Michael Wilklow Leads the Pack Moving Into Day 3
It was an exciting day at the 2025 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Out of the 1,045 that made it to Day 2 in Event #1: $1,000 Mystery Millions No-Limit Hold'em, 20 players are moving to the final day as Michael Wilklow leads the pack with 82,275,000
Following closely at Wliklow's heels are George Tatalovich with 77,625,000 chips and Linda Ngo with 75,575,000.
The highlight of the day happened when the $1,000,000 bounty envelopes were pulled early on. Tyler Montoya looked like a winner despite being eliminated within the first two hours of play. Just the seventh bounty claim of the day, he pulled the first $1,000,000 envelope with lots of fanfare. So happy to share a piece of his bounty, Montoya announced, “If you're a stripper at the strip club, you should be working tonight.”
The second player who got the $1,000,000 envelope was Thomas “PaigowKing” Zanot, who continues his lucky streak in Las Vegas after winning a $6.4 million Pai Gow progressive jackpot at The Flamingo two years ago.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Wilklow | United States | 82,275,000 | 41 |
| 2 | George Tatalovich | United States | 77,625,000 | 39 |
| 3 | Linda Ngo | United States | 75,575,000 | 38 |
| 4 | Wesley Fei | China | 62,450,000 | 31 |
| 5 | Daniel Strelitz | United States | 52,200,000 | 26 |
| 6 | Cameron Blazevich | United States | 47,875,000 | 24 |
| 7 | Yu Hsiang Huang | Taiwan | 45,175,000 | 23 |
| 8 | Can Miral | Turkey | 45,100,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Jeffrey Hong | United States | 42,350,000 | 21 |
| 10 | Diana Allen | United States | 37,900,000 | 19 |
The event has reached a milestone as the largest field of the series to date, with a total of 19,654 entries. This generated a prize pool of $17,295,520, with $5,896,500 set aside for the bounties. At the start of the day, everyone was guaranteed a cash prize of $2,060, but hoped to either catch one of the seven-figure bounty envelopes or make it to the final day to grab the $1 million first-place prize.
Other notables that made it to the final day are Daniel Strelitz (52,200,000), Michael Acevedo (34,675,000), and Christopher Zollo (16,000,000).
Unfortunately, there were some prominent names chasing a bracelet that fell short of moving forward, including Alex Foxen, Valentyn Shabelnyk, DJ Buckley, Brad Owen, Konstantin Held, and Josh Reichard.
The list also included defending champion Malcolm Trayner, who registered an impressive 28th-place finish while attempting to go back-to-back.
Day 3 will start tomorrow, June 2 at 11:00 a.m. local time and play will continue until a champion is crowned. Players will play through 40-minute levels with 15-minute breaks after every three levels.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as we provide live updates straight from the tournament floor.