The time has finally come for Day 2 of Event #67: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-Limit Hold’em at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), hosted at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Four Day 1 starting flights produced a massive 24,629 entrants, becoming the second largest poker tournament in the history of the game. Of those, 812 survived the Day 1 battle and are now set to continue the onslaught in Day 2 and battle it out for their share of the whopping $6,058,734 prize pool, the coveted WSOP gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $420,680.
All players will be chasing Karl Cooper, who enters Day 2 with 5,900,000 chips and the overall lead. Jonathan Kirch is second with 5,110,000 chips, and Felix Barriga rounds out the podium, starting Day 2 in third place with 4,720,000 chips.
Top Ten Chip Counts Going into Day 2
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karl Cooper | United Kingdom | 5,900,000 | 118 |
| 2 | Jonathan Kirch | United States | 5,110,000 | 102 |
| 3 | Felix Barriga | Chile | 4,720,000 | 94 |
| 4 | Peter Bigelow | United States | 3,310,000 | 66 |
| 5 | Joseph Butler | United States | 3,275,000 | 66 |
| 6 | Yang Zhang | China | 3,175,000 | 64 |
| 7 | Joshua Palmer | United States | 3,120,200 | 62 |
| 8 | Sanjeev Kapoor | United States | 2,960,000 | 59 |
| 9 | Alfred Lopez | United States | 2,960,000 | 59 |
| 10 | Brendan Shiller | United States | 2,895,000 | 58 |
Many other top-name players have also bagged up on one of the starting flights, and just a few to mention and keep eyes on are:
Poker Hall of Famer Barry Greenstein(545,000), bracelet winners Barry Shulman (1,030,000) Ernest Bennett(1,005,000), Joshua Palmer(3,120,200), Jeremy Pekarek(355,000) and Alexandros Kolonias(345,000).
All Day 1 survivors are already in the money and guaranteed a payout of $1,230, but they will all be eyeing up the first-place prize of $420,680. All gladiators who reach the final table of nine will lock up a payday of at least $47,770, and the final six players will be guaranteed a six-figure payday.
Day 2 is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. at Level 23, and the blinds will be 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 big blind ante. The battling gladiators will play 17 40-minute levels with a 20-minute break every three levels. A 60-minute dinner break is scheduled after Level 31 at approximately 5:40 p.m.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live and exclusive coverage of the 2025 World Series of Poker!
