By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · August 31, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
KAHNAWAKE, Quebec - Daniel Haim claimed his first WSOP Circuit ring on Sunday night at the Playground Poker Club, winning Event #2 of the WSOP Super Circuit Canada, the CA$500 buy-in NLH Mini Main Event, for CA$185,000. Haim, competing under the Canadian flag on the official WSOP tag, outlasted a record 3,484-entry field to close the event's final table and take home what the World Series of Poker's official communications described as the biggest score of his career. It is the second gold ring awarded at the eighteen-event WSOP Super Circuit Canada, and it went to another Canadian in a series that has now produced two Canadian winners from its two completed ring events.
The Mini Main's final field and prize pool figures are the largest for any single event ever staged at Playground Poker Club. The 3,484 entries generated a CA$1,548,458 prize pool at the CA$500 buy-in level, more than triple the CA$500,000 guarantee that had been published on the event schedule earlier this summer. The field was 76 per cent larger than the 1,978 entries that set the previous Playground field record at the August 2025 WSOP Circuit Main Event, and roughly 2.5 times the 1,419 entries drawn by the April 2026 Mini Main won by Nabil Ben-Naoum. The WSOP's verified X account described Playground as having "broken its own record in just five months" when the final flight closed late registration on Saturday.
The Winner
Haim, whose full birth-name form does not appear on WSOP's public communications for the event and who does not carry a substantial prior Hendon Mob or WSOP tournament footprint, was described by the World Series of Poker as a "hometown hero" in its Sunday-night bulletin marking the win. The CA$185,000 first-place figure is his career-best recorded live tournament score by an order of magnitude, and it comes at the seventeenth Playground WSOP Circuit or International Circuit event completed since the venue began hosting Circuit stops in 2022. WSOP.com has not yet populated the event's full results page or its detailed final-table pay-out schedule at time of publication, mirroring the same reporting lag that affected Event #1 last week.
Independently confirmed on the tournament floor on Saturday night was the presence of American professional Abby Merk, who advanced from Flight E and returned Sunday hunting her first WSOP Circuit ring in a field that included 2026 WSOP Main Event 19th-place finisher Will Givens. Neither Merk nor Givens is publicly listed among the final-table finishers, so their exact deep-run placements will only become verifiable when WSOP publishes the event's payout page. What is verifiable is that Haim ended the tournament as its champion and that the winner's payout of CA$185,000 is the largest for any Playground Mini Main Event ever staged.
How the Field Grew So Large
The Mini Main fired five starting flights across three days, Thursday, August 27 through Saturday, August 29, with 40,000 starting chips, 30-minute levels and unlimited re-entry, closing late registration at the end of Level 11 in each flight. The event benefited from three overlapping tailwinds. The first was buy-in accessibility: at CA$500, the Mini Main is roughly one-tenth the buy-in of the CA$5,000 Main Event that fires Wednesday, and it is well below the CA$2,300 Super Circuit Championship that fires Monday. It is the entry-tier ring event of the series and drew both online-first grinders and cash-game regulars.
The second was flight structure: five Day 1s across three days is a materially larger flight count than the two-flight structure Playground used for the CA$500 Kickoff on Wednesday, and it doubled the average recent Mini Main's flight count at the venue. The extra flight capacity created two full extra days of runway for players deciding late whether to travel to Kahnawake. The third tailwind was series positioning. Playground has been the highest-volume live-poker room in Canada for close to a decade on the WSOP International Circuit ledger, and the arrival of the WSOP Super Circuit branding, up from the standard Circuit designation, materially raised the marketing signal on the entire schedule. The result is a field that outdrew both of the venue's recent Main Events at Circuit buy-ins five times higher.
Comparison Against Recent Playground Mini Mains
| Event | Date | Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner (Prize) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WSOPC Super Circuit Canada Mini Main | Aug 27 to Aug 30, 2026 | C$500 | 3,484 | C$1,548,458 | Daniel Haim (C$185,000) |
| WSOPC Playground Spring Mini Main | May 11 to May 17, 2026 | C$400 | 1,419 | C$416,318 | Nabil Ben-Naoum |
| WSOPC Playground March Mini Main | Mar 23 to Mar 29, 2026 | C$400 | 2,464 | C$824,577 | Samuel Bourque (C$105,001) |
| WSOP International Circuit Playground Mini Main | Aug 18 to Aug 24, 2025 | C$400 | 2,289 | C$666,770 | Yves Perras (C$100,000) |
| WSOP Circuit Playground Mini Main | Nov 3 to Nov 10, 2025 | C$400 | 1,780 | C$614,100 | Matthew Gearey (C$83,670) |
Source: WSOP.com Playground event archives, retrieved August 31, 2026. Prize pool for August 2026 Mini Main derived from WSOP verified statement of a CA$1.5 million pool at 89 per cent of gross entries.
