The field shrunk for the second year in a row for the season-ending WPT World Championship here in Las Vegas, where 1,865 entries turned out to Wynn and Encore for the finale of the tour's 23rd season.
But despite ongoing counter-programming in The Bahamas, there is plenty of poker, and plenty of its stars, to go around. This year's WPT Championship will carry the likes of Johnny 'World' Hennigan and Phil Ivey into Day 3 with big chip stacks and a lot of cards left to play, along with one of poker's rare Triple Crown champions.
Still, the 2025 field is down 22% from a year ago, when your favorite poker player's favorite poker player Scott Stewart outlasted 2,392 entries to win $2,563,900. The year before that, when WSOP made its first trip to The Bahamas, the WPT threw down a $40 million guarantee and brought 3,835 to the party.
The 2023 affair missed its guarantee by a few million but the massive event was still considered an all-around success. WSOP fired back the following year with the $50 million Super Main Event and bumped it to $60 million in 2025, drawing a $72 million prize pool in an unlimited entry free-for-all with a $25,000 buy-in to take a clear advantage in the Hungry Hungry Hippos grab for players in the month of December.
Johnny World bags big
For what it's worth, 1,865 entries is still a very successful World Championship, and no one is complaining about the upscale accommodations at Wynn. Of those 1,800-plus, 733 players emerged for Tuesday's Day 2 to play five levels, bagging just short of the money with 241 players left. They'll return on Day 3 with just eight players to eighty-six before the money bubble, where everyone wins $19,600.
Two members of the WPT Champions club have bounced into the top ten, starting with Johnny 'World' Hennigan. Johnny World, who etched his name on the Mike Sexton Cup before it was called that, bagged up 2.5 million for 167 big blinds and fourth place on the Day 2 leaderboard. The other top-ten WPT Champ, Konstantin Held, won the WPT Main Event in Cambodia last year.
Other top ten qualifier include recent WSOP Main Event final table qualifier Jarod Minghini and Kevin Khuong, who leads the bunch with 3.2 million. Khuong's Hendon Mob page only dates back to late last year, where he cashed twice at the previous iteration of the WPT Championship series. His best finish was his very first recorded cash last November, a run to 79th in the WSOPC Commerce Main Event for $4,468. All told his career earnings add up to just $20,503, but he can start adding a lot to it when eight players bust on Wednesday morning.
Triple Crown champ returns
Plenty of fun and familiar faces still pop up throughout the rest of the field, too, starting with previous WPT Prime Championship winner Calvin Anderson, who sits just outside the top ten. Another Prime champ, Nicholas Teeuwen, isn't far behind and do not adjust your calendars but WPT Champ Mohsin Charania has a Day 2 yield of chips in 22nd place.
Charania is one of poker's rare Triple Crown champs with a WPT win, a WSOP bracelet, and an EPT Main Event title. He has since left the world of poker for one in finance and trading, but the Chicago native still pops up at his favorite WPT events from time to time. A deep run would be a jolt of nostalgia for older WPTheads.
Ivey calls, bags 1.5 million
Moving down the list, Phil Ivey is lurking outside the top 10% of remaining players, quietly setting up a deep run in 26th. Ivey picked up a late pot when Joseph Gallagher tried to steal it with a 200K bet. According to the world class WPT Reporting Team, Gallagher fired at a board of 
with a dusty 
, and Ivey used a time chip before he finally called with 
to take the pot with top pair. He'll return with 1.5 million.
Elsewhere on the leaderboard, a long list of WPT champs have chips for Day 3, like Markus Gonsalves, Asher Conniff, Soheb Porbandarwala, WPT Prime final table leader Qing Liu. If Liu qualifies for this finale he will play back-to-back televised tables on Friday and Saturday. Also in the running is Gus Hansen, who bagged up 1.2 million for the 42nd slot on the board.
No rest for the bubble
Looking ahead to Wednesday's bubble play, Jared Jaffee and Jerry Wong are probably safe, but they're outside of the top 200 with only 233 players to pay. WPT Champ Andrea Data is much more danger, holding a handful of big blinds in 239th place. WPT Global qualifier Julian Bonorris is right there on the bubble, too, along with ClubWPT qualifier Ray Cochrane.
They all return on Wednesday at noon Vegas time and the bubble tension starts right away with only eight players left to eliminate. Days 3 and 4 will play six 90-minute levels before the Day 5 sprint on Friday that will set up Saturday's televised final. They'll play for a prize pool of $18 million and change with $2,528,200 waiting for the winner and $1,700,000 for the runner up.
Images courtesy of World Poker Tour.
