Record-Setting 2025 World Series Of Poker Truly One For The Ages

The 2025 World Series of Poker is going to be a hard act to follow. Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas played host to numerous exciting storylines, from incredible on-felt performances to plenty of drama both on and off the felt.

Of course, the biggest story of all was Michael Mizrachi taking down both the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and the $10,000 main event in the same summer, juicing his bracelet count to eight in legendary fashion with an incredible one-two punch that led to a spontaneous, instantaneous Hall of Fame induction.

The 100 live bracelet events that made up this year’s series attracted almost 247,000 total entries, a new record for the WSOP. That resulted in nearly $482 million in total prize money, which also set a record for the largest total in the 56-year history of the series. More than half of the tournaments exceed $2 million in prize money, with nine topping $10 million, including the main event, which was the third-largest ever at $90,535,500.

While there were 100 tournaments held, there were only 99 bracelets awarded, thanks to the controversy in the Millionaire Maker that ultimately led to that event’s bracelet being withheld.

The main event spanned the final fortnight of the series, but it was far from the only tournament to conclude down the stretch. Below is a look at the results from the other 16 bracelet events that wrapped up in the last two weeks. In-depth coverage of the previous events at the 2025 WSOP can be found in the three previous issues of Card Player.

Nguyen Le Nabs Two Huge Titles In One Week

Nguyen Le had himself quite a week on the live circuit. On Friday, July 4 he bounced back from being down to a single chip in the Aria Poker Classic BetMGM Championship $3,500 event, topping a field of 1,853 entries to earn $777,777.

One week later, he emerged victorious from a field of 252 entries in the WSOP $50,000 no-limit hold’em high roller with $2,686,913 and his first gold bracelet. The Vietnamese pro now boasts over $4 million in career earnings after his incredible run in Las Vegas, with nearly all of it won this year.

Le’s spree kicked off back in January. He final-tabled a PokerGO Tour Last Chance event for what was then a career-best score of $55,500 just a few days into 2025. He then finished second in the Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 main event, chopping heads-up with Joseph Neiman to officially finish second. Nguyen was ahead at the time and earned the larger payout of $425,000, but a flip for the title saw Neiman ultimately credited as the champion

Le was one of 250 entries in the high roller, a new record field for the $50,000 buy-in event. The prize pool grew to $12,159,000 as a result, with 38 finishers making the money.

Plenty of the game’s biggest stars went deep, including Shaun Deeb (19th), Philip Sternheimer (13th), Christopher Nguyen (10th), Sam Soverel (9th), Matthew Wantman (8th), Martin Zamani (7th), Sergio Aido (3rd), and runner-up Alexandre Reard. The French pro earned a career-best payday of $1,791,267 for his strong showing. The two-time bracelet winner now has nearly $7.3 million in career cashes.

Daniel Zack, Chad Eveslage, And Sam Soverel Expand Their Bracelet Collections

One of the themes of the summer was the impressive performance of prior winners, with 48 of the 99 titles awarded going to players that had already secured bracelets.

Daniel Zack had three previous bracelet wins to his name. The 2022 WSOP Player of the Year earned his first win at the series since his two-win performance that year, taking down the 2025 WSOP $3,000 pot-limit Omaha six-max event on the last day of this year’s festival to bring his total count to four.

The Princeton, New Jersey native first broke through at the series in 2021 with a win in a $2,500 mixed triple draw tournament. His pair of triumphs a few years ago both came in $10,000 events. The first was the Omaha eight-or-better championship, the latter the stud eight-or-better championship.

This latest triumph saw the 32-year-old poker pro overcome a field of 1,088 entries to lock up the hardware and the top prize of $471,170. This was his second-largest payday yet on the circuit, trailing only the $488,095 he took home for an eighth-place showing in the $250,000 high roller at the series during his POY run. His career tournament earnings now sit at more than $5.1 million.

Chad Eveslage also earned his fourth career bracelet during the festival’s climax. Eveslage has had plenty of success in the no-limit hold’em streets, with a triumph in the 2022 WSOP $25,000 high roller and two World Poker Tour main event titles.

