Breaking Down the Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 1

Event #1 – Mystery Millions – Wilklow v Strelitz

In Level 34 with blinds at 250k and 500k with a 500k big blind ante, Michael Wilklow and Daniel Strelitz get into a hand where Wilklow is in early position and raised pre to 1 million and Strelitz called. With a pot of 2.5 million, the two go to the flop where they see Ten-Ten-Two rainbow. 

Wilklow out of position bets 1 million and Strelitz calls. The turn brings the 9 , and Wilklow checks, allowing Strelitz bets 2.7 million, to which Wilklow calls. The river is the 6 , where Wilklow bets 10 million into a 9.4 million pot.

Strelitz goes into the tank, confused and trying to get a read on the hand. After declaring he’ll be a hero if he calls, and a hero if he folds, he eventually fold, sending the pot and eventually $1 million to Wilklow as he would go onto capture the tournament title. 

Thankfully for Strelitz, this pot was only a minor setback as he would go onto finish 3^rd, netting him $429k for his efforts.

Looking at the info we have for this hand, Wilklow played this hand perfectly.  Anytime you can play a poker hand and leave your opponent confused as to where they stand, you’ve done your job. The question is – did Wilklow get lucky, or play the bluff perfectly? 

Here’s why we say that:

On a paired board, players playing from early position are going to be raising mostly with mid or higher pairs, suited paint, or unsuited combos of Ace, King, Queen and maybe Jacks. 

In this case, Wilklow missed on everything with the exception of pocket tens – which is not likely given there would only have been one combo. Strelitz’s range is far wider calling in position, and when Wilklow bets small on that flop, Strelitz is going to call almost every time. 

The turn check by Wilklow is a classic look of an amateur player trying to buy the pot on the flop, not getting it, and then “giving up” on the turn. When Wilklow calls the bet however, all of a sudden Strelitz doesn’t know if Wilklow picked up a draw that he’s not letting go of, or worse, he had a hand and he just donated. 

The river heart is probably the worst card Strelitz could have seen, and with the overbet by Wilklow, Strelitz can’t initially figure out if this is a bluff or a value bet. 

The thing is, to call this Strelitz also needs a hand he can call with, and the appearance he gives off suggests that he floated the flop, tried to steal the pot on the turn and got caught himself.

Goes to show you that aggression at the end of the day will win pots provided the story you tell matches what’s on the table.

Event #5 – $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha – Multi-Way to a Wet Flop!         

You’ll always find the swingiest games in Omaha, and we saw some amazing action in the PLO tournaments thus far at the WSOP. One hand that caught our eye occurred in event #5 – the $5k PLO where three players end up fighting for this pot:

Level 28 with blinds at 60k and 120k with a 120k ante sets the stage where Jeremy Trojand opened UTG to 350k, getting called by Noel Rodriguez and Mark Aridgides who is the small blind. With a pot of 1.29 million, the three see an Ace-King-Jack rainbow flop. 

Trojand led out for another 300k when checked to him, keeping both opponents in the hand. The A on the turn slowed the action, bringing a check from all three, before the Q on the river brought three more checks. Rodriguez tabled Jack-Jack-Ten-Eight for jacks full, scooping the pot.

Why this pot was interesting was the lack of action post turn. Rodriguez’s hand pre-flop was quite strong – a top pair, double suited with straight potential is the exact hand you want to go to war in PLO with, and when his opponents bet into him with bottom set on the flop, he took a cautious approach by simply calling. 

Some may question this, but the reality is in PLO, if you do not have the nuts, you are more likely to be beat, and bottom set can lure you into a false sense of security. To Rodriguez’ credit, he didn’t bite. But the Ace on the turn with no flush possibilities should have been a green light to extract some value out of his opponents. It would have been likely that one of them had broadway and even likelier that one had trip aces at this point. 

The only hands Rodriguez would have feared would have been AAxx – not likely though given two aces on the board, and KKxx, which is likely to have only been with Trojand given he raised – one would have expected a three-bet multi-way from Aridgides pre-flop with two kings.

