Breaking Down the Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 4

Event #36 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Philip Sternheimer was on the verge of being eliminated on Day 3, but averted disaster and used that as his turning point, launching him to victory and a $763k payday. But that wasn’t the only obstacle he had to overcome, as we look back to a key fold he made heads-up that handed Bruno Furth the chip lead, albeit only temporarily.

In Level 31 with blinds at 125k and 250k with a 250k big blind ante, and Furth on the button with a 9.725 million stack, and Sternheimer in the big blind with a 13.45 million stack. Furth limped, and Sternheimer checked. 

The flop brought a 275k bet from Sternheimer, which got called. The turn saw the heat cranked with a 925k bet from Sternheimer which was also called. The river saw Sternheimer lead for 675k but this time Furth raised to 3.3 million, that sent Sternheimer into the tank.  Three plus minutes passed before Furth called the clock on Sternheimer, which prompted a fold.

Sternheimer leading on three streets from the big blind suggests that he liked the flop but did not want Furth to have an opportunity to improve and get ahead of him on the turn or river. 

The larger bet on the turn suggests that he had Furth on spades and not a hand like Nine-Seven or Seven-Five, or even a hand like Ace-Four which probably raises pre – although heads-up your ranges tend to get so wide that raising with any two is possible. 

It’s a tough board for Sternheimer to protect against, being out of position, and Furth playing passive up until the river, Sternheimer really doesn’t have a great read on where Furth’s hand falls in his range. Obviously, the intel he’ll have from playing hands with him will help, but heads-up the ranges get so tough to nail because of how wide you both are playing. His river bet seems to be an attempt to look like a value, which Furth was having none of it.

Furth, to his credit, showed how passive play heads-up can lay a trap for your opponent if the cards and board aide. By staying low and completing both the straight and flushes by the river, it gave him the power to pull off a massive river raise to put Sternheimer in a tough spot, one that he eventually got away from. 

Furth’s hand definitely could be a flush, it could be a straight, or it could be air, but the story he told at the table convinced that the Three of Spades is what he needed to beat Sternheimer and claim the chip lead at that point.

Event #38 – $100,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller

Portuguese pro Joao Vieira captured his fourth WSOP bracelet, taking down the $100k High Roller for over $2 million dollars, defeating Aram Oganyan heads-up in a battle that went back and forth and was entertaining and exhausting to watch. One of the hands where Oganyan wrestled control and seemed on his way to the win is where we break the action down.

On level 25 with blinds at 300k and 600k and a 600k big blind ante, Oganyan was sitting with 43.3 million chips on the button, and Vieira was sitting with 18.5 million in the big blind. Oganyan raised to 1.2 million, and Vieira called. 

On the flop, Oganyan bet 700k and got called.  Both checked the turn, and Oganyan decided to put out 2.8 million on the river that Vieira called.

Vieira dominating Oganyan King-Jack to Queen-Jack heads-up is such a good spot to be in especially if you are behind which Vieira was at this point, and given both hands, it should be no shock that they bet and called the flop, and both slowing down on the turn. 

The river is the absolute worst card Vieira could have seen, giving Oganyan second pair and his 2.8 million bet put Vieira into the mixer. On one hand, he only has king high, but on the other, two flush draws missing and the only straight draw that got there was Five-Four, making a hero call possible.

Hero calling for 5 big blinds – keep in mind that the big blind is 600k – makes this bet arguably small despite it being a two-thirds pot bet, and Vieira concluded that the bet wasn’t for value and decided to try and win it with King high.

Oganyan’s sizing here is key – a bigger size may have pushed Vieira out of the pot, and a smaller size could have induced a check-raise putting Oganyan in a tough spot to call. The fact that he got Vieira to just call with a worst hand would have been huge for his confidence at that point.  Too bad it didn’t end well for him at the end of the day.

Event #40 – $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors High Roller

For the first time in his career, David “ODB” Baker has won a WSOP bracelet in No-Limit Hold’em, winning the $5,000 Seniors NLHE Event for $646k. He defeated Chuanshu Chen heads-up and 799 other senior poker players on his way to victory.  We’ll look at one of the hands that help pad Baker’s lead when the wrong end of a straight turned out to be a winner.

We’re at level 34 with blinds at 250k and 500k and a 500k big blind ante, Chen had the button and a 14.2 million stack, while Baker was sitting at 25.8 million. Chen limped from the button and the two saw the flop where Chen led for 500k, not deterring Baker from continuing. 

