba, and DJ Sharma, while Nohad Teliani arrived at the payout desk as I was writing this.

Things are moving a bit quicker now as action is moving into Level 4. They are down to 34 players left now, two eliminations away from the next table break.

They are now down to 38 players remaining and they've broken their first table of the day. Nick Andreas, Chun Kwan (winner of the Turbo $1k), and James Cruikshank are the busts to bring it down to 38.

Level 2 proceeded with no players busting out, so there are still 41 players in the game to start the third level of the day.

They lost one player during the opening round of play. Vancouver's Ashkkan Razavi took the first min-cash spot in 42nd place today, and Level 2 is just now underway.

The Flip & Go players are now taking their seats and the action is just about to get underway for the opening level. Everyone has 80 big blinds to start the day and cards are now in the air.

The prizes for the Flip & Go are in and the winner is set to pocket $15,501 later today. It will be an interesting day as all 42 players look to be sitting down with identical stacks.

The prizes are all loaded into the backend for this game now so check out the Payouts tab for a full look, but the first players to bust today can expect to leave with $468 in their pockets.

There were two more hours of flips this morning and another five players managed to win their way into Day 2 at the last minute. It still looks like no one managed to bag multiple stacks this year, so there are 43 stacks of 160k sitting down for Day 2. I'll update the payouts for this one shortly.

With just two hours of potential flips on Friday morning, there are already 37 players in the GO stage for Event #12, and, unusually, no one has bagged more than a single stack so far this series. That may well change tomorrow morning, but for a look at the current 37 players heading into Day 2 even-stacked at 160k each, check out the Chip Counts tab shortly.