WSOP 2025

Brits Riding High as Benny Binks Bracelet No 7

by Jonathan Raab June 6, 2025
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Oops, he’s done it again! It’s not even much of a surprise, as Benny loves going deep in Las Vegas and when he does, there’s always a high chance that he will scoop. In winning Event #15 $1,500 Mixed: PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Benny Glaser has claimed the seventh WSOP bracelet, his second of the week and become $258,193 richer. 

The tournament had not completed on its scheduled third day and Benny took a narrow chip lead into the unplanned fourth. But after Trevor Pearson took out David Shmuel in one of the first few hands of the day, Glaser started the heads-up with more than a 2-1 chip deficit. 

It was a very long heads-up match in which the chip lead flip-flopped several times, but eventually Glaser whittled his opponent down and Pearson had little more than a small blind left when the final hand played out.

Glaser moves into joint seventh place in the all-time bracelet winners list. He shares that rung on the ladder with lots of other players, including Daniel Negreanu, who he must now be odds-on to overtake, when he becomes Benny the Eighth. But when will this happen, could he win a third bracelet this series? 

2025 WSOP Benny Glaser Winner of Event #15:
Benny Glaser Winning 007 Bracelet, photo courtesy of WSOP

A colleague of mine suggested that I should ask AI if Benny will win three this year, but I declined, as the response would be predictable. In response I offered my own assessment of how Perplexity would respond to such a question:

“Benny Glaser is a highly skilled player with a strong record. He’s in great form and its entirely possible, but statistically unlikely that he will win a third bracelet during the 2025 WSOP.”

Only seven players have ever captured three bracelets in the same year, the last of these being Scott Seiver, who did so last year. Puggy Pearson (1973), Phil Hellmuth (1993), Ted Forrest (1993), Phil Ivey (2002), Jeff Lisandro (2009), George Danzer (2014), although one was won at WSOPA, are the players who have achieved the feat.

Whether he does join this elite club or not, what is almost a certainty is that he will go deep again during the series and when he does, will he/won’t he will be the main talking point. 

The other key talking point related to Benny is whether he will take down the Player of the Year award, as he is now the front-runner in the race. With 77 bracelet events left to start, it’s still very early days to make that call, but Glaser has history in his sights.

Eight other Brits cashed in the event and most of their results were reported in the previous edition of this series of articles about the fortunes of British players at the 2025 WSOP. The one other who made it beyond Day 2 was Patrick Leonard, who busted in 9th place for $20,564.

Cowen’s 3rd Bracelet Attempt Goes Awry

Omaha specialist Robert Cowen has made a name for himself in the last few years, winning two WSOP bracelets and tasting success at the EPT. He’s now a big name, one that has banked millions, but is still thirsty for more. He made the unscheduled fourth and final day of the Event #14 $25,000 High Roller PLO/NLH Mixed in fourth place in the chip counts, with five players left.

Extending the tournament an extra day meant it would play out on the TV table, broadcast on PokerGo. This final table, like many other WSOP events, was free to view on PokerGo’s YouTube channel and requires no sign-up to do so. As is often the case when Brits make final tables, a somewhat jovial rail assembled to cheer Rob on in his quest for the third bracelet of his career. 

At one point Rob had to assure chip leader Ben Lamb that the baaing noises he might be hearing from the British rail were due to him being Welsh and not intended as a slur on the 2011 WSOP Player of the Series. The table banter was fun to listen to and Rob was just settling into his comfort zone when he was ultimately silenced by Lamb. Meh.

It was an Omaha hand and Cowen three-bet Lamb’s 560k opener, making it 1.8m to go, leaving himself less than 3m behind. Cowen insta-shoved on a flop of 2♣8♦5♥ and Lamb made a very un-sheepish call. Cowen was in the lead with A♦A♣5♣4♠ but Lamb was drawing to straight with K♥9♠7♠6♥.

Robert Cowen Watching River Card Being Dealt – Brits Riding High as Benny Binks Bracelet No 7
Robert Cowen Watching River Card Being Dealt. Screenshot taken from PokerGo YouTube coverage

Cowen and the UK rail gave a cheer when the A♠ fell on the turn, but quickly muted themselves when they realised it was an irrelevancy, as Lamb still had the same outs and a 30% chance of scooping the pot. The 6♣ on the river sealed the deal and on this occasion, American lamb was tastier than British beef. 

Rob is still in search of his 3rd career bracelet, but banked $421,524 for fourth place, much of which will likely be re-invested in further high roller events at the 2025 WSOP. It would be a surprise if he doesn’t go deep again during the remainder of the series.

Two other British players cashed in this event. Stephen Chidwick was 21st for $53,371 and Philip Sternheimer took 35th for $50,829.

Brits Riding High as Benny Binks Bracelet No 7

Martin Nielsen Takes 5th in $600 PLO Deepstack

Another UK resident to have made a final table is Martin Nielsen, who finished in fifth place in Event #16, the $600 PLO Deepstack for $51,900. The Dane, who resides in London, was amongst the 108 players who made it to the second day, progressing with 1.2m chips. He was among the chip leaders for much of the day and went into the final in fourth place with just over 10m chips. Eight other players from the UK also cashed in the event.

Finishing PositionNamePrize
5Martin Nielsen$51,900
55Adam Dickson$3,836
60Howard Smith$3,215
87Jiaze Li$2,017
176Jack Moore$1,560
232Kevin Allen$1,394
278Paul Haus$1,261
435Stephen Moreschi$1,201
459Min Ji$1,201

Philip Sternheimer Makes Last Three of  $10,000 Dealer’s Choice

Three British players had the chance to become bracelet winners today and while only Benny Glaser managed was able to achieve this, Philip Sternheimer had a chance to emulated his success in Event #18, the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice. He still does have a chance at that, as this one was suspended and will require an unscheduled fourth day to complete. These unscheduled fourth days seem to be quite common this year. 

