
In a joint effort with PlayNow.com and the River Rock Casino Resort, the inaugural Canadian World Series of Poker-Circuit stop has certainly been making the waves that the recent West Coast earthquake did not; while Events 1 through 3 brought some sweet results, the aftershocks in Events 4 to 7 have been even shaking things up even more. So far after 7 events, more than $2,522,000 in prize pools have been generated. There are still 4 more events to be played as well, including #11 and #12 on PlayNow.com, which will award the first ever WSOP-C ring winners to be determined exclusively on the virtual felts!
British Columbia players swept up the first 3 gold rings, however, Event #4’s prize and biggest pay-out of the series (before the Main Event wraps up) will be heading home with Ontario’s Matthew O’Brien; while it wasn’t Matthew’s largest win to date, the victory was sure to taste pretty sweet as O’Brien narrowly missed his ring earlier in 2012 at a USA WSOP-C Main Event where he finished 3rd. This score takes the young Canadian up over $312,000 in career tournaments. Besides Matthew, 35 other players made some dough as follows:
Event 4 – #1,125 No Limit Hold’em
1st | Matthew O’Brien |
$81,422 |
Ottawa |
2nd | Charles Shapiro |
$50,355 |
Vancouver |
3rd | Keith Wintermans |
$36,720 |
North Vancouver |
4th | Duck-Sin Jong |
$27,327 |
Burnaby |
5th | Shane Sandu |
$20,518 |
New Westminster |
6th | Douglas Lamson |
$15,693 |
Abbotsford |
7th | Adam Cummings |
$12,178 |
Victoria |
8th | Andy Le |
$9,586 |
Mount Lake Terrace |
9th | Anthony Kook |
$7,653 |
North Vancouver |
10th | Peter Brewe |
$6,191 |
Essex |
11th | Tyler StClair |
$6,191 |
Edmonton |
12th | Matthew Harris |
$6,191 |
Mission |
13th | Glen Adams |
$5,080 |
Lethbridge |
14th | Raymond Debruyn |
$5,080 |
Richmond |
15th | Patrick Foreman |
$5,080 |
Lantzville |
16th | Shawn Rohatensky |
$4,233 |
Madeira Park |
17th | Jay Zeman |
$4,233 |
Seattle |
18th | Harold Fitzpatrick |
$4,233 |
Surrey |
19th | Roman Pereyaslavsky |
$3,558 |
Richmond |
20th | Conor Waddington |
$3,558 |
Kelowna |
21st | Sai Ho Chili |
$3,558 |
Vancouver |
22nd | Steven Dametto |
$3,037 |
Chase |
23rd | Gillian Epp |
$3,037 |
Cranbrook |
24th | Ratharam Sivagnanam |
$3,037 |
Toronto |
25th | Peter Vu |
$2,627 |
Burnaby |
26th | Laurence Grondin |
$2,627 |
Montreal |
27th | Charbel Kanterjian |
$2,627 |
La Salle |
28th | Justin Leeson |
$2,301 |
Calgary |
29th | Jordan Hamilton |
$2,301 |
Kelowna |
30th | James Weisgerber |
$2,301 |
Mission |
31st | Yonathan Yacoubov |
$2,039 |
North York |
32nd | Becky Rocco |
$2,039 |
Hanamaulu |
33rd | Marko Perkovic |
$2,039 |
Surrey |
34th | Calen McNeil |
$1,830 |
Victoria |
35th | Kyle Ho |
$1,830 |
DNR |
36th | Jason Kirstein |
$1,830 |
White Rock |
Total Entries: 354 Total Prize Pool: $354,000

It looks like Chilliwack’s Dean Engemoen made his first “official” major tournament cash count in a big way by taking down Event 5; it’s a classy nice touch to put a Champion’s photo up beside your first flag on your profile page! Here are the complete results:
Event 5 – $580 No Limit Hold’em
1st | Dean Engemoen |
$39,903 |
Chilliwack |
2nd | Carson Wong |
$24,670 |
Vancouver |
3rd | Lillian Chan |
$17,997 |
Vancouver |
4th | Sang Hyo Park |
$13,349 |
Vancouver |
5th | Braden Hall |
$10,056 |
Abbotsford |
6th | Bashar Ramahi |
$7,691 |
Sturgeon County |
7th | Paul Vassallo |
$5,968 |
White Rock |
8th | Philip Elliott |
$4,698 |
Vancouver |
9th | Andre Groulx |
$3,751 |
Richmond |
10th | Troy Chehayeb |
$3,035 |
Alsike |
11th | Richard Weiszberger |
$3,035 |
Toronto |
12th | Khaly Dang |
$3,035 |
Mississauga |
13th | Afsin Majidi |
$2,490 |
Richmond |