In 2025, though, his biggest wins have come in mixed games. Eveslage took down the first-ever $100,000 Super High Roller Bowl Mixed Games event back in March for $1.2 million. Most recently, he came out on top in the $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. high roller, besting a field of 150 entries to secure the top prize of $883,841.

Eveslage has proven to be an all-around player, as his second and third were both secured in dealer’s choice events. He won both the $1,500 and $10,000 buy-in versions of that format in 2023.

The 33-year-old poker pro now has more than $11.5 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name, with nearly $4.6 million of that coming from his 80 cashes and 14 final tables in gold bracelet events at the series. In addition to this win, he had placed third in the $10,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw lowball event five weeks earlier for $231,321.

Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast finished second for $586,539, narrowly missing out on his second bracelet of the series and eighth overall. He took down the $10,000 razz championship for $306,644. As a result of his impressive summer, Rast finished sixth overall in the WSOP Player of the Year race.

Bracelet winner, EPT champion, and 2023 WSOP main event seventh-place finisher Toby Lewis finished third for $399,763, just three days after he took second in the $3,000 T.O.R.S.E. event for $178,427.

Sam Soverel grew his WSOP hardware collection to three pieces thanks to his triumph in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em six-max championship. The 34-year-old high-stakes tournament regular outlasted a field of 546 entries to grasp the gold and pick up the top prize of $986,337 from a prize pool of $5,077,800.

This was the fourth-largest payday yet for Soverel, who now has nearly $27.1 million in career tournament earnings to his name. The Florida native, now based in Las Vegas, first broke through at the series in 2016, taking down a $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event for $185,317 at the age of 25. In 2023, he took down a hybrid online and live bracelet event, besting 408 entries in the $5,300 buy-in affair to secure another $393,516.

Klemens Roiter finished fourth for $300,521, adding to an impressive summer that also saw the Austrian take down the Monster Stack for $1,204,457.

Ryutaro Suzuki And Lukas Zaskodny Win Their Second

The inaugural $3,000 T.O.R.S.E. event at the series substituted triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball for limit hold’em from one of the most widely spread mixed-game formats: H.O.R.S.E. The debut running of this particular format drew 522 entries, resulting in a prize pool of $1,393,740.

Japan’s Ryutaro Suzuki emerged victorious in the end, securing his second bracelet and the top prize of $273,386. This was a new top score of Suzuki, topping the $221,124 he took home as the champion of the 2023 $3,000 nine-game mix.

A total of 4,297 entries were made in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event known as The Closer, but only one player would walk away a champion. This was the second bracelet victory for Lukas Zaskodny, who earned $648,130 for the win.

This was the second-largest score of the Czech pro’s career, trailing the $1,015,582 he earned for taking down a €10,300 event at the 2019 partypoker LIVE! MILLIONS Europe. His earnings now sit at just shy of $3 million after this latest triumph. Zaskodny previously took down the €2,200 pot-limit Omaha event at the 2017 WSOP Europe in his home nation, which came with the hardware and $109,602.

Ian O’Hara And Andrew Ostapchenko Headline First Timer Club

In addition to Le, four other first-time champs walked away with more than half a million dollars thanks to their debut victories at the series.

Netanel Stern raced through a field of 1,283 entries in a single day in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em super turbo, earning $618,377 as the champion. This was not only his first win at the series for the Israeli player, it was also his first recorded live WSOP cash, period. Before this win, his top result was a 463rd-place finish in the 2023 WSOP Online main event for $15,237.

The mid-stakes championship saw 3,797 entries made at $3,000 a pop, resulting in a prize pool worth more than $10.1 million. While 570 players ultimately made the money, only Ian O’Hara walked away with the $1,189,408 payout and the gold bracelet.

This was the fifth WSOP final-table finish for O’Hara, who came close to winning his first bracelet in 2021 when he finished as the runner-up in the $10,000 stud eight-or-better championship. He also placed third in the 2019 $3,000 limit hold’em six-max event. This victory takes his career earnings to more than $6.1 million.

