Poker's top stars were bounced from Day 3 of the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event on Tuesday, making room for chip leader Shotaro Kobayashi and a group of top chip counts that includes three women.
Kobayashi is followed at the top of the list by 2023 WSOPE Main Event champion Max Neugebauer, Sam Jakubowicz, and Juliet Hegedus(above), who finished 264th in the 2022 edition. Her 12th-place run in the 2024 Ladies Championship was improved by her sixth place finish in this year's tournament. The Hollywood, Florida native has just over $200K in career earnings, according to The Hendon Mob.
Another standout, Poland's Sylwia Studniarz, has three cashes already at the 2025 WSOP, adding to a relatively young resume with just under $100K in earnings and a 13th-place finish in the EPT Prague Main Event last December. She also won the Womens Event at EPT Barcelona in 2023. She finished Day 3 just outside the top ten.
Thi Xoa Nguyen, perhaps the most accomplished of the three, will return with more than one million chips for what is likely to be her fourth Main Event cash.
Some of the notable chip counts:
- Shotaro Kobayashi: 1,971,000
- Max Neugebauer: 1,928,000
- Juliet Hegedus: 1,745,000
- Thomas Eychenne: 1,618,000
- Sylwia Studniarz: 1,460,000
- Thi Xoa Nguyen: 1,160,000
- Viktor Blom: 986,000
- Art Peacock: 972,000
- Nate Silver: 572,000
- Greg Merson: 560,000
- Damian Salas: 480,000
Wednesday will welcome 1,476 players for a shot at the money bubble.
Hellmuth, Negreanu bounced on Day 3
Both Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth rolled into Day 3 with a shot at the money, and both of them hit the exit before the bubble was anywhere close. Negreanu shoved a shrinking stack with a pair of nines and earned a race against Simon Levy's ace-queen, but a queen on the river ended Kid Poker's Main Event run.
Hellmuth had worse luck, getting his stack in with ace-king against Michael Zulker's pocket queens. The Poker Brat turned a king to take the lead, but another rivered queen sent a poker legend to the rail.
Other Day 3 bustouts included Hellmuth's son, Phil the Third, Brian Rast, David Williams, and former champions Greg Raymer, Jonathan Tamayo and Johnny Chan. That leaves just two former Main Event champs in the field — Damian Salas (480,000) and Greg Merson (560,000).
Doug Polk was eliminated late on when his aces were cracked by kings in a huge 500,000 pot, shortly after he promoted WSOP's rival, ClubWPT Gold, on the livestream.
Bubble time
The final 1,476 players will return on Wednesday to eliminate 15 players and burst the money bubble. Blinds will pick up on Day 4 in Level 16 at 3,000/6,000/6,000 with another five two-hour levels scheduled. Each returning player who survives the bubble will earn at least $15,000, with the eventual winner taking home the top prize of $10,000,000.
Be sure to return at 12pm Vegas time for PokerOrg coverage of the money bubble at the 2025 WSOP Main Event.
