Amateur poker player hits 1,000x return for monster payday at WSOP

You can always rely on a Brazilian rail, but today’s was a star-studded one. Felipe Ramos and Mackenzie Dern were watching their man, Antonio Trocoli, at his first-ever final table. Before today, he had recorded just one live cash — $455 at the Brazilian Series of Poker in 2019. 

The top prize here, at the 2025 WSOP Colossus, was $542,540 — from a $500 buy-in. 

Trocoli cut a stoic presence at the table — a stark contrast to Dern, who prowled the rail and bubbled with excitement.

Just an hour in, the rail exploded with energy, drawing the attention of even the $50K High Rollers in the room. Trocoli sprinted to celebrate a crucial double-up, with his partner Dern jumping for joy.

They’ve both fought at the UFC, but this is the sort of excitement that only the WSOP can deliver.

The hand was a doozy. 

Trocoli had already suffered a tough beat when his AK lost to Ryan Leng’s KJ all-in preflop for a 78-million-chip pot.

And it looked like lightning would strike twice when he shoved with AK again and Ramaswamy Pyloore called with . The flop was a sickener for Trocoli. The turn delivered hope, and the river gave him his WSOP moment. 

UFC fighter Antonio Trocoli smashed his career-best score of $455 in the Colossus.

Trocoli runs into aces

That put Trocoli third in chips, behind start-of-day chip leader Pyloore and Matt Glantz.

Glantz was chasing his first bracelet after 25 years of WSOP cashes, and he had already found an invaluable double-up early when his flipped well against Justin Gutierrez’ jacks, finding the straight in the window. 

Gutierrez was first out shortly after when his tens bumped into Pyloore’s kings.

We lost Sigrid Dencker next. She was short and committed her last chips with fours after Kaiwen Wei had effectively shoved with sevens. 

Then Wei took out Leng before we lost our UFC star.

Trocoli had a stack of 64 million, but that amounted to just six big blinds. He shoved UTG with , and action folded around to Pyloore in the big blind — who somehow found pocket aces.

There was a final sweat for Trocoli, starting on the flop. The shouts for a club went unheard, but the turn provided more outs to call for — 15 in fact. The wasn't one of them, and Trocoli's exit saw the air sucked out of the room. 

He took it with a smile on his face, but when his rail left, the event turned a bit more somber. 

Matt Glantz was on the hunt for his first WSOP bracelet after 25 years of trying.

Monster hand takes the Colossus heads-up

Certainly for Jason Blodgett. He ran into Pyloore’s tens the very next hand and hit the rail in fifth. Glantz took out Wei in fourth and moved into second place. 

Could he finally win his first WSOP bracelet? It came down to a massive flip between him and Courtenay Williams for a monster 542,000,000 pot — the prize would be a 2:1 chip lead heads-up. 

• Glantz:
• Williams:

Glantz had his Lucky AF t-shirt on, and the turn ran out which was as clean as you can get for nines. Williams had six outs, though, and found one on the river. It was a cruel end for the veteran pro. 

Ramaswamy Pyloore went heads-up with Courtenay Williams for the bracelet and massive first prize.

Heads-up for the WSOP bracelet

Heads-up went 90 minutes, and the stacks were fairly close when the defining hand went down. 

Williams raised to 40 million with and Pyloore called with . 

The flop must have looked good to Pyloore, but it was anything but. He check-called a 55 million bet to the turn. Williams shoved for 299 million, and Pyloore thought for a beat before announcing the call. 

The river left him with less than one big blind, and he lost that the next hand when Williams found a pair of nines and flopped a set. What a time to run pure. 

Both players got an incredible return on their money. Williams – whose previous best cash was $65,425 for a second place in a $350 WPT event in 2016 — got the bracelet and the 1,000x return. 

Courtenay Williams celebrates his bracelet win with his friends.

Omar Sader

2025 Colossus results