button in SafariPatrick Tardif: From Watching the WPT on Television to Representing WPT Global
Whenever a poker player puts pen to paper on an ambassadorial contract, the accompanying press release often quotes them as saying representing the brand is a dream come true. For Patrick "Egption" Tardif, becoming a WPT Global ambassador was literally a dream come true, completing a full-circle story that began several years earlier.
After graduating from the University of Western Ontario, Tardif relocated to South Korea, where he taught English as a foreign language. However, Tardif has a serious competitive streak running through him, and it created an itch that needed scratching.
Tardif, like some other high-profile poker players, comes from a gaming background; he was once a professional H.A.L.O. player. Similar to the career paths of Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Griffin Benger, Tardif successfully switched from video games to poker and has never looked back.
Although Tardif had a live tournament score in May 2014, he didn't decide to become a full-time Twitch poker streamer until 2017. Since then, Tardif has amassed an army of 55,500 loyal followers, who tune in to his thrice-weekly streams, where the Canadian provides bags of entertainment while showcasing his skill in the high-stakes MTT world.
By 2024, Tardif had accumulated more than $11 million in online cashes and another $500,000 from the live arena. The Canadian had already represented PartyPoker and GGPoker, but then WPT Global came knocking, and Tardif found it impossible to turn them down.
WPT Global and Tardif joined forces in May 2024. During his interview with the WPT Global Blog, Tardif revealed that he used to watch World Poker Tour (WPT) television broadcasts when he was first cutting his teeth in the poker world, so the opportunity to sport a WPT patch was something he was born to do.
"Ever since I first got into poker, I'd been watching WPT on TV. Being able to be an ambassador for such a storied and prestigious brand was an opportunity I couldn't pass up on."
Tardif and WPT Global seem like a partnership made in heaven. The Canadian is an established online pro; he mixes it up in player-facing live events, and perhaps most importantly, Tardif is a WPT fan at heart. It's a trifecta that should see Tardif fly the WPT Global flag for some time.
