The second starting flight of the $5,300 NAPT Main Event at 2025 PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Las Vegas at Resorts World Las Vegas took place on Friday and featured what is likely the biggest poker cooler we'll see all year.
Day 1b drew 362 runners and included everyone from qualifiers to poker legends, and many of them bagged on their way to becoming the next NAPT champion. That includes Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, PokerStars ambassador and chess pro Jen Shahade, television writer Matthew Salsberg and recent $50,000 Super High Roller runner-up Thomas Boivin.
Leading the 107 surviving players is American pro Shannon Shorr with 395,000, followed by 2023 GPI Player of the Year Bin Weng and Maryland's Diane Zimmerman.
Others who bagged include poker coach Jonathan Little, PokerNews Podcast co-host Ben Ludlow, Justin Young, Patrick Leonard, Leon Sturm, Ankit Ahuja, Gal Yifrach, and recent EPT Barcelona champion Stephen Song.
End of Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shannon Shorr | United States | 395,000 | 329 |
| 2 | Diane Zimmerman | United States | 353,500 | 295 |
| 3 | Bin Weng | United States | 246,000 | 205 |
| 4 | Pedro Madeira | Brazil | 237,000 | 198 |
| 5 | Patrick Leonard | United Kingdom | 233,000 | 194 |
| 6 | Robert-Andrei Burlacu | Romania | 227,500 | 190 |
| 7 | Phillip Latimer | United States | 220,500 | 184 |
| 8 | Leon Sturm | Germany | 209,500 | 175 |
| 9 | Gal Yifrach | United States | 206,500 | 172 |
| 10 | Jesse Yaginuma | United States | 194,000 | 129 |
Chips Fly on Day 1b
The day kicked off with one table that included Bin Weng and Chance Kornuth agreeing to a round of straddles, and the action only picked up from there as a generational cooler took place shortly after dinner break.
The hand saw poker superstar Jeremy Ausmus making a Royal Flush to crush the quad aces of Harlan Karnofsky, the type of bad beat to turn someone away from the game forever. It mirrored an earlier cooler where Johan Schumacher flopped a full house only to lose most of his stack to the runner-runner quads of Pedro Gusmao.
There were other highlights on Day 1b, including Nick Palma making a bold but unsuccessful triple-barrel bluff, PokerNews MSPT Podcast host Kyna England making a frisky hero call with a wine glass by her side, and Romel Huelga cracking the queens of online poker legend Chris Moorman with a runner-runner flush.
Those who failed to bag in Day 1b include and England, Kristen Foxen, Michael Gathy, Landon Tice, PokerStars ambassador Caitlin Comeskey, and PokerNews Podcast Gold Pass winner Thomas Pierce, who fared well with the pros for a full day before busting in the final level.
Day 2 will kick off at noon local time on Level 11 with blinds of 1,000/1,500/1,500. Levels will increase from 60 minutes to 90 minutes in duration for the remainder of the tournament.
The event is scheduled to run for six days and will wrap up on Nov. 12.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site and ready to provide continued coverage of the NAPT Main Event at Resorts World Las Vegas.
