The second World Poker Tour main event champion of the week has been crowned. Mike Vanier emerged victorious in the 2025 WPT Choctaw $3,800 no-limit hold’em main event, earning $338,000 after besting the 586-entry turnout.
The final table of this event played out just one day after Art Peacock took down the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. Both tournaments set their final tables earlier this year before going on hiatus, with the televised final tables filming in Las Vegas. In both tournaments, the chip leaders coming into the last day were the ones to add their names to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
This was the third time that Vanier made a WPT final table, having finished as the runner-up in the 2022 WPT Venetian main event and third in this same tournament in 2023. The 45-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska resident’s career tournament earnings now sit at more than $2.7 million after this latest deep run on the WPT.
“I am a lot happier today,” said Vanier when asked about making the final table of this event for a second time. “I wanted to keep the pots small, play post flop and it worked out pretty good.”
This event’s field was narrowed to six contenders back on May 5 at the host venue of Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, with Vanier eliminating Trung Pham in seventh place ($54,000) to bring action to a halt. The 586-entry turnout produced a prize pool of $2,051,000 that was paid out amongst the top 74 finishers. Notables that ran deep included WPT champions Kevin Eyster (31st), Nick Yunis (30th), bracelet winner Jeremy Wien (14th), bracelet winner Faraz Jaka (13th), and bracelet winner Mike Liang (9th). The half dozen players who made the trek to Sin City were all guaranteed at least $70,000 for making it to the final table, with Vanier’s 80 big blinds giving him the largest stack when cards got back in the air on May 30.
Logan Hoover
Shreveport, Louisiana’s Logan Hoover was the first to fall. He called off the last of his chips with Q♠J♦ facing the A♣8♦ of Mason Vieth, who had open-shoved from the small blind. The flop came down A♥J♥8♣ to leave Hoover in rough shape. The A♠ on the turn left him officially drawing dead, rendering the K♠ river a mere formality. Hoover earned $70,000 for his sixth-place showing. This was his second-largest tournament score, trailing only the $188,400 he secured for a 47th-place finish in the 2023 World Series of Poker main event.
Vieth also scored the next knockout. This time, however, he did so by cracking the K♠K♦ of Ryan Brown with 6♠6♦. The flop came down 8♠6♥5♠ to give Vieth a set of sixes and the lead. The 10♦ on the turn left Brown drawing to two outs on the end. The 4♠ was not one of them, though, and the Argyle, Texas resident was sent to the rail with $92,000 as the fifth-place finisher.
A classic preflop spelled the end of Charlie Adkins’ run in this event. The Texan shoved his last 10 big blinds from the cutoff with 8♠8♦. Vieth called with A♣J♣ from the button and the blinds got out of the way. The first four cards were safe for Adkins, with the 6♠6♦3♥6♥ improving him to a full house. He still had to fade a jack, ace, or six on the end, though. The dealer burned and turned the A♠, giving Vieth a higher full house and the pot. Adkins, who brought a hefty rail with him for this final table, placed fourth for $122,000. This trails only the $237,622 he took home for winning a $365 WSOP Circuit event at Choctaw back in 2017 when it comes to career-best paydays for Adkins.
A massive rail roots on Charlie Adkins as he heads into the final table of the $3,800 #WPTChoctaw Championship with over $300k going to first 😬
📺 Tune in – https://t.co/hESv3A6Qs5 pic.twitter.com/SGlwtfl6w7
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) May 31, 2025
Lifu Zhang was the shortest stack after Adkins hit the rail. He hung around for a while, but eventually took a stand with K♣J♦. He was up against A♣3♠ for Vanier, which held through a 7♠5♠2♠Q♥5♥ runout to end Zhang’s tournament in third place ($163,000). This was the largest score yet for the Plano, Texas resident.
Heads-up play began with Vanier holding just better than a 2:1 chip lead over Vieth, who had come into the final table in the middle of the pack. Vieth won a big pot with pocket kings against the A-3 suited of Vanier, which flopped middle pair after action was three-bet preflop. Vanier called a shove on the turn with what had become third pair and was unable to improve on the river. With that, Vieth overtook the lead.
Mason Vieth
Vieth was able to expand his advantage in the aftermath of that hand, but Vanier won a key all-in with K-Q against Q-8 to more or less even the playing field. Vieth stretched out another lead, only to have another all-in go Vanier’s way with pocket deuces nesting Q-10.
Vanier had just edged into the lead in time for the final hand of the tournament. He min-raised to 800,000 on the button with A♠Q♣ and Vieth three-bet shoved for 13,500,000 with A♣9♣. Vanier called and the board ran out Q♦J♥4♠5♠10♣ to give Vanier top pair, top kicker and the title.
The runner-up payout of $220,000 was a new career high for Vieth, whose previous top score was the $130,000 he earned as the winner of the 2023 South Texas Poker Championship $1,000 buy-in main event at Rounders Card Club in San Antonio.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize Money | POY Points |
| 1 | Mike Vanier | $338,000 | 1,260 |
| 2 | Mason Vieth | $220,000 | 1,050 |
| 3 | Lifu Zhang | $163,000 | 840 |
| 4 | Charlie Adkins | $122,000 | 630 |
| 5 | Ryan Brown | $92,000 | 525 |
| 6 | Logan Hoover | $70,000 | 420 |
Photo credit: WPT.