The turn saw the two go check-check, while the river brought out a 2.4 million bet from Baker, to which Chen called, and Baker tabled the winning hand.

We didn’t get a view of Chen’s cards but given that he called and bet on the flop, one would think Chen had a piece of this, and the piece that makes the most sense with his flop call is either the Ten or the Three, potentially with a heart but not necessarily. 

The board pairing on the river meant that it was less likely for Baker to have a Jack, and calling on the flop with the draws that were out there, Chen probably had Baker on one of those draws, if not both the straight and flush draw. What’s interesting here is the check by Baker on the turn and the big bet on the river – this has all the appearance of someone trapping because they hit their draw on the turn, but because we are heads-up, it’s possible that Baker bet this with a Three. 

If Chen had a Ten – which is likely – then Baker betting the river could easily be with two pairs, Jacks and Threes, which Chen would beat with a Ten. 

The downside to that thought process is the three card straight that comes on the turn – any combination of Nine-Eight, King-Nine, and Ace-King gets there, which makes Chen’s thought process more difficult with the limp and check pre-flop.

Ultimately Chen probably flipped a coin in his head and decided to call and was sad to see he was wrong as the turned straight was superior in this moment, and another step Baker took to his first NLHE WSOP Bracelet.

Even #41 – $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

Ian Johns took down the $10,000 Limit Championship for the second time in his career, defeating 117 other hopefuls on his way to a $282k win. Johns held the final three in check, never looking back and defeating Viktor Blom to claim the title, and we’ll look at two big hands going head-to-head late to help Johns seal the win.

In level 23 at blinds of 30k and 60k, Johns was on the button with a 4.35 million stack, and Blom was the big blind sitting on 2.46 million, where Johns raised and Blom three-bet, which got called.  The flop brought a Blom bet, and a Johns raise before Blom continued to the turn, where Blom check-called another bet.  The river brought another bet by Johns, and a muck by Blom, sending a sizeable stack to Ian Johns.

To see a premium pocket pair and suited paint heads-up is crazy and a recipe for the chips to go into the middle, which happened in this hand.  A pot of 1.3 million was built, representing over 20 big blinds. 

To Blom’s credit, it’s going to be next to impossible to put your opponent on a set heads-up, and with an over card plus Broadway draw, it’s not hard to see why Blom called as much as he did, especially with the flush draw missing on the river. 

In limit poker, because you can effectively control how much you lose by simply calling one bet, Blom probably had it in his mind that there was too much in the middle on the flop for him to fold to a river bet, which is why he called on the turn and river.  Had this been no-limit, the sizing from Johns would have been very interesting to see, but it wouldn’t have been a shock to see the money all go into the middle pre-flop.

Blom couldn’t do too much to stop the momentum from Johns winning this event again, this hand being evidence of that.

Event #44 – $10,000 Big O Championship

It’s rare to see a non-poker pro winning a WSOP bracelet, but at this year’s series Veerachai Vongxaiburana did just that.  The day trader that plays poker for fun defeated 401 poker pros to win his first WSOP bracelet, and taking out Phil Hui heads-up to win $784k and the gold bracelet.  Let’s look at one of those heads-up hands now!

In Level 32 with blinds at 150k and 300k and a 300k big blind ante, VV was sitting with a 9.4 million stack and Hui had the button and a stack of 13.6 million. The action was relatively calm until they got to the turn where VV bet 500k and Hui raised it up to 2 million, which VV called. 

The river saw VV fire 800k, to which Hui called pot and was snap called immediately by VV, sending a massive pot and the chip lead to the eventual champion.

In Big O, the high and low are in play, and in this case Hui had a hand that could have scooped, given his nine-high straight and Eight-Seven-Five-Four-Two low, which heads-up is a powerful hand to at the very least chop the pot.  But VV had a hand that also had scoop possibilities and a nut low with the Two-Ace in his hand. 

The turn had VV locked into the Ten-High straight plus the nut low, giving Hui absolutely no possibility of winning either pot, so when he called pot, it’s unclear why VV didn’t pot over the top of him. 

We’ll chalk that up to his recreational background in poker, but he had a chance to end this right there.  Yes, the Jack high straight was a possibility but the likelihood of that was small heads-up, especially given that VV had a ten.  In the end, it didn’t matter – this was VV’s tournament to lose, which he didn’t.

The WSOP is edging to the main event starting soon, and the amateurs and pros who are dreaming of being the main event champion are heading to Vegas now. This is just going to increase the number of great hands coming out of Vegas, so stay tuned for more hands from the 2025 WSOP!