2013 WSOP “Year of The Canadian” – A Look At The Numbers

Soon after it began, the 2013 World Series of Poker started being dubbed “The Year of the Canadian” by the poker media. It’s wasn’t that Canucks were cleaning house and shipping absolutely everything, but considering we usually make up less than 10% (and often closer to just 5%) of any given field at the WSOP, one could say we were winning more than our “fair share”.

All told we scored 10 bracelets over the 61 events completed so far, along with a shot at still adding the big kahuna, the $10,000 Main Event No Limit Hold’em WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP title, through final table contender and November Nine’r Marc Etienne McLaughlin.

That’s better than 15% of the bracelets already and more than 3 times the next closest non-US country, the United Kingdom who claimed 3 of their own. Those numbers get much more impressive when you consider that players from a total of 74 countries participated this year.

Throw in 4 runner up finishes from Mark Merkains ($1.5k Fixed Limit), Jason Bigelow ($1k NLHE), Yongshuo Zheng ($1.5k NLHE) as well as Daniel Negreanu (2-7 Triple Draw Lowball $2.5k) all got heads up for gold and a total of 38 final table appearances where made by Canadians (with 4 more finishing on the official final table bubble), it’s not hard to see why they are singing praise for our players.

All told, the official numbers from the WSOP show Canada at 573 cashes totaling almost dead on $12,000,000 and that number could reach about $20 million if McLaughlin can get it done in November.

In case you missed it, our bracelet winners included:

• Kristen Bicknell – $1,000 Ladies Championship – $173,922
• Daniel Idema – $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo) – $184,590
• Justin Oliver – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em – $309,071
• Jason Duval – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – $521,202
• Calen McNeil – $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better – $277,274
• Mark Radoja – $10,000 Heads Up Championship – $258,960
• Levi Berger – $2,500 Six Handed NLHE – $473,019
• Michael Malm – $2,500 Eight Game – $225,104
• Benny Chen – $1,500 “Millionaire Maker” – $1,199,104
• Charles Alexandre Sylvestre – $1,000 Re-Entry – $491,360

By province, that’s 4 for Ontario, 3 for British Columbia, 2 for Quebec and 1 shiny bracelet for Prince Edward Island before the completion of the Main Event. Many reports are also throwing around another in 2013 for Ontario as Toronto’s Daniel Negreanu won the WSOP Asia Pacific Main Event and $1,087,160 earlier this year.

Daniel Idema and Mark Radoja have the proud distinction of having won their second career bracelet this summer; only these two, Greg Mueller and Daniel Negreanu can make this claim. Mueller was also among several Canadians who made a worthy mention of multiple final tables this summer; Jason Duval, Michael Watson and Daniel Idema each made a few, while Greg made an impressive three!

The Canadian player who won the most money without a bracelet or making the November Nine was Nova Scotia’s Alexander Livingston, who’s total haul was $451,398 thanks to a 13th place finish in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event, followed by British Columbia’s Yongshuo Zheng, who earned $378,607 for his second place finish in Event #60, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em.

In closing, and looking at the big picture of all the players from across the globe, a total of 8,443 cashes over the 61 completed events and Day 7 of the Main has accounted for $173,368,862 in poker earnings…that’s a whole lot’o scratch!