Ryan Hoenig Wins 1st WSOP Bracelet in $10k Dealer's Choice Championship

Ryan Hoenig is now a World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner after emerging victorious in Event #18: $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship. Hoenig won one of the toughest events on the WSOP schedule that pits players battling in over 20 different poker variants. 

Hoenig topped the 152-entrant field to win the $354,444 first-place prize and 354 PGT points. This was Hoenig's second-largest career score following his runner-up finish in the 2023 $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship. Hoenig's lifetime career earnings now eclipse $1,230,000, according to The Hendon Mob.

The 152-entrant field generated a prize pool of $1,413,600, which paid 23 players. Eric Wasserson, Alex Livingston, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Allan Le, Nick Guagenti, Andrew Kelsall, Dan Zack, and Jon Turner were all eliminated before the final table was reached. Three-time Dealer's Choice winner Adam Friedman was in the mix to win an unprecedented fourth WSOP bracelet in the same event, but he was eliminated in seventh place.

Brandon Cantu was eliminated in sixth place in an orbit of Razz when his nine-seven lost to Dylan Smith's eight-five. Matt Vengrin exited in fifth place when he was all-in with a low wrap against the trips of Hoenig. The board bricked out, and the final table was down to four before Dario Alioto fell in fourth. The Italian was all-in in a Big O hand against Philip Sternheimer and was outdrawn on the river.

Following a long three-handed grind, play was paused and an unscheduled Day 4 was put on the books with Hoenig sitting with more than half the chips in play. Hoenig pressed his lead early on Day 4 before Sternheimer was the first casualty. The Brit called all-in on the river with the bottom-end of the straight, but was shown the nut straight by Hoenig.

Hoenig began heads-up play with 7.6 million to Smith's 1.4 million, and the final hand would come shortly after in Pot-Limit Omaha. Smith was all-in with king-ten-six-four, but was dominated by Hoenig's king-queen-jack-four. Hoenig improved to a flush on the turn to leave Smith drawing dead and heading out the door in second place.

2025 WSOP Event #18: $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship Results

Event #18 of the 2025 World Series of Poker was the fifth PGT-qualifying event of the series, and with Ryan Hoenig's victory, he moves to 40th on the PGT leaderboard following his first cash of the PGT season. Dylan Smith now sits 17th on the PGT leaderboard with 594 PGT points from five cashes, while Philip Sternheimer sits 51st with 311 PGT points and four cashes.

PGT Leaderboard Top 10 

These are the leaderboard standings as of Friday, June 6, 2025. The complete and current PGT leaderboard is at pgt.com/leaderboard.

The next eligible WSOP event to earn PGT points is Event #25: $10,000 Stud Championship, which is underway on Friday, June 6. Closing out the week will be the $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller and the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship. Starting on Monday, June 9, will be Event #32: $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller, while Event #36: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship will begin on Tuesday.

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