WSOP 2025 Day 43 Recap: Legends Fall in WSOP Main Event

A thrilling day of action in the WSOP Main Event saw players battle to within reach of the money bubble as some of the biggest players in the field lost their tournament lives on Day 3. In three other events, players got closer to gold as the $600 Ultra Stack, $5,000 Super Turbo and $1,000 PLO Mystery Bounty events continued at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos.

Negreanu, Hellmuth and Tamayo All Crash Out of Main Event

The third day of action in the Main Event brought the bumper field down from 3,453 starters to just 1,476 remaining players. That means just 15 players need to bust to put the rest of the players into the money places, with a min-cash of $15,000 in 1,461st place very different from the $10 million top prize up for grabs.
When play ended on Day 3, it was the 23-year-old Japanese player Shotaro Kobayashi who took the chip lead, with a stack of 1,971,000 chips. Others to make the top ten include Kobayashi’s closest challenger, the 2023 WSOP Europe Main Event champion and former basketball professional Max Neugebauer (1,928,000). With Juliet Hegedus (1,745,000) and Frenchman Thomas Eychenne (1,618,000) also present in the top ten, there will be some very big stacks at play when Day 4 begins.
Big names litter the chip counts, of course, with stars of the past such as Viktor Blom (986,000), Pedro Garagnani (977,000), Will Kassouf (957,000), Jason Mercier (687,000), Riva Arthur (684,000), Nate Silver (572,000), Chris Hunichen (544,000), Brad Owen (328,000), Liv Boeree (320,000), Donnie Peters (250,000), Sergio Aido (168,000), Tim Duckworth (168,000), Landon Tice (124,000) and Phil Laak (104,000) all making Day 4 and likely the money spots.

Other superstars, however, fell. Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer was defeated by kings against his own kings when a flush sent him packing. Daniel Negreanu lost a coinflip with pocket nines against ace-queen when a queen landed on the river. Phil Hellmuth suffered an even more painful coinflip loss. All-in with ace-king against pocket queens, the 17-time bracelet winner saw a reprieve looming when he hit a king on the turn. Only the queen of hearts could take him out of the tournament on the river, but that one-outer came to send the Poker Brat up and out of his chair, doomed to defeat and without profit in 10 years of the World Championship.

With the money bubble looming at the start of Day 4, the drama in the 2025 WSOP Main Event World Championship is only just beginning, but one thing we do know about the eventual winner is that it’ll be no-back-to-back champion. The 2024 winner Jonathan Tamayo went out on Day 3 as the only former champion remaining in the field was the 2020 Hybrid World Champion Damian Salas. The Argentinian bagged up 480,000 in his attempt to make the third Main Event final table of his career.

WSOP Event #81 $10,000 Main Event Day 3 Chip Counts

Stern Wins Super Turbo Bounty Bracelet

The $5,000-entry Super Turbo Bounty event concluded late on Tuesday, as Israeli Netanel Stern won his first WSOP bracelet and a top prize of $618,377 within 24 hours. The $5,000-entry Super Turbo event saw 1,283 entries and paid 194 players, including stars such as Jesse Lonis (23rd for $25,652), Mustpaha Kanit (27th for $20,946) and Faraz Jaka, who finished 31st for the same amount.

At the final table, Pedro Marques was dominated to a quick defeat as the Ukrainian player Rostyslav Sabishchenko held a massive lead. British player Tamer Kamel looked to be Sabishchenko’s biggest challenger but although he went deep, Kamel exited in fifth place for $156,060 and fell just short of winning his own maiden bracelet. Sabishchenko got heads-up but after Stern won a big pot with two pair to take the lead, pocket aces held in the final hand against Sabishchenko’s king-ten, a nine-high board proclaiming the Israeli a WSOP champion.

WSOP Event #87 $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty Final Table Results

Ultra Stack Reaches Final 14

The total 7,057 entries in Event #85, the $600-entry No-Limit Hold’em Ultra Stack event have been reduced to just 14 survivors who will battle for gold tomorrow in Las Vegas. With a huge $2,992,086 prize pool, a top prize of $355,110 awaits the eventual winner, with Eric Rabelas (82,000,000) top of the counts. Second in chips is Delano Jackson (54,500,000), with Blake Napierala (45,000,000) also on the podium. The last remaining female player Zhengyu Guan is also still in contention, with a stack of 31,000,000 chips to battle with. 

WSOP Event #85 $600 NLHE Ultra Stack Final Day Chip Counts

Wassell and Zektser Over a Milly in Mystery Bounty

In Event #86, the $1,000 buy-in Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha event, Day 1 of the tournament saw 2,171 entries reduced to just 325 survivors. Only two players bagged up seven figures, with Casey Wassell (1,135,000) and Igor Zektser (1,087,000) topping a million chips.

Thai player Punnat Punsri (760,000) is the most experienced player inside the top 10 but with other greats such as Michael ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek (655,000), Brandon Shack-Harris (648,000), Craig Vernell (630,000) and Jason Daly (612,00) all inside the top 25 players too, the battle to become champion and earn the latest bracelet of the series is sure to be intense.

WSOP Event #86 $1,000 PLO Mystery Bounty Chip Counts

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