While most Sundays are reserved for rest, relaxation, and recharge for the week ahead, the World Series of Poker Main Event – and its participants – knows no such schedule. As such, it's been nothing but a hectic one in Las Vegas as Day 2ABC of the 2025 Main Event began at midday local time.
With big names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Nicholas Rigby, Stephen Chidwick, and Masato Yokosawa all serving stints on the PokerGO feature table livestream, viewers near and far had a delightful medley of two-card splendor to feast their eyes upon. As PokerOrg's Lee Jones pointed out, we should all take a moment to express gratitude for this summer circus and the enjoyment it provides.
The Main Event wasn't the only tournament worth monitoring as two storylines from Saturday's play met their conclusions. Shaun Deeb finished runner-up in Event #84: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em while Cary Katz went one better with a victory in Event #84: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em for his first bracelet – more on both of those stories below.
Main Event record unlikely
While there's a slim window still available for late registrants on Monday's Day 2D, a record-breaking Main Event field looks increasingly unlikely. With an unofficial count of 9,148 entrants in the field at the close of Day 2ABC, it'll take a serious influx to best last year's record-setting field of 10,112.
In 2024, the Day 2D field drew 562 late registrants. It'll take a lot more than that to see the Main Event reach new heights in 2025.
Still, it's not out of the realm of possibility, and we've got our fingers crossed for a new record.
Hellmuth's four fours
While it certainly wasn't the biggest pot of the day, Phil Hellmuth's flopped quads caught the attention of the PokerGO cameras. After getting a tad bit out of line just a few hands prior, Hellmuth called a raise with 
and watched on as the dealer spread the 
flop.
While Hellmuth had a lock on the hand with his four fours, his opponent Kasparas Klezys connected with 
and fired 2K into the middle. Hellmuth, likely loving life but perhaps dismayed that his opponent only started the hand with 19.2K in his stack, called to bring in the 
turn.
Klezys slowed down with a check and Hellmuth let his opponent catch up with a check back that brought in the 
. Despite improving to the nut flush, Klezys checked to Hellmuth who fired 5K into the middle. With only 14.7K remaining in his stack, Klezys moved all-in over the top and Hellmuth snap-called.
"I call. I have quads," Hellmuth said as he revealed his holding.
Hellmuth will move on to Day 3 with 187K, while Negreanu also bagged a small sum for a chance to spin it up on the way to the money bubble.
Rigby's rollercoaster ride
When Nicholas Rigby arrived at the feature table of PokerGO's streamed coverage, he had over 400K in his stack. Within an hour, he had bled off considerably and sat with around 220K. In just a few hands, he was back up to 330K. If you looked away from the stream for a moment, you'd have missed Rigby slide back down to the 220K range.
Here's a quick run through a smattering of hands Rigby took part in throughout the night.
Hand 1 – Blinds 1K/1.5K (1.5K)
Rigby: 383K
Cronin: 62,000
Cronin raises 
to 3K from under the gun. Rigby three-bets 
to 9.5K from hijack. Call.
Flop: 
. Cronin checks. Rigby bets 6.5K. Cronin calls.
Turn: 
. Cronin checks. Rigby bets 20K into 36K. Cronin jams 46K. Rigby folds.
Rigby: 347K
Hand 2 – Blinds 1K/1.5K (1.5K)
Rigby: 349.5K
Kilintaris: 112.5K
With PokerGO's coverage picking up action on the turn, the board reads 
and Rigby checks his 
. Kilintaris fires 25K into the 50K pot with 
.
"That's a bluff," Rigby says as he throws in calling chips.
With 100.5K in the pot, Kilintaris jams his 66.5K into the middle. Rigby snap calls, tossing in a single chip with confidence. Kilintaris shows him the bad news and motions with his hand to send the chips over.
Rigby: 237K
Hand 3 – Blinds: 1K/2K (2K)
Rigby: 246.5K
Aaron Barone opens 
to 4K. Rigby three-bets 
to 17K from the button. Kilintaris four-bets 
to 47K. Barone folds. Rigby considers heroics, but thinks better and mucks.
Rigby: 229.5K
Hand 5: Blinds: 1K/2K (2K)
Rigby: 192.5K
Jahn: 164.5K
After losing an all-in confrontation for a small chunk, Rigby opens 
to 5K. Stefan Jahn three-bets to 13K. Rigby calls.
On the 
flop, Jahn continues for 8K. Rigby wastes no time in calling. With 47K in the middle, the turn goes check, check. The slides in on the river to give Rigby two pair and he fires 42K. Jahn quickly calls and Rigby shows him the winner.
Rigby: 260.5K
It's always a rollercoaster ride when Rigby graces the Main Event stage and this time around was no different – he just kept bobbing and weaving. If you want to see all of those hands and a lot more, check out the PokerGO stream replay.
Rigby's ride will continue on Day 3 as he ended today's stretch with 260K in the bag.
Juliet Hegedus bags top 10 stack, Kravchuk leads
Juliet Hegedus, fresh off of a sixth-place finish in the $1,000 Ladies Championship, ended the night with one of the largest stacks in the room. Hegedus began the day strong, surging up the counts when we checked on her progress in Level 8.
Over the course of the next two and a half levels, she kept stacking chips and ended the night with 627K – good for 250 big blinds and 9th in the overall chip counts. When Day 3 play resumes, Hegedus will have plenty of chips in her arsenal to continue her upward trend and, later, apply pressure as the money bubble looms.
Elsewhere, Vanessa Selbst bagged a solid stack of 160,500, and Martin Kabrhel was eliminated. Ukrainian Oleksii Kravchuk was the only player to get close to a one million stack. He enjoyed a late surge to end with a huge stack of 937,500 chips, way ahead of Randall Lack in second with 762,500.
Cary Katz gets his first bracelet
Elsewhere in the Horseshoe Event Center, PokerGO boss Cary Katz relieved himself of the sixteen-year-old monkey clinging to his back with a victory in Event #83: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em. Katz took home his first bracelet for the win, along with $449,245 – a sum which represents 1.23% of his more than $40M in career earnings.
Katz battled long into the night the day prior – long enough to prompt an additional unscheduled day of play – and returned to the felt on Sunday with three competitors between himself and the silverware.
In the early goings of the four-way battle, Katz caught a fortunate turn card with all his chips in the middle as his 
ran down Preston McEwen's 
on a 
runout. McEwen was left with just crumbs and hit the rail shortly afterwards. Jaehoon Baek followed suit, leaving Katz to take on Brazil's Breno Drumond.
After seizing control of the chip lead, Katz hammered the final nail into the coffin with against Drumond's – his small pair holding up on the 
board.
"That's the most fun I've ever had playing poker," Katz told PokerOrg reporters. "I feel like I got an 800-pound monkey off my back."
Deeb extends lead for Player of the Year
After notching his seventh WSOP bracelet in Event #79: $100,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, Shaun Deeb immediately registered for Event #84: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Why, you may ask, did Deeb fire a tournament 1% of the size of the event he just won? For the Player of the Year battle, of course.
Deeb's four-card result shot him up the leaderboard and he knew it was time to start the grind with Martin Kabrhel and Benny Glaser hot on his heels. After a couple days of play, Deeb's run came to an end in a runner-up finish for $154,906 and, perhaps more importantly, 532 Player of the Year points.
While Deeb has extended his lead significantly, he's not out of the woods yet – especially as Glaser has yet to reach the ten-score threshold and has plenty of opportunities to improve his tally.
