Who’s the Best…in Canada? The Top Players in Total Career Earnings by Province or Territory, Part One

If you recall, during the 2025 World Series of Poker, we ran down every state in the U.S., detailing the top three money earners by where the players came from. It was an intriguing listing, with a few surprises, and one astute reader had a thought. “How about doing this for Canada?” that reader asked…so we did it! Settle in if you’re from the Great White North as we count down the top total career earnings that hail from Canada, by province.

Blank Spots for the Maple Leaf

For those unfamiliar with Canada, it is a country comprised of ten provinces and three territories. Each of these provinces has an autonomous government, meaning they can create their own laws, but they are united behind the federal government of Canada. The territories do not have the same autonomy granted to the provinces, but they do have the ability to make some decisions for themselves.

This is why Ontario, one of the provinces in the nation, can create its laws regarding online gaming. Ontario is separated from the rest of the country by legislation that was passed in 2022 for both online poker and gaming. Currently, the largest gaming outlet in Ontario is GGPoker, which features roughly 5800 players per day in action on the site.

But this is just background…you want to know how Canada ranks, don’t you?

To start, there are some blank spots for those who follow the Maple Leaf. Two of the three territories in Canada, the Northwest and Nunavut Territories, do not have anyone who appears in the top 250 players in Canadian poker’s total career earnings. The third territory, the Yukon Territory, has only one player who made our examination of the top money earners from Canada, the extremely talented Brad Booth. While there may be some players who have cashed in tournament poker from those locations, Booth was the only one whom we could run down.

Likewise, some of the provinces are also lacking a bit in performers. For Prince Edward Island, there is only one player we found in Benny Chen, who has made over $2 million in his poker career – we are sure there are others from PEI, but they didn’t even crack our examination. Newfoundland and Labrador face the same issue that PEI did in that they only have one representative, but it is a big one.

Leading the way for Newfoundland and Labrador is Mike ‘SirWatts’ Watson, who was born in Newfoundland before moving on to poker success elsewhere in Canada. Watson is one of the top ten players in Canadian poker history, at least as far as poker earnings, picking up $31,030,802 in his career. That is good enough for fourth place all-time in money earnings in Canada, and nobody else is CLOSE in Newfoundland and Labrador to catch Watson.

Ontario is the Hot Spot

Not surprisingly, Ontario is the hot spot for poker, live or online, on the Canadian frontier. It is the largest of the provinces with 16.1 million inhabitants, and they can also claim the #1 player in the history of poker for the nation of Canada. Leading the way of the top money earners for the province of Ontario is none other than ‘Kid Poker,’ Daniel Negreanu, although calling him ‘Kid’ nowadays is a bit of a stretch!

Negreanu has earned nearly $57 million in his career from poker, not only good enough to put him in the #1 slot for Canada, but it also puts him in the Top Ten all-time in poker overall (seventh place). He can also claim dual citizenship, as he has become a U.S. citizen while maintaining his Canadian bona fides, which would allow him to be counted in TWO countries. It just goes to show how much success the Poker Hall of Famer has had in his storied career.

Those behind Negreanu have their work cut out for them. In the #2 slot behind Negreanu is perhaps a surprise, Daniel Dvoress, who has racked up over $41 million in career earnings in his career. Rounding out the Top Three for Ontario is another surprise, Sam Greenwood, who is putting some heat on Dvoress for that second-place slot. Here are the top three players in total career earnings from the province of Ontario:

1. Daniel Negreanu (Toronto, ON), $56,924,697
2. Daniel Dvoress (Mississauga, ON), $41,873,058
3. Sam Greenwood (Toronto, ON), $39,409,852

If you think someone is coming from the back in Ontario, you are not going to see that happen. Sorel Mizzi is the fourth-place player from the Ontario province, and he ‘only’ has $14,421,180 in career earnings – a LONG way to go to get to Greenwood!

This is beginning to get a bit lengthy…how about we come back with Part Two a bit later? We will eventually get around to the rest of the Canadian nation as we examine the players who are the career earnings leaders by province.