Series Review · World Series of Parker 2025
Four Out of Five, and One Night He Could Not Have
Eric Denny won every event of the fourth World Series except the heads-up tournament — and Warren Mervin took that one.
The mixed-game format came back for the fourth series, and came back further than ever: five events, five different games, two of which had never been played here before. It made no difference at all to who won. Eric Denny took four of the five and a third WSOP Champion title, and the one he did not win was the one where the format takes the whole field away and leaves you one opponent at a time.
Five events, five games
| Game | Date | Winner | Field | First prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-1 | Omaha Hi/Lo | January 24 | Eric Denny | 7 | $230 |
| 4-2 | 7 Card Stud | April 4 | Eric Denny | 9 | $200 |
| 4-3 | Heads Up | June 6 | Warren Mervin | 8 | $140 |
| 4-4 | Dealer's Choice | August 23 | Eric Denny | 7 | $255 |
| 4-5 | Crazy Pineapple | September 26 | Eric Denny | 5 | $135 |
Dealer's Choice and Crazy Pineapple were both new to the series. Neither slowed him down: Eric Denny won the Dealer's Choice night for $255, the largest first prize of the year, and closed the series in September at Crazy Pineapple against a five-handed field.
The one that got away
The June event was a double-elimination heads-up bracket — no table, no reading the room, just one opponent and then the next. Warren Mervin won it, beating Sean Denny in the final for $140. Eric Denny went out sixth.
It was Mervin's first World Series win, at the third event he has entered across all four series — the other two were the 2018 heads-up bracket and April's 7 Card Stud night, and he finished fifth in both. He is the ninth different man to win a World Series event across the four series.
Eric Denny's year
Four wins from five starts. $820 in prize money and 16 knockouts, both series highs, and a points total of 180.43, the highest anybody has posted on a World Series-only table. (The 420.44 that won the first series in 2018 was scored on a combined table that folded in the Canterberry season and the Annual, and is not the same measure.)
He now has ten World Series event wins from twenty starts across the four series. Nobody else has more than two. He is a three-time WSOP Champion and no other player has won it twice.
Lance Cain, second again
Lance Cain, the 2021 champion, was runner-up to Eric Denny in three of the five events — January, August and September. He finished second in the standings on 111.56, and took $430, more than anyone but Eric Denny.
| World Series of Parker — 2025 final | Events | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Denny | 5 | 180.43 |
| 2 | Lance Cain | 5 | 111.56 |
| 3 | Andrew Shier | 5 | 83.83 |
| 4 | Rick Mazza | 4 | 65.71 |
| 5 | Jeff Ferguson | 3 | 61.33 |
| 6 | Warren Mervin | 2 | 58.33 |
| 7 | Angela Cain | 3 | 57.6 |
| 8 | Charlie Drotar | 2 | 33.43 |
Andrew Shier has now played all five events of three separate series and finished third twice. Jeff Ferguson was runner-up in the April 7 Card Stud event, and Sean Denny reached the final of the heads-up bracket on his third World Series appearance.
Fourteen players and thirty-six entries. Four series have now been played and two men have won them: Eric Denny three times, Lance Cain once.