Event #68, the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em was won by Yilong Wang, who collected his first WSOP bracelet along with $830,685. Wang, from China, first learned to play poker while a student in London. Initially a cash game player, he began focusing on tournament poker from 2017.
This was the first WSOP final table Wang has made since he turned professional. Despite only now achieving the success he has been yearning for, Wang may now choose to give up playing professionally, in order to focus on a new business project in China.
He won his first bracelet after a hard fought final table, which brought the 2,338 player event to its conclusion. It was a final table that featured one previous bracelet winner (Yuliyan Kolev), a WSOP Main Event runner-up (Steven Jones) and the always effervescent Ren Lin, who at one point looked like he might be the runaway winner.
However Lin fell down the chip chart with three players left and exited in 3rd at the hands of Israeli Ran Ilani, who assumed the chip lead going into the heads-up stage. But it was Wang who emerged victorious after a dominating heads-up performance, to claim his first bracelet, doubling his career earnings in the process.
2025 WSOP: Event #53 $1,500 Millionaire Maker Final Table Result
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Yilong Wang | $830,685 |
| 2 |  Ran Ilani | $553,692 |
| 3 | Ren Lin | $406,016 |
| 4 |  Yuliyan Kolev | $300,649 |
| 5 |  Kunal Patni | $224,833 |
| 6 |  Seunghyun Nam | $169,818 |
| 7 |  Fabrizio Gonzalez | $129,563 |
| 8 | Jason Richard | $99,859 |
| 9 | Paawan Bansal | $77,760 |
2025 WSOP: Event #53 $1,500 Millionaire Maker Recap
Day 3
After the first two days of play, Hamid Toghyan from the UK was the chip leader, with Kunal Patri from India in second place. Both would go on to make the latter stages of the tournament, as would fourth placed Yuliyan Kolev, who was one of 21 former bracelet winners among the last 127 left in, at that stage. Former Main Event winner Jerry Yang, Adrian Mateos and recent UK bracelet winner Robert Wells were all still in, as was the flamboyant Ren Lin, always a fun player to have at the table.
By the end of Day 3, just 16 players remained in contention for the title and the first prize of over $800,000. While the likes of Jerry Yang and 2023 WPT World Champion Daniel Sepiol failed to make it to the end of the day, Yuliyan Kolev, the 2023 Millionaire Maker champion, was one of two bracelet holders left in. The other being Frenchman Romain Lewis.
Fabrizio Gonzales held the chip lead overnight on 11.5m, more than 2m ahead of Yilong Wang, who had 8.3m at this stage. Not far behind, in 4th place of the 16 left at the end of Day 3, was Steven Jones, the 2023 WSOP Main Event runner up, who was beaten to the bracelet by Daniel Weinman. Kolev, with 7.2m and Ren Lin on 4.9m both crept into the top ten.
Day 4
Ren Lin made his mark early on Day 4, quickly moving up the leaderboard. But for every winner, there’s a loser and the first player to hit the rail was Romain Lewis (16th), followed soon after by Jiawei Mao (15th) and the UK’S Rohit Mariwalla (14th), all collecting $39,091 for their three and bit days of play. Rohit had been short-stacked and shoved with pocket jacks, only to run into Yuliyan Wang’s pocket aces.
This helped Wang get back over the 8m chip mark, as he had lost a few million in the early exchanges of the day, his re-found chip wealth was soon squandered as he doubled up Kolev with a loose call with K♣Q♣ against the Bulgarian’s A♠10♥.
By the time they reached the first break of the day, just eleven players remained, as both Martynas Vitkauskas (13th) and Olivier Busquet (12th) both departed shortly before the end of level 31. At this point American Seunghyun Nam held the chip lead, on 15.2m, with the sole remaining British player Hamid Toghyan in second with 14.1m. Fabrizio Gonzales and Ren Lin were not far behind, also with eight-figure chip stacks.
Soon after the break, Ren Lin made a significant move north, making a risky call for almost 8m chips with pocket tens. Luckily for Lin, the all-in player who made the move, Hamid Toghyan, only had pocket eights and he exited stage left, without signing any autographs, to collect the $61,183 for his 11th place prize finish.
“Unofficial” Final Table
With that elimination, Ren Lin took the chip lead onto the “unofficial” final table of ten players. At this point in the proceedings, David Lappin doppleganger Jason Richard was the shortest-stack, but he avoided taking an early bath when Steven Jones became the first player to go. Wang and Kolev were also short-stacked when the final table began.
Steven Jones’s 10th place exit ($61,183) did not come quickly and there was some reshuffling of the chip order before Yilong Wang’s A♠K♦ put his A♥Q♠ to bed. In taking Jones scalp, Wang moved to within 2m chips of leader Ren Lin, who had 19.6m.
