Day 2d Last Chance to Register for the 2025 WSOP Main Event as Defending Champion Tamayo Returns
Day 2d of Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship of the 2025 World Series of Poker marks the final opportunity for any aspiring World Champions to hop into poker's premier event. Day 2d will kick off at noon, and the late registration at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas will close just before the start of the third two-hour level of the day, around 4:40 p.m. local time.
So far, 9,148 players have bought into the Main Event, making it the third-largest in WSOP history. Over 800 new players are needed on Day 2d to cross the magic 10,000-player mark, which would mean an all-time high turnout of late registrants. In any case, defending Champion Jonathan Tamayo will not be among them, as he is one of the 3,776 players who qualified for Day 2d via Day 1d.
Tamayo increased his starting stack of 60,000 to 103,700 on Day 1d, good for 130 big blinds and only slightly below the average stack. Meanwhile, the chiplead ended up in the hands of Riva Arthur, who gathered a massive 401,200 chips, making her the only player to accumulate over 500 big blinds on a starting day.
Day 2d Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riva Arthur | United States | 401,200 | 502 |
| 2 | Hung-Wei Shiue | Taiwan | 317,000 | 396 |
| 3 | Andrew King | Ireland | 302,400 | 378 |
| 4 | Nan Li | United States | 299,500 | 374 |
| 5 | Romain Locquet | France | 296,000 | 370 |
| 6 | Vytautas Semaska | Lithuania | 290,600 | 363 |
| 7 | San Kim | United States | 283,000 | 354 |
| 8 | Bijan Motamedi | United States | 281,000 | 351 |
| 9 | Jessie Bryant | United States | 275,000 | 344 |
| 10 | Bogdan Chornyy | Ukraine | 271,500 | 339 |
Tamayo bagged the biggest of all WSOP Main Event champions on Day 1d, being joined by Huck Seed (77,100), Joe McKeehen (64,600), Stoyan Madanzhiev (29,700), and Ryan Riess (12,900) on Day 2d.
The Poker Hall of Fame will be well represented today, as, aside from Seed, John Juanda (140,000), Barry Greenstein (125,400), David Oppenheim (83,400), Todd Brunson (41,500), Brian Rast (30,000), and Erik Seidel (17,000) all have a bag with chips awaiting them.
When the "Shuffle Up and Deal" sounds at noon local time, the Main Event will restart in Level 6: 400/800 with an 800 big blind ante. Another five of the iconic two-hour levels will be played today, with a 20-minute break after every level, and a 75-minute dinner break after Level 8. When the fifth level, Level 10: 1,000/2,000 (2,000), has concluded, the remaining players will bag up for Day 3, which starts Tuesday, July 8, and will see the field combine for the first time.
How big will the 2025 WSOP Main Event get? PokerNews will be on the floor the entire day to provide continuous live updates from the World Series of Poker Main Event, so stay tuned to find out.