Tyler Patterson has been a presence on the tournament poker scene for the last 20 years. The Everett, Washington native has over $4 million in total earnings, with a World Poker Tour title and a WSOP bracelet to his name. At least a few times every summer, you’ll look up and find Patterson at a final table and in the mix. And sometimes, on a night like the one Patterson had on Monday, he’ll close one out.
But even for Patterson, the $3,000 six-max no-limit hold’em event at the 2025 World Series of Poker was a special one. His heads-up victory over Matthew Wantman earned Patterson a $574,223 first-place payout, 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points and the second WSOP bracelet of his career. Even more impressively, Patterson required just two hours as he eliminated the last five players in the tournament on his way to victory.
Through two decades of live results, this now stands as Patterson’s biggest result to date.
For Wantman, this runner-up finish is the closest he’s gotten to adding a bracelet to his trophy case. A WPT champion in his own right, “Bucky” has had most of his $9 million in career tournament earnings away from the WSOP. Surprisingly, this is just the fifth career WSOP final table, and second live WSOP final table, for Wantman. He also has four PokerGO Tour victories, a runner-up finish in a massive WSOP Circuit Cherokee main event in 2022, a 29th-place finish in the WSOP main event in 2023.
A Marathon…
At the start of day 2 of this tournament, reaching a winner felt like it was impossibly far away. There were 69 players still in the mix, and somehow Wantman was in second, and Patterson in third.
But the pace was brisk from the very beginning. Along the way, three-time WPT champion Brian Altman (44th), six-time bracelet-winner Brian Hastings (43rd), triple crown winner Davidi Kitai (41st), Chris Moorman (26th) and Paul Volpe (12th) were just a few of the players to fall by the wayside.
By 8:30 p.m. Vegas time, a final table of six was locked in and a bracelet was suddenly real and within reach.
A list of absolute crushers made the final table of Event 49: $3,000 NLH 6-Handed.@MatthewWantman @BowieEffect and chip leader @TylerPoker are among the final 6 fighting for the bracelet and $574,223 prize!
Follow updates and chip counts on WSOP+#wsop2025 pic.twitter.com/cUvu7Bph9r
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 18, 2025
Patterson had a solid grasp on the chip lead, and then ran roughshod over his five remaining opponents. He started to build upon his top stack when he eliminated Jakub Michalak in sixth place, as two red kings held off Michalak’s pocket queens.
…And Then A Sprint
As Wantman slowly separated himself from the rest of the pack in second, Patterson further extended his lead. Yohwan Lim had the best of it when he called all-in in a battle of the blinds, with A♦ 10♦ to Patterson’s A♥ 8♥. But Patterson couldn’t have hit the J♥ 8♠ 5♥ flop much harder. The Q♣ gave Lim three additional outs to a straight, but the A♣ river kept Patterson best.
Patterson just kept piling it on when he bounced Andy Wilson out in fourth. Patterson’s pocket jacks held strong against Wilson’s pocket sevens, and it wouldn’t stop there. He put Michael Walsh all-in from the small blind, and Walsh called all-in with K♥ J♥. Patterson’s Q♠ 7♣ was behind, but not for long. The Q♣ 10♣ 8♦ flop gave Patterson a pair and Walsh a straight draw. The 6♣ tightened Patterson’s grip and the 6♦ river officially ended Walsh’s run in third.
Patterson held a lead of over 10-to-1 over Wantman, with the latter holding less than 10 big blinds, when heads-up play began. There wasn’t much time for the dust to settle, either.
Wantman was all-in in short order, holding J♥ 7♣. Patterson had the lead with A♣ 9♦, and had the bracelet on lock by the turn of an A♦ 4♠ 3♠ 9♣ 6♦ runout.
In just two over hours in real time, Patterson had locked down one of the most one-sided runs to victory in recent WSOP history.
Final Table Payouts
Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
1 | Tyler Patterson | $574,223 | 1440 |
2 | Matthew Wantman | $382,774 | 1200 |
3 | Michael Walsh | $267,626 | 960 |
4 | Andy Wilson | $189,863 | 720 |
5 | Yohwan Lim | $136,701 | 600 |
6 | Jakub Michalak | $99,913 | 480 |
Photo credit: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.