It was bubble day in the $5,300 Main Event at the 2025 PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Las Vegas as 273 players returned to their seats but only 84 of them managed to find a bag by the day's end. A total of 738 entries were recorded when registration closed at the start of the day which created a prizepool of $3,579,300 and a first-place prize of $653,050.
When the curtains drew to a close on the day, Peter Mugar stood at the top of the leaderboard with a whopping 924,000 chips. Midway through the day, Mugar found himself in a dream spot after flopping a set of aces against the two pair of David Chen. The chips inevitably went into the middle and Mugar found himself as one of the big stacks. Another collision with Cherish Andrews later on paved the way for Mugar to hold the Day 2 chip lead.
The Boston native has found a lot of success throughout the mid-stakes over the past five years but this would undoubtedly be the biggest title of his career if he were to pull it off over the coming days. Mugar has over seven figures in career earnings but has yet to reach a podium finish, according to The Hendon Mob.
Lurking not too far in the distance are a couple of players with a wealth of experience and plenty of titles on their poker resumes. Jesse Lonis (653,000) is currently sitting in second place on the heels of a miracle river card early in the day. Lonis needed to spike a three-outer to keep his tournament hopes alive and now he has positioned himself for the deepest of runs.
Also sitting inside the top ten is Dan Smith (508,000), who currently sits in seventh place on the all-time money list with over $60 million in earnings. Smith quietly went about his business on Day 2 to accumulate a healthy stack heading into the latter stages of the event.
Top 10 Chip Counts from Day 2 of the Main Event
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Mugar | United States | 924,000 | 185 |
| 2 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 653,000 | 131 |
| 3 | Ankit Ahuja | India | 643,000 | 129 |
| 4 | Eric Baldwin | United States | 619,000 | 124 |
| 5 | Brett Bassock | United States | 538,000 | 108 |
| 6 | Carl Shaw | United Kingdom | 532,000 | 106 |
| 7 | Michael Berk | United States | 522,000 | 104 |
| 8 | Dan Smith | United States | 508,000 | 102 |
| 9 | Phillip Latimer | United States | 500,000 | 100 |
| 10 | Thomas Boivin | Belgium | 491,000 | 98 |
There were plenty of players who joined the fray with a starting stack of 30,000 chips at the start of the day. That led to a flurry of eliminations in the opening level and the money bubble was soon on the horizon. Upon returning from dinner break, the pace of play started to slow until the hand-for-hand portion of the tournament was reached.
After a few quick hands, Elvyn Bello was the first to find himself at risk but luckily woke up with a big pocket pair. He was up against the suited connectors of Michael Gathy and a favorable board for Bello led to his double up. Moments later, Spencer Champlin found himself all-in and at risk against Daniel Samson. Unfortunately for Champlin, his pocket tens were no match for the pocket queen of Samson. There was still some hope as David Sheinin was also at risk at another table against Bin Weng. It was a coin flip and the pocket pair of Sheinin held up, leaving Champlin as the one on the outside looking in.
The rest of the remaining 111 players locked up a min-cash of $8,400 and the short stacks were able to breathe knowing they were in the money. Upon returning from their last break of the night, the field was dwindled down to just 84 players in the final level. Some notables to make the money but failed to find a bag include Erik Seidel, Stephen Song, Sergio Aido, and Jonathan Tamayo.
As for the rest of the field, there are plenty of familiar names all with their sights set on making a deep run on one of poker's biggest stages. The remaining players have each guaranteed themselves $9,650 but the pay jumps will start to become more significant in the coming days. Other players to keep an eye on include the likes of Patrick Leonard, Kristen Foxen, Chance Kornuth, Jeremy Ausmus, and Thomas Boivin.
The cards will be back in the air at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow with at least another four 90-minute levels on the schedule. The blinds will resume at 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. Please refer to the PokerStars live app for the Day 3 seat draw.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the updates throughout the day.
