As per our annual tradition, we’ve decided to provide a comprehensive live poker summary of 2025, where you can see all the winners of the official rankings maintained by the Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob, as well as the marquee champions of the live poker circuit. Welcome to the 2025 Live Poker Year in Review!
2025 GPI POY Rankings
2025 GPI Player of the Year Top 10
The winner of the GPI Player of the Year ranking was Thailand’s Punnat Punsri, who had a great 2025 with 61 cashes, 35 final tables, and 7 titles, earning $10.9 million. His biggest cash came from winning Event #12 at Triton Jeju for $2,5M. Jesse Lonis finished second in the ranking just 8 points behind Punsri. He also finished runner-up in 2024.
This is how the Top 10 players on the POY leaderboard finished 2025:
- Punnat Punsri (Thailand) – 4,458 points
- Jesse Lonis (USA) – 4,450
- Artur Martirosyan (Russia) – 4,323
- Alex Foxen (USA) – 4,295
- Brandon Wilson (USA) – 4,219
- Daniel Rezaei (Austria) – 4,016
- Quan Zhou (China) – 4,016
- Nacho Barbero (Argentina) – 4,001
- Klemens Roiter (Austria) – 3,997
- Thomas Boivin (Belgium) – 3,973
Complete rankings available here.
2025 GPI Female Player of the Year Top 10
For the fifth time in the last eight years, GPI Female POY goes to Canada’s Kristen Foxen.
This is how the Top 10 female players on the POY leaderboard finished 2025:
- Kristen Foxen (Canada) – 3,734 points
- Cherish Andrews (USA) – 2,993
- Meng Ling Lin (Taiwan) – 2,836
- Cecile Ticherfatine (France) – 2,722
- Victoria Livschitz (France) – 2,583
- Thi Xoa Nguyen (China) – 2,353
- Ebony Kenney (USA) – 2,210
- Hui Chen “Kitty” Kuo (Taiwan) – 2,179
- Jessica Vierling (Germany) – 2,139
- Shundan Xiao (USA) – 2,098
Complete rankings available here.
2025 GPI Mid Major Player of the Year
The Mid-Major ranking takes into account poker tournaments with buy-ins of $2.5K or less and was won by Omar Lakhdari of Algeria. He had a great 2025 with 33 cashes, 14 final tables, 6 runner-up finishes, and 5 titles, with winnings of $957K. His best result was winning the WPT Prime Cyprus for $200K.
This is how the Top 10 players on the Mid-Major POY leaderboard finished 2025:
- Omar Lakhdari (Algeria) – 2,786 points
- Evan Sandberg (USA) – 2,744
- Jon Kyte (Norway) – 2,578
- Georgios Skarparis (Cyprus) – 2,557
- Gerard Carbó (Spain) – 2,552
- Zachary Fischer (USA) – 2,497
- Maurice Hawkins (USA) – 2,494
- Michael Rossitto (Italy) – 2,490
- Johnny “J.R.” Bromberg (USA) – 2,447
- Claudio Di Giacomo (Italy) – 2,436
Complete rankings available here.
2025 The Hendon Mob Rankings
2025 Money List
Jesse Lonis had $13.3M in tournament earnings in 2025 and, as such, was poker’s highest-earning player. Lonis had a great 2025 with 56 cashes, 35 final tables, and 9 titles. He achieved three million-dollar scores, one of which was the biggest cash of his career — first place in the Triton Main Event in Montenegro for $3.4 million.
One of the Lonis’ victories during 2025 / Photo credit: Triton Poker
These were the Top 10 “winningest” poker players in 2025:
- Jesse Lonis (USA) – $13.3M
- Kayhan Mokri (Norway) – $13.2M
- Stephen Chidwick (England) – $12.6M
- Seth Davies (USA) – $12.3M
- Benjamin Tollerene (USA) – $12M
- Aleksejs Ponakovs (Latvia) – $11.8M
- Michael Mizrachi (USA) – $11.4M
- Alex Foxen (USA) – $11.2M
- Jason Koon (USA) – $11.1M
- Artur Martirosyan (Russia) – $11M
You can see the complete ranking via this link.
2025 Female Money List
Poker’s highest-earning woman in 2025 was Kristen Foxen, who won $4.6 million, making her the highest-earning woman in history, surpassing Vanessa Selbst. In 2025, Foxen reached 14 final tables, won 3 titles, and achieved the largest cash of her career by finishing third in Event #10 at Triton Jeju for $1.1M.
Foxen at the WSOP Paradise / Photo credit: WSOP
These were the women with the highest poker tournament earnings in 2025:
- Kristen Foxen (Canada) – $4.6M
- Natasha Mercier (Lebanon) – $1.8M
- Leo Margets (Spain) – $1.6M
- Cherish Andrews (USA) – $1.5M
- Sosia Jiang (New Zealand) – $1.4M
- Meng Ling Lin (Taiwan) – $1.2M
- Xuan Liu (Canada) – $970K
- Monika Hrabec (Poland) – $946K
- Ebony Kenney (USA) – $922K
- Esther Taylor (USA) – $880K
You can find the complete rankings here.
