After more than eight hours of play on Day 3, Event #1: $1,000 Mystery Millions at the 2025 World Series of Poker concluded, with Michael Wilklow emerging as the winner. Navigating through a field of 19,654 players and generating a total prize pool of $17,295,520, the champion defeated Michael Acevedo in a heads-up battle to claim the gold bracelet and a hefty $1,000,000 prize at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The Mystery Millions event at the WSOP is always an extravaganza, and this year was no exception, with two mega $1,000,000 bounties up for grabs. Tyler Montoya secured the first of the top prizes on Day 2. After claiming his million-dollar prize, Montoya famously proclaimed, “If you’re a stripper at a strip club, you should be working tonight.”
The second jackpot bounty was also claimed on Day 2, going to Thomas Zanot. Zanot may now be known as the luckiest gambler alive; his massive win came just a couple of years after he hit an even larger jackpot. In January 2023, Zanot won a $6.4 million Pai Gow progressive jackpot at the Flamingo, a Caesars Entertainment property on the Las Vegas Strip.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Wilklow | United States | $1,000,000 |
| 2 | Michael Acevedo | Costa Rica | $563,350 |
| 3 | Daniel Strelitz | United States | $429,950 |
| 4 | Yu Hsiang Huang | Taiwan | $329,940 |
| 5 | Elliott Kampen | United States | $254,590 |
| 6 | Wesley Fei | China | $197,550 |
| 7 | Linda Ngo | United States | $154,140 |
| 8 | Jeffrey Hong | United States | $120,950 |
| 9 | Michael Marks | United States | $95,551 |
Wilklow has played poker his whole life, but started taking the game more seriously over the last couple of years. He believes his mental toughness helped propel him to victory. “I’ve never felt more focused than today. In the past, when I’ve played the Main Event, I remember feeling very tired on Day 3; today was different.” Wilklow quit drinking last year, which he believes was a massive help with both his endurance and mental toughness.
Wilklow didn’t enter Day 3 with any set strategies but made sure to do some last-minute studying in preparation for a long day. “Before the day started and during the breaks, I was reviewing my heads-up notes just in case, and I was glad that I did.”
As for who Wilklow viewed as a threat: “I was most wary of Wesley because he was the most loose-cannony, although I know the player I played heads-up is quite studied.”
The lion’s share of big bounties had been claimed on Day 2. As a result, the players on Day 3 were more focused on securing additional pay jumps.
Eliminations came fast and furious. Demarco Howard was the first to go, finishing in 20th place when his pocket sevens couldn’t improve against Daniel Westphal’s pocket kings. Players then started to drop like flies as stacks got shallow and play became more aggressive.
After just three hours, the 20 returning players had been whittled down to an unofficial final table of 10, as George Tatalovich’s pocket sixes couldn’t hold up against Yu Hsiang Huang’s king-queen.
The final table featured some seasoned veterans. Michael Acevedo is a well-known poker author, and Daniel Strelitz is a two-time bracelet winner, but both players fell victim to Wilklow, who was gaining momentum as the final table progressed.
With five players remaining, Wilklow found a crucial double-up when his ace-king was superior to Acevedo’s ace-ten. He then caught fire and went on to eliminate three of his final four opponents.
Once play got heads-up, the players traded jabs before Wilklow was put to the test with fourth pair by Acevedo, but he sniffed out the bluff and made an impressive call.
The final hand occurred when Wilklow turned a full house and Acevedo rivered a straight. Wilklow’s rail erupted as his million-dollar score was 20 times larger than his previous biggest cash.
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