Poker Year in Review: The Biggest Moments, Upsets & Wins in 2025

As the year draws to a close, we look back at the poker highlights that delivered the most joy, excitement, and controversy. From Michael Mizrachi being crowned the WSOP Main Event champion, to Kassouf getting banned, and Jesse Lonis’ iconic Triton runs, this is the CardPlayer poker year in review 2025.

2025 World Series of Poker Highlights

What better place to start our poker year in review 2025 than with the most prestigious poker series of the year. Here’s our pick of WSOP 2025 highlights.

The 2025 WSOP Main Event Champion

The first WSOP 2025 highlight to cover is the Main Event. This year’s champion walked away with a cool $10 million. That honour belongs to Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, a legendary tournament player on the live circuit.

Incredibly, Mizrachi was down to just three big blinds late in the Main Event after losing with As Jd to his opponent’s Ad Qd. Mizrachi then spun it up all the way to the final table, putting on an entertaining display for his friends on the rail as he marched towards victory.

With seven players remaining, it once again looked like Mizrachi was in trouble when he got his As Kd in against Ks Kc, only to spike an ace on the river and become the final table chip leader.

In the end, Mizrachi beat John Wasnock heads-up to win the top prize and his first Main Event bracelet, adding to a total of eight bracelets throughout his illustrious career.

“The Grinder” also won the Poker Players Championship in 2025, becoming the only player ever to win both the Main Event and the PPC. Following the victories, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

In another WSOP 2025 highlight, Spanish pro Leo Margets also made the final table of the Main Event, becoming only the second woman in history to do so. She finished seventh for $1.5 million.

Glaser Scoops Three Bracelets, Deeb Wins World Series POY

Despite Mizrachi winning two of the most prestigious events and cashing 11 times, he finished fourth in the WSOP Player of the Year race due to a lack of deep runs in other events.

Martin Kabrahel, Benny Glaser, and Shaun Deeb all ranked above the Main Event winner.

The Player of the Year race came down to Deeb and Glaser. Deeb was out ahead, but an incredible run from Glaser saw the UK pro pick up three WSOP bracelets, becoming only the seventh player in history to lock up that number in one series. He pushed his career total up to seven bracelets after winning the following events:

• Event #8: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice for $150,246.
• Event #15: $1,500 Mixed Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo for $258,193.
• Event #56: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball for $208,552.

Glaser racked up a string of min-cashes to add to his results, but couldn’t quite lock up the final deep run needed to surpass Deeb. Meanwhile, Deeb finished in the top three spots in four events during the series, including his win in Event #79: $100,000 PLO High Roller for $2,957,22 and his seventh career bracelet.

The race between them and the class both showed is undoubtedly one of the WSOP 2025 highlights.

Biggest Tournament Wins Outside the WSOP

Outside of the WSOP, it was a great year for Triton, and the EPT continued to show why it’s the dominant series in Europe, despite early cancellations.

High Roller Circuit Winners

The Triton Poker Series attracts elite players from across the globe with six-figure buy-in levels and payouts worth millions, providing some of the biggest poker moments of 2025.

Steven Chidwick, one of poker’s most successful live players of all time, delivered a poker championship win worth remembering in the $200,000 Short Deck event in Jeju, which he took down for $3,455,000, the second-largest cash of his impeccable career.

Another standout poker highlight from Triton was Jesse Lonis’ victory in the Montenegro Main Event, which he won for $3,446,298, catapulting himself up the Player of the Year leaderboards.

Meanwhile, American pro Jason Koon secured a victory in the $150k NLH event for $3,393,656, extending his record to 11 Triton titles, the most out of any player.

Some of the biggest wins from Triton came from the Invitational events.

Aleksa Pavicevic won the $200,000 Triton Invitational in Montenegro for $6,180,000, and, more recently, Kayhan Mokri won the $250,000 Invitational at the WSOP Paradise for a whopping $7,725,000. To top off an impressive year of high roller scores, Bernhard Binder took down the $25,000 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event for $10 million.

