Joey Couden has won Event #45, the $500 Salute to Warriors, to claim his second WSOP bracelet to date, taking the $187,937 first prize. He was the only bracelet winner left going into the final day of the NLH event, which has a charity element. In fact, with 100 players left, Couden, a professional poker player from Columbus, Ohio, was already the last survivor to have previously won wrist-wear at the series.
To say he dominated the final table would be an understatement, as from an early stage, he looked like the champion-elect. Leading from the latter stages to take down an MTT is one of the most satisfying feats in tournament poker and Couden acknowledged this, stating how much fun it had been in his post-match interview.
Participation in the 2025 Salute to Warriors event did not match 2024’s record-setting field of 4,517 entries, but with 3,937 players this year, it was still massive, generating a prize pool of over $1.6m.
The event, introduced in 2019, donates $40 from every buy-in to veteran organisations linked to the US military, such as the United Service Organization (USO). This year the amount raised from buy-ins to the event was $157,480 and one hopes (but does not presume) that the WSOP will add to this amount from its own pocket.
The amount raised was more than the $125,034 second-place prize money secured by Richard Buckingham, but less than the $187,937 scooped by Couden. It would be a fitting gesture if the owners of the WSOP could make a further donation to ensure that the charity is the biggest winner from the event.
Joseph Couden, 2025 Salute for Warriors Winner, with Matt Savage
2025 WSOP Event #45: $500 Salute to Warriors Final Table Results
2025 WSOP Event #45: $500 Salute to Warriors Final Table Recap
Couden was the chip leader going into the final day, with over 14m chips, almost 3m ahead of his nearest rival. However he suffered an early setback, with his stack cut in half and had to rebuild, which he did, retaking the chip lead by the first break, with 16 players left.
Going into the ten-handed final he had almost 35% of the 196m chips in play and all but two of Couden’s opponents were short-stacked. He was 24m ahead of Ofer Saha’s 34m stack on 34m, with Russian Alexander Savchenko a further 7m back on 27m.
In the early exchanges of the final, Savchenko and Saha closed the gap on the chip leader, who had also added to his pile by the time the short-stack v short-stack encounter between Richard Buckingham and Samuel Choae resulted in the latter exiting in 10th ($14,603).
Saha continued his rise in the chip charts, taking Luciano Melo out in 9th place ($17,901), while Savchenko’s stack bumped up when his K♠4♠ outdrew Tim Caziarc’s A♠K♣ to send the American to the rail in 8th ($22,998).
But from then on, it was the Joey Couden show on primetime, as he first clipped the Russian’s wings to soar above the 90m chip mark, while everyone else struggled to find an eddy to stay off the canyon floor. His first final table victim was Roger Hendren (7th for $29,818), whose last 6m chips were added to the chip leader’s stack courtesy of a ten on the flop, in an A♦K♦ v A♣10♣ all-in encounter.
Soon after Brandon Sowers became the 6th place finisher ($39,015) after Couden spiked a four on the river holding [invalid notations] versus A♠3♦.
By now Couden had over 60% of the chips in play and the tournament concluded in a manner that could be described as shooting fish in a barrel. After busting Alexander Savchenko in 5th ($51,511), more than 75% of the chips were in his possession and a second bracelet loomed large. It was now four-handed, but within a few more hands it would be heads-up time.
The fourth-place finisher was Yu Hsiang Huang, who is having a fantastic first trip to the WSOP. This was the Taiwanese’s second final table of the series in a big field event, as he took 4th in the $1,000 Mystery Millions opener, which had nearly 20,000 entries, for $329,940 (not including any bounties). He added a further $68,619 to his net worth in this event.
Ofer Saha became Couden’s fourth scalp within a 15-minute stretch, when his pocket deuces failed to hold against A♦5♣. With just $5,030 in cashes prior to the series, his $92,221 for 3rd place being far the biggest cash of his life.
The same can also be said of the eventual runner-up, Richard Buckingham, who had only two previous cashes worth less than $10,000 combined before this event began. Having sat quietly while Joey dispatched of his rivals one-by-one, Buckingham climbed the money ladder significantly, cashing for $125,034.
Richard Buckingham
Having dispatched with five players in a row, Couden had close to 90% of the chips in play and continued to whittle down Buckingham, who got his last 16.2m in with 3♠3♥, finding himself up against Q♥J♠.
The flop of Q♠2♠J♦ left the man named after the famous royal residence needing one of the two remaining threes in the deck to stay alive. But neither the 8♥ nor the 7♦ matched that rank, to bring the tournament to an end.
For the champion, Joseph Couden, this was his 4th cash of the series. He went close to a final table in Event #6, $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud, finishing 10th and has now added to the bracelet he won in 2018 in $1,500 PLO Hi Lo.
Joseph Couden was by far the most experienced player on the final table, going into it with just over $3m in live cashes. His victory adds a further $187,937 to his growing overall tally, which is now at just under $3.2m. In 2024, he cashed 12 times live at the 2024 WSOP, concurrently with 10 cashes in online WSOP bracelet events. His second bracelet victory came on his 10th WSOP final table appearance, however his biggest payday to-date remains the $251,523 he banked for 4th in a WPT Showdown Main Event, also in 2018.
What an exciting conclusion in Event 45: $500 SALUTE to Warriors as Joe Couden was the last player standing and takes home his 2nd gold bracelet! @JackEffel was on hand to award Joe the check and get the rail fired up for the celebration!#WSOP2025pic.twitter.com/OCTd0Bio4Z
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 18, 2025
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Joey Couden
Yu Hsiang Huang
Alexander Savchenko
Luciano Melo
