Eliot Hudon would prefer to keep a low profile. But when you win the $10,400 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas – the tournament with the largest live guarantee of all time – and take home a first-place prize of more than $4.1 million, poker players are going to know who you are. Even while trying to grind in the sea of people playing Day 2ABC of the 2023 Main Event, Hudon knows that some at his table clearly have an idea of who he is.
“I do get recognized,” Hudon said. “Some people will come to talk to me about [the WPT World Championship]. They’re all very nice but it’s a bit weird for me. I like to stay under the radar most of the time. But it’s not as big as it seems, honestly, it’s just a casual talk once in a while and that’s it.”
Hudon, the soft-spoken 25-year-old Canadian who rose to prominence last December after he bested Benny Glaser heads-up at the WPT World Championship, is back in Las Vegas and on the grind. Since his win at the Wynn, Hudson says when it comes to poker really the only thing that’s changed for him when it comes to poker is the stakes.
“I’ve been playing bigger stakes,” he said. “And really trying to play a lot more live poker, and that’s pretty much it.”
So far at the 2023 WSOP, Hudon has three cashes, including a deep run in a $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $20,761 and another in a $5K No Limit Hold’em for $11,524 – both tough fields packed with tough talent. Today, though, he’s back for Day 2 of the Main Event, and while everyone is hoping to make a deep run, Hudon is the only person in this record-breaking field with the ability to potentially hold two World Championship titles at the same time – something he confesses, he has thought about.
“That thought did cross my mind yesterday,” he said. “That would be pretty ridiculous, right? We’ll see what happens.”
But by no means is he trying to jump to the end of this massive tournament. Hudon has already proven that he knows what it takes to navigate a large field, and he’ll be relying on his WPT World Championship experience, his preparation, and, of course, some luck if he’s able to make a run in the WSOP Main Event.
“It’s going okay,” Hudon said, speaking about his day. “It’s a slow structure, so I’m not trying to take any big risks right now and just trying to navigate through a large field and hopefully make a deep run.
“I just try to bring my…enemies, I guess you could call them…in a branch where I’m more comfortable. I’ll just try to do that every hand. I know I can have an edge over them on that node, on that branch.”
No matter what happens in the Main Event, Hudon already has future poker plans set. When asked if he was planning on returning to the Wynn this December to defend his WPT World Championship title, Hudon lit up and only had one thing to say.
“Absolutely.”