Online Poker Warriors: Winners, Events, and Poker Advice from May 2025

Online Poker Warriors: What You Need to Know

• Explore Key Tournament Victories: Discover the standout players who claimed victory in the major online poker tournaments of May 2025 and learn about their paths to success.

• Highlight Prestigious Events: Get insights into the most significant online poker events that took place in May 2025, including new and returning series that captured the poker community’s attention.

• Gain Strategic Poker Advice: Absorb valuable tips and strategies from the top online poker players of 2025, designed to elevate your own game and increase your chances of winning.

• Understand Industry Trends: Learn about the latest trends influencing the online poker scene, including technological advancements and evolving player dynamics that are shaping the future of poker.

• Connect with a Vibrant Poker Community: Discover how online platforms are fostering a dynamic community of players, offering opportunities for interaction, competition, and skill development.

Online poker is alive and well in 2025 and the game continues to grow around the world. There are more series than ever with tournaments and cash games for every type of player.

Casino.org’s new Online Poker Warriors feature offers a look at some of the game’s monthly winners, interesting hands, personalities, and some poker advice from players offering up some tips on social media. Keep reading for some of what’s happening in online poker.

More Players, Bigger Paydays

Finding a major score online is always a good feeling. And in the U.S., player and prize pools are expected to increase in the coming months after Pennsylvania recently joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).

This means operators can now pool players in member states, including Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. MGM is now live in the latter three states and Pennsylvania’s Justin Vaysman noticed the increased competition and prize pools on the platform. He was also pleased to cash in on a nice May Millions final table appearance in a recent $1,000 Six Figure Sunday event.

That wasn’t the only player seeing some big returns in the May Millions series. New Jersey’s Michael Bohmerwald found a runner-up finish in a $2,500 super high roller for $34,632.

Just a day later, Bohmerwald found an even bigger score on the live poker felt – taking runner-up in a $1,500 event at Parx Casino in Pennsylvania for $57,662. A poker heavyweight came out on top in that one, with  Bing Weng coming out on top.

The New Jersey grinder finished as Card Player magazine’s 2023 player of the year and also took the same title for the World Poker Tour after amassing more than $6.4 million in winnings for the year.

Bohmerwald is no slouch at the poker table. The father of two has more than $2 million in poker winnings, a WSOP bracelet, and six WSOP Circuit rings. How has the merged market experience been so far?

“The increased player pools have been amazing,” he tells Casino.org. “MGM ran an unbelievable series a couple of weeks ago. The $1,000, $400,000 guaranteed was the best non-bracelet online tournament of the year and I am partial to the $2,500 after coming in second. 

“WSOP.com has had a great schedule since the merger. It’s been great to have a $215 satellite to the WSOP main event run daily with most days getting two-plus seats. I am really worried about the bracelet schedule and how late the events will finish with the increased pool though, and think it’s going to be very bad for recreational players that have 9-to-5 jobs.”

The live play runner-up finish only added to a nice few months that included a WSOP Online bracelet win for $35,520. He’s hoping the heater continues.

“It was a roller coaster of a day two,” he says. “I came in with a healthy stack and got short quickly, then spun it up once in the money. I took a terrible beat at the final table (K-10 versus J-9 all in on a Q-J-9 board) that put me seventh out of eight players. To come back and take second place felt like a win with Bin having all of the chips.”

Nice Win & Box Full of Goodies

Anthony “EataHoagie” Cicali found a solid win recently on BetMGM as well, taking down a March Mayhem tournament for $1,700 that also came with a nice perk – a box full of swag. The New Jersey streamer and poker player offered up a box opening of what came with the win on Twitter.

The prize included a hat, satchel, keychain, and a water bottle. A BetMGM basketball jersey was the highlight and of course was personalized as “Hoagie” on the back.

Players Cash in During PokerStars SCOOP

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is one of the biggest events on the online poker calendar each year, with versions held in North America as well as other parts of the world. Some big names found the winner’s circle in May.

Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson grabbed his 12th title on May 21, and third this year, to take the all-time SCOOP lead in a string of wins dating back to 2012.

The Swedish poker pro also has $1.9 million in live tournament winnings, and also won GGPoker’s World Series of Poker Online $5,000 main event winner in 2022 for $2.8 million.

Some others cashing in with big SCOOP wins include Ole Schemion and Denis Strebkov. Schemion took down the $1,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw event for $16,418 and now has 10 SCOOP titles. The German poker pro has more than $10 million in live poker winnings.

Strebkov added his 10th as well, after winning a $530 HORSE six-max for $10,661 followed by a $55 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw for another $3,679. The Russian pro has more than $877,000 in live poker winnings.

Streaming Fan to Poker Warrior

The recent Irish Poker Open shows just how popular streaming has become and is helping to grow the game.

Ireland’s Bernard “Benny” Norris, who now lives in British Columbia, Canada, broke his foot and wrist in a moped accident three years ago. With some time on his hands, Norris turned to the Twitch stream of PokerStars ambassador Ben “Spraggy” Spragg to kill some time as he recuperated. He became fascinated and continued tuning in to watch Spragg compete on the virtual poker felt.

Norris soon jumped in the action himself and eventually played a one-cent tournament hosted by Spragg. He ended up winning a $2,500 tournament package for the Irish Open and was pleased to head back to his homeland for some poker action.

“Winning something like this, it’s not the dollar amount that matters,” he told PokerStars. “It’s the experience, the community, and the journey back to Ireland. It all just felt  … right.”

Poker Advice of the Month: Daniel Negreanu & Phil Hellmuth

Looking to work on your own poker game? Poker pros regularly take to social media to offer some advice for those who may not have massive bankrolls, but who are still looking to sharpen their skills.

None other than seven-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu offered some advice for players on May 13 in regard to using deception at the tables to bleed more money out of opponents. He offered up some tips on bet sizing and how to camouflage your hand by bringing a little Hollywood to the table.

Bluffing was the topic of 17-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth’s hand of the week. He discussed the consequences of a semi-bluff that could have gone wrong in a hand against billionaire tech entrepreneur Stanley Tang and venture capitalist and entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya. He called the hand the “biggest bluff of my life.”

The $200/$400 no limit hold’em action saw Tang straddling to $800. Hellmuth called $600 from the small blind with Ks5s and Tang raised to $5,000. That received one call and Hellmuth also called. He said this wasn’t his usual style to call with this hand, but said Tang raised a ton of pots.

The flop brought Js6d2s to give Hellmuth a flush draw. He checked and Tang bet $5,000 and the other player and Hellmuth called. The turn brought the 5c, giving Hellmuth a pair of fives and a flush draw. He once again checked and Tang bet $50,000 into the $30,000 pot.

The other player folded and Hellmuth elected to move all in for $450,000. Tang asked for a count of his chips and ultimately folded. Hellmuth sees the high-stakes cash game as a way to prepare for the upcoming WSOP, but things could have definitely gone wrong. The moral to the story? Sometimes it’s important to go without your instincts, no matter how tough it may be.

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