The annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) at PokerStars has been a highlight of the online poker calendar for over 20 years, and the 2025 iteration has just come to an end in a blaze of glory — especially for those who managed to take down one of its six big Main Events.
Why six? The answer lies in WCOOP’s multi-level structure, with most tournaments offered at a choice of three buy-in levels: Low, Medium and High. Add pot-limit Omaha (PLO) variants to the classic no-limit hold’em (NLHE) options, and you’ve got six Main Events, though only the High editions are generally deemed to be the ‘World Championship’ tournaments.
The series came to an end on Wednesday with the last of the big six tourneys crowning their winners, and among them were several players you may be familiar with from their streaming activities — and one who managed to not only take down a Main Event, but added another WCOOP title just a few hours later.
Gilles Simon wins High NLHE for $736K
First to the biggest event of the series: the NLHE $10K High Main Event. Gilles ‘TaxationIsTheft’ Simon topped a field of 407 entries to bag the largest payout of the series, adding $736,327 to his bankroll and the NLHE World Championship title to his resume.
Simon is a former poker streamer who won PokerStars’ ‘Dare to Stream’ competition before moving up in stakes and finding success in both the live and online fields. Winner of the EPT Cyprus Main Event in 2023 — which came with over a million dollars in prize money — Simon has now added one of the most prestigious online titles to his trophy cabinet.
That he achieved the win with his first and only bullet is impressive, as is the field he beat out to be the last man standing. He was challenged by many of the best in the biz, including serial WCOOP winner Renan ‘Internett93o’ Bruschi, who came close but ended up out in 3rd for a still impressive $426K.
The $4 million guarantee for this event was covered, just, with a final prizepool of $4,070,000.
WCOOP $10,300 World Championship of NLHE — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gilles ‘TaxationIsTheft’ Simon |
$736,327 |
| 2 | 'arodnaS' | $560,366 |
| 3 | Renan ‘Internett93o’ Bruschi |
$426,455 |
| 4 | 'sebasnato' | $324,545 |
| 5 | 'prebz' | $246,988 |
| 6 | 'ILS007' | $187,965 |
| 7 | 'AchoBogdanov' | $143,047 |
| 8 | 'mjw006' | $108,863 |
| 9 | '4435GoldenBoy' | $83,544 |
‘Beriuzy’ does the double
Rayan ‘Beriuzy’ Chamas is another poker streamer who enjoyed some huge success on the closing day of WCOOP.
Not only did Chamas win the NLHE $109 Low Main Event for $212,827, he went on to win a PLO $1K event just four hours later for an additional $24,136 in prize money. His PLO win came following a heads-up duel against the formidable Joao ‘Naza114’ Vieira.
Chamas, who recently spoke with PokerOrg on the topic of mental health, topped a field of 20,587 for his Main Event win, and went from 3 to 5 WCOOP titles in the space of one night. The final prizepool for this $2M GTD tourney came to $2,058,700.
WCOOP $109 NLHE Low Main Event — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rayan ‘Beriuzy’ Chamas |
$212,826 |
| 2 | 'fernandul27' | $151,700 |
| 3 | 'm.o_4515' | $108,137 |
| 4 | 'NielsMinten' | $77,084 |
| 5 | 'ttizovaca' | $54,948 |
| 6 | 'LiroLa' | $39,169 |
| 7 | 'Elppex' | $27,921 |
| 8 | 'fatallrfehlr' | $19,903 |
| 9 | 'ChavesVila' | $14,188 |
While Chamas was notching the first of his wins on Wednesday, the NLHE $1,050 Medium Main Event was also taking place, as 3,394 entries were whittled down to just one.
The $3M guarantee for this version of the NLHE Main was more comfortably surpassed, with a final prizepool of $3,394,000 divided up between 495 players.
Taking the lion’s share was ‘MiMikyolo’ of Ukraine, who beat Dennys ‘dennysramos2’ Ramos heads-up for the $487,131 first prize.
WCOOP $1,050 NLHE Medium Main Event — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ‘MiMikyolo’ |
$487,131 |
| 2 | Dennys 'dennysramos2' Ramos | $347,242 |
| 3 | 'MaCheCazzoFai' | $247,525 |
| 4 | '777acenace77' | $176,444 |
| 5 | 'viinig' | $125,776 |
| 6 | 'maagrella' | $89,657 |
| 7 | 'WishICouldFold' | $63,911 |
| 8 | 'kobyy' | $45,558 |
| 9 | 'EIJefemurt' | $32,475 |
PLO champions crowned
The series’ PLO Main Events wrapped on Tuesday, and the High event in particular attracted some of the toughest competitors in the online poker world.
44 entries and 23 re-entries produced a prizepool of $670K, with the final 9 players paid. Falling short were the likes of Kenny ‘SpaceyFCB’ Hallaert (32nd), Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion (29th), Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt (27th) and Linus ‘LLinusLLove’ Loeliger, while those making the money included numerous perennial ‘COOP winners such as ‘FAL1st’, Benny ‘RunGodlike’ Glaser, Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard, Gruffudd ‘d.apollo777’ Jones and Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth.
In the end, though, it was Pascal ‘Pass_72’ Lefrancois who claimed the win on his 4th bullet fired, bagging the $211,535 up top and the second WCOOP title of his career.
Also winning their second WCOOP title on Tuesday was ‘Rovodice’ of Latvia, who defeated Jerry 'Perrymejsen' Ödeen heads-up to claim the $109 PLO Low Main Event for $26,078. The $1,050 PLO Medium Main Event was won by Finland’s ‘O.Klunssila’, at a final table that also featured Ödeen, for an $88,538 payday.
WCOOP $109 PLO Low Main Event — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'Rovodice' | $25,078 |
| 2 | Jerry 'Perrymejsen' Ödeen |
$18,169 |
| 3 | 'SmartyFish4' | $12,660 |
| 4 | 'silentm0de' | $8,821 |
| 5 | 'bedias' | $6,146 |
| 6 | 'santalove040' | $4,282 |
WCOOP $1,050 PLO Medium Main Event — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'O.Klunssila' | $88,538 |
| 2 | 'FabioC.p.br' | $53,239 |
| 3 | 'OliveWaguy' | $45,169 |
| 4 | Jerry 'Perrymejsen' Ödeen |
$32,263 |
| 5 | Renan ‘Internett93o’ Bruschi |
$23,044 |
| 6 | 'Elkku35' | $16,459 |
WCOOP $10,300 PLO High Main Event — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pascal ‘Pass_72’ Lefrancois |
$211,535 |
| 2 | 'Imbajimbaa' | $144,080 |
| 3 | Andras ‘probirs’ Nemeth |
$99,715 |
| 4 | Gruffudd ‘d.apollo777’ Jones |
$69,010 |
| 5 | Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard |
$48,430 |
| 6 | 'Lateski' | $33,054 |
‘King153246’ dominates Player of the Series chase
The $25K prize for overall player of the series went to ‘king153246’, who not only won the Low leaderboard for a separate $5K prize, but finished as runner-up on both the High and Medium leaderboards for an extra $10K and $7.5K respectively.
The Medium leaderboard went to Renan ‘Internett93o’ Bruschi, for $10K, while ‘FAL1st’ picked up the $15K award for topping the High leaderboard.
You can find out more, and compete in the next big series, at PokerStars.
Additional images courtesy of Neil Stoddart/Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
