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Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship
Day 1a Completed
2025 World Series of Poker
Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship
Day: 1a
Event Info
2025 World Series of Poker
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1a
Buy-in
$3,000
Prize Pool
$10,137,990
Total Entries
3,797
Level
38
Blinds
600,000 / 1,200,000
Ante
1,200,000
Entries
1,215
Players Left
367
Players Left 1 / 3,797
Filter
The first of two flights of Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship took place today. It saw 1,215 players enter but only 367 bag chips after ten levels of play. Michael Wilklow topped the counts with 506,500 chips.
If Wilklow's name rings a bell, it's because he won the $1,000 Mystery Millions event that opened the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $1 million. Wilklow evidently has a knack for large-field tournaments and is certainly one to watch as this tournament progresses.
Also finishing in the flight's top ten chip counts was Zdenek Zizka (352,000), the backgammon Grandmaster who recently won the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event for his first bracelet and $232,498.
Alex Keating (338,000) also bagged a top ten stack as he chases down his fourth cash of the summer and his second career bracelet. Keating captured his bracelet two years ago in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.
Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Wilklow | United States | 506,500 | 203 |
| 2 | Andrew Yee | United States | 465,000 | 186 |
| 3 | Robert Ashelm | Germany | 436,000 | 174 |
| 4 | Adrien Amorella | France | 416,000 | 166 |
| 5 | Michael Newman | United States | 397,000 | 159 |
| 6 | Eusebiu Jalba | Bulgaria | 387,000 | 155 |
| 7 | Jamie Walden | United Kingdom | 372,500 | 149 |
| 8 | Zdenek Zizka | Czech Republic | 352,000 | 141 |
| 9 | Alfonso Timoteo | Spain | 339,000 | 136 |
| 10 | Alex Keating | United States | 338,000 | 135 |
Dozens of elite-level players chose Day 1a of this event to start their quest for yet more glory. Upeshka De Silva (200,000), Nicholas Palma (188,500), Davidi Kitai (185,500), Mike Matusow (175,000), and Robert Wells (175,000) all finished in the top third of the chip counts.
Also through are the likes of Jake Schwartz (154,000), five-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (150,500), Czech chatterbox Martin Kabrhel (126,500), former Main Event champions Martin Jacobson (99,500), Huck Seed (93,000), Jonathan Tamayo (85,000), and Stoyan Madanzhiev (58,000), along with Patrick Leonard (87,000), Faraz Jaka (40,000), and Eric Baldwin (29,000).
Day 1b is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. local time on July 10. The flight follows the same structure as Day 1a, except the field is expected to be even larger. PokerNews' traditional coverage starts on Day 2 on July 11.
Here are the chip counts of the Day 1a survivors, according to the WSOP+ App.
“I probably played better than the last three I won. Everything went my way this tournament. I was always at the top of the leaderboard, never really got short, and probably played my best overall.”
That's what Michael Mizrachi had to say after he cruised to victory in Event #66: $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Already sharing the record for most $50,000 Poker Players Championship victories with Brian Rast, Mizrachi now stands alone after capturing his historic fourth title on Saturday at the 2025 World Series of Poker. "The Grinder" conquered the 107-entry field, earning $1,331,322 from the $5,162,750 prize pool and further cementing his legacy as the event's most dominant force.
Here is the most recent chip leaders on the WSOP+ app.
“It was a spot where most people are more sane than me and wouldn’t have put their money in.”
Josh Reichard made one of the gutsiest decisions of the 2025 World Series of Poker so far, calling for his tournament life with nothing but ace-high on the stone money bubble of the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.
Already a 16-time WSOP Circuit ring winner and reigning MSPT Heart Poker Champion, Reichard came into the Main Event on a serious heater. He’d cashed in nine WSOP events this summer, including a third-place finish worth $702,360 in the controversial Millionaire Maker.
Here are the latest top stacks, according to the WSOP+ app.
For two decades, Tom Goldstein was at the top of the legal world. He argued more cases before the United States Supreme Court than almost any private attorney and founded SCOTUSblog, a legal blog that quickly became the go-to source for Supreme Court analysis. He lectured at Stanford University and Harvard University and regularly appeared on national news programs.
But Goldstein had another life. When he wasn’t arguing before Supreme Court justices, Goldstein was flying to Hollywood or Hong Kong and winning or losing millions in ultra-high-stakes poker matches. He played heads-up against California businessmen and foreign gamblers, at one point allegedly winning over $50 million in just a few sessions.
Goldstein’s luck turned in January 2025 when the US Department of Justice a federal grand jury initiated a 22-count indictment accusing the attorney of failing to report millions in poker winnings and diverting law firm funds to pay his personal poker debts.
In a new PokerNews video essay, we take a look at the life of Tom Goldstein and the high-stakes poker game that led to his federal indictment.
Alan Keating had an opportunity to prove to the high-stakes tournament grinders — notably, Daniel Negreanu — that he can hang in their arena. But the Hustler Casino Live fan favorite bowed out in the second round of Event #7: $25,000 Heads-Up Championship on Friday at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Keating, known primarily for his high-stakes cash game appearances, has over $200,000 in career WSOP earnings but hasn’t recorded a WSOP cash since 2013. Recently, he’s been publicly challenged by several high-stakes pros—including Negreanu — to step outside the comfort of the private cash game scene and compete against the game's elites.
It seems Negreanu was on Keating’s mind when he registered for the event. When PokerNews caught up with him and asked about his motivation for playing, Keating said, “It’s a heads-up tournament, and I saw Negreanu was on the list,” adding that he thought to himself, “Alright, here’s my chance to find him in his streets.”
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