The $10K H.O.R.S.E. final table was full of some of the biggest names in poker. One by one, they each fell, leaving only four players left to bag up for an unscheduled Day 4 on Saturday.
Scott Seiver, Alex Livingston, and Marco Johnson fell in seventh, sixth, and fifth places, respectively. Still, two major fantasy players remain and are seeking additional WSOP hardware for their collections.
Brad RubenJason Mercier (1.295M) sits in fourth overall. He's looking for his seventh bracelet. Just slightly above him sits Brad Ruben (1.305M) in third; he's searching for bracelet number five himself. Both of them are looking quite far up at the chip leader.
Rounding out the counts for tomorrow are Maximillian Schindler (2.68M) and runaway chip leader Kristopher Tong with 7.405M. Each player took their turns at or near the top of the counts, but Tong pulled away in the final level to set up a big Day 4 for himself. Can he close it out for his first WSOP bracelet, or will one of the accomplished, fantasy-drafted players overtake the lead? We'll be monitoring it in our live fantasy blog with real-time updates tomorrow.
Jason MercierThe $50K PLO High Rollers turn out
The second-largest PLO buy-in of the summer got started, and 148 entrants took part in the Day 1 portion of the tournament, building a prize pool of $7,030,000 — so far. Late registration is still open for just over an hour into the day, so we expect more to join in on Day 2.
Alex FoxenLeading the way into the second day is Ka Kwan Lau. He's only cashed two events this summer, but both of them were in the PLO streets: The $2.2K PLO at the Wynn and the $25K PLO here at the WSOP. He took 25th place in both of those events, but looks to go higher in this one after starting in pole position on Day 2.
Plenty of other big names put chips in bags for tomorrow's action. Biao Ding (2nd), Alex Foxen (6th), Sean Winter (8th), and Isaac Haxton (10th), all bagged big, top-ten stacks after the day was over.
$1K Seniors bring back seven for the final table
It was a short day for the $1K Seniors today. They came back with a plan of playing down to five, but instead bagged seven players after about four hours of play.
They return at 2 pm local time, hopefully well-rested, for the deciding Day 5. This one will be live-streamed on a one-hour delay, so tune in to see who can close it out for a bracelet.
Dennis Carlson leads the way with 99 big blinds. He's won four live tournaments in his career, but has never captured a WSOP bracelet. He's at the top of the counts and looks to earn his biggest cash ever as $653,839 awaits the eventual winner.
- Dennis Carlson - 49.25M
- Brett Lim - 44.825M
- Jose Boloqui - 18.425M
- Jason Reels - 18.4M
- Elan Lepovic - 10.925M
- Lawrence Rabie - 7.9M
- Manish Madan - 1.85M
Matt Vengrin finally gets a bracelet
It's been a long time coming for Matt Vengrin. He's made 12 WSOP final tables and three heads-up matches, all never quite enough to earn the coveted bracelet.
In the $1.5K PLO event, that finally changed.
After 12 previous final tables, Matt Vengrin is a WSOP champion"I just love the competition of poker," Vengrin told Mike Patrick in the post-game interview. “This is the only thing I’ve really wanted."
Read the entire interview, key moments, and more thoughts from Vengrin in the full recap here. Keep it tuned to PokerORG for all the latest from the 2025 World Series of Poker.
