Upcoming Milestones and Record Possibilities at the 2025 WSOP Part 2

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May 26, 2025 11 min read Last updated May 27, 2025

In this two-part series, poker historian Robert Jen, who is the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Unknown Poker Historian," dives deep into the record books to offer up fun facts and stats heading into the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), and what records poker player and fans can expect to be broken this summer. He also offers up some long-standing records that have a chance to fall, as well as some longshot records that probably won't be broken this year, but you never know.

You can also learn A LOT more about WSOP history and records by checking out his Poker Omnibus W50P at w50p.com.

PokerNews will be offering live updates from all 100 live WSOP bracelet events at the Horseshoe and Paris, and you can bet we'll be keeping a close eye on the following scenarios to see if and when a new record might be set.

Oh, and if you want to learn more about Robert Jen and see him talk about various records, check out his recent one-on-one exclusive interview with Chad Holloway on the PokerNews Podcast.

Probably Not Going to Happen (30-50%)

Consecutive Years with a Bracelet, Women

Susie Isaacs (1996 & 1997), Nani Dollison (2000 & 2001), and Kristen Foxen (2023 & 2024) are the only women to win a bracelet in consecutive years. Can Foxen make it three in a row and stake sole claim to being Mariah Carey, who set an all-time record with a number one song every year from 1990 to 2000 (11 straight years)? Foxen would also break a tie with Nani Dollison (three in the 2000s) for the most bracelets in a decade, again paralleling Mariah Carey, who topped the charts a woman's record 14 times in the 1990s.

NOTE: Jesse Yaginuma and Sean Troha can tie the overall record of four straight years shared by Bill Boyd (1971-74), Doyle Brunson (1976-79), and Loren Klein (2016-19).

Final Tables in One Year, Women

Kristen Foxen reached a record five final tables in 2023. Only two other women have reached four final tables in a year since 2014 — Melissa Burr in 2014 and Esther Taylor in 2017 — and Foxen is the most likely candidate to break her own record anyway.

Most Final Tables in One Year, Women

Consecutive Decades With a Final Table, Women

Cyndy Violette, Esther Rossi, Linda Johnson, Marsha Waggoner, and J.J. Liu have all reached at least one final table in four straight decades. Liu's streak already includes the 2020s, but the rest can extend their streaks to 5 and stake an unmatched claim to being Madonna or Whitney Houston, who each had a Top 10 song in a female-record four straight decades from the 1980s to the 2010s.

Most Consecutive Decades With a Final Table, Women

NOTE: The overall record of six (every decade of the WSOP) by Artie Cobb and Jim Bechtel will not change as each streak already includes the 2020s. They share the title of the Michael Jackson of poker (five straight decades with a Top 10 hit from the 1970s to the 2010s).

Final Tables in a Career, Women

Annie Duke once held a slew of women's records, but one of her last ones, 15 career final tables, is now in danger. Kristen Foxen sits at 11 and is more likely to pass her than J.J. Liu at 12 or even Cyndy Violette at 13. Duke will nevertheless likely remain the Taylor Swift of poker for another year (Swift has the female lifetime record of 59 Top 10 hits).

Most Final Tables, Women

NOTE: Phil Hellmuth holds the overall record of 79, one more than Drake has career Top 10 hits (78). The Poker Brat is likely to extend his mark, and even if he doesn't, nobody will catch him this year unless Daniel Negreanu somehow reaches 11 final tables, which would shatter the yearly record of 8.

Cashes in One Year, Women

Michelle Shah set the record with 21 cashes in 2020, and Kathy Liebert tied her last year. Although 2020 was an unusual online year in which Shah obliterated Maria Ho's six-year-old record by 13, it only took four years for the record to be tied, and it may take just one more for it to be broken. Liebert also logged 17 cashes in 2023, while Jessica Tuesl had 19 last year and 18 in 2023.

Most Cashes in One Year, Women

Players in the Main Event

The 2024 Main Event edged past 2023 with a record 10,112 players. The record has fallen in back-to-back years, but it took a late-registration flurry to get there last year, and attendance will likely drop this year due to the economy and tourist-unfriendly executive orders. Ditto for most places paid (1,517) and biggest prize pool ($94,041,600).

