Chris Jones is living the dream at WSOP Paradise.
He won a $30K package to play the Super Main Event through PokerOrg’s Pick 3 competition – and found himself sweating his team (Lara Eisenberg, Brekstyn Schutten, and Mark Darner) on a dramatic final day.
“I submitted my Pick 3 team and kind of forgot about it,” Jones says when we catch up with him in The Bahamas. “A friend reached out and asked if I was sweating it. He said, ‘I think you might be first place.’
“When I looked at it, I was like, oh my god. That whole day was just pins and needles.”
Jones sealed his win when Mark Darner won Event #1 at WSOP Paradise – and just days later, he was rubbing shoulders with his poker heroes.
From Pick 3 to Paradise
When Jones arrived at WSOP Paradise, he had one thing on his mind: to play his game.
“I got in on Friday evening, got settled in, and then came down to the tournament area,” Jones says. “I've been to the WSOP in Vegas but here… I looked at one table and saw three of the most famous poker players on Earth, and then I turned around and there were three more. My mouth was just on the floor.
“That was the biggest challenge for me. Looking round that room, I had to gather myself. I told myself to just play my game and to remember that they just get two cards, the same as me.”
Jones spotted one of his favorite players, Ike Haxton, in the gift shop that evening.
As fate would have it, Haxton was waiting for him on his table when he sat down to play Day 1C of the Super Main Event.
“I never dreamed I’d be playing with Ike ever,” Jones says, “but in a $25K? It’s insane.
“I'm still in that moment, telling myself, ‘Just play your game,’ and so I did, and I ended up in a spot where I was like, ‘This is a bluff,’ and I don’t care that it’s Ike Haxton, it’s a bluff. And I took it and got it through. That was such a good feeling.”
Tangling with Joe Serock
Just before the first break, Jones was moved to a new table — and found 2024 Main Event final tablist Joe Serock two seats to his right.
Jones made a straight flush early on but couldn’t get paid. He did, however, win a pot against Serock after defending his big blind with 
.
Flop: 
Action checked to the 
turn, which was also the second spade on board.
Jones bet 11K on the turn and got a call from Serock. A four dropped on the river, and Jones bet another 29K, got a call, and won the pot.
At the first break, Jones was just under his starting stack at 495,000.
Coolered by Serock: Full house over flush
His second tangle with Serock didn’t end well.
Serock opened from the hijack, and Jones three-bet from the button with 
. Serock called.
Flop: 
.
Jones bet 21K, and Serock called. The 
dropped on the turn, and the action went check-check.
The 
dropped on the river, giving Jones his flush, and Serock bet 130K. Jones called, and Serock flipped 
for the full house.
By the second break of the day, Jones was “on fumes” with 120K and 15 big blinds. It left him looking for a spot to spin it up, and he found it with a flip. Unfortunately, he came out on the wrong end of it with AT falling short against pocket eights.
Happy ending
Jones was sanguine about it afterwards.
“I feel pretty good about how I played,” he says. “I found some three-bet bluffs and didn’t run scared. I also got to bluff Ike Haxton out of a pot.
“There was only really one hand where I feel like the stakes and the money kind of got to me, but otherwise, I feel really good about how I played. I knew I would have to avoid playing scared, and I really feel like I played pretty solid.
“It was kind of an out-of-body experience – kind of weird and bizarre,” he continues.
“Once I started playing poker, I felt like… I know what I'm doing. Not as well as some of the others at the table, but I can be competent. And that felt good. I left feeling, like, I didn't embarrass myself, which was the biggest worry I had.”
Jones wasn’t done, though.
He entered a couple of satellites to the Super Main but couldn’t find another seat. He lost AK to AQ in the second satellite, and then 77 lost to A-3 to bring the curtain down on his Super Main Event experience.
“You can't complain about luck,” he says with a smile on his face. “Look at where I am. Look at this experience. I got so lucky to be here. I appreciate the opportunity. It's been a dream.”
We didn’t quite get a Christmas miracle — but we did get a happy ending.
Jones took a shot at the $2,500 Closer Bounty, the final bracelet event on the 2025 WSOP Paradise schedule, and he ended up cashing in 43rd place for $3,700 and the all-important Bahamian Hendon Mob flag.
For a player who almost forgot to sweat his team, Chris Jones made the most of his moment in Paradise.
