The first-ever WSOP Super Circuit held in Canada has finished with numbers that comfortably outran its own ambitions. Staged at Playground near Montreal from August 26 to September 12, the 18-event festival generated C$24,588,598 in total prize money from 14,784 entries — more than 70% above its C$14 million in guarantees, which were already the largest ever offered for a poker series in Canada.
Along the way it produced the largest tournament ever held at the venue, the biggest field in Playground's history, and the richest prize pool in Canadian poker history.
The record Main Event
The C$5,000 Super Circuit Main Event carried a C$10 million guarantee — an aggressive number for a Canadian event — and cleared it by a distance. It drew 2,844 entries and built a prize pool of C$12,689,928, paying 426 places.
Mayukh Chakraborty took the title, C$1,500,000 and a WSOP Circuit gold ring, beating a final table that included four-time WSOP bracelet winner Chance Kornuth. Benjamin Veenstra finished runner-up.
Daniel Negreanu, the GGPoker ambassador and eight-time bracelet winner, ran deep into Day 4 before Kornuth eliminated him in 99th place for C$14,500.
The C$12.7 million prize pool is the headline, but the entry count is the more telling figure. Playground's previous attendance record for a Main Event was 1,978 entries, set by the 2025 WSOP Circuit Main. The 2026 Super Circuit Main beat that by more than 43%.
The Mini Main that broke the venue record
The single largest field of the series was not the Main Event. The C$500 Mini Main Event attracted 3,484 entries across five starting flights, generating C$1,470,248 — the largest poker tournament ever held at Playground by field size.
That is a structurally important result. A C$500 event drawing 3,484 entries and a C$5,000 event drawing 2,844 in the same festival tells you the market has genuine depth at both ends of the buy-in range, not just a thin layer of high rollers propping up a marketing number.
Series highlights
| Event | Entries | Prize pool (C$) |
|---|---|---|
| #2: $500 Mini Main Event | 3,484 | $1,470,248 |
| #7: $5,000 Super Circuit Main Event | 2,844 | $12,689,928 |
| #11: $600 Ultra Stack | 1,691 | $861,141 |
| #3: $1,000 Mystery Bounty | 1,194 | $1,036,571 |
| #4: $2,300 Canadian Championship | 996 | $2,014,360 |
| #10: $14,000 GGMillion$ High Roller | 134 | $1,728,734 |
| #12: $25,000 Super High Roller | 24 | $558,720 |
The C$2,300 Super Circuit Canadian Championship drew close to 1,000 entries for a prize pool above C$2 million, and the C$14,000 GGMillion$ High Roller pulled 134 entries for C$1,728,734 — a healthy number for a five-figure buy-in outside Las Vegas or Europe.
Total prize money for the series surpassed Playground's previous festival record of C$15.54 million.
The satellite pipeline did the heavy lifting
GGPoker reported that 18% of the Main Event field — roughly 507 entries — qualified through online satellites, and those qualifiers collected C$2,876,857 of the C$12.7 million prize pool.
That is not a marketing rounding error. Nearly one entry in five came from the online funnel, and qualifiers took home a proportionate share of the money. Two of them, Jonathan Bussieres and Felipe Baraky, reached the final table having invested a combined C$300 through WSOP Express qualifiers; Bussieres finished fifth for C$500,000 and Baraky sixth for C$400,000.
The lesson for players is not that satellites are free money — they are not, and satellite variance is severe — but that the satellite route is how mid-stakes players realistically access C$5,000 events. Our tournaments hub covers satellite formats, and bankroll management explains why a C$150 qualifier and a C$5,000 direct buy-in are not the same decision even when they produce the same seat.
Why 18 gold rings mattered more than usual
Each of the 18 ring winners also received a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package, including entry into the $2,750 WSOP Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty at Baha Mar and four nights at the Grand Hyatt.
Attaching a Paradise package to every ring changes the effective value of winning one. A C$500 event with a C$308,445 prize pool and a $5,000 package on top has a materially different EV profile than the same event standalone — particularly for the lower buy-in tournaments, where the package can be worth more than a mid-level cash.
This is a pattern worth watching across the Circuit. Package incentives are becoming the operator's preferred way to inflate the perceived value of a ring without inflating the prize pool, and they favour players who can actually travel to the Bahamas in December.
What this means for players
Canada's live market is bigger than its regulated online market suggests. A country whose online poker is fragmented across a provincial monopoly (Quebec), a ring-fenced licensed market (Ontario) and an unlaunched one (Alberta) just produced C$24.5 million in live prize money in 18 days. Live and online demand are not the same thing, and the live number is the honest measure of how many poker players are actually in the market.
Guarantees at regional festivals are getting safer to trust. A series that beats a record guarantee by 70% is not a series that will shrink its guarantees next year. For players planning travel, the risk of turning up to an event that fails to fire is lower at a festival with this kind of track record.
Play the buy-in tier where the value is. The Mini Main drew more entries than the Main at one-tenth the price. If you are choosing between one C$5,000 bullet and ten C$500 bullets, the second option gives you more equity in the series and far more survivable variance. Our cash games vs tournaments comparison covers the broader bankroll logic.
What comes next
Playground hosts another WSOP Circuit series from November 2 to 17, considerably smaller but still carrying more than C$5.5 million in guarantees across 18 ring events, including a C$2.5 million guaranteed Main Event. Online qualifiers are expected to run again.
The Super Circuit itself now heads to King's Casino in Rozvadov, Czechia, for the inaugural WSOP Super Circuit KINGS from October 28 to November 11. After WSOP Paradise, the format makes its Latin American debut at Hard Rock Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic from January 24 to February 2, 2027.
For players tracking the schedule, the WSOP schedule and WSOP 2026 results pages follow confirmed dates. Online qualifiers into these festivals run on multiple platforms — our real money poker sites rankings and the Americas Cardroom review cover rooms with active satellite schedules for players who cannot access GGPoker in their market.
Sources: Pokerfuse