The cards will be back in the air today at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas as Day 2 of Event #3: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed begins at 12 p.m. local time in the Horseshoe Event Center. After a full day of action Wednesday, 205 players made it through from the initial 558-entry field. With late registration still open for two more levels (end of Level 12, about 2:15 p.m.), the final numbers are still to be determined.
The 2024 World Series of Poker saw 660 entries and more than $3 million in the prize pool. That event ended with Brent Hart securing his first WSOP bracelet after a hard-fought run when he outlasted a tough final table, including notable names like Eddie Ochana and Alexander Queen.
Jake Schwartz leads the pack heading into Day 2, bagging a massive 538,000 chips—good for 215 big blinds. He's followed by Nicholas Go with 492,500 chips and bracelet winner Thomas Cazayous with 462,000, both of whom finished Day 1 in the top of the chip counts.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Schwartz | United States | 538,000 | 215 |
| 2 | Nicholas Go | Hong Kong | 492,500 | 197 |
| 3 | Thomas Cazayous | France | 462,000 | 185 |
| 4 | Pavlin Karakikov | Bulgaria | 421,500 | 169 |
| 5 | Shawn Daniels | United States | 402,000 | 161 |
| 6 | Frank Lagodich | United States | 368,500 | 147 |
| 7 | Victoria Livschitz | United States | 346,000 | 138 |
| 8 | Joseph Frei | United States | 325,000 | 130 |
| 9 | Leonardo Rizzo | Brazil | 300,000 | 120 |
| 10 | Antonio Galiana | Spain | 298,500 | 119 |
Several other notable players are still in the field such as Mustapha Kanit (244,000), Christopher Brewer (197,000), Ren Lin (190,000), Toby Lewis (183,500), and Darren Elias (153,000), who are no strangers to these big events.
Play will resume at Level 11 with blinds at 1,500/2,500 and a 2,500 big blind ante. Levels will remain 60 minutes in length throughout the event. Players who register on Day 2 will receive a full starting stack of 50,000 chips, worth 20 big blinds for the first hour of play.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for the latest coverage from this event and all other remaining bracelet events at the 2025 WSOP.
