Biggest WPT® Winners of Autumn 2025 (YTD)

Winners Leaderboard 

Art Peacock - $776,000

Event: WPT® Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (May 30, 2025)

One of the biggest and most prestigious stops on the WPT® schedule, Seminole Hard Rock continues to draw record-breaking fields.

The hotel casino in Hollywood, Florida delivered one of the biggest payouts of the year when Art Peacock topped a field of 1,755 players to score his first WPT® title.

The $776K win also came with a seat to the season-ending World Championship in Las Vegas. It wasn’t the first time Art Peacock has played at WPT®, with multiple appearances at Hard Rock Hollywood and one at WPT Prime Liechtenstein 2024.

Mihai Niste ($515K) and Daniel Marcus ($380K) rounded out the top three.

Nico Betbese - $706,960

Event: WPT® Venetian Las Vegas (Jul 17, 2025)

The Argentinian poker player secured his first major WPT® headline title in convincing fashion in Las Vegas, in what might prove to be his breakout moment on the poker circuit. 

In what was the first career WPT® final table for all players involved, he took the chip lead and closed it out with a river ace call. The career best win at one of the marquee Las Vegas stops has secured him a seat to the WPT® World Championship. 

As a result, his name will be engraved on the Mike Sexton WPT® Champions Cup, joining a roster of WPT Champions such as Phil Ivey and Brian Altman

Haoran Sun — ≈ $352,480

Event: WPT® Prime Thailand Exhibition (August 5, 2025)

In what was a landmark WPT® Prime event in Asia, the top spot went to former engineer turned poker player Haoran Sun, hailing from China. A standout achievement for the 33 year old, securing his first international title.

This was the first ever WPT® Prime Thailand exhibition, and the first time in poker history Thailand had hosted an international poker festival. Without doubt, a landmark WPT® Prime event for Asia, showcasing the growth of poker in Thailand and awarding non-traditional prizes.

Considering the enormity of the event, Haoran looked dominant from the first day, and despite a setback putting him down to 400,000 chips, he managed to stay near the top of the chip counts throughout most of the championship.

Mike Vanier — $338,000

Event: WPT® Choctaw (May 2025)

A cornerstone stop of the WPT® U.S schedule was secured by American player Mike Vanier, taking home the first WPT® title of his career. It will serve as a significant win for Vanier, as Choctaw remains one of the tour’s most competitive mid-major stops.

However, he’s hardly a fresh face on the WPT® roster, as Vanier has come close to victory on previous WPT stops, with a record of deep cashes and solid consistency, notching a 2nd place in the WPT Venetian Las Vegas Main Event in 2022. 
After his win he commented on wanting to keep the pots small and play post flop, which clearly worked out pretty well. 

Alexander Puchalski — $233,680

Event: WPT® Prime Cambodia (Jan 2025)

The year opened with a strong stop in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, and an even stronger first place finish from Canadian player Alexander Puchalski. 

In a career best live cash performance, he outlasted 1483 entries to bank himself a seat at the 2025 WPT® World Championship. 

At the final table, he used post-flop maneuvering and well-timed aggression to navigate the late stages of the tournament. During that run, he played aggressively. For example, in one match he check-raised with a flop of 7-4-2, turned a King, then bluffed on the river to go all in and won with a full house (7s).

With a decade of poker tournaments under his belt already, the Canadian looks to have placed himself as one to watch for future, with the Prime stop also cementing Cambodia’s role as a key hub for Asian poker.