When the turn goes check-check-check and the river brings a queen, Rodriguez probably missed a chance to chip up as it’s now even more likely someone had broadway, and a small river bet could have gotten some value but give Rodriguez credit for taking the defensive approach here and not risking having to face a pot sized raise on the river because someone got there with QQxx.

Given the pure aggression you typically see in PLO, this was an exercise in not risking your place in the tournament despite having such a huge hand.

Event #3 – $5,000 8 NLHE 8 Handed

Antonio Galiana claimed the top prize in Event #3, winning $582k and his second WSOP bracelet, defeating Canadian Frederic Normand for the title. The tournament may have turned in his favor with a crazy call in level 28 at the final table that we’ll dive into now:

With blinds at 60k and 120k with a 120k ante, we find Uri Reichenstein raising from the hijack up to 240k. From the big blind, Galiana called to see a flop of King-Queen-Ten, two spades. After a check from Galiana, Reichenstein c-bet 180k which garnered a call by the Spanish pro. 

Reichenstein let another large bet go on the 8 turn, and then again on the 4 river, pushing all but 25k of his stack into the middle. With a pot now well over 4.6 million, Galiana went into the tank, Reichenstein staring at him for most of the time. Galiana found a call, and flipped over top pair, taking the pot down.

When a board starts out as wet as this one did, but never improves, one could be led to believe that the constant pressure being put on you could be from a made hand protecting against the draw, or a hand that needs to improve that would just rather push you out of the pot. 

The instincts of Galiana were clearly on point, as he recognized the strength of his hand – top pair – against a player who did not want him to continue and was hoping that if the betting didn’t work, the dealer would save them. It’s a risky line to take, flat calling three times post flop on a wet board with top pair, but when your gut says to call, and the board never improves until the river, it’s hard to fold at that point. 

It’s still a very hard call to make with top pair and only top pair on that board but there’s a reason Galiana won this tournament.

It feels like Reichenstein’s almost shove on the river was a way to attempt to make his river bet look like a value, and not just a reckless shove but nonetheless, it failed to work, and he ended up with less than half a blind once the hand was done, being eliminated from the tournament soon after. 

Event #9 – $10,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Daniel Negreanu’s fans were out in full force at the final table of the $10k Limit Omaha H/L 8 OB final table where the Canadian pro was looking for his eighth WSOP bracelet, but despite getting heads-up and close to the lead, Ryan Bambrick held his own and landed the victory, securing the $470k top prize and his second WSOP bracelet.  And one of the final hands of the tournament that essentially sealed Daniel’s fate took place heads-up with Bambrick holding a 4:1 chip advantage, and blinds at 150k and 300k.

After raising from the button, and Negreanu calling from the blind, the two saw a Ten-Six-Four rainbow flop. From there, Bambrick bet and Negreanu called three streets, only to see Bambrick scoop the pot, and Negreanu’s arms went up into the air in frustration as the lead became 10:1, and almost a lock for Bambrick.

What makes Limit H/L Omaha so fun to watch is the likelihood of a chopped pot on almost every hand. The skill – or luck some might say – of beating successful in Limit Omaha H/L is the ability to get hands to scoop, which Bambrick did in this case. 

With his Ace-Ace-Nine-Five, Bambrick had a great high hand – pocket aces – and a great low possibility – Ace-Five, to which Daniel only had a true low to fight for, holding Nine-Seven-Six-Two – which is the reason he called to the river. Knowing he was only on the hook for three bets post flop, Daniel had a great low to draw to, but he knew the only way the hand would be successful is if he hit his low. 

When the river completed Daniel’s low AND gave him two pair, it sealed his fate that he would pay off the last bet, and it was very unlucky for Negreanu that Bambrick had a better low made on the turn, not to mention hitting the nut flush in the process.

We have more hand reviews coming your way from this year’s WSOP – stay tuned for the next installment where we’ll break down more action on the felt from the 2025 World Series!