Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 1d 2025 World Series of Poker
The 57th-annual running of this storied event attracted 9,208 entries by the time registration officially closed, making it the fourth-largest yet. Further adding to a historic summer, Japanese poker pro Shiina Okamoto made history by becoming the first woman to win the WSOP Ladies Event in back-to-back years. Winning the two toughest poker tournaments in a single year, an accomplishment many thought was impossible, the governing board of the Poker Hall of Fame held an emergency vote, and unanimously voted Mizrachi into the Hall of Fame. Moving to the Horseshoe and Paris in 2022, for the first time in the event’s history, the WSOP would be held on the Las Vegas Strip. Since Spinella’s lone WSOP bracelet victory in 2015, he has gone on to win five WSOP Circuit rings and accrue over $1.7 million in WSOP tournament winnings. From the momentum spurred by Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP Main Event in 2003 and the ensuing Poker Boom, the WSOP saw record attendance year after year, culminating in the largest tournaments in the event’s history.
The very first WSOP online bracelet tournament was in 2015, with the $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold ‘Em won by Anthony Spinella over a field of 905 for $197,743. In 2024, the WSOP Main Event saw a record 10,112 players. However, from 2017 entries in the Main Event increased year-on-year, with the 8,569 players in the 2019 WSOP Main Event the second-highest ever, just short of the record of 8,773 set in 2006. In 2008, the WSOP introduced the November Nine where the Main Event plays down to a final table of nine in July, before resuming in November. Barbara Enright became the only woman to make the Main Event final table with her fifth-place finish in 1995, until Leo Margets achieved the same feat in 2025 where she finished seventh.
David Yedvobnick was the first final table casualty, finishing in 10th after falling to Nakai’s runner-runner straight. With the average stack around ten big blinds, every player was just one hand away from either building a stack or heading to the payout desk. I’ll go back to Hong Kong, maybe play tournaments in Asia, and come back here in December.” “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he eventually said. But Negreanu has fared worse in some of the higher buy-in events. The 2025 WSOP Paradise schedule once again leaned into scale, with every event on the slate awarding a coveted gold bracelet and a mix of massive fields and ultra-high-stakes showpieces.
Live reporting of both events will start on Thursday, June 18. Similar to other events, including the Colossus and Senior Championship, this event will have corresponding Day 2 flights, before the field combines for Day 3 on Monday, June 22. He was one of only two players, along with Scott Ruegsegger, to bag over two million in chips.
He saw his stack of 50 million evaporate in the last hour of play. One of the day’s cruelest exits belonged to Kyosuke Nagami. Other notable eliminations before the field reached the final three tables included Ralph Perry, whose ambitious hero call with pocket eights on a board of 10♠6♥5♣4♥Q♥ ended his run in 44th place. Tyler Gaston and Blake Barousse bagged the two biggest stacks at the end of Day 6, but neither made it to the final three tables. “I just realized this tournament ends tomorrow, so I can still hop in the $25K H.O.R.S.E. and the $1K Turbo,” he said. “I thought I was running hot already. I thought I’d used up all my run good for the year, maybe two years. But the poker gods have shined on me again.
For this last event of the summer, a total of 1,699 entries were recorded by the time late registration closed at the end of Level 10. After a day filled with “ups and downs, ups and downs,” Wong finally got his hands on the bracelet he had been chasing. The Hong Kong-based player already had several strong results to his name, including a 13th-place finish in the Monster Stack earlier this summer. Wong explained that he began playing poker in 2013 by “learning and learning more,” but has been taking tournaments much more seriously over the last two years. After navigating a slow-paced final table where the average stack never climbed much above ten big blinds, Wong defeated Ryuta Nakai heads-up to capture his first WSOP bracelet and the top prize of $216,286.
- Both players were subsequently banned from Caesars properties.
- All remaining players have locked up at least $57,500 from a prize pool of $85,634,400.
