Blaz Zerjav won his second bracelet of the 2025 WSOP when he edged out Huck Seed to win Event #69 $1,500 Seven Card Stud 8. Aaron Cummings won the same event in consecutive years when he took down Event #63 $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw for his second bracelet. German pro Rainer Kempe was the last player standing in Event #72 $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty. He won his first bracelet and $892,701. Among the other first-time bracelet winners were Sebastiaan de Jonge in the inaugural Event #59 $1,000 Battle of the Ages, Moshe Gavrieli in Event #60 $3,000 Limit Hold'em (6-Handed), and Craig Savage in Event #61 $500 NLH Freezeout.
Another grueling week of the 2025 WSOP is in the books and a couple of more players stepped inside the winner's circle for the first time like German high-stakes pro Rainer Kempe. Blaz Zerjav added his name to the list of players who won two or more bracelets in the same series. More history was made as well when Aaron Cummings defended his title in the same event he had won last summer. Cummings now has two bracelets after becoming the last one standing in $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw in consecutive years.
Event #63 $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw attracted 635 runners and a prize pool worth $842,963. The top 97 places paid out. Aaron Cummings shipped this event last year and he successfully defended his title. Cummings won $157,172 and his second bracelet when he outslugged and outdrew a final table that included Travis Erdman, James Tilton, Kristan Lord, David Mead, Andres Korn, and Nathan Gamble. Among the notables who cashed included Yu Zhu, Shaun Deeb, Amnon Filippi, Robert Mizrachi, Nick Guagenti, Brandon Shack-Harris, Aron Dermer, Chip Jett, Ray Henson, Adam Friedman, Greg Mueller, Lawrence Brandt, Tom Koral, Capt. Tom Franklin, and Steve Z.
Event #72 $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty attracted 809 players and a prize pool worth $7,523,700. The top 123 places paid out and several familiar faces went deep and cashed but missed the final table including Davidi Kitai, Jen Harman, Justin Saliba, Brock Wilson, Boris Kolev, Samuel Mullur, Aaron Mermelstein, Rob Hollink, Brian Rast, Steve Z, John Riordan, Soverel, and Chance Kornuth. Rainer Kempe secured is first bracelet and a first-place payout worth $892,701 when he held of two Japanese players in the final three including Yuya Arito, and Ryuta Nakai. The final table also featured Xiaoyao Ma, Martin Kabrhel, Raoul Kanme, Colin Dentan, and Chad Thyzel.
Event #69 $1,500 Seven Card Stud 8 attracted 615 players. Only the top 93 places paid out of the prize pool worth $816,413. Blaz Zerjav and Huck Seed were heads-up and battled for the bling. Seed, searching for this fifth bracelet, was denied by a hot Zerjav. Zerjav won $153,487 for his second victory of the summer. The final table also had appearances from Sergei Tolkachov, Michelle Konig, Jay Kerbel, Denis Strebkov, David Lin, and Michal Frejka.
Earlier in the series, Zerjav stepped into the limelight for the first time when he won Event #22 $25,000 NNLH 6-Handed High Roller for $1.73 million. The Slovenian is currently ranked #1 on Slovenia's all-time money list.
Event #59 $1,000 Battle of the Ages was one of the new events on the docket this year where the starting fields were split into seniors and "juniors" and the two fields would not combine until later. This fetish event attracted 3,074 entrants who created a prize pool worth over $2.8 million.
Sebastiaan de Jonge from the Netherlands was the last player standing in the Battle of the Ages. He won $335,390 and his first bracelet for outlasting a final table that included Ignacio Sagra, Hakeem Mashal, Srivinay Irrinki, Joseph Roh, Jack Maskill, Allan Le, Xia Wang, and Kelley Slay.
Event #60 $3,000 Limit Hold'em (6-Handed) attracted 343 entrants in this old-school, mid-stakes event. The prize pool was $915,810 and only the top 53 places paid out. Moshe Gavrieli banked $200,303 and his first bracelet when he denied Scott Bohlman another piece of hardware. The final table also included Ian Pelz, Nicholas Tsoukalas, Simeon Tsonev, and Kerry Welsh. Andrew Bradshaw and Stephanie Nguyen both bubble the final table. Also cashing were Juha Helppi, Roland Israelashvili, Dan Idema, Christian Roberts, Ren Lin, Matthew Schreiber, Philip Tom, Noah Boeken, Ali Eslami, Nick Guagenti, Alex Livingston, Patrick Leonard, Xixiang Luo, Diego Cordovez, Andrew Kelsall, and Mark Seif.
Bohlman has been battling for WSOP Player of the Year, and he boosted his cause with another final table appearance and a runner-up finish in $3K LHE worth $129K.
Event #61 $500 NLH Freezeout attracted 5,082 players. Only the top 764 places paid out of the prize pool worth $2.1 million. Craig Savage secured his first bracelet and a first-place prize worth $229,628 when he edged out a final table that included Tony Harrison, Robbie Schiffbauer, Arthur Morris, Ben Fan, Edwin Chang, Abhishek Mhatre, Yudai Futai, and Sean Cronin.
