The first week of action at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas is now complete, and the World Series of Poker is ramping up to full swing. Frederic Normand is the big Canadian story from the opening week as he came within a single player of bagging Canada’s first bracelet of 2025.
Other Canadian stories from the opening week include Thomas Taylor’s early momentum and Fantasy League drafting, industry insiders cashing the Employee’s event, some big stacks moving forward to Day 2 of the Mystery Millions, and a little bit of Canadian stud success.
Event #1: $1,000 Mystery Millions
After 5 opening flights, the Mystery Millions broke attendance records this year. With nearly 20k entries, the prize pool topped out at almost $17.3 million. That left just shy of 3,000 players expecting a cash, either late in one of the Day 1 flights, or on later days.
More than 1,000 players returned for Day 2 action, with just 20 remaining going into the final day of play. There are no Canadians remaining in the Day 3 field, but several cashed out for Day 2 cashes on Sunday, including Nicholas Lee (531, $3,260) and David Ko (229, $5,520), both of whom brought top stacks of more than 2 million into the second day, but were unable to run them to the deep end.
Callum Roque was Canada’s top finisher in this one, ending his run in the top 100 for a $10k score (no picture of Roque is available). Calgary Main Event winner Nicholas Teeuwen pocketed almost $7.5k for a finish in the 100s, as did Justin Ouimette, Amirouddine Alibay, and Peter Noble, while Ghislain Pigeon just slid into the top 200 for $6.4k. Burnaby’s Darlene Lee also had a decent run in E1 for a final score of just shy of $5k.
Day 1 Cashes
| Starting Flight | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1a | Benjamin Underwood | $1,318 |
| Day 1a | Kyle Ho | $1,318 |
| Day 1b | Georg Jancev | $1,576 |
| Day 1b | Wayne Martin | $1,576 |
| Day 1b | Skyfall2314 | $1,468 |
| Day 1b | James Fenn | $1,388 |
| Day 1b | Jeanguy Roy | $1,322 |
| Day 1b | Thomas Taylor | $1,322 |
| Day 1b | Erik Cajelais | $1,322 |
| Day 1b | Vibhav Fadnis | $1,322 |
| Day 1b | potolot | $1,322 |
| Day 1b | Larry Cruickshank | $1,322 |
| Day 1c | Kelly Becker | $1,705 |
| Day 1c | Sukhpaul Dhaliwal | $1,529 |
| Day 1c | Kyle Anderson | $1,529 |
| Day 1c | James Fenn | $1,529 |
| Day 1c | Roberto Buda | $1,529 |
| Day 1c | Inayet Sheriff | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | Seth Maretz | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | IguanaMan | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | Matthew Salsberg | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | Francois Doire | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | potolot | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | Nicole Basil | $1,318 |
| Day 1c | Joshua Silverman | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | John MacArthur | $1,785 |
| Day 1d | Igor Grinevsky | $1,625 |
| Day 1d | Darlene Lee | $1,492 |
| Day 1d | Daniel Ghobrial | $1,492 |
| Day 1d | Nicholas Nowak | $1,492 |
| Day 1d | Mark Crispin | $1,492 |
| Day 1d | Parmeet Saroya | $1,384 |
| Day 1d | BigTurk1907 | $1,384 |
| Day 1d | Leor Wasserman | $1,384 |
| Day 1d | Erik Cajelais | $1,384 |
| Day 1d | phenom11218 | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Wayne Martin | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Corey Edwards | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Connor Lee | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Charanjeev Malhotra | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Benjamin Underwood | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Abbas Moradi | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Thi Dao | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Ghislain Pigeon | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Harman Jassal | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Jason Machtinger | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Dylan Collingwood | $1,318 |
| Day 1d | Shawn Pilot | $1,318 |
Day 2 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 82 | Callum Roque | $10,340 |
| 109 | Justin Ouimette | $7,460 |
| 127 | Amirouddine Alibay | $7,460 |
| 131 | Nicholas Teeuwen | $7,460 |
| 157 | Peter Noble | $7,460 |
| 199 | Ghislain Pigeon | $6,400 |
| 327 | Darlene Lee | $4,790 |
| 333 | Ryan Rivers | $4,790 |
| 221 | Georg Jancev | $6,400 |
| 229 | David Ko | $5,520 |
| 256 | Corey Chan | $5,520 |
| 283 | Glenn Swanlund | $5,520 |
| 287 | Tung Kwok | $5,520 |
| 488 | Robert Taylor | $3,260 |
| 521 | Michael Leah | $3,260 |
| 523 | Anthony Aston | $3,260 |
| 531 | Nicholas Lee | $3,260 |
| 541 | Tommy L D Nguyen | $2,900 |
| 642 | Gaetano Dimaria | $2,600 |
| 706 | Laurn Bryant Hansen | $2,350 |
| 713 | George Caragiorgas | $2,350 |
| 772 | Nektarios Papadedes | $2,130 |
| 858 | Manish Ralh | $2,130 |
| 886 | Eric Afriat | $2,060 |
| 890 | Bradley Smith | $2,060 |
Event #2: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold’em
Jeffrey Fast was Canada’s top finisher in the restricted-entry Industry Employees Event. The game drew nearly 1,000 industry insiders, with the entry requirements loosened a bit this year to include people like media people and content creators.
They were playing for $379,310 in total, with the winner slated to pocket almost $65k. That top prize went to Phovieng Keokham, while Fast took the best Canadian score of $1,549 for 42nd place. In total, six Canadians grabbed a peice of the prizes from Event #2.
