Kevin Theodore Runs Deep at Texas Poker Open as Harwell Heads 11 Survivors
The $3,300-entry Texas Poker Open Main Event is down to just 11 players, and after a stirring run by PokerStake’s Kevin Theodore to 47th place, the race is on to become this year’s champion. Whoever wins the 2025 TPO Main Event will earn a massive $375,000 and the infamous ‘Belt Buckle’ trophy.
Dream Day 1 for Theodore as Hundreds Fall
The structure of the Texas Poker Open (TPO) was a great one, with six Day 1 starting flights meaning drama galore at the Champions Club in Texas. The TPO’s Main Event cost $3,300 to play and one of the Day 1f crowd was PokerStake’s own Kevin Theodore, who sold action to his buy-in on the site as we told you last week.
In fact, we did more than fill you in on the PokerStake players who were taking their chances at the 2025 TPO. We spoke to Kevin at length, finding out what his favorite long-haul boxset binge is, as well as his best poker skill and which famous basketballer he’d like to meet one day when we fired our 15 Bigs questions at the tournament crusher.
Day 1f saw Kevin take to the felt with some other professionals who, like him, have vast experience in live ranking events, including players such as Asher Coniff, Francis Anderson and the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event world champion Jonathan Tamayo. All three of those players busted on Day 2, however, as Kevin joined stars of the felt such as Jeff Platt, Isaac Kempton and Michael Wang in the top 60.
Disaster on Day 2 But Another Cash for ‘KTheo’
The Day 2 crowd was led by a Day 1f player as Viet Vo took the lead not just in Kevin’s flight, but in the tournament overall, bagging up over 1.4 million chips to play with on Day 2. Vo was the only player of the 27 survivors who bagged more than ‘KTheo’, as Kevin totalled 1,036,000 by the close of Day 2f, leading to dreams of a very deep run.
Among the other survivors from Kevin’s flight were some of poker’s rising stars and household names. PokerGO presenter and Global Poker Award winner Jeff Platt survived with 142,000 chips, Isaac Kempton sneaked through with 162,000 and the aforementioned Tamayo sat in the middle of the pack with 255,000. Others ran Kevin close for a million-chip stack, with WSOP bracelet winner and WPT legend Daniel Sepiol (645,000), Justin Liberto (784,000) and Scott Herz (980,000) all inside the top ten players when Day 1f closed its books.
Day 2 saw Viet Vo wield the axe over plenty of the field, as stars such as Jeff Platt (64th for $6,000), Phillip Hellmuth III – yes, that’s the 17-time WSOP champion Phil’s son! – (61st for $7,000) and Michael Wang (52nd for $8,000) all crashed out. Sadly for Kevin, he did too, but not before jumping another rung up the ladder, winning $9,000 in 47th place, music to the ears of his backers, who all trebled their money by following our advice to invest in KTheo.
Justin Liberto and Andrew Moreno Chasing Top Prize in Texas
With just one day of competition remaining at Champions Club in Houston, Texas, the biggest prizes from the $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool (which ended after late registration at the eye-watering sum of $2,097,000) are yet to be won. A total field of 581 entries mean that there is a top prize of $375,000 on offer to the winner, but even the 11th-place prize of $33,000 is a massive ten times the buy-in, and the amount already claimed by popular PGT players Joey Weissman (12th) and Matthew Wantman (13th).
With just 11 players left in the chase for the TPO belt buckle, Kaleb Harwell now has the chip lead with 7.6 million chips. He’s followed by Aaron Gao (6,625,000) and Justin Liberto, who will be hoping that all his years of live poker experience and 5,225,000 chips yield the outright victory from such a strong position. The Day 1f chip leader Viet Vo is fourth in chips with 5m to play with, while WSOP Circuit Ring winner Jason Bullock (4.45m) and tournament poker legend Andrew Moreno (1.3m) have varying stacks with which to attack the third and final day of competition.
After such a strong performance from Kevin Theodore, we’ll be expecting more chances to invest and you can track his action via his official PokerStake page right here. With the TPO NLHE High Roller still to come, another big name in David Chen is still selling action to that event.
Watch what happened on Day 2 of the 2025 Texas Poker Open Main Event:
The hottest months of the year are around the corner and PokerStake players are already playing themselves into great form. It’s going to be a great summer!