European Poker Tour Highlights

The largest poker series in Europe is the European Poker Tour (EPT), which ran four stops in 2025 after the cancellation of EPT Paris due to political reasons earlier in the year.

Despite the rocky start, the EPT was a roaring success as usual, paying out six or seven figures to the Main Event champions. Thomas Eychenne of France won the EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1,217,175 following a heads-up deal, locking up his first live title from what was one of the largest Main Event fields in the series’ history.

At the Monte Carlo stop earlier in the year, Alexsandr Shevliakov took home a €1,000,000 Main Event top prize after qualifying online via a €530 satellite.

Live Tour Standout – Irish Poker Open

The standout regional tour and a true poker highlight for 2025 was the Irish Poker Open in Dublin.

Although a mid-stakes event, the series has become one of the most popular and well-loved festivals of the year for players of all levels, for both the poker and what the Irish refer to as the “craic” (fun times, to the rest of us). The 2025 Irish Poker Main Event attracted 4,562 entries to generate a prize pool of €4.45 million, an obscene amount considering the modest €1,150 buy-in.

Local player Simon Wilson emerged as the outright winner, earning himself €600,000 and the Irish Open trophy, which he paraded around the bar afterwards to screams of “There’s only ooooone Simon Wilson!”

The series broke records with the largest Main Event field in Irish poker history and also won the Sigma Award for Best Live Event.

Online Poker’s Biggest Moments in 2025

The biggest online poker series of the year included SCOOP, WCOOP, and GGPoker’s WSOP Online, which stole the online poker highlight headlines, awarding the largest online payout of 2025.

WCOOP and SCOOP Highlights

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) are two of the most prestigious online tournament series held annually, often producing huge scores and multiple title winners.

Simon “C. Darwin1” Mattsson was the standout star in the 2025 SCOOP, locking up five titles in one year to add to his total of 14 SCOOP trophies. The SCOOP Main Event, meanwhile, was won by Brazil’s “stek94”, who struck a heads-up deal before winning for $505,000.

Over in the $10k WCOOP Main Event, the biggest of the three finale tournaments for the series, Giles “TaxationIsTheft” Simon topped a tough final table to take home the $736,327 top prize and the all-important trophy.

GGPoker Holds Biggest Online Series of the Year, Rolle Takes Biggest Online Prize

There was a time when nobody could have imagined an online series bigger in prize pools and stature than the WCOOP.

Nowadays, though, following GG’s acquisition of the World Series, WCOOP’s numbers are blown out of the water by the WSOP Online, which awarded 33 bracelets and nearly $120 million in total prizes.

The $5,000 WSOP Online Main Event garnered a prize pool of $28,314,750, the third largest online tournament ever held in terms of prize pool. Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle finished first for an incredible $3,900,707, the largest online payout of 2025 and the main online poker highlight.

Most Shocking Poker Upset of 2025

In many ways, poker is a game that is heavily punctuated by upsets and shocking moments. All it ever takes is the turn of a card, and anyone can be eliminated. From top pro to former champion, nobody is immune. Here is our selection for the most shocking poker upset in 2025:

Hawker Goes From Chip Lead to Bust

Busting a big tournament is never fun, especially when you go from being the chip leader to being eliminated in a matter of minutes.

That’s exactly what happened to Michael Hawker when he came back from his dinner break on Day 5 of the WSOP Main Event. On the second hand, after the break, Hawker got his full house in against Sebastian Schulze, but Schulze turned over an ace-high full house to win the pot and most of Hawker’s stack. Immediately after, Hawker got his straight in only to be picked off again by Schulze, this time holding a flush. Tournaments like the WSOP Main Event both make and shatter dreams.

This was a prime example of a shattered one and a demonstration of the ruthless variance in poker.

Breakthrough Player of 2025 – Jesse Lonis

The breakthrough poker player of the year is undoubtedly Jesse Lonis.

