Nick Guagenti Wins WSOP $10,000 Stud Championship

Nick Guagenti weathered a lengthy heads-up battle in the 2025 World Series of Poker $10,000 seven card stud championship, emerging victorious with his third career gold bracelet and the top prize of $295,008. This win came just over a year after he took down the $1,500 limit hold’em event at the 2024 series. His very first triumph came in the 2020 WSOP Online, which saw him take down a $2,000 no-limit hold’em event to begin his bracelet collection.

This victory increased the 40-year-old Ohio native’s career tournament earnings to more than $3.3 million, with the majority of that haul coming from his success in WSOP events.

The 127 entries made in this event juiced the prize pool up to $1,181,100, with the top 20 earning a share. Plenty of huge names made it deep, only to hit the rail inside the money. Among that list were two-time bracelet winner Dylan Weisman (20th), five-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon (19th), five-time bracelet winner Huck Seed (18th), two-time bracelet winner Bryce Yockey (15th), and seven-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (11th). 2024 $10,000 razz championship winner George Alexander (10th) was the last to fall on day 2.

The third and final day began with 9 players returning to Horseshoe Las Vegas, with three-time World Poker Tour champion Chino Rheem out in front and Guagenti towards the bottom of the counts. Rheem, who also has a European Poker Tour main event title under his belt thanks to a win in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, was looking to complete poker’s Triple Crown.

Big Names Fall Early

Dave Rogers (9th – $27,528) ran a straight into the flush of five-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman to become the first eliminated on day 3. He was soon joined by four-time bracelet winner Mike Matusow, who was also involved in the hand that knocked Rogers out. Matusow was left short after also showing down a straight in that three-way pot. He got the last of his extremely short stack in on third street with (Q-10)K facing the (K-2)A of Guagenti. A pair of deuces made on fifth wound up being enough for Guagenti to win the pot, ending Matusow’s run in eighth place ($33,190).

Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) has been eliminated in 8th place ($33,190) in Event #25: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. @ChinoRheem has taken the chip lead. Follow the action on WSOP+! #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/K94yS22HLc

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 8, 2025

Dan Heimiller backed up his recent victory in the $1,500 stud event for his third career bracelet by making it down to the final table in the championship version of the same game. He got the last of his short stack in with split tens trailing the aces of fellow three-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe. Sixth street improved Volpe to trip aces. Heimiller was unable to add anything of note with the rest of his board. He earned $41,357 as the seventh-place finisher.

Friedman’s quest for a sixth bracelet will need to pick back up in another tournament, as he was ultimately knocked out of this event in sixth place. His last chips went in with a pair of aces trailing the queens up of Guagenti, which remained best through the remainder of the hand to send Friedman to the payout desk to collect $53,201.

Shedding More Legends

PokerGO President Mori Eskandani was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2018, largely thanks to his integral contributions to televised coverage of the game. With that being said, Eskandani also knows how to play. He took down a $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. at last year’s PGT Mixed Games festival, and nearly won an event named in his honor at the same series this year. He survived to the final five in this event, but was knocked out by the trip eights of Rheem after getting his last chips in ahead with split jacks. Rheem spiked an eight on fourth to take the lead and held from there to end Eskandani’s run in fifth place ($70,587).

Volpe was the next to fall, getting his case chips in with trip fours trailing the eight-high straight of bracelet winner Qiang Xu. Volpe was unable to make a boat or better on the end and was sent packing with $96,502 for his fourth-place showing.

Three-handed play lasted several hours, with plenty of lead changes along the way. Xu climbed to the top of the pack, only to fall down to the bottom of the chip counts as the night wore on. In his final hand a wheel draw improved to a pair of aces after the chips went in on sixth street, but he was up against threes full of tens for Rheem and was eliminated in third place ($135,828). This was the fourth-largest score for the Chinese player, who took down a $800 no-limit hold’em deepstack in 2023 for his lone win at the series.

Battling Into The Early Morning Hours

We are now heads up between Chino Rheem and Nick Guagenti for the first place prize of $295,008 in Event #25: $10,000 Seven Card Stud! #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/uK6FzspOQx

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 9, 2025

Heads-up play began with Rheem out in front, holding 5,600,000 to Guagenti’s 2,030,000. It would take nearly five hours more before the event finally concluded. Things mostly went Rheem’s way early. After winning a big one with a spade flush besting two pair for Guagenti, Rheem improved to roughly a 7:1 chip advantage.

Guagenti won a big one with a flush of his own to bounce back a bit later. He then took down another healthy pot, this time showing rolled-up threes as he dragged in the chips. Guagenti closed the gap, then after trading the lead back and forth, began to pull away.

Rheem was left short when he ran an eight-high club flush into Guagenti’s queen-high heart flush. He raised Guagenti’s lead on seventh street, only to have Guagenti come back over the top. Rheem went into the tank and then flashed his flush as he folded, saving a big bet.

Not long after that, Rheem got all-in on on fifth street with the boards looking as follows:

Guagenti: (8♣7♣)7♠4♥Q♥

Rheem: (6♦3♦)8♦A♥6♠

Guagenti hit the K♦ on sixth and the K♣ on the end to finish with kings and sevens. Rheem found the J♣ on sixth and K♥ on seventh to end up with just a pair of sixes, bringing his latest bid for a first bracelet to a finish in second place. The 2008 WSOP main event seventh-place finisher earned $196,662 as the runner-up.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Regina Cortina.