The $3,300 buy-in Texas Poker Open Main Event has its champion and after an intense battle over the final days, Ravee Sundara, also known as ‘Sonny’, won the $283,143 top prize after a three-way deal, also taking home the Texas Poker Open belt buckle trophy after he outlasted 698 other entries.

Theodore’s Deep Run Precedes Final Day

After a strong performance from Kevin Theodore on Days 1 and 2 at the Champions Clubs in Houston, Texas, a Champions Club regular won the day in Ravee Sundara. With just two previous cashes on the PokerGO Tour, Sundara’s win means that he is right in contention to make the top 40 PGT players this season and thereby qualify for the $1 million freeroll championship at the start of 2026.

Day 2 didn’t only see the exit of PokerStake player Kevin Theodore, who came 47^th for $9,000, almost trebling his investors’ money. Others to reach Day 2 but go no further included WSOP bracelet winner Asher Conniff, the 2024 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Tamayo, Theodore’s fellow PokerStake player David Chen, WSOP crossbooker Jeremy ‘JBex’ Becker, PokerGO presenter and award-winning broadcaster Jeff Platt, PGT top 40 regular Isaac Kempton and Philip Hellmuth III, son of the legendary 17-time WSOP bracelet winner, along with mixed games legend Matthew Wantman.

With a massive $2 million prizepool in the $3,300-entry event, that grew to $2,097,000 after late registration was over and from the 88 players who made Day 2, only 11 of them survived to Day 3 and the final stage.

Liberto Loses Early on Final Day

After the early eliminations of Brian Green and Michael Liang, the final table of nine was reached, with Kaleb Harwell holding the overnight chip lead. One of the biggest casualties of the early action on the final day was the popular professional Justin Liberto, who failed to add another title to his many major successes in the past when Andrew Moreno outran him in a coinflip and he left in ninth place for $40,000.

The overnight leader heading into the penultimate day of action, Day 2, was Viet Vo, but the American made it no further, busting in eighth place for $50,000 when his king-queen couldn’t overtake the ace-seven belonging to Aaron Gao. Soon, kings were no good as a pair, when William Benson busted in seventh place for $60,000 in the very next hand. His pocket kings were well ahead of Gao’s ace-king pre-flop but a flush on the turn was enough to see Benson’s cowboys shot down post-flop.

Andrew Moreno knows all about winning major tournaments but fell short in sixth place when his straight draw didn’t come in against the made two pair of Harwell for a score of $80,000. A key hand took out Phu Vo in fifth place for $100,000 as his Broadway straight came in on the river but was beaten by the eventual winner Sundara’s full house. That sent the event four-handed and put the eponymous Sundara in charge.

Sonny Books the Win  

Jason Bullock was the next to exit, heading home in fourth place for $125,000 when his ace-eight couldn’t hold against Aaron Gao’s suited queen-ten. It was at that point that the stacks were even enough to provoke discussion of a deal and the three players agreed on ICM numbers that meant each of them would win almost a quarter of a million dollars as a minimum.

Only $60,000 and the Texas Poker Open belt buckle were on the line after Aaron Gao’s queen-deuce ran into Harwell’s pocket tens in the big blind and they held to prompt a heads-up deal, with three PLO hands to be dealt blind. Whoever won them would win the event and Sundara and Harwell agreed on the novel way of ending an event.

As it turned out, Sundara won them both, and in doing so became the second Texas Poker Open Main Event champion, winning $283,143, those all-important 283 PGT points, and the Global Poker Award nominated Texas Poker Open belt buckle. With $313,000 in cashes across his series, the Champions Club regular has boosted his overall lifetime poker earnings at the life felt to over $894,000 on The Hendon Mob and also sits just outside the top 100 players in Texas poker history, which given The Lone Star State’s propensity to produce poker legends, is some feat.

Texas Poker Open  2025 Main Event Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Ravee Sundara	United States	$283,143*
2nd	Kaleb Harwell	United States	$264,529*
3rd	Aaron Gao	United States	$247,328*
4th	Jason Bullock	United States	$125,000
5th	Phu Vo	United States	$100,000
6th	Andrew Moreno	United States	$80,000
7th	William Benson	United States	$60,000
8th	Viet Vo	United States	$50,000
9th	Justin Liberto	United States	$40,000