For the Love of Poker

In 1970 Benny Binion brought together seven of the best known poker players for a single tournament held at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. The aim was to play for a designated time and for the players to elect an overall winner by secret ballot at the end. This set the stage for the most prestigious poker tournament in the world. The World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Fast forward to 2018 and the WSOP championship saw over 123,000 entrants participate in the 78 bracelet events that took place in Las Vegas between May and July this year. Whilst the tables were dominated by US entrants alongside 103 other nations, the Canadian contingent made its presence known.

Canada is quietly known for its love of the game and quite rightly so. The nation boasts over 200 casinos across its provinces and as a result has nurtured the talents of some of the finest poker players in the world, nearly all of whom took their places at the tables in Vegas.

Players such as Daniel Negreanu played some spectacular poker but sadly lost the top spot on the world-wide ranking All Time Money list to American Justin Bonomo. Despite this, Negreanu remains the only player in the world to have been named the WSOP player of the year more than once.

Meanwhile Mississauga’s rising star, Tommy Nguyen, turned heads to receive the millionaire’s crown after demolishing the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack. Having won $100,000 at a major Canadian event earlier this year he used this money to enter events at the WSOP. This ultimately led to the $1,037,451 win over American, James Carroll. Not bad for a 28 year old entering the WSOP for the first time.

Rising Stars

Another rising star at this year’s event was Kristen Bicknell from St. Catharine’s, Ontario. Bicknell cashed seven times throughout the tournament but sadly did not see a bracelet this year. Starting as an online player back in 2006, Bicknell has two bracelets to her name from previous years and ranks 45^th on the Canadian All Time Money list.

Bicknell is a relentless pursuant of the game, playing in tournaments all around the world and referring to herself as the “Ultimate Grinder” for the sheer volume of hands she plays. Her efforts have earned her the title of Supernova Elite on PokerStars in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

This translates into her playing a staggering 2.5 million hands per year. Perhaps it is no wonder that with this volume of experience and tenacity she was crowned the highest ranked female tournament player in 2017.

In combination, Canadians took away $7,995,246 of the total WSOP prize money. This placed Canada in the top three nations after the USA who came in on top and the solid second obtained by Germany. Canada also picked up fourth place in terms of bracelets, third in terms of earnings and second for overall cashes.

Not a bad result for a nation fresh from a recent legislative battle that sought to curtail the online casino industry. Perhaps now that Bill 74 has been defeated, there will be more fresh faces like Bicknell entering future WSOPs who will have initially made their names online.