2025 Number of Cashes
Pedro Palacio topped this ranking with 156 cashes. He won this same ranking in 2021 (140), 2023 (199), and 2024 (202). He finished second in 2022, with 174 cashes.
These were the poker players with the highest number of tournament cashes in 2025:
- Pedro Palacio (USA) – 156
- Wu Chiayun (Taiwan) – 130
- Conrad Co (USA) – 119
- Michael Puskarich (USA) – 115
- Samy Dighlawi (USA) – 111
- Kwang Kim (USA) – 111
- Connor Steinbrook (USA) – 104
- Michael Ward (USA) – 103
- Aleksandr Tikholiz (Russia) – 103
- Michael Peace (USA) – 97
Complete rankings here.
2025 Flag Hunter
This unique leaderboard takes into account the number of countries in which players cash within a calendar year. In 2025, Koen Roos (pictured below) broke a record by cashing in an incredible 50 different countries, surpassing Dominick French’s 2024 mark of 48. During his world tour he achieved 53 cashes, 36 final tables, 6 runner-up finishes and 10 titles, including victories on the EPT and the WSOP Circuit. These were the countries where Koen achieved results during the year: Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Costa Rica, South Korea, Netherlands, Scotland, Poland, Slovenia, Denmark, North Macedonia, Austria, Estonia, Italy, Monaco, Lithuania, Iceland, Czech Republic, Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, United States, Ecuador, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Latvia, Norway, Georgia, Belgium, Finland, Bulgaria, Ireland, France, Malta and Serbia.
These were the 10 players who achieved the highest number of flags in 2025:
- Koen Roos (Netherlands) – 50
- Wayne McGregor (USA) – 23
- Fabian Bartuschk (Germany) – 21
- Dominick French (Canada) – 21
- Andrew Leathem (Scotland) – 16
- Maureen Bloechlinger (Switzerland) – 15
- Andreas Fröhli (Austria) – 15
- Emmanouil Chalkiotis (Greece) – 14
- Toni Ravnak (Serbia) – 14
- Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson (Iceland) – 13
Complete rankings can be found here.
2025 World Poker Tour
The main circuit of the World Poker Tour had 11 stops and visited four countries: Cambodia, the United States, Australia, and Cyprus. These were all the winners:
| Event | Buy-In | Entries | Prize Pool | Champion | Prize |
| WPT Cambodia | $3,500 | 750 | $2,400,750 | Artem Vezhenkov (Russia) | $390,650 |
| WPT Rolling Thunder | $3,500 | 404 | $1,282,400 | Shawn Daniels (USA) | $229,000 |
| WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown | $3,500 | 1,755 | $5,616,000 | Arthur Peacock (USA) | $776,000 |
| WPT Choctaw | $3,800 | 586 | $2,051,000 | Mike Vanier (USA) | $338,000 |
| WPT Venetian | $5,000 | 1,153 | $5,303,800 | Nicolás Betbesé (Argentina) | $706,960 |
| WPT Cyprus | $3,500 | 775 | $2,402,500 | Ilia Kitsbabashvili (Georgia) | $401,100 |
| WPT Australia | A$ 5,500 | 600 | $1,979,989 | Alan Pham (Australia) | $368,417 |
| Bay 101 Shooting Star | $5,300 | 672 | $3,028,100 | Kharlin Sued (USA) | $480,700 |
| WPT Bestbet Scramble | $5,000 | 327 | $1,487,850 | Connor Rash (USA) | $315,350 |
| WPT Seminole Hard Rock RRPO | $3,500 | 1,224 | $3,916,800 | Kevin Nee (USA) | $605,100 |
| WPT World Championship | $10,400 | 1,865 | $18,277,000 | Schuyler Thornton (USA) | $2,258,856 |
The 2025 WPT World Championship
The tournament that closed the 2025 World Poker Tour season was played at the Wynn in Las Vegas and had 1,865 entries at $10,000 each, distributing $18.2 million in prizes among the top 233 players. The winner was Schuyler Thornton, who took home a massive $2.2M prize.
The 2025 WPT World Championship winner / Photo credit: WPT
These were the tournament’s finalists:
- Schuyler Thornton (USA) – $2.2M
- Soheb Porbandarwala (USA) – $1.9M
- Jeremy Brown (USA) – $1.2M
- Chad Lipton (USA) – $940K
- Jeremy Becker (USA) – $710K
- Maxx Coleman (USA) – $540K
2025 WPT Player of the Year
The WPT Player of the Year ranking was won by Harvey Castro, who finished second in the WPT Rolling Thunder for $193K and first in the WPT Prime Lodge Championship for $225K.
