It was a battle between colony and motherland when Robert Wells, from Wales in the UK, found himself head-to-head against Canadian mixed-game beast Thomas Taylor. That was after 3 days of intense action in Event #58: $3,000 Nine Game Mix at the 2025 World Series of Poker hosted by Horseshe and Paris, Las Vegas.
The game drew 409 entries for total prizes of $1,092,030. There were 18 players left when the final day convened, with Wells coming into the day one of the shorter stacks, ahead of only David Bach (from the top ten), who is a fixture deep in WSOP mixed games.
That was all the Welshman needed, however, as he ran his start-of-day stack of less than 1 million up to the full stack for the entire game, 16.36 million by the end. This was Wells’ first bracelet and biggest live score — the $228,115 was about half his previous lifetime total, bringing his earnings to more than $750k after the win.
Wells Denies Canadian Taylor
The final day was a pretty stacked affair. Along with the aforementioned Bach, who is dangerous in the mix with any chip stack, Philip Sternheimer (who bagged a bracelet earlier this series in the PLO8 Championship), Yuri Dzivielevski, Jon Kyte, Jeff Madsen, and runner-up Taylor, were among the players who were in the final 18 on Day 3.
Wells came to Day 3 with just under 1 million in chips, 9th in the standings, with leader Jonathan Glendinning almost 500k in front. Taylor was less than 200k back of the leader to start the day, sitting in 3rd.
After the game, while chatting with the official live reporting team at PokerNews, Wells said he was still adjusting to the win. “I feel tiredness mostly, not really feeling like it’s real. It’s amazing.” Wells has been close before, with two runner-up finishes in 2024, so taking that final step was important.
“I came second twice last year, so I know that pain on the other side, so being on this side of it is amazing. If I could have picked any tournament to win, this would probably be two on the list, besides the PPC.”
His defeated opponent in heads-up play likely understands the pain of coming second all too well. Taylor has been playing mixed games at the highest level for years, holding his own against the best in the world. In this series alone, he’s booked 8 cashes, with this result being his second runner-up finish of the year, in addition to a runner-up finish in the 8-handed PLO last year and four other final table finishes in the last few years.
The Canadian fell one short again last night as Wells took down his first, but it’s clear that both sides of the heads up battle understand the pain of falling just short of the big prize.
WSOP 2025: Event #58: $3,000 Nine Game Mix Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Robert Wells | $228,115 |
| 2 |  Thomas Taylor | $149,152 |
| 3 |  Fu Wong | $99,771 |
| 4 |  Anthony Ribeiro | $68,304 |
| 5 |  Nicolas Barthe | $47,884 |
| 6 | David Bach | $34,394 |
| 7 | Jonathan Glendinning | $25,328 |
| 8 |  Yueqi Zhu | $19,134 |
WSOP 2025: Event #58: $3,000 Nine Game Mix Final Table Recap
Day 3 proved to be pretty fast, with 18 players returning for the final day but just 10 remaining by the first break. Yuri Dzivielevski, defending champion and friend of Wells, bubbled the final ten just before the break for 11th place.
They spent a while jostling for positions as the final table approached before Ari Rabin-Havt and Sternheimer bubbled the 8-handed official final table. Wells led a tight race, with 1st and 6th separated by just a couple of big bets.
Wells kept chipping up during 8-handed play before Yueqi Zhu was the first FT elimination. He ended his day when he patted a dead hand in triple-deuce against the #6 of Fu Wong.
Start of day leader Glendinning was next to fall in 7th when he bricked a wheel draw in triple-deuce against Anthony Ribeiro’s #2. Triple-deuce took its 3rd straight victim when Bach patted a 9 against the #3 for Wong to end in 6th place.
Nicolas Barthe and Ribeiro quickly followed Bach to the rail to make the game three-ways before Wong, also known as Grasshopper, patted a jack in single-deuce only to run into a pat nine for Wells. That set the Welshman Wells against the Canadian Taylor for the big prize.
Taylor had a small lead to start the HU battle, but he extended that quickly to about 2:1 before a quick break. After returning to the felt, the two battled for a couple of hours before Wells found trips for a scoop in Stud Hi-Lo while Taylor bricked a low draw to take a big lead.
Taylor had a chance to stage a comeback as he was drawing to an 8 on the final hand against a pat ten for Wells in single-deuce, but the Canadian bricked with a pair to finish an agonizing second again while sending the bracelet across the pond to the UK with Wells.
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