2025 WSOP PokerNews Deepstack Challenge

Welcome back to the daily updates from the PokerNews Daily Deepstacks from the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

The latest Daily Deepstack tournaments have crowned their champions, with over $200,000 in prize money awarded across the three. The largest, as normal was the 540-player $250 Daily Deepstack, won by Kevin Iacofano, with Kyle Sullivan and Eric Tibuni also winning Daily Deepstack titles on Wednesday, June 4.

$250 Daily Deepstack

WSOP Circuit ring-winner and two-time European Poker Tour final tablist Kevin Iacofano has added another accolade to his poker resume: a PokerNews Daily Deepstack title for $18,629.

He defeated Kenneth Rutledge heads-up, with Rutledge having to settle for $12,957. The $250 Daily Deepstack attracted 540 entries and paid out 81 places.

Final Table Results – $250 Deepstack

$400 Daily Deepstack

Kyle Sullivan came out on top of a 126-player field to win $10,800 in the $400 Daily Deepstack. Just 19 players were paid with Douglas Young picking up a min-cash of $833.

Sullivan defeated Askia Ingram heads-up, with Ingram adding $6,914 to the $9,000 they took home for winning the Orleans SUmemr Open $300 Monster Stack earlier this week.

Finishing third was Santiago Montes who took home $4,602. Montes cashed three times in the PokerNews Daily Deepstacks in 2024, and already has his first for 2025.

Final Table Results – $400 Deepstack

$200 Daily Deepsatck

The $200 Daily Deepstack didn't finish until gone 4 a.m. local time, but after cashing four times last year, George Vigelette picked up his first PokerNews Daily Deepstack title.

One of those results in 2024 was a runner-up finish for $ 6,886, but he's now surpassed that with the $7,542 he won tonight after outlasting a 219-player field and defeating Nint Hoo heads-up. Hoo is a Daily Deepstack regular, having cashed nine times in 2023 and 2024 combined. However, his $4,946 cash in this event was the largest of all.

Final Table Results – $200 Deepstack

Tags: Adam GreenleeAndrea SagerAndrew LorigBenjamin Zollner Douglas YoungHamid YasiniHugo SalayamautiJohn FeeneyKenneth RutledgeKyle SullivanLisa ArmstrongMonster StackRodrick Edwards Santiago MontesSenthuran VijayaratnamSteffen BernhardtTao ChuTodd EstesWilliam HaramijaYotam Shmuelov

As Week 2 of the 2025 PokerNews Deepstack Challenge rolled into Thursday, three more champions were crowned in the $200, $250, and $400 Daily Deepstack events. A combined 942 entries generated $198,800 in prize money, with more than 135 players finishing in the money.

$250 Daily Deepstack

Florida’s Hunter Cole topped a 512-entry field in the $250 event, defeating Sagar Khatri heads-up to earn $17,921. The 25-year-old had just cashed in the $600 WSOP Deepstack Championship earlier this week (778th for $1,200) and followed it up by taking home his first PNDC title.

The prize pool hit $102,400, with 77 players making the money and earning at least the $504 min-cash. Justin Munoz rounded out the podium in third place for $8,757.

Final Table Results – $250 Deepstack

$400 Daily Deepstack

After finishing runner-up in the May 27 $400 Deepstack, Mark Lacoste returned to the top of the podium on Thursday by defeating a 170-entry field to win $13,327. The event paid 19 spots with a $833 min-cash, and Lacoste added to an already strong summer to push his live earnings near the $300K mark.

Jeremy Geist, former PokerNews live reporter, also made a run in this one—finishing 12th for $874.

Final Table Results – $400 Deepstack

$200 Daily Deepstack

The day’s closer saw 260 entries for a prize pool of $40,300, and it was 34-year-old Yen-Tuan Chen of Taiwan who secured the win and the $8,542 first-place payout. Chen outlasted a final table that included Rodrigo Gonzalez (2nd – $5,687) and Sandeep Pallampati (3rd – $3,894).

Forty players made the money, with payouts starting at $405.

Final Table Results – $200 Deepstack

Three more events played out on Friday, June 6, at the 2025 PokerNews Deepstack Challenge, as Week 2 continued at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The $200, $250, and $400 Daily Deepstacks drew a combined 981 entries, generating over $202,000 in prize pools.

The day produced three new winners: Michael Meza, John Howe, and Christopher Dixon, each securing their first PNDC victories.

$250 Daily Deepstack

Michael Meza, a 35-year-old truck driver from Beaumont, California, topped a field of 548 entries to claim $18,789, his largest live tournament cash to date. The $250 event generated a $109,600 prize pool, with 83 players finishing in the money.

Meza defeated Randall Paguio heads-up for the title, while Michael Holmes rounded out the top three.

Final Table Results – $250 Deepstack

$400 Daily Deepstack

In the $400 event, John Howe, a 38-year-old general manager from Danville, California, overcame a field of 149 entries to earn $12,105. The prize pool totaled $49,170, with 23 players making the money.

Kelly Andrews finished second for $7,835, and Gerald David took third for $5,255.

Final Table Results – $400 Deepstack

$200 Daily Deepstack

Christopher Dixon, a 52-year-old American player, took down the $200 event for $9,073, topping a field of 284 entries. The prize pool reached $44,020, with 45 players paid.

Saturday, June 7 marked Day 5 of Week 2 at the 2025 PokerNews Deepstack Challenge, as three more winners emerged across the $200, $250, and $400 Daily Deepstack events. A combined 999 entries generated $209,255 in prize money, with each event awarding a full set of leaderboard points ahead of Monday’s crucial final push.

