Zektser Holds a Significant Lead; Day 4 Added to the Schedule
Event #27: $1,500 Big O at the 2025 World Series of Poker saw the 17 remaining players who made it to Day 3 play down to only two hopefuls. A previously unscheduled Day 4 has been added to the docket. The floor gave Igor Zektser and Paul Sincere the option to play one more level at the end of Level 35 but they chose to bag their chips up and return tomorrow, June 10, at 1 p.m. local Las Vegas time.
Final Table Pay Outs
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $297,285 | ||
| 2 | $198,134 | ||
| 3 | Ryan Hoenig | United States | $141,315 |
| 4 | Shiva Dudani | United States | $102,079 |
| 5 | Nicolas Milgrom | France | $74,693 |
| 6 | Joshua Biedak | United States | $55,372 |
| 7 | Kevin Ho | United States | $41,595 |
| 8 | Shawn Daniels | United States | $31,667 |
Day 3 Action
Day 3 saw several notable players return to the field, including the likes of returning champion Michael Christ, whose downward fall began when Ryan Hoenig made a crying call on the river with a pair of aces. After the remaining players redrew, bracelet winners Owais Ahmed and Lawrence Brandt fell despite maintaining navigable stacks for most of the tournament.
Switzerland’s Jannick Schob proved to be the final table bubble boy. Typically, short-handed World Series of Poker tournaments proceed to an unofficial final table at one more than the table max, but due to the 52-card count in a deck, the final table actually consisted of eight players.
Final Table Dynamics
Paul Sincere technically came into the final table with the chip lead but the stacks were so close that Sincere’s 36 big blinds weren’t that far ahead of the 21 big blinds of the table short-stack, Shiva Dudani. Sincere did take a more serious lead after eliminating Shawn Daniels in eighth place.
Start of day chip leader Kevin Ho seemed unable to win any big pots throughout the day. He ultimately fell in seventh after not being able to gain any traction.
Dudani had a tremendous run where he spun his last 100,000 at the 60,000 big blind level up to a stack that was well in contention for the bracelet but it wasn’t meant to be. The table congratulated him on his tough play and resilience.
A visibly upset Ryan Hoenig bowed out in third place. Hoenig won his first bracelet earlier this summer in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice championship. Hoenig stayed on the rail to root for his friend and fellow Coloradoan, Sincere, who will be returning tomorrow to battle heads up at a significant chip disadvantage.
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