Canada Poker “Ones to Watch”, The Final Numbers

Canada Poker “Ones to Watch”, The Final Numbers (Almost…with a little Venetian DSE Thrown in On The Side)

Before the 2012 WSOP of Poker began, CanadaPoker.com gave the “ok” to make some picks on whom we thought may have some success this summer and the hopes of making these “predictions” were to ultimately show that when it comes to poker, there is much more than just luck involved. Anybody can win a tournament on any random day, but there are certainly those with a bit more of an edge.  With only Montreal’s Erik Cajelais still in contention in the Main Event from the list, we figure we can give some rough final numbers to wrap things up.

When this all began back in May, it wasn’t a matter of simply going down the all time money lists and picking all the top names; for the most part, recent consistency, long term track record, assumed bankroll, above average motivation, prior WSOP experience and the ability to put in volume were all given consideration.

Of the 44 Canadian players chosen from across Canada, (posted as a series of articles with a few a good reasons why), 29 of our selections, or about 66% cashed a total of 84 times at the WSOP. 

We thought it strange that a few wouldn’t be putting up numbers, but we found that 4 of those not seeming to making bank at the WSOP were spending their time over at the Venetian Deep Stacks Extravaganza III, so we thought it would be more fun to include those results as a separate total. Add these in the money finishes into the equation and we can comfortably say that 75% of the Canadian “Ones to Watch” won some money in Las Vegas this summer. 

Toronto’s Simon Charette won his first bracelet and Saskatoon’s Ryan Smith had both a 1^st and second place finish in $2,500 and $1,100 VSDEIII Events, making for some decent six figure pay-days we have indicated in “gold” on the results charts below, so it was also nice to see a few prestigious titles also claimed along the way. All told, these players made a total of 10 final tables at the 2012 WSOP and other 5 at the VDSE.

There were definitely a few top performers that we missed (despite being told about one in particular) and we’ll look at some of those in an upcoming article planned for the very near future, but the preliminary numbers can help give some rough statistics that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there is much more than luck involved in the game.

Prior to the $10,000 WSOP No Limit Hold’em Championship results being added to the “cashes by country stats on the official World Series of Poker website, 494 Canadian cashes were listed over the 61 events; adding another 49 pay-outs for those that did make the money and remain, we get roughly 543, meaning that of the Canadians that participated, these 29 can make claim to about 15% of those.  About 8,375 players from 86 countries across the globe will be going home able to say that they “cashed at the 2012 WSOP”.  Since 10% of the field generally pays, we can also assume that there were around 83,750 entries over the summer.  These 29 have already hauled in at least $2,460,641, a figure representing about 25% of the $10,036,073 won by Canadian players so far.  Until Erik finishes up, we can’t tell you the exact numbers quite yet, but it’s likely to be close to this ratio or continue to climb with his deep run.   As for the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza; tack on another $190, 648.

As for our “Ones to Watch-The Ladies”, we have to admit to throwing a brick and truthfully as it was written after things were well underway, (but before the Ladies Championship) we can’t really pass it off as “predictions.”  We can tell you that Isabelle Mercier did make a final table in June of 2012, but we are pretty sure that APT Paris is a bit if a far stretch to try to include here…

Getting back on track, as of the close of Day 5, only Germany can tie Canada for second place in bracelets, if they pick up a third in the Main Event, which of course would mean we wouldn’t win this summer’s 4^th.  The United Kingdom is about $5,000,000 ahead of us for 2^nd place in money won, but that could be overtaken by some strong Canadian finishers at the final table.

In the interim, for those that like to crunch the numbers, we hope you enjoy the following: