Carlos Caldas Seeks First Bracelet; Leads After Day 2 of $500 No-Limit Hold'em COLOSSUS
Play has ended from an exciting, fast-paced day at Event #19: $500 No-Limit Hold'em COLOSSUS at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at the Paris and Horseshoe, Las Vegas.
Fifty-six of the 2,326 Day 2 qualifiers began with a million chips or more. At day’s end, ten players were at the 10 million mark, led by Portuguese-American Carlos Caldas.
The New York City resident was solid all day, then crushed after the dinner break, to finish with 31,375,000 chips. He began the day with barely a tenth of that.
Despite a slew of knockouts in succession early on, a hefty 103 players remain from the 16,301 entries, hoping to claim the $542,540 winner’s share of a total prize pool of $6,644,102.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlos Caldas | United States | 31,375,000 | 75 |
| 2 | Tom Verbruggen | The Netherlands | 30,345,000 | 76 |
| 3 | Mark Tornai | United States | 24,750,000 | 62 |
| 4 | Zachary Hudson | United States | 22,000,000 | 55 |
| 5 | Lok Chan | Taiwan | 19,500,000 | 49 |
| 6 | Bobby Poe | United States | 15,875,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Juan Capobianco | Mexico | 15,450,000 | 39 |
| 8 | Sergio Giha | United States | 15,400,000 | 39 |
| 9 | Courtenay Williams | United States | 14,800,000 | 37 |
| 10 | Sergei Petrushevskii | Russian Federation | 14,200,000 | 36 |
Caldas has yet to win a bracelet, but he has been on the hunt, having cashed in five events at last year’s WSOP and six events in 2023. He picked up a nice win with an ace-high flush to help build his Day 2 lead.
Lok Chan, who three years ago won the $2,500 Mixed Big Bet event – in his first visit to the WSOP, when he was just 22 years old – is fifth in chips with 24,750,000.
The Day 1A chip leader, who entered Day 2 in second place, Chan sent two players home and jumped into contention, thanks to an ace on the river after the late dinner break.
Tom Verbruggen and Mark Tornai are just ahead of him in second and third place, respectively.
Glantz Still a Factor
Matt Glantz, a founding member of Team Lucky, who has won two WSOP circuit titles, and has posted 23 final tables in WSOP events, is not out of it with 9,150,000 chips.
Ryan Leng, David Pham are past bracelet winners still in the field.
Jared Jaffee, who took home a WSOP bracelet in 2014, and Jeff Madsen, the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year, were knocked out late in the day.
The Day 3 restart will be Monday, June 9, with play beginning at 11 a.m. at the Horseshoe Event Center (Gold).
Stay tuned on PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker, for live updates from this and all bracelet events at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.