WTOS Updates
Day 1 Completed
2025 World Tournament of Slots
WTOS Updates
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Five hundred came and by the end, one remained, as Hector Barahona from Toronto, Canada, was crowned the winner of the 2025 World Tournament of Slots.
Barahona would receive the $1 million first prize check from none other than TV legend Vanna White, onstage at a lavish Gala Dinner here at the Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas.
It brings to an end a frenetic two days of slots action that would see Barahona progress through a qualifying round, semi final, and final round on route to the seven-figure payday.
But outlast the field he did, besting players such as last year's winner Stephanie Hall and Michael Mizrachi's mother Susan 'Momma Grinder' Laufer, as he collected the week's biggest prize and the accolade of being this year's slots champion.
World Tournament of Slots 2025 Final Results
"I'm Going to Be Partying Tonight!"
Speaking to PokerNews after his win, Barahona could hardly contain his excitement, saying, "I'm so excited about the $1 million, I'm going to do so many things."
"Of course I'm going to help my family out. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with all the money yet, but I like to make other people happy, so I'm going to use it to do that. Make my family happier."
Asked how he planned to celebrate, Barahona grinned and added, "I'm going to be partying tonight, all through the night, man!"
PokerNews Qualifier Jimmy Schmotzer Finishes 18th
Also taking home a share of the prize pool was PokerNews competition qualifier Jimmy Schmotzer.
After topping his qualifying round and finishing 34th in the semifinals, Schmotzer continued to build momentum throughout the weekend. Following an intense final session today inside the WTOS Arena, he climbed even higher to finish 18th overall and secure a spot in the money, with twenty paid overall.
Speaking with PokerNews after his 18th place finish, Schmotzer would say, "I feel ecstatic, this whole experience has been absolutely fantastic. I recommend it to anyone!
"I'm going to be telling this story for a long time. Eighteenth out of 500 is just fantastic."
"I want to say thank you to my wife. The whole thing's been great, and we're going to find a nice frame for the medal for sure!"
And just like that, the final round has finished.
All this year's 2025 World Tournament of Slots players now face a nervous wait as the scores are counted and adjudicated ahead of the winner announcements at tonight's Gala Dinner (expected around 8pm local time).
Stick with the PokerNews live blog as we announce all the winners.
Jimmy Schmotzer and his wife, Michele, have arrived ahead of his 5:10 pm call time.
The waiting is nearly over, get those button-mashing fingers at the ready...
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 (All cash) |
| 2 | $100,000 ($85,000 cash + $15,000 FSP) |
| 3 | $50,000 ($45,000 cash + $5,000 FSP) |
| 4-5 | $15,000 each ($10,000 cash + $5,000 FSP) |
| 6-10 | $2,000 each (FSP) |
| 11-20 | $1,000 each (FSP) |
Follow the stream with Casino Kelly and the team, bringing you live coverage of the all-important million dollar round:
We're just under 10 minutes away from our final round, the million-dollar round, getting underway.
PokerNews' qualifier Jimmy Schmotzer is in, as are 99 other hopefuls, and will be on around 5:10pm local time.
The winner will be announced at tonight's Gala Dinner.
TV legend Vanna White is here to greet the huge crowd at Bar Sol for the Wildcard Round.
5 extra players will get the chance to join tonight's final round, as last gasp contenders...
For the past few days, the 2nd Annual World Tournament of Slots (WTOS) has been taking place at the Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, a locale well-known to poker players as home to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise and formerly the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA).
While Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu may be the celebrities at such poker events, at the WTOS they don’t get much bigger than Idaho’s Stephanie “Win-It-All” Hall, who last year won the inaugural WTOS for $1,000,000 and to etch her name in slot history.
As such, when Hall and her husband, Tony, arrived to both compete in this year’s tournament, they got the red-carpet treatment. The champ was also willing to sit down with PokerNews for an interview prior to things kicking off.
“I am so beyond excited,” Hall said of being back in the Bahamas. “It's a beautiful property. I actually got to walk in there earlier and just take a look at them setting up, and it did bring back memories. Everything just flooded back, and I mean you just get like, you know, vision of last year, like this happening, and it was so cool.”
Hall’s story started when she played POP! Slots and used her loyalty points to enter a tournament to try to win a trip to the Bahamas, which poker players might consider a satellite.
“I didn't fully know about the World Tournament of Slots until I won the spot. I thought I was just going to get to go to the Bahamas,” she told PokerNews. “Then I started looking into it and getting everything, and yeah, shocking.”
Fast forward a year, and Hall’s life has changed considerably, given her seven-figure score. Even so, taking another milly back to the “Gem State” would be twice as nice.
“We've got a couple of chances. We're kind of battling against each other, but at the same time, you know, someone's going to win it and the feeling is just amazing. I can't wait to see the reactions.”
Having to members of the same family participating in the tournament, giving them a 2-in-500 shot at a million, did beg the question – would Hall rather go back-to-back or let her husband take it down?
“I'm gonna be selfish on this one,” she said with a smile. “I would love to win it, and the main reason, so I'm a huge football fan of the Green Bay Packers. I've been a Packers fan since I was 12 years old, followed them for years and years, and they won Super Bowls 1 and 2. So, I am thinking, you know, maybe I win the World tournament of Slots 1 and 2.”
Another thing Hall had to look forward to was a special “Drama in the Bahamas” event that pitted her, the inaugural WTOS champ, against the reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who was in town so his mother, “Mama Grinder,” could participate in the WTOS.
“I'm so excited to meet Michael. I've heard so much about him, how amazing he is, and I'm excited to go head-to-head. I'm a little nervous cause he's a little more skilled than me, but that's all right. Sometimes you don't need the skill, you can just wing it.”
As for those participating in this year’s WTOS, the champ had some words of wisdom.
“So, the 3 minutes [each round], it feels like forever, and your arm is going to go dead. It's going to be really bad. So, push through the pain and just don't stop hitting that button and just focus.”
While Hall hopes to repeat, she’s just looking forward to a week in Paradise and soaking in the final days of her WTOS reign.
“I do love to meet new people, just share experiences,” she said. “It's all about us all having a good time together here in paradise.”
Check out Hall's full interview with PokerNews below:
And with that, we've had our final semi-final round, as officials here will calculate all the scores and determine the final 95 players who will progress and are in with a chance of $1m.
There's still a chance for a few extra players to enter the Wildcard Round, which will be held later this afternoon.
Until then, it's a nervous wait for everyone as we wait for the scores to go up!