- The WSOP welcomes poker players from around the globe.
- Displaying one of the greatest hot streaks in WSOP history, TV producer Jamie Gold would cruise through the entirety of the tournament, capturing the 2006 WSOP Main Event title and the largest prize in the event’s history.
- The two-time World Poker Tour main event winner’s lifetime earnings now sit at $59,697,774, putting him back inside the top ten on poker’s all-time money list.
Those are just the first two bracelet events out of 100 this summer (plus 30 online at WSOP Online). As Japanese poker players continue to excel at the 2026 WSOP, Daisuke Ogita wins the largest score of his poker career and his first WSOP bracelet. While the biggest poker tournament in the world continues to unfold, WSOP bracelets continue to be won in other WSOP events. Las Vegas, Nevada (July 2, 2026) – Today is the day thousands of poker players from around the world have been waiting for.
What is the World Series of Poker (WSOP)?
The 2026 World Series of Poker will run from Tuesday, May 26, through Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Winning a gold bracelet or Circuit ring is more than just a trophy. Since 1970, the WSOP has been the place where that dream lives. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. We encourage all users to check the promotion displayed matches the most current promotion available by clicking through to the operator welcome page. PokerNews.com is the world’s leading poker website.
The first of four WSOP Main Event starting flights took place on Wednesday, July 2, 2025 The 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) took place from Tuesday, May 27 through Wednesday, July 16 at the Horseshoe and Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Players should follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP.com for more event news and updates. Extending his WSOP bracelet victory total to 4, Scott Clements showcased his mixed game mastery by claiming victory in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship. Defeating 2025 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Nick Schulman heads-up, chess master Michael Casella won his first WSOP bracelet and the $141,963 top prize. Get caught up on all of the action that has taken place this week, and who will be heading home with a new, shiny WSOP bracelet.
As far as the tournament action goes, the 100 live events and 30 online bracelet events held for players located in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan bears a strong resemblance to the 2025 schedule. This was the first time poker players were able to win a WSOP bracelet online, with the final six playing down at the Rio to crown the winner. This year also marks the launch of MyPlayers, a brand-new, free feature that lets poker fans track their favorite players across all PokerNews live-reported events. Utilizing years of success and experience playing online poker, professional poker player Anthony Spinella won the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, receiving $197,743 and becoming the first player to win a WSOP bracelet via an online tournament. Duking it out over eight days of poker action, the resilience of the nine remaining players has earned them a seat at poker’s most prestigious final table. Only one day of poker separates the last 21 players in the field from the most coveted final table of the year in poker.
Probably not, and that’s exactly what She Wong did by taking down the final event of the summer at Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas, the $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold’em. The Millionaire Maker in Paradise will play out across WSOP NJ/NV and GG Poker platforms until just 118 players remain. In addition to packages available on GGPoker, players on WSOP US had the opportunity to win Main Event packages. “GGPoker is delighted to launch WSOP Paradise and welcome hundreds of players from all over the world to Atlantis Paradise Island this December,” Daniel Negreanu said in a press release.
As it turns out, it’s been a long time coming for the North Wales, Pennsylvania pro. Players will be able to play multiple Venom starting flights and combine their stacks for Day 2. Meanwhile, the PLO event features a $3M prize pool, with bounties that range from $5K to $250K. Will WPT scale down the event and return to Vegas in December, or move to a less crowded spot in January?
Sign up for MyStack today and control your own narrative from the felt. PokerNews is proud to announce its return as the official live reporting partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The top nine finishers are all set to earn at least seven-figure paydays, with the runner-up taking home $6,000,000. Prior to her repeat victories, Shiina finished second in the Ladies Event in 2023, being just one spot shy of winning the event three years in a row.
