Chip And A Chair Are All Naoya Kihara Needs To Win A WSOP Bracelet

Recreational Player Philip Ardire Accidentally Wins A Bracelet In $600 PLO ($171,589)

Philip Ardire came to Las Vegas not for the WSOP, but simply to play daily tournaments. He owns his own business, loves cash games, but lately has been spending more time playing Omaha tournaments.

According to Ardire, Omaha players are more talkative than Hold’em players. And poker is all about socializing.

Ardire busted a daily tournament, canceled his return flight, extended his hotel stay, and decided to take a shot in the $600 WSOP PLO event.

Another one of Ardire’s passions, besides poker, is cigars. During the tournament, he started a conversation about cigars and found another enthusiast at the table. After busting, that player handed Ardire a cigar and told him to smoke it after winning the tournament.

At the time, that seemed unrealistic. Ardire was the shortest stack with nine players remaining, and in heads-up play he was down to just 2 big blinds against Randy Jacks’ 77 big blinds. But he pulled it off.

Event #15: $600 Deepstack Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Payouts (2,636 Entries)

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Philip Ardire	$171,589
2		Randy Jacks	$114,200
3		Francisco Baruffi	$82,928
4		David Avina	$60,837
5		Daniel Haywood	$45,092
6		Cole Gauthier	$33,771
7		Daniel Carter	$25,560
8		Grantel Gibbs	$19,552
9		Matthew Newcombe	$15,117

Justin Liberto Wins Long-Awaited Bracelet In $1,500 Mixed Omaha

Liberto won his first bracelet in the 2015 $3K NLH 6-Handed event for $640.7K. Over the next 11 years, he reached roughly a dozen WSOP final tables. Just look at these results:

• 2023 — 2nd place in $1,500 Razz ($94,558)
• 2021 — 3rd place in $2,500 Nine Game Mix ($69,341)
• 2023 — 4th place in $10,000 NLH 6-Handed Championship ($306,555)
• 2018 — 5th place in $1,500 Millionaire Maker ($303,294)
• 2025 — 7th place in $5,000 NLH 8-Handed ($76,263)
• 2023 — 8th place in $3,000 Mixed Games: Nine Game Mix ($18,084)
• 2021 — 9th place in $5,000 NLH 8-Handed ($38,222)
• 2025 — 9th place in $1,500 Mixed Games: Dealer’s Choice 6-Handed ($12,436)

Liberto certainly deserved another victory. And he finally got one.

Event #14: $1,500 Mixed Omaha Final Table Payouts (1,287 Entries)

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Justin Liberto	$265,297
2		Chris Lee	$176,809
3		Jean Laurent	$125,476
4		Brandon Shack-Harris	$90,249
5		Brad Ruben	$65,801
6		Naween Fernando	$48,642
7		Joseph Weinberger	$36,464
8		Edward Spivack	$27,725

Georgia Tech PhD Student Honghao “Theo” Zhang Wins $1,500 NLHE 6-Handed

This was the first WSOP cash for 26-year-old Honghao Zhang despite already having more than $400K in live tournament earnings.

Zhang is a PhD candidate in Operations Research at Georgia Tech (a branch of applied mathematics that helps organizations make optimal decisions). Despite his poker success, Zhang says he has no plans to become a poker professional and views poker strictly as a hobby.

Event #13: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (1,840 Entries)

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Honghao Zhang	$346,108
2		Harlan Karnofsky	$230,626
3		David Rees	$163,172
4		Thai Dinh	$116,951
5		Daniel Hill	$84,929
6		Julien Duveau	$62,501
7		Michel Molenaar	$46,619

Naoya Kihara Wins $10K NL 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship After Coming Back From One Chip

At the end of Day 1, Naoya Kihara decided to bluff Benny Glaser. Glaser stood pat, while Kihara paired his five. Glaser checked, Kihara shoved all of his chips except for one yellow chip worth the small blind, and got called.

From there, he tripled up, doubled up, tripled up again, and gradually rebuilt his stack.

According to Kihara, he had never personally witnessed a “chip and a chair” story before. Becoming the main character of one came as a huge surprise.

This is the second bracelet of the Japanese player’s career. His first came in the 2012 $5K PLO 6-Handed event for $512K.

Event #17: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship Final Table Payouts (198 Entries)

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Naoya Kihara	$428,923
2		David Lin	$288,711
3		John Cynn	$198,302
4		Ryutaro Suzuki	$139,038
5		Shaun Deeb	$99,557
6		Dan Shak	$72,834
7		Per Hildebrand	$54,467

Faraz Jaka Student Antonio Vargas Wins First Bracelet In $1,700 WSOP U.S. Circuit Championship

Antonio Vargas outlasted 2,148 entries and recorded a career-best cash worth $439,605.

After the victory, Vargas said it would probably take him several days to fully process what had happened.

Notably, Kartik Ved finished third for $211,817. The Indian player has been enjoying an outstanding WSOP so far. Just a few days earlier, he finished third in the $550 Mini Mystery Millions with 20,488 entries, earning $200K plus more than $150K in Mystery Bounties.

Event #16: $1,700 U.S. Circuit Championship No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (2,148 Entries)

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Antonio Vargas	$439,605
2		Kai Cohen	$292,916
3		Kartik Ved	$211,817
4		Michael Plesa	$154,853
5		Liubomyr Melnyk	$114,465
6		Malcolm Franchi	$85,561
7		Shawn Daniels	$64,681
8		Scott Horvath	$49,459
9		Yannick Capocetti	$38,258

Advanced Recreational Player Naseem Salem Defeats Everyone In $10K GGMillion$ High Roller

For Naseem Salem, poker is a hobby he first picked up as a student. These days, he is more commonly seen in high-stakes mixed-game cash games.

Salem recorded his first tournament cash back in 1999 in a $100 event. He also finished runner-up in the 2024 $1,979 WSOP Poker Hall of Fame Bounty for $208,919. According to Salem, second place is the worst finishing position in poker.

In his winner’s interview, Salem said that the seven-figure score was no less important to him than the bracelet itself.

Event #11: $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller No-Limit Hold’em (627 Entries)

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Naseem Salem	$1,089,964
2		Alexis Cruz Martinez	$726,598
3		Chad Lipton	$503,997
4		Chris Brewer	$355,610
5		John Racener	$255,306
6		Roman Hrabec	$186,562
7		Joey Weissman	$138,802
8		Cliff Josephy	$105,178