If you like big bets and you just can’t lie, there was one event wrapping up today at the World Series of Poker that you could surely get behind.
It was the $2,500 Big Bet Mix, a suite of games that lend themselves to drama, and the final day provided a suitably dramatic conclusion. In the end it was Aaron Kupin of Florida who emerged with the victory, scooping his first WSOP bracelet and a career-best score of $206,982.
In the mixer
The $2,500 Big Bet Mix incorporates those poker variants that involve — you guessed it — big bets. No-limit games in the mix include hold’em, 5-card draw and 2-7 lowball single draw, while the pot-limit games of Omaha (PLO), Omaha hi-lo (PLO8), 5-card PLO8 (Big O) and pot-limit triple draw round out the menu.
The result is a mix of games where you need to be on point at all times, with a lapse in concentration during any round having the potential to derail even the best-laid plans. Of course, with such experienced and focused players as Christopher Vitch, Marco Johnson and Daniel Negreanu in the picture, lapses in concentration are not necessarily to be expected.
Kupin starts the day with the big stack
Just getting through to today’s final day was no easy feat. Those who tried and failed included a list of poker’s biggest names, from Brian Rast to Shaun Deeb and last year’s Main Event runner-up Jordan Griff.
Of the 458 who entered, 11 made it to the last day, led by Kupin. It would take a little while for the field to thin down to the seven needed for the final table, as Hiroyuki Noda, Christopher Vitch, Hye Park and Steve Billirakis fell short of the mark.
That still left some major players, including 2006 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen, 2004 and 2013 Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu, and Marco Johnson, who was sitting at his fourth final table of the 2025 WSOP.
Robert Mclaughlin was the short stack when the unofficial final table began, and wasn’t able to spin it up, losing the last of his chips to Johnson in a round of Big O. Six handed play then lasted another hour and a half before Kupin put Bariscan Betil to the sword, taking the last of his chips in a PLO hand that could easily have gone either way.
Betil, with 
hit two pair and a gutshot on the 
flop. Kupin, holding 
, had the better two pair. That is, until the 
arrived on the turn, filling Betil’s full house, sixes full of kings. Then the script flipped once more, as the 
on the river completed a better full house for Kupin — jacks full of kings — to send Betil to the rail with $30K and change.
Plenty of outs for Negreanu, but not enough
With five left, Madsen had the short stack and wasn’t able to turn things around. He shoved from the button holding pocket fours, for a good old-fashioned flip against the A-7 of Marco Johnson. An ace in the window gave Johnson the lead, which he kept through to the river. Madsen collected a little over $42K for his fifth place finish.
That left four, with Ofir Mor as the short stack, and the presence of Daniel Negreanu at another final table ensured a packed rail of supporters, fans and onlookers. Their hopes of a win for Kid Poker — an eighth at the WSOP — would be dashed, however, after Kupin put Negreanu all-in in a round of PLO.
With the board showing 
and one card to come, Negreanu opted to call Kupin’s big bet for his entire stack — around 18 big blinds — holding 
. Kupin held 
for top two pair. A wrap, a pair and a diamond draw looked like plenty of outs for Negreanu, but still not quite enough. The 
was the brick of all bricks, and Negreanu was out in 4th for $60,792.
The crowd that had been following Negreanu largely followed him out the door. Mor would follow quickly on his heels, losing his stack to Kupin in a hand of triple draw, to set up a heads-up battle between Johnson and Kupin.
Wire-to-wire final day performance ends with a first bracelet
The lead which Kupin had cultivated all day brought him into the heads-up duel with an advantage, and true to the day’s form it was not an edge he would relinquish.
Johnson, in a cap and with his hood up, had the air of a man swimming against the current. Kupin’s chip advantage at the start of heads-up play was around 9M to 7M, but it would only grow. Johnson slipped from a 2M chip deficit to 5M, then closer to 10M.
And so it went, the gap only widening with time, until a hand of no-limit single draw in which both players found a hand with which to take a stand. Each drew two in an unraised pot, and both made a 9-high. The chips went in.
Johnson had 
— a good hand, but crucially not quite as good as Kupin’s 
. Kupin tabled his hand and spun around in celebration to embrace his friends on the rail. Johnson ruefully shook his head.
“It feels great,” Kupin shared with PokerOrg, after winning the last, crucial hand. “In my head I actually thought it would be more emotional, but I’m just really happy to have a good support system here, I had a lot of people behind me. It was pretty much wire-to-wire. I had a couple of little hiccups but I never got in the danger zone or anything”
If one hand encapsulated the smooth sailing of Kupin’s final day, it would be the hand against Daniel Negreanu in which the 7-time bracelet winner had seemingly all the outs in the world to hit… but didn’t.
“It was so huge,” recalls Kupin. “Everyone was here to support Negreanu, and we got it in basically flipping for a ton of money. He had the big draw, I had the two pair, and the deuce fell. I ran over to my friends and celebrated, and that felt like the pivotal moment of the tournament for me.”
Kupin now has his eyes on the $10K Eight Game Mixed Championship, starting on Wednesday, but whatever happens he assures us he won’t be missing the Main Event.
“I’ll play the Main every year til I die.”
$2,500 Big Bet Mix - final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Kupin | $206,982 |
| 2 | Marco Johnson | $134,345 |
| 3 | Ofir Mor | $89,289 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | $60,792 |
| 5 | Jeff Madsen | $42,426 |
| 6 | Bariscan Betil | $30,369 |
