A career highlight
In every poker player’s life, there’s at least one story that they have refined and polished down the years, a tale recounted with theatrical pauses, often accompanied by a swig of something strong. It might be the final-table that they “played perfectly” (a claim their friends politely let slide). It might be about the miraculous river card that took them from the precipice of elimination, igniting a comeback of Treetop Straussian proportions.
a career highlight is the result of pure audacity
Sometimes, a career highlight is the result of pure audacity. Occasionally, it is the product of a daring play, fuelled by instinct, caffeine, and an utter disregard for responsible bankroll management. Once in a while, it is a singular, glorious moment, when the player was insightful, fearless, and maybe even inspired.
The reality, however, is that career highlights are rarely the neat, cinematic triumphs that morph into poker folklore. More often they come disguised as gritty grinds, late-night breakthroughs, or anonymous sessions where something finally and mercifully clicked. In a way, that’s part of the charm. The lack of applause provides its own drama. Poker has a way of giving you your biggest milestone on a random Tuesday, when the only witness is a dealer who’d rather be on break or an insouciant feline who’d rather you were petting her.
Like Poker Avengers, my panel has assembled once again. I have heard about their goals and their downswings, but this time I want to know about their 2025 highlights.
Highlight of 2025
David Lappin: What result – cash, title, or personal milestone – stands out as the highlight of your 2025 poker year?
David Docherty:
I’m hoping that it will be winning the Live League in a few weeks but until then, I’ll say my whole PokerStars Open Manchester trip. I had resigned myself to giving up on the race for the leaderboard title if I didn’t have a strong trip to Manchester, and then I won both the opening event and the closing event, and also managed a third place in the Cup for what incredibly is my only live five-figure score so far this year. It’s been a really, really odd year!
Nate Silver:
The highlight was certainly making a Day 5 run in the Main Event after a Day 6 in 2023. I busted on a triple-barrel bluff and my opponent was at the top of his range and tanked for four minutes so I can’t feel too bad about that.
I didn’t even know Big O was a split pot game!”
The only other thing that came close to that was finishing 4th in a Big O tournament in Maryland on some random winter weekend. When I entered, I didn’t even know Big O was a split pot game!
Kyna England:
I was pretty proud to make a deep run in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Mystery Millions. I had always wanted to pull a bounty, and even though they were small, I got to pull two. Overall, I had a profitable year, and that isn’t always a given for poker players so I am grateful for that.
Andreas Mavromoustakis:
Obviously the result that stands out for me is the $703K win at Merit in North Cyprus which is my biggest cash to date. That completely changed my career, improved my life and introduced me to a much larger poker audience that had never heard of me before because I always liked online poker more.
Ian Simpson:
Winning the 888Poker Live Madrid Main Event was something special. I’ve been with 888 for three and a half years now and the friendships with the team have been growing over that time. When I made the final table, I could feel all the love and support from them. My biggest worry leaving Unibet was who I would end up with at a new company, especially because I loved so many of our team at Unibet.
Nick Walsh:
I would say 2025 has been one of (if not THE) busiest, most diverse range of commentary / poker content projects that I’ve undertaken since working in the poker industry. At this point in my career, I wear many hats and my skillset has grown in a way that I am now PRODUCTION (albeit self-taught) and ANCHOR (or support) when necessary and I am perhaps FINALLY starting to shake some of that latent imposter syndrome that I’ve felt since I began in 2019. I’m proud of that.
Turlough McHugh:
Going deep in a $2K at the Wynn was a fun sweat. It was my first deep run in a live event and kind of confirmed to me that I have an edge when competing for so much money. I also final tabled the Sunday million this year for the third time if you can call that a milestone.
Tobias Leknes:
I had a really deep run at the EPT Main in Barcelona. I rarely play big No Limit Hold’em tournaments, and I definitely feel lost a lot of the time, so getting such a run is something for which I am truly grateful.
Padraig O’Neill:
It has to be starting to stream on Twitch and working, initially with Paddy Power and now with World Poker Tour Global. If you told me in November 2024 that I’d have worked for 12 weeks streaming for a poker site and then got offered two 12 month contracts to work as a streamer I’d have been delighted and also confused as I hadn’t done it once before.
I must be doing some things ok!”
I’m also happy to finish my 15th year as a pro with another winning year online. I must be doing some things ok! Don’t tell the chat pros!
Sid Sudunagunta:
My first ever live tournament win came in the £1,000 High Roller at the PartyPoker Live Birmingham. It had been a fun series so to finish it with a win (after having won the entry in a raffle) was fantastic!
Jaime Staples:
I had not travelled for poker in six years before this year so to pick it up again and thrive in that environment feels like a big win. I really enjoyed it! That’s top for me.
Nikki Limo:
My third place score at The Wynn for $25K was great but I really had a lot of fun playing the ‘heart monitor’ cash game stream at The Lodge. I would love to be able to play more stream games with fun people if time (and bankroll) allows.
I feel like I’ve lived one thousand lifetimes, but this one is pretty funny”
Content-wise, I had my highest performing video on Instagram ever with the “Just Fold” video. Currently at just over 1.3 million views, which eclipsed my previous record of 1.2 million for Bad (beat) Santa. I really get a kick out of people who don’t know me at the table suddenly going “you’re the just fold girl! I sent that video to everyone!” I feel like I’ve lived one thousand lifetimes, but this one is pretty funny.
Kenny Hallaert:
Playing the WSOP Main Final Table.
Jim Reid:
This one might surprise some people but one of the moments that I am most proud of this year was bubbling the $1K PKO Bounty at the WSOP Circuit series at Playground Poker Club in Montreal last month. I was only there for four days but had cashed all three of the tournaments I had played so far, and, as the money bubble approached in the final one, I was relishing the idea of pitching a ‘perfect game’ and going four for four over the trip. Three from the money, I took a +EV spot for a number of huge bounties and a shot at the chip lead… but also the risk of busting! I bust. I think the ‘me’ from earlier in my poker career would have just folded and passed on the spot in order to guarantee the great story of cashing every tournament on the trip, but as a more experienced player I went for the jugular, and I take some pride in that growth.
Rania Nasreddine:
Of course it has to be winning 2024 GPI Breakout Player back in February. It looks like I will be the last rookie of the year forever or for at least a while.
Aaron Barone:
My deepish run in the WSOP Main Event was magical for a variety of reasons. First, there’s some nostalgia about the Main Event because of growing up in the Moneymaker Era and watching it on television. Secondly, the $45,000 score is my biggest live cash by a significant margin.
I was willing to put my Hendon Mob on a t-shirt”
Prior to that I had under five figures of total live cashes, a number that would be embarrassing to some, but I didn’t care. In fact, I was willing to put my Hendon Mob on a t-shirt, which seemed to be a big hit with people and hopefully got my message across that total live cashes are an overrated metric.
Lukas Robinson:
It has to be playing poker at the Sigma Poker event in Brazil with one of my Liverpool FC idols John Arne Riise.
Ray Wheatley:
Being on The Chip Race podcast was obviously a key achievement! Unfortunately, I had no wins or even strong live scores. I made the IPO Dublin final table and was in contention for the €100,000 ($118,000) WPT Global Golden Ticket bonus but I never got going, losing my first flip. Online, I had a lot of nice wins and scores. I won over €30,000 ($35,000) in satellites with an ROI of 90%. Overall though, it was a disappointing year after a strong 2024.
Jen Shahade:
The highlight was for sure my third place finish at the North American Poker Tour in Las Vegas for my biggest score yet of almost $300,000. It was a dream come true to run so well and have so many wonderful friends on my rail, both virtually and live.
