Wrapping up their 2025 tournament poker season at Wynn Las Vegas, the World Poker Tour held two events to crown their season-ending champions. On the WPT Prime Championship on Saturday, a four-hour battle was highlighted by a run from the bottom of the standings. Sunday would see the crowning of the WPT World Championship in thrilling fashion, with an overwhelming chip leader looking to hold his place in another four-plus hour battle.
Johnson Defeats Del Campo for Prime Title, Umerova Makes Stirring Run
The World Poker Tour Prime competitors faced the mountainous chip stack of Qing Liu, who was armed with 126.6 million chips and the only player over the 100 million mark. Fernando Martin Del Campo was close with his 85.5 million in chips, but he and the remainder of the table had their work cut out for them to rise up the board. Leave it to the short stack at the final table, and the “last woman standing,” Safiya Umerova, to show them how it was done.
Umerova came to the final table with only 27 million chips and needed to make something happen to become viable in the game. She would do that from the snap, forcing Liu to fold on the very first hand after an all-in move. Meanwhile, Liu would lose his lead after doubling up Aaron Johnson, who flopped a set of Queens and turned a full house against Liu’s dismal effort of the two pair on the board with an Ace kicker.
Del Campo would get into the mix after eliminating Foox in sixth place, then would take the lead after knocking out Tim Burden, with Del Campo rivering an eight-high straight against Burden’s better (pre-flop) pocket tens. It would be a massive clash on Hand 28 that would basically decide the tournament, however.
Liu popped the action to five million in the cutoff, and Del Campo three-bet him from the button to fourteen million. Undaunted, Liu took it up again to 36 million and, after Del Campo moved all-in, called off his stack, and showed an A-Q. Unfortunately for Liu, Del Campo held A-K to outpip him, and the King on the flop eliminated any drama. Once the turn came without a Queen, the hand was over, and Liu was out in fourth place.
At this mark, Del Campo was over 290 million, and Johnson (98.9 million) and Umerova (still surviving at six million), and it looked like the tournament was done. Umerova would stubbornly fall in third place to Johnson, and Del Campo and Johnson would settle in for a long winter’s night of heads-up play.
Over forty hands were played, with Del Campo getting Johnson close to the felt, but unable to put him away. The payouts were renegotiated during this time to bring them closer together and better reflect the chip counts at that time. That renegotiation seemed to be the impetus for the players loosening up a bit, and it brought the tournament to an end.
On the final hand Johnson, who had pulled out to a big lead, moved all in and Del Campo called off the bet. The hands may not be what you would expect – Johnson held a Q-10 off suit, while Del Campo only produced a 7-4 for battle. Del Campo drew first blood with a seven on the flop, but a river ten switched the fortunes and brought the 2025 WPT Prime Championship to Aaron Johnson.
1. Aaron Johnson, $1,010,400*
2. Fernando Martin Del Campo, $942,480*
3. Safiya Umerova, $575,000
4. Qing Liu, $430,000
5. Tim Burden, $325,000
6. Uri Foox, $250,000
(* – indicates final table renegotiated payout)
Thornton Stuns Porbandarwala, Keeps Him from Second WPT Title
In the 2025 World Poker Tour World Championship, a Champions’ Club member was looking to etch his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions’ Cup for a second time. Soheb Porbandarwala, who won a WPT title during the 2020 COVID-19 “lost year,” was looking to take his first major live event as he came to the table with a dominant lead of 81.325 million chips. His closest competitor was Schuyler Thornton, with 36.5 million chips, and every other player at the six-handed final table was under twenty-one million in chips. It looked like it was Porbandarwala’s tournament to lose.
But that is why you actually play these tournaments on a green baize instead of on paper.
There was a roughly twenty-hand “feeling out” process for the players before the first departure of the afternoon. Maxx Coleman came in on the short stack and, when an Ace showed up in his hand, he decided to make his stand. Thornton made the call, with an Ace of his own, and it would come down to the kickers. Coleman held an OK ten, but it was Thornton’s Queen that dominated; after the board ran out K-9-2-A-A, the Queen played, and Coleman was out in sixth place.
Porbandarwala saw Thornton’s moves and responded in kind. By Hand 33, the WPT Champions’ Club member had amassed more than half of the chips in play, with three combatants (Jeremy Brown, Chad Lipton, and Jeremy Becker) barely accounting for forty million chips between them. Thornton was good, but his 49.95 million chips were still deficient to Porbandarwala, and Thornton would need something to break to change the game.
Thornton would start that march by knocking out Becker, his A-10 kicker playing over Becker’s A-2 on an A-K-5-8-Q board. Lipton would be Thornton’s next victim, going out in fourth place after catching a Jack on a Q-J-4-2 flop and turn and failing to see another Jack against Thornton’s A-Q. When he dismissed Brown from the proceedings in third place, his pocket fours making a full house against Brown’s two pair (eights and threes) on an 8-4-3-5-3 board, Thornton suddenly was in the lead against Porbandarwala, and by exactly 36 million chips.
The two players discussed a deal and, after about forty minutes, came to an ICM chop that guaranteed Thornton $2,098,456 and Porbandarwala $1,969,344. They left in the center the WPT World Championship, $150,000, and the seat to next year’s WPT World Championship for the winner to claim.
Porbandarwala would not win a hand for the rest of the tournament.
Thornton closed out the 2025 WPT World Championship by winning the TWELVE hands it took to close out the tournament. On the final hand, Thornton would limp in, and Porbandarwala pushed on him. Thornton immediately made the call, tabling Big Slick, while Porbandarwala could only muster A♥ 6♥ for the fight. Porbandarwala would get some breaths of hope on the K♣ 5♥ 4♥ flop, but running tens on the turn and river slammed the door on a second WPT title for Porbandarwala and crowned Schuyler Thornton as the 2025 WPT World Champion and close out the 2025 World Poker Tour season.
1. Schuyler Thornton, $2,258,856*
2. Soheb Porbandarwala, $1,969,344*
3. Jeremy Brown, $1,250,000
4. Chad Lipton, $940,000
5. Jeremy Becker, $710,000
6. Maxx Coleman, $540,000
(* – indicates final table deal between players)
