GPI National Canada | Top 10

Canada is known as one of the most dominant poker nations in the world. Currently, Canada is tied for second amongst Nations with the most players on the GPI300 with a total of 20.

With the eyes of the poker world on Canada this week with the presentation of WPT Montreal (following the completion of WSOP Circuit Québec and the partypoker Premier League), it’s a great time to take a look at Canada’s best on the live tournament circuit.

Here is the GPI National Top 10 for Canada:

#10 | Mark Radoja

Quite possibly the least-known player on the list for casual poker fans and that shouldn’t be the case. Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Radoja has a total of 12 cashes at the WSOP in Vegas in the past three years and owns a grand total of 21 WSOP cashes for close to 1.5M USD in earnings.

Radoja’s 2013 successes, which includes bracelet #2 in the 10K Heads-Up event, haven’t just come at the Rio; he finished 17th in the 10M guaranteed Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August and earned three cashes at EPT London this fall, including a victory in the 5K Turbo Six-Handed event.

GPI#83, Highest #83

#9 | Greg Mueller

One of the original Canadian stars from the poker boom in the early 2000’s, Greg Mueller’s successes has stood the test of time as he still is recognized as a strong all-around player. Muller plays mostly cash games but when plays tournaments, he is a threat. His five Top 8 finishes during the last two WSOP’s in Vegas (including a second and 2 thirds) proves that theory.

Most recently, Mueller collected a 20th place finish at the WPT Legends of Poker earning $14,340 USD for his efforts.

GPI#75, Highest #67

#8 | Mike McDonald

McDonald rose to stardom at the age of 18. He was all the rage in the poker world and seemed unstoppable. Then, he retired. But he came back and to this day, many believe that he belongs in the conversation when talking about the game’s best. One can only wonder where McDonald would rank on the GPI if he played a full schedule on the live tournament circuit.

The young Canadian has collected just under 800K USD in the last two events he cashed in: 4th place in the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller event in August and most recently, a 3rd place finish at WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts, where Philipp Gruissem would collect his second straight Alpha8 title. McDonald has earned over 5.5M USD in his lifetime on the circuit.

McDonald is about 40K USD away from crossing the 1M mark for the third time in his career – not bad for a 24-year old! McDonald is expected to make an appearance this week at WPT Montreal where he could push past the million.

GPI#67, Highest #7

#7 | Marc-André Ladouceur

The most recent PokerStars Team Online Pro, Ladouceur can also get things done on the live felt. Ladouceur’s stock rose exponentially as ESPN’s coverage of the 2012 focused on the former college tennis player as one of their stars during the broadcast. Ladouceur, who would go deep in the Main Event for the second year in a row, seemed destined for a place in the October Nine, that is, until he suffered an absolutely brutal beat at the hands of Andras Koroknai.

But Ladouceur would move on to collect the first big win of his career months after the WSOP beat, winning the IPT High Roller event at EPT Sanremo for over € 130,000.

Although he’s still waiting to enter the winner’s circle in 2013, Ladouceur does have five Top 10 finishes to his credit so far this season and recently finished 29th in the WSOP Europe Main Event in Enghien-les-Bains, France.

GPI#54, Highest #44

#6 | Griffin Benger

Known as one of the top online poker players, the IveyPoker Pro decided to focus on his live game in 2013 and boy, has it paid off! At this time last year, Benger was ranked #960 on the GPI … 12 months later, he sits in 47th position overall and 6th in Canada. Oh, and he still is ranked #85 online according to the PocketFives rankings.

Benger’s biggest live win came at EPT Berlin in April where he won the infamous Shamballa bracelet and € 429,000 as the Berlin High Roller Champion. His 2013 season includes two victories and eight Top 15 finishes.

GPI#47, Highest #38

#5 | Timothy Adams

2012 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Timothy Adams enjoyed some success prior to the big WSOP victory. Since then, Adams has travelled the circuit and played in the most expensive and prestigious events around the world. Widely recognized as a threat in high buy-in events, Adams has become one of Canada’s elite High Stakes players.

Coming off a 5th place finish in the WSOP Europe 25K High Roller event and a 6th place finish in the High Roller event at EPT London, Adams has already surpassed the 1M USD mark for 2013, already surpassing his career best.

GPI#39, Highest #39

#4 | Sorel Mizzi

Coming off last night’s partypoker Premier League victory for the 11th win of his career, Mizzi heads into the final stretch of the 2013 poker season on a hot streak. After a huge 2010, Mizzi took a bit of a backseat in 2011 and 2012. Not the case in 2013 as Mizzi’s winnings close in on 4M USD this season alone! His lifetime winnings have crossed the 8.5M USD mark.

This year’s biggest hits came at the EPT Grand Final where he finished third in the Super High Roller event earning € 679,000 and just a few weeks later at GDAM- the PokerStars-sponsored GuangDong Asia Millions where he once again finished in third position, this time for $16,100,000 HKD.

GPI#11, Highest #3

#3 | Jonathan Duhamel

The 2010 WSOP World Champion refuses to go away. After an amazing start to 2012, things quieted down a bit for Duhamel … but not in 2013. Despite not collecting a W, Duhamel has cashed in 18 events so far this season, including nine Top 10 finishes, and is on the verge of earning 1M USD in a season for third time in his young poker career.

Duhamel, who was unable to make the final table at the partypoker Premier League, will hope to bounce back at home this week as all eyes will be on the Boucherville native as he attempts to keep the WPT Montreal title inside his home Province starting on Friday.

GPI#10, Highest #5

#2 | Michael Watson

Watson continues to be one of the most consistent Canadians on the circuit having passed the 500K USD mark four times in his career and having collected two victories in each of the past two seasons.

The 2013 season has only brought a single win for the man from Newfoundland so far but hasn’t stopped him from picking up over 1.4M USD in earnings on the season, collecting 19 cashes with ten Top 10’s!!

Eight of Watson’s 19 cashes came this summer at the WSOP in Las Vegas. Watson earned five Top 10 finishes in bracelet events this summer. Not expected to return to the circuit until EPT/WPT Prague, Watson surprised quite a few people when he announced that he would be making his way from his Toronto home to Montreal to play in the WPT event. The 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup Champ will be looking for his second WPT title in “La Belle Province”.

GPI#8, Highest #2

#1 | Daniel Negreanu

With Negreanu, Watson, Duhamel, Mizzi and McDonald all enjoying tons of success on tour in the past few seasons, it was a shock to find out that Negreanu, who took over the #1 spot on the Global Poker Index four weeks ago, was the first Canadian EVER to hold the #1 rank on the GPI.

A year ago, Kid Poker was determined to reach the top of the GPI and that is exactly what he did. His 2013 season includes two WSOP bracelet victories (in Australia and in France) and he has already amassed over 3.2M USD so far in 2013, the most he’s collected since his insane 2004 season.

Negreanu’s career includes 40 victories, 163 Top 10’s and he’s a little over 400K away from crossing the 20M USD mark in career gains on the live tournament circuit.

GPI#1, Highest #1

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