What Are the Best Poker Strategies Used by WSOP Champions?

Year	Champion	Prize	Field / Prize Pool
2023	Daniel Weinman	$12,100,000	10,043 entries / $93.4M pool
2024	Jonathan Tamayo	$10,000,000	10,112 entries / $94.0M pool — record field
2025	Michael Mizrachi	$10,000,000	9,735 entries / $90.5M pool
2026 ME	July 2–13 (upcoming)	$10M+ guaranteed	Expected ~10,000 entries

Every year, one player sits down at the WSOP Main Event final table and walks away as poker’s world champion. Two years in a row, that winner has been American. Three consecutive winners have pocketed $10 million. And each one, when you study how they actually played, followed a recognisable set of tournament poker strategy principles that go far beyond luck.

This guide breaks down exactly what WSOP champions do differently, drawing directly on the strategies of recent winners Michael Mizrachi (2025) and Jonathan Tamayo (2024), validated by GTO poker solver analysis, ICM strategy concepts, and real WSOP tournament data. Whether you’re preparing for a WSOP satellite, a Texas Hold’em tournament, a local event, or simply want to understand what elite tournament poker strategy actually looks like, these are the lessons that matter.

WSOP MAIN EVENT

Michael Mizrachi captured the 2025 WSOP Main Event title, earning $10 million after outlasting a field of 9,735 players competing for a $90.5 million prize pool. His victory made poker history, as he became the first player ever to win both the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and the WSOP Main Event in the same year—a feat widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements in tournament poker.

A year earlier, Jonathan Tamayo won the 2024 WSOP Main Event, topping a record-breaking field of 10,112 entrants and claiming the $10 million first-place prize from a $94 million prize pool. His triumph came in the largest Main Event field ever recorded, cementing his place in modern poker history.

Together, these back-to-back champions demonstrated the combination of elite tournament poker strategy, discipline, adaptability, and mental endurance required to conquer the world’s most prestigious poker tournament.

1. Controlled Aggression: The Strategy That Built Michael Mizrachi’s $10M Win

When Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi arrived at the 2025 WSOP Main Event final table, he had already won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for an unprecedented fourth time. But what made his Main Event run remarkable wasn’t just his résumé,  it was how he played when it mattered most.

Mizrachi entered the final day of play holding over 76% of all chips in play. He used that lead with surgical precision, eliminating fourth-place finisher Kenny Hallaert on the very first hand of the day, then dispatching third-place finisher Braxton Dunaway on the very next hand. This wasn’t luck. It was the product of relentless, calibrated pressure applied at every stage of the tournament.

The lesson here isn’t ‘go crazy when you have chips.’ It’s the opposite. Mizrachi used his stack as a weapon of attrition,  identifying when opponents were vulnerable, attacking before they could recover, and never putting his own tournament life at risk unnecessarily. GTO Wizard later analysed the final hand sequence and gave Mizrachi near-perfect marks on every major decision, from preflop defence to turn action.

What You Can Learn From This

•        A chip lead is only valuable if you use it — Don’t become passive at the table once you accumulate chips. Press every relevant spot, especially against medium stacks afraid to bust

•        Calibrate, don’t gamble — Mizrachi’s aggression was structured. He attacked weak spots, not strong ones. Knowing the difference is the skill

•        Trust your reads — Mizrachi described his 2025 run as the best poker of his life. That level of confidence comes from preparation and experience, not impulsiveness

2. Surviving the Pressure: Jonathan Tamayo’s ICM Mastery in 2024

Jonathan Tamayo’s road to the 2024 WSOP Main Event title is a masterclass in tournament survival. On Day 4 of the tournament, with roughly 10 big blinds, Tamayo faced an all-in situatio,  ace-queen against his hand. The ace on the turn saved him. He went on to beat 10,112 players and claim $10 million.

That near-elimination moment captures something every WSOP champion understands instinctively: surviving a bad spot is worth more than playing a perfect spot. ICM, the Independent Chip Model,  is the framework that explains why. Near the money bubble and at the final table, chip value is not linear. Busting in 1,501st place when only 1,500 players cash is catastrophic relative to the chip equity involved.

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ICM IN PLAIN ENGLISHIn a cash game, 1,000 chips = $1,000 always. In a tournament, 1,000 chips near the bubble might be worth $3,000 in real money, or $500, depending on your stack size and how many places pay. ICM calculates that value. Champions use it to decide when to attack and when to step back.

Tamayo himself explained his bubble philosophy in an interview with Card Player magazine: on a short stack, “you’re just pretty much trying to get to the minimum cash.” That’s not weakness,  it’s precision. Knowing when survival is the correct strategy separates professionals from players who bust the bubble year after year.

