Breaking Down the Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 5

Event #37 – $1,500 MONSTER Stack

Klemens Roiter took down the $1,500 MONSTER stack at the WSOP winning his first bracelet and a hefty payday of $1.2 million, defeating David Uvaydov heads-up to win the title. In a heads-up match that went back and forth, the two-trading blow after blow with each other, the Austrian prevailed in the end but had to overcome a massive cooler part way through heads-up that would have sent some players spiraling to the rail.

On level 45 with blinds at 3 million and 6 million with a 6 million big blind ante, we find Roiter sitting on the button with 300 million in chips, and Uvaydov sitting with 196 million. Roiter limped and Uvaydov raised to 21 million, getting a call.  The flop brought a check from Uvaydov and Roiter betting 16 million, which was called.  The turn brought a 55 million bet from Roiter, to which was called. 

The river saw Uvaydov check-snap call Roiter’s shove and scoop a massive 154 million chip pot, taking back the chip lead…for now.

It’s not a surprise that these two got all the chips into the middle in this hand – the case card hitting two players on a flop happens frequently but is still relatively rare. 

For that to happen heads-up as it does here is not something you see often at all, but it brought a lot of momentum to Uvaydov when this hand took place. Roiter was down to roughly ten big blinds at one point, but as this hand showed, champions have to persevere through it all if they want to come out on top, and Roiter did exactly that to claim WSOP glory.

Event #46 – $250,000 Super High Roller

Seth Davies finally got the monkey off his back by capturing his first WSOP Bracelet and winning a whopping $4.7 million in the process by capturing event #46 – the $250k Super High Roller.  The victory was extra special for Davies, climbing back from the brink of extinction to go on the heater of all heaters to run the table and capture the title, and we’ll look back at one of those hands that pulled Davies from the bottom and set him on his way to the top.

In level with blinds at 250k and 500k with a 500k big blind ante, we find Davies first to act in the hand with an eleven million chip stack, and Thomas Boivin sitting with roughly 42 million chips. Pre-flop, Davies raised to 1.25 million and Boivin looked him up from the small blind. 

The Seven-high flop brought Boivin to lead out for 1.1 million and Davies raised up to 3.1 million with Boivin calling.  The turn slowed Boivin down, but not Davies as he fired another 3 million into the middle, inducing a call and a used timebank, before Davies sent a third bullet across with 4.775 million, leaving a single chip left behind. 

Boivin looked him up and sent his chips across the table in the process.

It really feels like Boivin went for the jugular here, happy to call off almost all of Davies’ chips to take down this pot where he had top pair – top kicker all the way to the river, especially when all draws miss. Losing this hand would have had Davies on life support, and Boivin would have had a substantial chip lead on the other two left, and given they were four handed, a suited ace that hits top pair on the flop would normally be a very powerful hand. 

It would have been quite likely that Davies had two paint cards and had whiffed until the river, but it looks like Boivin took more time to assess the call on the turn than he did on the river – why? 

It would have been within Davies’ range to raise pre with a suited Ace-Four, but the raise by Davies on the flop could have convinced Boivin that Davies was betting to win the pot right there, and as such dismissed the four as a potential card that now beat his hand. However, the queen river now seems to hit Davies’ range much better than the flop & turn did, but the river bet was giving Boivin substantially good odds – 4.775 million into a 20.475 million pot, and getting effectively four to one on a call, he took his shot and missed.

To Davies’ credit, he played pocket queens like a lot of marginal hands would have taken – fast and aggressive, even considering the wet low flop that would have tended to hit Boivin better than himself. If Davies had any doubt about this hand – and by his betting he didn’t – those fears were quashed by rivering the second nuts, sending his stack higher and starting the wave that would see him win the tournament.

Event #50 – $10,000 Razz Championship

Brian Rast is one of the most decorated poker players to ever grace the WSOP stage, and he put on a masterclass by taking down event #50 – the $10k Razz Championship. The 134-player field needed an extra day to crown a champion, and Rast entered heads-up play on the last day against Andrew Yeh at a sizable disadvantage – one that in the very first hands grew enormous, dropping Rast to only 260k in chips – basically one big bet. Rast doubled up twice and lost a small pot to leave him with under a million chips when we picked up the action on level 26.

With the ante at 30k and bets 120k and 240k, Rast was sitting with 900k in chips and brought it in, while Yeh completed the bet with 7.1 million in chips.  Rast showed he was willing to go all in again, by betting every street and committing his last chips on seventh street to pluck out the pot and double up to 1.8 million – and starting to put doubt in Yeh’s mind that this was over.

