WSOP 2025 Day 30 Recap: Two Winners Celebrate Gold as Aaron Cummings Goes Back-to-Back 

James TiltonTwo players won bracelets on a busy day in Las Vegas, Nevada as the Horseshoe and Paris casinos were packed on the Sin City Strip. With nine events in progress, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth both survived Day 2 of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship as former winners once again showed their strength.

Yaginuma Wins Millionaire Maker as Carroll Drops Huge Lead

The $1,500-entry Millionaire Maker ended in style on Wednesday night as Jesse Yaginuma beat James Carroll to the top prize of $1,255,180 and in doing so won another $1m bonus courtesy of qualifying for the event via ClubWPT Gold. At an exciting final table, overnight leader Josh Reihard dominated proceedings for some time, eliminating four players in a row before Yaginuma doubled through James Carroll to put himself in contention.

Reichard lost with pocket threes to jacks for Carroll and that gave the latter a massive heads-up lead. A 25-minute break ensued before the players returned, and when they did, everything went Yaginuma’s way, as he overcame a 9:1 chip deficit to take the lead. With queen-three against ace-ten, a queen on the turn gave Yaginuma the victory and his fourth WSOP bracelet at the expense of his good friend Carroll.

“ thrilled but tired," said Yaginuma after the event. “It's a long tournament. Everyone always calls my bracelets fake bracelets. You know, that's to be argued. But it feels great to have a live one.”

Yaginuma said that his deep runs this series owed plenty to fortune but celebrated a famous win in Las Vegas.

“You’ve got to avoid a lot of minefields when you're going through 12,000 people,” he said. “I got 22nd in the Mystery Millions, so I didn't think I would get a chance to make a deep run in such a big field again. But I was extremely fortunate. You want to ladder up, but I mean, I definitely wanted to get the bracelet, and it feels good to get it.”

WSOP Event #53 $1,500 Millionaire Maker Final Table Results

Cummings Goes Back-to-Back in Limit Lowball Event 

Aaron Cummings achieved the first defense of a WSOP bracelet event since Dan Cates won the Poker Players Championship in back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022 last night. Winning the $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Event #63 for $157,172, Cummings achieved what many thought would be impossible - the retention of the title he won in 2024.

At a final table featuring Nathan Gamble (7th for $17,563) and Andres Korn (6th for $23,995), Cummings edged closer and closer to his goal before beating Travis Erdman heads-up, coming from 3:1 down in chips with three nine lows to take the title and complete a remarkable triumph.

“I definitely thought about .” Cummings told reporters after the event finished in his favor. “But it's still a long battle to get there. I was a little short coming into the day, so I knew it was going to be tough. But obviously there was a chance. The people are always great. That's why I play it. It's always fun and the people are what makes it fun.”

As he celebrated winning the same event in back-to-back years, Cummings couldn’t help but be struck by the serendipity of his victory.

“One of my old friends has this quote, which is perfect for this. He says ‘It's like déjà vu all over again’. That's all I've been thinking about for the last 15 minutes. Everything's identical, it's just crazy.”

WSOP Event #63 $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Results

E-Dog Leads but Kid Poker Still in Contention 

In the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship, Day 2 of the PPC saw ‘the one they all want to win’ reduced from 107 total entries to 35 players still in with a chance of winning the Chip Reese Trophy. On a day where there were another 19 entries before late registration ended, Erick Lindgren (2.96m) piled up by far the biggest stack in the room by the close of play, followed by the three-time PPC winner Michael Mizrachi (2.04m) and Day 1 chip leader Ali Eslami (1.75m) in the chip counts. Lindgren would be a unique winner if he can ride his stack to the end, but there is a long way to go before that can happen.

Flying high in the top ten stacks is Phil Hellmuth, who aims to win his 18th WSOP bracelet by completing the set of what many would say are the biggest ones to be won in poker history - the WSOP Main Events of Las Vegas and Europe and the PPC. The Poker Brat has a stack of 1.11m to play with when play resumes on Day 3.

