Velasco is the First Elimination of the Main Event

After a lot of raising back and forth between Vikrant Mangal in the small blind and Juan Velasco out of the big blind, the two players got their stacks into the middle and the cards were revealed.

Vikrant Mangal: A♠A♥ All in
Juan Velasco: A♣K♥

Mangal had slightly fewer chips than Velasco, so he was the one at risk, although he found himself in a perfect spot with aces versus the ace-king of Velasco.

Velasco was drawing by the turn on the 3♦7♦J♥9♦6♦ runout, and after the stacks were counted, Velasco was left with around 3,000.

The next hand, Velasco jammed from the small blind and Alexandru Moraru called out of the big blind.

Juan Velasco: K♠2♦ All in
Alexandru Moraru: A♣5♥

Moraru was slightly ahead, but Velasco had two live cards working for him. A flop of A♠3♦J♥ proved unfavorable for Velasco as Moraru hit top pair, and Velasco needed running cards to survive. He picked up a straight draw on the Q♥ turn, but bricked it when the 9♦ completed the board.

The pot went over to Moraru, and after just a few hands, Velasco was the first elimination of the 2025 WSOPE Main Event.