An intense day of action in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event saw Mat Frankland win a controversial $40,000 in bubble prizes, while two former world champions remained in the hunt for a second title. Both Greg Merson and Damian Salas survived on Day 4 of the WSOP Main Event, but they weren’t the only ones as some superstars of the felt look set for deep runs in the tournament every player dreams of winning.

Bubble Bursts, Three Feature in Blind Battle for $30,000 Package

The WSOP Main Event Day 4 drama was intense as the money bubble burst not far into play in Las Vegas. The Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos were packed as five events played out on Day 44 of the 2025 WSOP, and while players like Justin Fawcett won gold, all eyes were on the 1,476 who started in the Main Event, with only 522 making it to the end of the day’s play.

The day the bubble bursts is one of the most exciting days on the poker calendar, and today didn’t disappoint. Just hours before the fourth day of action in the WSOP Main Event kicked off, the WSOP announced that whoever finished on the bubble would win a $30,000 package (Entry into the $25,000 Super Main Event and a $5,000 hotel package) to the 2025 WSOP Paradise festival in The Bahamas this December. To say that affected the bubble would be an understatement. Things were tense until the bubble itself, but once that arrived, players were much more aggressive.

With three players all-in and at risk on the bubble, all three were defeated. Sachin Joshi, Marco Dickner and Mat Frankland all lost their hands, meaning they split two $15,000 min-cashes three ways, giving each man $10,000, their entry fee back. The three of them then flipped for the $30,000 package and Mat Frankland rivered a straight with queen-four, taking home $40,000 in cash and the package.

Big Names Rise and Fall on ‘Money Day’

It wasn’t long after the bubble had burst that those players who had been waiting to make a profit on their $10,000 entry fees started moving their chips into the middle. PokerStake boss Josh Arieh slid out of contention, as did the Day 1 chip leader Riva Arthur and Sunday Million winner Vanessa Kade, who confessed that after spending a day sat to Will Kassouf’s right, ‘It’s going to cost me more money in therapy than I profited today’. In hilarious circumstances, the Poker Gods showed they had a sense of humor when they sat Kade to the direct right of Martin Kabrhel in a WSOP online event soon after.

Another powerful female player who busted was Liv Boeree. The 2010 EPT San Remo Main Event winner and last year’s fourth place finisher in the $25k GGPoker WSOP Paradise Super Main Event for $2.8m, Boeree was all-in with pocket tens but ran into pocket kings to fade away from the Vegas version of the Main Event, albeit inside the money places

Plenty of other big names busted, with televised poker legend Phil Laak, Brazilian online crusher Yuri Dzivielevski, WSOP bracelet and WPT Main Event winner Darren Elias, Japanese vlogger Masato Yokosawa, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow and Jason Mercier all leaving the action on Day 4.

The only former world champions left with a chance of winning a second Main Event are the 2012 winner Greg Merson (1,495,000) and the 2020 WSOP Hybrid Main Event winner Damian Salas (450,000). They’re both some way behind the overnight chip leader Harold Lam (4,195,000), with Jeremy Kottler (3,725,000), Julien Mariani (3,600,000), Kohei Arai (3,585,000), and Benjamin Williams (3,550,000) all inside the top five.

Elsewhere in the chip counts, Kenny Hallaert (2,805,000), Eric Afriat (2,710,000), and Adam Hendrix (2,550,000) are all above the average stack, with the four-time PPC champion Michael Mizrachi (2,270,000), British poker legend Stephen Chidwick (1,940,000), high roller Isaac Haxton (1,915,000), Swedish superstar Viktor Blom (1,455,000), and Main Event legend Matt Affleck (900,000), sure to be looking forward to Day 5. Tomorrow’s action will see 522 players battle down to around 100 players in the race to be the 2025 world champion.

WSOP 2025 Event #81 $10,000 Main Event Day 4 Chip Counts:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Harold Lam	United States	4,195,000
2nd	Jeremy Kottler	United States	3,725,000
3rd	Julien Mariani	France	3,600,000
4th	Kohei Arai	Japan	3,585,000
5th	Benjamin Williams	United States	3,550,000
6th	Arsenii Karmatckii	Russia	3,445,000
7th	Ramon Pessoa	Brazil	3,400,000
8th	Michael Hawker	United States	3,400,000
9th	Mounir Tajiou	Sweden	3,250,000
10th	Luke Chung	United States	3,180,000

Player of the Year on the Line in $50,000 High Roller

Both Martin Kabrhel and Shaun Deeb remain in contention to win the $50,000 High Roller and possibly the Player of the Year based on the points they could haul in by doing so. On Day 1 of the $50,000 High Roller NLHE Event #88, 194 total entries were reduced to 78 survivors, with the Japanese high roller regular Masashi Oya on top, scoring 1,956,000 chips by the close of play despite busting his first of two permitted bullets to Daniel Negreanu.

After Oya re-entered, he busted Daniel Rezaei and ended Day 1 ahead of Czech motormouth Martin Kabrhel (1,514,000), Viktor Ustimov (1,900,000), Brek Schutten (1,762,000) and Sam Soverel (1,504,000) in the top five. The WSOP Player of the Year leader, Shaun Deeb (374,000), has a lot of work to do if he’s to win the event but will be motivated by the fact that should he do so, he’d virtually lock up the Player of the Year title.

Other survivors include Alex Kulev (1,361,000), Philip Sternheimer (982,000), Kristen Foxen (852,000), Alex Foxen (741,000), Joe Cada (688,000), and the previously mentioned Daniel Negreanu, who bagged up 532,000 in his attempt to win bracelet number eight. Players who burned through two bullets and therefore cannot re-enter included Chance Kornuth, Danny Tang, Artur Martirosian, and Adrian Mateos along with the 2024 winner of this event, Jared Bleznick.

WSOP 2025 Event #88 $50,000 NLHE High Roller Chip Counts:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Masashi Oya	Japan	1,956,000
2nd	Viktor Ustimov	Russia	1,900,000
3rd	Brek Schutten	United States	1,762,000
4th	Martin Kabrhel	Czech Republic	1,514,000
5th	Sam Soverel	United States	1,504,000
6th	Christopher Nguyen	Germany	1,415,000
7th	Alex Kulev	Bulgaria	1,361,000
8th	Pavel Plesuv	Moldova	1,359,000
9th	Andrew Pacheco	United States	1,349,000
10th	Leonard Maue	Germany	1,340,000