Ryan Freeman Takes Down Champion's Club WPO Main Event for Career-Best of $181,000!
The 2025 Champions Club Winter Poker Open $1,500 Main Event has finally come to its dramatic conclusion as Ryan Freeman hoists the trophy after defeating Dora Coyle in a wild heads-up battle. Along with the trophy and the title, Freeman takes home $181,000 while Coyle is awarded the runner-up prize of $161,000.
2025 Champions WPO Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Freeman | $181,000 |
| 2 | Dora Coyle | $161,000 |
| 3 | Trevor Lewis | $90,630 |
| 4 | Alejandro Jauregui | $66,240 |
| 5 | Trung Pham | $51,320 |
| 6 | Joel Trevino | $41,040 |
| 7 | Rakan Abusaleh | $33,000 |
| 8 | John Ross | $26,360 |
| 9 | Brant Jolly | $20,100 |
Winner's Reaction
“Oh it feels great, I’m not gonna lie, it feels great! The structure was fantastic and it allowed me to pick the right spots… yeah it turned out great, especially when I also noticed quite a few players make some ICM mistakes when the ladders (pay jumps) were really massive, so I was able to just hang around and wait for things to happen.”
“And yeah it also helps a lot that I sun-runned in a couple of big important pots,” he added.
According to The Hendon Mob, Freeman’s largest score occurred at Choctaw in 2018 when he won a CardPlayer event for $192,242, but he actually said he did the same $20,000 deal then with Schuyler Thornton so he really took home around $172,000, making this his biggest score!
The Katy, TX native said he used to play full-time but currently works in construction as a senior project manager but still finds time to play plenty of tournaments, usually once a month in whatever the biggest series in Texas is at the time.
In true Texas fashion, he said “I’m gonna go grab a patty melt at Whataburger on the way home and then go to work tomorrow.”
When asked if he had other plans for the winnings, he simply said, “Nothing sexy, going to take the wife out for a fancy dinner and then invest the rest.”
This tournament was one for the books here in Houston as 849 players took their shot in the seven starting flights. The $1 million guarantee for this event was hit early on the second-to-last flight and when it was all said and done the total prize pool reached $1,120,680.
Of these entries, 103 of them (12%) made the money and returned on Day 2 yesterday, where they played down to 14 after hitting the hard stop at 1:15 a.m. Those 14 players returned today at 2:00 p.m. and the action heated up right out of the gate, especially for short-stacked Mohammed Bassam who doubled up within the first two hands. The first player to find the rail was Andrew Tran when he got it in with queen-jack against the ace-queen of Michael Bahls and fell in 14th place. The action then slowed down again for around forty-five minutes before it was Maxx Holland got involved in a big pot with Joel Trevino when he flopped trips against the full house of Trevino who scored a big double. Left short, Holland exited soon after in 13th place. Soon after that, Bahls fell in 12th to Trevor Lewis and Brant Jolly eliminated Bassam in 11th when he flopped top set of jacks.
They were down to ten when Jonathan Vuong got it all in with pocket queens against Rakan Abusaleh who held sevens, but the latter flopped an open-ender and got there on the turn to eliminate Vuong in 10th place.
With his elimination, the surviving players were moved to the live-streamed final table.
Final Table Action
The action on the final table started off at a decent pace but it really picked up after two orbits when Brant Jolly got it all in with queen-ten but could not improve against the pocket jacks of Trevino and was therefore sent out as the first casualty.
Just a few hands later, a massive hand that altered the state of the tournament occurred when Coyle got it all in preflop with aces and was called by Trung Pham who held kings. This classic cooler rocketed Coyle up into a massive chip lead where she used her big stack to apply pressure.
A few orbits later is when Freeman got his first taste for blood when he was able to knock out John Ross when his queen-four suited dominated the jack-four offsuit of Ross to send him out in 8th place.
During this time, Rakan Abusaleh, who started the day as the chip leader, found himself dwindled down to just a few big blinds and was trying his best to survive some payjumps. He eventually got it all in with queen-four himself but ran into the pocket sixes of Alejandro Jauregui and was unfortunately unable to improve, sending him out in 7th. The very next hand Trevino busted to Pham when he ironically got it in with ace-eight against the ace-ten of Pham, just like Coyle and Freeman! And just like Coyle, Trevino was unable to find a double and the Mexico native was sent to the rail in 6th place.
Next to go was Pham himself when he got in all in with pocket kings on a seven-high flop against Coyle…who of course held pocket sevens! Pham could not find a king on the ace-queen runout and he was sent out in 5th in brutal fashion while Coyle cemented herself as the dominant chip leader. Coyle then continued this momentum when she called a three-bet from Jauregui with queen-eight and the flop came out eight-high. After some back-and-forth betting, she re-raised all in and Jauregui made the call with just ace-king to put himself at risk but was quickly shown the bad news. He failed to hit an ace or king on the turn or river and he ended his run in fourth place.
Coyle then began three-handed play with a monster chip advantage over Lewis and Freeman, and it wasn't long before Lewis succumbed to her when he turned two pair against her flopped set and was ultimately eliminated in third place.
In his interview, Freeman mentioned that this spot was extremely lucky as he had just doubled through Coyle the hand before and decided to ease off the gas by mucking jack-nine preflop. The flop then came jack-nine-five and he would have also fallen to Coyle in the same hand!
Coyle and Freeman then entered heads-up player with the former holding a 2:1 chip advantage, but it wasn't long before Freeman closed the gap through several big hands. The largest one being when he turned trip nines against the pocket jacks of Coyle and snap-called when she shoved the river. This pot was one of the biggest of the tournament and it definitely shifted the momentum towards Freeman. After another forty minutes of non-stop action, Coyle moved all in for almost 15 million on an ace-high turn with ace-eight but Freeman tank-called her with a superior ace-ten to put her at risk for all the marbles. The river failed to give her the eight she desperately needed and she was eliminated as the tournament’s runner-up. Although she did not secure the win, Coyle, who actually won her seat to this event via satellite at Oak Cliff Card Club in Dallas, said she was very happy with how she played and was very appreciative of all of the support she received both in the room and on the stream. A great run and a great example for women in poker!
Freeman was then awarded the Champion’s Club Winter Poker Open trophy along with $181,000!
Congratulations to Ryan!
Well, that concludes the PokerNews coverage of another successful Champion’s Club series but be sure to keep a tab open to get the scoop on all things poker!
