Santiago Montes opened from early position to 60,000 and Sebastian Crema three-bet to 180,000 from the next seat. Mathieu Larcade was in the big blind and shoved for 230,000, Montes folded, and Crema called.
Mathieu Larcade: A♥J♣
Sebastian Crema: K♠J♠
Larcade was in a great spot to more than double up early on, but the 4♦5♠K♥ flop had other ideas as Crema paired his king. The 9♥7♦ runout offered no help, and Larcade was headed for an early shower.
Welcome back to the PokerNews coverage of Event #31: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack at the 2025 World Series of Poker, held at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.
Day 1 generated a field of 4,481 entries who came to the WSOP in quest of a gold bracelet and the lion's share of a total prize pool of $3,136,700 to the tune of $352,610 for the eventual first-place winner.
Among the 258 players left, many notables are in the field, including elite pro player Stephen Song, who carries a lengthy list of achievements himself coming off a recent massive score. Leading the chip counts, Hajime Watanabe bagged 3,235,000 ending Day 1. He also totes a decorated history of results with total live earnings of $103,612.
Others in the field still battling include bracelet winner Nick Guagenti, who won a bracelet Sunday night, returns to Day 2 seeking a fourth bracelet. Competition is not exactly an easy bunch with elite tournament crusher Michael Moncek, three-time bracelet winner David "ODB" Baker, WSOP Champion Nicholas Seward, and two-time bracelet winner Loni Hui among a murderer's row of players hungry to add to their jewelry collection.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Hajime Watanabe
Japan
3,235,000
108
2
Daniel Cosner
United States
2,505,000
84
3
Robert Gittelman
United States
2,500,000
83
4
Stephen Song
United States
2,105,000
70
5
Lukas Hafner
Austria
2,100,000
70
6
Jeffrey Farnes
United States
1,990,000
66
7
Jun Li
United Kingdom
1,985,000
66
8
Jeremy Wien
United States
1,945,000
65
9
Davor Bojovic
Slovenia
1,900,000
63
10
Sebastian Crema
Canada
1,720,000
57
Nick Guagenti
Players will return to their seats and commence another day of action at 11 a.m. local time, playing down to an eventual winner tonight. Players will return to 15,000/30,000 blinds with a 30,000 big blind ante.
Make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for more World Series of Poker action all summer!
