Stud Games: 5,000 Ante, 5,000 Bring-In, 20,000 Completion, 20,000-40,000 Limits
Pot-Limit & No-Limit: 10,000/15,000 Ante, 5,000-10,000 Blinds
The most prestigious tournament of the year continued today with Day 2 of Event #66: $50,000 Poker Players Championship at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), a day that began with 66 players but grew from there as 19 more players joined the field.
After six 100-minute levels of play, 35 players remained with old school poker icon Erick Lindgren leading the way with a stack of 2,969,000 as "E-Dog" looks to continue a lucrative summer that started off with winning a million-dollar cash game buy-in.
There were four PPC champions left standing at the end of Day 2: Matthew Ashton (2013), Mike Gorodinsky (2015), three-time champion Michael Mizrachi (2010; 2012; 2018), Phil Hui (2019) and reigning champion Daniel Negreanu.
Other hopesfuls looking to be etched onto the refurbished Chip Reese Memorial Trophy include all-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth, all-time money leader Bryn Kenney, recent documentary subject Mike Matusow, Poker Hall of Fame nominee Jeremy Ausmus, 2011 WSOP POY Ben Lamb, poker-pro-turned-tennis-pro-turned-poker-pro James Obst, Esther Taylor (the only woman to register the event) and Benny Glaser, who is looking to make history by becoming the first poker player to win four bracelets in a single summer.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Erick Lindgren | United States | 2,969,000 |
| 2 | Michael Mizrachi | United States | 2,048,000 |
| 3 | Ali Eslami | United States | 1,757,000 |
| 4 | Christopher Vitch | United States | 1,739,000 |
| 5 | Andrew Yeh | United States | 1,461,000 |
| 6 | Brian Yoon | United States | 1,420,000 |
| 7 | Christian Roberts | Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) | 1,248,000 |
| 8 | Chris Klodnicki | United States | 1,244,000 |
| 9 | Phil Hellmuth | United States | 1,110,000 |
| 10 | Jon Kyte | Norway | 1,086,000 |
Day 2 Action
The total entrants grew to 107 players — an increase from last year's field of 89 — as the action moved from Paris to the Horseshoe Event Center. The $50,000 buy-in event played out in the event center corner amid a rowdy and controversial Millionaire Maker final table on the main stage as the likes of Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and Jason Mercier took their seats.
Ivey fell earlier in the day, while Mercier battled long and hard at a table that included Dan Smith, Mizrachi and Negreanu to his immediate left. The swagged-out six-time bracelet winner's run came to an end during a no-limit Hold'em orbit as he jammed a dominated ace into $5,000 Seniors High Roller champion David "ODB" Baker, who flopped the nuts to leave Mercier drawing stone dead.
Another six-time bracelet winner, Shaun Deeb, suffered a tough beat in a pot-limit Omaha hand with a straight and a set only to run into the higher straight of Andrew Yeh. Fellow Team Lucky members Josh Arieh (also a six-time bracelet winner) and Matt Glantz were also in the field, but only the latter survived the night.
Other casualties of Day 2 included Matthew Schreiber, Aaron Katz, reigning Player of the Year Scott Seiver, Chad Eveslage, Dzmitry Urbanovich, David Benyamine, Chino Rheem, Nick Schulman and Jesse Lonis, as well as fan favorite Michael Moncek and his brother Tyler Moncek, who outlasted "Texas Mike" despite being a newcomer to Stud games.
The $5,162,750 prize pool was set on Day 2, meaning 17 spots will be paid and $1,331,322 awaits the eventual champion.
Event #66: $50,000 Poker Players Championship Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,331,322 | 7 | $175,096 |
| 2 | $887,542 | 8-9 | $142,720 |
| 3 | $595,136 | 10-11 | $121,573 |
| 4 | $413,740 | 12-14 | $108,445 |
| 5 | $298,614 | 15-16 | $101,526 |
| 6 | $224,077 | 17 | $100,000 |
Day 3 will kick off at 1 p.m. local time and will follow the same schedule as Day 2, with six 100-minute levels and 15-minute breaks every level and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 15. Two additional days will follow ahead of the next PPC champion being crowned.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on-site tomorrow for Day 3. And as the field size decreases, we will be that much closer to manifesting Chance Kornuth's vision of a PokerNews live reporter at every table.
