Meet Erik Cajelais, the latest WSOPE bracelet winner

WSOP Europe / Dave Allan / 25 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

Back in 2007, Canadian poker pro Erik Cajelais joined an elite club, a group of players who had become millionaires through poker. Now he has joined another special group by becoming the latest winner of a coveted WSOP bracelet after taking down the £2,500 Pot-limit Hold'em/Omaha event at the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe.

Born in Montreal but now residing in Lachenair, Quebec, Cajelais has played poker for as long as he can remember, mainly with friends and his older brother but professionally since 2005.

He made the final table of his first tournament played as a pro, a $1,000 event at the 2005 Borgata Poker Open, which he came 8th for $11,070. Just two months later he had another solid finish, this time coming 63/783 in the $10,000 WPT World Poker Finals for $12,000.

During 2006 his aggressive style of play saw him go deep in several tournaments and in December of that year he claimed his first title when he won the $5,000 Fifth Annual Five Diamond Classic, overcoming a final table hosting the likes of Erik Seidel, Justin Bonomo and Shannon Shorr, for his biggest payout of his career at the time, $430,730.

Cajelais continued his good form into 2007, reaching two final tables before coming extremely close to claiming his first WSOP bracelet. He managed to outlast 143 other players in the $5,000 Pot-limit Omaha Event but could not beat Burt Boutin heads-up and had to settle for the runner-up spot and $483,755.

The disappointment of coming second happened to Cajelais again in the same year but this time at the inaugural WPT Turks and Caicos Poker Classic where he had to settle for a $225,000 return on his $7,500 investment but he knew another major title was just around the corner.

Cajelais entered the £2,500 Pot-limit Hold'em/Omaha Mixed Event at the 2009 WSOPE, along with 157 other hopefuls and after three days of battling it out at the felt, he found himself heads-up against Swedish pro Mats Gavatin and with a massive chip lead.

The final hand occurred during the Omaha round and saw all the money go into the middle preflop, Gavatin holding TdTs9c8c to Cajelais' QhJd9s7s. The dealer put the first three cards onto the table, AdQdQc, which delighted the Canadian and when the turn and river came Ah and Js, Cajelais had claimed his first WSOP bracelet and another £104,677 ($172,572) to add to his already impressive live tournament winnings, taking them past the $1,600,000 mark.