Applying ICM to Your Own Game

1.      Know the pay jump math: Before major decisions near the money, know what each remaining elimination is worth to you in dollars,  not just chips

2.     Tighten in the medium stack zone: Players with 20–40 BBs face the highest ICM pressure. Avoid marginal all-ins. Let big stacks attack short stacks first

3.     Push aggressively as a short stack: Under 15 BBs, survival without chips isn’t survival. Find clean shove spots rather than blinding into irrelevance

4.     Big stack: exploit the bubble: When others are tightening, you should be opening wider and stealing blinds that nobody wants to contest

3. The Strategy Comparison: What Recent WSOP Champions Do Differently

Strategy Pillar	What Champions Do	Why It Wins
Chip Lead Aggression	Press every advantage relentlessly	Mizrachi held 76% of chips entering final day — forced opponents into losing spots
ICM Awareness	Adjust ranges based on pay-jump math	Tamayo survived Day 4 with 10BB by folding correctly under ICM pressure
GTO-Grounded Lines	Play solver-approved lines in key spots	GTO Wizard gave Mizrachi near-perfect marks on the final hand sequence
Mental Resilience	Maintain composure during variance swings	Tamayo said ‘play your game’ — survived a cooler on Day 4 to go on and win
Stack-Size Adaptation	Switch gears based on BB depth	Short stack = push-fold; deep stack = post-flop leverage and blocker play

Across the last three WSOP Main Event winners, Daniel Weinman (2023), Jonathan Tamayo (2024), and Michael Mizrachi (2025), several common strategic threads emerge. None of them won by running hot and hoping. Each navigated a multi-day tournament structure with intentional, adaptive decision-making.

4. GTO vs. Exploitative Play: What the Best Players Actually Use

There’s an ongoing debate in the poker world about whether champions play Game Theory Optimal (GTO) poker or exploit-based poker. The honest answer, based on how recent WSOP winners have discussed their games, is that elite players use both, and know which mode to switch into.

GTO poker means following a balanced strategy that cannot be profitably exploited by any opponent. It’s the default setting for top professionals, particularly in spots where they don’t have enough information about their opponent to deviate. Mizrachi’s final hand against John Wasnock is a textbook example,  GTO Wizard analysis showed his line was theoretically close to perfect.

Exploitative poker means deviating from GTO when you have a read that justifies it. Tamayo, for instance, played aggressively heads-up against Jordan Griff, adjusting his ranges based on live reads at the table rather than strictly following solver outputs.

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THE PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYFor most players below the professional level, exploitative poker is more profitable. If your opponent folds too much, bluff more. If they call everything, stop bluffing. GTO study provides the baseline — but awareness of your specific opponent’s tendencies is what actually prints money in live tournaments.

5. Final Table Strategy: The Adjustments That Close Out Tournaments

Getting to a WSOP final table is an achievement. Winning it requires a completely different gear. The dynamics shift dramatically as the table shrinks, pay jumps grow, and every player at the table is aware of exactly what elimination means in real money.

•        Short-handed ranges widen significantly — As the table drops from nine to five to three players, hands like K-9 and A-7 become strong holdings. Players who continue playing full-table ranges lose enormous equity

•        Position matters even more — Three-handed and heads-up, every button steal attempt is a meaningful strategic action. Playing from out of position becomes costly fast

•        Heads-up is its own game — Tamayo and Griff exchanged the chip lead multiple times in 65 hands of heads-up play. Heads-up poker rewards aggression, hand-reading, and the ability to fire multiple barrels without hesitation

•        Study your opponents before play begins — Both Mizrachi and Tamayo had support teams reviewing opponent tendencies. Knowing that an opponent c-bets 80% of the time or never bluffs the river is actionable information worth hours of preparation

•        Manage the emotional swings — The 2025 final table completed in just 80 hands — one of the fastest in years. Mizrachi attributed his composure to preparation: ‘I played my best poker in my life. I never gave up.’

6. The Mental Game: What Champions Have That Others Don’t

It’s tempting to explain WSOP victories through hands,  the river ace, the final flush, the two-pair on the last hand. But champions consistently point to something less visible: the mental framework that keeps them functioning at full capacity across ten days of high-pressure competition.

Mizrachi described winning the 2025 Main Event as ‘fate’,  but he’s a nine-bracelet winner who also took down the most prestigious $50K event in the same summer. That’s not fate. That’s the product of decades of preparation, a stable emotional baseline, and the ability to make clear decisions when the stakes are at their highest.

Tamayo’s approach was arguably even more instructive. Going into the final table, his mentor and 2015 WSOP champion Joe McKeehen gave him one piece of advice: ‘Play your game.’ That simplicity, not overcomplicating the moment,  allowed Tamayo to make decisions he’d already practised thousands of times, rather than freezing under pressure.

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FOR YOUR OWN PREPARATIONBefore your next major tournament: review 3–5 key spots from your last session (not every hand). Sleep properly between days. Identify two or three table-specific adjustments you plan to make. Champions don’t wing it. They prepare so thoroughly that big moments feel familiar.

Recent WSOP Main Event Champion Profiles

2025 WSOP Champion	Prize	Field Size
Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi	$10,000,000	9,735 entries / $90.5M pool
Key Strategy: Built and leveraged a dominant chip lead. Entered the final day with 76% of chips in play. Won with calculated aggression, GTO-approved lines, and 9 career bracelets’ worth of experience. Simultaneously won the $50K Poker Players Championship — the first player in history to complete that double.

2024 WSOP Champion	Prize	Field Size
Jonathan Tamayo	$10,000,000	10,112 entries / $94.0M pool (record)
Key Strategy: Survived a near-elimination on Day 4 with ~10 BBs. Employed precise ICM awareness throughout, adapted his strategy to each opponent at the final table, and won a gruelling 65-hand heads-up match against Jordan Griff. Credited preparation and simplicity — ‘play your game’ — as his guiding principle.

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