Breaking Down the Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands

Day 8 – Mizrachi Tries to Push Hallaert Around

We find this hand on day 8 in level 37 with blinds at 500k and 1 million with a 1 million big blind ante. Kenny Hallaert starts the hand from the cutoff with a stack just below 40 million, while Mizrachi had 46.5 million in the small blind.  Pre-flop, Hallaert raised to 2.3 million with only Mizrachi calling. Both checked the flop before Mizrachi led out on the turn for 1.6 million, and then again on the river for 3.5 million, with Hallaert calling both streets and in the end, collecting the pot.

Mizrachi was feeling it all through the Main Event, and this hand is a good example of how he must have been thinking. Seeing this flop and knowing he had the flush draw in check, allowed Hallaert a chance to bet into him, but the crafty Belgium wasn’t having it with just ace high. 

The turn changed everything though as Hallaert picked up two pair, and Mizrachi was still left looking for a heart, so he showed it by taking a stab at the pot out of position. Hallaert is more then likely calling in position with ace high given how wide Mizrachi could be playing from the small blind – especially with multiple draws in play, so when they all missed and Mizrachi upped the aggression, Hallaert’s instincts were bang on seeing this as a missed draw, and not as a value bet attempt. 

Getting 5 to 1 on the river call was just too good of a price – if Mizrachi wanted to steal this, he had to bet bigger on the river & probably needed a flop bet to make it look more convincing.  As we have often said, if the story doesn’t read right, it’s probably not true and the story the Grinder was telling, Hallaert just simply wasn’t buying.

Day 8 – Mizrachi v Hallaert, Again

A couple of hours later, Halalert and Mizrachi tangled again, this time one level later with blinds at 600k and 1.2 million with a 1.2 million big blind ante. This time, the two were immediately next to each other in the blinds, with Hallaert calling and Mizrachi checking to see the flop. Hallaert bet the flop, to which the Grinder called. The turn saw no action, so Mizrachi took the green light and bet 1.3 million on the river, inducing a fold from Halalert.

We see the opposite situation in this hand, as Mizrachi has the two pairs and Hallaert has the draw, but note how the two play this hand so differently from the last one we went through. Mizrachi, out of position, check-called the bet from Hallert with the top pair. 

Knowing the Grinder’s style, a check-raise might have been in order here given the texture of the board – but he also would be thinking that he doesn’t want to go broke on an unraised pot pre.  Halalert to his credit, bet his draw once – but being in position, gave him the ability to control exactly how much he wanted to risk to hit that gutshot by getting a check from Mizrachi on the turn. 

Mizrachi, seeing the draws all miss, went for value on the river and Hallaert wisely folded, but how different would this hand have been if the river was a Queen and not an ace. Given the stack depths, around 40 million, we may have seen Halalert exit before his eventual final table appearance.

Day 9 – Mizrachi Bets It All With Ace-King

Now at the final table with eight left in the main event, we find Mizrachi again going to battle, this time against the tournament chip leader John Wasnock. It’s level 40 with blinds at one and two million with a two million big blind ante. Wasnock started the hand with 182 million in chips while Mizrach had a shade over 71 million. 

Braxton Dunaway raised it up to 4 million in the cutoff, before John Wasnock three-bet it to 10 million.  In the small blind sat The Grinder, who pushed out 30 million to four-bet out of position. Dunaway folded, but Wasnock shoved and the Grinder snap called. At this point, Wasnock held an eighty million chip lead over Kenny Hallaert, with the Grinder back in 4th place, with four players below him, Luka Bojovic in the worst shape sitting with 20.5 big blinds.

The Grinder sucked out on the river to double up to more than 151 million, and dropping Wasnock down to 110 million – still in second, but no longer in command of the final table, and the true beginning of The Grinder asserting himself to the poker world again.

But was it the correct line?  Should The Grinder have called the shove, risking his tournament life & giving 4 players under him a pay jump that would equal $250k?

Let’s break it down. For Wasnock to three-bet from the button up to ten million, this was a good raise amount. He’s protecting his equity in the hand, while ensuring that worse hands are getting a good price to call as the pot was at 19 million, and requiring the blinds to call 9 to 10 million to win 28 or 29 million, almost 3 to 1, and giving Dunaway odds of 4 to 1 to call the 6 million chip raise. 

The Grinder doesn’t call. He four-bets to 30 million, representing just over 40% of his stack.  This size is perfect for Mizrachi – he has fold equity in place, while giving odds for smaller stacks to shove and come along for the ride.  Had he open-shoved here, he might have missed out of value. We know that wouldn’t have happened given the hand Wasnock held, but it set-up a shove on the river giving decent odds to the caller holding a premium hand like Ace-King. 

Given the money involved and what was on the line, Wasnock and Mizrachi both made the right calls and got all of the money into the middle with huge hands – a true turning point at the final table.

Day 9 – Mizrachi Eclipses 400 Million

This was probably the hand the rest of the Main Event Final Table knew it was over. It’s level 40 still with blinds of 1 and 2 million and a 2 million big blind ante. Mizrachi was in the cutoff sitting with a 324 million stack, while Kenny Hallaert was in the small blind with 115 million in chips.  Mizrachi opened to 4 million with Hallaert calling from the small blind. 

Dunaway in the blg blind also came along to see the flop, where Mizrachi continued his aggression, betting 5.5 million. Dunaway folded, but Hallaert did not. The turn saw Mizrachi crank the heat to 21.5 million, still keeping Hallaert interested in the river. That saw The Grinder bet 60 million, to which Hallaert thought it through, before calling and seeing the bad news.

Hallaert got unbelievably unlucky in this hand when The Grinder hit two pairs on the turn, but if you look back through the hand, one has to wonder if Hallaert really knew where he stood in this hand. On one side, he’s sitting with the top pair and someone is betting into him, and an open-ended straight draw on the turn, he had to have been feeling in great shape to just allow Mizrachi to bet and bet more. 

When one bets into you like this, and you are just content to call, are you setting a trap, or are you confused as to where you stand in the hand? 

In this case, Hallaert probably felt like he had a trap set and Mizrachi was firing again and again with a lower pair or a bluff – which he was until he took the lead in the hand. The sizing of Mizrachi’s turn bet is interesting – going from a bet just bigger than the pre-flop raise to one that is four times the flop bet should have raised an eyebrow or two. Then when the river card is a brick, and Mizrachi goes up to 60 million, did Hallaert feel like Mizrachi was bluffing? 

It’s a hard call to make with just one pair – top pair nonetheless. With the next pay jump $600k and everyone having locked up $2.4 million to this point, Hallaert lost where he was in this hand and didn’t realize that his pair of kings was no longer good, crippling him in the process.

From there, Mizrachi literally coasted to the title, capturing the WSOP Main Event and garnering him instant induction into the Poker Hall of Fame. 

Thanks for following along with us recapping the summer that it was at the WSOP and the countdown is already on to next year’s event!

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
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 7
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 8
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 9
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 10
• Biggest 2025 WSOP Hands – Part 11