Schulman among the elite
With 100 events, the 2025 World Series of Poker is going to have loads of first-time winners. It’s a life-changing moment, and often life-changing money for every single one of them. On the other end of the spectrum, there are always seasoned veterans who bag a bracelet to add to their legacies. Two such gentlemen met this description this week: Nick Schulman and Jason Koon.
Schulman won the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship and $542,540 for his seventh career bracelet. He joins Benny Glaser, who won his seventh last week and second of the 2025 WSOP, in the extreme elevations of the all-time bracelet rankings. They sit behind only Phil Hellmuth (17), Phil Ivey (11), Johnny Chan (10), Doyle Brunson (10), Erik Seidel (9), and Johnny Moss (9).
In winning the championship, Schulman defeated Darren Elias heads-up. Elias is one of the best players in the world to have never won a World Series of Poker bracelet. There must be something in the water at the WSOP, as his four World Poker Tour titles are the most in history.
“It’s a little emotional because I was content to lose to him because he deserved it,” Schulman said of Elias afterward. “I wanted to win. It feels amazing. I’m a little bit overwhelmed with this one.”
What’s a few million among friends?
The previous day, Jason Koon won his second career WSOP bracelet in the $50,000 High Roller event. That’s a far cry from Schulman’s seven, but the $1,968,927 first prize was the largest so far this summer.
The win also allowed Koon to pass Justin Bonomo for third on the all-time money list with over $66 million in career tournament earnings. He’s now only about half a million dollars (heh…only) behind Stephen Chidwick for second. Bryn Kenney sits atop the earnings leaderboard with nearly $76 million.
Koon had a seemingly overwhelming chip lead heading into the final table, but he was no longer in the pole position when it got three-handed. And to make things more stressful (or, I suppose, more enjoyable, depending on one’s perspective), Koon was competing against two close friends: Andrew Lichtenberger and Ben Tollerene.
“The challenges of playing against them is they’re the best players in the world. It’s hot, it’s bright, the pressure is high, the stakes are high. But Ben and I have just been soaking it in,” Koon told PokerNews.
Koon doubled up through Lichtenberger with Aces versus Kings and it eventually came down to those two buddies. They exchanged the chip lead a few times, but Koon was able to pull away and claim the title.
Image credit: PokerGO.com
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