Zachary Zaret has Stellar Weekend with 2 Cashes Including Canada’s 1st Bracelet

Zachary Zaret WSOP
Zachary Zaret WSOP

It was a big weekend for Canadians at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, as the Great White North secured our first bracelet of the 2025 World Series of Poker. Toronto’s Zachary Zaret was the player to bag Canada’s first bracelet, taking down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. A couple of days later, he added a modest cash in Event #27: $1,500 Big O.

In addition to Zaret, several other big Canadian names had a solid weekend at the summer poker festival. Daniel Negreanu found another cash for 11th place in the $10k 2-7 Championship, while Kristen Foxen, who is chasing down Vanessa Selbst for top spot on the women’s earnings chart, added almost $90k to that goal with her 13th-place finish in the 6-Handed High Roller, and she immediately went over to the 9-handed High Roller, where she bagged a Day 1 stack, then failed to make the money on Day 2.

Other Canadian notables from the weekend include Patrick Stacey who found another cash in the $1,500 Badugi for $8,688, along with Jonathan Krela and a few others. Ari Engel is the shortest of three Canadians in Event #28: $600 Mixed Deepstack, and Daniel Lefebvre, who is something of a local high roller legend on the Alberta poker scene, leads 9 Canadians moving on in Event #29: $2,500 NLH.

Zaret’s Big Weekend

Zachary Zaret 2025 WSOP Event #21: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Winner

Zachary Zaret became the Canadian to watch this weekend as he picked up the country’s first bracelet of the 2025 WSOP in Event #21: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. He prevailed over a stacked final table that was all American, with the exception of Argentine Andres Korn. Among the players Zaret had to get through for his first bracelet and biggest-ever score were runner-up Calvin Anderson, Chris Vitch (3rd), Darryll Fish (4th), Bryce Yockey (6th), and the aforementioned Korn.

That would have been enough to make him the lead story for the weekend recap, but he wasn’t finished. He jumped into the $1,500 Big O and bagged a modest cash of $4,517 for 70th place out of 1,176 runners.

Stephane Faure was the top Canadian in the Big O with 34th place for $8,256, while Ari Engel secured another WSOP cash for $4,038, adding to his more than $9 million in wins. He has more than 60 wins on the live felt, including a plethora of Circuit rings and four gold bracelets.

Negreanu Keeps Getting Close; Foxen Finds a Cash; Lefebvre Leads Canadians in E29

Daniel Negreanu looks to be on a quest for bracelet #8 this year, as he’s been going deep in the big games on a regular basis so far. This past weekend saw him bag a cash for 11th in Event #25: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, worth $23,623, then went on to bag the 7th stack in Event #30: $10,000 NL 2-7, leading Greg Mueller and Jonathan Krela into Day 2 of that one.

Kristin Foxen climbed a little bit closer to the #1 spot on the world women’s ranking with a cash in Event #22: $25,000 High Roller 6-Handed, where she finished 13th for $87,971. She still has about $1.3 million to go before she catches up with the women’s #1, Vanessa Selbst, but Foxen is the clear second-place right now with Kathy Liebert more than $3 million behind in 3rd, and Liv Boeree more than $4 million back in 4th. The next highest Canadian on that list is Xuan Liu, who recently became the first woman ever to win on the Triton tour, in 15th place with nearly $3.3 million in wins, less than a third of Foxen’s $10.7 million total, and with leader Selbst stepping back from the game in recent years, Foxen looks sure to overtake her in the near future.

In other Canadian news from the weekend, Mr. High Roller himself, Daniel Lefebvre, is leading the Canadian contingent after one day of play in Event #29: $2,500 NLH. He bagged 29th place with 420,000, leading 9 Canadians into Day 2. “Lefe”, as he is known, is legendary on the Alberta poker scene for a string of high roller victories on the Pure Poker Tour. He has five HR titles on the PPT, including three in a row.

Other Canadians to find a bag in this one included Fred Normand, who came within a hair of Canada’s first bracelet of the year in Event #3 before finishing second, and Tommy Nguyen, who picked up a Circuit ring in Calgary recently.

Get all the big Canadian results from our Canada-focused look at the series.

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* Hands and photos courtesy of PokerNews and WSOP

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