2023 WSOP Europe Champ Among Chip Leaders After Day 3 of WSOP Main Event
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The third day of the third biggest World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event wrapped up early Wednesday morning in Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas with the money bubble looming as Japan's Shotaro Kobayashi bagged the chip lead over the 1,476 remaining players just 15 players off the money.
The 23-year-old is followed closely by 2023 WSOP Europe Main Event champion and former pro basketball player Max Neugebauer, France's Sam Jakubowicz and Florida's Juliet Hegedus, who recently finished sixth in the $1,000 Ladies Championship for $34,667 and is looking to best her previous score of $46,800 from a 264th-place finish in the 2022 Main Event.
Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shotaro Kobayashi | Japan | 1,971,000 | 246 |
| 2 | Max Neugebauer | Austria | 1,928,000 | 240 |
| 3 | Sam Jakubowicz | France | 1,800,000 | 225 |
| 4 | Juliet Hegedus | United States | 1,745,000 | 218 |
| 5 | Tomas Szwarcberg | Mexico | 1,709,000 | 214 |
| 6 | David Alvarez | Spain | 1,629,000 | 204 |
| 7 | Thomas Eychenne | France | 1,618,000 | 202 |
| 8 | Brandon Harris | United Kingdom | 1,616,000 | 202 |
| 9 | Luke Chung | United States | 1,606,000 | 201 |
| 10 | Chad Power | United States | 1,546,000 | 193 |
The Main Event is always a diverse affair, drawing players of all stakes and from each corner of the world. Those who bagged on Day 3 include high-stakes pros Viktor Blom, Sergio Aido, and Chris Hunichen, old school legends Phil Laak, Liv Boeree and Jason Mercier, content creators Ashley Frank and Brad Owen, rising grinders Riva Arthur and Landon Tice, famed statistician Nate Silver and poker media's Donnie Peters, Tim Duckworth, Terrance Reid and Jack Bittker.
Two Main Event champions remain in Greg Merson (2012) and Damian Salas (2020), both of whom are hoping to join Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar and Johnny Chan as repeat champions.
Other big stacks include Poland's Sylwia Studniarz, Spanish two-time bracelet winner Antonio Galiana, Mexico's Tomas Szwarcberg and high-stakes pot-limit Omaha (PLO) pro Lautaro Guerra.
Hellmuth & Negreanu Rivered Out of Day 3
Bad beats seemed to define Day 3 of the 2025 Main Event, and they started happening right away.
Michael Rocco got his chips in good with a straight, but 2004 Main Event champion Greg Raymer rivered a full house with one card to go to eliminate the high-stakes pro turned farmer. In the same level, Bryan Shay hit runner-runner queens with ace-queen to crack the aces of Thien Tran.
Later in the day, Michael Gonzales flopped quad jacks to crack the aces of Wendell Barnes and Daniel Carney flopped a set of kings to dust the rockets of Chad Power.
All-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth was also among those to suffer tough beats. On the PokerGO-streamed feature table, Hellmuth flipped for his life with ace-king against the queens of Michael Zulker and took the lead with a king on the turn. However, the dealer somehow found the queen of spades on the river to deliver a one-outer on the Poker Brat, who wrote on X that "the river queen felt like getting punched in the gut."
Daniel Negreanu was also a victim of the river as his pocket nines were flipped out by the ace-queen of Simon Levy.
Hours later, fan favorite Doug Polk had his aces cracked by Luke Chung, perhaps karma for unabashedly plugging his sponsor on the televised feature table, while 2004 Main Event champion Greg Raymer suffered a kings versus kings beat as Weston Wells made a flush.
Breaking with the theme of the evening, Joey Padron had his aces hold up in one of the biggest pots of the evening against the kings of recent four-time PPC champion Michael Mizrachi.
Others who fell on Day 3 include Phil Hellmuth III, Chance Kornuth, recent bracelet winner Cary Katz, 2023 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Brian Rast, back-to-back Main Event champion Johnny Chan and reigning champion Jonathan Tamayo, a recent guest on the PokerNews Life Outside Poker podcast.
In another highlight of the day, Randy Crow nearly walked away from a straight flush triple up before someone at the table pointed out that Crow had the winner just as the dealer was about to muck his hand.
Day 4 action will kick off on Wednesday, July 9 at noon local time on Level 16 with blinds of 4,000/8,000/8,000.
The third-largest Main Event ever drew 9,735 players for a prize pool of $90,535,500. There are 1,461 places paid with a minimum cash being worth $15,000, while $10,000,000 awaits the eventual winner who will emerge on July 16.
2025 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | $10,000,000 |
| 2nd | $6,000,000 |
| 3rd | $4,000,000 |
| 4th | $3,000,000 |
| 5th | $2,400,000 |
| 6th | $1,900,000 |
| 7th | $1,500,000 |
| 8th | $1,250,000 |
| 9th | $1,000,000 |
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow for continued coverage of poker's biggest event at the 2025 WSOP in Las Vegas.
