WSOP 2025 Day 45 Recap: Schulze Powers to Lead in Main Event, Chris Nguyen Leads $50k High Roller

A dramatic day in the World Series of Poker saw just 202 remain in with a chance of winning the 2025 WSOP Main Event as Sebastian Schulze enjoyed the kind of day he must dreamed of in Las Vegas last night.

Schulze on Top in Main Event

With five gruelling days of World Championship action in the can, 9,735 total entries have now been reduced to just 202 survivors, with the German player Schulze some way clear on a stack of 12.74 million chips.

Behind Schulze, there is a truly global top ten players, with Americans Chad Power (9.54m) and Braxton Dunaway (8.6m) hoping to follow in Jonathan Tamayo’s and win the $10 million top prize as a U.S. citizen. With the presence of Portuguese player Sergio Veloso (8.2m) and British motormouth Will Kassouf (6.9m) in the upper levels of the leaderboard, anything could happen in the remaining days of the most exciting WSOP Main Event for many years.

The World Championship looks wide open, with both the 2023 WSOP Europe Main Event winner Max Neugebauer and the 2020 Hybrid Main Event winner Damian Salas crashing out on Day 5. Indeed, the only former world champion still in with a chance of victory is the 2012 champ Greg Merson, who sits roughly in the middle of the field with 2.96m chips.

Elsewhere, Michael Mizrachi survived a late raising war to bag up 4.02 million chips, with his fellow pros Kenny Hallaert (5.7m), Alex Lynskey (1.57m), and Zhen Cai (1.47m) all surviving to Day 6. PokerGO's own Donnie Peters also bagged 1.43m (28 big blins) for Day 6. The son of Celine Dion, Rene-Charles Angelil has no need to think twice when looking at his stack of 3.16m chips, with WPT Main Event crusher Eric Afriat (4.25m) also looking for a very deep run.

There could yet be a very deep run from a female player, with experienced Spanish professional Leo Margets (2.81m), PPC third-place finisher Esther Taylor (2.1m), Thi Xoa Nguyen (2m) and Lindsey McDougall (420,000) all still in there fighting for female glory.

There was no room in the end-of-Day 5 chip counts for legends like Stephen Chidwick, Jeremy Kottler, Brian Hastings, Viktor Blom, Josh Reichard, Scott Margereson, Matt Affleck and Henrick Hecklen, but Isaac Haxton remains a big threat to the pack, sitting on 2.58m with one of the best poker resumes of any of the survivors.

WSOP Event #81 $10,000 Main Event Day 5 Chip Counts

Nguyen and Zamani Clear in High Roller 

The penultimate day of the $50,000-entry NLHE High Roller Event #88 saw 78 players go through the money bubble and come out the other side with a total field of 252 building a prize pool of $12,159,000. That means the winner will take home a massive $2,686,913 - one of the biggest top prizes of the WSOP so far - in a day’s time.

With just 17 players still in with a shout of the title, the German high roller regular Christopher Nguyen (13 million) leads the field as he seeks his first WSOP bracelet and what would be the biggest top prize of his career. The American pro Martin Zamani is second in chips on 9.2 million, with Sergio Aido (5.92m), Sam Soverel (5.47m) and Matthew Wantman (4.09m) all inside top 10 places.

Daniel Negreanu left the party early, as he was stacked by Michael ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek, whose ace-high beat Kid Poker’s king-queen. Phil Hellmuth entered twice on Day 2 but busted twice too, while Czech chatterbox Martin Kabrhel also departed, going from fourth in chips when play began to the rail outside the money places.

Others to lose their stacks on Day 2 of the three scheduled included Alex Foxen (38th), Punnat Punsri (35th), Jesse Lonis (33rd), and Kristen Foxen (29th), but all of them made a min-cash worth $102,024 and POY points, while Shaun Deeb also busted, earning $123,068 in 19th place, a couple of payjumps clear of his main rival in POY terms, the British player Benny Glaser, who came 34th.

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

Tran on Top in PLO Mystery Bounty Event

Quan Tran leads the remaining 29 players in Event #86, the $1,000 PLO Mystery Bounty event, where a top prize of $329,890 is on offer for the winner. With a total of 5,284 entries, a prize pool of $3 million still has a lot to pay out, and it is Quan Tran (16.9m) who has the most chips at the close of play with a big day to come tomorrow.

Brazilian players Paulo Drummond (15.8m) and Carlos De Lima (10.7m) will both be hoping they can overtake the current leader, with former bracelet winners Lawrence Brandt (7.9m) and Danny Wong (1.9m) at opposite ends of the field outside the top 10.

WSOP Event #86 $1,000 Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha Chip Counts

Three More Events at Day 1 Stage

Three more events began or continued with Day 1s on Day 45 of the WSOP. On Day 1b of Event #89, the $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship, 2,001 players arrived at the Horseshoe and Paris, meaning a total field of 3,220 across both Day 1s. While players can still enter for one level of Day 2, Day 1b ended with Austria's Felix Rabas (654,000) on top, with others such as the U.S. player Antonio Salorio (482,500) and Spanish hopeful Inigo Naveiro (462,500) inside the podium places.

In Event #90, the $777 Lucky 7’s event, Panamanian player Hertsel Levy (3.4m) bagged the chip lead as just 64 players survived from 1,499 entries in the No Limit Hold’em event on Day 1a. Other stars to bag included Tom Hall (1.45m), Bradley Smith (1.1m), and Andrew Kelsall (480,000) as what will surely be an entertaining Day 1b dawns tomorrow.

Finally, on Day 1 of Event #91, the $1,500 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha event, 1,304 entries put a prize pool of $1,837,260 together, as 103 players only remain chasing the $280,214 top prize. The Argentinian poker great Nacho Barbero bagged up 1.38 million chips on his way to the overnight lead, with Narcis Nedelcu (1.29m) going for his second bracelet of the 2025 series. Others still in there fighting for glory from the top half of the Day 2 seat draw include Josh Reichard (463,000), Tony Sinishtaj (446,000), Dario Alioto (360,000) and Renji Mao (299,000). 

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