Hometown Hero Wins PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open Main EventHouston's Ravee Sundara Outlasted 699 Entries To Earn A Career-Best $283,143 Payday |
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A total of 699 entries were made in the 2025 PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open $3,300 no-limit hold’em main event at Champions Club Texas in Houston, surpassing the $2,000,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of nearly $2.1 million.
Houston poker regular Ravee Sundara emerged victorious in the end, earning $283,143 and the iconic TPO belt buckle trophy. This was the largest live tournament result yet for the man many around town know as ‘Sonny.’ He now has more than $564,000 in recorded scores to his name.
In addition to the unique hardware and the money, Sundara also secured 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2025, but it alone was enough to move him within striking distance of the top 100 in the overall standings.
This second annual running of the TPO featured eight starting flights and two more days of combined field action. The top 88 finishers earned a share of the multi-million-dollar prize pool.
Plenty of notables ran deep, including reigning World Series of Poker main event champion Jonathan Tamayo (85th), 2022 Wynn Millions main event champion Tony Sinishtaj (22nd), 2023 World Poker Tour World Championship winner Daniel Sepiol (15th), 2019 WPT ARIA Summer Championship winner Matthew Wantman (13th), and a trio of bracelet winners in Joey Weissman (12th), Brian Green (11th), and Michael Liang (10th).
The final table began with Kaleb Harwell out in front and Sundara in seventh chip position. Two of the more accomplished players still in contention bowed out early, with bracelet winner Justin Liberto (9th – $40,000) and four-time WPT final tablist Viet Vo (8th – $50,000) unable to get much going after the field combined onto a single table.
Will Benson got the last of his stack in with pocket kings leading the A-K suite of Aaron Gao, but the board brought three spades to give Gao the nut flush and the knockout. Benson earned $60,000 as the seventh-place finisher.
Kings CRACKED and Will Benson busts 7th for $60,000.
Watch thePokerGOTour</a> Texas Poker Open Main Event final table from <a href="https://twitter.com/ChampionsClubTX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">ChampionsClubTX!
https://t.co/8zIg5YuJWR pic.twitter.com/k4ySU96RGI— PokerGO (@PokerGO) April 28, 2025
2021 Wynn Millions main event champion Andrew Moreno’s last stand pitted his open-ended straight draw against the top two pair of Harwell. The chips went in on the turn, and a blank river saw Moreno head to the rail with $80,000 for his efforts. The score pushed his career earnings past the $5.3 million mark.
Phu Vo (5th – $100,000) got all-in on the river in his final hand after hitting an ace high straight. Unfortunately for him, Sundara had flopped trip tens and rivered a full house. Sundara made the quick call to score the knockout, narrowing the field to four.
Jason Bullock was the next to be eliminated, with his A-8 unable to hold up against the Q-10 suited of Gao. The flop brought a ten to give Gao middle pair, and he held from there to send Bullock packing in fourth place ($125,000).
The final three were fairly close in chips at that point. They decided to hash out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money a bit based on ICM. They left the title and $60,000 to play for, while locking up the following payouts:
Ravee Sundara – $250,643
Aaron Gao – $247,328
Kaleb Harwell – $237,029
Harwell slid to the bottom of the leaderboard early, but surged out in front when he made a set of tens against the kings and tens of Sundara. Sundara then doubled up through Gao, cracking pocket aces with K-10. Gao was knocked out in third when he shoved Q
2
from the small blind and Harwell called with 1010
in the big blind. Harwell flopped top set and improved to tens full by the river. Gao took home the nearly quarter-million-dollar payout he bargained for in the deal, which was by far his largest tournament score yet.
The final two players then negotiated a new deal to further rearrange the payouts. They also agreed to run a best-of-three series of pot-limit Omaha flips to determine the champion. Sundara won the first two to lock up the title, while Harwell finished second with $264,529 in prize money. This was the second six-figure cash that he’s made in a poker tournament, having placed third in the WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event in 2023 for $113,339.
Ravee "Sonny" Sundara is the 2025
PokerGOTour</a> Texas Poker Open champion! <br><br>Is this the first time a tournament has ever ended like this? A best-of-three round of flips!<br><br>Miss the final table from <a href="https://twitter.com/ChampionsClubTX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">ChampionsClubTX? Relive the action on PokerGO.
https://t.co/8zIg5YuJWR pic.twitter.com/qARJO2d7tV— PokerGO (@PokerGO) April 29, 2025
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Ravee Sundara | $283,143 | 1260 | 283 |
| 2 | Kaleb Harwell | $264,529 | 1050 | 265 |
| 3 | Aaron Gao | $247,328 | 840 | 247 |
| 4 | Jason Bullock | $125,000 | 630 | 125 |
| 5 | Phu Vo | $100,000 | 525 | 100 |
| 6 | Andrew Moreno | $80,000 | 420 | 80 |
| 7 | William Benson | $60,000 | 315 | 60 |
| 8 | Viet Vo | $50,000 | 210 | 50 |
| 9 | Justin Liberto | $40,000 | 105 | 40 |
Photo credit: PokerGO Tour.
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