Poker has been in its high roller era for more than a decade now. While the growth of the nosebleed-stakes tournaments began with a selection of a few such events amid larger series, recent years have seen the proliferation of dedicated festivals and tours catering to high-buy-in specialists.
The latest addition is the Onyx Super High Roller Series, which first ran a high roller weekend in June of 2025 before launching its first fully-fledged series in August. A total of 11 events were held from Aug. 9-21 at Merit Poker inside the Crystal Cove Hotel in Northern Cyprus, with $19 million in guaranteed prize money promised along the way.
That amount was nearly doubled after $37.4 million was ultimately paid out during the festival, which also played host to a series of high-stakes heads-up cash game matches that captivated the poker world. Let’s dive into all the exciting results from the inaugural Onyx series.
Jesse Lonis Stays Hot
Jesse Lonis is dominating the live tournament circuit in 2025. This year, the two-time bracelet winner has accrued seven POY-qualified titles across 21 final table finishes, cashing for more than $8.8 million in those events alone.
The 29-year-old poker pro from Little Falls, New York, also added to his haul in a significant way on Aug. 18, when he topped a field of 88 entries in the $100,000 invitational event at this series, striking a heads-up deal that saw him walk away with $1,745,625.
This was the third-largest score of Lonis’ career, trailing the $3.4 million he won in a Triton Poker Montenegro $100,000 earlier this year and the $2.3 million that came with his $50,000 pot-limit Omaha bracelet at the 2023 World Series of Poker. Lonis now boasts more than $24.7 million in career cashes.
Lonis’ incredible run so far in 2025 has made him the clear leader in the POY. This event, which required an invite, did not award points, however.
There was plenty of tough competition for Lonis to contend with down the stretch. The strong turnout resulted in a final prize pool of $8,536,000. The top 14 finishers made the money, with notables like Jamil Wakil (5th), Rob Yong (4th), and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (3rd) all cashing.
Ivey’s run ended with a $1,080,000 payday. This was the Poker Hall of Famer’s 14th seven-figure tournament cash. The living legend of the game now has more than $53.2 million in recorded cashes to his name.
Maher Nouiraearned $1,704,375 as the runner-up after agreeing to a deal with Lonis. This was a new high score for the Tunisian pro, topping the $1.4 million he cash for with a deep run in a $200,000 Triton Invitational in May.
Fahredin Mustafov Captures Career-Best Score In Main Event
Fahredin Mustafov Captures Career-Best Score In Main EventFahredin Mustafov has been around the live tournament circuit for over a decade, but has reached new heights recently. The Bulgarian player has accumulated nearly 200 live cashes on the circuit over the years, with 14 of his 17 scores of six figures or more coming in the last four years.
The very largest payday of Mustafov’s tournament career is also his most recent. He defeated a field of 227 entries in the $25,000 main event at this Onyx stop, earning $1.3 million as the champion. He now has more than $9.5 million in lifetime cashes to his name.
The strong turnout for the main event saw the $5 million guarantee surpassed by more than half a million dollars. The top 34 finishers earned a piece of the prize pool, with notables like event no. 2 champion Gregoire Auzoux (19th), Leonard Maue (15th), Aliaksei Boika (14th), Jesse Lonis (12th), Artur Martirosian (7th), and Matthew Wantman (3rd) all running deep.
Wantman made two final tables at this festival, earning a career-high score of $530,000 for his performance in this event. With 5,822 POY points secured from 16 final tables this year, the recent bracelet winner is currently ranked sixth in the overall standings.
Mustafov’s triumph also came with 1,344 POY points. He went on to make two more final tables, including a fourth-place showing in a $50,000 pot-limit Omaha event for $276,000. With 3,299 total points across seven final tables, he is now ranked in the top 50.
Kicking Off In Style
The very first tournament to get underway was the $5 million guaranteed $10,400 GGMillion$, which drew 510 entries across two starting flights. After four days of high-stakes action, Lebanon’s Moussa Ahmad emerged victorious with the title and the $1 million first-place prize. Not much is known about Ahmad, who has no other tournament cashes. During heads-up play with Jamil Wakil, he offered Wakil a chop, which the Canadian pro declined.
Wakil ended up with $650,000 for his runner-up showing, the first of his big scores in Cyprus. He made three final tables during the series overall, including a fifth-place showing in the $100,000 invitational, and a third-place finish in the $50,000 high roller to cash for a total of 1.9 million. With five final tables on the year, Wakil is now ranked just outside the top 30 in the Card Player Player of the Year race sponsored by CoinPoker.
