WSOP Main Event’s Bubble About to Burst with Many Big-Names Still Alive
Soon after the final 1,476 players of the World Series of Poker Main Event return to play at 3 p.m., PST, one of the best moments in sports will take place — the bubble will burst. Cell phones and poker reporters will capture a room of people celebrating with champagne and cheers when the player […]
Soon after the final 1,476 players of the World Series of Poker Main Event return to play at 3 p.m., PST, one of the best moments in sports will take place — the bubble will burst. Cell phones and poker reporters will capture a room of people celebrating with champagne and cheers when the player is eliminated in 1,462nd place.
Those who cash will win at least $15,000.
That’s 15 players on the cusp of, for many, a dream to cash the WSOP Main Event. And with nearly 100 players with 10 big blinds or less (Yinan Zhou is last with 6,100 chips — less than a big), that celebration will probably take place relatively soon after the cards fly.
It’s impossible not to feel sorry for those who made it this far only to have walked away with nothing but memories, but as Phil Hellmuth, who was eliminated last night by a one-outer on the river might say, “that’s poker, baby.”
With blinds at 4,000/8,000, there are 150 players with 100 big blinds or more. Japan’s Shotaro Kobayashi has the thrill of leading everyone with 2 million in chips (246 big blinds). He’s 23 and has little in terms of tournament results.
Max Neugebauer, the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion, is in second-place with 1,928,000 (240 big blinds), after a late-night surge. He is coming off a victory a few weeks ago in a $3,000 PLO event at the Wynn Summer Classic, which was good for $169,598.
Juliet Hegedus, who sits in fourth on the leaderboard with 218 big blinds, just finished sixth in the $1,000 WSOP Ladies Championship.
There are 76 players with at least 1 million in chips, and the average stack is a very healthy 385,731 — good for 40 big blinds.
Here’s the top 10:
Rank Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Shotaro Kobayashi Japan 1,971,000 246 2 Max Neugebauer Austria 1,928,000 240 3 Sam Jakubowicz France 1,800,000 225 4 Juliet Hegedus United States 1,745,000 218 5 Tomas Szwarcberg Mexico 1,709,000 214 6 David Alvarez Spain 1,629,000 204 7 Thomas Eychenne France 1,618,000 202 8 Brandon Harris United Kingdom 1,616,000 202 9 Luke Chung United States 1,606,000 201 10 Chad Power United States 1,546,000 193
Notables left
With so many players still in the hunt for the $10 million top prize, there are many well-known and successful pros still in the running, including a couple former champs in Damian Salas (480,000 chips, 60 big blinds) and Greg Merson (560,000, 70 big blinds).
Last year’s Main Event winner Jonathan Tamayo didn’t make it through Day 3.
Those who also made it through to Day 4 are 2025 Poker Hall of Fame nominee Michael “the Mouth” Matusow with 612,000 (76 big blinds), Jason Mercier with 687,000 (85 big blinds), Isaac Haxton with 717,000 (89 big blinds), Phil Laak with 104,000 (13 big blinds), Chris Wallace with 410,000 (51 big blinds), Viktor Blom with 986,000 (123 big blinds), Brad Owen with 328,000 (41 big blinds) and Liv Boeree with 320,000 (40 big blinds).
Boeree’s last cash was a career-best $2.8 million for finishing fourth in the $26,000 buy-in WSOP Paradise in December. It was also her last cash.
The 10-day event, which started July 3, is schedule to finish on July 16.
The final nine players will be known on Sunday, July 13. After taking Monday off for rest, the players will play to four on Tuesday, and finish it up on Wednesday.