He’s been a rising star for a few years now, but 2025 really was his moment to place himself among the poker elite. Starting out with a string of victories at mid-stakes events like the Wynn Millions and Poker Go Tour, Lonis soon moved up to the big leagues. By May, he was competing in and winning high roller competitions, such as the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller Warm-Up, which he won for €508,465.

Later that month, now playing at the Triton in Montenegro, Lonis won the $20k Mystery Bounty event for $619,000 and followed up with his most famous and lucrative finish to date. He came first in the $100,000 Main Event for $3,446,298.

Two more seven-figure scores were still to come.

Lonis won the Onyx Super High Roller for $1,745,625 in August and then came third in the Triton Jeju PLO Main Event for $1,200,000. All in all, Lonis has achieved three seven-figure wins, 19 six-figure wins, and around $12 million in live tournament cashes in 2025. He’s also set to win Player of the Year.

In an interview, Lonis said himself that the top guys thought he was a “fish or a whale or just lucky”, but after such a superb and consistent year, there’s now no doubt that Lonis is up there with the greats.

Memorable Hands That Defined 2025

There were dozens, if not hundreds of memorable poker hands reported throughout the year, so we’ve picked out a couple for the poker year in review 2025.

• Poker pro and coach Faraz Jaka showed guts and audacity when he three-bet 7♥ 2♦ against Benjamin Gold. Jaka c-bet the queen-high flop and barrelled again on the king-high turn. On the river, Jaka picked up trip deuces and went for value. Unfortunately for him, Gold had Q♥ Q♣ for a full house. Jaka was out early on Day 1a of the Main Event.
• Another memorable poker hand took place at the PokerStars Open Malaga, where Bobby Simons won a three-way all-in against not one, but two full houses, cracking both aces and kings with K♣ Q♣ by hitting a royal flush. Simons ended up finishing 85th for a 3,300 payout, showing that tournaments can’t be won on a single hand.

Poker Records Broken in 2025

The poker year in review for 2025 wouldn’t be complete without a roundup of the significant milestones that have been broken. We’ve touched on some of these already, so here’s a quick rundown of poker records broken in 2025:

Controversies and Talking Points from 2025

Some of the biggest poker moments of 2025 also include controversy, or worse still, blatant foul play.

Ketola’s Persona

The aforementioned Ossi Ketola soon became the centre of controversy as the poker community dug deeper into his background and intentions.

The Finnish entrepreneur was a self-proclaimed scammer in his teen years before founding his businesses within the gaming skins trading world. More recently, Ketola’s persona has been called into question, especially with regard to outlandish and potentially racist comments across social media, leading to a ban.

In any case, the legitimacy of the biggest cash game pots in televised poker history has been called into question, with some players challenging whether it was all just a show.

AI Use in Poker Documentary

Speaking of shows, in November, we were treated to a completely free poker series called No Limit, which aimed to give us an up-close and personal look at some of poker’s biggest names as they competed at the WSOP Paradise Bahamas event.

The series received mixed reviews from the community, but there’s no doubt it was a palatable show with some awesome poker highlights; not always groundbreaking, but at least an entertaining watch and a welcome attempt to bring mainstream poker documentaries back.

Unfortunately, not everything went as planned.

During Episode 5, viewers follow high-stakes cash game pro Alan Keating as he plays the tournament format that he openly despises. Keating demonstrates some strong opinions as he plays, such as:

“I don’t even like tournaments. I like putting people in tough spots and testing their will. And then ripping their heads off.””

It turns out this quote was fabricated by AI, which mashed together what Keating apparently “would have said” in this situation. Keating didn’t like it, the show’s response didn’t settle the issue, and all episodes were soon pulled from YouTube.

They are set to be released again at a later date, without the use of AI.

Kassouf Evicted from WSOP

Will Kassouf is a polarizing character in the poker world.

