Event #78: $600 PokerNews Deepstack Championship
Day 1 Started
2025 World Series of Poker
Event #78: $600 PokerNews Deepstack Championship
Day: 1
Event Info
2025 World Series of Poker
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1
Buy-in
$600
Prize Pool
$2,856,168
Entries
5,667
Level
40
Blinds
800,000 / 1,600,000
Ante
1,600,000
Entries
5,667
Players Left
635
Players Left 1 / 5,667
Filter
(1)
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker and your home for wall-to-wall coverage of every bracelet event at the WSOP.
We try not to play favorites around here, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t just a little more hyped than usual today as it's time for Event #78: $600 PokerNews Deepstack Championship (PNDC) No-Limit Hold'em here at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.
Cards are in the air at 10 a.m. local time for this four-day event. Players start with 30,000 chips and 40-minute levels on Day 1, with late registration open through the first nine levels (closing ≈ 5:00 p.m.). Busted players are allowed one reentry before the close of registration.
There will be a 20-minute break every three levels, plus a 75-minute dinner break after Level 12 (around 7 p.m.). Seventeen levels are on the Day 1 schedule. Those still in the hunt will return at 11 a.m. Wednesday for Day 2, and play another 10 levels, this time with 60-minute levels and even deeper play.
Day 3 will cut the field to the final five, and on Day 4, a champion will be crowned. From Day 2 onward, breaks come every two levels, with 60-minute dinner breaks after Levels 23 and 33.
Scotland’s Hector Berry is the reigning champion, having claimed victory in the inaugural $600 PokerNews Deepstack Championship in 2024. Berry outlasted a massive 5,110-player field to earn $282,876, his first WSOP bracelet, and a custom 24-karat gold PokerNews coin.
"I think you could see at the end I was a little emotional seeing all the messages coming in," Berry told PokerNews after his win last year. "Heads-up, I was just so engrossed in the moment, it's so draining...I don't know where I go from here. It's a lot of money for anyone."
PNDC / $600 Deepstack No-Limit Hold'em Championship Winners
| Year | Entries | Winner | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5,110 | Hector Berry | United Kingdom | $282,876 |
| 2023 | 4,303 | David Guay | Canada | $271,032 |
| 2022 | 4,913 | Tamas Lendvai | Hungary | $299,464 |
| 2021 | 3,923 | Cole Ferraro | United States | $252.419 |
| 2020 | 2,911 | Dmytro Bystrovzorov | Ukraine | $227,906 |
| 2019 | 6,140 | Joe Foresman | United States | $397,903 |
Planning on playing this event? PokerNews activates MyStack for every WSOP event, regardless of that tournament's buy-in, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting.
MyStack is a free poker tool that allows you to control your chip counts on our live reporting pages. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!
Become a Bigger Part of the Action With MyStack
Never Miss a Moment with MyPlayers on PokerNews
Stay closer than ever to the action with MyPlayers. This brand new, free feature on PokerNews puts your favorite poker players front and center. Whether you're keeping tabs on legends like Daniel Negreanu or following a friend grinding their way through a Day 2, MyPlayers delivers real-time updates tailored just for you. No subscriptions, no paywalls - just the hands, chip counts, and bustouts that matter most.
It’s simple: log in, search for any player in our live coverage, hit the star, and they’ll be added to your personalized MyPlayers list. You’ll see their progress across all live-reported events, with chip counts and updates pinned right where you need them at the top.
From railbirds to backers, MyPlayers is the smarter way to stay connected to the game.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/100
Ante: 100
Level 1
: Blinds 100/100, 100 ante
Cards are in the air for Event #78: $600 PokerNews Deepstack Championship.
Level 1
: Blinds 100/100, 100 ante
There was roughly 1,800 in the pot on a flop of 9♣A♣7♦, and Dan Mahaffey decided to check-raise from the cutoff to 1,300. Michel Elmassih called after putting in the initial bet of 500.
Mahaffey continued his aggression on the 5♠ turn with a bet of 3,200, Michel showed the A♦ and mucked.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
33,000
33,000
|
33,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
27,000
27,000
|
27,000 |
Level 1
: Blinds 100/100, 100 ante
Nicholas Kalinich raised to 300 and got called by Chris Barbeisch in cutoff. Mitchell Seymour three-bet to 1,800 from the button. Kalinich folded but Barbeisch called to see the flop.
The flop came 10♣2♦Q♥. After a check, Seymour continued with 1,800 which was enough to make Barbeisch surrender the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
32,500
32,500
|
32,500 |
|
|
29,600
29,600
|
29,600 |
|
|
27,800
27,800
|
27,800 |
Level 1
: Blinds 100/100, 100 ante
Uzi Zilka raised in the hijack to 300, Daniel Harrison called on the button and the blinds folded.
Zilka fired out a bet of 1,000 when the flop came K♥5♠8♥, Harrison called. Zilka decided to check-call a bet of 2,000 when the 8♠ hit the turn.
Both players checked on the 9♦, Harrison tabled K♦4♦ for top pair and he scooped the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
37,000
37,000
|
37,000 |
|
|
35,000
35,000
|
35,000 |
|
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
29,000
29,000
|
29,000 |
|
26,000
26,000
|
26,000 |
Level 1
: Blinds 100/100, 100 ante
Jacob Marlman opened to 300 from the cutoff and got a call from Timothy Cavallin on the button.
Jonathan Sapp folded the small blind and Matthew Luca defended from the big blind.
The 7♣Q♥4♥ flop saw Matthew Luca bet out and all players mucked, allowing him to scoop the pot and rebuild some of his stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
39,500
39,500
|
39,500 |
|
33,000
33,000
|
33,000 |
|
|
27,000
27,000
|
27,000 |
|
|
17,000
17,000
|
17,000 |
Level 1
: Blinds 100/100, 100 ante
Play was already underway with a pot of 2,500 and a board of 2♦10♥8♦J♣.
Chujun Gong fired 1,500 in cutoff and Terry Fleischer, the only other player in the hand, called to see the last card.
The river K♥ fell and Gong checked. Fleischer shot out 3,000 which Gong called. Fleischer tabled A♦Q♣ for a rivered straight and Gong, frustrated, turned over 8♣8♥ prompting her to say, "You didn't believe me on the flop."
Fleischer just commented, "You have a good hand, but I have the lucky hand."
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
37,500 | |
|
26,500 |
