Steven Jones Bags Big as Final Table Nears in $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em
After ten levels of play, Day 3 action has come to a close here in Event #68: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em at the 2025 World Series of Poker, hosted by the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Of the 127 runners who started the day, only 16 players will return for Day 4 on Saturday. The remaining competitors will be battling it out for a piece of the $6,242,460 prize pool, with the winner taking home the first-place prize of $830,685, as well as the coveted gold bracelet.
Fabrizio Gonzalez was the only player to break the eight-figure mark and sits atop the leaderboard with 11,525,000. Yilong Wang ended the day in second with 8,375,000, and rounding out the top three is Martynas Vitkauskas with 8,300,000. All three players will be on the hunt for their first piece of WSOP hardware as play reaches the homestretch.
Steven Jones, best known for his runner-up finish at the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event, sits in fourth with 7,925,000 and looks to leverage his experience to navigate a tough remaining field. With multiple WSOP final tables on his resume, Jones will be looking to take advantage of his chip position and close this one out to capture his first gold bracelet.
Other stand-out players in the top ten include Romain Lewis (7,225,000), Yuliyan Kolev (7,200,000) and Ren Lin (4,925,000), who is the only 25K Fantasy Draftee remaining in this event.
Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fabrizio Gonzalez | Uruguay | 11,525,000 | 58 |
| 2 | Yilong Wang | China | 8,375,000 | 42 |
| 3 | Martynas Vitkauskas | Lithuania | 8,300,000 | 42 |
| 4 | Steven Jones | United States | 7,925,000 | 40 |
| 5 | Paawan Bansal | India | 7,650,000 | 38 |
| 6 | Romain Lewis | France | 7,225,000 | 36 |
| 7 | Yuliyan Kolev | Bulgaria | 7,200,000 | 36 |
| 8 | Seunghyun Nam | United States | 5,950,000 | 30 |
| 9 | Ren Lin | China | 4,925,000 | 25 |
| 10 | Hamid Toghyan | United Kingdom | 4,475,000 | 22 |
Still in the mix in 13th is Olivier Busquet, who bagged 3,575,000 at the end of Day 3. Busquet is a well respected player with over $9,000,000 in total live earnings tallied on his resume. Although he hasn't made many appearances on the poker scene in recent years, his results speak for themselves and he will be a player to look out for on Day 4.
Notable Eliminations
Several notable players made early exits on Day 3 within the first few levels of play. Arthur Morris lost a big flip with pocket queens against the ace-king of Wang. Jessica Vierling fell to Jerry Yang when she found herself short-stacked with ace-seven and ran into Yang's ace-king. Marle Spragg had less than ten big blinds and exited after running into Adrian Mateos' pocket jacks. Upeshka De Silva's jack-nine suited couldn't crack Fabian Niederreiter's pocket kings and Chino Rheem was eliminated with ace-ten by Ren Lin's pocket nines.
Others that fell by the wayside before the dinner break include Stephen Song (87th - $10,094), Dylan Linde (80th - $11,491), Yang (71st - $13,234), Mateos (60th - $15,416), and Lander Lijo (38th - $21,640).
Later in the day, Dan Sepiol hit the rail in 33rd, good for a cash of $26,069, when his ace-ten suited ran into the ace-king suited of Rohit Mariwalla. Others who made a deep run include Ari Engel (31st - $26,069), Diego Ventura (27th - $26,069) and 2020 WSOP Main Event champion Damian Salas (23rd - $31,751).
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|
| 1 | $830,685 |
| 2 | $553,692 |
| 3 | $406,016 |
| 4 | $300,649 |
| 5 | $224,833 |
| 6 | $169,818 |
| 7 | $129,563 |
| 8 | $99,859 |
| 9 | $77,760 |
| 10-11 | $61,183 |
| 12-13 | $48,647 |
| 14-16 | $39,091 |
Day 4 will start at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 28, where the event will play down to a winner. The tournament will resume in Level 30 with blinds at 100,000/200,000/200,000 and there will be a 15-minute break every two levels with a one-hour dinner to be determined.
Be sure to follow PokerNews for the remainder of this event, as well as future coverage throughout the summer.