Sergio Veloso made it 300,000 from middle position with A♣7♣ and Greg Merson called in the cutoff. Derek Sudell three-bet squeezed to 1,200,000 on the button, and Veloso four-bet to 2,000,000.
Merson then five-bet shoved for 9,075,000, Sudell committed his stack of around 5,500,000, and Veloso quickly retreated.
Derek Sudell: A♥A♦
Greg Merson: Q♠Q♦
Sudell had the rockets and was looking to use them to ascend the counts. A flop of 4♦10♥8♠ was clean for Sudell, and the 8♦ turn left Merson with one shot at two outs. None of which came on the 7♦ river, and Sudell doubled up as Merson's stack took a critical hit.
Heads-up on a flop of 4♠J♥Q♦, Sam Darkin bet 300,000 from the cutoff and Joseph Ozimok called in the big blind.
Darkin bet another 600,000 on the 8♠ turn and Ozimok called. The river was the 3♠ and Darkin bet 1,000,000.
Ozimok came back with an all-in shove this time, and Darkin called for his last 3,500,000. Ozimok turned over Q♠10♠ for a flush, and Darkin tossed 10♦9♦ into the muck on his way to the rail.
Braxton Dunaway opened the action with a raise to 300,000 and Giorgiy Skhulukhiya three-bet jammed his short stack of 1,475,000 in the hijack thereafter. It folded back to Dunaway, who asked for an exact count and called after nearly two minutes.
Giorgiy Skhulukhiya: A♦9♦
Braxton Dunaway: K♥9♥
Skhulukhiya had grinded a short stack for many hours today and got it in ahead. However, the K♣8♣3♠ flop left him with a mountain to climb and he could not get there on the Q♠ turn and 10♣ river. The Georgian bowed out in 63rd place and earned $135,000, while all other remaining players have reached the pay jump to $165,000.
Jose Bogarin made it 2,800,000 from middle position, leaving himself just 75,000 behind. Kenny Hallaert called on the button, then Derek Sudell then moved all in from the big blind for around 13,200,000. Bogarin put in the rest, and Hallaert snap-called.
Jose Bogarin: J♥J♦
Derek Sudell: Q♥Q♣
Kenny Hallaert: A♠A♦
Hallaert had a chance to bring a humongous stack into Day 7 of the Main Event, and that was all but secured as the flop of A♣5♣8♠ gave him top set. Sudell did have some backdoor potential with clubs, but the 7♠ on the turn ended all hope. The 4♦ on the river was just a formality, and Hallaert raked in a giant pot at the end of the night.
Paul Gibbons raised to 300,000 with 6♠6♥ from the middle position, and Juan Carlos Vecino called out of the hijack. Michael Garner deliberated for quite some time before jamming for 6,925,000 from the button. The blinds and Gibbons folded, but Vecino made the call.
Michael Garner: A♣K♠
Juan Carlos Vecino: J♦J♣
Garner had Big Slick against the two jacks of Vencino. Garner moved into pole position on the A♥7♣3♣ flop, having hit a pair of aces. The rest of the board came 10♠6♦, and Garner earned the full double-up at the expense of Vecino.
Sebastian Schulze raised to 300,000 in early position and Will Kassouf ripped all in for 1,500,000 on his left. The action folded back to Schulze who quickly called to put the mouth-piece at risk.
Will Kassouf: 10♠10♣
Sebastian Schulze: A♥J♠
It turned out to be a coin flip and the flop of A♣7♣4♣ gave Schulze the best hand with a pair of aces. Kassouf had the one and only flush draw but the A♦ on the turn narrowed his outs even further.
The dealer burned and turned the Q♣ on the river and Kassouf went off with arms in the air after making a flush for the double up.
"You know it's coming. I'm the Main Event champion," Kassouf bowed to the rail as he received a small round of applause.
Michael Mizrachi raised to 300,000 in early position and Daehyung Lee called in the cutoff. Mounir Tajiou then moved all in for 2,400,000 in the small blind and Mizrachi folded.
"If I go, I go. As it says in Rocky, 'if he dies, he dies," Tajiou said as he began playing James Brown's "Living in America" on his phone and dancing. Lee took a minute before calling to put Tajiou at risk.
Mounir Tajiou: J♣J♦
Daehyung Lee: A♠8♠
"I don't care. I would rather have it, but it's good," Tajiou said going to the flop, which came A♣6♠3♥ to give Lee the lead with top pair. The rest of the board ran out 2♦6♣ and Tajiou made his way around the table shaking all his opponent's hands before making his exit.
"You villain. How could you?" Albert Calderon joked with Lee.
Kenny Hallaert is no stranger to the WSOP Main Event final stages and with just 20 minutes left on Day 6, the 2016 November Niner put himself in prime position to make the final table once again.
Hallaert picked up aces and got it in against queens and jacks in a massive three-way all-in pot worth more than 36 million chips. The aces held, and the Belgian tournament director bagged 36,950,000 to take the chip lead into Day 7, where 57 players remain.
"It doesn't feel real," Hallaert said after bagging. "I've been in this position before, obviously made a final table. I've been 64th even before, so I've already topped that result... Getting aces and having two people go all in before you also helps to make it as a chip leader."
Despite being in pole position, Haellaert isn't getting ahead of himself just yet.
"People have started in this position as the chip leader and not made it to the final three tables."
"When you've been playing poker for 20 years, I've seen it all happen in the past. Been there multiple times in tournaments when you have all the chips and all of a sudden you're out."
