Kyle Grupp wins the WSOP Circuit Turning Stone Main Event for $246,362

Kyle Grupp won the $1,700 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event of the World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, on Monday, Oct 26. He beat Joel Cattelane heads-up for $246,362, his first WSOP Circuit gold ring and the biggest score of his career, according to WSOP.com's official results. He also gets a $5,000 package for WSOP Paradise 2026 in the Bahamas.

It was a return trip for Grupp. Three years ago he finished fourth in the same event, and he told Poker.org that result was "sort of bittersweet because I came in with the chip lead."

The numbers

• Entries: 996 over three starting flights, from Oct 22 to Oct 26, per WSOP.com.
• Prize pool: $1,508,940, per Card Player, beating the $1 million guarantee.
• First prize: $246,362, a WSOP Circuit ring and a $5,000 WSOP Paradise 2026 package. WSOP.com says the package covers an entry into the $2,750 Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty event plus a stay at Baha Mar.
• Runner-up: Joel Cattelane, $164,220.
• The Main Event closed out the Turning Stone series, which had 18 ring events from Oct 15 to Oct 26, per WSOP.com.

Final table results

How the final table went

Poker.org says the last day went from seven players to one in about five hours. The key hands, per Card Player:

• Cathy Schenone went out in seventh when her pocket sixes lost to Greg Ostrander's pocket nines.
• Tina Panichi's ace-queen of clubs ran into Grupp's pocket kings, and she finished sixth.
• Ostrander, a WSOP bracelet winner from Rochester, went out in fifth. He had ace-queen, and Daniel Wagner flopped trips with nine-eight of hearts.
• Wagner went out in fourth with ace-queen against Cattelane's pocket eights. A king-high board missed him.
• Steven Tabb finished third. Grupp moved all in from the small blind with six-three of spades, Tabb called with ace-nine, and a three on the flop was enough for Grupp.

Heads-up

Cattelane, from Syracuse, started heads-up with just over a 2-to-1 chip lead, per Card Player. His best result before this was $17,665 for 11th in this same event last spring. Grupp took the lead on an ace-king-nine-nine-three board. He bet about 28 big blinds on the river, and Cattelane folded.

On the final hand, Grupp raised on the button with jack-nine and Cattelane three-bet to 4,500,000 with the ace-three of clubs. Grupp called. The flop came king of clubs, nine of spades, seven of clubs, giving Grupp a pair of nines and Cattelane the nut flush draw. Cattelane bet 7,500,000 and Grupp called. On the ten of spades turn, Cattelane moved all in for his last 5,700,000 and Grupp called. The two of hearts on the river missed Cattelane, and Grupp had the ring.

"Joel was a real tough match heads-up; he came in with the chip lead," Grupp told Poker.org. "I knew I was going to have to be smart and not overextend myself."

Who is Kyle Grupp?

Grupp is from Buffalo and calls Turning Stone his home casino, he told Poker.org. "I used to drive to the $400 every other month when I was just learning how to play tournaments," he said. Before this win, his biggest cash was $165,000 for 54th place in the 2025 WSOP Main Event, per Card Player. He'd also made two other WSOP Circuit main event final tables: fourth in this event in 2023 and sixth at the WSOP International Circuit Montreal Main Event in 2025. Card Player and Poker.org both put his lifetime tournament earnings above $800,000 after this win.

He said 2026 had been a hard year before this week. "I spent a month out in Vegas and bricked almost everything, just a few min cashes," he told Poker.org. He also said he'd told friends before the final day that he would win: "I kind of called my shot with this one too." He hasn't decided whether he'll use the Paradise package, he said.

A note on the buy-in

The Main Event's buy-in is $1,700, and that is the full price of an entry. The prize pool works out to $1,515 per entry ($1,508,940 divided by 996). The other $185 from each buy-in went to fees and withholdings, not the prize pool.