The five pros to watch in this year’s big dance
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event will crown its 2025 champion on July 16. This year’s winner looks set to take home more than $10m, so, as ever, everyone wants to win. American pro Jonathan Tamayo took down the $10,000 tournament in 2024, beating online sensation Niklas Astedt and Jordan Giff in the process, but can he do it again?
Our writer and poker expert, Daniel Smyth gives the breakdown on who he thinks this year’s top five contenders will be…
Tamayo going for round two
Can Tamayo win back-to-back titles? It’s been done before, but not in the post-poker boom era.
Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, and Johnny Chan defended their titles when the Big Dance was significantly smaller. For Tamayo to join the back-to-back club, he’ll need to outlast more than 10,000 players.
That’s no mean feat, particularly when you consider the caliber of the field. While plenty of pluck amateurs ante up courtesy of cut-price satellites, the WSOP Main Event also attracts poker’s finest.
This combination of unpredictable amateurs and hard-to-read pros makes the Main Event almost impossible to win, even for those who’ve gone deep before.
Top five WSOP World Champion prospects
Picking a player to take Tamayo’s title isn’t easy, but it’s fun to try. We have kept tabs on the WSOP since it started on May 27.
Using a combination of tournament updates, Player of the Year stats, and, of course, Daniel Negreanu’s vlogs, we have got a feel for who’s playing well this year.
Using our writer’s, Daniel Smyth’s, 15+ years experience in poker along with what he has seen, he believes these five players have a shot at winning the world’s biggest tournament:
1. Benny Glaser
Nationality: English
WSOP cashes to date: 75
All-time tournament earnings to date: $9.4m
Theoretical odds of winning the Main Event: 50/1
Benny Glaser is having the WSOP of his life in 2025. The English pro was leading the Player of the Year race at the time of writing, despite having fewer cashes than some of his rivals. The reason Glaser was at the top of the leaderboard is his wins-to-cash ratio.
Of his five cashes this year (at the time of writing), he’d finished in first place three times. Those wins alone were worth more than $600,000 and took Glaser’s lifetime bracelet total to eight.
Winning eight WSOP titles is impressive enough, but it takes on a different significance when you consider it moves him into seventh place on the all-time bracelet winners list.
It’s worth noting that none of Glaser’s cashes this year have been in Hold’em events. However, when you’re hitting a run of form like he is, that almost doesn’t matter.
Although he’ll need to play and run better than ever to win the 2025 WSOP Main Event, he’s certainly looking like a good bet.
2. Joao Vieira
Nationality: Portuguese
WSOP cashes to date: 222
All-time tournament earnings to date: $21.3m
Theoretical odds of winning the Main Event: 60/1
Joao Vieira might not be a household name like Daniel Negreanu or Phil Hellmuth, but he’s a world-class tournament player. He’s won over $21m and picked up titles on the European Poker Tour and at the Triton Poker Series.
More significantly than that, Vieira banked his two biggest tournament wins in 2025. He won Triton Poker Jeju’s $150,000 event for $4.6m in March.
He followed that up by winning the $100,000 WSOP Hold’em High Roller in June. On that occasion, he defeated a stacked final table that included Isaac Haxton and Ben Heath to secure a $2.6m payday.
Those wins have given the Portuguese pro enough momentum to cash seven times at this year’s WSOP (at the time of writing). If there’s ever a time for Vieira to crossover and become a household name, it’s in the 2025 WSOP Main Event.
3. Martin Kabrhel
Nationality: Czech
WSOP cashes to date: 70
All-time tournament earnings to date: $15.1m
Theoretical odds of winning the Main Event: 75/1
Martin Kabrhel is the most talked-about man at the 2025 WSOP because, to put it lightly, he talks a lot. Some people love the Czech businessman’s antics. Others shudder the moment he utters a syllable.
Regardless of what his tablemates think, Kabrhel is relentless with his speech play. It’s not a skill he’s developed specially for the WSOP. He’s been talking his way to the final table of high-stakes poker tournaments around the world for over a decade.
Like it or not, it’s effective. Despite classing himself as a recreational player, Martin Kabrhel has won more than $15m in live tournaments, and his resume includes WSOP and EPT titles.
This pedigree, combined with his ability to get under an opponent’s skin, could serve him well in the WSOP Main Event.
He’s already cashed in seven WSOP tournaments this year, banking over $1m in the process. That sort of form could see Martin Kabrhel talk his way to a Main Event bracelet.
4. Chris Moorman
Nationality: English
WSOP cashes to date: 357
All-time tournament earnings to date: $11.5m
Theoretical odds of winning the Main Event: 80/1
I was scrolling through the WSOP Player of the Year standings while writing this preview and came across a name I’ve not seen for a while. Chris Moorman was one of the first online phenoms I met as a poker journalist, and he remains a legend of the game.
His forte has always been tournaments, so it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to see him sitting in 25th place in the standings. That being said, the majority of his tournament success over the years has been in online events.
Regardless of the subtle differences between live and online tournaments, poker is poker, and Moorman is a formidable player.
He proved that again at this year’s WSOP, finishing second to Blaz Zerjav in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $1.1m. That near miss is flanked by nine other cashes, taking his running total for WSOP cashes to 357. It also puts him in good form ahead of the Main Event.
5. Daniel Negreanu
Nationality: Canadian
WSOP cashes to date: 277
All-time tournament earnings to date: $56.6m
Theoretical odds of winning the Main Event: 100/1
The only reason Daniel Negreanu isn’t higher on my list of WSOP Main Event predictions is pressure. He’s arguably the most recognizable player in the world, which means he’s under more scrutiny than other people.
This is great for his brand. Indeed, I’ve been enjoying Daniel’s daily WSOP vlogs throughout the series. I even think his commitment to creating content on a daily basis is helping his game. It seems as though he’s putting all of his focus into the WSOP and ignoring outside distractions.
As I was making my picks, Negreanu had cashed eight times at the 2025 WSOP. One of those cashes was a ninth place finish in the $25,000 Super High Roller worth $531,284, so I know his Hold’em game is on form right now.
The problem, however, is that Negreanu making the 2025 WSOP final table would become a circus. The tournament room would be swamped by poker and mainstream media outlets because of his status. That’s great in some ways, but the added pressure could cause him to buckle.
Of course, the opposite might happen. Having the crowd on his side could help bag Negreanu one of the only titles he’s yet to win.
Who will win the 2025 WSOP Main Event?
Those are the players I think could win the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event. The odds are long, but each pick has plenty of pedigree. Who do you think will win? Drop us a comment and give us your WSOP predictions.
