Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship
Day 1a Started
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
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
(1)
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker, bringing you live coverage from every bracelet event.
We're expecting a packed field today at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, as Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship No-Limit Hold’em kicks off at 2 p.m. local time with the first of two opening flights.
This four-day tournament gives players 40,000 in starting chips and features 60-minute levels throughout. Players are allowed one reentry per flight. Late registration is open until the start of Level 12, at around 2:15 p.m. on Day 2.
Flight A begins today, Wednesday, July 9. Flight B follows on Thursday, July 10. Each flight will play ten levels with 15-minute breaks every two levels. Surviving players will combine for Day 2 on Friday, July 11, at 1 p.m., where another ten levels are scheduled. Day 3 continues at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 12, with ten more levels. The final day will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 13, when the remaining players return to play down to a winner.
The aptly-named Clement Richez is the reigning champion after taking down 2024's 3,177 runner event for a massive first-place prize of $1,041,989. It marked Richez's first bracelet, although he had previously cashed in the WSOP-E Main Event.
"I'm shaking all over," Richez said afterward to French media as he described the emotion of his win, "I didn't think this would give me so many emotions. I was on the verge of crying during the winner's photo, and I'll probably cry after this because I need to release all the pressure."
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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.”
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.
Here are the latest top stacks, according to the WSOP+ app.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
233,600 | |
|
226,700 | |
|
||
|
183,500 | |
|
170,000 | |
|
167,000 | |
|
164,000 | |
|
153,500 | |
|
146,700 | |
|
146,000 | |
|
||
|
|
140,300 | |
|
136,700 | |
|
136,000 | |
|
135,000 | |
|
127,000 | |
|
125,000 | |
|
125,000 | |
|
122,200 | |
|
122,000 | |
|
121,000 | |
“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 is the most recent chip leaders on the WSOP+ app.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
350,000
350,000
|
350,000 |
|
345,200
345,200
|
345,200 |
|
241,000
241,000
|
241,000 |
|
|
||
|
234,100
234,100
|
234,100 |
|
|
233,600 | |
|
|
226,000
89,300
|
89,300 |
|
|
220,000
85,000
|
85,000 |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
|
198,100
198,100
|
198,100 |
|
|
190,000
65,000
|
65,000 |
|
186,500
186,500
|
186,500 |
|
||
|
183,400
183,400
|
183,400 |
|
180,000
180,000
|
180,000 |
|
|
178,000
51,000
|
51,000 |
|
|
175,000
175,000
|
175,000 |
|
|
170,000 | |
|
|
167,000 | |
|
166,000
166,000
|
166,000 |
|
|
165,200
165,200
|
165,200 |
|
164,200
164,200
|
164,200 |
|
|
164,000 | |
|
160,000
160,000
|
160,000 |
|
|
||
|
158,000
158,000
|
158,000 |
|
155,300
155,300
|
155,300 |
|
155,000 | |
|
||