Some would argue that his antics and table talk are “good for the game”, providing much-needed entertainment that might attract recreational players to watch and play. Others might describe him as annoying, or worse.

Kassouf was up to his usual tricks at the 2025 WSOP, this time amplified times one thousand.

He talked, he tanked, he argued with players and floor staff alike. The tournament director enforced strict time limits on his actions, and opponents constantly called the clock, leading to yet more aggro from Kassouf. Eventually, Kassouf was eliminated in 33rd place. Then, he was immediately escorted off the premises and banned from the WSOP for the rest of the year. A few thought the reactions were over the top.

Others said it was the best decision the WSOP has ever made and a true poker highlight.

Poker Cheating Scandals

It’s a shame to say that 2025 involved its fair share of poker cheating scandals.

There are a few we could mention, and some sit in slightly grey areas, such as the use of real-time assistance software and the giving of advice during play. The most blatant, though, was Operation Royal Flush. In a major federal case, a network involving organised criminals and professional athletes was exposed for using sophisticated equipment to rig underground poker games, allegedly costing victims millions of dollars.

The ring allegedly used X-ray tables, modified shuffling machines, and optical devices to gather information, which was then relayed to accomplices at the table, allowing them to gain a significant unfair advantage.

The case is still active and ongoing.

Poker Industry Developments in 2025

The main poker industry news in 2025 is the development of shared liquidity pools, particularly in the USA, where Pennsylvania recently joined the Multi‑State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) to share liquidity with Nevada, New Jersey, and Michigan.

This resulted in WSOP Online expanding to include all four states, a move that other operators are expected to follow.

The other major poker industry news for 2025 is GG Poker’s full acquisition of the World Series of Poker, making this the first year the event was held under the company’s full ownership. Already, changes have been made, including the introduction of the WSOP+ app, which allows players to see schedules, structures, chip counts, and more, as well as register for tournaments online and join waiting lists for games.

GG Poker also demonstrated its online dominance, running the WSOP Online as the biggest online poker series of the year.

It’s not all been growth and splendour, though. Legislative changes can and have happened in the other direction, including the federal ban on real money gaming in India that came into place in August 2025, dubbed India’s Black Friday. There has also been a crackdown on sweepstakes gambling with dual currencies, leading to Club WPT Gold exiting certain US markets.

Still, the poker industry is growing overall. The online market continues to generate increasing revenues, while live poker events have once again broken records for attendance and prize pools.

Conclusion

What a year for poker in 2025. The industry continues to grow, and new stars are rising on the live circuit. Glaser cemented himself as one of the greatest mixed game players of all time after winning three bracelets, while Jesse Lonis climbed the ranks to become a Triton champion.

FAQs

Who won the 2025 WSOP Main Event?

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi won the 2025 WSOP Main Event for $10 million.

What was the biggest poker prize awarded in 2025?

The biggest poker prize awarded in 2025 was $10 million in the WSOP Main Event. In December, Bernhard Binder took down the $25,000 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event for $10 million.

How many WSOP bracelets were awarded in 2025?

A total of 163 WSOP bracelets were awarded across all events in 2025, including 99 at the World Series in Las Vegas.

What were the biggest poker upsets in 2025?

Poker upsets are common in poker, as all it takes is the turn of a card. For example, Michael Hawker went from chip lead to elimination in two short hands after the dinner break on Day 5 of the WSOP.

Which player had the best year in 2025?

Jesse Lonis demonstrated one of the best poker performances of the year. He topped the Player of the Year rankings, picking up around $12 million in career winnings and catapulting his career from the mid to very high stakes.

What poker records were broken in 2025?

Poker records broken in 2025 include attendance and prize records for the WSOP series, the biggest $100k tournament ever, and the biggest payout in a live Omaha tournament.

How can I watch highlights from 2025’s biggest poker moments?

As of December, there are no highlight reels showing all of the biggest poker moments in 2025, but you can search each of the stories here for more details and videos.