$25,000 Super Main Event Sets New Record on the Way to $60M Guarantee
Another busy day at the 2025 World Series of Poker Paradise produced a big field in Event #11: $25,000 Super Main Event, already surpassing the entry total from a year ago.
The path to reaching the record $60,000,000 guaranteed prize pool is well on track now, as the field sits at 2,026 total entries through three opening flights and the first Day 2. That eclipses the total of 1,978 from last year, when Yinan Zhou won $6,000,000 to become the first-ever WSOP Paradise Super Main Event champion.
In all, 476 entries were added during the third opening flight, seeing the current overlay drop into seven digits. That will continue to change as another 13 levels of late registration still remain at Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas, to be completed over the next two days.
Leading the way among the group of 138 remaining from Day 1c is two-time WSOP bracelet winner Jans Arends (5,400,000), who was among the top chip counts all day long and finished as the only player to top 5,000,000.
Sitting in second place is fellow Dutch player Raoul Kanme (4,930,000), while Sweden's Tobias Garp (4,020,000) built a big stack midway through the day and coasted to a top-three finish.
Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jans Arends | Netherlands | 5,400,000 | 180 |
| 2 | Raoul Kanme | Netherlands | 4,930,000 | 164 |
| 3 | Tobias Garp | Sweden | 4,020,000 | 134 |
| 4 | Ramiro Petrone | Argentina | 3,970,000 | 132 |
| 5 | Andre Moreira | Portugal | 3,890,000 | 130 |
| 6 | Martin Zamani | United States | 3,840,000 | 128 |
| 7 | Florian Lohnert | Germany | 3,800,000 | 127 |
| 8 | Chanracy Khun | Canada | 3,800,000 | 127 |
| 9 | Hui Chen | China | 3,765,000 | 126 |
| 10 | Sergio Da Silva Veloso | Portugal | 3,700,000 | 123 |
Day 1c Action
The day produced a pair of notable hands on the WSOP YouTube stream, starting with Shiina Okamoto’s exit on Level 3. The back-to-back WSOP Ladies Championship winner got Big Slick in against Alan Keating’s pocket pair, which held for the knockout.
Keating would bow out a little later in the day, as would Eric "Barstool Nate" Nathan. On the final hand before dinner break, Nathan jammed into Sergio Aido’s pocket aces and could not find a miracle runout. Aido went on to bag 975,000, good for almost two starting stacks.
Among the notables near the top of the counts is Martin Zamani (3,840,000), who sent Michael Soyza out on one of the final hands of the night. Zamani will return with a top-ten chip stack, looking for his fifth career WSOP bracelet.
Other bracelet winners to find a bag include Orpen Kisacikoglu (2,975,000), Kayhan Mokri (2,915,000), Daniel Zack (2,795,000) and Kristen Foxen (2,680,000), who all sit inside the top 30 from Day 1c.
The third flight also saw some WSOP Main Event champions take their shot at Paradise glory, including Greg Raymer. The 2004 champion ran into aces midway through the day, and could not recover to hit the rail after finding the same fate in an earlier flight.
2022 winner Espen Jorstad and 2017 champ Scott Blumstein also failed to build any momentum, and were joined on the rail by 1998 champion and Poker Hall of Famer Scotty Nguyen.
The final flight will begin Sunday, December 14 at 12:00 p.m. local time, where players will look to navigate ten more levels of action. Registration remains open though the first three levels of Day 2b, with unlimited reentries along the way.
Those who bag will combine with Day 1c survivors to battle into the money on Monday, December 15, before the full remaining field comes together for the first time on Day 3.
As always, PokerNews will be inside the ropes to deliver live coverage of the $25,000 Super Main Event as the second bubble will burst on Sunday. Don’t Miss a moment of this, and other WSOP bracelet events here at Atlantis.