Matthew Wantman Triumphs At U.S. Poker Open

The 2025 U.S. Poker Open is halfway finished, with more than $3.8 million in prize money awarded through the first four events on the eight-tournament schedule. The most recent to wrap up was the penultimate $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. A total of 103 entries resulted in a prize pool of $1,030,000, with 15 players making the money. Matthew Wantman emerged victorious in the end, earning $231,300 and his fourth career PokerGO Tour title as the champion.

This was the fifth-largest score of Wantman’s 376 recorded cashes. The Stoneham, Massachusetts native now has more than $8.6 million in career earnings. His largest payday remains the $443,475 he earned as the champion of the 2019 World Poker Tour Aria Summer Championship.

This was Wantman’s second final-table finish of the series, having also placed sixth in event no. 3. His back-to-back deep runs were enough to move him into the lead in the USPO series-long points race, with 318 PGT points and $285,800 in earnings thus far.

Wantman also secured 600 Card Player Player of the Year points with this triumph. This was his eighth final table of the year. As a result of his strong start on the circuit, he now sits inside the top 50 in the 2025 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

Two-time POY award winner Stephen Chidwick came into the final day of this tournament with the chip lead among the remaining six contenders, with Wantman hot on his heels.

CoinPoker ambassador Patrick Leonard was the first to hit the rail on day 2. He called a river shove from Chidwick with top pair, only to be shown a king-high straight. The bracelet winner from the UK earned $51,500 for his sixth-place showing.

Isaac Kempton (5th – $66,950) soon followed, with his K-J losing to the A-J of Yifu He. This was Kempton’s third cash and second final-table finish of the series.

Masato Yokosawa

Wantman was the shortest stack when three-handed play began, but he won two big pots off of Chidwick to leave the British tournament superstar short. Chidwick’s final stand saw him three-bet for all but 25,000 of his stack from the big blind with A2. He, who had opened from the small blind with A4, moved all-in and Chidwick made the call for his final chip. The board brought four spades to give He a winning flush, which sent Chidwick packing in third place ($118,450). The two-time bracelet winner now has nearly $65.2 million in career earnings, the third-most of any player in tournament poker history.

With that, He took roughly a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Wantman. The early action favored Wantman, who seemed poised to pull away multiple times, only to have He battle his way back. Wantman held only a slight chip advantage when the final hand of the tournament was dealt. He raised to 600,000 from the button with Q6 and Wantman defended his big blind with 87. The flop came down 1077 and Wantman checked his trips. He checked behind and the turn brought the Q. Wantman checked a second time and He fired 900,000 with his queens and sevens. Wantman called and the 4 completed the board. Wantman checked yet again and He bet 1,500,000. Wantman check-raised to 4,000,000 and He called all-in for 3,500,000 total. Wantman revealed his three sevens to lock up the pot and the title.

He headed home with $201,300 as the runner-up, the largest score yet for the Sunnyvale, California resident. He now has more than $752,000 in career cashes under his belt.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: PokerGO.

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