14th | Jamil Kanji |
$2,490 |
Edmonton |
15th | Martin Malone |
$2,490 |
United Kingdom |
16th | Nan Xia |
$2,070 |
Richmond |
17th | Preston Partridge |
$2,070 |
Shawnigan Lake |
18th | Alan Raymer |
$2,070 |
Vancouver |
19th | Mark Juvelin |
$1,744 |
Surrey |
20th | Frank Rolbin |
$1,744 |
Mission |
21st | Ferdinand Perada |
$1,744 |
Vancouver |
22nd | Matt Affleck |
$1,489 |
Mill Creek |
23rd | Andrew Goosen |
$1,489 |
Port Coquitlam |
24th | Brian Henningson |
$1,489 |
Surrey |
25th | Jason Manggunio |
$1,287 |
Richmond |
26th | Anthony Marr |
$1,287 |
North Vancouver |
27th | Edward Sorensen |
$1,287 |
Vancouver |
28th | Zennawi Petros |
$1,128 |
Winnipeg |
29th | Hugh Drummond |
$1,128 |
Vancouver |
30th | Morgan Owen |
$1,128 |
Delta |
31st | Jean Goldsmith |
$999 |
Vancouver |
32nd | Ram Ghuman |
$999 |
Surrey |
33rd | Grantel Gibbs |
$999 |
Whitby |
34th | Dung Nguyen |
$897 |
Surrey |
35th | Parmveer Dhami |
$897 |
Kelowna |
36th | Victor Deol |
$897 |
Burnaby |
Total Entries: 347 Total Prize Pool: $173,500

Victor Chan’s Hendon Mob profile page was also bare before the WSOP came to Vancouver; not much of a problem anymore, as he shipped Event #6 for $25,000 and some highly sought after bragging rights. Here are the 44 contenders who hit the cash cage before him:
Event 6 – $365 No Limit Hold ‘em Turbo
1st | Victor Chan |
$25,143 |
Vancouver |
2nd | Terry Chen |
$15,539 |
Vancouver |
3rd | Sandra Wong |
$11,355 |
Burnaby |
4th | Ian Modder |
$8,431 |
North Vancouver |
5th | Tony Fazeli |
$6,357 |
Richmond |
6th | Richard Getty |
$4,866 |
Burnaby |
7th | Wipada Butwong |
$3,779 |
Vancouver |
8th | Ping Huang |
$2,976 |
Coquitlam |
9th | Liying Zhang |
$2,377 |
Vancouver |
10th | Gregory Wang |
$1,925 |
Vancouver |
11th | Jay Glass |
$1,925 |
Whitehorse |
12th | Chris Back |
$1,925 |
Vancouver |
13th | Emil Joseph |
$1,580 |
Thornhill |
14th | William Hui |
$1,580 |
Vancouver |
15th | Corey Robb |
$1,580 |
Coquitlam |
16th | Bradely Wilson |
$1,314 |
Surrey |
17th | Jason Wright |
$1,314 |
Parksville |
18th | Allan Berger |
$1,314 |
Richmond |
19th | Brandon Carli |
$1,108 |
Friday Harbor |
20th | Matthew Dietrich |
$1,108 |
Centralia |
21st | Thayanthan Gobalasingan |
$1,108 |
Surrey |
22nd | Lyne Moroni |
$945 |
Vancouver |
23rd | Cort Caldwell |
$945 |
New Westminster |
24th | David Sandhu |
$945 |
Prince Rupert |
25th | Yong Mei Sun |
$817 |
Whiterock |
26th | Grant Thelin |
$817 |
Oliver |
27th | Steven Dametto |
$817 |
Chase |
28th | Scott Stephenson |
$716 |
North Vancouver |
29th | Lawrence Iampen |
$716 |
Chilliwack |
30th | Raymond Debruyn |
$716 |
Richmond |
31st | Gordon Clark |
$634 |
Aldergrove |
32nd | Geoffrey Getty |
$634 |
Fort McMurray |
33rd | Clayton Swain |
$634 |
Victoria |
34th | Shane Anderson |
$569 |
Surrey |
35th | Marton Szlavy |
$569 |
North Vancouver |
36th | Petar Majstrovic |
$569 |
Chilliwack |
37th | Clinton Pearson |
$517 |
Skidgate |
38th | Kenneth Atkins |
$517 |
Parksville |
39th | Terry Hawman |
$517 |
DNR |
40th | Tawd Hamonic |
$517 |
Kamloops |
41st | Alemu Makonen |
$517 |
Edmonton |
42nd | Laurie Hawman |
$517 |
DNR |
43rd | Neal Bautista |
$517 |
Burnaby |
44th | David Pazurik |
$517 |
New Westminster |
45th | Nicholas Kao |
$517 |
Surrey |
Total Entries: 381 Total Prize Pool: $114,300
Day 2 of Event #7 is currently underway at the time of writing, though the money bubble has popped and the field has dropped from 1032 original entries to less than 100 that are still in contention for the River Rock Casino Resort’s WSOP-Circuit Vancouver Main Event top prize of more than $286,000.
We’ll take a look at some of the Day 3 contenders in our next recap; see you soon!