Biggest Main Events

_{NOTE: The WSOP expanded payouts from about ten percent of the field to fifteen percent in 2015.}

Women in the Main Event

The 2023 Main Event included an all-time high of 395 women. This record is likely to fall only if Main Event attendance rises, but maybe Foxen's deep run last year was inspiring? The related record is most women cashing (47, also in 2023).

Biggest Main Events, Women

Players / Cashes in One Year

Last year set records with 455,867 players and 461,319 entries (5,452 rebuys) across all tournaments. An increase in the number of events could topple this record again, and the WSOP has a distant shot at going over half a million entries for the first time ,as a 9% increase would accomplish that. If this record falls, so will last year's records of $772,837,284 paid out to 62,165 cashers.

Biggest WSOP Years by Entries

Players in a Tournament

The 2024 Online $215 Mystery Millions had a record 52,452 entries. This record has fallen in three consecutive years, with 51,003 players in the 2022 $210 Million Dollar Mystery Bounty and 51,211 in the 2023 $210 Mystery Millions. The same 2024 event set a record with 4,800 players paid, another breakable record. Field sizes will likely be down, but online probably has a better chance of a new record than live (8th in the table below with 28,371 entries for the 2019 $500 Big 50).

Biggest Tournament Fields

NOTE: As for specific tournaments breaking their own records for most players, the four main non-open tournaments are all great candidates. The former Casino Employees event will undoubtedly top the 1,232 players it had in 2006. After a near-record 1,189 entries last year (with a record 179 paid), the WSOP broadened the tournament to be the $500 Industry Employees event, with apparently no enforcement on who is eligible. The $1,000 Ladies Championship (1,295 players in 2023), $1,000 Seniors (8,180 in 2023), and $1,000 Super Seniors (3,362 last year for a third straight record) could also easily set new marks.

Players in a Live Non-Hold 'Em Tournament

This record fell in both 2023 (3,200 entries in $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack 8-Max) and 2024 (4,280 entries in $1,000 Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha) but is still an underdog to be broken this year (see above).

Biggest Live Non-Hold 'Em Tournament Fields

Doubtful to Happen (10-30%)

Multiple Bracelet Winners in One Year

A record 13 players won multiple bracelets in 2021. The last three years have seen 8, 12, and 9, so a few more events combined with smaller fields could help break this record.

Most Multiple Bracelet Winners in One Year

Multi-Winners Year

Open Bracelets Won in One Year by Women

The online year of 2020 saw a record four women win open events — Kristen Bicknell, Nahrain Tamero, Thi Truong, and Melika Razavi. Last year tied the record (Vivian Saliba, Maria Konnikova, Kristen Foxen, and Michele Lawson). All of these wins were online except for Saliba's, which was at WSOP Europe. But in between those two years, women tallied just one, zero, and two bracelets, putting the over-under at 2.5 open bracelets.

Most Female Open Bracelet Winners

Money Won in One Year, Women

Liv Boeree collected $2,809,952 in 2024. She amassed most of those winnings with a fourth place in the Paradise Island $25,000 Main Event, while fifth place in the Main Event paid $3 million last year, so this record along with her decade ($2,828,863) and career ($3,223,192) records are much more likely to fall than the overall record for money won in one year (see below).

Most Money Won in One Year, Women

Very Unlikely to Happen (<10%)

Bracelets in a Career, Women

Kristen Foxen has five bracelets, two more than Vanessa Selbst, Barbara Enright, and Nani Dollison. While Selbst is certainly capable of winning three bracelets in one year, she'd have to come out of retirement to do it. Foxen's pop equivalent is Mariah Carey, whose 19 number-one songs are five more than Rihanna. The Mimi of poker also has a record four open bracelets; Selbst needs one to tie, which would also make her the first woman to win a bracelet in three consecutive decades.

