Breaking Down the Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 7

Event #79 – $100,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller

Shaun Deeb used this event – the $100k PLO High Roller to vault into the POY lead, overtaking Benny Glaser in the process. Deeb beat 120 others to win the mammoth $2.9 million prize and capturing his seventh bracelet in the process.  Having to contend with Isaac Haxton heads-up, we’ll look back on the hand that eliminated Haxton.

In level 26 with blinds at 400k and 800k with an 800k big blind ante.  Stacks were roughly 42 million for Deeb and 30 million for Haxton as we pick up the action pre-flop, with Haxton limping in from the button, and Deeb bumping it up to 2.4 million, Haxton coming along.  The flop was checked-raised by Deeb, Haxton pushing out 1.3 million before the raise to 9.6 million. 

Haxton slumped into the tank, but decided to move all in, prompting a call from Deeb.

Deeb took a hyper aggressive approach to this hand, willing Haxton to betting post-flop despite the raise, and shoving on the flop after Deeb check-raised him. It’s not as uncommon to see players heads-up in Omaha with premium pairs in their hand as it is in Hold’em, but one does have to consider why Haxton tanked on the flop given his situation and the possibility of winning the tournament from that point.

Surely Haxton had Deeb on a flush draw with that check-raise post flop – hard to imagine Deeb betting like that without it – but one must wonder if Haxton had Deeb on more than the draw.  In this circumstance, Haxton is only a marginal favorite to win the hand, so risking one’s tournament life – and a shot at a WSOP bracelet – defending against a draw does seem risky. 

Haxton had roughly 38BB before the hand started – not short by any means, and heads-up there would be better spots for Isaac to get his money into the middle.  Did the allure of putting Deeb into a corner by holding here push Haxton to call – it’s not like Isaac had much to go with other than the kings – he only had 7 outs to improve – so if he was beat he would have been drawing thin, and if he wasn’t, he didn’t have a lot of equity to improve.

Ultimately it didn’t hold but Isaac Haxton is a tough player and will be there again in a high roller looking for a massive payday and maybe a WSOP bracelet next summer, but there was no stopping Shaun Deeb this year at the WSOP.

Event #82 – $10,000 Eight Game Championship

One of the better mixed games players out there needed a significant comeback to take down event #82 of the WSOP – the $10K Eight Game Championship as Mike Gorodinsky came back from seven to one down to Eric Wasserson to claim the victory and the $422k top prize. 

Gorodinsky was not 100% physically through the first two days of the event and bagging late on day 3 didn’t help, but the 2015 WSOP POY added a fifth bracelet to his collection by taking out 194 other hopefuls. 

Let’s look back at a bit of a confusing hand from the last Razz level that continued to narrow the gap.

In level 27, playing Razz with limits of 150k and 300k, we find Gorodinsky with 5.05 million and Wasserson with just under 6 million in chips.  Gorodinsky completed the bring-in, with Wasserson calling. 

Gorodinsky led out on fourth and fifth streets, prompting calls both times.  Sixth street brought checks, but on seventh street Gorodinsky bet, confusing Wasserson to the point of asking why he bet there.  Still confused, Wasserson mucked his hand, and Gorodinsky got a bit closer.

Gorodinsky was showing A3T4; Wasserson was showing K87A

Gorodinsky’s bet on seventh street was curious given the hands both players were showing, and the lack of a bet from Gorodinsky on sixth street – the only street he didn’t lead out on. 

Considering what he was showing, this check on sixth street felt like he wanted Wasserson to catch-up, given that he was showing king high.  We don’t know what Gorodinsky hit on seventh street but given that Wasserson was quite passive in this hand, one must think that he didn’t have great down cards on first and second streets – otherwise he should have raised at some point. Gorodinsky looks like he had a solid hand made by the four on sixth street and wanted one more bet which never came. 

Thankfully the cards did keep coming for him, helping him to victory in the event.

Event #83 – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em

High Roller Caty Katz “dropped” down to play the $2,500 Freezeout event at this year’s series and it turned out to be a fantastic decision as the PokerGO founder notched his first career WSOP bracelet and a $49k top prize, beating almost 1,300 others in the process.   Katz used an unplanned day 4 to rest up and take on Breno Drummond. 

The aggressive Brazillian got his hand caught in the cookie jar so to speak in this hand from the final day of action.

It’s level 37 with blinds of 400k and 800k with an 800k big blind ante.  Katz is sitting with a little over 25 million from the big blind, while Drummond had just over 20 million on the button. 

Pre-flop, Drummond raised to 1.6 million, called by Katz.  The flop and turn were both checked, but the river brought a 900k bet from Katz, to which Drummond raised to 4 million.  Katz called immediately and raked the pot in.

Drummond showed no interest in this hand until the river and the flush draw was possible. 

Holding a club in his hand, and a lack of interest from Katz before now, prompted the Brazilian to continue his aggressive play with the massive raise, but Katz didn’t even blink before calling off with second pair. The read by Katz here was dead on, and clearly playing so much with Drummond over the last two days of the tournament paid off. 

Drummond was aggressive through the end of day 3, and Katz adjusted his play based on that.  So, when Drummond is so passive here, Katz was comfortable not putting him on the jack or the flush draw and instead collected a massive pot which if Katz was wrong, would have handed the chip lead back to Drummond. 

When your read and gut are aligned, you can be a dangerous poker player at the table picking off a bluff at the exact right moment as Cary did here.

Event #87 – $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty

The Super Turbo tournaments at the World Series are becoming one of a kind – mostly because they are the only tournaments scheduled to complete in one day – well, sort of one day. 

This edition of the super turbo took 16 hours of straight play to decide a winner, crowning Netanel Stern champion just as the sun was starting to rise over sin city. Stern beat 1,282 players to win his first bracelet and a handsome prize of $618k. 

The final table took just under two hours to play out as the marathon day ended around quarter to six in the morning.  Let’s look back at a key hand heads-up between Stern and second place finisher Rostyslav Sabishchenko.

It’s level 39 with blinds at 800k and 1.6 million with a 1.6 million big blind ante.  Stern is on the button with a stack of 32.2 million, while Sabishchenko had 32 million in the big blind. Pre-flop, Stern limped and Sabishchenko took the free flop, where he check-called a 2.6 million bet from Stern.  The turn and river brought no action from either player, before both showed down and Stern raked the pot in.

Any board that is this wet in Hold’em is either the best-looking board for your hand, or the scariest looking board for your hand, and with both players hitting the flop, it was very strange to see them both slow down post flop. 10 million chips were in the pot on the flop call, representing approximately 15% of the chips in play – this was a huge hand that both players needed to win. 

Looking at both players though, you can see why the hesitation – Stern for his account had a monster with top and bottom pair on the flop but had no way to hit a straight or flush which were both possible.  Sabishchenko on the other hand had no hand on the flop, and only a pair of queens on the turn – he improved but felt no better about his hand as a result. 

One bet by either player post turn might have won the pot – Stern could have looked at that and wondered if he had just allowed Sabishchenko to get there with a straight, and knowing the stakes involved at that point, could have potentially folded to a strong bet – who knows. What this does illustrate again though is especially in heads-up play, betting will win the pot often.

One more article to come reviewing the other tournaments at this year’s WSOP before we dive into the main event and the mastery of Michael Mizrachi.

Read more:

• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 1
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 2
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 3
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 4
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 5
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 6