The Stanley Cup playoffs are heating up here in Vegas with Game 4 of what’s been one of the best series in hockey’s history on Tuesday night, but while Canada hasn’t had a cup to celebrate since 1993, they’ve had a hat-trick of WSOP bracelets to celebrate this week, and they’ve all been outstanding stories.
Following Frederic Normand and Kristen Foxen’s wins, Chris Alcindor made it three days in a row with WSOP hardware for Canada with his victory in the $1,500 Big O event on Monday night.
Alcindor topped a massive field of 2,150 entries, the biggest ever for the popular five-card split-pot game, to win his first bracelet and a career-high $387,110, one of the biggest prizes awarded in the young 2026 series.
Montreal native Chris Alcindor's win was the third in as many days by a Canadian.The Montreal native is a fixture at Playground in his hometown, with the majority of his results coming from the GPI-award-winning venue. He also has a pair of WSOP Circuit rings across Canada in Calgary.
But last night’s win was by far his biggest, worth more than his entire Hendon Mob-reported earnings across nine years of results, which have now crossed $1M CAD, making this a career-making achievement for the French-Canadian grinder.
The first two goals of the hat-trick
Alcindor’s win came a day after Kristen Foxen earned her highest of highlights in a Hall of Fame-worthy career, scoring her sixth WSOP bracelet and her fourth $1M score across the last nine months for over $1.7M in the $25K High Roller.
St. Catherine's, Ontario's Kristen Foxen won her sixth bracelet on Sunday.Before that, Saturday saw Frederic Normand, another French-Canadian, claim an unlikely victory in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, a poker discipline he’d never before played. It was an amazing run through 1,093 entries, including seven-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh at the final table for $235,377 and his first WSOP bracelet.
Quebec City's Frederic Normand claimed his first bracelet on Saturday.
Today’s class: WSOP bracelets 101
This trio of triumphs has extended Canada’s bracelet record to over 100 wins all-time, according to the Hendon Mob. Alcindor’s is number 101, with the Maple Leaf sitting atop all other countries besides the USA’s untouchable 1,684.
All-time WSOP bracelets by country (and individual leader):
- USA – 1,684 (Phil Hellmuth – 17)
- Canada – 101 (Daniel Negreanu – 7)
- Germany – 76 (George Danzer – 4)
- England – 72 (Benny Glaser - 8)
- France – 46 (Julien Martini – 4)
WSOP hats available soon at the brand new WSOP store and available now at the pop-up shop.So, if you see any of these three newly crowned bracelet winners, feel free to toss your freshly purchased $40 WSOP hat at them in tribute.
Actually, no, please don’t. That would be weird and might get you thrown out of the WSOP.
But do congratulate them on their hat-trick of WSOP bracelets.
Additional images courtesy of the WSOP.