Hellmuth is followed in the counts by more big name friends, with Bryce Yockey (981,000), Bryn Kenney (960,000), Matthew Ashton (778,000), Mike Matusow (694,000), Benny Glaser (682,000), Luke Schwartrz (527,000), Jeremy Ausmus (345,000) and the 2024 reigning champion in this event Daniel Negreanu, who will start play tomorrow with just 317,000 chips. 

WSOP Event #66 $50,000 Poker Players Championship Chip Counts

Farrell Among Final Five in 6-Max Event

Just five players remain in the hunt for WSOP gold in Event #62, as Scottish poker professional and Triple Crown winner Niall Farrell bids for more poker history tomorrow and a $855,515 top prize. Already guaranteed $203,292 in the $5,000-entry 6-Max NLHE event, it is Matthew Zambanini who leads the way, with a massive stack of 20.77 million, with Farrell's fellow Brit Brandon Shiels (13.9m) and Farrell (10.4m) chasing him down.

Farrell, the only former bracelet winner among the final five, sits some way clear of short stack Andjelko Andrejevic (4.77m), but Franch player Adrien Delamas (8.47m) can’t be ruled out as a thrilling final day’s action beckons.

WSOP Event #62 $5,000 6-Max NLHE Final Table Chip Counts

The Flying Dutchman Rides in Super Seniors

In Event #64, the $1,000-entry Super Seniors No-Limit Hold’em event, 860 players began in seats on Day 2 and just 134 survived to the third day of the tournament, with Marcel Luske (1.9m) in charge of them. Luske, who has over $5m in poker tournament winnings, bids to win his first WSOP bracelet some way clear of John Myers (1.53m) and Thomas Raykovich (1.48m) in his pursuit of Vegas gold, while other big names Sammy Farha (378,000) and Michael Weiss (350,000) will not have given up hope just yet. 

WSOP Event #64 $1,000 Super Seniors NLHE Chip Counts

Tag Team Glory Awaits as 31 Teams Survive 

Just one more day of action will bring players to the final table and bracelet glory in Event #65, the $1,000-entry Tag Team event. With $184,780 up top, Germany’s Team Heinz (Quirin Heinz and Felix Rabas) ended Day 2  with 2,175,000 chips. Team Ke from Taiwan (Yijhen Ke and Kuanhan Lee / 1,760,000) and Team Lambrecht (Matthew Lambrecht and Jack Nathan / 1,690,000) will also believe they’re 24 hours from glory and gold. Married couple Kristy and Andrew Moreno are on course for a unique win with 1.45 million chips.

WSOP Event #65 $1,000 Tag Team NLHE Chip Counts

Three More Events Kick Off

Three more events played out Day 1 flights in Las Vegas on Wednesday night as Event #67, the $300-entry Gladiators of Poker event began with a total of 3,614 Day 1a entries. With Chilean Felix Barriga (4,720,000) topping the 119 survivors, China's Yang Zhang (3,175,000) came into the counts second in chips, with Japanese player Takeya Okada (2,590,000) third. With plenty more Day 1 flights to come, others to have no need of taking them on include Barry Shulman (1,030,000) and Anthony Li (750,000).

In Event #68, the $3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event, 1,882 entries were reduced to just 641 players as Romanian Petre Ionescu ended Day 1 with a top scoring stack of 702,000. Others to fly high included podium placers Rehman Kassam (691,500) and Valentyn Shabelnyk (570,000), with Danny Sepiol not too far back on 360,000 chips.

Finally, Event #69, the $1,500-entry Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better event saw 615 entries take on the latest mixed game event at Horseshoe and Paris with 132 players still in seats just 39 places from the money. Kevin Choi (376,500), Mary Jones (332,000), Jay Kerbel (249,000), and Jason Daly (217,000 all survived with top 10 stacks, with Choi hoping to exact some revenge on Daly given the American beat him heads-up for a bracelet in Omaha Hi-Lo / Stud Hi-Lo just last week.

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