Will Givens was the loudest player in the room at the WSOP Super Circuit Main Event in Canada, and for three and a half days he was also one of the most dangerous. Then, holding a stack that would have put him second in chips heading into Day 5 with CAD $1,500,000 waiting for the winner, he shoved 7-5 offsuit into the nut flush.
"Please keep this stream going," Givens told the production crew before the hand played out. "I'm about to do some shit."
He was not wrong.
The Hand
Givens had 8.4 million when he called an open on the button with 7♥5♣. Paul Klann woke up with A♥Q♥ in the small blind and three-bet to 330,000. Givens called.
The flop came 8♥T♥J♥ — giving Klann the nut flush with a royal flush redraw, and giving Givens seven-high with a gutshot to a straight that would still lose to the flush.
Klann checked all three streets and called bets each time, then raised the river with the board reading 8♥T♥J♥3♦6♣. Givens did not think for long before moving all in. Klann snap-called.
"You can't imagine anything happening with the 7-5," commentator James Dempsey said as it unfolded, "but he has been drinking." When Klann tabled his hand, Dempsey's response was the line that has followed the clip around the internet: "What have we just watched?"
To Givens's credit, he offered a fist bump before the chips moved.
From Bad to Worse
A total of 116 players started Day 4. Klann ended it as chip leader with 11.3 million — a stack built substantially at Givens's expense.
The day also claimed the two biggest remaining names. Daniel Negreanu went out 99th for CAD $14,500 and Michael Mizrachi finished 78th for CAD $21,000.
Givens's own end came later. He lost most of what remained when A♥5♣ ran into Franco Tucci's A♣9♦ on a 9♣A♦A♠3♥K♣ board — an ugly runout that left him with 710,000, under ten big blinds. He got the rest in on one of the final hands of the night with A♥K♥ against Jack Salter's A♦T♦. Salter had raised to 200,000, Givens three-bet to 500,000, Salter jammed and Givens called. The flop came 9♣5♥Q♥, the Q♠ turn was safe, and the T♣ river ended it. 33rd place, CAD $51,000.
Givens's assessment on the rail to Jeff Platt was blunt and self-aware: "I should have walked away. Up there it was doomsday, never connected, never made a hand... when it's doomsday, it's doomsday. I played bad, I'll give you that, but it's hard to make a hand. That's what I do. I create. I'm a f---ing Picasso."
He also confirmed he intends to play the $100,000 Super High Roller at WSOP Paradise. That will be worth watching.
For Givens, it was a near-repeat of his summer. He was among the loudest and most entertaining players at the 2026 WSOP Main Event before a brutal beat from eventual champion Lucas Jumalon ended his run in 19th for $325,000 — a 56.2 million-chip pot with A-Q against A-T.
The Rise of Nick Palma
The counterweight to Givens on Day 4 was Nick Palma, who talks as much and holds onto chips considerably better. Palma ended the day with 7.6 million, third in chips, after exchanging words with Givens across the table.
Asked whether his confidence gives him an edge, Palma's answer was direct: "Definitely. If you don't believe in yourself, who will?"
He posted afterwards that he had reached Day 5 in third place from a starting field of 2,844 players, with the title and $1.1 million in US terms on the line.
Day 5 top-ten stacks
- Paul Klann (Canada) — 11.3 million
- Guoyan Li (Canada) — 8.1 million
- Nick Palma (USA) — 7.6 million
- Fabian Gumz (Austria) — 6.8 million
- Aaron Quon (Canada) — 6.8 million
- Chance Kornuth (USA) — 6.6 million
- Jonathan Bussieres (Canada) — 6.6 million
- Deven Lane (Canada) — 6.3 million
- Jack Salter (UK) — 5.7 million
- Franco Tucci (Canada) — 5.5 million
Chance Kornuth hovered around the top ten all day and bagged sixth. Play resumed at 11am local time on Wednesday for six levels or until the final table was reached.
What This Means for Players
A big stack is a weapon, not a licence. The single most common way good players bust deep runs is by treating a large stack as permission to play hands they would fold with 40 big blinds. The correct use of a big stack is applied pressure in position against medium stacks who cannot call — not calling a three-bet out of position with 7-5 offsuit against a range that has you crushed.
Table image has a ceiling. Givens's style genuinely works: unpredictability generates action and folds from opponents who cannot narrow his range. But an image that gets you paid also gets you snap-called, and against a player holding the nut flush there is no image in the world that produces a fold. Knowing which opponents your image is working on — and which it isn't — is the difference between a creative player and an expensive one. Our guide to bluffing covers when aggression has fold equity and when it is simply burning chips.
Fatigue and alcohol are real leaks. Dempsey's aside — "he has been drinking" — is worth sitting with. Day 4 of a Main Event is a physical endurance test as much as a mental one, and anything that degrades decision quality at exactly the moment the pay jumps steepen is expensive. Our tilt explainer covers the adjacent problem of emotional decision-making.
Pay jumps matter until they don't. With 30 left and CAD $1.5 million up top, the ICM pressure on medium stacks is enormous. Big stacks should be exploiting that relentlessly; short stacks should be picking clean spots rather than hoping to ladder. The mechanics are in our ICM guide, and the general principles of deep-run tournament play sit in the poker strategy hub.
Where It Stands
The Main Event began with 2,844 entries and CAD $1,500,000 reserved for the winner. Klann leads, Palma is in striking distance, and Kornuth is the most decorated player left. Whoever wins will have earned it through a field that has already chewed up Negreanu, Mizrachi and the most watchable player in the room.
Players following the North American circuit can track the calendar on our WSOP schedule page. Canadian readers looking for the online rooms that feed these events will find the current options in our Canada poker sites rankings, and our tournaments hub covers the qualifier routes into major live series.