WSOP 2025 Day 35 Recap: Pelz Last Gladiator Standing, Seven Remain in PLO Championship, Negreanu Close to Glory 

Five bracelet events took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, last night. Only one winner celebrated lifting gold, however, as Ian Pelz conquered the $300-entry Gladiators of Poker event, winning a life-changing $420,680 after coming from behind to beat Sang Sim heads-up. Elsewhere, Daniel Negreanu made the final day of a Mixed Big Bet in rude health and Quan Zhou is on top in the PLO Championship.

Pelz the Last Gladiator Standing

Amid the scattered sand, the final Gladiator in battles of lore would stand, exhausted amid the eliminated opponents he had bested, holding aloft his sword. For Ian Pelz, that was a WSOP bracelet he was holding as he reigned supreme in the 2025 version of poker’s gladiatorial battle. Beating Sang Sim heads-up, Pelz took home the $420,680 top prize and gold for the first time in his career.

On a tumultuous final day, Pelz got the gold after the total field of 24,629 were reduced to just nine finalists with 13 starting the final day. It was Pelz’ fellow American Sim who dominated proceedings for much of the final, but Pelz hung in there and when play moved heads-up, grabbed the lead. Sim hit a runner-runner straight to commit his stack in the final hand but Pelz made a runner-runner flush on the same river, and upon winning, could celebrate with friends and family on the rail.

Admitting that he bought into the event on “one hungover bullet”, Pelz’s victory and top prize would sober anyone up.

“I just played my game and good things happened,” he said. “I definitely took advantage of the fact that some of these players have less experience and haven't been in these situations before. Until the final table, it wasn't really a stressful situation for me.”

WSOP Event #67 $300 Gladiators of Poker Final Table Results

PLO Championship Down to Seven

After a total field of 874 entries took part in Event #74, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, just seven people remain in the hunt for the $1,394,579 top prize on tomorrow’s final day. With some of the biggest players in the world at the felt, legends such as Ben Lamb (16th), Isaac Kempton (11th) and Erik Seidel (9th) all just missed out on the action on the final day.

Top of the final seven is the Chinese high roller Quan Zhou with 16.75 million chips, and he’ll be hard to stop, with a great track record in PLO high rollers and over $12 million in live earnings already in his career. With players such as Sean Rafael (13.25m) and Michael Wang (8m) in close contention, Zhou will not have it all his own way, with Wang in particular playing with nothing to lose, having dropped to 65,000 chips earlier on Day 2.

Other finalists include the three-time WSOP bracelet winner Alex Foxen, but he’ll need a Wang-like recovery, sitting as the short stack on 2.72m chips when play begins tomorrow.

WSOP Event #74 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship Chip Counts

Kid Poker Chasing Eighth Bracelet

Daniel Negreanu sits second in chips of 11 players in Event #76, the $2,500-entry Mixed Big Bet event, after a busy Day 2 saw 90 players eliminated and Aaron Kupin end Day as the leader on 3 million chips. With a massive total field of 458 players, Negreanu’s stack of 2.51m chips isn’t far behind the leader’s stack and while Kupin has never won a WSOP bracelet before, the Poker Hall of Famer Negreanu has seven wins in his glorious past and took down the PPC in 2024 for $1.1m.

Negreanu is not alone in the remaining field as having previously won WSOP gold. Marco Johnson (2), Jeff Madsen (4), Chris Vitch (3) and Steve Billirakis (2) all have multiple wins in their back catalogue and will be threats to the Canadian’s chances of landing gold once again. If Negreanu can see out one more day as the only player with chips, he’ll join Benny Glaser on eight WSOP victories, separating himself from several others who are on seven wins at present. 

WSOP Event #76: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Chip Counts 

Two New Events Begin 

Two other bracelets events started from their ‘shuffle up and deal’ moments tonight in Vegas, as Event #77, the $10,000-entry Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, saw 160 entries reduced to 78 players by the close of the opening day. Top of them all was Walter Chambers, who piled up 372,500 chips, followed by Shaun Deeb on 310,000. The WSOP POY challenger Scott Bohlman sits in third place on 284,500 chips, with the five-time WSOP winner Anthony Zinno on 273,000 chips.

Finally, in Event #74, the $1,000 Mini Main Event saw 6,717 take part in Day 1b, meaning a total field of 10,794 have already played in the event. From Day 1b, just 541 made it into the Day 2, with French player Bernard Kobis (7,770,000) currently in the lead. Others such as Harry Lodge (4,955,000), Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau (2,350,000) and Martin Kabrhel (2,275,000) all made the top 10 stacks. 

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