As the world’s best footballers gathered on Monday evening for the 2025 Ballon d’Or, Neymar Jr came within a whisker of winning his first major poker title in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).
The PokerStars ambassador had a shot at his first COOP title last week when he made the final table of the $5,200 Titans NLHE event. He came in as the shortest stack then and lasted less than an orbit, crashing out in 7th for $26,111.
Things were different tonight. He started with the second-biggest stack in the $5,200 Titans event #73-H with 13 players left, including Daniel ‘starwins :)’ Petersen, Pascal ‘Pass_72’ Lefrancois, and Adrian ‘Amadi_017’ Mateos.
112 players entered, creating a $560,000 prize pool with a six-figure payday up top. But for Neymar, it was all about the COOP title.
Neymar Jr powers into the lead
By the time Mateos was eliminated in 13th and Lefrancois in 8th, Neymar had powered through to take the chip lead with seven players left.
‘Starwins :)’ hit the rail in fifth, followed by ‘Sxmon’ and by this time Neymar had a huge chip lead over NotmystyIe and Nikita ‘Ebaaa11’ Kuznetcov — but they were going to make him fight for his title. He had 8 million chips to their 1 million each, but NotmystyIe built back up to 2.5 million at Neymar’s expense.
Neymar kept finding the hands though. He found a nut flush to take him back up to 7.5 million, before NotmystyIe won another sizeable pot with pocket eights to take his stack to 3.5 million.
In poker, nothing comes easy — and this is where Neymar's ride really began to derail. First, he doubled up Ebaaa11, tank-calling an all-in with 
preflop and running into 
. Then, a failed bluff on the river gave some more to NotmystyIe, who made the correct call with ace-high.
NotmystyIe eliminated Ebaaa11 to take the tournament heads-up, before a massive hand saw him catapult into a huge chip lead.
Neymar flushed and finished
On a 
flop, NotmystyIe bet and Neymar went into the tank. When he woke up, he decided on maximum violence, and moved all-in. NotmystyIe snap-called and showed 
. Neymar had 
and was a diamond away from the win. The 
turn gave him some more outs but the 
was a brick.
That hand shifted the momentum, and a few hands later, NotmystyIe sealed the win. All the chips went in preflop — Neymar had 
and NotmystyIe had 
that held through the 
runout.
That hand earned NotmystyIe the $129,043 top prize and his first WCOOP title. Neymar had to settle for a frustrating $99,075 runner-up finish. And the Ballon d'Or? That went to Ousmane Dembele.
$5,200 Titans event #73-H results
- NotmystyIe (Canada) — $129,043
- neymar-jr (Brazil) — $99,075
- Ebaaa11 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) — $76,066
- Sxmon (Austria)— $58,401
- starwins :) (Denmark) — $44,838
- I sense blood (Kazakhstan) — $34,425
- CatfishBillyMan (Mexico) — $26,430
- Pass_72 (Canada) — $20,292
- Mikensonas (Lithuania) — $16,971
