Although nearly 10,000 entries went through the registration process on Day 1D of the enormous $300 Gladiators of Poker tournament on Saturday, more noise in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament rooms came from one man than from that entire army.
The man in question was China's Tony 'Ren' Lin, a man who talks more than Kabrhel and Kassouf combined, and who on Saturday progressed to the deepest stages of the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. No matter the pressure, Lin continues the chit-chat.
A regular at the highest stakes, with close to $15 million in documented tournament earnings, Lin was nonetheless hunting what would be a first career WSOP bracelet in this one. And, sorry to say for Lin, that hunt continues, with fellow Chinese player Yilong Wang landing the silverware after Lin was knocked out in third.
Israel's Ran Ilani eliminated Lin with 
holding against Lin's 
, but Ilani subsequently surrendered his heads-up chip lead to Wang and finished as runner up. Wang pocketed $830,685 alongside the bracelet for the win. Ilani took $553,692 and Lin earned $406,016.
It is indeed enough to push Lin beyond $15 million for his career, but that bracelet cabinet remains empty.
Gladiators pack the Colosseum
The fourth and final day of registration in the $300 Gladiators of Poker tournament was, as you might have predicted, the biggest of them all, with a spectacular 9,875 entries arriving to the arena of battle.
It brought the entire field to 24,629. If Spartacus wanted to lead a gladiators' rebellion, this is surely the time.
That said, with $6,457,723 in the prize pool, this probably isn't the time to overthrow the authorities. The last surviving gladiator will be multiplying their $300 buy-in by around 100.
Wilkinson denies Schulman in lowball
Californian grinder Alexander Wilkinson earned a first career WSOP bracelet on Saturday night, riding out a particularly draining three-handed battle before beating overnight chip leader Matthew Schreiber heads-up.
The other player in that drawn-out three-way affair was the titan that is Nick Schulman, who was aiming for an eighth WSOP bracelet. But there's a reason that only seven players have ever hit that mark: it's exceptionally tough, as Schulman found out in his battle with Wilkinson and Schreiber.
After Yuri Dzivielevski, Brian Tate and Hye Park were knocked out in sixth through fourth, respectively, the final three settled down with similar sized stacks and played for another four hours, either side of a dinner break. Eventually Schulman succumbed to Wilkinson, and Wilkinson made comparatively short work of Schreiber heads-up. Wilkinson's victory was worth $333,054. Schreiber took $215,848 for second and Schulman adds another $144,431 to his bankroll.
Read Matt Hansen's tournament recap.
'I can't explain it' - Grinder makes it four
Stop me if you've read this before: Michael Mizrachi is the champion of the WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Yep, as you may have already seen, the Grinder did it again on Saturday night in Las Vegas, picking up an incredible fourth win in the prestigious PPC.
"I can't explain it," Grinder told PokerOrg.
And if he can't, then surely nobody else stands a chance.
Read Mike Patrick's full report on another spectacular success.
Okamoto's dominance continues
Shiina Okamoto's startling love affair with the WSOP Ladies Championship continues, with the player who finished runner-up in 2023 and winner in 2024 leading the last seven in this year's event. While statisticians are rightly focusing on previous back-to-back winners at the WSOP, it's more difficult to find examples of players finishing in the top two in the same tournament for three years in succession.
The fields here are enormous too. This time, the Japanese player has already battled past the vast majority of 1,368 entries. She sits with 7.5 million chips, a comfortable cushion over second-placed Juliet Hegedus, who has 5.6 million.
Mo Afdhal has more on the seven women still vying for the title.
Fourteen left in Eight-Game; PLO set to grow
Only 14 players remain in the $1,500 Eight Game Mix, with Romania's Narcis Nedelcu holding a sizeable lead over a cosmopolitan field. Nedelcu is now close to his fourth WSOP final table and, with a stack of 3.225 million, will be confident of progressing at least that far. His closest challenger, Italy's Walter Treccarichi, has a little shy of 2 million chips.
The top six places are occupied by players from Romania, Italy, Brazil, the United States, France and Canada, promising a mix of stories and backgrounds in keeping with the mix of games being played. They'll play to a champion on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship got started on Saturday, with 793 entries. Registration remains open through the start of Day 2, so expect significantly more to join the four-card party.
PLO experts Chris Frank (290,000), Richard Gryko (309,500), Quan Zhou (314,000) and Ka Kwan Lau (125,000) were among 294 players who still had chips at the end of Day 1, while all-round superstars Stephen Chidwick (226,500), Erik Seidel (209,500), Alex Foxen (367,000) and Ben Lamb (484,500) have big stacks as well.
Lamb's is actually the second biggest overall, with only Javier Francort (565,500) ahead of him in the counts. There's still a very long way to go in this one, however.
