The World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions $1 million freeroll took place at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, and 485 qualifiers showed-up to try to add another piece of hardware — and a pile pf cash — to their collections.
And it was Kevin Li, who got into the event by winning a WSOP Circuit ring in a $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha event at the WSOP Circuit at Deerfoot Inn and Casino in Calgary in August, who wound up with all the chips and the $200,000 prize up top.
In other words, Li turned his biggest tournament score of $19,235 he got with his Circuit ring into $200,000 — and he did it by waging a huge comeback at the final table where he began as the short stack. And the final table was as tough as nails, with World Poker Tour World Champion Dan Sepiol, nine-time Circuit ring winner Maxwell Young, and Scott Stewart with two of his own WPT titles joining Shawn Rice, Don Ciaglo, Karapet Galstyan, Yang Xu, and Kevin Lemmer.
Each of these players got into the freeroll by either winning a WSOP Circuit event or a bracelet at last year’s WSOP. Some, like Stewart, were winners in multiple WSOP events. But he couldn’t do it here, and was the first player out at the final table, pocketing $16,100.
Lemmer got into the event by winning an online Circuit event in December while playing in New Jersey. Lemmer has only that one WSOP ring, but has about 14 final table appearances in online ring and bracelet events over the last several years. He finished eighth for $21,000.
Xu won his way into the 2025 WSOP TOC by taking down a $250 Circuit event at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa. His deep run here netted him $28,000 for seventh.
Young added three wins in 2024 to the several dozen he already had in the books since 2011. He won his way into the WSOP TOC by winning the $2,200 high-roller event at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. He added $37,000 to his lifetime tournament winnings stack that is approaching $4 million for finishing sixth.
Galstyan punched his ticket by winning a Circuit ring event online while living and playing in Nevada, and he has many deep runs online on his resume. He won a cool $50,000 for fourth in this one.
Sepiol and his $9 million in tournament winnings seemingly was the man to beat in this event. He got in by winning a bracelet in the $1,500 Shootout event at last year’s WSOP, which was good for $305,000. He earned an additional $70,000 for finishing fourth.
Ciaglo won $9,336 and his way into the WSOP TOC in a $400 Circuit event in Lake Tahoe, and he multiplied that amount by 10 by finishing third.
Runner-up Rice got here by winning the $400 Monster Stack event during the Choctaw Durant in January for $22,218. He added another $140,000 to that for nearly taking down the whole thing.
The top 75 won at least $3,200. All winners of this year’s WSOP, which starts today (May 27), will receive entry into next year’s Tournament of Champions.
| 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 |