Philip has 1.9m chips left and is the shortest stacked of the remaining three players with Ryan Hoenig on 4.9m and Dylan Smith on 2.2m. This is Philip’s third cash of the 2025 WSOP and this time he’s guaranteed a payday of at least $154,460, with $354,444 up top for the winner.  Play resumes on Friday.

Philip is the only player from the UK to cash in this event, maintaining the UK’s 100% record of recording at least one cash in every event, so far. How long can this continue?

Double-Double for Tikay

In the last edition I reported on Tony ’Tikay’ Kendall’s first cash of the WSOP, 94th place in Event #13, the one that was won by Benny Glaser. On his way back to his hotel room at the Orleans he passed the poker room, spotted that a $240 Omaha Mix was in play and still had one minute of late reg on the clock. But Tikay decided against it, opting instead for an early night in his oversized and under-priced room at the British circuit players’ traditional favourite place to stay in Vegas (well, it was circa 2005-2007).

Did he heck, he obviously fired away, buying-in just in time to be seated before entries were closed. It turned out to be a good spur of the moment decision as Tikay made his second cash of the day, finishing 5th out of 111 for $1,310.

This was the fourth cash of Tony’s Great Retirement Adventure, which you can read about in his diary on Blondepoker and it had a smattering of deja vu about it. Tony’s first two cashes of the trip both occurred on the same day and now his third and fourth have been achieved in the same manner. It’s a double-double for Tikay, which really should be celebrated with a trip to In ’N’ Out Burger for one of their legendary menu items of the same name.

Brits Riding High as Benny Binks Bracelet No 7

Brown & Hughes In 3-Way Chop at MGM

But wait, there’s more British success to speak of before this rather lengthy edition of the every-other-day Brit report concludes. Redtooth’s Glenn Brown and Ian Hughes were involved in a 3-way chop of Event #37 at the MGM Grand Summer Poker Festival. It was the $150 NLH Late Night Daily and they took $1,730 each. Not sure who the other person involved in the chop was and I don’t think they know him either.

Brits Riding High as Benny Binks Bracelet No 7
Glenn Brown & Ian Hughes in 3-way chop at MGM Grand

Other Recent British Wallet Stuffers

Twelve players from Old Blighty (I don’t really like this old fashioned reference to Britain, but I have to vary the lingo to prevent myself from getting bored of writing ‘Brits’ repeatedly) made the money in Event #17, the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em. However none made it particularly deep, with Thomas Middleton being the highest placed in 45th. Chris Moorman and Jack Sinclair were among the others to visit the payout window.

The tournament is not yet over as it’s another that been extended to a fourth day, but it’s at the heads-up stage between Scott Bohlman and Dusti Smith. They should swap surnames.

Finishing PositionNamePrize
45Tom Middleton$9,323
48Sebastian Crane$9,323
55Chris Moorman$8,032
62Mitchell Hynam$8,032
80Darren Taylor$6,215
90Jack Sinclair$5,090
100Samuel Wilkinson$4,708
111Scott Margereson$4,708
172Dean Lyall$4,011
190Jonathan Shoreman$4,011
235Paul Hizer$4,011
252Dean Hutchison$4,011

Event #20, the $1,500 Shootout has moved into its final day with 15 players left, who all won their second round tables. No British players are left, but Brandon Sheils, Jamie Dwan and Matthew Frankland, who won their first round tables, cashed for $5,360 each.

There are also no players from the UK left in Event #21, the $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better amongst the 11 who will contest the final day on Friday. However five players from the UK did make a profit on their investment.

Finishing PositionNamePrize
27Edward Jackson Spivack$8,101
76Samuel Del Castillo$3,596
84Daniel Ezekiel$3,346
160Stuart Rutter$3,022
170Andrew Ward$3,022

Colossus Stacks

The first two days of Event #19, the $500 Colossus have now been completed and with two more flights to go, 18 British players have so far secured their continuation in the tournament of ginormous proportions. Gareth Devereux (743k) and Jack Sinclair (602k) posted the biggest stacks of the eight Brits who made it through from Day 1a.

PlayerChip Count
Gareth Devereux743,000
Jack Sinclair602,000
Ian Bosley400,000
Samad Razavi303,000
Andrew Leigh242,000
Jordan Lewis212,000
Andrew Teng101,000

Ten Brits survived Day 1b, with Anton Johnson’s 1.1m stack being one of the top ten stacks from the flight. Paul Hizer (531k) and Martin Nielsen (410k) also qualified for Sunday’s Day 2.

PlayerChip Count
Anton Johnson1,100,000
Lord Bhasin703,500
Jun Li581,000
Paul Hizer531,000
Jiaze Li521,000
Martin Nielsen410,000
James Walker273,000
Grant Gardner212,000
Mathew Truepenny138,000
Antony Hallam75,000

Other Brits Through to Day Twos

Three of ten British players who entered Event #22 the $25, High Roller 6-Handed remain at the end of Day 1. Chris Moorman is the highest placed of these with 771k with the two Matthews, Beltcher (402k) and Frankland (128k) being the other Brits with bracelet hopes still alive.

And Finally, only two British players made it into Day 2 of Event #23, the $1,500 Badugi, which is the biggest in the history of the variant with a total field of 534. Adam Owen has a slightly above average stack of 149k, while Yunlamkevin Choi is just below the mean on 135k.

* Hands and photos courtesy of PokerNews and WSOP

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Adam Owen Benny Glaser British Poker Players Chris Moorman Glenn Brown Philip Sternheimer Robert Cowen Tony Kendall UK Poker WSOP WSOP 2025

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