Two live cashes in his entire career, US$3,260 in total, and on Thursday he walked out of Playground with CA$1,500,000 and a ring. Mayukh Chakraborty of North York, Ontario, is the new champion of the WSOP Super Circuit Canada Main Event, the CA$5,000 tournament that drew 2,844 entries and paid out CA$13,082,400, the largest prize pool in Canadian poker history. Brazil's Felipe Baraky, the only South American at the final table, finished sixth for CA$400,000.
The facts: a Canadian final table and one flip that settled it
The final table played out on Thursday, September 10, in Kahnawake, Quebec, with seven Canadians among the nine. The Day 5 start-of-day leader was gone before it began, and Chance Kornuth, the favorite on résumé, bowed out in fourth for CA$600,000. Jack Salter took third (CA$750,000) and the heads-up match was all-Canadian: Benjamin Veenstra held a slight edge when the decisive moment came, but the flip went Chakraborty's way. Veenstra collected CA$1,000,000.
Baraky had started Day 5 in 20th of 30 with 37 big blinds and reached the final table fifth in chips. His sixth place carries a detail that matters: he won his seat in a US$150 online satellite, as did Jonathan Bussières, fifth for CA$500,000. Of the 2,844 entries, 507 came through qualifiers.
There was controversy too. With the field already in the money on Day 3, organizers found that an outdated payout model had been loaded, one that gave CA$2,000,000 to the winner and reserved 47% of the prize pool for the final table. It was corrected mid-tournament: first place dropped to CA$1,500,000, the final table's share fell to 42.5%, and the difference was pushed down to the lower finishes. The festival's total prize money passed CA$18,800,000, with events still running through Saturday, September 12.
Why it matters: three lessons you can actually use
First: the satellite is the honest route into big tournaments. Two of the nine finalists turned US$150 into six-figure scores. Not because a satellite gives anything away, but because it lets you play a CA$5,000 buy-in without wrecking your bankroll management. If you want to understand how they work and when they are worth it, here is how to qualify through satellites.
Second: the payout table is strategy, not paperwork. ICM, the model that converts chips into money according to the prizes, tells you a flatter structure rewards slightly tighter play while a top-heavy one invites risk. When the table changed midway through Day 3, the correct play changed for everyone still alive. Read the payouts before the bubble, and read them again if anyone touches them.
Third: your résumé does not deal the cards. The champion had two small cashes; the favorite with years of titles finished fourth. That does not mean experience is worthless: it means variance dominates a one-tournament sample. Kornuth's years of work remain the model to follow; a single result does not.
Baraky started the day in 20th and finished with CA$400,000 off a US$150 satellite. That is the path we teach in the community: structure, discipline and decisions, no shortcuts. Would you have tightened up knowing the table just got flatter? Tell us.