WSOP 2025 Day 44 Recap: Money Bubble Bursts in Main Event, Fawcett Taps into WSOP Gold

The WSOP Main Event Day 4 drama burst the money bubble in Las Vegas as the world’s biggest poker tournament provided thrills on the latest day of action at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos. In other events, Justin Fawcett won gold for the first time and both Martin Kabrhel and Shaun Deeb remain in contention to win the $50,000 High Roller and possibly the Player of the Year.

Bubble Bursts as Frankland Fills Up

One of the most exciting days in the poker calendar played out today as the WSOP Main Event reached the money bubble. With a $30,000 package to WSOP Paradise added for the bubble player at the last minute, one of the most frantic bubbles in recent World Championship history played out as British pro Mat Frankland eventually took home over double the amount of a min-cash in poker buy-ins.

The 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event Day 4 action burst the money bubble and saw just 522 players remain in with a chance of winning the $10 million top prize in a week’s time. With 1,476 players starting the day, 15 players needed to bust but on the eve of the money bubble, the WSOP announced that a $30,000 WSOP Paradise package (a $25,000 Super Main Entry and $5,000 hotel package) would be awarded to the player eliminated in 1,461st place.

With the added equity on the line, players under threat were way more aggressive than they might usually be. As it happened, on the bubble itself, three players busted, as Sachin Joshi, Marco Dickner and Mat Frankland all lost out at their tables. That left two min-cashes of $30,000 to be split three ways between the trio, giving each of them their money back for buying into the Main Event. The trio then flipped for the $30,000 package and Frankland rivered a straight, winning the package and totalling $40,000 in cash and value.

Once the bubble had burst, players busted in quick succession. Stars such as Josh Arieh, Liv Boeree and Phil Laak all departed. Others such as Brazilian online legend Yuri Dzivielevski, Day 1 chip leader Riva Arthur, Sunday Million winner Vanessa Kade, Landon Tice, Dylan Linde, WSOP bracelet and WPT Main Event winner Darren Elias, Japanese vlogger Masato Yokosawa, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Jason Mercier and the last remaining 2024 finalists Jason Sagle and Andres Gonzalez all busted.

The only remaining former winners still in with a chance of winning their second Main Event are two of the best to ever do it, with 2012 world champion Greg Merson (1,495,000) rolling along and the 2020 WSOP Hybrid Main Event winner Damian Salas (450,000) short stacked but still alive.

The chip leader at the close of play was Harold Lam (4,195,000), with Jeremy Kottler (3,725,000) closest to him. Julien Mariani (3,600,000), Kohei Arai (3,585,000), and Benjamin Williams (3,550,000) all made the top five, with stars such as Arsenii Karmatckii (3,445,000), Nick Pupillo (3,150,000), Kenny Hallaert (2,805,000), Eric Afriat (2,710,000), and Adam Hendrix (2,550,000) all well above the average.

With other big names such as the reigning and four-time PPC champion Michael Mizrachi (2,270,000), British poker legend Stephen Chidwick (1,940,000), American poker hero Isaac Haxton (1,915,000), Swedish sensation Viktor Blom (1,455,000), Matt Affleck (900,000), Joseph Cheong (850,000), and ‘Barstool Nate’ Silver (805,000) all still firing, Day 5 is sure be a tough battle as 522 players battle down to just a dozen or so tables of poker hopefuls in the race to be world champion.

WSOP Event #81 $10,000 Main Event Day 4 Chip Counts

Fawcett Wins First Bracelet in Ultra Stack 

In Event #85, the $600-entry Ultra Stack event, a final day saw Justin Fawcett win the first WSOP bracelet of his career, beating Thai Dinh heads-up to capture the $355,110 top prize and life-changing money. With a field of 7,057 and a massive prize pool of $3.55 million, Fawcett’s win not only won him six-figures in just three days but also the coveted WSOP title he wanted.

