Limits: 60,000-120,000
Event #41: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship here at the 2025 World Series of Poker, hosted by Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas, was a reminder that a game of days past still attracts quite the eclectic mix of competitors. A field that was modest in size but had no shortage of accolades saw Ian Johns hold up the gold bracelet. This is the second time Johns has won this very event, and his third Limit Hold’em title at the WSOP.
With a total prize pool of $1,097,400, the first-place reward of $282,455 was quite the treasure chest to battle for. Though, for this lineup, the bracelet and adding to their legacy may have carried more weight than the purse itself. Johns denied Viktor Blom of his maiden bracelet in heads-up play. This marks Blom’s first runner-up for a bracelet and it appeared he had a good chance, as he entered the day with the chip lead but his surgical opponent entered heads up with the lead and never relinquished it.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ian Johns | United States | $282,455 |
| 2 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | $188,295 |
| 3 | Anthony Zinno | United States | $130,447 |
| 4 | Pedro Neves | Portugal | $92,774 |
| 5 | Ryan Bambrick | United States | $67,782 |
| 6 | Max Hoffman | United States | $50,915 |
| 7 | David Lieberman | United States | $39,349 |
| 8 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $31,316 |
| 9 | Scott Bohlman | United States | $25,687 |
Winner's Reaction
Johns won his first bracelet in a $3,000 Limit Hold’em Event ($291,755) in 2006 and ten years after that he won two bracelets in the summer of 2016, defeating tough fields in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E ($291,755) and the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship ($290,635). Fast forward to 2025 and he’s done it again.
When asked about what it felt like to win this prestigious event a second time, this is what he had to say:
“The satisfaction of getting it done and knowing that I can come here and be competitive over so many years, just feels really good.”
With three titles in Limit Hold’em, PokerNews asked Johns how his journey with the game began:
“When I was 18 I started playing Limit Hold’em a lot online, I just became obsessed with that game and that game only – studied forums, played a gazillions of hands, playing eight tables – like for years and years. And then when I moved on to live play I [continued] to play a lot.”
Needless to say, Johns played with an intense confidence, maintaining a stack well capable of winning throughout the tournament by navigating four streets. Johns sifted through a field of end bosses, as the final table had a collective 19 bracelets amongst them, including Daniel Negreanu vying for his eighth and Anthony Zinno seeking his sixth.
Day 3 Action
Nine players returned for Day 3 of the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship, but Scott Bohlman, with just three big bets when he came back at the table, knew he had to take risks to get back in contention for the WSOP bracelet. Fifteen minutes after the restart, he picked up aces against Max Hoffman’s flush draw, hoping for a double-up. But Hoffman completed his flush on the turn, eliminating Bohlman in ninth place for $25,687.
With Bohlman gone, Daniel Negreanu became the shortest stack. He saw his stack dwindle during the first hands of the final table and eventually moved all-in against David Lieberman, who completed a flush on the river to end Negreanu’s deep run in 8th place for $31,316.
Lieberman’s momentum, however, stopped after that elimination. Despite being very active at the table, he lost more small pots than he won, like in a hand where he missed a straight against Anthony Zinno. Down to just 25,000, Lieberman was forced all-in from the big blind on the next hand. His jack-deuce couldn’t crack Hoffman’s pocket nines, and Lieberman exited in seventh place for $39,349.
Zinno, meanwhile, continued to build his stack, climbing close to the 2,000,000 chip mark before the first break of the day. Ryan Bambrick, who began the day second in chips, had the opposite trajectory, watching his stack slowly decrease. Zinno and Pedro Neves teamed up to eliminate him in fifth place for $67,783, just minutes after Hoffman’s ace-queen was dominated by Neves’ ace-king, sending him out in sixth place for $50,915.
With just four players remaining, the clock was paused and the field was sent on an early 60-minute dinner break to prepare the feature table for streaming. Pedro Neves, the shortest stack at the time, managed to chip up little by little after the break. However, despite his efforts, the 2024 WSOP Monster Stack champion couldn’t close the gap on his three opponents and was ultimately eliminated in 4th place for $92,774.
Three-handed play then stretched for over three hours, during which the chip lead changed hands multiple times. Anthony Zinno was the first to cross the three-million chip mark, but Viktor “Isildur1” Blom came back, followed by Ian Johns, who held more chips than both of his opponents combined by the next break.
The biggest downfall of this phase was suffered by Zinno, who went from chip leader to short stack. He managed to double up once with a lucky straight, but was eliminated shortly after in third place for $130,447 by the eventual champion.
Even though all eyes were on Blom and his quest for a first WSOP bracelet, it was Johns who began the heads-up duel with a commanding lead. He quickly extended his advantage, winning a big pot with pocket tens against ace-jack. Blom never managed to close the gap and eventually moved all in on the turn with a flush draw against Johns’ top pair. The river changed nothing, and the bracelet was for Ian Johns.
That concludes the PokerNews coverage for this event, but stay tuned for our continuing coverage of the 2025 WSOP!
