WCOOP 2025: Main Event Winner Takes... Less Than a Million?
GipsyTeam
Yesterday, 03:18
Our review of the iconic PokerStars series, which is going through hard times but remains attractive to regulars, but also to Neymar and other multi-millionaires.
The $10,000 buy-in Main Event attracted 407 entries. 2023 EPT Cyprus champion Gilles Simon emerged victorious. He defeated Igor "arodnaS" heads-up, with Renan "Internett93o" Bruschi taking third place.
For the first time since 2007, the winner received less than $1 million.
The number of participants has been steadily declining each year. Last year, there were 502 entries, with €urop€an winning $1,007,058. In 2023, there were 600 entries, with that year's finalist Ivan "ILS007" Stokes becoming the champion, earning $1,047,257. In 2022, players made 760 entries, with Portugal's Luis Faria taking first place ($1,293,825).
The record-breaking tournament took place in 2010, when POTTERPOKER won for $2,278,097.50. The buy-in was $5,200, and 2,443 players participated.
The winner of the $1,050 Main Event was Ukrainian Bogdan "MiMikyolo" from the FunFarm team.
In the lower stakes Main Event for $109, Beriuzy became the champion.
This is his second "accidental" victory in a week, which we covered in the article below.
Beriuzy accidentally won a tournament, Dominik Nitsche had his blinds stolen in the sky, Bencb doesn't need any extra motivation, and other quick news.
– The biggest MTT of my career!!! I busted out of the $10k WCOOP twice and registered for this tournament on tilt. I opted for good value instead of giving away high stakes again.
That same evening, Beriuzy won $24k in Event #122-H: 6-Max PLO with a $1,050 buy-in.
4.9
PokerStars starting out holding online poker games back in 2001 and now the company is worth over 6 billion dollars. They sponsor a slew of tournaments like the European Poker Tour, UK and Ireland Poker Tour, plus a handful of others. Over the years, PokerStars has remained on top of the online poker industry. They’ve expanded to offer fantastic online casino games and sports betting.
The most expensive tournament in the series, the $25k Super High Roller, saw 42 entries. David "MissOracle" Yan emerged as champion, his third WCOOP title. Arseniy Malinov was eliminated in third place, and Talal Shakerchi was the bubble boy.
Hello_totti didn't leave without a victory; a little earlier he won a $2k tournament.
Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois won the $10k buy-in PLO Main Event in fourth place.
In our previous review, we reported that Neymar reached the final table of the $10k tournament.
We're reminiscing about PokerStars' golden age and covering the latest developments at what was once the most prestigious online poker series. Blaž Žerjav's three victories, Neymar's final table, Denis Strebkov's 13th title, and other news.
A few days later, the Brazilian came within one win of the $5,200 Titans tournament, considered one of the tightest online tournaments.
Neymar led for almost the entire final. With seven players remaining, he had 115 blinds; no one else had even 40.
In the top three, Neymar's lead became overwhelming – 140BB, while Nikita Kuznetsov and NotmystyIe combined had around 20BB. But it wasn't enough for him to win.
Nikita busted in 3rd place after shoving 8 big blinds with K3o against TJs "NotmystyIe." In one of the first hands of heads-up play, the Canadian doubled up and went on to win the tournament.
Neymar called the 3-bet and pushed for a continuation bet.
Final table replay.
Samuel "go4gunners" Mullur missed the start of the series due to Triton in Korea, but he's unlikely to regret his decision.
Back online, he won Super Tuesday and placed 2nd in Thursday Thrill within a couple of days.
Smorchokkonichny, who plays on PokerStars under the nickname king153246, won two of the four leaderboards – the overall and the low.
In the overall standings, he beat his pursuers by 200 points.
In high, he and Fal1st scored the same number of points, the winner was determined by additional indicators.
"The outcome was decided by the prize pool in the high tournaments," king153246 wrote on our Russian blog. "Before the final day, the difference was 50 points against me, which is pretty significant with only three tournaments left. In low and medium, that would have been a very serious contender for victory, but in high, the field is smaller, and the chances of earning points are higher."
As a result, I was able to win the hyper for 530 and the PLO for 1050, of which Fal1st busted out before the prizes and came out ahead by 15 points.
And so, in the remaining tournament, we both reach the final. After some simple calculations, I realize that if I bust in 9th, Fal1st needs to take two places higher, and if I finish 8th or lower, three.
So the game began, where everyone was playing catch the top prize, and we were playing “outsit each other.”
In the end, I came in seventh and Fal1st came in fourth.
Congratulations on the trophy!!! It was a real fight on the last day!
Smorchokkonichsky won two trophies – #08-H: $530 NLO8 and #119-H: $530 PL Badugi, but played the series in the minus.
"Taking into account the leaderboards (the total prize pool is $47,500) and rakeback (around $12k), the series came out close to breakeven (formally, it'll be around minus 3k)," Vitaly concluded his report. "This concludes the 2025 sports poker season for me (I've won 12 trophies in total). In November, I'm going on a big trip to Chile, and in October, a short trip to Albania. Thanks to everyone who followed and cheered!"
Fal1st has won three titles, and has a total of 11 victories in his career.
Also winning three tournaments this year were Blaz "Scarmak3r" Zherjav, Alex "grinder1992" Dimitrov, Andy "BowieEffect" Wilson, Christian "CMoosepower" Elgstrom and |gammi|€120.
A player from Belarus won his third WCOOP in a deep stack for $1k, defeating Niklas Østedt heads-up.
WCOOP record-holder Benny "RunGodlike" Glaser won his 16th career tournament to once again break away from his pursuers.
This time, he won tournament #91-M: $55 6-Max Turbo PKO. For the victory, Benny earned a modest $14,516.
All his victories:
Glazer's closest rival is Denis Strebkov. He has two victories at the 2025 WCOOP, and 14 titles in total.
The winner of the medium leaderboard was Renan "Internett93o" Bruschi.
Although his main achievements were in the high category – he took 3rd place in the main event and won two titles in 62-H: $2,100 NLHE [PKO, Thursday Thrill] ($68,832) and 74-H: $2,100 NLO8 ($42,259).
In the low-score, Talal Shakerchi was fighting for victory until the last tournaments.
Smorchokonichesky was impressed by his hard work:
"I'd like to especially commend Talal Shakerchi for his fourth place (and third overall). I admire the love for poker of someone who, despite being an older millionaire, seriously grinds the series and fights for trophies even in $5 tournaments, with a discipline that many regulars would envy!"
Talal has two wins in this streak and seven overall.
Viktor Ustimov and Gleb Tremzin also won two titles each.
Papan9_p$ added a victory in #99-H: $530 NLHE 7-Max Turbo PKO ($25,880) to the $1k tournament he won at the start of the series.
Gleb won #64-H: $1,050 NLHE [Turbo, PKO] ($37,041) and #120-M: $55 Turbo Heads-Up TKO Zoom ($6,142).
In a similar $530 tournament, Ti0 finished second behind Marius Gierse. In this format, all prize money is paid out through bounties, so it's possible to reach the top 10 and still finish with nothing.
Dmitry Yurasov won Super Tuesday.
Players competing under the Belarusian flag have won 21 titles in the series, including many Russian players.
Brazil has 81 victories, and once again, they left no one a chance. Great Britain is in second place (33), and Canada is third (31).
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