WSOP 2025

2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet

by Jonathan Raab July 14, 2025
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Joshua Boulton has won his first bracelet along with $311,349 in the Poker Hall of Fame (HOF) event. He was one of eight players from the UK who returned for the 2nd Day of Event #92 $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty and one of three who made the final table. Remarkably, Boulton’s win retained the title for Britain, as the 2024 winner of this event was the UK’s Jamie Walden.

Joshua Boulton – 2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet
Joshua Boulton

The event, which attracted 1,115 entrants, creating a prize pool of $1,931,652, was extended to a third unscheduled day.  Boulton was just behind chip leader Rob Wazwaz overnight, with just five players left. He got heads up with Wazwaz, who was seeking his 2nd career bracelet and emerged victorious after a short, but decisive heads-up battle.

After sewing up the win, Boulton, from Coventry, revealed that he had a flight to catch in just a few hours. He had just enough time to celebrate, receive his bracelet and do interviews before making it onto his overnight flight home to the UK.

It was Boulton’s fourth cash of the 2025 WSOP and his first time on a final table at the series, although he did make an unofficial final table in 2019, when he was 10th in the $800 Deepstack. He also cashed in the Main Event, but will have been disappointed with his 689th place finish (for $25,000) as he had been one of the big stacks throughout the first two days of the Main Event. He bagged the 13th largest stack on Day 1c, the largest of the British contingent and repeated the feat on Day 2abc, with 446,00, the 42nd biggest of the day and again the largest Britstack.

The $1,979 buy-in of the event idiosyncratically represents the year in which the HOF became a thing. Prior to the start of the event, the newest member of the HOF, Nick Schulman, was inducted into the exclusive club. He had only recently become eligible to be nominated for the HOF, by becoming 40 years old, but was widely lauded as the likely winner long before the official result was revealed. 

Nick Schulman Inducted into Hall of Fame – 2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet
Nick Schulman Inducted into Hall of Fame

The event has a unique feature, in that every living member is invited to take part, although they usually don’t all turn up. Those that do turn up, have bounties placed on their heads, the amount of which corresponds to the year that they were inducted into the HOF. 

At least fourteen did take their free seats this year, including Schulman and 90-year-old Berry Johnson, whose fashionably late appearance wowed those on his table. Barry Greenstein, Barbara Enright, Todd Brunson (yes, he got in 🤷‍♂️), Tom McEvoy and Jack McClelland all began at or soon after the start of play. Seven-time WSOP bracelet winner Billy Baxter also played.

Billy Baxter – 2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet
Billy Baxter

After the first break of the day, more Hall of Famers had redeemed their free seats, including Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel and Daniel Negreanu. Four HOFers made the money, John Juanda (160th), Phil Hellmuth (131st) and Barry Greenstein (112th), who all cashed for $3,896. Tom McEvoy made it the furthest, busting in 81st for $4,463.

2025 WSOP: Event #92 $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty Final Table Result

PositionPlayerPrize
1United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Joshua Boulton$311,349
2United States of America Rob Wazwaz$207,510
3Israel Ori Mendi$147,184
4France Jimmy Kebe$105,879
5United States of America David Dibernardi$77,263
6India Laksh Singh$57,205
7United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Jun Li$42,983
8Taiwan, Province of China Chen-An Lin$32,783
9United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Zhicheng Miao$25,386
10Canada Michael Bernstein$19,964

2025 WSOP: Event #92 $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty Recap

By the end of the first day, 167 players were left, all in the money, plus the last couple of Day 1 bustees. The overnight chip leader was Soichiro Hayashi on 630,000. By the first break of the day Laksh Singh from India had assumed the chip lead, on 1.15m, the only player to have pushed over the 1m barrier. Hayashi was not far behind with 995k and Boulton had moved into the top ten, on 700,000.

Tom McEvoy received a round of applause after he became the last Hall of Famer to bite the felt, falling to 3-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian. By level 23, with the blinds at 15k/30k (30k ante), Hayashi had once again returned to the top of the pile, but he would soon fall away, eventually busting in 23rd place, falling to the UK’s Matt Davenport.

Tom McEvoy – 2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet
Tom McEvoy

By the end of level 23, Isiah Ditoto was the new chip leader, pushing just over 3m, with the Davenport in 2nd on 2.5m. With three tables left, Boulton moved into the top 3 and Wazwaz soon joined them near the top with a double elimination.