This year’s $777 buy-in Lucky 7’s event drew a massive field of 8,012 entries to create a total prize pool of $5,447,118. Spain’s Nelson Mari Sanchez came away with the guaranteed top prize of $777,777, defeating Canada’s Yu Liu to secure the bracelet.

The two largest tournament scores of California poker pro Andrew Ostapchenko’s career were both recorded this summer at the WSOP.  Roughly one week into June, he finished second in the $25,000 high roller for just shy of $1.3 million. Five weeks later, he made it down to heads-up play in the $5,000 no-limit event, and this time was able to close out the win, earning his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $606,849.

The win saw Ostapchenko outlast 735 total entries to hoist the hardware. He earned 1,824 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his third POY-qualified title of the year, having taken down a $1,100 side event at the World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder series and a WSOP Circuit $3,250 high roller, both at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He now sits in sixth place in the 2025 POY standings presented by Coin Poker, with 5,598 total points accrued across seven final-table finishes.

Brandon Wilson earned $404,532 as the runner-up. This was his eighth final-table finish of the year, with three titles won. He now sits one spot behind Ostapchenko in seventh place on the POY leaderboard.

More Champions Crowned Down The Stretch

A few weeks after taking down a $1,100 pot-limit Omaha event at the Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series for a career-best tournament payday of $48,203, Justin Fawcett blew that sum out of the water by outlasting 7,057 total entries in the WSOP $600 Ultra Stack event for $355,110 and his first bracelet. The Gainesville, Florida resident also took down an $800 buy-in event at Aria in late May for another $28,795, making this his best stretch on the live circuit.

Hungary’s Ferenc Deak bested a massive 5,284-entry field in the $1,000 pot-limit Omaha mystery bounty event for his first bracelet, fulfilling a promise to his son to return from the series with some hardware. This victory is the largest score of Deak’s poker career. He took home $329,890 for the victory plus bounties he scored along the way.

Lithuania’s Kasparas Klezys was the last player standing from 1,384 entries in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event. In addition to his first bracelet, Klezys was also awarded $280,214. This was the second-largest score of his career, trailing only the $491,840 he earned as the fourth-place finisher in the 2023 WSOP Europe main event.

The $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame bounty event first appeared at the 2021 WSOP. The unusual price point was chosen as a nod to the year the Hall of Fame was established, with bounties placed on members corresponding to the year they were inducted. For example, 2025 inductee Nick Schulman would be worth $2,025 to whoever eliminated him from the event.

The event drew 1,115 total entries, with Tom McEvoy claiming the honor as the last Hall of Famer standing. The 2013 inductee and 1983 main event winner finished 81st.

More than $1.9 million in prize money was awarded in this event, with the largest share going to Josh Boulton in the end. The UK resident earned $311,349 after overcoming bracelet winner and Mid-States Poker Tour Hall of Famer Rob Wazwaz heads-up.

Argentina’s Mariano Balfagon rose to the top of the pile in the final Deepstack event of the summer. He bested a field of 2,851 total entries in the $800 buy-in no-limit hold’em affair to earn $252,386 in prize money.

The final event on the schedule was the $1,000 no-limit hold’em super turbo event. It saw 1,935 entries looking for their last chance to get their hands on the gold. The dream came true for the UK’s Mitchell Hynam, who earned $237,924 as the champion. This triumph came hot on the heels of Hynam’s 49th-place showing in this year’s WSOP main event for $200,000.

With that, the 2025 WSOP came to a close. While there are still several WSOP festivals set to award bracelets in 2025, organizers are already looking ahead to 2026.

“The poker renaissance was on full display at the 2025 WSOP. A sincere thank you to every player and staffer who came to Las Vegas and made this a summer to remember,” said WSOP CEO Ty Stewart. “If you missed the amazing action, the good news is that you can inevitably expect bigger and better next year.”

• Photos by WSOP – Poker.org, PokerGO