Most Bracelets in a Career, Women

NOTE: The overall record of 17 by Phil Hellmuth is quite safe as Phil Ivey would need a ludicrous six just to tie him. Hellmuth is the Fab Four all by himself, as the Beatles hold the all-time record of topping the Hot 100 20 times.

Bracelets in One Year

Puggy Pearson won an impressive three bracelets out of only seven events in 1973. His record has since been tied by Ted Forrest (1993), Phil Hellmuth (1993), Phil Ivey (2002), Jeff Lisandro (2009), George Danzer (2014), and Scott Seiver (2024).

Who is turning 40 and hoping to get into the Hall of Fame this year? Jeff Madsen? Shannon Shorr? Chris Moorman? That motivation helped Seiver tie the record last year. As it stands, seven players can claim to be the Beatles, who topped the charts six times in 1964 (and another 5 the next year).

Most Bracelets in One Year

Bracelets in One Year, Women

Nani Dollison is the only female to win two bracelets in one year. In 2001, she captured the $1,000 Ladies Championship and the $2,000 Limit Hold'em. It's less likely for a woman to win three bracelets than for a man to win four, as the volume simply isn't there. However, there's an outside chance for the first woman to win two open bracelets in a year. For now, Dollison reigns like the Supremes and Rihanna, who both had 4 number-one songs in a year (1965 and 2010, respectively).

Bracelets in a Decade

Johnny Moss won seven bracelets in the 1970s, and Phil Ivey matched him in the 2000s. Jeremy Ausmus leads the 2020s with five bracelets and would nab this record by tying the record of three bracelets in one year to become the new Beatles, who had 18 #1 songs in the 1960s.

Most Bracelets in a Decade

Money Won in One Year

Antonio Esfandiari won an all-time best $18,749,468 in 2012. Since the demise of the Big One for One Drop, where the Magician earned a record $18,346,673, it's been impossible for someone to break his event record and incredibly hard to beat his single-year record, likely requiring two huge scores.

Most Money Won in One Year

Main Event Finish, Women

Barbara Enright took a bad beat to exit in fifth place in the 1995 Main Event. Many poker fans were disappointed when Kristen Foxen fell short of the final table last year, but many women are capable of making a deep run. It's going to happen sooner or later, so why not this year, simultaneously breaking Foxen's records for largest prize and percent of the field survived?

Best Female Main Event Finish

Latest Day Leading the Main Event by a Woman

Jessica Cai was the chip leader after Day 3 of the 2021 Main Event. A woman has been the end-of-day leader three other times. Vera Richmond led after Day 1 in 1981, Kathy Liebert after Day 2 in 2000, and Gaelle Baumann after Day 2 in 2012. That works out to about once every 14 years, so it would be very exciting but very unlikely that a woman will lead this year's Main Event after Day 4 or later.

NOTE: Puggy Pearson originally specifically said that he'd cut his throat if Richmond held on to win the 1981 Main Event. Although he later broadened the claim to include any woman, he passed away in 2006 with his neck intact.

Wrapping Up the Forecast

The WSOP is set for another fantastic year. Milestones will be made, and records will be reached. Could we have the youngest winner ever in Rozvadov or Paradise Island (current record-holder: Annette Obrestad, one day shy of her 19th birthday in 2007)? Can someone defy Father Time and become the oldest bracelet winner ever (current record-holder: Farhintaj Bonyadi, 83) or the oldest open bracelet winner (current record-holder: Johnny Moss, 13 days short of turning 81)?

Maybe someone with a two-letter first name and two-letter last name will win a bracelet, evicting Ben Yu, Pei Li, Tu Dao, Yue Du, and Zhi Wu from the shortest-named bracelet winners list? Or on the flip side, someone could top the 31 letters (including spaces) of the longest-named winner, Johan Buchtrup Schultz-Pedersen.

Something will happen that we never expected, and although I'm more of a researcher than a gambler, I'll be playing in and watching this year's WSOP as I'm still gaga for poker. As the Eagles sang, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Good luck to everyone playing. To those of you watching at home, enjoy the longest-running reality show on TV!

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