“I feel like I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past and have been able to make a few adjustments to my game’” he said afterwards. “I’m trying to be more disciplined with what I play and focus on events that suit my strengths. I have a lot of experience playing long hours, so the long tournament days aren’t as grueling for me because I’m used to it.”

Bizarrely, Fawcett claimed that he doesn’t eat during tournament days, preferring to fuel up at the start and end of days at the felt. It served him well, as he finally won a bracelet after 20 years at the tables. 

“It’s everyone’s dream to win a bracelet,” he admitted. “I had a lot of friends who believed in me and kept telling me this was my year, and I’m grateful to everyone who supported me along the way. I don’t think I could have had this success without their help.”

While many would fire at the final week of the series, Fawcett doesn’t want to over-reach and has applied a sensible logic to what to do with the money. 
“It’s easy after a big score like this to start firing bigger tournaments. Before you know it, the money is gone. I don’t play full time, and the series is almost over, so we’ll see.”

WSOP Event #85 $600 NLHE Ultra Stack Final Table Results

Oya On Top in $50,000 High Roller

The first day of the $50,000 High Roller NLHE Event #88 saw 194 total entries, with just 78 players still in seats at the close of play on Day 1. Top of the counts is the Japanese high roller regular Masashi Oya, who ended his Day 1 with 1,956,000 chips, despite busting one bullet to Daniel Negreanu along the way. 
Oya bought back in, busted Daniel Rezaei and from there seemed unsinkable on his way into an overnight lead. Japan’s most successful live tournament player to date was closely followed by the voice of the 2025 WSOP, Czech antagonist Martin Kabrhel (1,514,000), who, along with Viktor Ustimov (1,900,000), Brek Schutten (1,762,000) and Sam Soverel (1,504,000), completed the top five stacks. 

While Kabrhel is chasing down the WSOP Player of the Year leader, Shaun Deeb (374,000) has that lead and remains in the hunt for his eighth lifetime WSOP bracelet and second of this series. H’s joined in the counts by poker legends at every table, with the former High Roller champion Alex Kulev (1,361,000), British first-time WSOP winner this year Philip Sternheimer (982,000), PokerGO event crusher Kristen Foxen (852,000), her husband and fellow WSOP legend Alex Foxen (741,000), the 2009 world champion Joe Cada (688,000), and the aforementioned Daniel Negreanu (532,000).

Players can re-enter, but only once, so players who bought in twice on Day 1 won’t be making it back onto the leaderboard. These included but weren’t limited to Chance Kornuth, Danny Tang, Artur Martirosian, and Adrian Mateos, while the reigning champion in the event, Jared Bleznick will go back to the sports cards ahead of tomorrow’s events, failing to defend his title this time out.

WSOP Event #88 $50,000 NLHE High Roller Chip Counts

Two More WSOP Events Kick Off

Two more WSOP Events began on a busy day at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos. On Day 1b of Event #86, the $1,000-entry Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha event, 3,113 entries were reduced to just 467 survivors who made it through to Day 2. Chinese player Pei Li (1,175,000) led the Day 1b field after the last hand, with other big names such as Pedro Rodriguez (982,000), Ludovic Geilich (918,000), and Rob Wazwaz (858,000) all ending the day’s play inside the top ten chip counts.

Finally, in Event #89, the $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship, 1,215 buy-ins across Day 1a ended at just 367 when the tournament day shut down for the night. The 2025 Mystery Millions winner Michael Wilklow (506,500) bagged the chip lead, while Shaun Deeb’s conqueror and first time WSOP bracelet winner last week, Zdenek Zizka (352,000), and Alex Keating (338,000) also made the top ten. Upeshka De Silva (200,000), Davidi Kitai (185,500), Mike Matusow (175,000), Robert Wells (175,000), Adrian Mateos (150,500), Martin Kabrhel (126,500), Martin Jacobson (99,500), Huck Seed (93,000), and Jonathan Tamayo (85,000), all made the Day 2 chip counts too ahead of Day 1b. 

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