Andriy Lyubovetskiy Leads, Bin Weng Bags Piles on Day 1c of Main Event
The most anticipated poker tournament of the year continued today, with players from around the world descending on the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, for Day 1c of EVENT #81: $10,000 WSOP MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship.
The third of four starting flights began with 1,114 entries, with the attendance increasing to 1,678 by the end of the night after five two-hour levels, at which point 1,249 players remained.
Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andriy Lyubovetskiy | Ukraine | 392,400 | 491 |
| 2 | Bin Weng | United States | 336,000 | 420 |
| 3 | Eric Bunch | United States | 309,300 | 387 |
| 4 | Brendon Kaufman | United States | 256,500 | 321 |
| 5 | Igor Picone | Belgium | 256,000 | 320 |
| 6 | Colin Beveridge | United States | 237,400 | 297 |
| 7 | Braxton Dunaway | United States | 234,800 | 294 |
| 8 | Randall Lack | United States | 232,200 | 290 |
| 9 | Paul Taylor | United States | 232,200 | 290 |
| 10 | Ray Medlin | United States | 230,400 | 288 |
Two-time bracelet winner Andriy Lyubovetskiy finished the night at the top of the counts with an impressive 392,400 chips, worth 491 big blinds going into Day 2.
Just behind Lyubovetskiy is Bin Weng, who ended Day 1c with 354,800. Weng soared up to the top of the leaderboard late in the night after making an epic hero call against Scott Kahler. With over nine million in career tournament earnings and three seven-figure scores under his belt, Weng has been crushing large-field no-limit hold’em tournaments for the past seven years and will be a force to be reckoned with going into Day 2.
The 2023 Monster Stack Champion Braxton Dunaway bagged one of the largest stacks of the day with 234,800. Dunaway began rapidly ascending the counts in the last two levels of the night after getting three streets of value with pocket queens on a jack-high runout.
Day 1c Action
Despite the Main Event’s slow structure, Yueqi Zhu wasted no time scoring the first elimination of the day in the first half-hour. Zhu was on the right side of a classic cooler, holding pocket aces over Thomas Henshaw’s pocket kings. With both players flopping an overpair in a four-bet pot, Henshaw check-called the flop, led the turn and shoved the river on a queen-high runout. Zhu correctly called to put a hasty end to Henshaw’s Main Event.
Another brutal cooler took place shortly after Henshaw’s elimination. In what can only be described as the ultimate action flop, Tam Ho flopped top set, Paul Vupis flopped middle set, and Zack Marshak flopped the second-nut straight. A raising war ensued that saw Marshak fold the best hand before Vupis called Ho’s all-in. Vupis hit his one out on the turn to make quads and Ho was out the door after failing to produce a one-outer of his own on the river.
Vanessa Selbst made a rare appearance in today’s starting flight. Despite retiring from professional poker in 2018, the three-time bracelet winner showed little rust as she navigated through today’s Main Event field. Selbst picked up a big pot with pocket kings midway through the day and was able to ride that momentum en route to bagging a respectable 155,200 by the end of the night.
Some notables to make it through Day 1c include Calvin Anderson (230,200), Jon Kyte (206,200), Lucas Greenwood (193,600, Michael Addamo (92,600), Philip Sternheimer (91,900), Boris Angelov (82,500) and Jack Sinclair (72,900). All players who made it through the day will join the Day 1a and Day 1b survivors for Day 2abc on July 6.
Among those to see their Main Event aspirations come to an end today were Xixiang Luo, Julien Martini, Punnat Punsri, Vlad Darie and Ryan Bambrick.
Full chip counts for Day 1c will be posted as soon as they become available. Day 1d kicks off Saturday, July 5 at noon while late registration remains open until the end of Level 7 on Day 2.
Stay tuned to Pokernews for all your live coverage needs for the 2025 WSOP Main Event.