The Ultimate WSOPC Montreal and WSOPC Toronto Recap

The WSOPC Montreal 2025 Recap

Starting off in Montreal, Ruoxiao Shi got the party started with his victory in the $300 COLOSSUS No-Limit Event. Shi beat just shy of 3,000 players to capture the ring and a hefty $80,000 CAD first place prize. England’s Adam Neal – America’s Cardroom Pro Player Manager & Stormers Manager converted his $400 buy-in into his first WSOP ring by beating 844 players in event #2, winning $25k in the process.

Alexander Hannay turned his 10^th place in the same $400 Seniors event from last year into a first place this year, winning the Seniors event for $13k, while Min Qiu final tabled the first event in Montreal, and then turned around and won event #4, taking down the $400 Mystery Bounty ring for a cool $10k + bounties.

Bobby Lupo brought one for the Americans as he added another cash to his growing resume – he took fourth place in event #10 after winning event #5 – the $600 6 Max Event, taking home a combined $42,900 from both cashes – or just under $30k USD.

The Flip’n’Go made another appearance at the festival which Fang Mei was very happy about.  Mei made his 9^th recorded cash, but his first WSOP ring, taking home the Flip n Go title and $9,800 CAD in the process.  He parlayed that cash into a 141^st finish in the $1700 Main Event several days later.

The second mystery bounty ring went to Haorun Han – the first of three cashes of the series for Han and his first three recorded cashes on his Hendon Mob profile. The biggest one being a cool $20k CAD for winning ring event #7, the $600 Mega Stack Mystery Bounty.

Li Ming Chu finally cracked the five-figure score with their victory in the $600 PLO, winning $24k CAD in the process.  Chu also cashed in the first event taking home another $1,600 CAD to cap their series.

The $400 NLH Bounty ring went to Yonathan Moryoussef, taking home his second cash of the series and his twelve recorded cash, winning $13,610 CAD.

Mexico took a ring home in the series as Osvaldo Mejia Islas won event #10 – the $1k 8 Max event.  Islas has 6 recorded cashes in his career and 5 came in Montreal – three of them final tables, but this was the biggest win for $46,750.

Nick Nickoletopoulos has won over $150k in his career and the total was increased in Montreal as he won event #11, the $400 NLH PKO for $10k – his fourth five-figure cash in his career.

The big winner of the series was Adil Atif Morkos who won the Main Event in Montreal. Morkos was just shy of $100k in lifetime earnings before the main event started, but after taking out 1,413 other players to win $306k CAD ($214k USD) and the ring.  The event was a huge success, surpassing the guarantee of $1,5 million CAD by a significant margin – the players created a $2.1 million prize pool shared among the 231 players who made the money.

The Ladies Event took center stage during day 2 of the main event that saw Georgette Kirschenbaum take down her only cash of the series.  She won $6,580 in the process of winning her first WSOP ring.

The $3,300 NLH High Roller saw the guaranteed prize pool more than doubled with Senthuran Vijayaratnam capturing his 22^nd circuit cash but his first ring, winning $145k.

Thomas Bennett took down the $400 Monster Stack Event – his second cash of the series and his biggest win of his career, taking home $22,565 CAD for his efforts. Bryan Fequet took momentum from the Circuit event at Turning Stone – cashing twice there, and parlayed that into 6 cashes in Montreal, including two final tables and the ring for event $16, the $600 Mega Stack for $24,750 CAD.

Johnny Yu had a slow start to his Montreal trip, placing 296^th in the Colossus Event. His patience paid off, as he won event #17 – the $1,000 PKO NLH Event for $14,000.

Rounding out the series, Aladdin Hammoud won the last ring awarded in Montreal, capturing the $400 NLH Mystery Bounty event for $8,000 + bounties.

Photo Credits: Playground Poker

The WSOPC Toronto 2025 Recap

In Toronto, the Great Canadian Casino Toronto hosted its second circuit series and the growth of the event from year one to year two was massive. In 2024, $5.589 million CAD of prize money was awarded – this year that number increased all the way up to $7.57 million. 

A total of 7626 players entered the 11 available events, selling out multiple events (not always a great thing for a poker room) and creating the biggest prize pool for a WSOP Circuit Main Event this year with $3.74 million in the prize pool – keeping in mind that the main event was $2k versus $1,700 which is seen at most events.

Alcioni P. travelled from Brazil to play poker in Ontario and walked away with his first WSOP ring, winning the $600 NLH Event, beating 803 players and taking home just shy of $70k CAD.

When it comes to women in poker, Kimi N. won the first Ladies Event in Toronto, taking out 246 other women to take the top prize of $13,398 CAD in the $300 NLH Event #2. On the other hand, Adam D. was victorious in event #3 – the $1K NLH Tournament that saw 847 runners compete for the $129k top prize.

The Turbo Event was fast and furious but Terrence S, kept up the pace, winning the $400 event #4 to capture the ring and $37k in the process, beating 618 other players in the process.

WSOPC Toronto’s first Mystery Bounty went to Leonid V. and a $54k top prize as he took event #5 – the $800 NLH Tournament that saw 887 players enter.

On an older note, a total of 540 seniors took to the felt in event #6 that saw Terrence P take the ring and the top prize of $32k. The only non-Hold’em event was #7 – the $600 PLO that saw 614 players enter and Ian C. emerge from the chaos with the ring and $57k for his efforts.

A total of 536 players hoped to win event #9 – the $600 NLH Deepstack event but Guoke H was the one left at the end holding the ring and $50k in prize money. On the other hand, 291 high rollers took their chance at a ring entering event #10 – the $3,500 High Roller but Franco T. was the one who paid off the most, winning the event for $207k.

Prateek J. won the last event of the series, the $400 NLH for a cool $40k for his efforts.

Finally, the record Main Event that saw 2,139 players enter or qualify online via GGPoker Ontario. One of the GGPoker satellite winners – Joe Balsano took a $50 investment and turned it into a 5^th place finish, winning $136k for their efforts. 

All told, 53 players cashed for over $10k and the top 6 all earned six-figure cashes.  But when it was all said and done, Pengxiang R. was the top dog, winning the ring and $510k CAD over the three days of the main event.

All told, the Toronto series still being one of the newest stops on the WSOP Circuit calendar experienced growing pains but overall, the series seemed to flow better than year one.  And while it isn’t the size of some of the older, bigger stops – like Montreal, Las Vegas, etc, don’t be surprised if in a few years Toronto becomes one of the stops on the WSOP Circuit calendar multiple times a year!

Photo Credits: Great Canadian Casino Toronto