Here’s how the Top 10 ended up in the WPT POY race:
- Harvey Castro (USA) – 1,850 points
- Kharlin Sued (USA) – 1,600
- Schuyler Thornton (USA) – 1,575
- Mike Vanier (USA) – 1,575
- Art Peacock (USA) – 1,425
- Nicolás Betbesé (Argentina) – 1,400
- Kevin Nee (USA) – 1,325
- Danny Wong (USA) – 1,275
- Soheb Porbandarwala (USA) – 1,250
- Aaron Johnson (USA) – 1,200
Complete rankings can be found here.
2025 World Series of Poker
The Las Vegas edition of the WSOP had 100 events and among the winners were Chad Eveslage, Sam Soverel, Cary Katz, Shaun Deeb, the controversial Martin Kabrhel, Brian Rast, Jason Koon, Shiina Okamoto (she achieved back-to-back wins in the Ladies Event), Nick Schulman, Artur Martirosyan, Michael Mizrachi (who won both the Main Event and the prestigious Poker Players Championship) and Benny Glaser, who scored three bracelets.
2025 WSOP Main Event
The 2025 WSOP Main Event had 9,735 players and awarded $90.5 million in prizes to the top 1,462 finishers. It was a historic edition, as for the first time since 1995 a woman reached the final table, with Spain’s Leo Margets finishing in seventh place.
Michael Mizrachi was the star of the final table, dominating the action with his aggressive style. It was the fastest final table in history, lasting only 79 hands, 20 of which were four-handed. The Grinder won his eighth bracelet, the biggest prize of his career at $10 million, and became the first player to win both the Poker Players Championship and the Main Event in the same year. For this remarkable achievement, he was spontaneously insta-inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
The Grinder / Photo: WSOP
These were the finalists of the WSOP Main Event, along with the prize money they won in the tournament:
- Michael Mizrachi (USA) – $10M
- John Wasnock (USA) – $6M
- Braxton Dunaway (USA) – $4M
- Kenny Hallaert (Belgium) – $3M
- Luka Bojovic (Serbia) – $2,4M
- Adam Hendrix (USA) – $1,9M
- Leo Margets (Spain) – $1,5M
- Jarod Minghini (USA) – $1,2M
- Daehyung Lee (South Korea) – $1M
2025 WSOP Player of Year
Shaun Deeb topped the WSOP 2025 Player of the Year ranking after achieving 24 cashes (6 online), 5 final tables and 1 bracelet in Las Vegas with Event #79 PLO $100K where he won $2.9M and his seventh bracelet.
Shaun with his seventh bracelet / Photo credit: WSOP
Here’s how the 2025 WSOP Player of the Year race played out:
- Shaun Deeb (USA): 4,194 points
- Benny Glaser (England): 4,153
- Michael Mizrachi (USA): 3,804
- Martin Kabrhel (Czech Republic): 3,639
- Scott Bohlman (USA): 3,328
- Brian Rast (USA): 3,091
- Joao Vieira (Portugal): 3,025
- Daniel Negreanu (Canada): 2,972
- Klemens Roiter (Austria): 2,813
- Zdenek Zizka (Czech Republic): 2,807
In 2026, the POY ranking will take into account WSOP’s festivals in Europe, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas for the first time.
2025 European Poker Tour
The European Poker Tour had five stops in 2025 and these were the main event champions:
| Stage | Buy-In | Entries | Prize Pool | Champion | Prize |
| Monte Carlo | €5,300 | 1,195 | €5,795,750 | Aleksandr Shevliakov (Russia) | €1,000,000 |
| Barcelona | €5,300 | 2,045 | €9,918,250 | Thomas Eychenne (France) | €1,217,175 |
| Malta | €5,300 | 898 | €4,355,300 | Tomasz Brzezinski (Poland) | €631,592 |
| Prague | €5,300 | 1,224 | €5,936,400 | Matan Krakow (Israel) | €778,255 |
Poker’s Other Big Winners in 2025
In addition to the WPT, EPT and the WSOP, several live circuits were played during 2025 and these were the winners of their respective rankings:
- PokerGO Tour: Sam Soverel (USA)
- Mid-States Poker Tour: Jacob Long (USA)
- Irish Poker Tour: Paul Carr (Ireland)
- Brazilian Series of Poker: Carlos Serrano (Colombia)
- Campeonato España de Poker: Jose Artetxe (Spain)
- Sixers Poker Series: Marco Paulo Crespo Silva (Portugal)
- King Series of Poker: Daniel Victor Noronha (Brazil)
- Circuito Argentino de Poker: Marcos Rodríguez Grassi (Argentina)
- Circuito Nacional de Poker: Miguel Montes Ferreiro (Spain)
We wish all poker players a great 2026 and lots of luck both on and off the poker tables. Perhaps YOUR name might appear in next year’s live poker year in review!
Look back at our previous “Live Poker Year In Review” articles:
