LA Poker Player Outlasts 16,300 Opponents to Win 2025 WSOP's Colossus

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Jun 10, 2025 6 min read Last updated Jun 11, 2025

Over the course of four days of registration, a massive field of 16,301 came out to Event #19: $500 Colossus. This generated a massive prize pool $6,664,102 to be divided up among the cashing 2,326 players. At 1:00 p.m. today, just nine players returned to play for their chance at a bracelet and over half a million dollars.

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Courtenay Williams began the day in eighth place in the counts, having already secured his first ever WSOP bracelet cash. After being at risk all in with the worst hand early at the final table, but getting a fold from the eventual runner up Ramaswamy Pyloore, Courtenay propelled up the counts and eventually took home his career best score of $542,540 and his first bracelet.

“I honestly don’t know which means more,” the new champion honestly said when asked about the importance of the money versus the bracelet. “I think the bracelet is really cool, the money is really cool, at this moment they are both equal.”

Williams particularly remembers the massive fold at the beginning of the final table.

“I found out about that hand at the first break. I think I talked him into a fold, which played into some other stuff later. When we got a heads-up, it played to my advantage because I think he thought I was going to be bluffing a lot.”

Despite this being Williams’ first WSOP bracelet cash, he is no stranger to tournaments, particularly around the Los Angeles area.

“I live in LA now. I play a lot of tournaments at Bicycle and Commerce. It used to be Hustler in Commerce Park, but they don’t run that anymore, so whenever there are series there, I play multi-day events. When I’m working, I’ll usually play a couple that rotate around my work.”

This tournament had barely been on Williams’ radar, and he talked honestly about almost missing the final flight.

“I’m usually off for a few months a year. I’ll come here for a week, but I barely fire in the WSOP. I usually fire the smaller stuff around the city. I wasn’t even going to play this on Saturday, because I had already busted twice. A couple of my buddies talked me back into playing, and here we are.”

With prior earnings of $122,220, Williams reflected on how his perspective helped him significantly at the final table.

“I don’t really get caught in the Hendon Mob mob stuff. It is what it is. I think not knowing who anyone was also really helped me out, because I can just play and not be intimidated by anyone.”

Williams plays recreationally and does not consider himself a professional poker player. The 45-year-old works in Television, but had made reference to the fact that the industry had been coming under hard times as of late.

“It’s a great start to the summer and to the year. I’m not working at the moment, and while I do have money, this is going to make it easier to not be so stressed.”

With that, Williams collected his new piece of jewelry and exited the tournament area.

Final Table Results

Final Table Action

The first big all-in confrontation of the final table came when Courtenay Williams three-bet ace-queen suited against Ramaswamy Pyloore’s king-ten. Both players saw a flop, and Williams moved all in, flopping second pair against Pyloore’s top pair. Fortunately for Williams, Pyloore pitched his hand and his time in the tournament continued.

Justin Gutierrez had begun the final table as one of the more active players at the table, but eventually lost a flip to Matt Glantz to leave himself as the shortest at the table. His last chips went over to Pyloore after Williams opened with ace-ten, Pyloore three-bet with pocket kings, and Gutierrez got in his last chips with pocket tens. Pyloore’s kings held up to maintain the chip lead while Gutierrez finished in ninth place for $57,970.

After that, the next all-in confrontation would occur between WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Leng and UFC fighter Antonio Trocoli Filho when Leng would get in his chips holding king-jack against Filho’s dominant ace-king. The board favored Leng to propel him into third while Filho fell to the short stack.

Sigrid Dencker came into the final table as the lone woman at the final table, and her run would end in eighth place shortly after the prior all-in confrontation. She would jam in her final stack with pocket fours over Kaiwen Wei’s open, and Wei would call her holding pocket sevens. No help would be brought to her on the board, and she collected $73,880 for her efforts.

Leng’s earlier double-up would not propel him to his fourth bracelet as he would find himself at the end of Wei’s blade as well. He would jam with ace-seven, and Wei would look him up with pocket tens, with no help materializing on the king-high runout. Wei would continue to ascend up the counts while Leng would finish in seventh place for $94,760.

It would be Filho next on the chopping block as he moved in his last few chips with queen-seven suited from the hijack right into Pyloore’s aces in the big blind. Despite flopping a myriad of straight and flush draw outs, nothing would complete, and the UFC fighter collected $122,330 for his sixth-place finish.

Earlier in the final table Jason Blodgett had made a laddering motion to his rail in reference to his short stack survival. He reached the top of his ladder shortly after getting in his ace-two up against Pyloore’s pocket tens. His wheel draw would not complete, and he collected $158,910 for his fifth-place finish.

Despite the strong start to the final table, Wei would be the next to go in fourth place. His demise would come at the hands of Glantz as he jammed with ace-four after Glantz opened, and Glantz looked him up with queen-jack to flop a queen. Glantz would ascend up the chip counts while Wei collected $207,740 for his efforts.

The three-handed affair began with Pyloore in the lead, Glantz in second, and Williams in third. The leaderboard would even out as Williams would call Pyloore’s shove holding ace-three to put himself at risk. A three on the flop would keep Williams in the tournament while the stacks all evened out.

Glantz seemed all set to double up through Williams when he got his stack in holding pocket nines against Williams’ ace-queen. With one card to come, Glantz had to fade just six cards in the deck, but the ace of diamonds connected on the river to send out the WSOP regular in third place for $273,260.

Heads up began as both players would share a decent amount of time each in the chip lead, with several big pots swinging back and forth between the two of them. It would all come crashing down for Pyloore as he called Williams’ shove holding ace-eight for nines and eights with the best kicker. He was up against the pocket kings of Williams for kings and nines, and no improvement on the river would see Williams take over the lead in the tournament, as Pyloore was all but forced all in the following hand.

Williams held pocket nines on the final hand as he flopped a set against Pyloore’s queen-four. It was over on the turn, and the two competitors shook hands as Pyloore collected $361,690 for his runner-up finish.

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