The August 2026 Mini Main is the largest at Playground on both entries and prize pool, comfortably ahead of the previous prize-pool ceiling of CA$824,577 set by the March 2026 Mini Main. Haim's CA$185,000 winner's cheque is also the largest first-place prize ever awarded at a Playground Mini Main; the previous ceiling was Samuel Bourque's CA$105,001 in March.
Ontario Player Pipeline
Ontario players reaching the Kahnawake venue this weekend are doing so via one of three routes: a five-and-a-half-hour drive east from Toronto along Highway 401 and the Ontario-Quebec autoroute network, an Ontario-only satellite ladder run on GGPoker Ontario (which fed the CA$5,000 Main Event through its final Sunday flights on August 17), or direct bankroll built on any of the six AGCO-registered Ontario poker rooms (GGPoker, PokerStars on FanDuel, BetMGM Poker, 888poker, PartyPoker, Bwin). The Mini Main itself did not have a dedicated Ontario-only online satellite ladder, but Ontario-based grinders were visible in the field through all five starting flights, per social-media coverage from the venue on Saturday afternoon and evening.
Whether Haim is Ontario-based has not been publicly confirmed. The WSOP's public communications identify him only under the Canadian flag, and the surname is present in both the Toronto and Montreal live-poker circuits. A confirmed hometown will follow when WSOP populates the event's payout page and Hendon Mob issues a verified record.
Series Momentum and What Runs Next
Two ring events into the eighteen-event schedule, the WSOP Super Circuit Canada has now produced 4,215 unique entries and roughly CA$1.86 million in aggregate paid prize pool, both figures well ahead of the pace projected when the CA$14 million-plus aggregate guarantee was published in August. Event #3, the CA$1,000 NLH Mystery Bounty carrying a CA$400,000 guarantee, played its two remaining starting flights on Sunday and moves to Day 2 on Monday. Event #4, the CA$2,300 NLH Super Circuit Championship with a CA$500,000 guarantee, fires its first Day 1 flight at 11:00 a.m. Monday and its second on Tuesday. The next tentpole is Event #7, the CA$5,000 NLH Super Circuit Main Event with a CA$10,000,000 guarantee, which begins Wednesday, September 3 with six Day 1 flights running through Sunday, September 6.
Two data points now define the Main Event guarantee pressure. The Kickoff cleared its CA$150,000 guarantee at more than 2 times. The Mini Main cleared its CA$500,000 guarantee at more than 3 times. If the Main Event's six Day 1 flights produce even the two-times ratio, gross entries at CA$5,000 buy-in would need to reach roughly 4,470, which would put paid prize pool at approximately CA$20 million and remove overlay concern before the fourth Day 1 fires. If the ratio tracks closer to the Mini Main's 3-times, the number falls to roughly 2,980 entries. Either figure would make the CA$10 million guarantee comfortably the largest live-poker prize pool ever awarded in Canada, and the largest single-event prize pool ever staged at Playground Poker Club.
Series Standings So Far
| Event | Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner (Prize) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 NLH Super Circuit Kickoff | C$500 | 731 | C$308,445 | Sebastien Proulx (C$56,000) |
| #2 NLH Mini Main Event | C$500 | 3,484 | C$1,548,458 | Daniel Haim (C$185,000) |
| #3 NLH Mystery Bounty | C$1,000 | In progress | Guarantee C$400,000 | Day 2 Monday, September 1 |
| #4 NLH Super Circuit Championship | C$2,300 | Opens Monday | Guarantee C$500,000 | Day 2 Tuesday, September 2 |
| #7 NLH Super Circuit Main Event | C$5,000 | Opens Wednesday | Guarantee C$10,000,000 | Final table September 9 |
Related Coverage
- Mini Main sets Playground record: 3,484 entries and CA$1.5M pool
- Sebastien Proulx wins WSOPC Canada Event #1 Kickoff for CA$56,000
- GGPoker Ontario's satellite pipeline to the CA$10M Main Event
- Allen Shen wins Playground WSOPC Main Event for CA$605,001 (April 2026)
- Ontario poker tournament schedule
- Playground Poker Kahnawake venue guide
Sources
- World Series of Poker communications on X, verified statement of Daniel Haim's win, CA$185,000 first-place prize, and 3,484-player field size, posted Sunday, August 30, 2026, into Monday morning.
- Bleacher Report poker aggregation feed, syndication of the WSOP announcement, retrieved August 31, 2026.
- WSOP.com WSOP Super Circuit Canada schedule and structure page, retrieved August 31, 2026.
- CanadianPoker.com Mini Main Event coverage, retrieved August 31, 2026.
- Prior WSOP International Circuit Playground archives, 2024 and 2025 seasons, and WSOP Circuit Playground archives, March, April and May 2026 stops.