The Christmas turkeys are now dwindling carcasses being scavenged for sandwiches, and the near-timeless gap between Christmas and the New Year is upon us. That means 2024 is drawing to a close and it’s a great time to have a look at the Canadian poker scene from the past year.
The Canadian poker scene has been going gangbusters since the end of the pandemic restrictions reopened live poker across the world and while 2024 showed a cooling of that red-hot growth, it was still a pretty solid year for Canadian poker. Most of the action in Canada is happening in one of two places right now — Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake near Montreal, and the Alberta markets of Calgary and Edmonton, though Ontario threw a big WSOP Circuit party this year for the first time and Casino Regina in Saskatchewan added it’s typical three series a year to the mix.
Across the country, players looking for tournament action were able to find big series to play:
- Playground Poker Club, Kahnawake, QC
- 9 Series in 2024
- 3 WPT series, 2 WSOP-C series
- Casino Regina, Regina, SK
- 3 Series in 2024
- More than $400k awarded to winners in Harvest Poker Classic, Nov 2024
- Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Calgary, AB
- 4 Series in 2024
- 3 WSOP-C Events
- More than 23,000 entries
- Nearly $14 million in total prizes
- Pure Poker Tour, Edmonton & Calgary, AB
- 6 Series in 2024
- More than 80 Tournaments
- More than 8,000 entries
- More than $4 million in prizes
- Ace Casino Airport, Calgary, AB
- 3 Grande Series in 2024
- Ontario
- 8 Series in 2024
- WSOP-C went to Toronto for the first time
Circuit Canada
Perhaps the biggest story from Canadian poker over the past few years has been the invasion of the WSOP Circuit into Canadian markets. While there had been Circuit events in Canada prior to the pandemic, mostly concentrated on British Columbia and Quebec, action in BC died down somewhat in the late 2010s for regulatory reasons and Circuit stops in Canada dwindled somewhat.
That all changed in 2022 with the arrival of WSOP-C Calgary for two series per year, supercharging the Alberta poker market with the biggest series it had ever seen. That success grew year-over-year and 2024 hosted a record 3 Circuit events in Calgary at Deerfoot Inn & Casino.
With a couple of Circuits in Quebec at Playground and the inaugural WSOP-C Toronto also on the 2024 schedule, it was a huge year for the Canadian Circuit with a total of 6 series in three different cities.
WSOP-C Toronto
| Venue: | Great Canadian Casino Resort, Toronto |
| Dates: | Mar 22 – Apr 1, 2024 |
| Total Entries: | 6,032 |
| Total Prizes: | $5,584,256 |
| 1st Place Money: | $981,386 |
Toronto hosted its first WSOP Circuit event this year and it was a huge success. The first running of a big series like this nearly always has glitches, but Great Canadian Casino Resort stepped up to deliver a smooth swing in their first time at the plate.
More than 6,000 entries were recorded over 8 games with $5.5 million in total prizes and nearly $1 million in the pockets of winning players. While nothing for Toronto is yet on the schedule for 2025, it seems likely the WSOP will be once again eyeing Toronto for at least one series in the new year.
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WSOP-C Montreal — Playground Poker Club
| Venue: | Playground Poker Club, Kahnawake |
| Dates: | Apr 8 – 23, 2024 |
| Total Entries: | 9,798 |
| Total Prizes: | $5,694,235 |
| 1st Place Money: | $826,535 |
| Venue: | Playground Poker Club, Kahnawake |
| Dates: | Aug 19 – Sep 3, 2024 |
| Total Entries: | 7,040 |
| Total Prizes: | $4,709,765 |
| 1st Place Money: | $775,555 |
If you are looking to play poker in Canada, there are two main spots that stand out — the Alberta cities of Calgary and Edmonton, and Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake outside of Montreal. Playground typically plays host to various tournament series throughout the year including big tours like the Circuit and WPT, as well as local homegrown series put on by the club.
in 2024, the hub of poker in eastern Canada played host to two Circuit events with huge numbers. In the first series, which ran during the 23/24 season of the Circuit, entries were just shy of 10k across the series with almost $5.7 million in prizes. A second Circuit rolled into Playground in August and while those numbers were a bit more modest with about 7k entries and $4.7 million in prizes, it was still a solid turnout for Quebec’s summer Circuit party.
WSOP-C Calgary — Deerfoot Inn & Casino
| Venue: | Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Calgary, AB |
| Dates: | Jan 8 – 20, 2024 |
| Total Entries: | 9,827 |
| Total Prizes: | $5,808,951 |
| Venue: | Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Calgary, AB |
| Dates: | May 1 – 13, 2024 |
| Total Entries: | 6,220 |
| Total Prizes: | $3,659,945 |
| Venue: | Deerfoot Inn & Casino, Calgary, AB |
| Dates: | Aug 7 – 19, 2024 |
| Total Entries: | 5,811 |
| Total Prizes: | $3,437,300 |
The western half of Canada saw three stops for WSOP Circuit with all three taking place in Calgary at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino. While typically Deerfoot runs two Circuit events per year, 2024 was unusual with a summer Circuit event in August in addition to the more familiar January and May dates.