And so I’d say in the last 15, 20 years, yes, this is the most hold’em I’ve played in a long time. “When I first got into poker, I was grinding the low-limit stuff after retiring from hockey,” said Mueller. The nine-time WSOP bracelet winner could lock down his third WSOP Player of the Year title, an emphatic 10th bracelet win, and the biggest result of his accomplished career, all in one swoop. The 2014 WSOP bracelet winner once again held court for long stretches of the ESPN+ broadcast and positioned himself for an incredible opportunity on day 8.
Since PocketFives Live only covered the members of the online community, we also had a lot more latitude than other outlets. These were the days when outlets that weren’t PokerNews were only allowed to post once an hour. What do you remember about those first days? Your first WSOP job was near the bottom of the poker-media ladder, but you treated it as an opportunity to prove you belonged. The behaviors I observed and wrote about certainly happened at the series, so I guess I didn’t get anything ‘wrong’ per se?
When the Final Table resumes on August 3, play is scheduled over three days until an outright champion is crowned. To get to this moment, these nine individuals had to battle through marathon sessions, overcoming the mental and physical fatigue of elite tournament poker to outlast thousands of the world’s best professionals and passionate amateurs alike. Alex Foxen did almost as well, totalling 839,000 by the close of play, with Chino Rheem (588,000) also looking strong as he bids to end his long wait for a WSOP bracelet by winning the biggest one of all. Only 1,388 to go for Grinder, who climbed to 1.2 million chips but eventually ended the day on a still above-average 615,000. It was quite the opposite case for Michael Mizrachi as the reigning world champion once again made a strong argument for becoming the only player to retain the title of Main Event champion in the post-Moneymaker era.
WSOP Event #1: $550 No-Limit Hold’em Mini Mystery Millions – Flight A
The overall chip leader heading into day 8 is Australia’s Malcolm Trayner, with 63,200,000 (105 big blinds). The average stack of 3,176,206 represents 39 big blinds when play resumes. @TheGrinder44 puts his Main Event life on the line as he looks to keep his title defense alive on Day 5 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. I had my A-game on day 5, I controlled a lot of pots, and I’m still in.”
How to Play the 2025 World Series of Poker
There are some tables that play pokernewsdaily.com tighter on the feature. Like most other tournaments, Deeb feels like his people-reading skills will be crucial in determining how to handle each lineup he faces. Despite losing a big pot on the second-to-last hand of the night, he has a healthy 4,300,000 going into day 6. Shaun Deeb spent much of the later stages of day 5 as one of the chip leaders. He navigated through another massive field in 2024, winning that year’s Mystery Millions event for a $1 million first-place prize.
“The poker renaissance was on full display at the 2025 WSOP,” said Ty Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of WSOP. PokerNews will provide comprehensive live coverage, including updates, interviews, and results, throughout the entire series. Known as poker’s most prestigious tournament, the Main Event continues to attract massive fields and create unforgettable moments, all while vying for record-breaking attendance once again.
Fan favorites, including the Mystery Millions, Millionaire Maker, and the Senior’s Championship, are set to return to the schedule along with some new, exciting tournament formats. Defending champion Junjie He won’t be defending his crown after starting the day with 88,500 and hitting the rail before night’s end. Two of the biggest names in the field to start Wednesday saw their days end surprisingly quickly. 2023 APT Taipei Main Event champion Punnat Punsri will join the Day 3 field from the Natural8 ‘Onlive’ flight with 492,000. Other notables moving on include Bin Duan, whose career-best cash of $351,000 came here in South Korea in a 2025 Triton event. Haohui Ma had an eventful couple of levels, starting with a dramatic double-up when he got his pocket kings in against Tomoya Kojima’s aces and drilled a two-outer on the river.
