Day 3 of Event #11: $25,000 Super Main Event at 2025 World Series of Poker Paradise in the Bahamas wrapped up late Wednesday morning as the record-setting event reached its final three tables.
Leading the final 24 players is Canada's Pascal LeFrancois, while fellow Canadian William Blais is second in chips after running kings into the aces of Alex Kulev and flopping a set in the biggest pot of the tournament so far.
Other big stacks include Daniel Reijmer, who scored a double knockout to end the day, as well as Day 2b chip leader and elder Frenchman Jean-Noel Thorel.
Also in contention are eight-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser, poker coach Faraz Jaka, GGPoker ambassador Felipe Ramos, Natasha Mercier, high-stakes pros Eric Wasserson and Leonard Maue, former PokerNews live reporter Terrance Reid, and recent $50,000 PLO High Roller winner Charles Hook.
Each returning player has locked up at least $335,000, while all eyes are on the glimmering bracelet and $10 million top prize that await the eventual champion. Should LeFrancois keep up the pace, he could treat the poker world to another shirtless bracelet winner's photo, as he did in 2010.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pascal LeFrancois | Canada | 126,400,000 | 63 |
| 2 | William Blais | Canada | 123,300,000 | 62 |
| 3 | Daniel Reijmer | Netherlands | 115,400,000 | 58 |
| 4 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | 101,200,000 | 51 |
| 5 | Charles Hook | United States | 94,200,000 | 47 |
| 6 | Bernhard Binder | Austria | 89,500,000 | 45 |
| 7 | Natasha Mercier | Lebanon | 88,000,000 | 44 |
| 8 | Belarmino De Souza | Brazil | 86,500,000 | 43 |
| 9 | Leonard Maue | Germany | 70,000,000 | 35 |
| 10 | Faraz Jaka | United States | 63,300,000 | 32 |
Heroes, Villains & All-Ins
It would be hard to match the drama of Day 2b after a rowdy 10-minute hand centered around chaos agent James Caputo, but there was no doubt there would be exciting moments with poker villain Martin Kabrhel having the chip lead.
Kabrhel was on message and then some on Day 3. At one point, he tried out a new catchphrase — "This guy is on fiiiiiiiireeeeeeee" — but it didn't seem to stick. After some time on both the feature tables and main floor, Kabrhel was eventually eliminated by Wasserson, whom he had been calling "Wassy boy."
There was a potential shake-up in the GPI Player of the Year race as Jesse Lonis, according to GPI, needed to finish in 61st place or better to re-take his POY lead over Punnat Punsri after Punsri's 99th-place finish worth $92,500. Despite being the victim of a bold bluff by Ryuta Nakai that saw Lonis folding a set of kings, the apex predator made it deep into the evening and finished in 55th place to maintain his spot at the top of the poker food chain.
In another highlight, Gustavo Silva Campos won the $10,300 buy-in GGMillion$ High Roller for $223,824, which he was playing online before finishing 53rd in the Super Main for $180,000 — quite the day for the Brazilian.
With more than a billion in chips in play, it didn't take long for eight-figure pots to start forming. Perhaps the biggest of the day took place between Blais and Kulev, an aces versus kings cooler with a twist as Blais flopped a set of kings to put a gross beat on the stoic Kulev.
The big hands kept coming as the event reached its last five tables, as reigning GPI Player of the Year David Coleman doubled up Natasha Mercier. He would later complete his swing from over 80 million in chips to out at the hands of Mercier in a double knockout that also involved Ivan Stokes.
Double knockouts became a bit of a theme late in the evening as Reijmer picked up pocket queens to eliminate Tomas Kubaliak and Lautaro Guerra.
Other players who were eliminated on Day 3 include 20-time Circuit ring winner Ari Engel, Alejandro Lococo (86th - $92,500), recent Triton Invitational winner Kayhan Mokri (88th - $92,500), defending champion Yinan Zhou (94th - $92,500) and Joe Cada (103rd - $80,000), who was the last Main Event champ standing.
WSOP Paradise Super Main Event Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | $2,350,000 |
| 6 | $1,800,000 |
| 7 | $1,400,000 |
| 8 | $1,100,000 |
| 9 | $850,000 |
| 10-11 | $665,875 |
| 12-15 | $520,000 |
| 16-23 | $415,000 |
| 24 | $335,000 |
Action will resume at 1 p.m. local time with 36:02 left in Level 31 with blinds of 1,000,000/2,000,000/2,000,000 for the penultimate day of action ahead of a winner being crowned on Thursday.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on site and ready to provide updates on the WSOP Super Main Event here on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
