Nacho Barbero raised the hijack, and next to act, Matthias Eibinger three-bet to 32,000. Action folded back to Barbero, who called.
Barbero then check-called a bet of 25,000 on a flop of 8♠10♠10♣, before action checked through on the 7♠ turn.
When the river 8♥ was dealt, Barbero led out for 75,000. Eibinger took a moment before raising to 225,000. This put Barbero into the tank. Unsure of how to proceed, he used a time bank before returning his cards to the dealer face down.
Action was caught on the river, with around 150,000 in the middle on the 7♣5♥4♣7♥5♦.
Isaac Haxton checked in the small blind, and Mathew Frankland fired out 123,000 from the big blind. Alex Foxen took a moment before calling, which prompted Haxton to get out of the way.
Frankland was caught speeding as he tabled 9♦6♦. Foxen had the goods with A♣5♣, giving him sevens full of fives.
The action was picked up on the flop with 78,000 in the middle on a board of Q♣8♠5♥. Ben Heath, in the small blind, check-called the 26,000-chip bet from Emilien Pitavy, sitting under the gun.
The turn came the J♦ and Heath once again check-called Pitavy's bet, this time for 90,000.
Heath checked a third time on the 5♠ river, and Pitavy announced all in, putting Heath's remaining 250,000 chips and tournament life in play. Heath made the call, tabling A♦A♥, which was no good versus the 10♠9♠ for a queen-high straight of Pitavy.
Matthew Belcher, Joao Vieira and Aleksejs Ponakovs folded to put the action on Alex Kulev, who was in the small blind. He raised to 8,000, and David Peters defended his big blind.
Peters check-called bets of 7,000 and 21,000 on the flop and turn for the final board to read 9♠6♣4♦3♥K♥. Peters checked for a third time, and Kulev fired a third barrel of 24,000. Peters took little time calling, and dragged in the pot after Kulev tabled 8♦7♦ for eight high. Peters had J♣9♥ for a pair of nines.
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker and home of live updates from all bracelet events.
Today sees the start of Event #38: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em here at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.
This three-day event gets underway at 12 p.m. local time, with late registration open for 12 levels, which comes after the second level of Day 2. There will be 15-minute breaks every two levels, and this tournament is played with a 30-second shot clock. Each player is permitted one reentry.
The starting stack is 600,000 chips, with the plan for Day 1 to play ten 60-minute levels. For the surviving players and late entrants, Day 2 resumes at 12 p.m. on Thursday and concludes after ten more levels have been completed. Day 3 is when a winner will be crowned.
Last summer, Chris Hunichen topped a star-studded final table and Jeremy Ausmus in heads-up play to capture his first bracelet and $2,838,389. One hundred and twelve entrants were recorded, creating the massive $10,932,750 prize pool. Can those figures be surpassed this time around?
"No one’s ever due in poker, but I feel like I was due," Hunichen told PokerNews in a winner's interview. "And I’ve been in this position a couple of times, got unlucky, a couple of seconds. It was my time.”
Year
Entries
Winner
Country
Payout
2024
112
Chris Hunichen
United States
$2,838,389
2023
93
Jans Arends
Netherlands
$2,576,729
2022
62
Aleksejs Ponakovs
Latvia
$1,897,363
2021
64
Michael Addamo
Australia
$1,958,569
2019
99
Keith Tilston
United States
$2,792,406
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Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates on this and all bracelet events at the 2025 WSOP!
