Klemens Roiter had already accumulated multiple millions in recorded tournament earnings prior to showing up in Las Vegas for the 2025 World Series of Poker. The 34-year-old Austrian from Vienna boasted nine six-figure scores already, including several deep runs in high-stakes events, including a 10th-place finish in the recent Triton Poker Montenegro $150,000 buy-in.
What Roiter had not yet done, though, was lock up a major title on the live circuit. His lone recorded victory in that arena came in a high-stakes side event at the Asian Poker Tour Taipei in 2024, with a top prize of $122,130.
On Wednesday, June 18, Roiter finally broke through to make a statement win, outlasting a massive field in the WSOP $1,500 Monster Stack no-limit hold’em event to earn his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $1,204,457.
“I cannot describe how good it feels after I’ve tried so long,” Roiter told PokerNews live reporters after closing out the title. “It’s a big dream come true, to be honest. It’s such a massive field, hard to describe, I can’t even grasp. I think it will need some days.”
Roiter’s career earnings now sit at nearly $4.1 million after this win. He also scored 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points after coming out on top. This was his sixth final-table finish and first title of 2025. With 3,131 total points, he is now sitting inside the top 20 in the 2025 POY standings presented by Coin Poker.
Monster Field
This event ran from June 11-18 inside the Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas. There were four starting flights to choose from, and then four more days of combined-field action.
Turnout was up year-over-year, with 9,920 entries in 2025 representing nearly a 14 percent increase on the 8,703 of 2024. The $13,148,390 total prize pool was paid out across the top 1,488 finishers, with a min-cash worth $3,108. The final nine all took home at least six-figure paydays, with the lone seven-figure score going to Roiter.
Notables who ran deep included recent World Poker Tour Choctaw champion Michael Vanier (72nd), two-time bracelet winner Yuliyan Kolev (71st), bracelet winner Ali Eslami (62nd), and back-to-back WSOP main event top-ten finisher Michael Ruane (15th).
The Rise of Roiter
The final day began with Jamaica, New York’s David Uvaydov atop the pile, with seven remaining and Roiter in second chip position to start.
The most decorated player remaining was also the first to hit the rail. World Poker Tour champion and two-time bracelet winner Dylan Linde was subjected to the coldest of cold decks, with his K♠K♦ running into the A♠A♥ of Roiter. Linde opened from the hijack with a min-raise to 6,000,000 and Roiter three-bet to 17,000,000. A four-bet to 29,000,000 by Linde was met with a five-bet shove from his Austrian opponent. Linde called and was shown the bad news. Roiter improved to aces full of sixes by the river. This knockout catapulted Roiter into the lead and ended Linde’s run in seventh place ($207,647). The longtime poker pro from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is now approaching $12 million in career earnings after this latest strong showing.
2024 Card Player Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville main event champion James Leonard was the next to square off against Roiter. His final hand began with a shove from the button for a bit shy of 13 big blinds with A-8. The all-in was called by Roiter, who held A-9 in the big blind. Roiter flopped top pair and turned trips to render the river a mere formality. Leonard walked away with $268,520 as the sixth-place finisher, a new career-best score for the Florida dentist with a lengthy résumé of poker results.
Getting Short… Handed
The next big clash was a fair fight, with Ashish Gupta’s pocket eights squaring off against the A-10 of Daniel Lei. Gupta turned eights full of nines, locking up the pot and the knockout. Lei was awarded $349,562 for his fifth-place showing, by far the largest payday yet for the New Jersey resident.
A similar story played out for the next elimination. This time around, it was pocket threes for Uvaydov and A-9 for Russia’s Ivan Ruban. Uvaydov spiked bottom set on the flop and held from there to narrow the field to three. The $458,090 fourth-place prize grew the frequent Las Vegas tournament scene participant’s career haul to nearly $1.7 million.
Ivan Ruban out in 4th place from the @WSOP Monster Stack.
Streaming now on https://t.co/2RQh5ROjQG. pic.twitter.com/6g1Vnwna40
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 18, 2025
That left Gupta as the short stack. The Australian’s final stand began with a limp from the small blind for 5,000,000 total with Q♥J♠. Uvaydov made it 12,000,000 from the big blind with A♥Q♠ and Gupta limp-shoved for 86,000,000. Uvaydov made the call and the board ran out K♦Q♣6♣5♦6♥ and the kickers played to see Gupta eliminated in third place. The $604,277 payout he secured was more than three times larger than his previous top score, earned for a win in a Asia Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne $2,300 AUD main event.
Back And Forth Clash
The final battle for the bracelet began with Uvaydov holding 285,000,000 to the 211,000,000 of Roiter. The early action largely favored Uvaydov, but when he began to really pull away, Roiter found a crucial double-up with A-2 suited besting K-9 to get up off the mat. He then won another all-in, this time with pocket queens against an A-2 for Uvaydov. Roiter made queens full on the end to nearly even out the stacks.
Roiter then overtook the lead, only to have Uvaydov win a big one with a set of queens beating Roiter’s pair of queens with a jack kicker. That put Uvaydov back in front for a bit, but a bluff gone wrong saw the tables turn yet again, with Roiter’s two pair picking off the ace-high of Uvaydov in that clash.
Eventually, Roiter took the lead for the last time. He began to pull away, holding almost a 5:1 chip lead by the time the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Roiter shoved from the button with J♠3♦ and Uvaydov called off his last ten big blinds with K♥2♣. The board came down 10♠5♥3♥Q♠2♥ and Roiter’s pair of threes was enough to bring the tournament to an end.
Uvaydov grew his career earnings to more than $2 million thanks to his runner-up payout of $802,346.
.@Klemoir wins the 2025 @WSOP Monster Stack for $1.2 million! @DavidUvaydov finishes in second place. pic.twitter.com/8sbW2MQ4eX
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 19, 2025
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Klemens Roiter | $1,204,457.00 | 1320 |
| 2 | David Uvaydov | $802,346.00 | 1100 |
| 3 | Ashish Gupta | $604,277.00 | 880 |
| 4 | Ivan Ruban | $458,090.00 | 660 |
| 5 | Daniel Lei | $349,562.00 | 550 |
| 6 | James Leonard | $268,520.00 | 440 |
| 7 | Dylan Linde | $207,647.00 | 330 |
| 8 | Mario Colavita | $161,656.00 | 220 |
| 9 | Jeremy Dan | $126,705.00 | 110 |
Photo via WSOP X account.
