So far, the 2025 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, has been a case of second-best for Canadians. With not even two weeks of play under the bridge, Canada has had two serious bracelet shots, coming up one short both times.
As recounted in the opening recap in this series, Quebec’s Frederic Normand was the first Canadian to sniff at a bracelet in 2025 just a few days after the series commenced. He found himself heads up in Event #3: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em.
This week, it was Canadian money leader and top ten globally, Daniel Negreanu, who fell just short. “DNegs”, formerly known as “KidPoker”, has nearly $56 million in prizes to his name, including 7 bracelets and nearly 270 WSOP cashes.
In other Canadian news, Alex Livingston booked another cash, Mike Leah has a double-cash day, and Kristin Foxen found a Day 2 bag.
DNegs Misses #8
Daniel Negreanu was on the hunt for bracelet #8 in Event #9: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo, and he was so close he could smell it. He had a solid run through the tournament, bagging big stacks throughout and ultimately ran that success up to the runner-up prize of $313,615.
That was the 2nd-best share of just over $2 million in prizes from 217 entries for the Championship event. It was American Ryan Bambrick who took down the big share of $470,437 and the bracelet.
Neither of the top two players were leading to start the day, however. That honour went to none other than Viktor Blom, who for years was an unknown entity, known only by his online handle “Isildur1”. At the time, the unknown phenom was crushing high-stakes online cash, with lots of speculation in the poker world about who “Isildur1” was.
Blom ended up coming fourth after the money went in on the flop against Bambrick in a three-bet pot. Blom was on the short stack with top pair, but Bambrick flopped massive draws, getting there with a flush on the river to send the now well-known and dangerous Blom to the rail in 4th.
Bambrick had the lead three ways, as well as going into heads up. While Negreanu was able to chip up here and there during heads up, Bambrick’s pressure was relentless. The final showdown saw Negreanu turn top trips and get the rest of his money in, only to run into Bambrick’s boat. Negreanu still had outs to a king for a bigger boat, but bricked the river to finish runner-up.
Zaret Bags Day 3 Lead for Event #21: $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo
Zachary Zaret WSOPJuan Lamprea WSOP
Event #21 was a pretty good one for Canadians, with Juan Lampreau bagging the lead after the opening day of play, and Zachary Zaret from Toronto bagging the most after two days of play.
Lampreau ultimately bowed out on the soft bubble to Day 3, finishing in 13th place for $12,179. There is still some maple on the final day, with Zaret bagging 7 million at the end of Day 2, almost 3 million more than second-stack Bryce Yockey. Christopher Vitch, Calvin Anderson, and Darryll Fish are among the other players Zarey needs to best on Day 3.
The final day of action is on Friday, June 6, and that could be the day Zaret brings home Canada’s first bracelet of 2025.
Other Canadian Highlights
Interested spectators can get a Canadian view of the series with the hashtag Canada at WSOP 2025, with daily recaps that get into the weeds for all the Canadian results. Among the other highlights from the past week include a big bag for Ernest Chevrette in Event #17, a game that saw some Canadian-on-Canadian violence when Jonathan Krela found a straight to keep him alive against Kyle Ho.
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