Best Canadian Poker Players: From Negreanu to the New Guard

Last Updated on October 8, 2026 by Bala Kumar

Ask any poker fan to name a Canadian player and you will hear one name first: Daniel Negreanu. Fair enough. But if you have watched a high roller final table in the last five years, you know the story runs much deeper than one guy from Toronto.

Canada punches far above its weight in poker. The country has now won more than 100 World Series of Poker bracelets, and 2026 was one of its best summers yet. Six Canadians won bracelets in Las Vegas, two more made the Main Event final table, and Kristen Foxen cemented her place as the most decorated woman in the game.

This guide covers the best Canadian poker players right now: the legends, the high-roller crushers, the women leading the way, and the new guard coming up through Montreal and Toronto card rooms. All figures are current as of October 2026.

Canadian poker players rankings: the all-time money list

These are the top Canadian poker players by career live tournament earnings. Daniel Negreanu still leads by a wide margin, but four Ontario and Newfoundland high rollers have closed in fast.

Sources: CanadianPoker.com, Feb 2026 standings; Card Player (Negreanu); Card Player (Watson). Places 3–5 are within about $1.2 million of each other, so one big high roller score can reshuffle them.

1. Daniel Negreanu: still the face of Canadian poker

Negreanu has been the best-known poker player on the planet for two decades, and in 2026 he reminded everyone he can still win the biggest games. In July he took down the $100,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha at the WSOP, beating an 83-entry field and Artur Martirosian heads-up for $2,257,718. It was his eighth WSOP bracelet, the most by any Canadian, and his second in three years after the 2024 $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

That win pushed his lifetime earnings to roughly $59.7 million, and his WSOP bracelet-event earnings past $27.7 million, according to Card Player. He also made four final tables over the summer and finished in the top five of the Player of the Year race.

What makes Negreanu special is not just the results. He is the reason many Canadians picked up the game in the first place. His table talk, his vlogs and his willingness to play every format, from mixed games to $100K PLO, have kept him relevant through three generations of players.

The high-roller generation

If Negreanu is the face, the next four names are the engine. All four came up through online poker in the late 2000s and now spend most of their year on the Triton, PokerGO and EPT super high roller circuits.

2. Daniel Dvoress

Born in Russia and raised in the Toronto area from age eight, Dvoress is Canada’s number two all-time earner at about $47.2 million. He is quiet, rarely gives interviews and simply wins. He opened 2026 by taking the €25,000 Super High Roller Warm-Up at EPT Paris, a typical result for a player who treats six-figure buy-ins as a regular Tuesday.

3. Sam Greenwood

Greenwood, known online as “IfHeDiesHeDies,” has titles across the WSOP, EPT, WPT and the Super High Roller Bowl. At roughly $39.4 million in live earnings, he is one of the most respected no-limit hold’em players in the world, especially in short-handed high roller formats.

4. Mike Watson

Mike “SirWatts” Watson from St. John’s, Newfoundland, is the hottest of the group right now. In May 2026 he won the $30,000 Turbo at Triton Montenegro for $659,000, his sixth Triton title. That tied him for second on the tour’s all-time title list, and his career earnings now top $38.8 million, with more than $19.4 million coming from Triton alone.

5. Timothy Adams

Adams, from Burlington, Ontario, has around $38 million in live earnings, built on WSOP, partypoker Live and Super High Roller wins. His biggest single score was a $3.6 million first prize, and he remains a fixture on the PokerGO Tour.

Famous Canadian poker players: the legends

A few names do not sit at the top of the money list anymore but shaped the history of famous Canadian poker players.

•       Jonathan Duhamel (Quebec) won the 2010 WSOP Main Event, the first Canadian to do it. He added two more bracelets and a WPT title in 2017.

•       Mike McDonald (“Timex,” Waterloo, ON) became the youngest EPT Main Event winner in history at 18 and went on to become one of the best high roller players of the 2010s.

•       Sorel Mizzi (Toronto) won EPT and WPT titles and was one of the biggest online names of the late 2000s.

•       Mike Leah built most of his career on Canadian and North American circuit events and remains one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian live poker.

•       Gavin Smith competed at the top level before the online boom and won the 2005 WPT Mirage Poker Showdown. He passed away in 2019 and is still remembered as one of Canadian poker’s great characters.

Canadian female poker players

Kristen Foxen: the best woman in poker

There is no debate about who leads Canadian female poker players. Kristen Foxen, from St. Catharines, Ontario, won the $25,000 High Roller at the 2026 WSOP, beating a 345-entry field for $1,773,083, the biggest score of her career. It was her sixth WSOP bracelet, twice as many as any other woman in history.

Foxen now has more than $20.7 million in live earnings and leads the women’s all-time money list by close to $10 million, according to Pokerology. She also plays in open high roller fields week in, week out, not just ladies events, which is exactly why her record stands out.

Other Canadian women to know

•       Evelyn Ng (Toronto) was one of the most visible women of the 2000s TV poker boom and a familiar face on WPT and televised cash games.

•       Kara Scott is best known as a presenter and commentator on WSOP and EPT broadcasts, and has deep runs of her own on the tournament circuit.

Canada still has room to grow here. Foxen is far ahead of the pack, and the next generation of Canadian women is mostly coming through Ontario’s online market and the Montreal live scene.

The new guard: Canada’s 2026 WSOP breakout stars

The 2026 WSOP was a huge summer for Canada. Six Canadians won bracelets, Canada passed 100 all-time WSOP bracelets, and two Canadians made the Main Event final table. Several of these players were winning their first bracelet.

Chris Alcindor and Frederic Normand: Quebec’s double

Within three days in June, Quebec produced two first-time bracelet winners. Frederic Normand from Quebec City won the $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo on June 6, in a game he admitted he had never played before. Two days later Montreal’s Chris Alcindor, a Playground Poker Club regular with two Circuit rings from Calgary, won the $1,500 Big O out of a record 2,150-entry field for $387,110. Foxen’s win landed in between, giving Canada three bracelets in three days.

Rami Hammoud and Greg Mueller: Main Event final table

The 2026 Main Event drew 9,208 entries, and two Canadians made the final nine. Montreal’s Rami Hammoud arrived second in chips. His previous best score was a $1,150 event at Playground in 2023, which makes his sixth-place finish for $1,750,000 one of the stories of the summer (PokerNews).

Former pro hockey player Greg Mueller, already a two-time bracelet winner, went even deeper and finished third for $3,750,000 (Pokerfuse). American Lucas Jumalon took the $10 million first prize.

Why Canada keeps producing great poker players

1.      Online roots. Most of Canada’s best players learned online in the 2000s, logging huge volume while US players were shut out after 2011. That gave a whole generation a head start.

2.      Strong live hubs. Playground near Montreal, the Toronto-area casinos and the Calgary and Vancouver rooms give players regular big-field tournaments without leaving the country.

3.      A regulated market in Ontario. Ontario’s licensed online poker market keeps new players coming into the game safely and legally.

4.      A culture of mentoring. Players like Negreanu, Watson and Greenwood have coached, staked and studied with younger Canadians for years.

FAQs

Bala Kumar

Founder of PokerClubGames.com and a Poker Researcher with 10+ years of experience in SEO, WordPress development, and gaming content strategy. Specializes in researching online poker sites, poker apps, tournaments, bonuses, and poker strategies. Experienced in poker platform reviews, affiliate marketing, and creating SEO-focused poker content for global audiences.

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