Most of the time in a poker tournament, the crème DOESN’T rise to the top. Poker is an egalitarian process, uncaring of how many times you have won or whether you have even played the game at all. At the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event – the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship – the elites are making their names known in surging into the Top Ten in the closing days of the event. As we enter the penultimate Day Seven, how many of them will be there for Sunday’s run to the 2025 WSOP Main Event final table?
Only 57 Players Remain for Day Seven Action
Of the 9735 players that started the tournament, only 202 survivors would show up at Paris Las Vegas for Day Six on Friday. Leading the way was Sebastian Schulze of Germany, the only player to eclipse the eight-figure mark in chips with 12.745 million, but a host of players were biding their time behind him. Chad Power was locked into second place as the only player (other than Schulze) over nine million in chips, while the (insert your adjective here) William Kassouf had talked his way into the Top Ten.
Although the remaining 202 players were guaranteed a $60,000 payday – that’s six times what they put up, a nice ROI if you can get it – there were still the final table dreams in many players’ heads. Those dreams were dashed early in the Day Six action for Julien Mariani, who had spent much of the tournament in the upper echelons of the leaderboard. Mariani found an A♣ 10♣ on the first hand of the day and pushed his remaining stack, only to run into Samuel Rosborough’s A-J off suit; the board would run dry, with no clubs, tens, or straight runout for Mariani, as he packed up and left moments after the start of action.
On the other side of the ledger was the run of Leo Margets in the 2025 WSOP Main Event. A former “last woman standing” from 2009, Margets has not been the staple of poker tournaments that she once was, but in 2025, she has proven that poker skills do not dim. Margets would build her stack early in knocking out Joshua Abiscott after her pocket Queens did the trick against the A-Q of Abiscott; she would have 3.78 million after that elimination and will be around for action on Day Seven of the tournament.
Hallaert Makes the Charge
No stranger to the WSOP, Kenny Hallaert would be on the attack from the start. With over five million in chips to play with Hallaert, who made the final table of the WSOP Main Event “November Nine” in 2016, challenged his tablemates with bulky bets – and he had the cards to back it up. One of the late eliminations would demonstrate this fact perfectly.
In a rather strange move, Jose Bogarin raised the action to 2.8 million, neglecting to put his final 75K into the pot along with it. Hallaert would make the call, but Derek Sudell in the big blind put the squeeze on with an all-in move. Bogarin put in his remaining chips, and Hallaert made the call, putting his two opponents at risk.
The cards went on their backs, and the results were stunning:
Sudell (big blind): pocket Queens
Bogarin (middle position): pocket Jacks
Hallaert (button): pocket Aces
Hallaert had both men dominated, but there was the little fact of the five-card runout to deal with. That drama ended quickly with an Ace in the window of an A-5-8 flop and, once the turn card came up 7♠, both Sudell and Bogarin were drawing dead to the Belgian. After the chips were scooped into the stack of Hallaert, he took over the chip lead and will be in that position for the start of action on Saturday:
1. Kenny Hallaert (Belgium), 36.95 million
2. Eric Afriat (Canada), 31.2 million
3. Michael Mizrachi (USA), 19.925 million
4. Daehyung Lee (South Korea), 18.675 million
5. Chad Power (USA), 18.575 million
6. Richard Freitas (Brazil), 18.5 million
7. Joey Padron (USA), 16.675 million
8. Adam Hendrix (USA), 16.125 million
9. Braxton Dunaway (USA), 15.725 million
10. Muhamet Perati (Italy), 14.95 million
There is still one former World Champion left in the mix. 2016 World Champion Greg Merson has a shorter stack (3.025 million), but he has demonstrated in the past his abilities in large field tournaments. Margets is also a big story for the 2025 WSOP Main Event, tying the record for being the “last woman standing” for the second time; she will carry 6.4 million chips into the Day Seven play.
For those who are interested, Kassouf is still alive in the 2025 WSOP Main Event, but not without some controversy. The talkative Kassouf would pass the ten million mark in chips at one point, but he would also have the clock called against him nearly two dozen times by players tired of his time-wasting shenanigans. It did reach a point that WSOP floor staff instituted a TEN-SECOND shot clock on Kassouf, and he finally got the message. The “personal clock” on Kassouf was removed for the final level of the night, and Kassouf would end the day on 2.85 million in chips.
Saturday’s action will once again have the usual five levels at two hours each, and the play will get underway at noon (Pacific Time). The plan is to get down as close to the final nine players as possible from the 57 runners still alive, as Sunday’s action will take it all the way down to where only nine players are left. It isn’t time to start taking action on who will win the 2025 WSOP Main Event, but that is looming on the horizon.
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