Benjamin ‘bencb’ Rolle Wins 2025 WSOP Online Main Event

This week, GGPoker changed their line-up of online poker events, swapping out the regular weekly $10,300-entry GGMillion$ online tournament and replacing it with the big one, the $5,000 WSOP Online Main Event. With the show’s host, Jeff Gross joined in the virtual commentary box by the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, the majority of the $28.3 million prize pool was up for grabs and the drama was legendary.

*plus a $30,000 WSOP Super Pass

Early Moves See Rabas on the Rise

As the final nine players gathered to battle down to a winner and the $3.9m top prize, the eventual champion was in charge. The German pro Benjamin Rolle, known in the online poker world as ‘bencb’, headed into the action with 85 big blinds, enough for a big lead over Finnish pro Anatoly Zlotnikov on 61 big blinds.

Last week’s GGMillion$ winner on GGPoker – the same site used to play out this WSOP Online Main Event – was Santiago Plante and he was third in chips on 51 bigs, with China’s Zengxiang Chen (35BB), Argentinian Marco Perez (32BB) and the former WSOP bracelet winner, German pro Daniel Smiljkovic (30BB) behind the top three. Shorter in chips were Israeli player Amit Benyacov (28BB), Cyprus hopeful Andreas Christoforou (22BB) and the official short stack Austrian Felix Rabas, whose stack of 11 big blinds would soar up the leaderboard in the opening exchanges.

Playing with no fear, Rabas was the aggressor in several situations and the ICM handcuffs were on many at the final table, allowing the Austrian player to steady the ship. After several doubles for him, two others tried and failed to emulate him, the Chinese player Zengxian Chen busted with ace-jack against Anatoly Zlotnikov’s ace-ten. A board of Q-Q-7-4-T sent Chen home with $487,813 in ninth place, before Amit Benyacov’s ace-jack lost to Rabas’s pocket aces, the Israel player cashing for $632,473.

No Smiles for Smiljkovic

While the chip leader stayed out of the way of the early skirmishes, Rolle was soon involved and became the executioner for several others’ hopes at the virtual felt. Cyprus player Andreas Christoforou was on the wrong side of a coinflip when he left in seventh place for $820,072, his pocket sevens unable to hold against the ace-king of Rolle.

Santiago Plante was the next to go, busting in sixth place for the first seven-figure score of the evening, a massive $1,063,360. The Canadian player was short when he shoved with king-seven, running into Rolle’s ace-ten and never caching up. That meant last year’s GGMillion$ winner, who scooped $304,000 for that achievement, banked over a million dollars for coming sixth.

Out next was the Argentinian player Marco Perez, who banked an incredible $1,378,866 for coming fifth. All-in with king-seven, Perez was outrun by Rabas with queen-nine as the short stack at the start of the day continued to climb the ladder at the Argentine’s expense, Perez crashing out short of the top four places.

The former WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Smiljkovic busted in fourth place for $1,788,026 as the Austria-based player, who has a phenomenal record of success online and live, lost a classic race when his pocket sixes were good enough in the next hand for him to move all-in pre-flop. Anatoly Zlotnikov called with king-queen and a queen on the flop ended matters in the Finnish player’s favor.

Give Him the Crown

With just three players remaining, the Austrian Felix Rabas’ heroic efforts to win from being the short stack with nine remaining fell short. He still earned an incredible $2,318,640 in third place, however, as his ace-three ran into the monstrous pocket aces belonging to Zlotnikov. That pot earned the Finland player the chip lead heading into the final battle as he began the fight for a WSOP bracelet with around twice his opponent’s chips but that was not to last.

Running king-jack into Rolle’s ace-king, Zlotnikov lost a huge pot and handed the German the advantage at a crucial moment. Rolle is an experienced online whizz and having coached players, telling them not to blow opportunities when they are presented to you with such ease, wasn’t about to ignore his own advice.

All-in with king-queen, Rolle needed help against Zlotnikov’s ace-nine when the call came for all the chips, but that help arrived for the German on the K-5-2 flop. Only running cards or an ace would save Zlotnikov and after a jack on the turn, the Finnish player was drawing to just three outs in the deck. No ace came and Rolle could celebrate finishing seven places higher than he did last year, finally achieving the immortal win in the WSOP Online Main Event.

“Give Ben the crown, this man has made the final table two years in a row, What a day, what a final table!” Jeff Gross said on GGPoker’s YouTube channel.

“Other than one misstep Ben made, you look at the hands he made after that,” said the  17-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth . “To me, when you’re playing great, the biggest pots are where you have a huge advantage. I just don’t like the giveaway with king-jack, that was too many blinds to put in.”

Watch all the action as it played out in the company of Jeff Gross WSOP behemoth Phil ‘The Poker Brat’ Hellmuth right here: