The 2025 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas is rounding the final corner and moving into the finish straight as the end of June approaches. So far, Canada has 2 bracelets in 2025, but we nearly picked up a 3rd in the Super Seniors as Damir Stefanic came one player shy of nabbing the 60+ bracelet.
Stefanic led a flurry of Canadian finishes on Friday, including Aaron Lugibihl with a top-ten performance in the Stud8 game, and Kali Shuali, Haven Taylor, and Deepa Shah all in the top 100 payouts from the Womens (with Diana Shamshoum still battling it out on Day 3).
And, there are more Canadian chances moving into weekend action as well. Gary Girotti leads four Canadian bags from Day 1b of the Gladiators (Day 1c chips were not available at press time and will be updated in tomorrow’s recap) while Shamshoum is mid-pack out of 50 returning players in the Ladies event. Jonathan Krela looks to be putting another deep run into the $10k Triple Deuce Championship with a top-ten bag, while Geoffrey Hum led 8 Canadian bags coming out of the 8-game action.
Stefanic Falls Just Short
The brass ring, which, in this case, is of course actually a gold bracelet, remained just out of reach for Canadian Damir Stefanic in Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors. He made it all the way down to the final two players, but couldn’t find the hold he needed at the end against the American winner Lonny Weitzel.
The pair were the last two standing in a pretty solid field of 3,338 entries. That put just shy of $3 million into the prizes, with the top spot paying $356,494 and the runner-up set to pocket $237,521.
The American had to run pretty hot against his northern neighbour as well. In the final hand, Stefanic was in great shape to double up to virtually every chip in play when he got queens in against pocket eights for Weitzel, putting the Canuck 80-20 in a pot that started with the two players virtually even.
This is poker, however, and the 20% gets there frustratingly often. Weitzel found an eight on the flop, and Stefanic couldn’t improve, flipping the script and handing the bracelet to Weitzel.
To say this was Stefanic’s biggest cash would be the understatement of the year — coming into this event, his Hendon Mob page showed one cash for $4,522 in lifetime earnings. He now has two entries on that page, and $242,043 in total prizes.
Krela Threatening Again in the Mix
Jonathan Krela is another Canadian having a good series so far. He’s working on his 8th cash so far this year in Event #71: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship, and he knows his deuce. He already booked a modest cash in the $1,500 version of this event, as well as a 13th place finish in the $1,500 Dealers Choice game early in the series.
He was also second in this very event in 2024, losing out to one of the best players of his generation, Scott Seiver, as he won his third bracelet of last year’s series. So, with the 7th-place stack going into the final 9 in this one, he’ll be looking to go one better this year.
It’s not going to be easy for him. Matthew Schreiber, Nich Schulman, and Yuri Dzivielevski lead the way with 1.2 million or more, and Brian Tate rounds out the millionaire stacks. Krela can play the game against the best in the world, however — in last year’s final, while he fell to Seiver at the final hurdle, he outlasted some major names in the game such as Jeremy Ausmus, Jennifer Harman, Mike Watson, Robert Mizrachi, Jason Mercier, and Galen Hall, just from the top ten.
There are just nine players left from a starting field of 141. The total prize pool was $1,311,300, with the remaining 9 players still playing for just over $1 million of that. There’s $333,054 up top for the winner on Saturday, with the top three finishers grabbing six-figure scores from the day.
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Canadian Cashes from Jun 27, 2025
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 2 | Damir Stefanic | $237,521 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 29 | Perry Burrell | $11,757 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 39 | Gary Bain | $9,637 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 56 | Rene Chave | $6,638 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 65 | Marcus Weston | $5,579 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 83 | Christian Wallmuth | $4,042 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 111 | Jacques Daigle | $3,031 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 134 | Raymond Saloomey | $3,031 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 154 | Larry Vezina | $2,659 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 231 | David Little | $2,354 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 241 | Franco Cupello | $2,354 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 265 | Stephen Klaamas | $2,354 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 276 | John Deschamp | $2,102 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 298 | Melvin Podaima | $2,102 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 377 | Guy Cruickshanks | $2,002 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 423 | Carl Dempsey | $2,002 |
| Event #64: $1,000 Super Seniors | 465 | Brant Taylor | $2,002 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 31 | Ari Engel | $26,069 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 51 | Xing He | $18,163 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 75 | Felix Martel | $11,491 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 109 | Elizabeth Boles | $8,068 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 133 | Allen Lixin Shen | $7,343 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 144 | Yu Liu | $7,343 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 160 | Gurpreet Lubana | $7,343 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 194 | Michael Malm | $6,766 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 205 | Frederic Normand | $6,310 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 208 | Geoffrey Hum | $6,310 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 259 | Nicholas Peterson | $6,010 |
| Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem | 314 | Vincent Lam | $6,010 |
| Event #69: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better | 9 | Aaron Lugibihl | $10,971 |
| Event #69: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better | 19 | Frederic Moss | $5,777 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 58 | Kali Shuali | $3,392 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 75 | Haven Taylor | $2,706 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 98 | Deepa Shah | $2,305 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 104 | Thi Dao | $2,182 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 156 | Christine Do | $2,101 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 186 | Pamela Steinhouse | $2,101 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 201 | Lina Niu | $2,101 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 205 | Tara Dunn | $2,101 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 206 | Tammy Wing | $2,101 |
| Event #72: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty | 95 | Santiago Plante | $13,581 |
Canadian Bags from Jun 27, 2025
| Event #67: $300 Gladiators of Poker | 7 | Gary Girotti | 2,070,000 |
| Event #67: $300 Gladiators of Poker | 44 | Darrin Oremba | 1,000,020 |
| Event #67: $300 Gladiators of Poker | 48 | Edward Playter | 980,000 |
| Event #67: $300 Gladiators of Poker | 78 | Michael Dulberg | 685,000 |
| Event #70: $1,000 Ladies Championship | 25 | Diana Shamshoum | 430,000 |
| Event #71: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship | 7 | Jonathan Krela | 470,000 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 54 | Geoffrey Hum | 138,000 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 67 | Ari Engel | 118,500 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 79 | Sukhpaul Dhaliwal | 100,100 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 92 | Bradley Smith | 82,000 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 115 | Thomas Taylor | 67,500 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 132 | Daniel Negreanu | 55,000 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 135 | Adrienne Carter | 53,400 |
| Event #73: $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 141 | Frederic Moss | 48,500 |
