Czech player Lukas Zaskodny has won Event $97 $1,500 The Closer, claiming his second lifetime bracelet and the $648,130 first prize. He got heads-up against American Richard Ali, who had a 2-1 chip lead, but in the space of a few hands, managed to turn the table, take the lead and bank the $648,130 first prize. It was Zaskondy’s second career WSOP bracelet, having won his first at the WSOPE in Rozvadov in 2017.
Lukas Zaskodny, Martin Kabrhel
The Closer is the final marquis event of the 2025 WSOP, meaning event with more than one starting day. This one exists as a last of the summer savers type of event, providing one more chance for players to shine in a big field tournament and take home a life changing amount of prize money. This year it had 4,297 entries across its two starting days, generating a prize pool of $4,687,273.
Amongst those who ponied up the $1k buy-in for one final fling was Benny Glaser, looking for one more deep run in a last ditch attempt to overtake Shuan Deeb in the WSOP Player of the Year race. Despite booking three bracelet wins, he was over 200 points behind Deeb. Glaser was one of over 30 bracelet winners who made it to Day 2 of the event, but his 114th place finish wasn’t good enough for him to close the POY leaderboard gap. Jeff Madsen (43rd), Josh Arieh (112th) and Martin Kabrhel (140th) were amongst the other bracelet winners who made visits to the payout desk.
Zaskodny paid tribute to his friend Martin Kabrhel in the post match interview, who had helped him prepare for the final, delivering a moving pep talk on mindset before it began. We can only imagine what might have been said in that discussion, but think it might have been something along the lines of
“When you’re all-in and the dealer tables a bad flop, you say ‘Not Like That’ and you will get a good turn card”
Martin Kabrhel “Not Like that”
But Zaskodny may not have needed much encouragement, as he also admitted he was extremely confident from the off, expecting to win it right from the start of the tournament. He’s a glass half-full kind of guy and he likes to drink the good stuff!
He was well-supported on the rail by friends and his fiancée Kristyna. They’ve been traveling the world playing poker and he recently popped the question while they were in Hawaii. His next targets will be events back in Europe, such as EPT Barcelona, which takes place next month.
2025 WSOP: Event #97 $1,500 The Closer Result
Position
Player
Prize
1
Lukas Zaskodny
$648,130
2
Richard Ali
$432,090
3
Lok Chan
$321,830
4
Thang Tran
$241,610
5
Adrian Tivadar
$182,830
6
Dylan Lambe
$139,460
7
Jimmy Setna
$107,240
8
Victor Caballero
$83,130
9
Tawei Tou
$64,980
10
Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss
$51,246
2025 WSOP: Event #97 $1,500 The Closer Result Recap
A total of 317 players returned for the second and final day of the tournament, with American Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss holding the chip lead. He had been the chip leader at the end of Day 1b, bagging 3.1m. Second placed Julien Vanplet from France, who had topped the Day 1a chip counts, began with 2.75m.
Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss
Play began fast and furiously with exits coming thick and fast in the early levels of the day. In fact, it was pretty quick throughout, slowing down a little only as they got to the last three tables, when the remaining players could smell the big money up top.
By the time they got down to two tables, Nemeskeri-Kiss had retaken the chip lead that he had lost in the early part of the day and had moved up to 31.7m, a full 10m ahead of then second placed Adrian Tivadar from Romania. Zaskodny was in 4th place at this point, with 16m.
But the chip leader went backwards, losing a series of pots and by the time the final table of ten was reached, he had slipped back to 10.5m and was the second shortest stacked player left. Hong Kong’s Lok Chan went into the final as the chip leader, on 37.8m.
The American pair of Richard Ali (34.5m) and Thang Tran (30.8m) had the next two biggest stacks, with Canadian Jimmy Setna (29m) not far behind. Lukas Zaskodny was further back in the field on 14.6m, but started making northward moves early on during the final table.
Lukas Zaskodny
The first to depart was the Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss, in 10th place for $51,246, whose K♠6♠ was dominated by Dylan Lambe’s K♣10♣. Richard Ali then moved up to 47m chips to take pole position after his A♠K♥ utterly destroyed Tawel Tou’s red pocket nines on decisive A♥K♥K♠ flop. The Taiwanese player took $64,980 for his 9th place finish.
Soon afterwards, Lok Chan took the lead, taking a big chunk out of Thang Tran in the process, while Zaskodny remained patient in mid-division. Lok Chan moved further into the lead when his A♥3♣ sent Victor Caballero to the rail in 7th for $83,130. The Spanish player had shoved his last 8.5m chips in with pocket jacks, but an ace came on the turn.
Richard Ali retained his challenge, taking out Jimmy Setna in 7th ($107,240), while Adrian Tivadar accounted for Dylan Lambe’s demise in 6th ($139,460). With five left, Zaskodny, who had been short-stacked, found a double-up with pocket fours against Chan to move up to 37m. The chip leader’s luck soon ran out and he found himself short stacked after losing a massive pot to Richard Ali when holding A♣K♦ against A♥Q♥. A queen on the flop took Ali’s chip count up to over 100m, while Chan fell back to just 15m.
Lok Chan
Although he did not manage to recover his stack, Chan did ladder up a couple of places, thanks to a double elimination, in which Ali sent Adrian Tivadar (5th for $182,830) and Thang Tran (4th for $241,610) to the rail. It was a dirty exit, especially for Tran, who held A♠A♦ against Tivadar’s A♣10♣ and Ali, who had crashed the party with 9♥7♥.
The flop of 3♥6♦8♥ gave Ali a straight draw and the 5♦ on the turn delivered just that, shrinking the size of the tournament by 40% in an instant. Immediately after this hand it was Lok Chan’s turn to visit the payout desk, to collect $321,830 for 3rd place, after losing the fumes of his former stack to Ali.
Having watched Ali doing all the work and simply climbing the money ladder, Zaskodny then pulled off a remarkable and swift comeback, to end the tournament in his favor. Ali had been up to 170m, but Zaskodny found a double-up when Ali misread the board, prematurely celebrating winning a bracelet he was destined to lose.
Richard Ali
The Czech player won the next couple of pots to take the lead and then clinically brought the tournament to a conclusion, delivering one last bad beat to stun Richard Ali into second place for $432,090.
In the last hand Ali was well in front with A♥K♣ versus Zaskodny’s A♦10♣ and he was looking good for a double-up on a flop of 3♠5♣Q♣. The Q♦ was also a good card for him, but wallop, the 10♠ delivered a fatal slap in the face to Ali’s tournament life and he was denied a chance at winning his first bracelet.
Lukas Zaskodny took the spoils, walking off with $648,130 and his second career bracelet.
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Lukas Zaskodny
Richard Ali
Lok Chan
Adrian Tivadar
Jimmy Setna
Victor Caballero
Tawei Tou
