Peter Darlington is a force to be reckoned with at this Circuit series. After taking down the 4-Flight ring last night, he picked up his second ring in as many days tonight in the PLO.

As with his 4-Flight victory, he was up and down in the endgame. He was one of the shorter stacks to start the final table, but got into a huge confrontation with chip leader at the time Greg Genge where he went runner-runner flush against Genge's flopped set for a huge pot. Later on, he sent three players to the cash cage on the same hand with running trip threes while also taking a chunk out of the stack of the 3rd place finisher tonight.

Darlington got the game heads-up by cracking aces with a rivered set of queens and found himself with a massive stack against runner-up Darrell Moore on fumes for most of the HU phase. On the final hand, Darlington had the best of it with ace-king-jack-five against king-ten-five-three for Moore. Darlington flopped his ace and that was all he needed to take down his second ring in as many days.

Darlington isn't the first to win two rings in a Calgary Circuit event, but if my memory serves, he is the first to go back-to-back in consecutive days. In May 2022, Ryan Smith won two rings after taking down the opening event and following it up with a win in the PLO bounty a few days later. In the same series, Kathy Sawers won rings in both the Ladies and the Two-Day $1k events, but again, they weren't on consecutive days. To date, no one has won three rings in the same series in Calgary, but with a week of events left, including another PLO, which is likely Darlington's best game, Darlington could well be the first to bag three rings in a Calgary Circuit series.

Darrell Moore was one a shorter stack for a lot of the final table, but he played the waiting game, letting others get involved in the big pots while he sat back and laddered. That was a great strategy to get him as far as second place, but he then ran into the massive stack of Peter Darlington, who is on a tear this week.

Moore was on less than a million throughout heads-up and while he did double up a few times, the hill was just too steep to climb, in part because of the chips, and in part because Darlington, who won the 4-Flight ring yesterday, has been an unstoppable force lately. Moore picked up just shy of $10k for his runner-up finish tonight and he immediately got in his car to drive back to Red Deer for work Tuesday morning.

They are heads up now after the anonymous player hit the rail in 3rd place. He ran into the freight train that is Peter Darlington lately as Darlington cracked his aces with queens by rivering a set.

That leaves Darlington heads up against Darrell Moore from Red Deer, but Moore is playing fumes while Darlington has all the chips.

They are three-handed now after Akuna Nguyen lost his small stack for 4th place worth $4,922.

Peter Darlington now has a massive lead to start Level 25 after the huge triple-knockout. He's playing more than 3 million of the nearly five million in play right now, and looks good for his second ring in as many nights.

It was a massive hand after Armin Bahmanpour shoved for 80k under the gun. Peter Darlington called, as did Seat 1 from the button before Ty Adams re-shoved for 275k. Greg Genge flatted the 275k from the big blind as did both other players.

The flop came with two players all in and three still active. Genge shoved the rest of his stack for 125k and was called by both remaining players, setting up a third side pot.

The remaining player checked through the turn and river and Peter Darlington went runner-runner trip threes with king-nine-eight-three to take down the lot over Seat 1 with ace-queen-six-deuce, Adams with jack-nine-nine-eight, Genge with queen-jack-jack-8 for the flopped set and the nine-six-five-deuce for the short stack of Bahmanpour.

That means Bahmanpour took 7th tonight, with Adams in 6th, and Genge in 5th, based on the stacks to start the hand.

They are down to 7 now after Matt Kwong ended his day in 8th place for $1,654.

They are down to 8 now at the start of Level 23 after Cuong "Ricky" Nguyen picked up the 9th-place prize of $1,335. I missed the action as I was outside for a break.

Seat 1 opened with a limp, and Ty Adams followed from his left, as did Darrell Moore from the button. Small Blind Peter Darlington potted it to 180k, leaving very little behind.

That pushed out the initial raiser, but Adams re-raised to 330k, enough to put Darlington all in. "That's what I was going to do," Moore muttered before announcing fold.

Darlington put the rest of it in with king-queen-ten-six with clubs against queen-queen-jack-five with hearts for Adams. Adams flopped his set on but Darlington turned his clubs to stay alive with the double.

Below is a look at the final table chips with one player wishing to remain anonymous. 

Garrett Birch was the first player off the final table finishing his run in 10th place for $1,104.

There were just two quick eliminations to set up the final table. I'll grab full names, stacks, and pictures shortly. The final table will start with 15:34 remaining in Level 21.

Greg Genge looks to be the chip leader here in the final 12 with more than 1 million in front of him, about 20% of the chips in play. Peter Darlington is around 300k looking for his second ring in as many days while Matt Kwong looks to be playing close to 400k.

The action is moving pretty quickly in the PLO with the field down to 12 players left. Full prizes to 13th place can be found under the Payouts tab. There are now a bit more than 5 minutes left in Level 19.

They are down to 15 players left in the PLO now with Level 19 just beginning. I've just updated the payouts to 16th place under the Payouts tab and I should be able to focus on this game shortly.

I did just notice that 4-Flight winner Peter Darlington is deep in this one as well, looking for his second ring in as many days, and he may well be even better with four cards than he is with two.

The PLO prizes are in and the field is confirmed at 197 entries for prizes of $65,010. 30 players will get a piece of that later tonight with the winner set to pocket more than $15k. The full prizes are below and listed under the payouts tab.

The PLO game is ongoing in Chrome now and there are about 30 minutes left to enter the game as action is now in Level 9. I'll likely be over to catch the endgame of this one later tonight.

Event #8: $400 PLO ($330 + $70)

Date: May 6, 2024, 5 PM
Start Stack: 25,000
Blinds: 20 Min
Late Entry: 9 Levels (~8:30 PM)

The side game on Monday is the $400 PLO. Cards go in the air at 5 PM Monday and players will sit down with 25k in chips. Blinds will be 20 minutes for the whole day, and players will be able to enter the game for 9 levels. Including breaks, that will put the last chance to enter at about 8:30 PM.

I won't be paying much attention to this one at the start as I'll be watching the end of Day 1 in the $1k until about 10:30 tonight, but I should be moving over to finish this one out after Day 1 bags.