Bring In: 5,000
Completion: 20,000
Limits: 20,000-40,000
As the 2025 World Series of Poker buzzed with excitement on Tuesday, with champions crowned in the Big O Championship, $250K Super High Roller, SALUTE to Warriors, and Mixed OE, Day 2 of the $10,000 Razz Championship quietly ticked along in the Silver section of the Horseshoe Event Center.
After eight levels of wheel-y good poker, 2022 WSOP $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo champ Ali Eslami bagged the chip lead to pace the 12 players who advanced to Wednesday’s finale. He ended the day with 1,336,000, good for 27 big bets, and returns in pole position for the bracelet and the $306,644 top prize from the $1,246,200 prize pool.
Eslami ascended into the chip lead in Level 16, scooping a huge three-handed pot that was capped on fifth street. A bet on seventh street folded out his opponents, and he breached the million-chip mark without showdown. That wasn't the only wild pot Eslami was involved in. During the final level of the night, the most bizarre Razz hand you'll ever see took place, and it was Brian Yoon who came out on top in that one, vaulting him into second place with 1,240,000.
Bracelet winners Yoon and Andrew Yeh (1,231,000) are Eslami's closest rivals, each sitting two big bets behind. In the middle of the pack are Nikolay Ponomarev, Ryutaro Suzuki, Brian Rast, and Maksim Pisarenko, the only other players with more than ten big bets.
Joao Vieira, winner of the $100,000 High Roller, along with David Funkhouser and Christian Roberts, sit in the lower half of the counts. Ray Fishman and David Steicke round out the remaining players with just two and one big bets, respectively.
The final dozen have a combined 21 WSOP bracelets between them. Rast leads with six and is the only Poker Hall of Famer still in contention.
End of Day 2 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ali Eslami | United States | 1,336,000 | 27 |
| 2 | Brian Yoon | United States | 1,240,000 | 25 |
| 3 | Andrew Yeh | United States | 1,231,000 | 25 |
| 4 | Nikolay Ponomarev | United Kingdom | 939,000 | 19 |
| 5 | Ryutaro Suzuki | Japan | 741,000 | 15 |
| 6 | Brian Rast | United States | 694,000 | 14 |
| 7 | Maksim Pisarenko | Russian Federation | 692,000 | 14 |
| 8 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 461,000 | 9 |
| 9 | David Funkhouser | United States | 361,000 | 7 |
| 10 | Christian Roberts | Venezuela | 230,000 | 5 |
| 11 | Ray Fishman | United States | 94,000 | 2 |
| 12 | David Steicke | Australia | 47,000 | 1 |
Day 2 Action
With 32 entries added during the late registration period, the field grew to 134 players, making this the second-largest WSOP Razz Championship in history, just behind the 139-entry edition in 2022, won by Julien Martini.
Among those to take their shot at the last moment were Patrick Leonard, Dan Zack, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey, though none managed to spin up a stack deep enough to challenge for a payday.
Others who late-registered fared far better, including David Lin and the aforementioned Vieira, Suzuki, Rast, and Steicke, all of whom navigated their way past the money bubble, as did Day 2 entrant Daniel Negreanu.
The money bubble burst with the departure of Boyd Burnett, who hung on several times to avoid elimination. However, after overplaying a ten-low against Yeh, he was reduced to his last ante. In his final hand, he made a "f****** boat," and was eliminated by Maxx Coleman.
After the bubble burst, there were quick-fire eliminations. Stecike made an eight-seven to see off Matthew Schreiber in 21st. Max Hoffman (20th), Negreanu (19th), Yuri Dzivielevski (18th), James Obst (17th) and defending champion George Alexander (16th) rounded out the $20,000 min-cashers.
"Razz Master" Ren Lin was felled in 15th, Coleman went in 14th with David Lin being the final elimination of the night. Roberts looked like he would fall at the last moment, but he managed to spin a T-5,000 chip into 230,000.
Roberts, along with the 11 other competitors, will return to play down to a winner at 1 p.m. They'll return to Level 19, where the limits are 25,000/50,000 (5,000 ante).
As always, stick with PokerNews to keep up with all the action from the 2025 WSOP.