Nearly 22,000 Circuit entries were recorded at Deerfoot in 2024 with the January series marking the biggest Circuit event in Canada for the year, narrowly eclipsing April’s WSOP-C Montreal. The Jan & May series were part of the 23/24 Circuit season while the August series kicked off the Canadian leg of the 24/25 season.
Multiple players had excellent results in Calgary this year with 5 double-ring winners. Ottawa’s Duff Charette was among the two-timers this year in Calgary, but his ring collection also grew in Montreal. Peter Darlington went back-to-back in May with a win in the 4-Flight followed up the next day with a win in the PLO game.
David Labchuk won his second seniors ring in May, then followed that up with a win in the August opening Big 30 Stack while Jenelle Exner stunned the ladies in May and Aug with back-to-back Ladies event wins. Chun Kwan rounded out the doubles club for 2024 on the Calgary Circuit.
Pure Poker Tour
Alberta has its own local poker tour, run by Pure Canadian Gaming in their Calgary and Edmonton facilities. With 6 series in 2024, the Pure Poker Tour ensured that Albertans had plenty of tournament poker to play throughout the year.
Nearly 8,200 entries were recorded across the various series with more than $4 million in prizes awarded throughout the year. The big story of the year on the PPT came from Winnipeg’s Eric Wasylenko.
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The former national youth curler and heads-up specialist showed his dominance in 2023 with multiple side event wins and main event final tables, but he put on a show early in 2024 going back-to-back in the Main Event in the first two series of the year. He added several side event wins throughout the year as well and, at this point, he must be having trouble finding space for all his PPT trophies.
Poker.Pro was the official live reporter for the 2024 PPT season, and you can take a look back at the full season with coverage of all six series on our Live Reporting hub.
| Pure Poker Tour 2024 Summary | |
| Series: | 6 |
| Events: | 81 |
| Entries: | 8,196 |
| Prizes: | $4,072,075 |
WPT Montreal & Other Series
The other big tour that rolled into Canada in 2024 was the World Poker Tour. The WPT had two full series in Canada at Playground Poker Club this year, with May and October dates, as well as a third series hosted by WPT Global in January.
Among the highlights of the WPT year in Canada was BC’s David Ko taking down his first WPT win in May in the Main Event. The relative newcomer to the game has stormed onto the Canadian scene in the past few years, cutting his teeth in the UBC Poker Club he founded, and the Alberta tournament scene where he picked up a couple of Ciurcuit rings since 2023.
A Harvest of Local Series
In addition to the big names like WSOP-C & WPT, there are multiple local series run across the country. Among the most popular are three series hosted by Casino Regina, the Station (Mar), the Diamond (Jun), and the Harvest Poker (Nov) Classics.
The 5-day series typically sees huge turnouts with the $1,700 final game at the 2024 Harvest getting 349 entries with almost $540k in prizes. Lyndon Knutson pocketed almost $140k for the win in that one.
Alberta’s third set of series is hosted by Ace Casino Airport in Calgary. The Grande Poker Series had its usual three outings in 2024 with games in Mar, Aug, and Dec. Mike Malm (more on him below) and Tyler Panas were among the players to have great years in the Grande games, and yours truly also managed a few cashes in Grande games as well.
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Malm Maims API
The Alberta Poker Index tracks player activity in Alberta with a points system similar to the larger GPI and in 2024, it was all Mike Malm. Malm crushed the API standings by nearly 400 points, more than 10% ahead of runner-up Lee Clark. Zeyu “Skytrain” Huang, Weston Pring, and Julius Roque rounded out the top five API players for 2024 nut it’s worth noting that Skytrain took a significant part of 2024 away from the Alberta tables while he was getting married in China, so the race might have been closer if he’d played the full year.
On the ladies side of the ledger, Haven Taylor continued her green-felt dominance in 2024. The 2023 winner of the Ladies points race repeated the feat in 2024 while Julius Roque won the title for the Seniors.
A New Year Beckons
There’s a new poker year on the horizon as 2024 draws to a close. 2025 is looking to be another big year in Canadian poker with the return of all the big series.
Look for a full preview of the upcoming 2025 Canadian Poker calendar here on Poker.Pro but 2025 will include more WSOP Circuit action at Deerfoot Inn & Casino (with exclusive live coverage right here on Poker.Pro) as well as Montreal and likely Toronto. The WPT will likely be back for another visit to Quebec, and the PPT (with exclusive Poker.Pro coverage), Casino Regina, and Grande series all look set for successful repeats in 2025.
Cya on the felt in 2025!
