Nguyen, Zobian, and Song All in the Hunt for Second Bracelet
Both flights of Day 1 have come to a close in Event #20: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em SHOOTOUT at the 2025 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, with 150 players advancing to Day 2. The day started with 850 players in Day 1a and 449 in Day 1b, spread across 150 tables of either 8 or 9 runners. Each table played until one player remained with all the chips, bagging them up for use in Day 2.
Three past champions of this event bought into Day 1a, but all were unsuccessful. The 2019 winner, Brett Apter, fell at the last hurdle after a gruelling heads-up match. Neither 2023’s champion Faraz Jaka nor 2024’s winner Dan Sepiol could advance from either flight, meaning this event will have a new face taking home the bracelet on Friday.
Players who bagged Day 1a include 2016 Main Event winner Qui Nguyen (225,000), WSOP Bracelet winners Aram Zobian (200,000) and Kevin Song (200,000), as well as Michael Rossitto (200,000) and Yulian Bogdanov (225,000). Day 1b victors Christian Roberts (225,000), Brock Wilson (225,000), and Punnat Punsri (225,000) will be joining them on the felt.
Plenty of big names didn’t manage to earn their ticket to Day 2, such as Main Event reigning champion Jonathan Tamayo, 2009 Main Event winner Joe Cada, and poker giants Erik Seidel and Brian Rast, who lasted 10 hours before being sent to the rail.
Joshua Thomas was the first player of the day to conquer his table, as he did so after just five hours, whereas Craig Mason took the longest, and was playing cards for over 11 hours before bagging up his chips.
Malaysian pro Waikiat Lee just lost out to Guoliang Wei, as they spent more time heads up than three or more handed. The day finally wrapped up at 3:15 a.m. local time, as Tzur Levy was the final player to confirm his return tomorrow.
The remaining 150 players will take their seats for Day 2, which begins at 1 p.m. local time. Once again, we will play down until each table has just one player remaining, and blinds will start at the 2,000/4,000 level, with a 4,000 big blind ante.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as our live reporting for this event begins on Day 2.