"A Win with the Help of God" for Netanel Stern in Event #87: $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty ($618,377)

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Jul 09, 2025 5 min read

With the final hand dealt at 5:40 a.m., Event #87: $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty set a record as the latest event to conclude at the 2025 World Series of Poker. And it couldn't have lasted much longer, as Netanel Stern had his plane taking off two hours later. But in his luggage, he'll bring home none other than his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Outlasting a field of 1,283 entries, which generated a total prize pool of $5,908,100, Stern earned the first-place prize of $618,377 after nearly 16 hours of play in this single-day event, defeating Rostyslav Sabishchenko during the heads-up ($412,187). Despite eliminating every single player of the final table except Stern, Sabishchenko finishes as runner-up of a WSOP event for the second time in his career, after narrowly missing out on a bracelet in a $1,500 Limit Hold’em event back in 2023.

$5,000 Super Turbo Bounty Final Table Results

Winner's Reaction

Once the winner’s photos were taken, Stern had to quickly make his way to the payout desk before heading to the airport to catch his flight. But while holding his bracelet, he took a few seconds to share his joy.

“It feels good. I’m an amateur player. So it’s by the help of God, that’s the only thing,” he said with a smile, before revealing the almost unbelievable story behind his participation in the event: “I’m here by mistake. I didn’t know about this tournament because today I’m flying. But my friend sent me a message: ‘There’s a tournament, $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty.’ I said, ‘Maybe I’ll go,’ otherwise I would have lost it at the roulette. So I came, and the rest is history.”

Confirming his amateur status, Stern had less than $10,000 in total live tournament earnings before this event. But despite his limited experience and navigating a short or average stack from the three-table redraw all the way to the heads-up, Stern never lost faith. “Everything is from God,” he added. “I believe in God, I know it’s up to Him. I take nothing for myself. If I’m winning, if I’m losing, everything is from Him.” With that, the newly crowned bracelet winner rushed off to the airport as a WSOP champion.

Action of the Day

Many players who regularly compete in $5,000+ buy-in tournaments and had their WSOP Main Event dreams cut short found another chance to win a WSOP gold bracelet in the $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty. Among them were Rania Nasreddine, Leonard Maue, Alejandro Lococo, Daniel Negreanu, Patrick Leonard, Chris Moorman, Artur Martirosian, Adrian Mateos, Phil Hellmuth, John Hennigan, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, and Kristen Foxen, who were just a few of the many notable names who took a shot at this one-day event.

But just like in the Main Event, they all fell short of reaching the 193 spots in the money. Samuel Ju seemed more fortunate on the stone bubble, finding aces to try to double up. However, Xi Chen hit two pair to crack Ju's aces and eliminate him on the bubble. But in his bad luck, Ju saw Zachary Gruneberg also being sent to the rail on the bubble, so they split a minimum cash prize, earning $3,375 each.

Once in the money, players like Ren Lin (190th - $6,749) with ace-nine against ace-ten, Talal Shakerchi (180th - $6,749), Frank Funaro (142nd - $6,749), Martin Kabrhel in a four-way all-in (110th - $7,087) or Benny Glaser (93rd - $7,685) were all quickly eliminated as the field dwindled to less than 100 players.

After the next break, eliminations continued with Alex Kulev (82nd - $7,685), Dario Sammartino (81st - $7,685), and Ari Engel (63rd - $10,780) all making their ways to the exit. Stephen Song (49th - $12,445) followed soon after, losing a flip to Adrian Lopez’s ace-queen. Mustapha Kanit seemed pretty happy to eliminate the recent WSOP champion Zdenek Zizka (43rd - $14,587), but even with this hand, the Italian player was sent to the rail moments before the final three tables redraw by running into kings (27th - $20,946).

Once play reached the final three tables, Rostyslav Sabishchenko immediately scored a double elimination, followed shortly after by a third knockout when he busted Michael Rossitto in 20th place ($25,652) to take the chip lead. He then almost never left it until the end.

Only briefly did Adrian Lopez surpass him, thanks to a double knockout that brought the field down to the last two tables. Tamer Kamel reached the top of the chip counts as well, climbing to 15,000,000 chips after his ace-seven held against Vitalijs Zavorotnijs’s king-eight (12th – $31,864). But Sabishchenko extended his lead even more by eliminating EPT champion Pedro Marques on the final table bubble (9th - $51,266).

Late into the night (around 4 a.m.), Fabiano Kovalski became the first casualty of the final table (8th - $66,376). He was quickly followed to the rail by Adrian Lopez (7th – $87,104) and Viktor Ustimov (6th – $115,830). All three eliminations came at the hands of none other than Rostyslav Sabishchenko, who by then had held nearly two-thirds of the chips in play.

Although his stack decreased after a series of double-ups, Sabishchenko got back on track by hitting the river to bust Tamer Kamel in fifth place ($156,060), before sending Fabian Bernhauser to the rail in 4th place ($212,997).

Zheyu Weng (3rd - $294,441) couldn't do much either against Sabishchenko's domination, and the Ukrainian entered heads-up play with more than twice the stack of Netanel Stern.

With a relatively short stack for several hours, Netanel Stern stayed patient and managed to score a crucial double-up during three-handed play to get back into contention. He even took the lead early in heads-up play after another double-up, holding a 2:1 chip advantage. However, Rostyslav Sabishchenko spiked the river in another all-in-and-call hand to level the stacks.

After a short break, Stern regained the lead and moved all in with pocket aces. Sabishchenko called with king-ten, Stern hit a straight, and just like that, the WSOP bracelet was his.

That wraps up our coverage of Event #87: $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty, but tuned to PokerNews as the 2025 World Series of Poker continues to unfold. More bracelets are up for grabs, including in the prestigious $10,000 Main Event World Championship, where the money bubble will burst on Day 4!

• Tags WSOP25 Adrian Mateos Alejandro Lococo Alex Kulev Ari Engel Artur Martirosian Benny Glaser Chris Moorman Daniel Negreanu Dario Sammartino Erik Seidel Mustapha Kanit Martin Kabrhel Rostyslav Sabishchenko Stephen Song Talal Shakerchi Tamer Kamel Viktor Ustim
• Related Players Daniel NegreanuErik SeidelChris MoormanMustapha KanitTalal ShakerchiDario Sammartino

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