button in Safari
Event #97: $1,500 The Closer
Day 1b Completed
2025 World Series of Poker
Event #97: $1,500 The Closer
Day: 1b
Event Info
2025 World Series of Poker
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1b
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$4,687,273
Total Entries
4,297
Level
43
Blinds
1,500,000 / 3,000,000
Ante
3,000,000
Entries
2,504
Players Left
189
Players Left 1 / 4,297
Filter
Day 1b of Event #97: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold'em saw 2,504 players buy in at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, but only 189 of them punched their Day 2 tickets and remain in contention for one of the last bracelets to be awarded at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP). France's Robert Nemeskerikiss (3,125,000) is the name at the chip counts' summit, but all eyes will likely be on the 28 bracelet winners and/or 25K Fantasy Draft picks who progressed from this flight.
Serial Main Event casher Ronnie Bardah (805,000) was one of those WSOP champions who sailed through the choppy Day 1b waters. Bardah has four cashes this summer, including an 11th-place finish in the $777 Lucky 7's event that earned him $45,989. Bardah's stack placed him in the top third on the Day 1b leaderboard.
Cole Ferraro (1,155,000), champion of the $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack in 2021, is the best-placed of the slew of bracelet winners who navigated to Day 2 from this flight. Others include Barry Hutter (950,000), Jeff Madsen (610,000), Sean Troha (555,000), Josh Arieh (500,000), Jim Collopy (440,000), Martin Kabrhel (228,000), and the legendary Benny Glaser (50,000).
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Nemeskerikiss | United States | 3,125,000 | 104 |
| 2 | Jared Hyman | United States | 2,645,000 | 88 |
| 3 | Everett Carlton | United States | 2,310,000 | 77 |
| 4 | Peter Walsworth | United States | 1,735,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Guy Naimi | United States | 1,685,000 | 56 |
| 6 | Douglas Ferreira | Brazil | 1,360,000 | 45 |
| 7 | David Yue | United States | 1,265,000 | 42 |
| 8 | Bret Martin | United States | 1,200,000 | 40 |
| 9 | Adrian Tivadar | Romania | 1,185,000 | 40 |
| 10 | Adrien Favre | France | 1,180,000 | 39 |
Day 2 kicks off at 11 a.m. local time on July 16 with 317 players returning to their seats. The plan is to play down to a champion, with 15-minute breaks every four levels, and a dinner break before the start of the final table. Players return to Level 23, meaning the blinds are 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante.
Payouts for this event should be announced shortly before or after the cards are in the air. Stay tuned to PokerNews to see what The Closer players can win, and who gets their hands on the lion's share of the pot.
These are the chip counts of the surviving Day 1b players 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.
“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.
The Main Event at the 2025 World Series of Poker is down to the final four players. The Event Center at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas was bursting at the seams with 9,735 entries for this year, but just a few players remain for the biggest trophy in poker.
Leading the way with more than three times the stack of the rest of the field combined is Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. Not only does he have the massive chip lead going into the final day of the Main Event, he's already coming off a summer for the ages after becoming the only player in history to win four Poker Players Championships. The Grinder already secured his spot in the record books with that historic win, but he'd love to cap it off with the Main bracelet as well.
Have a look at the remaining players in this year's Big Show, starring The Grinder.
It’s been a historic run for Leo Margets in this year’s WSOP Main Event, but unfortunately for the Spaniard and her loyal legion of supporters, that run has now come to an end.
Across nine days of play at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, Margets became the first woman in three decades to reach the final table of poker’s world championship, earning her place in the history books with a headline-grabbing run on the game’s biggest stage.
However, her tournament came to a close in 7th place for $1,500,000 after a brutal river card in a key pot against Kenny Hallaert ended her bid for the title.
The PokerNews desktop and mobile browser websites are as feature-rich as ever, so our tech gurus have decided to call time on the PokerNews mobile app.
Don't fret if you spend your time reading PokerNews articles and live tournament updates from your mobile device, because adding PokerNews to your Android or iOS-powered device is simple. Doing so enables you to continue enjoying PokerNews in its glory, including seeing badges, using emojis, browsing famously easy-to-navigate pages, and getting closer to the action with MyStack.
