The only reason Ian Pelz was among the 24,629 entries to Event #67: $300 Gladiators of Poker was his return to the Horseshoe to pick up his car after celebrations the previous evening. The $300 ‘hangover bullet’ he fired when he arrived would turn into an incredible and unexpected success.
The four starting flights combined to set a new record turnout in the three years the Gladiators of Poker has been running, and that meant a prizepool of $6,058,734 for one of the most affordable events of the entire summer series.
When the four opening flights converged on day 2, the 812 players were swiftly whittled down to just 13, with that ‘unlucky’ number locking up a 100x ROI.
Roland Israelashvili was the only former WSOP bracelet winner among them and he would go on to bag the first of the six 6-figure paydays up top.
That was after surviving an all-in-at-risk race and then this remarkable 4-way all-in, triple bustout that burst the final table bubble…
Timothy Thorp: A♠ 3♥
Albert Felarca: A♦ Q♣
Ramond Takhsh: 8♥ 8♠
Roland Israelashvili: K♦ K♥
Flop: 2♣ 10♦ 2♠
Turn: 3♣
River: 7♣
His exit came courtesy of Pelz with 10s against 9s, the Colorado-born pro’s hangover by now long-gone.
When Cao and Rodriguez bust out we had our podium trio and that’s as far as Manuel Reyes would go, snapping off Sang Sim’s 3-bet shove in a blind-against-blind battle…
Manuel Reyes: A♠ 10♣
Sang Sim: 8♥ 8♦
Flop: 2♦ 7♦ Q♠
Turn: 8♣
River: J♥
Pelz had to pull back a 5:2 chip deficit but once he did it didn’t take long for the denouement to arrive…
Congratulations to Ian Pelz, winner of the @WSOP Gladiators of Poker—the second largest live poker tournament of all time.
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 1, 2025
Pelz turns $300 into $420,680. pic.twitter.com/DPbbvuVmA9
Final table results
1 | Ian Pelz | USA | $420,680 |
2 | Sang Sim | USA | $300,160 |
3 | Manuel Reyes | USA | $219,410 |
4 | Jesus Rodriguez | USA | $167,730 |
5 | Yuanzhi Cao | USA | $128,970 |
6 | Roland Israelashvili | USA | $100,120 |
7 | Joseph Butler | USA | $77,580 |
8 | Santiago Trujillo | Argentina | $60,700 |
9 | Timothy Thorp | USA | $47,770 |
For Pelz it was a fourth cash of the 2025 WSOP, his bracelet win last night improving on his previous career best from the 2019 Main Event where he finished 37th for a $211,945 cash.
He told PokerNews reporters afterwards: “I kind of just played my game and good things happened… I definitely took advantage of the fact that some of these players have less experience and haven’t been in these situations before, whereas up until the final table it wasn’t really a stressful situation for me.”
