April 3-6
Cashes for Allen Shen at the 2025 WSOP, his best a fourth-place finish in the $777 Lucky Seven's for what was a career-high score at the time.
- 1STAllen Shen $605,000
- 2NDPei Li$400,000
- 3RD
Brett Apter$278,293 - 4THAaron Gao$200,000
- 5THSebastian Crema$145,000
- 6THWeiping Gu$115,000
- 7THRenhao Zhang $96,000
- 8THJulien Cargnelutti$78,000
- 9THOmid Shabazian$60,000
Smooth sailing.
It was a term that Allen Shen used to describe his run through the WSOPC Playground Main Event after Day 2. He would use it again after finishing off a career-best $600,000 CAD win over the field of 1,781 entries in Montreal.
Shen went essentially wire-to-wire to take down the second-largest WSOPC Main Event prize ever after bagging the chip lead before Day 2. He would lead again into Monday’s final table before cruising through the final nine in just over four hours. It was a thought that was presented to him after bagging the Day 1 chip lead after the event’s first starting flight.
“I think I wasn't chip leader for maybe one or two breaks since I regged. I was talking to my roommate, and he said 'Wouldn’t it be amazing to go wire to wire after bagging Day 1A?' And he called it.”
'Always level-headed'
While a brief exuberant celebration with some friends on the rail happened after defeating ‘Jerry’ Pei Li in a heads-up match that lasted barely 20 minutes, Shen was as cool as he’d been through the whole tournament as he talked about what the win meant to him.
“I’ve been playing poker professionally for about three years now, and to 2X my previous best feels amazing. One of the best (days) I’ve ever run in my career. Indescribable feeling.”
As mentioned, his run to the title was smooth sailing on Monday as he extended his chip lead in the first minutes of play, taking it into the first and only break of the very short day.
It was the second-largest field ever for the WSOP Circuit Main Event in Montreal. But then a strange thing happened that could have brought potential adversity. Li, who at that point was by far the short stack with just eight big blinds to Shen’s 80, went on an incredible heater, doubling up repeatedly. Within 20 minutes he had caught Shen for the chip lead.
Concern? Nope.
“I’m always level-headed when I’m on a final table,” said Shen, who then credited his online experience with easing him through the moment.
“I play in the Ontario pool, so we get a lot of practice in ICM spots, staying level-headed and playing your spots to the best of your ability, never looking back and thinking ‘oh I had a runaway chip lead’ and being nervous at that point. Just always play your best.”
Cracking aces
It wasn't long before the champ regained a lead that he wouldn’t relinquish, winning the biggest pot of the day against sixth-place finisher Weiping Gu after he went runner-runner flush with to crack Gu’s aces and collecting a 12M chip river payoff.
“That six-seven suited hand was really lucky to get there versus aces when that was a big turn of the chips in play, so that was very fortunate.”
Despite being in control through almost the entire tournament, it was finally at that moment, five-handed, with Li holding the only remotely competitive stack, that Shen felt the tournament was his.
“I felt like I had it in the bag, to be honest. Jerry has to fold so much just trying to get to second place with the sub-ten big blind stacks. I felt like I had it locked and just had to close it out.”
And close it out he did. Shen finished off those sub-ten big blind stacks to take better than a 3-1 lead into heads-up play against Li, and then disposed of his final opponent in under 20 minutes before the second scheduled break of the day was even a thought.
With his newly won $600,000 pushing his career live tournament earnings to over $1.2M and into the top 100 all-time among Canadians, Shen will savor his victory for a bit before getting right back to Playground to defend his title before what will surely be a big summer.
“I’ll likely take a month or two off, come back for the next Montreal (WSOP Circuit) series and then prep for Vegas after that.”
Featured image courtesy of Playground Poker.
