Kristen Foxen turned over her cards, covering shoves from both Yayun Liu and Corey Brass.
Yayun Liu: 6♥6♦
Corey Brass: A♥10♦
Kristen Foxen: A♠J♠
Liu was not able to fade the 2♦J♣2♥ flop, as Foxen found a jack to take the lead. The 9♥ turn and 10♠ river were no help for Liu or Brass, as Foxen scored the double knockout.
Michael Mizrachi opened to 4,500 from under the gun and John Hennigan called on his left. Mizrachi checked the 5♥Q♦8♥ flop and made the call when Hennigan fired a bet of 4,000.
Another check from Mizrachi followed the 8♦ river, with Hennigan betting 10,000. Mizrachi called and checked one last time after seeing the J♦ river.
Hennigan did not take long to check back, and Mizrachi smiled as he tabled 10♦9♦ for a straight flush. Hennigan nodded while Mizrachi added new chips to his stack.
Kevin Ordet raised to 5,000 from late position, Fahredin Mustafov called from the cutoff, and Scott Watson overcalled from the big blind, stating, "I am only calling because you are in the hand," referring to Mustafov.
Mustafov stated, "Nice hand."
Watson joked, "You can't say nice hand preflop".
On the flop J♦K♥A♣, Watson checked and Ordet placed a continuation-bet of 7,000. Mustafov put in a raise to 26,000 and stated, "Nice bet," while Watson held a painful look on his face as he folded, and Ordet made the call.
The turn 5♠ had both players check, and Watson looked quizzically at them,
On the river 7♣, Ordet moved all in for 42,000 effective, and Mustafov called.
Fahredin Mustafov: A♦J♠
Kevin Ordet: Q♦10♦
Mustafov had two pair, and Ordet held the straight for the win.
The action was picked up as Alex Foxen bet 24,000 from the hijack and got raised from the cutoff by Daniel Hirose to 56,000. Foxen made the call.
The flop came 10♣5♦2♣ and Foxen checked. Hirose put a large stack of red 5k chips in front of him essentially putting Foxen all in. Foxen snap-called and immediately the hands were revealed.
Alex Foxen: J♥J♠
Daniel Hirose: 9♥9♣
Foxen had Hirose drawing dead as the dealer placed the turn card of the J♦.
A 3♥ peeled off on the river and Foxen doubled up.
The prize pool has been confirmed, with payouts for the top 155 finishers. The minimum cash is $6,000, while the winner will take home $451,600. The total prize pool stands at $2,742,090. With 313 players remaining, each still has a chance to win the top prize and the coveted bracelet.
Kristen Foxen raised to 10,000 preflop and when it folded to Shai Zurr in the small blind, he went all in for exactly 50,000.
Foxen went into the tank but eventually made the crying call and cards were on their backs.
Shai Zurr: J♦J♥
Kristen Foxen: A♥8♥
The flop brought the 8♦10♣10♠, the turn peeled the Q♦, still favoring Zurr but it was lights out for him when the A♣ fell, awarding Foxen the pot.
Kristen Foxen's husband, Alex Foxen, was seen leaving the tournament area and his table was muttering something about how he jammed Qx9x and ran into kings.
Matthew Davenport moved almost all of his chips in for 8,700 from late position, and Aram Zobian moved all in from the small blind with the bigger stack. Davenport called for his last 1,000 chip, and the race was inevitable.
Matthew Davenport: 8♠8♥
Aram Zobian: A♣K♦
The board rolled out with K♣2♣J♥5♥6♣, and Zobian won with a pair of kings.
The first freezeout event of the 2025 World Series of Poker attracted a total of 1,027 entries to Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, where the action was fast and furious on Day 1 of Event #35: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em.
The total prize pool is set at $2,742,090, with 156 players returning on Wednesday on the stone bubble.
Leading the way is Hongru Zhang, who bagged 992,000 for a slim lead over David Cabrera Polop (986,000). They represent the only players bringing back more than 80 big blinds for Day 2, where all eyes will be on locking the $6,000 prize after one more elimination.
Among the notable names lurking just outside the top ten is Kristen Foxen, who used a double knockout in Level 11 to climb up the leaderboard before finishing the night with 677,000 chips.
Sitting in 11th place is John Hennigan, who saved some chips by checking back against Michael Mizrachi’s straight flush and collected 511,000 by the end of 17 levels. Mizrachi also bagged a healthy 304,000 to sit inside the top 50 for Day 2.
John Hennigan
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Hongru Zhang
China
992,000
83
2
David Cabrera Polop
Andorra
986,000
82
3
Tony Huang
United States
930,000
78
4
Andrew Murphy
United Kingdom
799,000
67
5
Anil Jivani
United States
798,000
67
6
John Ciccarelli
United States
771,000
64
7
Erik Eisen
Germany
727,000
61
8
Hattori Lopez
United States
709,000
59
9
Matt Affleck
United States
690,000
58
10
Nicholas Marchington
United Kingdom
680,000
57
The field remains full of WSOP bracelet winners looking to add to their collections. That list includes Yuri Dzivielevski (393,000), Brian Yoon (239,000), and Simone Andrian (234,000). Scott Bohlman also returns for Day 2 with 292,000, searching for his second bracelet of the summer.
Many other notables took their shot but failed to find a bag on Day 1, including Adam Friedman, Stephen Song, Alex Foxen, Jack Sinclair, and GG Poker AmbassadorFelipe Ramos.
Felipe Ramos
The tournament will award $451,600 to the eventual winner, and will begin Day 2 on the direct money bubble. Only the top 155 places will be paid, with a $6,000 cash waiting on a single elimination.
Action resumes inside the Horseshoe Event Center at 12 p.m. local time on Level 18, with blinds at 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante. The schedule calls for 10 more levels to be played before the penultimate day concludes.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back inside the ropes to bring you all of the exciting action, so be sure to check our updates throughout the day as they battle into the money and beyond.