Event 2 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | Jeffrey Fast | $1,549 |
| 62 | Justin Kalvari | $1,244 |
| 65 | Matthew Ng | $1,152 |
| 95 | Steven Nguyenpham | $1,006 |
| 115 | Michael Zenetzis | $1,006 |
| 135 | Adrian Angeles | $1,006 |
Event #3: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Frederic Normand had the Event 3 bracelet in sight, but unfortunately for him and Canada’s bracelet hopes in the first week, Spaniard Antonio Galiana stood in his way. The Quebecer had the chip lead going into heads up, but Galiana put on a show featuring his heads-up skills.
“Heads-up is one of my specialties in poker,” the winner said after the game but he wasn’t confident going into the final phase of the game against the big-stack Normand. A huge triple-barrel bluff that saw Normand tank-fold after about 10 minutes gave the Spaniard some momentum and the mental state to push for the win. “There was no point I really thought I was winning it… but after the bluff in heads-up — when he folded — I said, ‘Okay, now we’re even.’”
That hand propelled Galiana to the win, leaving Normand still looking for his first bracelet. With more than $2.1 million in earnings, including 5 wins with a WPT title in the mix, this likely won’t be the last time we see Normand deep here at the WSOP.
Event 3 drew 693 entries for prizes of $3,187,800. Galiana bagged $582,008 for the win, while Normand will bring $387,979 USD back to Canada and push his lifetime earnings near $2.5 million.
Event 3 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Frederic Normand | $387,979 |
| 78 | Benjamin Underwood | $10,000 |
| 102 | Aram Zobian | $10,000 |
Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
The $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better drew more than 900 entries for prizes of more than $1.2 million, and there was some maple flavour at the final table. Patrick Stacey made single-table action in this one, ultimately bowing out in 6th place for a solid first-week score of more than $35k.
David Shmuel from the USA went on to win the event for $205,333.
Event 4 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Patrick Stacey | $35,471 |
| 28 | Randy Mcgregor | $6,562 |
| 134 | Ari Engel | $3,027 |
Event #5: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Canada didn’t have much for deep runs in the $5k PLO, with just two Canadians figuring in the payouts. The game drew 757 entries for a prize pool of nearly $3.5 million and first place pegged at $620,696.
Alex Livingston was the top Canadian finisher, but he has also figured in the Canadian dailies a few times. While he’s yet to make a deep run this series, he’s been bagging and cashing regularly in the first week of action.
American Caleb “Bruno” Furth went on to take the bracelet with a “chip and a chair” story for the ages.
Event 5 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | Alex Livingston | $16,985 |
| 51 | Edward Bergman | $12,903 |
Event #6: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Former pro hockey player and current poker pro Greg Mueller was Canada’s top finisher in the low-cost 7-Card Stud event. He bagged an 8th-place finish for $9,490 while Thomas Taylor picked up his first cash of the series, but up top was a battle of WSOP veterans.
Dan Heimiller, who has cashed at least once in every WSOP since 1997 and had two bracelets coming into the event, faced down mixed-game legend David Bach. Bach’s prowess lies mostly in the rotational games, but with three rounds of 7-card action in the HORSE variant, in which Bach has a bracelet as well as multiple other titles, he can clearly play with seven cards.
While Heimiller had Bach nearly 20:1 down at one point, it was still a battle to the end as Bach rebounded until Heimiller found a miracle seventh for the best two pair and the win just as Bach was surging.
Event 6 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Greg Mueller | $9,490 |
| 36 | Thomas Taylor | $3,193 |
Event #8: $1,500 Dealers Choice
Jonathan Krela was the best Canadian in the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice, but after coming into the final day of play 3rd in chips, he was likely looking for a deeper finish than 13th place. That was still worth more than $7.5k for the Thunder Bay, ON resident, and he led a contingent of three other well-known Canadians in the money.
The ultimate prize in the 597-runner game with nearly $800k in prizes went to online mixed-game wizard Benny Glaser. Glaser absolutely crushes the online mixed games on PokerStars, with more WCOOP and SCOOP titles than anyone else in history, most of them coming in the mixes, so it was little surprise to see him bag the final day lead, and eventually the bracelet. It’s an amazing win for Glaser, no doubt, but may well have been one of the least surprising bracelets of the series, given the way the final day began.
Event 8 Cashers
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Jonathan Krela | $7,546 |
| 29 | Shawn Buchanan | $5,094 |
| 48 | Mike Leah | $3,274 |
| 53 | Paul Sokoloff | $3,274 |
The Coming Week
The 2025 WSOP is in full swing now with multiple events running side-by-side, and Canada will be in the mix over the next few days. Top Canadian earner Daniel Negreanu is leading the way into the final day of play in the $10k O8 Championship, and Thomas Taylor is also still in the mix, looking for his first bracelet.
Meanwhile, Juan Lampreau bagged the 11th-place stack in Event #10 after the first day of play, with $10k Mystery Bounty and $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw running as well as lots of other action. Follow daily updates for each event at the Canada at WSOP 2025 tag on poker.pro.
Other WSOP Coverage from poker.pro
- 2025 WSOP: Artur Martirosian Triumphs in $25,000 Heads-Up Championship Event #7 For $500,000
- First UK Bracelet & Two Near Misses on WSOP Opening Weekend
- WSOP 2025 Tag
