Biggest WPT® Winners of 2025: Top 15 Single Cashes in WPT® Events

*Both top prizes include a $10,400 seat into the next WPT® World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. 

Even at a glance, you can see the pattern. The very top money sits at Wynn in December, while big US stops and international championships pack the 300k–800k band.

Million-dollar club: Wynn Las Vegas

Schuyler Thornton – $2,258,856

WPT® World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas

Schuyler Thornton takes the top spot for 2025 with a $2,258,856 win in the $10,400 WPT® World Championship.

He came out on top in a 1,865-entry field and an $18,277,000 prize pool, emerging as the headline champion at Wynn Las Vegas.

Thornton started the TV final behind Soheb Porbandarwala, the only WPT® Champions Club member at the table. After some time, he shifted gears and turned it up a notch, knocked out Maxx Coleman, Jeremy Becker, Chad Lipton, and Jeremy Brown, after pulling away in a long heads-up stretch.

A deal adjusted the advertised $2,528,200 top prize to the final line, with the 2026 WPT® World Championship seat wrapped into his official $2,258,856 payout.

Not a bad day at the office.

Therefore, it begs the question, what does this tell you if you grind mid-high stakes today?

Time and time again, the single biggest WPT® paydays still flow through Wynn in December, and one deep run there can instantly reshape a career.

Schuyler Thornton after winning the iconic prize.

Aaron Johnson – $1,010,400

WPT® Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas

Aaron Johnson capitalised on the $1,100 WPT® Prime Championship and came out with a seven-figure score.

He took $1,010,400 after a heads-up deal with Fernando Martin Del Campo, plus the 2026 WPT® World Championship seat. The event drew 9,876 entries across four flights and built a $9,579,720 prize pool, almost double the $5,000,000 guarantee. 

It also produced the largest field on the Season 23 WPT® schedule.

Johnson already sat in the MSPT Hall of Fame and once won Player of the Year on both MSPT and the Heartland Poker Tour in the same season. He arrived at Wynn with a fresh MSPT title and a runner-up finish in the 2024 WSOP Monster Stack, then turned a $1,100 ticket into his first seven-figure payday.

His Prime win is the cleanest example of the “$1.1k to seven figures” ladder that now defines the December festival.

Main Tour heavyweights: 600k–800k scores

If Wynn hosts the largest prizes, Main Tour championships still feed a thick middle tier of life-changing scores.

Art Peacock – $776,000

WPT® Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown

Art Peacock’s $776,000 win at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood set one of the year’s biggest early numbers. He came through a 1,755-entry field in the $3,500 WPT® Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship, which built a $5,616,000 prize pool.

Peacock defeated Mihai Niste heads up for the title and the $10,400 WPT® World Championship seat.

Art Peacock victorious at WPT Seminole

Nicolás Betbesé – $706,960

WPT® Venetian Las Vegas Championship

At The Venetian in Las Vegas, Argentina’s Nicolás Betbesé booked $706,960 in the $5,000 WPT® Venetian Las Vegas Championship. The event drew 1,153 entries and a $5,303,800 prize pool.

Betbesé beat Francis Cruz heads up, secured the title, and locked up his own $10,400 World Championship seat on top.

Kevin Nee – $605,100

WPT® Seminole Rock ’N’ Roll Poker Open

Kevin Nee closed the year with a $605,100 win in the $3,500 WPT® Seminole Rock ’N’ Roll Poker Open. He beat a 1,224-entry field and a $3,916,800 prize pool, and his payout again included a World Championship seat.

Coverage notes that this result crushed his previous best live cash and turned a regular Florida run into a full breakthrough.

Kharlin Sued – $480,700

WPT® Bay 101 Shooting Star

Kharlin Sued’s $480,700 victory at the WPT® Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship gave the San Jose stop a clear 2025 headline. The $5,300 main event drew 672 entries and a $3,028,100 prize pool, plus the usual bounty-focused rail energy that defines Bay 101.

Together, these Main Tour scores show that even before December, players can book 600k+ wins in “standard” 3.5k–5.3k championships across the US.

International breakout scores: Cyprus, Cambodia, Australia, Thailand

Now, let’s cast our eyes to the international circuit. 

Where did the biggest non-US WPT® money land in 2025? Across a mix of established and emerging markets that now feed players directly into the Wynn festival. 

Ilia Kitsbabashvili – $401,100

WPT® Cyprus Championship

Georgia’s Ilia Kitsbabashvili won $401,100 in the $3,500 WPT® Cyprus Championship from a 775-entry field at Chamada Prestige Hotel & Spa.

He arrived at the festival as a strong regional name and left with a flagship WPT® title and a seat into the year-end WPT® World Championship.

Artem Vezhenkov – $390,650

WPT® Cambodia Championship

In January, Artem Vezhenkov came out on top in the WPT® Cambodia Championship at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh for $390,650. 

