WSOP 2025: Recapping Our 10 Biggest Predictions from This Year’s Event

1. Phil Hellmuth Plays the 2025 WSOP Main Event

This one felt like a lay-up as it seemed ridiculous that the most decorated WSOP player of all time was even talking about skipping the biggest event of the summer, but Phil Hellmuth seemed set to bypass the 10-day marathon that is the Main Event. 

Photo Credit: Rachel Kay Winter

Fortunately, it took only a few days for the Poker Brat to start hinting at a change of heart, and sure enough, he set down to play the 2025 WSOP Main Event. In what was a so-so summer for the 17-time bracelet winner, Hellmuth had 17 cashes, and only one final table, finishing 3^rd in Event #47, the $2500 Limit Omaha 8 or Better/Stud 8 or Better event. 

The bracelet never came, and cashing in the Main Event also didn’t happen but if Hellmuth talks about skipping the Main next year, forgive us for being skeptical.

2. Controversy Ensues at a Final Table due to New Rules

The headline from last year’s WSOP Main Event surrounded the coaching Jonathan Tamayo received. The headline from this year’s WSOP Main Event was the dominance of Michael Mizrachi at the final table.  Any discussion of controversy from last year was overshadowed by the Grinder’s performance in winning the world championship. 

The new rules didn’t seem to have any impact on the Main Event, let alone the final table so we were dead wrong on this one – and to be honest, happy that we were off the mark given the celebration of Mizrachi’s achievements.

3. The Main Event Does Not Hit 2022 Numbers

Given all the challenges that the organizers of the Main Event had in terms of attracting players this year, the numbers weren’t all that bad. On the one hand, re-buy events saw entries grow but then again, freezeouts went down and that includes the Main Event. A total of 9,735 players paid the $10k entry to shoot their Main Event shot this year, meaning the number was well above the 2022 event which saw 8,663 players.

Photo Credit: Spenser Sembrat

This result was compounded by the fact that the number of Main Event players from the “Big 3” (the US, UK and Canada) all saw a decline, contributing to the overall decline. However, other countries like France, Brazil, and Spain saw more entries into the event, which partially off-set the drop.
In the end, the 2025 WSOP Main Event saw only a slight decrease. However, the bigger question now is: What will 2026 WSOP be like with the current tax laws in place and how will it impact the series next year.

4. A Foreigner Wins the Main Event

Some of our predictions were spot on, but this one was a complete swing and a miss. Michael Mizrachi dominated the Main Event and took the title.

Photo Credit: Rachel Kay Winter

Overall, US players won a total 60 of the 100 bracelet events, a slight increase from 2024. Foreigners won more bracelets last year than this, and the wave of Americans winning this year was led by the double Mizrachi achieved with the PPC and the Main Event.

5. A Phil Wins the WSOP Player Of the Year

The prediction of a Phil winning the WSOP POY certainly fell flat on its face. The best performing Phil turned out to be Phil Ivey, who cashed in 6 events and finished in the mid 60’s in the overall point totals. 

All of the Phils were relatively quiet when it came to deep and multiple runs especially when you consider some of the notable performances like Sheun Deeb who won the POY, Benny Glaser winning 3 bracelets and Mizrachi winning the PPC and the Main Event. 

Look for a Phil to bounce back next year?

6. Phil Hellmuth And Daniel Negreanu Win Bracelets

Daniel Negreanu almost had this one in the bag very early when he finished runner-up in Event #9 – the $10,000 Omaha H/L 8 or better event. 

With 15 cashes this year’s series, we were sure that Negreanu was going to pull a bracelet out of his hat, but it wasn’t meant to be for Kid Poker this year. Hellmuth on the other hand only got as close as 3^rd in Event #47 and cashed in 11 events, denying us this prediction. 

Maybe next year’s the year for these two icons?

7. Something Bizarre Happens

Little did we know that we were going to get this right – twice. 

The first bizarre incident came heads-up in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker event where Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll were heads-up for the title, with Carroll having a massive chip advantage over Yaginuma, but Jesse having the ability to win an extra million from the WPT Golden Ticket promotion. 

Photo Credit: PokerGO

The poker world watched as the chips slowly went to Yaginuma, with both players making seemingly impossible decisions in heads-up play.  The tournament ended with Yaginuma winning the bracelet, but after outrage online and multiple pros questioning the motives, the WSOP investigated and awarded the prize money to both but withheld the title.
And then there’s William Kassouf. Years after his famous run in the main that was ended by Griffin Benger – the exact hand pictured above. Kassouf was at it again this year, making a very deep run in the main but stirring the pot constantly in the process. So much so that WSOP organizers escorted Kassouf out of the building when he was finally eliminated in 33^rd place for a $300k pay day – and banned him from playing at the WSOP again.

Photo Credit: Danny Maxwell

8. The $250k Super High Roller Is Won by Jeremy Ausmus

A total 75 players took their shot at the $250k Super High Roller last year, but only 63 ponied up the quarter of a million dollars this year for their shot at one of the biggest prizes up for grabs at the World Series. 

Photo Credit: Regina Cortina

Jeremy Ausmus was our pick to win it – and he didn’t even cash. Seth Davies knocked the monkey off of his back finally, winning his first WSOP bracelet and a cool $4.7 million in the process. 

Another swing and a miss.

9. A Woman Wins an Event that’s NOT The Ladies Event

We are awarding a half point to ourselves here. 

For only the second time in WSOP Main Event history, a woman made the final table as Leo Margets cashed her biggest payday ever winning $1,500,000 by placing 7^th in the Main Event. While she didn’t top Barbara Enright’s 5^th place finish in 1995, she beat more players and won more money in getting to the final table. While only one woman won a bracelet at the series this year, that too came with history as Shiina Okamoto defended her title she won at the 2024 series by taking down the Ladies event again in 2025.

Photo Credit: Spenser Sembrat

10. A Man Enters the Ladies’ Event and Cashes

While no men played in the actual $1,000 Ladies Championship at this year’s series, one man did play an online satellite to the event – and won – sparking controversary on its own as Albert Ng played the satellite online and defeated the 49 other entries to claim the seat. 

Ng commented publicly saying that he had no intentions of playing the Ladies event – which the WSOP confirmed he would have to pony up the extra $9k to take his seat – as he plays everything online when it comes to the WSOP. He needs to watch the wording in the tournament titles as it clearly did say Ladies Championship. Nonetheless, no man played and cashed but a quarter point for us catching a man satelliting into it.

Final Score: 2/10

At the end of it all, we only hit on 2 of our predictions fully, but given the size and scale of the WSOP, it’s going to be very hard getting any prediction right so the half and quarter points we also got meant that he had parts of 4 of our 10 guesses. 

What will we predict next year – we’ll have to wait to find out!