Afriat with Biggest Score in Main; Ho, Ruhl, Berny, Oh, Dauphinais with Big Scores on the Side

Stephen Dauphinais Wins First PPT Trophy
Stephen Dauphinais after winning a PPT Main Event at the end of 2024. Dauphinais was the deepest Canadian run in the TORSE event at the 2025 WSOP

The final weekend of the 2025 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, is now in the books. With just a few days of action left in the big summer poker party, Canadians are still pushing for bracelets and results.

Among the big scores from the weekend was Edmonton’s Stephen Dauphinais. He ran up a stack in the TORSE game (a new HORSE variation that replaces limit hold ’em with triple draw deuce to seven) and held on for a top-15 finish.

PLO reg Kurtis Ruhl found a deep run to the top 15 in the $1,500 PLO, while Burnaby’s Kyle Ho banked almost $40k in the $3k Mid-Stakes Championship. Michael “Berny” Bernstein also had a deep run, cashing for 10th place in Event #92: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty.

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Afriat & Babko Were the Final Canadians in the Main

The Canadian run in the Main Event came to an end this weekend on Day 7 of the game, widely seen as the “World Championships” for live poker. Two Canadians made it to the Day 7 action, with Maxim Babko bagging a small stack and ending his run early on Day 7.

Eric Afriat was the other Canadian still in the mix. He bagged a bit bigger to start the day, coming back with the second biggest stack out of the remaining 57 players. He had a bit of a rough day, however, dropping down the counts and eventually busting out in 29th place for $300k, while Babko’s 55th-place finish netted him $165k.

Dauphinais Showing Chops with More than Two Cards

Stephen Dauphinais has been quietly becoming one of Western Canada’s biggest rising stars. He had a breakout run to 3rd place and more than $600k in last year’s Millionaire Maker at the WSOP, then followed that up later in the year with a win in the PPT Tournament of Champions Main Event.

To date, Dauphinais has mostly been known for his prowess with two cards in front of him, consistently running deep in hold’em events. This weekend in Vegas, he showed that he knows more than just two-card poker after a deep run in Event #93: $3,000 T.O.R.S.E., a variation of HORSE that sees the opening round play as deuce to seven instead of hold ’em.

In fact, as it was the triple draw variant of the 5-game rotation, he wasn’t playing with two cards at any point in this game. That didn’t seem to slow him down, though, and he ran it all the way up to 13th place (from a field of 522) for just shy of $14k, a result that shows Canada may have another mixed-game crusher evolving on the Alberta prairie.

Weekend Cashes from Berny, Ho, Habeyeb, Oh, & Ruhl

Along with Dauphinais, a flurry of other Canadians found their way to the WSOP cash cage on the final weekend of play. Edmonton’s Michael “Berny” Bernstein found the unofficial final table in Event #92: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty before busting in 10th on the official FT bubble for $19,964, while Brunaby’s Kyle Ho made it to 34th place in Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship for just shy of $40k.

Another west coaster who had a nice weekend run was Seseung “Henry” Oh. Oh almost always has a smile on his face at the tables, and enjoys himself no matter what happens. Oh was the second-best Canadian in the TORSE game this weekend, preceding Dauphinais to the cage for 43rd place and $7,265. Six other Canadians also cashed that one, including mixed-game beasts Daniel Negreanu and Mike Watson, as well as Jonathan Krela and Patrick Stacey.

Next to Ho and the Main Event scores, it was Zachary Habayeb with Canada’s biggest weekend score, however. He made it to 14th place in Event #90: $777 Lucky 7’s for more than $35k, leading 12 Canadians to the cage in that one. Other cashes representing the Maple Leaf included Erik Cajelais, Jimmy Setna, Vince Lam, and Sebastian Crema.

The final Canadian score of note from the weekend belonged to PLO Reg Kurtis Ruhl. He likes his four-card poker, racking up a string of wins and deep runs in Alberta in 2022 and 23, and he made it to 15th place in Event #91: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for a cashout of just over $16k.

Shen is Second Best in Lucky 7’s, Leading Many Canadian Shots in Final Days

While Habayeb was the biggest casher from Event #90: $777 Lucky 7’s so far, Canada still has two bags in the game, and both of them are pretty big. There are 8 players remaining from a starting field of more than 8,000, and Canada has two bags in the top half of the counts.

Yu Liu bagged up 4th-place chips for 37.5 million, but Allen Shen is in second, about 15 million behind the leader with 58.7 million (29 big blinds vs 37 for the chip leader, Italy’s Nicola Bracchi). That final table also includes British superstar Patrick “Pads” Leonard.

Mike Watson and Daniel Negreanu are still repping the Maple Leaf in Event #94: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Championship, while Sebastian Crema, Mal Hagan, and Ryan Smith all bagged for decent stacks in Event #95: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack.

Finally, Pierre Nasr leads 15 Canadian bags into Event #96: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, one of the final events on the 2025 WSOP schedule. Nasr has the second-best stack in the game with 843k, but Jerry Li (who flies a Chinese flag on Hendon Mob, but is a Calgary resident and a regular on the Alberta poker circuit) found 3rd place with 810k. Paul Brar (from Edmonton) bagged up 437k for 18th, with Thomas Taylor, Kyle Ho, and Santiago Plante among the other Canadian bags there.

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* Hands and photos courtesy of PokerNews and WSOP

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