The action of the hand was recounted by the table after the fact.
Thomas Meehan and Justin Gardenhire saw the 8x7x4x flop before the rest of Meehan's chips found their way into the middle, at risk against Gardenhire.
Thomas Meehan: 9x9x
Justin Gardenhire: 8x8x
Meehan held on overpair to the board but Gardenhire flopped top set. The JxQx runout could not save Meehan, and he was sent to the exit, but not without the support of his Michigan poker club and many others after an inspiring run.
The action was joined as Antony Cragg and Kristen Foxen were contesting a pot worth roughly 14,000.
The flop action was already complete with K♣10♦6♦ on their backs in the middle.
The dealer burned and turned the 5♥ turn card, and Cragg continued for a bet of 12,100, which Foxen called.
Both players then saw the J♣ complete the board, and Cragg kept his foot firmly on the accelerator, moving all in. Foxen was the shorter of the two stacks, with roughly 50,000 remaining.
Foxen went deep into the tank. Stuck in an unenviable position so early on Day 2, she took seven minutes before reaching a decision. She returned her cards to the dealer face down, but did let Cragg know she had folded a set of sixes.
Joseph Stellato was all-in for 10,100 from the cutoff and Day 2 entry Jacob Edelstein called on the button. Brett Shaffer then reraised to 20,000 in the big blind and Edelstein called.
On the J♦9♠6♥ flop, Shaffer jammed for 21,500 and Edelstein snap-called.
Joseph Stellato: A♣A♦
Brett Shaffer: K♦K♥
Jacob Edelstein: 8♥7♥
The K♠ turn improved Shaffer to a set of kings and the J♥ river changed nothing, as Stellato bowed out with a bad beat story to tell.
Action was picked up with Jeff Sluzinski all in and at risk from the cutoff for his last 9,200 against Kevin Nee in first position who had called to put him at risk.
Jeff Sluzinski: K♦K♥
Kevin Nee: 9♥9♠
The board ran out 8♥J♣4♦7♠10♣ and the river brought a straight to Nee to eliminate the tournament pro from the tournament. Sluzinski wished his table mates good luck as he exited the tournament.
Carmen Raiche-Marsden and Steven Benjamin had created a huge pot of 90,000 when they arrived on the K♥3♣8♦Q♣4♠ river. Raiche-Marsden checked to Benjamin, who bet 35,000.
Raiche-Marsden quickly tossed in a single calling chip. Benjamin sheepishly tabled A♦J♦ for ace-high, and Raiche-Mardsen raked in the pile of chips with A♣K♦ for top pair.
Ramon Pessoa raised to 1,600 in early position. Richard Ma called in the cutoff before Vinny Lingham three-bet to 5,000 in the big blind. Both Pessao and Ma called to the 7♣6♦6♠ flop, which Lingham checked.
Pessoa bet 6,500, Ma folded, and Lingham called. The 3♥ turn was checked by both Lingham and Pessoa, and Lingham checked the J♠ river as well.
Pessoa fired a small bet of 6,000, which Lingham quickly called. Pessoa showed 9♠9♦ for nines and sixes, but Lingham had the highest pocket pair with A♦A♣, awarding him the pot.
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
Riva Arthur
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.
John Juanda
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.
