Nick Seward Wins WPT Venetian Las Vegas Spring Championship

Nick Seward, Lily Kiletto and Anthony Zinno were among the six finalists in the WPT Venetian Las Vegas Spring Championship this week, and it was Seward who sealed victory, winning a top prize of $418,700 after beating Greg Brown heads-up. Other stars such as Lily Kiletto and Anthony Zinno made the final table, but Seward was not to be denied his moment in Sin City as he got his name on the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup.

Big Names Bust Before the Final

With a buy-in of $5,000 and a $2 million guarantee, the event attracted the cream of poker, and while some players busted before the money places, plenty of the most experienced players made profit. Former world champion Jonathan Tamayo cashed for $9,200 in 59^th place, with Scott Ball (58^th), Benny Glaser (54^th), David ‘ODB’ Baker (53^rd) and David Coleman (51^st) all winning the same amount.

Jeff Madsen (46^th) won $11,000, as did Alex Foxen (44^th) and Robbi Jade Lew (41^st). David Peters won $13,800 in 35^th place, Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen took home the same amount in 34^th place, while former major winner David Jackson banked $17,000 in 31^st. WPT Champions Club member Brandon Cantu (28^th) took home the same in 28^th place, while Eric Baldwin (23^rd for $20,700), Sam Laskowitz (16^th for $24,900), Anthony Hu (11^th for $35,000) and Shannon Shorr (8^th for $52,000) all missed out on the final table despite deep runs.

The final table ‘Bubble Boy’ was Nick Schulman, as the first Poker Hall of Fame inductee for 2025 left in seventh place with $67,000 when he was unluckily ousted from the event. Swathed in a black hoodie, baseball cap and shades, Schulman was all-in and at risk pre-flop with pocket aces, well ahead of Greg Brown’s pocket queens. That was until a queen landed on the flop. No help came for Schulman, and the eight-time WSOP winner walked away as Brown piled up almost half of the chips in play.

Had Schulman won the pot, he would very likely have led the final six. Instead, he was on his way home.

Kiletto Killed Just Short of Glory

As the final six steadied themselves for battle, two of the final six aimed for some poker history. Anthony Zinno was hoping to become the third player ever to win four WPT titles alongside Brian Altman and Darren Elias, while Lily Kiletto was bidding to bag an open WPT Main Tour title to join Van Nguyen and Ema Zajmović as the only female players to do so in the open era.

Eddie Pak was the only player to hail from outside of the United States at the final table, but the South Korea went no further than sixth place as he claimed a result worth $87,000.

Just three hands into the action, Pak moved all-in for 880,000 with ace-five of clubs. Drake Kemper called with king-queen of hearts and while he started the hand behind with the bigger stack, a king on the flop flipped the script. It came with two clubs, and a five in the other suit, giving Pak plenty of outs, but across the deuce on the turn and seven on the river, no clubs came, and Pak left the party early.

Soon, the final table was down to just four hopefuls bidding to win $418,700 up top, including a $10,000-entry into December’s WPT World Championships Main Event. Anthony Zinno’s deep run ended in fifth place for $114,000 when his shove with king-jack ran into the ace-four belonging to Greg Brown. A king did land on the flop but so too did an ace and with neither man hitting any more cards that fit theirs, Zinno was eliminated outside the top four.

Lily Kiletto also failed in her bid for glory, as she was busted in fourth place for $151,000. On a board showing A-A-5-9-6, Kiletto shoved with pocket tens. She was quickly called by Greg Brown, however, who had flopped a flush draw and drilled that draw on the river with his four-deuce, scooping the pot and taking out Kiletto just outside the podium places.

Seward Seals the Deal

Down to three players inside just 21 hands, play stretched out a little as the stacks had deepened and there was more play to proceedings. Brown led with 16.2m chips to Seward’s 6.9m and Drake Kemper’s small stack of 1,275,000 and those tallies told as Kemper was out next.

All-in with ace-jack, Kemper was unlucky to be behind Seward’s ace-king given only three players were dealt cards and nothing looked like changing on the flop of K-7-5. A ten on the turn did give Kemper four outs to a Broadway straight but no queen fell, a king instead rubber-stamping Kemper’s elimination as he walked away with a third-place prize of $200,000.

Heads-up, Greg Brown had almost a 3:1 chip lead but if he thought his victory would be easy, he was much mistaken. Nick Seward closed the gap a little to leave himself only 2:1 down in chips before taking a marginal lead with 12.3m to Brown’s 12.1m with the average stack at 81 big blinds. A series of aggressive river raises gave Seward the advantage, but it still took until the 102^nd hand of heads-up play to find a winner.

On a board of 7-6-3-3-8, Seward announced all-in with over double his opponent’s chips. Brown deliberated for a long time but eventually called to his doom with eight-six, as Seward turned over seven-three for a turned full house. It was a stunning final hand given the board was eight-high and gave Seward a richly-deserved victory after some strong heads-up play. Despite that, Brown’s performance, couple with his penchant for taking out the most dangerous players in the final eight, earned him a best-ever score of $270,000 as runner-up, which doubles his entire career earnings of $245,796 to this point in his career.

Watch all the action here as the final table of the WPT Venetian Las Vegas Spring Championship plays out to a dramatic conclusion: