Argentina’s Nico Betbese emerged victorious from a field of 1,153 entries in the 2025 World Poker Tour Venetian Las Vegas Championship $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event. Betbese earned $706,960 as the champion. This was his first WPT main tour victory. It saw him earn a seat in the $10,400 entry into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas and add his name to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
This was the largest live tournament score yet for Betbese. Prior to this breakthrough win at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, his top payday had been the $121,145 he earned for a third-place showing in a $1,700 buy-in event at the MGM Grand’s Summer Poker Festival in 2023. With this latest win factored in, Betbese now boasts recorded earnings of nearly $1.6 million.
Betbese also secured 1,920 Card Player Player of the Year points with this win. This was his first title and final table of the year, but he did make two POY-qualified cashes earlier this summer in big-field events. With 2,051 total points, he now sits inside the top 125 in the 2025 POY rankings presented by Coin Poker.
The strong turnout for this event saw the $4 million guarantee easily surpassed, with more than $5.3 million ultimately paid out amongst the top 145 finishers. Plenty of big names ran deep, including Kathy Liebert (39th), Chris Brewer (28th), Kristen Foxen (32nd), Alexandros Theologis (26th), James Romero (20th), and Aditya Prasetyo (9th).
From Six To Two
The final day began with six contenders remaining and Elvyn Bello in the lead. Action was livestreamed from the Venetian Poker Studio. Betbese was in second chip position when cards got in the air. It took 120 hands to narrow the last half-dozen down to a champion. Just ten hands into the day, Ireland’s Jamie Flynn lost a classic coin flip with pocket jacks against the A-K of Betbese. An ace-high runout sent Flynn packing with $169,000.
The exact same hand matchup also resulted in the second elimination. Bello, who had slid down the leaderboard during the early action, held the pocket jacks, while Iulian Blebea had the two highest overcards in the deck. This time around, Blebea flopped a pair of aces and ended up making the nut flush by the river. Bello was awarded $220,000 as the fifth-place finisher.
On the 81st hand of the day, Blebea ran pocket tens into the pocket queens of Francis Cruz to hit the rail in fourth place ($295,000).
Betbese doubled twice during three-handed action. Then Oliver Bosch got the last of his short stack in with J♠10♦ facing the K♥K♦ of Cruz. The 9♥5♥3♥4♦3♠ runout kept Cruz’s pair best and Bosch was knocked out in third place ($395,000).
Heads-Up For The Glory
Cruz held better than a 3:2 chip lead heading into the final showdown for the title. He and Betbese hashed out a deal to redistribute the remaining payouts, with $706,960 for the winner and $623,540 for the runner-up.
Betbese overtook the lead when his flush bested jacks up for Cruz. He then expanded his advantage to nearly 4:1 by the time the final hand was dealt, winning a hefty pot on the penultimate deal with two pair.
The last hand of the tournament began with a 2.5x raise to 1,500,000 on the button from Cruz, who held K♦Q♠. Betbese three-bet shoved with 9♠9♦ and Cruz called off for 11,400,000 total. The board came down A♠5♣3♦9♣8♣ and Betbese’s set of nines earned him the pot and the title. Cruz took home the negotiated runner-up prize, which was the largest live score yet for the Dominican Republic resident.
Nico Betbese Wins the @WPT Venetian $5,000 Championship for $696,560! 🏆
🔗 https://t.co/niehAEFafF pic.twitter.com/KWLr1WjgkS
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) July 18, 2025
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Nico Betbese | $706,960 | 1920 |
| 2 | Francis Cruz | $623,540 | 1600 |
| 3 | Oliver Bosch | $395,000 | 1280 |
| 4 | Iulian-Remus Blebea | $295,000 | 960 |
| 5 | Elvyn Bello Santos | $220,000 | 800 |
| 6 | Jamie Flynn | $169,000 | 640 |
| 7 | Matthew Davenport | $130,000 | 480 |
| 8 | Yita Choong | $101,000 | 320 |
| 9 | Aditya Prasetyo | $79,000 | 160 |
Photo provided by WPT.