Ryan Weber, Julien Leideck, and Zhun Wang each took home first-place honors. For Weber and Wang, the wins add to already-established poker resumes, while Leideck notched what appears to be a breakout live result.

$250 Daily Deepstack

Ryan Weber, a 34-year-old business analyst from Las Vegas, topped a 513-entry field to win $17,951 in Saturday’s $250 Deepstack. The tournament paid 77 spots from a $102,600 prize pool.

Weber, whose career live earnings now exceed $47,000, added to a record that includes a previous best cash of $8,250. He defeated Kenneth Johnson heads-up, with James Macmillan finishing third.

Final Table Results – $250 Deepstack

$400 Daily Deepstack

In the $400 event, 29-year-old Julien Leideck of France secured a career-best result, claiming $13,884 after outlasting a 179-player field. The engineer earned the win from a $59,070 prize pool, with 27 players making the money.

David Solomon finished runner-up for $9,133, and Sean Gillman placed third for $6,198.

Final Table Results – $400 Deepstack

$200 Daily Deepstack

Zhun Wang, a 36-year-old player from China, added a PNDC title to a growing resume that already includes two WSOP bracelet event cashes this summer in Omaha Hi-Lo and No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw. Wang earned $9,564 after defeating a 307-entry field in the $200 event.

The tournament paid 48 spots from a $47,585 prize pool. Wang now boasts over $66,000 in live earnings, with a previous best of $7,807.

Final Table Results – $200 Deepstack

With just two days remaining in Week 2 of the PokerNews Deepstack Challenge, fifteen winners have already secured victories across the $200, $250, and $400 Daily Deepstack events. From established pros to first-time champions, the second week of action has seen 5,331 entries, over $1.1 million in prize money, and several standout performances heading into Monday’s final slate.

The biggest single payout of the week so far belongs to Atsushi Mineki, who won $28,124 on Tuesday in the week’s largest field to date, a 961-entry $250 Deepstack. That same day, Ryan Flesch and Eric Tibuni also grabbed victories to open the week.

Among the other names, Kevin Iacofano and Mark Lacoste both picked up wins later in the week. Lacoste followed up his runner-up finish in Week 1’s opening $400 Deepstack with a first-place result on Thursday. Meanwhile, Zhun Wang, who’s already cashed in two WSOP bracelet events this summer, added a $200 Daily Deepstack title to his Vegas results on Saturday.

Get ready for some poker action! The second Daily Deepstack of the day shuffles up and deals at 4 p.m. This single-day extravaganza comes with a $400 buy-in, giving you a hefty 30,000 starting stack to play with.

Feeling adventurous? Late registration is open until the start of Level 9, around 7:35 p.m., and you can reenter as many times as you like. Each level is a quick 20 minutes, with plenty of 15- and 20-minute breaks to catch your breath and strategize.

Blinds kick off at 100/100, and the big blind ante is in play from the get-go.

With Week 2 of the 2025 PokerNews Deepstack Challenge nearing its conclusion, three more players secured tournament victories on Sunday, June 8. A combined 1,744 entries across the $250, $400, and $200 events generated $366,595 in prize money, with Dannette Mason, Konstantinos Tzinis, and Rodrigo Aldorino claiming the day's top prizes.

$250 Daily Deepstack

The $250 Daily Deepstack produced the single-largest turnout of Week 2 so far, with 1,105 entries building a $221,000 prize pool. Dannette Mason, who had nearly $46,000 in live earnings beforehand, rose above a field that paid 166 spots, ultimately banking $31,173.

Mason, whose previous best score was $8,332, nearly quadrupled that figure after a final table that included Kyler Scheriger (2nd - $22,031) and Charles Varner (3rd - $15,833). With their victory, she not only became one of the top single-event earners of Week 2, but also put herself in strong contention for leaderboard points heading into the final stretch.

Final Table Results

$400 Daily Deepstack

In the $400 event, Konstantinos Tzinis of Greece came out on top of a 266-entry field to win $18,447 from a $87,780 prize pool. The 40 paid places were led by Tzinis, who is no stranger to deep runs, including a 52nd-place finish in the WSOP Monster Stack last year.

The final table featured several solid performances, with Steven Snyder taking second for $12,508 and Joni Yosypiw rounding out the podium for $8,695. The victory adds to Tzinis’ already strong live resume, which includes over $194,000 in earnings and a personal-best result of $25,355.

Final Table Results

$200 Daily Deepstack

In the $200 Daily Deepstack, Rodrigo Aldorino of Argentina topped a field of 373 entries to win $11,068 from a $57,815 prize pool. The event paid 56 spots, and Aldorino added to his career earnings of $53,826, continuing a solid 2025 campaign that includes multiple cashes.

It was a closely contested final table, with Brady Eastom finishing runner-up for $7,562 and Jordan Eberts taking third for $5,283. Aldorino’s result is now one of the largest $200 victories of the PNDC series to date.

Final Table Results

The second week of the PokerNews Deepstack Challenge wrapped up on June 9, with the top ten points earners now confirmed for the PokerNews Deepstack Championship. Held at the 2025 WSOP, Week 2 featured 21 events and over 8,600 total entries, generating more than $1.8 million in prize money.

Tristan Tauscher topped the Week 2 leaderboard with 1,012 points, boosted by a win in the final $250 event on June 9. Tanner Martinelli finished second with 912 points, thanks to a win in the closing $200 tournament and two more cashes.

Dannette Mason secured third place with 828 points, earning her spot with a victory in the largest event of the week, a 1,105-entry $250 tournament on June 8.

Here are the ten players advancing from Week 2:

PokerNews will be in touch to let you know how you can claim your ticket.