Sergio Aido raised to 600,000 in early position, which was met by a three-bet all-in from Sam Soverel. The total amount was 1,400,000, and Aido made a quick call to put Soverel at risk.
Sam Soverel: 7♠7♦
Sergio Aido: A♠8♥
The flop Q♥3♠3♦ kept Soverel in the lead, and the 7♥ turn confirmed his double-up.
The inconsequential 2♦ was added to the board, and Aido paid Soverel his dues.
Fahredin Mustafov opened the cutoff to 800,000 before Sam Soverel jammed for 3,675,000 from the big blind and Mustafov snapped it off.
Sam Soverel: J♥J♦
Fahredin Mustafov: Q♦Q♣
Soverel was in rough shape against the dominating pair of Mustafov as the K♥7♦6♣ flop offered no help to either opponent. The board ran out K♣10♠ as Mustafov's queens held on to eliminate Soverel as the first casualty of the final table.
Fahredin Mustafov opened to 800,000 under the gun, which was met by a three-bet all in by Matthew Wantman, roughly 3,700,000. Mustafov made the call to put Wantman at risk.
Matthew Wantman: A♣J♠
Fahredin Mustafov: 6♥6♦
The board ran out clean for Mustafov, coming down 10♦3♥7♣3♦Q♦, sending Wantman to the exit in 8th place.
Martin Zamani open-jammed 6,350,000 from middle position. It folded to Vinny Lingham in the small blind who burned through four time banks before he announced a call as the slightly covering stack, and the cards hit their backs.
Martin Zamani: K♠Q♥
Vinny Lingham: A♦Q♦
Zamani needed some help to survive as the J♣10♦7♦ flop gave Zamani an open-ender but Lingham picked up a flush draw. Neither player would improve on the 3♣3♠ runout as Lingham's ace-high was good enough to eliminate Zamani in seventh.
Sergio Aido jammed the small blind for 3,500,000 and Alexandre Reard called in the big blind.
Sergio Aido: Q♠7♠
Alexandre Reard: Q♦8♦
Reard had Aido pipped as the K♣10♠6♥ flop offered no help to either player. Reard looked primed for the knockout on the 2♥ turn until the 2♣ completed the board, and the pot ended in a chop.
Khoi Le Nguyen moved all in from the small blind, covering Sergio Aido's stack of roughly 6,000,000. Aido used two time extensions before deciding to call, putting his tournament life at risk.
Sergio Aido: K♠2♥
Khoi Le Nguyen: A♣9♣
The flop Q♥Q♣10♣ only served to improve Nguyen to a flush draw. The turn 7♥ didn't change anything, and although Aido improved to two pair on the K♣ river, Nguyen had also improved to a flush, eliminating Aido.
The curtains have closed on Event #88: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
This year’s event attracted a record-breaking field to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, generating a prize pool of $12,159,000.
After more than 28 hours of play over three days, it was Vietnamese rising star Khoi Le Nguyen who triumphed over the 252-entrant field to claim the title.
As recently as August 2024, Nguyen’s largest live tournament buy-in was just $500. A remarkable combination of sharp decisions, well-timed opportunities, and a bit of good fortune has propelled him rapidly up the stakes. In the process, Nguyen has also soared to the top of his country’s all-time money list, with his victory today crossing him over the $4,000,000 lifetime earnings landmark.
Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize (USD)
1
Khoi Le Nguyen
Vietnam
$2,686,913
2
Alexandre Reard
France
$1,791,267
3
Sergio Aido
Spain
$1,242,660
4
Jun Obara
Japan
$879,939
5
Vinny Lingham
United States
$636,279
6
Fahredin Mustafov
Bulgaria
$470,036
7
Martin Zamani
United States
$354,901
8
Matthew Wantman
United States
$274,023
9
Sam Soverel
United States
$216,467
Winner's Reaction
Remarkably, this event was never on the radar for Nguyen until fate intervened and gave him a reason to consider it.
“I feel amazing, obviously. I didn’t even plan to play this event."
"A lot of things happened in the past week. I won a tournament last week, coming back from half a big blind, so I had some money, but still not enough bankroll to play this event.”
“I had a look at the numbers on the Vietnamese Hendon Mob chart, and I estimate that if this event has enough registration and I happen to win it, then I might be Vietnamese number one, so I thought, let’s just do it, whatever.”
Khoi Le Nguyen
Time to Tell His Parents
When asked what it means to be top of the live earnings charts for his home country, Nguyen gave an unexpected response.
“It’s pretty funny because my parents don’t even know I play poker. I don’t think I can hide from that now, maybe they’ll get the news and we will see how they react.”
Nguyen then humbly reflected on his meteoric rise in the game, expressing disbelief at winning a $50,000 High Roller on his very first attempt.
"I have been very lucky to run deep in mid-stakes events. You just have to be very lucky, and yeah, this year I have been incredibly lucky. I still think I am a bit better than the average player pool, but I know I make a lot of mistakes, horrendous mistakes, but luck helps me out a bit."
"It's crazy to win [the $50,000 high roller]. To compete with the best people and win, but there is still some uncertainty, even though I won, I feel like there is a lot of luck in my win rather than a lot of skill. Compared to the world-class [players], I am still far behind, but it's crazy to win my first $50,000 event and my first bracelet. Still a lot to work on. "
On His Good Luck Charm
Nguyen had a small toy turtle with him, which he kept on top of his chips throughout the final table. He shared that it was something he bought as a young chess player, deliberately symbolic, reminding him to be slow and steady.
Khoi Le Nguyen
Final Table Action
It took a couple of hours of nine-handed play before the final table saw its first elimination. Sam Soverel the first to fall as his pocket jacks ran into the pocket queens of Fahredin Mustafov.
Within half an hour of Soverel’s departure, both Matthew Wantman and Martin Zamani had been shown the exit door.
Mustafov was the next to fall, falling victim to eventual champion Nguyen when he got all the chips in versus a dominating ace preflop.
Alexandre Reard sent Vinny Lingham to the rail next, and Jun Obara shortly followed him.
A short-stacked Sergio Aido battled hard to try and gain some ground on his two remaining opponents. Alas, he eventually succumbed to Nguyen in a blind versus blind battle.
Alexandre Reard
Nguyen went into heads-up as the chip leader, but immediately lost his advantage when Reard doubled through him to take the ascendancy.
The two traded blows until one titanic hand saw almost all of the chips pushed in Nguyen's direction.
The players took a five-minute break upon the completion of that hand, and when they returned, Nguyen sat down to a 40-to-1 chip lead.
It seemed the writing was on the wall, and it took only one hand after the restart for Nguyen to wrap it up, taking home $2,686,913 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.
That concludes the PokerNews coverage for this event, but stay tuned for our continuing coverage of the 2025 WSOP.
