For recreational player John Wasnock, of North Bend, Washington, the final day of the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event went almost as well as it could have gone. Almost.
When the final four players convened to wrap up this year’s Big Dance on Wednesday — Wasnock, Kenny Hallaert, Braxton Dunaway and Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi — Wasnock held the second biggest stack of the quartet.
The trouble was, Mizrachi had even more than that, and knew exactly how to use them to force his way over the line and into poker’s history books with one of the most dominant Main Event performances ever seen.
“Obviously you want to go all the way but, given the stack sizes, my first goal was to at least get heads up.”
With the dust settling on a memorable final day of the 2025 WSOP, Wasnock is in a remarkably composed mood as he discusses his experience with PokerOrg’s Matt Hansen.
“I felt like if he took them [Dunaway and Hallaert] out early, which I thought he would and he did, that I would still have a chance heads-up with mine and his stack sizes. I was going to need some cards to come my way.”
The final four (L-R): Braxton Dunaway, Kenny Hallaert, Michael Mizrachi, John Wasnock.Mizrachi did indeed take out Hallaert and Dunaway early — in the very first two hands of play, no less — which catapulted Wasnock into second place and a guaranteed $6M in prize money. Fourth place was worth $3M, and third place a cool $4M.
Wasnock laddered up $3M in prize money by folding two hands of hold’em. His previous best tournament score was $56K.
‘No regrets’
“I came over to my rail and I was like, ‘You ever make three million dollars in two minutes?’ It's pretty surreal.”
To his great credit, Wasnock did not seem overawed by the money at stake or the opponent in front of him. Mizrachi’s prediction of defeating his final three rivals within an hour of play, coupled with the swift destruction of Hallaert and Dunaway, initially put Wasnock on the back foot.
“I was surprised he wasn't pushing harder early,” says Wasnock of his heads-up opponent. “It looked like he was able to switch gears and start playing some small ball. I really didn't expect that out of him but I was ready for it. But the cards didn't fall my way.”
Wasnock and Mizrachi had to wait before head-up play began as, per tradition, the prize money was brought out and placed on the table.Indeed they didn’t. Heads-up play began with Wasnock holding around 15% of the chips on the table, making him a huge underdog even without the gulf in high stakes experience to overcome. The Washington man rallied, winning a few pots, pushing back and cannily calling a Mizrachi bluff, before a hand came along that was strong enough to get it all in with. Unfortunately for Wasnock, it seems he couldn’t outrun fate.
Holding 
on the button, Wasnock raised and was called by Mizrachi. The 
flop hit Wasnock’s hand hard. Perhaps too hard — Wasnock elected to check it through to disguise its strength. The turn brought a third club, the 
, which Mizrachi checked again. It was a trap. Holding 
, Mizrachi had spiked the flush.
Wasnock sensed the time was right to lead out, and did, for 10M. Mizrachi turned to his rail to pump them up, then put in a raise to 30M. Wasnock shoved, Mizrachi called and Wasnock was left needing an ace or nine to make a full house for the win. The 
was neither, and the tournament was over. Mizrachi took the $10M first prize, Wasnock the $6M for the runner-up.
John Wasnock and the new WSOP Main Event champion, Michael Mizrachi.“I have no regrets with the way I played,” says Wasnock, who has boosted his $143K in career earnings by a whole $6M. “I'm happy with this and it has just been an amazing run. This has been one of the best experiences of my life all week and it just kept getting better and better.”
The 2025 WSOP Main Event will live long in the memory as the moment Michael Mizrachi cemented his reputation as a legend of the game, adding poker’s most prestigious title to an already glittering career. There are no banners hanging from the rafters for the runners-up.
But for John Wasnock — as with so many recreational players with families, day jobs, mortgages and dreams, who have made it so near yet so far in poker’s grandest tournament — he will remember it as the moment he came within a few cards of poker immortality. And $6 million in prize money won’t hurt.
“This has obviously been a dream of mine as a poker player,” says Wasnock, with a smile. “This is everybody's dream.”
