North Florida poker mainstay bestbet Jacksonville is currently hosting the 2025 Winter Open tournament series, with eight events spanning Jan. 23 – Feb. 2. The $400 buy-in no-limit hold’em kickoff event drew a sizable field of 1,064 entries, easily surpassing the $200,000 guarantee for the tournament to build a final prize pool of $345,800.
The tournament sported six starting flights, with two a day from Jan. 23-25. The top 105 finishers made the money, with five-figure paydays for the last five contenders.
The largest payout was ultimately captured by Hunter Wroten. The nearby St. Augustine, FL resident walked away with $72,205 as the champion. This was his second win at the venue, having taken down a $660 buy-in six-max event at the 2024 Card Player Poker Tour stop last August. He now has nearly $134,000 in recorded tournament earnings to his name.
Congratulations to the players who battled their way to the final table of Event #1 in the 2025 Winter Open Outlasting a tough field is no small feat—well played! #bestbetJAX #WinterOpen #FinalTable #PokerTournament pic.twitter.com/hW55IPL7k1
— bestbet Poker Room (@bestbet_jax) January 27, 2025
Wroten entered the final table as the chip leader, with Joseph Jordan not far behind. Those two big stacks clashed in a massive coin flip midway through the final table, with Wroten’s pocket jacks holding up against Joseph’s A-K to see him take a big lead heading into the back half of the day.
Wroten knocked out Reece Crews in fifth place ($11,293). Daniel McGrath (4th – $16,083) soon joined Crews on the rail, with his K-2 unable to come from behind against the A-K of Huston Vandoren.
Jordan’s last stand saw Q
10 fall against the A
J of Wroten. Neither player improved on a paired eight-high runout and Jordan was eliminated in third place ($25,800).
Heads-up play began with roughly a 5:2 advantage for Wroten over Vandoren. In the final hand, Vandoren shoved from the button for 5,075,000 (around 13 big blinds) with K3
and Wroten called with JJ. The board came down 877Q3 and Wroten’s pocket pair held to earn him the pot and the title. Vandoren was awarded $42,980 as the runner-up finisher.
Check out a full replay of the final table on bestbet LIVE below:
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Hunter Wroten | $72,205 | 384 |
| 2 | Huston Vandoren | $42,980 | 320 |
| 3 | Joseph Jordan | $25,800 | 256 |
| 4 | Daniel McGrath | $16,083 | 192 |
| 5 | Reece Crews | $11,293 | 160 |
| 6 | Gregory Goater | $9,582 | 128 |
| 7 | Andrew Brown | $8,213 | 96 |
| 8 | Dalip Madnani | $6,844 | 64 |
| 9 | Anderson Premdas | $5,817 | 32 |
Photo credit: bestbet Jacksonville.