The $3,500 main event pulled 750 entries and a $2,400,750 prize pool, plus the standard World Championship seat for the winner.

Alan Pham – ≈$365,000

WPT® Australia Championship

Alan Pham won the WPT® Australia Championship at The Star Gold Coast, earning A$558,211, reported at roughly $365,000 in USD.

The A$5,500 main event drew 600 entries and a A$3,000,000 prize pool, further cementing Australia as a key WPT® region, with a bright future ahead.

Alan Pham at the WPT® Australian Championship.

Haoran Sun – ≈$353,500

WPT® Prime Thailand Exhibition Championship

China’s Haoran Sun scored about $353,500 in travel funds by winning the WPT® Prime Thailand Exhibition Championship.
The 37,000 THB buy-in event attracted 2,337 entries and a 75,488,000 THB prize pool, showing strong demand for large-field WPT® events in Thailand.

For aspiring players outside North America, these stops show a direct route from regional fields to six-figure WPT® wins and seats at Wynn.

Side-event giants at Wynn: Josephy, Elias, Vo and more

Not every huge 2025 WPT® score came from a Main Tour or Prime title.

The WPT® World Championship festival side schedule at Wynn produced several 300k–700k paydays on its own.

Cliff Josephy – $700,157

$3,000 NLH, 1,544 entries

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy won the $3,000 NLH festival event that drew 1,544 entrants and built a $3,928,462 prize pool.

His $700,157 payout is the largest side-event score of the festival and sits fifth on the overall 2025 money ladder.

Darren Elias – $631,800

$25,400 High Roller, 89 entries

Four-time WPT® champion Darren Elias reminded everyone why many call him the tour’s G.O.A.T.

He took down the $25,400 High Roller for $631,800 from an 89-entry, $2,225,000 prize pool. 

Viet Vo – $374,230

$1,100 NLH, 3,284 entries

Viet Vo’s $374,230 win came in a $1,100 NLH event with 3,284 entries and a $3,169,060 prize pool, again at Wynn.

This result shows how deep the “mid-buy-in, big-field” layer runs at the festival.

Brandon Wilson and Antonio Vargas Alvarado

Brandon Wilson booked $341,250 in another $25,400 High Roller that drew 39 entries and a $975,000 prize pool.

Antonio Vargas Alvarado picked up $307,794 in a $1,600 NLH event with around 1,300 entries and an $1,859,000 prize pool.

Taken together, both these side events confirm that Wynn in December is not just about the two televised championships. 

It gives us concrete examples that regulars can win mid-six figures in “supporting” events and still mark their names in WPT® history.

More big winners: Choctaw, bestbet and friends

Beyond the names already listed, several more players crossed the $250k–$320k range in titled WPT® events.

• Mike Vanier – $338,000 for winning the WPT® Choctaw Championship in Durant, Oklahoma, from a 586-entry field.
• Connor Rash – $315,350 in the $5,000 WPT® bestbet Scramble, topping 327 entries in Jacksonville.
• Shawn Daniels – $257,600 in WPT® Rolling Thunder at Thunder Valley, from a 404-entry field.

These results show how wide the WPT® money tree spreads before anyone even steps into Wynn.

What these results say about WPT® in 2025

What stands out when you stack all these results side by side?

Three clear patterns:

• Wynn Las Vegas dominates the top end.
  The WPT® World Championship and WPT® Prime Championship delivered the only seven-figure scores of the year and a big share of the 300k–700k bracket through side events and high rollers.
• Main Tour stops stay vital.
  Seminole, Venetian, Choctaw, bestbet and others still produce 300k–800k wins and feed champions into the Wynn festival.
• International growth is real.
  Cyprus, Cambodia, Australia and Thailand now sit in the same conversation, offering 350k-range wins and clear pipelines to the year-end series.

For all the operators and industry readers, the guarantees and prize pools still look very healthy. 

The WPT® World Championship prize pool sits above $18 million, the Prime Championship at about $9.6 million, and multiple regional stops clear $2–5 million in main-event money.

How to chase this list in 2026?

After reading through the list, one natural question naturally follows.

How do you give yourself a real shot at joining a table like this in 2026?

The pattern many of these winners followed is clear:

• Play strong regional WPT® and WPT® Prime stops through the year.
  Build live reps in 3.5k–5k Main Tour fields and 1k–1.5k Prime championships.
• Use live “milestone” satellites and online paths to earn packages into Wynn.
  Wynn runs step satellites from a few hundred dollars. Here at WPT® Global we offer online qualifiers and package promos that can start from very small stakes and feed directly into December seats.
• Target the December festival as your main calendar goal.
  Across the World Championship, Prime, high rollers, and large side events, multiple tournaments now pay $300k+ each year.

Most of the names on this list followed some version of that ladder.  Some arrived as established pros, others as regional grinders or relative unknowns.

All of them picked a WPT® badge on the schedule and turned it into a career-defining number.