Every summer since 2022, thousands of poker players from all over the world have made the trip to Las Vegas to compete for WSOP bracelets and life-changing money at Horseshoe and Paris. The group of players who reached the final table each year would be dubbed the November Nine, contributing to a significant chapter in WSOP and televised poker history. In an effort to capitalize on popularity and boost viewership, from 2008 to 2016, the WSOP Main Event would play out during the yearly summer series, but would hold the final table of the event four months later in November. A recreational poker player who won his $10,000 buy-in through a $86 online satellite tournament, Moneymaker’s Main Event win inspired people around the world to take up the game of poker both online and live, triggering the Poker Boom of the early 2000’s. Completing one of, if not the greatest career comeback in poker history, Ungar went on to win the 1997 Main Event, joining Johnny Moss as the only two players to win the event 3 times. In the late 1960s, casino magnate Benny Binion aspired to hold an event pitting the best poker players in the world against each other at the poker table.
Registration for all summer events will open soon, streamlining the path to the podium. Play will proceed until the final table is reached on July 13, with specifics on the Main Event final table play dates and broadcast coverage to be announced at a later date. In 2024, the flagship event in Las Vegas attracted 229,553 entrants and awarded more than $438 million in prize money – both all-time records for the series. For the historic achievement of winning his fourth Poker Players Championship as well as the Main Event in the same summer, the now nine-time WSOP bracelet winner was informed by his peers that, via a unanimous vote, he would become the 65th member of the Poker Hall of Fame. Cate Schiller is a Global Content Coordinator for The Sporting News affiliate and commercial content team, focused on partnerships supporting live events, entertainment and travel.
The Main Event is the most prestigious tournament in the entire World Series of Poker schedule. “The 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event will go down as one of the most memorable of all time,” said Ty Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of WSOP. The road to the 2026 Final Table was one of the most grueling tests of endurance in poker history. Watch daily poker clips on the PokerGO YouTube channel. The 2019 world champion Hossein Ensan ended the day 16th in chips on 1,280,000 after a bullish day at the felt, while other former winners in John Cynn (927,000), Joe Hachem (353,000), Chris Moneymaker (221,000) and Greg Raymer (205,000) performed brilliantly too. Liu came into play on a big stack but really stepped on the gas, and powered to her lead in impressive fashion.
A classic poker game that does not involve a flop and is often played as a limit game. Omaha poker is an action game often played as a pot-limit or fixed-limit game Ten levels are scheduled or playing down to 48 players. Among other things, visitors will find a daily dose of articles with the latest poker news, live reporting from tournaments, exclusive videos, podcasts, reviews and bonuses and so much more.
There’s 2019 champion Hossein Ensan (29,700,000), who is just one day away from another Main Event final table as he chases history. It’s starting to feel real for the players still standing in the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event. Liu called to the 6♠ turn, which both players checked. Similar to the previous three flights, there were several casualties in the first level, and the unfortunate honor of the first player being eliminated belonged to Kacper Pyzara this time. More than $83.5 million in prize money has already been generated for the world’s largest live poker tournament of the year in Sin City.
Owning over $143 thousand in live tournament earnings, Wasnock’s largest career cash of $56,330 has been far surpassed with his performance in the Main Event. WSOP Europe moved from the fall to the spring, with 15 events that took place in early April. Behind the late Johnny Moss, who sits in sixth place all time with nine bracelet wins, the possibility of another 10-time winner being crowned in 2026 looms large. Phil Hellmuth maintains a tight grip on the all-time record for most gold bracelets, with 17. Instead, it was Shaun Deeb, on the strength of a resume anchored by his seventh career WSOP bracelet win and two runner-up finishes, among a long list of results. The second time around, he won it in dominant fashion, claiming the $10 million first-place prize and his eighth career bracelet.
Maxwell Franklin rebounded from less than one big blind to make the final table, while Nick Yunis surged from three big blinds to the chip lead by the time the unofficial final table was reached. In the meantime, Nakai cracked aces and ace-king with king-seven in a three-way all-in to triple up, though he remained well behind chip leaders Wong and Jongwook Lee when play reached the final two tables. More players quickly hit the rail after the restart, including Trung Le (78th), the only casualty of a three-way all-in.