Eric Afriat
Eric Afriat (31,200,000), who held the chip lead for much of the evening, now sits second in chips. He vaulted to the top earlier in the session after winning a huge three-way all-in worth over 20 million chips. Afriat made a king-high straight to crack Benjamin Williams’ aces and Bruno Furth’s flopped set of queens.
Afriat is also no stranger to deep tournament runs. The Canadian has three World Poker Tour titles to his name, tied for third most all time, but the World Series of Poker has never brought him that same marquee success.
His only WSOP final table came in 2018, when he finished fifth in the $1,500 Closer for $154,660. Until now, that result made up more than half of his lifetime WSOP earnings. But that will certainly change, as Afriat’s deep run in the 2025 Main Event has already secured him a new personal best.
Afriat was all smiles after bagging one of the biggest stacks calling today "one of the best days of my poker career," reflecting on how everything seemed to fall into place from the moment he took his seat.
"Today was just magical," he said. "Everything was nice and smooth, the table changes, the cards. I sat down and did my thing."
Despite his success on other tours, Afriat didn’t hesitate when asked if he’d trade it all just for a seat at the WSOP Main Event final table.
"One hundred percent. People might say I’m crazy, but I’d swap it all just to make the final table here," he said. "My first WPT title in 2014, that was magical. Maybe, this is the second magic that’s going to happen."
Michael Mizrachi
Also still in the mix is four-time Poker Players Championship winner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who bagged 19,725,000 chips for third place. The seven-time bracelet winner added a chunk to his stack late in the day thanks to a great call with pocket sevens that was a baby flush on a scary-looking board.
Mizrachi said the Main Event run is bringing back memories of 2010. “It seems like a repeat,” he said. “But this time we’re gonna win it, no more fifth place.”
As mentioned, Mizrachi pulled off a crafty hero call with pocket sevens on a paired and four-heart board. “I bet small on the river to induce,” he explained. “I knew he didn’t have a hand, and when he tanked for five minutes, I was 100 percent sure he was gonna bluff. Everything went exactly as planned.”
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Kenny Hallaert
Belgium
36,950,000
246
2
Eric Afriat
Canada
31,200,000
208
3
Michael Mizrachi
United States
19,925,000
133
4
Daehyung Lee
South Korea
18,675,000
125
5
Chad Power
United States
18,575,000
124
6
Richard Freitas
Brazil
18,500,000
123
7
Joey Padron
United States
16,675,000
111
8
Adam Hendrix
United States
16,125,000
108
9
Braxton Dunaway
United States
15,725,000
105
10
Muhamet Perati
Italy
14,950,000
100
Merson Still Alive, Margets Last Woman Standing Again
Greg Merson
Among the Day 6 survivors is 2012 Main Event champion Greg Merson, the last remaining Main Event champion. More than a decade after winning $8,531,853, Merson is still chasing title number two. He’ll return with 3,025,000 chips.
Tomas Szwarcberg also advanced to Day 7 for the second consecutive year. Szwarcberg finished 30th in 2024.
Also looking to make it to Day 7 for the second year in a row was Yong Han. Last year marked Han's Main Event debut, and he made it count, finishing in 59th place. He managed to pull off his best Mark Newhouse impression and somehow finished in the same spot, bowing out in one of the final hands of the night.
Leo Margets
Leo Margets is once again the last woman standing in the WSOP Main Event. The Spanish bracelet winner first did it back in 2009, when she made it to the final three tables before finishing 27th for $352,832.
With Esther Taylor, Thi Xoa Nguyen, Heather Hardie, and Lindsey McDougall all eliminated on Day 6, Margets stands alone once more. She’ll head into Day 7 with 6,400,000 chips, good for 43rd on the leaderboard.
Day 6 Action
Will Kassouf
Day 6 got off to a wild start thanks to Will Kassouf, who found himself on the right side of a massive cooler. His aces held against kings, sending his stack soaring past 10 million early in the day.
But with the chips came delays. Kassouf had the clock called on him 23 times throughout the session, eventually leading to a rare penalty that gave him just ten seconds to act per decision. That restriction was lifted during the final level. However, Kassouf ended the day with only 2,850,000 chips, and is now near the bottom of the counts.
Andrew Wilson, Farid Jattin, and Romain Locquet were among the early eliminations. Hallaert, meanwhile, began his steady rise up the leaderboard and never looked back.
Jarod Minghini
Later in the day, Jarod Minghini briefly climbed into the top three after rivering a set of aces to beat Arsenii Karmatckii’s flopped set of jacks in a 163 big blind pot. But it didn’t take long for the chips to shift again. Minghini lost a 140 big blind pot to Derek Sudell, who made a gutsy hero call with pocket queens to knock him back into the middle of the pack.
By the dinner break, the field had been cut from 202 to 95 players. Eliminations slowed afterward, with only 38 more busting before bags came out.
Among those to fall short of Day 7 were bracelet winners Francis Anderson and Colin Robinson, as well as Dillon Ott, the brother of 2017 Main Event runner-up Daniel Ott. Had he made the final table, the Otts would have been the first siblings to do so.
Plan for Day 7
Day 7 will feature another five levels of play and kicks off at 12 p.m. local time. The action resumes with Level 30, where blinds will be 100,000/200,000 with a 200,000 big blind ante.
Players will get a 20-minute break after each level, and a 75-minute dinner break is scheduled after Level 32. Everyone remaining has secured at least $165,000 in prize money. The next pay jump to $200,000 comes when 53 players remain.
Keep it locked on PokerNews for continued coverage of the 2025 WSOP Main Event.
