WSOP 2025: Week #2 News and Notes

Chopping in the $10k Seven Card Stud Championship Marathon

Those that dared enter the $10k Seven Card Stud Championship had to make it through some of the toughest poker you’ll find at the series, and the stories that came out of this one were epic to say the least!  Mike “The Mouth” Matusow hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet in over a decade; Dan Heimiller was in pursuit of the 2^nd WSOP Seven Card Stud bracelet of the summer, and Chino Rheem needed only the $10k Stud Championship join the Triple Crown Club of poker, to which only 10 players have ever achieved.

All of those dreams were ended by Nick Guagenti who ultimately persivered, having to deal with a two hour plus money bubble, and batling heads-up with Rheem for over five hours to claim WSOP bracelet number 3 for the American pro, also having won gold in No Limit Hold’em and Limit Hold’em in the past.  The $295k payday is a career best for Guagenti but this was one of only several headlines out of this tournament.

Those that made the money enduring the two hour + bubble, despite the fact that eliminations early on day 2 were fast and furious.  27 players late registered on day 2, pushing the money bubble back to 20 played.  It took 35 hands though with 21 players remaining to burst the bubble, the bubble boy being Eric Wasserson who maintained a top 10 stack for a good portion of the day, but fell upon bad cards and bad runouts to place 21^st and walk away with nothing.

We also saw one of the absolute craziest hands ever on day 2 when Gus Hansen ended up chopping a pot with Dzmitry Urbanovich. Hansen tabled the Ace-Jack-Ten-Nine-Three of hearts, while Urbanovich tabled the exact same hand in clubs.  It had to be seen to be believed – but was captured on video!

$25k High Roller Mayhem

One of the bigger buy-ins at this year’s WSOP is the $25k NLH High Roller and with 392 players paying the hefty price tag to create a prize pool of over $9 million dollars to be split among the top 59 finishers, some of the biggest names in the game are in contention for the WSOP bracelet.

Part of the mayhem that ensued on day 2 resulted in the timing of the end of registration and the completion of other bigger buy-in tournaments.  That perfect storm saw 92 entries added to the tournament list before registration closed, of which 72 came up to the cashier right at the wire at the end of the first level of the day, causing the tournament to pause while tables were re-drawn with all the players in the mix. When the dust cleared, the money bubble soon burst, and the parade to the cashier line began with many pros busting just after the bubble popped.  Going into the 3^rd and final day, Anatoly Nikitin leads the field with 5.55 million in chips. Notables still in contention for the $1.9 million first place prize include Joao Simao, Joe McKeehen, and Aliaksandr Shylko.

Mixed Games’s Popularity

Moving over to the $1,500 Badugi event, we see more proof that poker is not about No Limit Hold’em anymore, as 534 players put down the money to battle with four cards – and no board. Badugi is one of the more recent poker variants to gain popularity worldwide, as the largest Badugi tournament ever was held, netting Aloisio Dourado his first bracelet and the $138k top prize. This win was all about redemption for Dourado, as he was heads-up with Shaun Deeb two years ago in the Eight-Game mixed event and at times held a lead over Deeb, but running cards cracked Dourado’s pocket queens, settling for second place. This past weekend, Dourado took that last step, beating Dominick Sarle from the US for the bracelet and the glory.

COLOSSUS Has Been Colossal!

It is one of the biggest events on the WSOP calendar every year, and the COLOSSUS came through in a big way again as 16,301 players entered the $500 COLOSSUS NLHE eyeing the $542k first place prize. 103 players survived 2 days of play to make a run at the bracelet, and as is the norm, many lesser-known pros are still in the mix. Two names still in contention are Matt Glantz and Ryan Leng – the only players drafted in the 25k fantasy contest.  Both are substantially behind tournament chip leader Carlos Caldas who holds 78 big blinds, or 31.375 million in chips.  All players surviving the final day guaranteed themselves $4,520 – a nice payday for a $500 buy-in tournament, but all want the bracelet.

Anticipation is building as the WSOP 2025 is in full swing, and with the main event 3 weeks away, there are still prime tournaments to come including the $10k NL 2-7 Lowball and the $50k High Roller coming up this week! What stories are going to come out of Sin City this week?