The 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) wrapped up in Las Vegas this month, delivering another summer of historic achievements and remarkable moments.
In this column, we recap four of the most impactful stories from this year’s series in Las Vegas.
4. Table Talk Frenzy
It wouldn’t be a proper poker list without a bit of controversy.
Czech pro Martin Kabrhel took center stage for the entire eight-week series with his incessant chatter and quick wit. Media outlets swarmed his tables to catch the next viral Kabrhel moment—or to catch a moment of his tablemates lashing out at him.
Kabrhel has been a chatterbox at the poker table for decades, but it wasn’t until this year that his outlandish behavior brought him global notice. It didn’t hurt that he made several deep runs at the series, giving him maximum livestreaming and social media exposure. He won a bracelet, made several final tables and finished fourth on the Player of the Year leaderboard.
While Kabrhel was the media darling of the series, it was a different talkative pro who made headlines as the summer drew to a close. Will Kassouf, already known for his “speech play” antics at the poker table, took it to another level during his deep run in the Main Event.
Kassouf received multiple penalties during the tournament for his abrasive table talk. On Day 7, after being eliminated in 33rd place, he was informed by WSOP staff that he was banned from participating in another tournament for the remainder of the year. That set Kassouf off into a tirade, leading to him being escorted out of the venue by security while media followed to capture the scene.
3. Okamoto Nearly Pulls Off the Three-Peat
Japan’s Shiina Okamoto pulled off an incredible feat at the 2024 WSOP, winning the $1,000 Ladies Event just one year after finishing in second place.
Then in 2025, she did the unthinkable. Okamoto went the distance and won the tournament for the second straight year. The performance is mathematically inconceivable when you consider the turnout for these tournaments:
2023: 2nd place in a field of 1,295 players for $118,768
2024: 1st place in a field of 1,245 players for $171,732
2025: 1st place in a field of 1,368 players for $184,094
All eyes will be on Okamoto when the Ladies Event comes around next year.
2. Leo Margets Ends the Drought
Okamoto wasn’t the only woman to make history at the poker tables this summer. Leo Margets accomplished something at the WSOP that hadn’t been done in 30 years, becoming the first woman since Barbara Enright in 1995 to reach the $10,000 Main Event final table.
It’s a storyline that has become a mainstay at every Main Event: Would the “Last Woman Standing” finally break through and earn a seat at poker’s most prestigious final table? Margets had already been the Last Woman Standing once before, finishing 27th in 2009, and she leveraged that experience into her historic final table run in 2025.
Her next attempt at history was to become the first woman to win the Main Event, but her run ended in seventh place for $1.5 million.
1. Michael Mizrachi’s Historic Summer
In what will go down as arguably the greatest WSOP performance ever, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi captured both the $10,000 Main Event and the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2025. Many top pros consider these two tournaments to be the most prestigious in all of poker, and “The Grinder” won both within the span of a month.
Not only that, Mizrachi has now won the Poker Players Championship a total of four times—more than any other player.
Mizrachi’s feat stunned his peers. The living members of the Poker Hall of Fame surprised him after his Main Event victory by circumventing the normal Hall of Fame election process and inducting him right then and there.
At the young age of 44, Mizrachi’s poker tournament résumé might be the most impressive in the history of the game.
