Another busy day at the 2025 World Series of Poker saw 264 players return for the second day of action in Event #17: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em. After ten more levels of play, Dusti Smith holds a commanding chip lead bagging up 142 big blinds at Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas.
Smith has already notched her best finish at the WSOP in Las Vegas with her run to the final three tables. Her poker resume includes a deep run in the 2021 WSOP Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, finishing in 22nd place. She’ll carry a sizeable lead heading into Thursday’s final day of action, with some very notable names giving chase.
China’s Quan Zhou sits in second position, the only other player to bag more than 5,000,000 chips. The 25K Fantasy player is followed by another drafted WSOP bracelet winner in Scott Bohlman, who rounds out the top three with 80 big blinds.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dusti Smith | United States | 8,500,000 | 142 |
| 2 | Quan Zhou | China | 5,245,000 | 87 |
| 3 | Scott Bohlman | United States | 4,815,000 | 80 |
| 4 | Rafael Mota | Brazil | 4,290,000 | 72 |
| 5 | Benjamin Williams | United States | 3,535,000 | 59 |
| 6 | Ricardo Martinez | Costa Rica | 2,830,000 | 47 |
| 7 | Shuofei Geng | United States | 2,825,000 | 47 |
| 8 | Samy Dubonnet | France | 2,690,000 | 45 |
| 9 | Allen Shen | Canada | 2,500,000 | 42 |
| 10 | Xiaohu Liu | China | 2,340,000 | 39 |
Day 2 Action
The day began just 10 eliminations short of the money, with $4,011 up for grabs to the top 254 spots. After several double-ups on the direct bubble, Bin Weng got it in good but came up short to miss out on the cash.
From there, action was fast and furious as many notable names hit the rail including Alex Foxen (245th - $4,011) and Martin Kabrhel (219th - $4,011). Adam Hendrix fell in 209th place after being knocked out by Chino Rheem, who lasted a few more levels before falling in 105th position.
Heading into the final day, Jesse Lonis represents the only other 25K Fantasy sweat, sitting in 15th place with 21 big blinds.
Among the other notables returning on Thursday are WSOP bracelet winners Pete Chen and Brian Green, who bagged just 11 big blinds and will be the short stack when cards are back in the air.
Action will resume at 1 p.m. local time in the Horseshoe Event Center, where the final three tables will continue with 60-minute levels. The blinds will be 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 big blind ante.
It should be an exciting conclusion to Event #17, along with all the other WSOP action to come on Thursday. Be sure to stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will have full coverage from inside the ropes.
