A thrilling opening day’s play in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, otherwise known as the PPC, saw reigning champion Daniel Negreanu bag a top 10 stack, with former winners Michael Mizrachi, John Hennigan and Phil Hui all thrive in the rarified atmosphere of the iconic poker event. PokerStake’s Jeremy Ausmus, Jon Kyte and Josh Arieh all survived the opening day as one of the most exciting events of the 56^th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) kicked off.

Former Winners Fire at Will

The opening day’s action in the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship is always special and today was no different. With 88 total entries, just 68 players survived to the final curtain on Day 1. They included seven former PPC champions, with Michael Mizrachi (849,500), Mike Gorodinsky (781,000), John Hennigan (438,000), Phil Hui (470,000) Freddy Deeb (405,000) and Matthew Ashton (179,000) all joining the 2024 reigning champion Daniel Negreanu in the mix for Day 2.

Kid Poker, who took home $1.1 million when he won this event last year, ended Day 1 inside the top 10 chip counts on 662,000 chips. Top of the shop was was Ali Eslami, who totted up 903,000, with the six-time WSOP bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Fame nominee, PokerStake’s Jeremy Ausmus in second on 886,500. Others who bagged big stacks included Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen (828,000) and Chris Vitch (809,000), inside the top five.

While the former winners and Negreanu make obvious headlines, the presence of the eight-time WSOP bracelet winner and the current POY leader Benny Glaser (392,500) is important, with the PokerStake seller one more win away from immortality as the first player in history to win four WSOP bracelets in the same series.

Who Else Made the Cut?

With so many big names taking part, everyone who made Day 2 could win the PPC on their experience alone. The 11-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (380,500) will obviously be hard to stop. Mike ‘the Mouth’ Matusow (365,000) put up a defiant show while PokerStake boss Josh Arieh (302,000), the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year Scott Seiver (227,500), and the six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (204,000) also made the counts.

The seven-time WSOP bracelet winner Nick Schulman (162,500) already has gold this series and is himself in contention for Player of the Year, especially if he can recover his stack and win here. Schulman is seen as the frontrunner for the Poker Hall of Fame induction in 2025, the result of which will be announced before Event #92 on the schedule.

While many legends made the cut, others did bust on Day 1, with registration still open into Day 2 with just two entries or re-entries needed to exceed last year’s total field of 89.

Those who were eliminated on Day 1 this year included Alex Livingston, Dylan Smith, Paul Volpe, Cary Katz, Brian Rast and Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, who was first to hit the rail after losing two big hands to the former Mystery Millions seven-figure bounty winner Matt Glantz.

Surprise Pick to Win?

If you like an outside bet at the start of the tournament, then you should look no further than ninth in the current Day 1 rankings. Norwegian player Jon Kyte has enjoyed a really strong start to the 2025 World Series of Poker. With 699,500 chips heading into Day 2, Kyte has all the skills and quite the momentum to change the course of this event and plays the kind of fearless poker that will be dangerous to anyone.

With plenty more drama to come in this historic event, here are the current top 10, featuring three of PokerStake’s finest:

WSOP 2025 Event #66 $50,000 Poker Players Championship Chip Counts:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Ali Eslami	United States	903,000
2nd	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	886,500
3rd	Michael Mizrachi	United States	849,000
4th	Chris Hunichen	United States	828,000
5th	Christopher Vitch	United States	809,000
6th	Justin Liberto	United States	739,500
7th	Maxx Coleman	United States	721,500
8th	Erick Lindgren	United States	710,500
9th	Jon Kyte	Norway	699,500
10th	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	662,000