Nick Schulman raised to 600,000 in the cutoff with J♠2♦ before David Stamm defended A♣10♠ in the big blind. Schulman then continued for 900,000 on the 7♠8♥9♦ flop and Stamm check-called.
The 10♣ turn saw Schulman make a straight, and Stamm checked to him once more after thinking it over for some time. Schulman also threw in one time bank before making a bet of 1,200,000.
Stamm correctly mucked his top pair after spending some more time extensions and the chipleader expanded his stack.
Nick Schulman raised to 600,000 as first to act, after which the action folded to Yingui Li in the small blind. The last Chinese player standing tanked for some time before committing his stack of 2,550,000 to the middle.
Schulman asked for a count and made the call after the dealer told him the correct number.
Yingui Li: K♣J♣
Nick Schulman: K♠Q♦
The 10♠K♦9♥ flop paired both players, but Schulman remained in the lead on the 6♠ turn.
The 3♦ river did nothing to change that fact either, and Li left the table in seventh place with a smile on his face.
Noel Rodriguez raised to 600,000 in the cutoff with A♠J♣. Nick Schulman looked down at Q♣9♣ on the button and tossed in a call. They went heads up to a flop of 2♣2♦K♦, on which Rodriguez checked to Schulman.
Schulman then made the minimum bet of 300,000 and Rodriguez called. The turn brought a third deuce with the 2♥ arriving. The action went check-check and the J♠ river gave Rodriguez a full house.
He checked it over to Schullman, who opted to check back to take it to showdown. Rodriguez tabled his ace-jack and took down the pot.
Nick Schulman open-jammed from the button, covering both Ben Heath in the small blind and David Stamm in the big blind. Heath tossed in a relatively fast call before Stamm got out of the way.
Ben Heath: A♦10♠
Nick Schulman: 10♣6♣
Heath looked to be in great shape to double up, but the 6♥K♠6♠ flop turned out to be a disastrous one, making trips for Schulman.
The A♥ turn gave him a slither of hope, but the 7♠ river sealed his fate as the British high stakes regular was sent out in fifth place.
With a total prize pool of $475,000, the stakes are incredibly high for the participants. The payouts are structured to reward the top four teams substantially, with the first-place team taking home $225,000, followed by $125,000 for second place, $75,000 for third, and $50,000 for fourth.
Most of the players drafted are on social media, and PokerNews has taken the liberty of compiling all of their accounts into a single list on X (formerly Twitter). Simply follow our list and you'll be able to see any update posted by the draftee!
Remember, PokerNews has been tracking $25K Fantasy players in our live updates, and have even made it simple to follow the action by tagging all players with a $25K Fantasy badge. That allows you to utilize our chip count filter option to follow only those players (just tick the $25K Fantasy badge); what’s more, each blog will have a “$25K Fantasy” tab that if you click all you will see are hands played by $25K Fantasy players.