Wazwaz hit the front after taking out Isiah Ditoto in 19th, in the biggest pot of the tournament so far, moving his count above 6m, more than double that of Chen-An Lin, his nearest challenger. Several well fancied players narrowly missed out on a spot on the final table, including Martirosian (15th) and Davenport (13th). Davenport was sent to the rail by compatriot Boulton when his pocket fours failed to improve against jacks for his last 465k. Beth Hall in 14th was the longest lasting female player.

Going into the ten-handed final table, Wazwaz had fallen back to 4th, with David Dibernardi taking over as the chip leader.

PositionPlayerChips
1United States of America David Dibernardi8,405,000
2France Jimmy Kebe5,900,000
3United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Joshua Boulton5,100,000
4United States of America Rob Wazwaz3,335,000
5United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Zhicheng Miao3,000,000
6Taiwan, Province of China Chen-An Lin2,975,000
7India Laksh Singh2,000,000
8United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Jun Li1,930,000
9Canada Michael Bernstein1,450,000
10Israel Ori Mendi600,000

After Michael Bernstein busted in 10th place for $19,964, the unofficial final assumed official status and play began to determine who would take home the bracelet. Zhicheng Miao, one of 3 Britons on the final table, was the next player to exit, in 9th place for $25,386.  

Chen-An Lin, who had moved up to over 6m chips when taking out Bernstein, was the 8th place finisher, collecting $32,783. He was vanquished by Wazwaz, moving his recovered stack up to a jurassic 13.5m, well ahead of the rest of the pack. Jun Li then became the second player from the UK to depart the final, taking $42,983 for 7th after his J♣J♥ was downed by Ori Mendi’s A♣K♦ when the A♥ came on the turn.

Boulton moved up to nearly 10m when his pocket jacks held against the nines of Laksh Singh, sending the Indian out in 6th place for $57,205. Boulton then briefly took the lead, but Wazwaz sneaked back in front by the time play was suspended. It was originally scheduled to be a 2-day event, but with five players left, the tournament was extended to a third day. 

When play was halted Wazwaz had 11.875m chips to  Boulton’s 10.375m. They were well ahead of the other three and it seemed very likely that they would end up facing off for the title. These were the overnight chip counts.

PositionPlayerChips
1United States of America Rob Wazwaz11,825,000
2United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Joshua Boulton10,375,000
3Israel Ori Mendi4,525,000
4United States of America David Dibernardi3,525,000
5France Jimmy Kebe3,200,000

One time chip leader David Dibernardi became the 5th place finisher for $77,263, soon after the restart on Day 3. He gifted his remaining 4m chips to Wazwaz, who moved up to over 16m. Boulton then took out Jimmy Kebe (4th for $105,879) to stay in touch with the chip leader, but was still over 6m behind at this stage.

Rob Wazwaz – 2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet
Rob Wazwaz

With three players left, Wazwaz seemed determined to walk the dinosaur over the line, pushing up to 23m chips, while Boulton slipped back to 9m and Mendi had just over 4m. But with a boom-boom, followed by an aka-laka-laka boom, Boulton was back in the hunt, after sending Ori Mendi out in 3rd place for $147,184. His pocket nines held on against A♥K♥ and he was up to 14m, with Wazwaz on 19m when the heads-up began.

Ori Mendi – 2025 WSOP: Josh Boulton Wins Hall of Fame Bracelet
Ori Mendi

The heads-up started cautiously with a lot of small pots, but once things had settled down, Boulton moved into the lead, forcing a fold out of Wazwaz on a board of J♥Q♣7♥7♠ with an all-in, taking the pot and a 2-1 chip advantage. It looked like it would come to a quick end after that, as Boulton piled on the pressure and moved further into the lead.

But Wazwaz was not out of it yet, almost drawing level when his 8♠8♦ held on against A♥7♥. But after taking down a few more small pots, Boulton re-established his lead and shoved on Wazwaz, who had opened to 800,000.

Rob Wazwaz called and was in good shape with A♠J♦ versus the Englishman’s A♥10♣. However, the flop of 7♣3♠10♠ put Boulton two cards away from victory. The A♠ on the turn gave the American a flush draw, but it was not Wazwaz’s day and after the 4♥ fell on the river, he was eliminated in 2nd place for $207,510.

This left Josh Boulton with all 33m of the chips in play, delivered him his first bracelet and the first prize of $311,349.

Josh Boulton
Josh Boulton

* Hands and photos courtesy of PokerNews and WSOP

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