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Andrew Ostapchenko Headlines Bracelet Winners From 2025 WSOP’s Final Days

A Look At Results From Four Events That Wrapped Down The Stretch At The Series


The 2025 World Series of Poker is now in the books. The 100 live bracelet events collectively drew nearly 247,000 total entries, with more than $479 million in total prize money awarded along the way. While there were 100 tournaments, 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 WSOP main event wrapped up on Wednesday, July 16, with Michael Mizrachi mashing his way to a historic win. While that massive tournament played out over the final fortnight of the festival, there were plenty of other ‘postlim’ events also going on around Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas. Below is a look at the results from four of the final tournaments to conclude at this year’s WSOP.

2025 WSOP $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight Max

The two largest tournament scores of California poker pro Andrew Ostapchenko’s career were both recorded this summer at the WSOP.  Just over a week into June, he finished second in the $25,000 eight-max event for just shy of $1.3 million. Five weeks later, he made it down to heads-up play in another eight-max tournament. This time around, with the buy-in at $5,000, Ostapchenko 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 overall 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.

The strong turnout for this event resulted in a prize pool of $3,381,000. Several stars of the game ran deep, including bracelet winners like Cherish Andrews (29th), Carlos Leiva (27th), Ali Eslami (22nd), Barak Wisbrod (17th), Samuel Bernabeu (16th), and 2015 WSOP main event champion Joe McKeehen (11th), who has triumphed three times at the series.

Four-time WPT champion and bracelet winner Brian Altman (9th) fell just short of the official final table, but several other big names did make the top eight, such as: bracelet winner and WPT champion Pat Lyons (7th), Sam Laskowitz (6th), four-time bracelet winner and WPT champion David ‘ODB’ Baker (3rd), and rising high roller star Brandon Wilson (2nd).

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

Place Player Payout POY Points
1 Andrew Ostapchenko $606,849 1824
2 Brandon Wilson $404,532 1520
3 David Baker $283,554 1216
4 Vamerdino Magsakay $201,811 912
5 Joseph Sabe $145,875 760
6 Sam Laskowitz $107,115 608
7 Pat Lyons $79,921 456
8 Marcos Skerl $60,608 304
2025 WSOP $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

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.

In addition to earning his first WSOP gold bracelet, this triumph also came with $252,386 in prize money. This was by far the largest tournament result for Balfagon, blowing away his previous top score worth $11,000.

Plenty of notables were among the 429 that earned a share of the $1,995,700 prize pool, including World Poker Tour champion Joshua Reichard (41st), bracelet winner Guoliang Wei (26th), 2013 Irish Poker Open champion Ian Simpson (24th), bracelet winner Haixia Zhang (19th), Dara O’Kearney (12th), bracelet winner Lei Yu (8th), high-stakes cash-game stream star Wesley Fei (6th), and two-time Card Player Poker Tour champion Jon Turner (5th).

Balfagon came from behind in the final hand, getting all-in with a deuce in his hand to match one on the flop, which was joined by a pair of fours. Andrew Ahn was ahead with a pocket pair of queens. That remained in front until the river brought another deuce to give Balfagon a winning full house. Ahn earned $168,122 as the runner-up.

Place Player Payout POY Points
1 Mariano Balfagon $252,386 600
2 Andrew Ahn $168,122 500
3 Nan Chen $122,705 400
4 Alon Eldar $90,413 300
5 Jon Turner $67,262 250
6 Wesley Fei $50,526 200
7 Kevin Choi $38,328 150
8 Lei Yu $29,364 100
9 Gustavo Andolhe $22,722 50
2025 WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em ‘The Closer’

A total of 4,297 entries were made in the 2025 WSOP $1,500 no-limit hold’em event known as ‘The Closer,’ but only one player would walk away a champion: Lukas Zaskodny. This was the second bracelet victory for the Czech player, who earned $648,130 for the win.

This was the second-largest score of Zaskodny’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 eight-max event at the 2017 WSOP Europe in his home nation, which came with the hardware and $109,602.

Notables who ran deep in this event included bracelet winner Qiang Xu (17th), three-time bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva (14th), bracelet winner Jimmy Setna (7th), and bracelet winner Lok Chan (3rd).

Place Player Payout POY Points
1 Lukas Zaskodny $648,130 1320
2 Richard Ali $432,090 1100
3 Lok Chan $321,830 880
4 Thang Tran $241,610 660
5 Adrian Tivadar $182,830 550
6 Dylan Lambe $139,460 440
7 Jimmy Setna $107,240 330
8 Victor Caballero $83,130 220
9 Tawei Tou $64,980 110
2025 WSOP $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo

The $1,000 no-limit hold’em super turbo event drew 1,935 entries looking for their last chance to seize 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. These are the second and third-largest live scores of Hynam’s poker career. They only trail the $285,000 he secured for a fourth-place finish in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event. He grew his career earnings to nearly $917,000 with this latest win.

The top 291 finishers cashed to take home a part of the $1,702,800 prize pool. Notables who ran deep included three-time bracelet winner Nipun Java (17th), bracelet Konstantin Held (16th), bracelet winner Francis Anderson (13th), Paulina ‘Poker Bunny’ Loeliger (8th), and two-time bracelet winner Brett Shaffer (7th).

Place Player Payout POY Points
1 Mitchell Hynam $237,924 1080
2 Nadav Bitton $158,578 900
3 Kei Tanaka $115,295 720
4 Nevan Chang $84,733 540
5 Jacob Parent $62,954 450
6 Lukas Hafner $47,290 360
7 Brett Shaffer $35,921 270
8 Paulina Loeliger $27,594 180
9 Alex Duvall $21,440 90

Featured image credit: WSOP / Spenser Sembrat.

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