The ‘second chance’ $10,400 event featured a $1 million guarantee. Gregorie Auzoux added to his trophy case after overcoming a field of 111 entries. The French pro won the title and $223,500 after making a heads-up deal with Australia’s Warwick Mirzikinian, who claimed an identical $223,500.
For Auzoux, this was his second major win in his adopted country of Cyprus in three years. A little more than two years ago, he took down a $40,000 event during the 2023 Triton Poker Cyprus stop for over $1 million.
Daniel Rezaei Headlines Hold’em Winners
Three other no-limit hold’em events were also completed before the festival shifted gears and switched the game to pot-limit Omaha. The largest saw Daniel Rezai outlast a field of 100 entries in the $51,000 buy-in $5 million guaranteed event to earn $1,043,530.
The Austrian poker pro’s two largest live tournament scores have now both been recorded this summer. In early July, roughly six weeks before this win in Cyprus, he finished third in the Wynn Summer Classic $10 million guaranteed main event for nearly $1.2 million.
Wakil finished third in this event to wrap up his impressive run at this series.
The other two no-limit events both featured $25,000 buy-ins. The first drew 51 entries to easily beat the $1 million guarantee. France’s Thomas Santerne came out on top, earning $391,750 as the champion.
This was the seventh-largest score of Santerne’s tournament career. He now has nearly $7.5 million in recorded cashes to his name, with several of his biggest paydays coming in 2025, including a runner-up showing in a €25,000 high roller at the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo stop for nearly $810,000.
The single-day turbo $25,000 buy-in event wound up with 25 entries, resulting in $606,250 in total prize money. The largest chunk of that sum was captured by Senegal’s Hassan Nashar, who came away with $236,750. Nashar’s lifetime tournament haul is now approaching $1 million.
2025 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Nick Schulman finished second for $166,500. This was the 15th final-table finish of the year for Schulman, with two titles won along the way, including his seventh WSOP gold bracelet. The 210 POY points that came with this runner-up showing grew Schulman’s total to 5,042 points, which is currently good for 12th place in the standings.
PLO Crushers Chop $100,000 Invitational With Anonymous Player
The $100,000 pot-limit Omaha invitational event drew 79 entries, resulting in a prize pool of nearly $7.7 million. The tournament concluded after a three-way deal, which is a fairly common result. What made this particular agreement noteworthy, outside of the massive stakes and the two top-flight Omaha specialists involved, was that the deal’s final terms were expressly not released.
The eventual champion requested anonymity, and went by a nickname during event coverage. Finland’s Samuli Sipila finished second, while Spain’s Lautaro Guerra placed third. There was more than $4.2 million still to be awarded when the deal was struck.
Guerra was the shortest stack at the time the deal was made with 18,100,000, while Sipila had 27,400,000 and the anonymous chip leader had 33,900,000.
While their exact payouts in this are unknown, Sipila is likely approaching $5 million in career earnings after this deep run. He came into this event with more than $3.8 million in prior cashes, including two Triton Poker PLO titles and a pair of PGT PLO Series wins.
Guerra has almost assuredly taken the lead on the PLO money list thanks to his performance. He already boasted over $7.7 million in career cashes in PLO tournaments, which trailed only Eelis Parssinen and Ben Tollerene with $7.8 million. All but three of Guerra’s 60 live cashes have come in four-card events. His top career payday is the $2.1 million that came with his win in the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $100,000 PLO high roller. His largest non-PLO score is for $450,000, which he picked up with a 15th-place showing in this year’s WSOP main event.
Daniel Dvoress Closes Out Series With Two Wins
Marcus Dieleman, a high-stakes online cash game player from the Netherlands, took down the second-largest PLO event on offer. He overcame a field of 49 entries, topping a stacked final table for the top prize of $750,000.
Several of the festival’s stars, including Artur Martirosian (7th), Jesse Lonis (6th), and Fahredin Mustafov (4th), cashed in this event.
Daniel Dvoress finished third for $380,000. The two-time bracelet winner was particularly impressive during this inaugural Onyx series. He made five final tables during the festival, cashing for more than $872,000 as he went.
The Canadian pro won two of the four pot-limit Omaha titles that were up for grabs, first overcoming 19 entries in the $10,400 buy-in PLO event to earn $88,600. The next day, he emerged victorious in the $25,000 PLO turbo, outlasting 15 entries to walk away with $230,750.
His strong performance at this festival grew his career earnings to just shy of $47 million, which is good for second on Canada’s all-time money list behind only Daniel Negreanu with $56.3 million. Dvoress also added 818 POY points. With 3,206 points, he is just outside the top 50 in this year’s standings.
- Photos by Onyx Poker