WSOP 2025 — How Will Canadians Impact the Series

Top Canadian WSOP 2025 Bracelet Hopefuls

Daniel Negreanu

The top earner in WSOP history will be on everyone’s list to win another bracelet in Las Vegas. The Nevada resident should be gearing up for a long summer in the ballrooms at the Paris and Horseshoe chasing more hardware to add to his 7 total WSOP bracelets won to date. 

His $50k Players Championship win last year was his first win since 2013, so we should expect Daniel Negreanu to be hungry for more glory, and momentum into this year could be the catalyst he needs for another victory!

Alex Livingston

The Halifax native has two bracelets to his credit, but he’s most known for his deep run in the 2019 main event where his 3^rd place earned him his career best cash of $4 million dollars.

Also now residing in Las Vegas, Alex is hoping that the bracelet won in last year’s $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event will give him the confidence heading into this year’s series for another deep run at a third bracelet.

Kristen Foxen

Originally from St. Catherines, Ontario, Kristen Foxen has been a crusher on the live poker scene for many years, winning the Women POY several times, but she rose to even more prominence last summer when she placed 13^th in the main event. The five-time bracelet winner is no stranger to the winner’s circle at the WSOP – but her last in-person bracelet win came at the 2016 WSOP where she won the $1,500 Bounty event. 

Can she make it #6 this summer in Vegas?  If any women does, it could very well be Kristen.

Sam Greenwood

It’s wild to consider that someone in the top 20 of lifetime poker earnings, with over $39 million won to date, and someone who is constantly travelling the world playing poker at the highest of stakes would have WSOP bracelets left right and centre, but one area of Sam Greenwood’s resume that is lacking a bit is success at WSOP. 

Unbelievably, Sam only has one bracelet and 32 cashes for a lifetime total of $1.3 million at the World Series, and his only bracelet came back in 2015 series where he won the $1,000 NLH Event #22 for $318 thousand. 

He’s riding momentum from the WSOP Paradise series, cashing twice for two six-figure wins, and five cashes at the Triton event in South Korea for over $2 million has Sam in a good place right now. Expect him to be a force this summer at the World Series where he is hoping to end his 10-year drought of bracelets.

Canadians Looking for 1^st Bracelet in Las Vegas

Daniel Dvoress

He’s on the cusp of $40 million of lifetime poker earnings, the decorated poker pro from Mississauga, Ontario has 40 total cashes to his WSOP resume, but the two bracelets were won online and in Europe. 

He’ll certainly be on the hunt this summer looking for his first Vegas bracelet – it’s hard to believe he doesn’t have one yet, and knowing what he has won to date, one could bet on the other Dainel to make a lot of noise in Vegas this summer.

Jason Sagle

Big Bird has he is known by, made a push for his first WSOP bracelet last year, final tabling the main event but ultimately coming up short, finishing 4^th for a $3 million pay day.

He had two deep runs at the WSOP Paradise series in The Bahamas last December and has secured cashes in Vegas already this spring. He had a series last year, cashing eight times and cumulating in his final table in the main – if he can keep that going this year, Jason is poised for his first winner’s photo in Las Vegas.

Michael Watson

Apparently winning over $30 million dollars in your live poker career, including 81 cashes at the WSOP to date, you would think that the native of St. John’s, Newfoundland would have multiple bracelets to his credit, but he does not. 

He did technically win a bracelet online at last year’s series, but Michael is looking for his first in-person bracelet this summer. Four cashes at the WSOP Paradise last December and four cashes at the Triton event in South Korea back in March has Michael poised and ready to go bracelet hunting this summer in Vegas.

Griffin Benger

We all remember Griffin at the table with William Kassouf at the 2016 World Series where he ran aces into Kassouf’s pocket kings and sat there like a statue, waiting for Kassouf’s chips to go into the middle, and then the outburst that ensued. 

Griffin won the hand but lost the tournament finishing 7^th for $1.25 million. He has yet to find the final table of any other bracelet event in Las Vegas, but the PokerStars commentator is building steam from successful trips to Montreal (Quebec) and Dublin this year – will this be the year we see Benger brake through?

Canadians and the WSOP Overall

We know that foreigners are not travelling to the US in general – flights into the US have decreased demand; border waits at land crossings are short, and the negatively directed towards President Trump are changing many poker player’s plans to head to the Nevada desert for the annual convention of the best poker in the world. Exactly what the impact won’t be known until the series is over but expect this year’s event to see the highest percentage of American players winning bracelets and cashing, but an overall decrease in the players and entries is expected to have a significant impact on the 7-week event.

But it’s not just the border that is having an impact on the numbers and the potential of a drop at the World Series. Costs in Las Vegas have gone way up and have continued to rise as much as the temperature does daily, and given the volatility in the markets, things like a simple breakfast are costing players a lot more cash. 

Given the markets and rising costs of everything, it’s costing a lot more to get to Vegas and survive there and if that isn’t wrangled in by the casino operators and restaurants, expect some Americans to pass on spending time at summer camp because it’s going to cost them $16 for a hot dog. On top of all of that, the tariff situation and the possibility of the US going into a recession in 2025 will impact people’s bank accounts – and if you don’t have the savings to spend time in Vegas playing poker, you may opt to skip this year until things calm down a bit.

All in all, don’t expect the live poker boom to positively impact this year’s WSOP, and unless you are cheering on a Canadian that lives in the US, it may be a year that Canada comes up empty for WSOP Bracelets.