It can be tough to analyze and break down a hand like this when Rast was as short as he was and Yeh looking to end it and send Brian to the $10k PLO tournament with late registration ending there shortly, but this illustrates the edges in Razz well and how appearances can be misleading. 

Yeh clearly was comfortable with Rast betting every street given the first three cards he was dealt – even the nine would not have made Andrew too nervous given what Brian was showing at this point, but on sixth street when Brian is showing three lower cards than his nine, Andrew may have folded if the stacks weren’t what they were – Yeh knew Brian only had ¾ of a bet behind him, and thought that if he hit a good card on seventh street, there was a chance his hand was good. 

So, when the four came, Yeh had to partially think he had just won – not realizing that Brian’s two down cards were superior and Rast’s eight high made on sixth street had already beaten him.

Rast got incredibly lucky that his last four cards were no higher than eight because had one paired him, or been higher than a jack, we’d be talking about Andrew Yeh winning the $10k Razz title, and not the Poker HOF.

Event #51 – $25,000 PLO High Roller

It has been a banner year at the World Series of Poker thus far, and the field in the $25k PLO High Roller was no exception with 489 players sitting down to take their shot at WSOP glory, but it was Dennis Weiss who found his second career bracelet and a payday of over $2.2 million in winning the event.  One of the key moments occurred when the play was three-handed and we find Weiss catching Duek with his hand in the cookie jar.

In level 31 with blinds 250k and 500k with a 500k big blind ante, both Duek and Weiss limped and allowed the pot to go to the flop un-raised where Weiss check-called a 750k (3BB) bet from Duek.  The turn brought another check-call from Weiss, this time for 2.2 million.  The river saw a third bullet from Duek, a 5.6 million chip bet to which Weiss snapped off and scooped the pot.

Duek had absolutely nothing post flop except bottom pair which might be strong enough three handed in Hold’em, but in PLO third pair on its own is rarely ever going to be strong to hold at showdown. 

When he improves to two pair on the river, he may have thought that his hand might be strong enough now to win, but firing the bet size he did certainly should have put Weiss to the test – had he not flopped the nuts. 

With the missed flush draw and no spades in Duek’s hand, the likelihood that Weiss had spades as well and resigned to check-calling to the river would have added to Duek’s aggression to bet to win the pot but holding the second nuts in PLO can be a recipe for disaster – in this case, Weiss would have felt confident calling to scoop a massive 18 million chip plus pot – at that point representing almost twice of Jeffrey Hakim’s stack.

Even #53 – $1,500 Millionaire Maker

The biggest scandal at this year’s World Series certainly has to be the alleged chip dumping that occurred heads-up during the Millionaire Maker as a nine to one chip disadvantage for Jesse Yaginuma turned and he defeated James Carroll, winning well over $1 million, but an additional $1 million as part of the Golden Ticket promotion from ClubWPT. 

There were several hands to review, but one we’ll look at involved a massive pot that had almost a third of all chips in the middle.

In level 43 with blinds at 1.5 and 3 million with a 3 million big blind ante, Yaginuma limped, and Carroll raised to 13 million, which Jesse called.  The flop saw a 17 million bet from Carroll, to which Jesse called.  The turn two checks, but the river saw the heat turned up more as Carroll fired another 57 million into the middle, to which Jesse called and collected the pot.

Off the top, looking at this hand one may not see a whole lot concerning – Carroll decided that he was going to test Jesse by firing big on the flop and river, but checking the turn, acting like he had the flush made.  To Jesse’s credit, top pair heads-up in a Hold’em tournament heads-up is a very strong hand that wouldn’t necessarily be scared off if a flush or straight draw hits, as both do here.

Why this is suspect is the bet sizing from Carroll – note how all three of his bets are with odd numbers – thirteen million, seventeen million, fifty-seven million – all odd numbers. Earlier in heads-up there was a situation where Carroll had flopped trip sixes to Jesse’s top two pairs, and Carroll led for 4 million. 

Jesse folded – correctly – losing only a small amount of chips but the fact that Carrol had bet an even number seemed to tip Jesse off.  So later, when Carroll bets on odd numbers, Jesse calls and this is what led the WSOP to investigate. 

How anyone folds top two pair heads-up with less than 10 big blinds behind and doesn’t go broke is either a genius or something is a foot and as we have learned, the latter may have prevailed.

With the main event now underway the action in Las Vegas is going to be hitting a fevered pitch – what are we going to see come out of Paris and The Horseshoe next?