The Internal Revenue Service had another great year at the WSOP Main Event, earning $9.1 million from the final table alone — nearly $4 million of it from the winner, Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi. Two foreign governments grabbed almost $1 million of their own to send the total tax receipts above the grand prize.
The report comes from Russ Fox, a tax consultant who digs into the WSOP Main Event final table numbers every year. It's an eye-opening view into the geographical disparity of take-home pay among the final nine.
Mizrachi, who lives in Miami, Florida, will pay just under 40% of his top prize to the government, while players like Kenny Hallaert will keep everything — leaving the fourth-place finisher with the third-most money.
Tax treaties save big bucks
Hallaert will keep everything because he currently lives in London in the UK. A tax treaty with the United States allows UK residents to keep all of the winnings, and they aren't taxed when they get home. This means Belgian-born Hallaert can keep every dollar of his $3 million prize, passing third-place finisher Braxton Dunaway on the final table earnings list.
Luka Bojovic will also skate away tax-free by virtue of his Austrian residency. The Serbian will keep every dollar of his $2.4 million prize for finishing in fifth place due to a tax treaty with Austria and no tax on gambling. Austria is the home of many pro poker players from throughout Europe who enjoy the tax-free status.
A tax treaty with Spain will also save Leo Margets some money from her historic run, though she lives in Spain and will still pay the piper back home. They'll keep about 47% of her $1.5 million, just over $700K.
Tax treaties with South Korea don't include gambling, so Daehyung Lee will be on the hook to the IRS for about $300K of his $1 million prize. A combination of taxes back home, including a foreign tax credit, will leave him with just under half of his winnings.
Americans avoid state tax
All five American players live where there is no state income tax, though John Wasnock and Braxton Dunaway are not professional gamblers, and they will also avoid a self-employment tax. Mizrachi and Adam Hendrix live in tax-free Florida and Nevada, respectively, but taxes will still knock The Grinder down to just over $6 million. Hendrix will keep about $1.2 of his $1.7 million prize for finishing sixth.
Wasnock lives in Washington and Dunaway lives in Texas, but they'll still need to kick to the IRS. Third-place Dunaway will keep just over $2.5 million of his $4 million prize and runner-up Wasnock nets $3.7 of his $6 million.
Jarod Minghini lives in Northern Nevada, where he will spend $768K of his $1.25 million prize on the slopes of Lake Tahoe.
All told, governments will earn $10,995,613 from the WSOP Main Event final table, which started with $31,050,000.
2025 WSOP final table after-tax earnings
| Place | Player | Prize | After-tax earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Mizrachi | $10,000,000 | $6,032,745 |
| 2 | John Wasnock | $6,000,000 | $3,790,106 |
| 3 | Braxton Dunaway | $4,000,000 | $2,524,527 |
| 4 | Kenny Hallaert | $3,000,000 | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Luka Bojovic | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 |
| 6 | Adam Hendrix | $1,900,000 | $1,202,000 |
| 7 | Leo Margets | $1,500,000 | $795,000 |
| 8 | Jarod Minghini | $1,250,000 | $768,447 |
| 9 | Daehyung Lee | $1,000,000 | $482,788 |
Data Courtesy of Russ Fox/Taxabletalk.com
The house always wins
Another big winner at the WSOP Main Event was the WSOP, who took home just over $4.7 million from a prize pool of just over $97 million. The 9,735 entries all tossed in 4.9% of their entry fee to the bosses upstairs, earning the WSOP itself more than third-place money.
It was one of many seven-figure scores for the summer series, which started off with a bang in Event #1: Mystery Millions. The 8.4% rake from 19,654 entries all paying $1,000 added up to $1.65 million for the WSOP.
Their next million-dollar payday came in the $1,500 Monster Stack, where 9,920 entries shaved off 8.05% of $1,500 for the house. That's almost $1.2 million. A couple of weeks later, the Millionaire Maker earned $1.44 million in rake, thanks to 8.05% of 11,996 entries of $1,500.
By our estimate, the WSOP raked close to $33 million from 100 bracelet tournaments at the 2025 WSOP. This doesn't include online bracelet events or rake from the cash games that run throughout the series in the Paris ballroom.
Additional research by Adam Hampton
