Shaun Deeb Looks to Lock Up Player of the Year in Unplanned Day 3
The second and supposedly final day of Event #84: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2025 World Series of Poker has just come to a close at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. What started as 1,873 entrants in Day 1 has now become not just one, as was planned, but three, as play goes to an unprecedented Day 3.
The eventual winner, who will now be crowned on July 6, will of course take home a World Series of Poker Bracelet, which will be sweetly accompanied by an incredible top score of $232,498. That result is the best prize from a whopping $1,648,240 pool, a huge increase on the $1,253,120 from last year.
End of Day 2 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shaun Deeb | United States | 21,200,000 | 35 |
| 2 | Zdenek Zizka | Czechia | 12,500,000 | 20 |
| 3 | Jeffrey Thoney | United States | 3,800,000 | 6 |
Shaun Deeb finds himself atop the leaderboard at the end of the play, as he racked up a monumental 21,200,000 chips, or 35 big blinds. With just two players standing between him and victory, he will undoubtedly believe that the bracelet is already halfway to his wrist. As it stands, he has further extended his lead over Martin Kabrhel at the top of the Player of the Year standings.
Day 2 Action
A total of 281 players made the money and returned for Day 2, with names such as Scott Eskenazi and Krasimir Yankov dropping out early on. Uri Reichenstein was left with less than one big blind late on in Day 1, but still managed to squeeze into the money, leaving in 209th. Eduards Rakuss and Frank Lagodich also left with a mincash.
Eliminations came thick and fast to start Day 2, and that trend continued throughout the day, with the 30-minute levels causing players to blind down and blind out, as 55 players left during the first 15 minutes of the day. Action got down to the unofficial final table after nine hours of play, following the elimination of Hayato Kitajima.
Unofficial became official after Huahuan Feng lost a flip to Dinesh Singham, however it took a long time to go from nine to eight. Pay jump pressure became real, but Ricky Robinson, Santiago Plante, and Logan Kim were unable to take advantage of it, leaving before making the final five.
Brian Klish was the second last player to leave on the day, taking home $61,195 for his efforts. Santiago Maglio of Argentina just missed out on the podium after being eliminated by the chip leader minutes before the day's end. Play was halted with three players left after action was unable to get to heads up before the end of Level 35. The chip leader, Deeb made an incredible comeback from just five big blinds, to have 57% of the chips in play with three left, as well as having locked up some extremely important WSOP Player of the Year points.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $232,498 | ||
| 2 | $154,906 | ||
| 3 | $112,413 | ||
| 4 | Santiago Maglio | Argentina | $82,480 |
| 5 | Brian Klish | United States | $61,195 |
| 6 | Dinesh Singham | Australia | $45,917 |
| 7 | Logan Kim | United States | $34,848 |
| 8 | Ricky Robinson | United States | $26,754 |
| 9 | Santiago Plante | Canada | $20,781 |
The final three declined the option to play out a courtesy level at the end of the night, despite boos and chants from the rail that had been extremely active all night. They will be returning to the card room at 2:00 p.m. on July 6 to battle it out. No matter what, a winner will indeed be crowned during Day 3.
Stay tuned as PokerNews brings you every single update throughout the rest of this tournament, and all others at the 2025 World Series of Poker.