Official Final Table
Wang moved into the lead soon after the next break in play, sending Indian Paawan Bansal to the rail in 9th ($77,760). Meanwhile, Israeli Ran Ilani and Yuliyan Kolev started making moves northwards, at the expense of Seunghyan Nam, who lost pots to both of them.
Fabrizio Gonzales recovered some of his dwindled stack when knocking out David Lappin Jason Richard in 8th place ($99,859) and soon after they went seven-handed, there was a change at the top, as Ran Ilani doubled up against Lin, moving to over 24m.
However Gonzales couldn’t recover enough and he was next to head to the payout desk to collect $129,563 for his 7th place finish. He was soon followed by Seunghyan Nam in 6th ($169,818), both falling to Ren Lin, enabling the Chinese fire-starter to move back into the lead once again.
Ilani then accounted for the exit of Kunal Patni in 5th ($224,833) the last of two Indians to make the final table. Patni shoved with 8♦6♦ on a flop of 5♣A♠8♠, however Ilani wasn’t going anywhere and made the 5m call with A♦7♦.
Yuliyan Kolev had been in search of his second career WSOP bracelet, but it was not to be for the entertaining Bulgarian, who had mixed it up with Ren Lin, joining in his antics at various points in the day. With the blinds at 400k/800k (800k ante) Kolev open shoved for 9m chips in the cut-off with K♦J♦ only to be called by Ilani, who had 6♦6♠. The board provided no help for Kolev and while he exited in 4th ($300,649), Ilani once again took the chip lead.
Three-Handed
With three players left and the prize money jumps beginning to get steeper, play began to get more serious. The pace of the game had stepped-up, with the last few exits happening in quick succession, but it was quite some time before play would move beyond the penultimate stage of the tournament. The chip counts when 3-handed play began were:
Ran Illani – 39m
Ren Lin – 28.7m
Yilong Wang – 23.2m
It had been a very international final day and in the end the last three included an Israeli and two Chinese. Ilani had the chip lead and with blinds now at 500k/1m (1m ante), he soon added to his stack, pushing over the 40m mark, at the expense of both his opponents. But no sooner had he begun to assert himself as the chip leader and there was another change of guard at the door to poker palace, bracelet housed within.
Lin check-raised Ilani off a 15m pot, where the Israeli had bet 9.1m on a board of 8♥10♦K♣7♥A♣, but folded after a lengthy time in the think tank. This effected a reversal of chip counts between the two, Lin now on 42m, while Ilani fell back to 26m.
The pair tussled in several hands, while Wang lurked quietly in the wings, waiting for his chance to pounce. Ilani fought his way back into the lead, then Lin bounced back again and carried the flag forward. But Ilani was having none of it, upped the aggression and once again got ready to race for the finish line.
As Lin fell backwards once again and Ilani started focusing on the trophy, Wang began to make moves. He overtook Lin for a few hands, but once again became the shortie as Ilani turned up the aggression, now possessing over 50% of the 91m chip in play.
Wang continued to play cautiously, avoiding the big pots that Ilani and Lin were prepared to get involved with. Wang had moved up to 28m by the time Ilani and Lim got involved in another big pot, which would result in the end of Ren Lin’s challenge for his first WSOP bracelet.
With the blinds at 600k/1.2m (1.2m ante), Lin shoved for his last 13m with J♠10♠, only to be called by Ilani, with a dominating holding of K♠J♦. Lin was not only doninated, but crushed when two kings fell on the flop. The turn was a 9♦, giving Lin a gutshot draw to a straight, but the 8♠ on the river was not the card he needed to survive. Ren Lin exited in 3rd place for $406,016.
Heads-Up
Ilani held a 2-1 chip lead when the heads-up began and would have been hoping to press his advantage home quickly to scoop the bracelet and massive first prize of over $800,000.
Ran Ilani – 62.8m
Yilong Wang – 30.7m
However, as is often the case in poker, that isn’t quite what happened. Wang began strongly, closing the gap significantly, being within 11m of his opponent by the first break of the heads-up encounter. After the break Wang came out strong and determined, pushing himself into the lead and increasing it little by little, until he had over 70m of the 91m chips in play.
In the final hand, Ilani limped, Wang moved all-in and Ilani called. The Israeli was ahead with 9♦9♥ versus 6♣6♠, but it was all-but over on the flop of 4♠10♦6♦ as Wang pulled into the lead with a set of sixes. The 10♣ on the turn gave Ilani further outs as a nine or a ten could still come to his rescue, however, the lifebouy missed its target and the K♥ brought the tournament to a close.
Ran Ilani strolled off to the cash desk to collect $553,692 for his runner-up finish, while Yilong Wang began preparing his winner’s speech, awaiting reception of his first ever WSOP bracelet and the small matter of the trifling $830,685 first prize.
