With five players remaining in the 2025 Tournament of Champions, Kevin Li was staring up at the other four players at the table, sitting on the short stack. But after hitting a six outer on the turn to stay alive, he ran away with the rest of the final table to capture the $200,000 first-place prize and the first WSOP gold bracelet of the summer.
"I had a few close spots, some of which I took and some of which I didn't, but I think I did a good job of being patient and just waiting for good situations to happen," Li told PokerOrg immediately after the win. "After I won that big blind vs blind hand (with the king on the turn), I felt like I had more to maneuver and had a good read on a couple of the players."
To get to the king on the turn, Li started with a shove in the small blind for 1,360,000 with king-nine, and Karapet Galstyan called with a covering stack in the big blind with ace-eight. An eight on the flop was more bad news for Li, but when the king of clubs hit the felt on the turn, he scored the double and left Galstyan with less than a big blind. Li finished off Galstyan in fifth place for $50,000 the next hand.
A turn of fate
"Honestly, I was pretty accepting (of my fate). I started the final table eighth (in chips), so at that point, any result I would have been reasonably happy with, I wasn't too devastated at the flop," Li said of the blind vs. blind hand. "But when the turn came I thought, "Oh shit, I might actually have a good chance to make a run in this thing."
A few minutes later, Dan Sepiol three-bet all in for 1,725,000 from the small blind over a Li open from the cutoff with ace-ten, only for Li to find the call with ace-jack. Sepiol would river a pair of tens, but that was bad news for the WSOP bracelet winner as it gave Li Broadway, leaving Sepiol to collect his $70,000 fourth-place prize.
Li bounced final table chip leader Don Ciaglo in third place, making for three successive knockouts to send the tournament to its final two. Li started the heads-up match with Shawn Rice as the chip leader, but it wasn't by much, as each player had nearly 100 big blinds to start the showdown.
It seemed like a lengthy heads-up battle was in store, and Rice found the upper hand early. However, Li took back the lead and worked Rice to the ropes. The runner-up tried his luck with king-four, but Li's king-queen held on to seal the deal for his first WSOP bracelet.
"It's insane, I never would have thought this was even possible or something that I would ever do," Li added about the final table experience and playing for a WSOP gold bracelet. He mentioned on stream that he used to watch tournaments like this on television when he was a kid. "It is a really big honor to get to be able to come here and show off my skills. Poker wasn't necessarily my main game plan. I graduated with a degree in software, and I didn't expect to have all this time to come travel and play these events, it is a real blessing to be here."
2025 WSOP Tournament of Champions final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Li | $200,000 |
| 2 | Shawn Rice | $140,000 |
| 3 | Don Ciaglo | $100,000 |
| 4 | Dan Sepiol | $70,000 |
| 5 | Karapet Galstyan | $50,000 |
| 6 | Maxwell Young | $37,000 |
| 7 | Yang Xu | $28,000 |
| 8 | Kevin Lemmer | $21,000 |
| 9 | Scott Stewart | $16,100 |
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