It was a day of rest for the nine remaining hopefuls in the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event, but the action was far from over at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas. Six events were in action on Monday, including the culmination of the Lucky 7’s and the final Deepstack tournament of the summer. The final two five-figure buy-in events got one step closer to completion, and Day 2 of the $3,000 PLO and Day 1a of The Closer rounded out the action on Day 49 of the WSOP.

Soverel Solving 6-Max Championship

Three days wasn’t enough to bring Event #94: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Championship to a conclusion. Four players will return tomorrow to determine a victor, but Sam Soverel has lapped the field, with his over 22 million chip stack more than twice the remaining three stacks combined. Daniel Vincente (5.75 million), Isaac Kempton (3.875 million) and Klemens Roiter (1.025 million) are all that stand in the way of Soverel’s potential third WSOP gold bracelet.

A starting field of 27 players for Day 3 was whittled down to just two tables in a hurry, where Mike Watson (11th – $64,448) got his aces cracked by a white-hot Soverel. Daniel Negreanu attempted to tame Soverel soon after, with “Kid Poker” and his pocket nines in great shape to earn a big double. Soverel flopped bottom set with his pair of eights, however, and “DNegs” busted in 10th, denied a chance at his eighth piece of WSOP gold. Sean Winter (8th – $83,707) was the last to miss the unofficial final table of seven.

Soverel already had the table well covered at this point, and flopped another set of eights to eliminate Yuliyan Kolev in seventh. Isaac Kempton then won a critical all in with two overs and a gutshot against the top pair of Leonard Maue. Kempton filled his straight on the turn and knocked Maue out while making up some ground on Soverel.  The final two hours saw just one more elimination, with Eric Wasserson running ace-queen into Vicente’s kings. Wasserson was left with just under a big blind, which went to Soverel soon after.

WSOP 2025 Event #94: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed Championship Final Table Results
Place	Player	Country	Chips/Prize
1st	Sam Soverel	USA	22,125,000
2nd	Daniel Vicente	Spain	5,750,000
3rd	Isaac Kempton	USA	3,875,000
4th	Klemens Roiter	Austria	1,025,000
5th	Eric Wasserson	USA	$211,068
6th	Leonard Maue	Germany	$151,567
7th	Yuliyan Kolev	Bulgaria	$111,338

Dzivielevski Isn’t Horsin’ Around in High Roller H.O.R.S.E.

Event #98: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. marks the last high roller of this year’s series, which brought a total of 121 entrants to the felt to try their hand at the classic mixed game tournament. Yuri “TheNerdGuy” Dzivielevski squeaked into the chip lead out of the remaining 77 players with 642,500, edging out Paul Volpe (621,500) and Jon Kyte (593,000). As expected in a high roller, there’s a plethora of big names remaining: Phil Ivey (542,500), John Hennigan (472,500), David Oppenheim (351,000) and Viktor Blom (345,000) all enjoyed a productive day on the felt. 

Daniel Negreanu (263,000) came fresh out of a deep run in the $10,000 Six-Handed Championship to bag a decent stack. The WSOP POY race has all three of the top three players still in contention. Shaun Deeb (258,000) and Benny Glaser (158,500) have more than the starting stack, while Martin Kabrhel (15,500) has significantly less. Others who managed a bag include Cary Katz (242,000), Scott Seiver (173,000), Jared Bleznick (110,000), Josh Arieh (78,500) and Bryce Yockey (20,500).

Esther Taylor was one of the last players to bust on the night, and did so with her second and final bullet. Robert Mizrachi, defending champ Xixiang Luo, Ari Engel and Dzmitry Urbanovich are also currently without chips, although any of them who haven’t used their single re-entry can come back into the action tomorrow.

WSOP 2025 Event #98: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. Top Ten Chip Counts
Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Yuri Dzivielevski	Brazil	642,500
2nd	Paul Volpe	USA	621,500
3rd	Jon Kyte	Norway	593,000
4th	Phil Ivey	USA	542,500
5th	Todd Brunson	USA	519,000
6th	Jesse Klein	USA	507,500
7th	Kane Kalas	USA	480,500
8th	John Hennigan	USA	472,500
9th	Brian Breck	USA	427,000
10th	Jon Turner	USA	372,500

 

Sanchez is Luckiest in Lucky 7’s

Eight players returned in Event #90: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em, although that number dropped to an appropriate seven after Patrick Leonard busted on the very first hand of play. It took just three hours for the field to drop to one, with Mexico’s Nelson Mari Sanchez claiming the bracelet and $777,777 in prize money.

