Phillip Hui Still in the Hunt in $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout and Chasing Down Fifth WSOP Bracelet
Welcome to Day 2 of Event #83: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), hosted at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.
After 12 levels of late registration on Day 1, a total of 1,299 entrants generated a massive prize pool of $2,890,275. Only 247 players bagged up on Day 1 after 15 levels of play and are set to continue in Day 2 and battle it out for their share of the prize pool, the coveted WSOP gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $449,245.
All players will be chasing Noel Rodriguez, who enters Day 2 with 840,000 and the overall lead. Vitor Dzivielevski is second with 568,000, and Yu Zhang rounds out the podium starting Day 2 in third place with 558,000 chips.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Noel Rodriguez | United States | 840,000 | 140 |
| 2 | Vitor Dzivielevski | Brazil | 568,000 | 95 |
| 3 | Yu Zhang | China | 558,000 | 93 |
| 4 | Bijan Shapouri | United States | 535,000 | 89 |
| 5 | Graeme Newman | United Kingdom | 481,000 | 80 |
| 6 | Tamao Kobayashi | Japan | 480,000 | 80 |
| 7 | Ben Fan | China | 470,000 | 78 |
| 8 | Filipp Khavin | United States | 467,000 | 78 |
| 9 | Dohyeok Kim | South Korea | 464,000 | 77 |
| 10 | Congya Zhang | China | 449,000 | 75 |
A plethora of top-name notable players are still in the hunt and will be looking to leverage their experience to build their stacks throughout the day and make a run at the final table and a shot at the WSOP Bracelet. Just a few names to keep eyes on are Shawn Daniels (395,000) with over $3,000,000 in lifetime earnings and shooting for his second WSOP bracelet; Phillip Hui (370,000) with over $4,000,000 in lifetime earnings and looking for his fifth WSOP bracelet; and Alex Keating(305,000), who has over $4,500,000 notched up in earnings and will be looking to add to his current jewlery collection of one bracelet.
Numerous 25K Fantasy Draft players are also still in the hunt and will be looking to add to their poker resumes as well as bag some big points for their teams. Names such as Cary Katz(134,000), Danny Wong(120,000), Renan Bruschi (109,000) and PokerNews podcaster Mike Holtz (59,000) are all still in the running.
A total of 195 players will be paid with a minimum payout of $5,010 awarded, but all remaining players will be eyeing up the first-place prize of $449,245 and the coveted WSOP Gold Bracelet. The nine players who reach the final table will be guaranteed a minimum payout of $37,860, with the top five players all guaranteed a six-figure payday.
Day 2 is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at Level 16 and the blinds will be 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante. They will play ten 60-minute levels with a 15-minute break every three levels. A 60-minute dinner break is scheduled after Level 21 at approximately 7:30 p.m.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live and exclusive coverage of the 2025 World Series of Poker!