The 2025 World Poker Tour Choctaw $3,800 no-limit hold’em main event final table was officially set on May 5, but a champion won’t be decided in the tournament until May 30. The WPT tournament that started and played down to the final six at Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, has been paused for more than three weeks.
Action will resume in Las Vegas with 2022 WPT Venetian main event runner-up Mike Vanier leading the half-dozen players still in contention. Vanier and the other five contenders have all locked up at least $70,000 by making it this far, but will all have their eyes on the title and the top prize of $338,000.
Vanier’s 7,950,000 will be good for 80 big blinds when play resumes with 51:52 remaining in Level 27, which sports blinds of 50,000-100,000 and a 100,000 big blind ante. Vanier has more than
Mike Vanier
$2.4 million in prior tournament scores under his belt, including the $595,000 he earned for the previously mentioned second-place showing he had in a WPT main event in Las Vegas a few years ago. This will be the third WPT final table showing for the Nebraska resident, as he also finished third in this same event back in 2023.
Trung Pham was sent packing in seventh place ($54,000) by Vanier to set the televised final table and bring action to a halt. The 586-entry turnout produced a prize pool of $2,051,000 that was paid out amongst the top 74 finishers. Notables that ran deep included WPT champions Kevin Eyster (31st), Nick Yunis (30th), bracelet winner Jeremy Wien (14th), bracelet winner Faraz Jaka (13th), and bracelet winner Mike Liang (9th).
Jared Hemingway, who already made the delayed final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event, made a deep run but fell just short of securing a second appointment in Las Vegas later this month. He finished 15th for $26,000.
Lifu Zhang (6,150,000) bagged the second-largest stack. The Plano, Texas resident has already locked up a career-best score simply by making the final table. Mason Vieth (4,375,000) and Logan Hoover are virtually tied for third chip position, while Ryan Brown ended with 3,650,000.
Charlie Adkins is the short stack with 2,850,000. Despite starting at the bottom of the leaderboard, the 2017 World Series of Poker Circuit $365 buy-in $1 million guarantee winner will have plenty of room to maneuver, with nearly 29 big blinds to work with when action resumes.
Seat Assignments and Chip Counts
Seat 1: Charlie Adkins – 2,850,000 (29 bb)
Seat 2: Mason Vieth – 4,375,000 (44 bb)
Seat 3: Logan Hoover – 4,325,000 (43 bb)
Seat 4: Mike Vanier – 7,950,000 (80 bb)
Seat 5: Ryan Brown – 3,650,000 (37 bb)
Seat 6: Lifu Zhang – 6,150,000 (62 bb)
Here is the full list of payouts that are still up for grabs:
1st: $338,000
2nd: $220,000
3rd: $163,000
4th: $122,000
5th: $92,000
6th: $70,000
Photos provided by WPT.
