Lightning Strikes Twice for Phovieng Keokham in Event #2: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em
The vibe in the room was electrifying as Phovieng Keokham won the first bracelet of the 2025 World Series of Poker. His joy and excitement was infectious from the moment he eliminated one of the more challenging contenders at the final table, Shaun Colquhoun, in third place after a miracle river card.
From there, Keokham could hardly sit still as he got closer to becoming the champion of Event #2: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em. When he defeated runner-up Christopher Zollo in just a few hands, the cheers from his rail were echoing throughout the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Coming into the final table, Keokham was the shortest stack with only ten big blinds, when he shoved all in against Colquhoun. Keokham's prospects were looking grim, but the tides turned in his favor after catching a straight on the river to earn a pivotal double up to begin the final table.
“When I shoved with queen-jack and the other guy had pocket queens, and I rivered a ten for a straight, that doubled me up and I felt like this [tournament] is mine.”
From there, instead of the player being at risk, he began eliminating his opponents. Keokham took out four final table challengers on his way to claiming the biggest cash of his career ($64,369).
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phovieng Keokham | United States | $64,369 |
| 2 | Christopher Zollo | United States | $42,886 |
| 3 | Shaun Colquhoun | United States | $29,850 |
| 4 | Michael Coombs | United States | $21,126 |
| 5 | Mark Kawamoto | United States | $15,207 |
| 6 | Pedro Green | Dominican Republic | $11,138 |
| 7 | Connor Richards | United States | $8,301 |
| 8 | Rick Muniz | United States | $6,299 |
| 9 | Francois Truong | United States | $4,867 |
Day 2 Action
The final day started with 138 players returning, all guaranteed a minimum payout of $1,006. However, the objective was to take home the largest share of the $402,617 prize pool and the much-coveted WSOP bracelet.
The first few levels of the day whittled the field down fast, as a lot of short stacks were trying to either double up or bust. Unfortunately, one of them was WSOP bracelet winner Chad Holloway, who won this very same event in 2013. He was hoping to capture another bracelet but got eliminated before the first break of the day. Holloway was one of six PokerNews team members in contention, with Connor Richards making it all the way to the final table and a seventh-place finish for $8,301.
The start-of-day chipleader was Colquhoun, who told PokerNews that he was quite confident with his chance to grab a bracelet. Colquhoun was constantly among the top five throughout the day, and entered the final table with a very healthy stack. Having placed fourth in the same tournament in 2022, he hoped to improve on that result. Those hopes were dashed by Keokham’s luck, as the eventual champion outdrew him twice during the final table.
The Final Three
After eliminating Michael Coombs in fourth place, Keokham became unstoppable. Facing Culquhoun once again, Keokham squashed his opponent's dreams of winning the tournament by replicating the events that happened at the start of the final table.
With Culquhoun ahead with a flopped pair of aces, Keokham spiked the river once again to set up a heads-up battle with Zollo.
With just two players remaining, celebrations began as Keokham claimed a third of Zollo’s chips quickly. The newest WSOP bracelet winner needed just one more hand to finish the job, spiking the turn this time to claim victory.
With the win, Keokham intends to have a short celebration as he plans to play numerous events in the series.
“It’s a freeroll for me," he said.
This concludes our live reporting for Event #2: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em, but be sure to keep an eye on PokerNews for the rest of the 2025 WSOP.