The entire final table was shallow aside from Nicola Bracchi after Leonard’s elimination, but Sanchez surged ahead after eliminating Hayato Kitajima. Bracchi dispatched Hertsel Levy in sixth before Sanchez knocked out Kieran Walsh and Allen Shen in short order. Bracchi would bow out next in the biggest pot of the tournament, three-bet jamming 80 million (20 big blinds) with only to run into Sanchez’s . Any drama left in the hand ended after the flop gave Sanchez Broadway, and he took a 3:1 chip lead into heads-up action with Yu Liu. It took just a few hands for Liu to get it in with a weak ace. Sanchez held ace-ten and made the call, and flopped a ten to leave Liu dead on the turn and deliver Sanchez his maiden bracelet.

WSOP 2025 Event #90: $777 Lucky 7’s Final Table Results
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Nelson Mari Sanchez	Mexico	$777,777
2nd	Yu Liu	Canada	$332,777
3rd	Nicola Bracchi	Italy	$244,777
4th	Allen Shen	Canada	$181,777
5th	Kieran Walsh	Ireland	$135,777
6th	Hertsel Levy	Panama	$101,777
7th	Hayato Kitajima	Japan	$77,777
8th	Patrick Leonard	United Kingdom	$59,470

Balfagon Gets Gold in Deepstack

Event #95: $800 No-Limit Deepstack brought 162 players back to battle it out for the top prize of $252,386 and a gold bracelet. Argentina’s Mariano Balfagon quintupled his career live earnings by besting a tough final table to earn his first WSOP gold bracelet. Other notables that didn’t reach the final table include Francis Anderson (133rd – $2,372), Barry Shulman (107th – $2,372), Maxx Coleman (73rd – $3,100), Josh Reichard (41st – $6,051) and Dara O’Kearney (12th – $14,025).

The two big names at the final table were Jon Turner and Hustler Casino Live favorite Wesley Fei. The first to fall was Fei, who got it in with a gutshot and an overcard against Alon Eldar’s top pair. No help came to Fei, who settled for sixth place. Eldar was also responsible for Turner’s elimination in fifth, but busted shortly after to Balfagon. With a big chip lead, Balfagon then bled down his remaining two opponents before busting Nan Chen with queens. It was then Balfagon’s turn to crack queens in heads-up action, rivering a full house with a motley to knock out Andrew Ahn and earn his maiden WSOP gold bracelet.

WSOP 2025 Event #95: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack Final Table Results
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Mariano Balfagon	Argentina	$252,386
2nd	Andrew Ahn	USA	$168,122
3rd	Nan Chen	USA	$122,705
4th	Alon Eldar	Israel	$90,413
5th	Jon Turner	USA	$67,262
6th	Wesley Fei	China	$50,526
7th	Kevin Choi	Hong Kong	$38,328
8th	Lei Yu	China	$29,364
9th	Gustavo Andolhe	Brazil	$22,722
10th	Carlos Caldas	Portugal	$17,761

Two More Bracelet Events End Day 49

The second day of Event #96, the $3,000-entry Pot-Limit Omaha event reduced a returning field of 198 down to 21 at night’s end. Brad Albrinck (5.14 million) and Ryan Leng (4.135 million) each bagged up massive stacks, and Joe Serock (2.395 million), Jeremy Ausmus (1.5 million) and Chino Rheem (865,000) are still alive in pursuit of one of the last available pieces of 2025 WSOP gold.

Event #97, the $1,500 The Closer saw 1,793 players take to the streets on Day 1a, and just 128 earned a bag. Julien Vanpelt (2.765 million) bagged up the chip lead with over 90 big blinds, while Upeshka De Silva (1.045 million), Anthony Zinno (840,000) and Mark Newhouse (337,000) all managed to make it through the turbo format.