The 2025 Western Poker Series at Merit Crystal Cove Hotel features a number of massive tournaments, including the ongoing $1.5 million guaranteed $3,300 buy-in main event. While that event has yet to crown a champion, the $5,000 high roller wrapped up earlier this week with Russia’s Sergei Varnaev coming out on top.
This was the largest score yet for Varnaev, topping the $156,808 he earned as the third-place finisher in the 22024 World Series of Poker Online $1,500 monster stack event. He now has nearly $509,000 in recorded scores to his name.
The win also came with 624 Card Player Player of the Year points, which were enough to move Varnaev inside the top 50 in the 2025 POY standings presented by Global Poker.
This event drew 174 total entries, surpassing the $500,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $800,400.
Merit Poker regular Maxime Chilaud also made a deep run in this event. The Frenchman, who has secured four of his five largest tournament paydays at this venue, finished third for $89,900. As a result, he now has nearly $1.9 million in total cashes on his résumé.
Check out a video from Merit Poker highlighting the final table of this high roller event:
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Sergei Varnaev | $200,000 | 624 |
| 2 | Lyudmil Ivanov | $134,000 | 520 |
| 3 | Maxime Chilaud | $89,900 | 416 |
| 4 | Maher Achour | $65,000 | 312 |
| 5 | Bogdan Jontulovic | $50,000 | 260 |
| 6 | Mehmet Demirkol | $39,000 | 208 |
| 7 | Ludovic Uzan | $30,000 | 156 |
| 8 | Sachin Joshi | $23,000 | 104 |
| 9 | Xin Tang | $18,000 | 52 |
Photo credit: Merit Poker Facebook page.