If you hadn’t noticed, Las Vegas has been a little busy of late with poker tournament action. The PokerGO Tour has had a couple of events run, but last week, the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) entered the fray, with a $50,000 Super High Roller tournament and a $5,000 Main Event that offered something to the poker world. Day Four is set to begin on Monday with only forty players remaining, while the $50K event proved to be financially successful for its players, but perhaps not as meaningful for the Player of the Year races.
Kai Nicholls, Jesse Lonis, Jennifer Shahade atop Standings in Main Event
After three days of action at Resorts World Las Vegas, the final forty players have emerged from the 738-entry field that started the NAPT Main Event last week. As they prepare to step into the fray on Monday, there are a few notable names in the pack that bear watching.
Jesse Lonis is in the fight for the two Player of the Year races that are out there, and he is making a deep run in the NAPT Main Event that will go to further his efforts in that arena. He will come to the tables on Monday on a 1.012 million stack, good enough to sit in fourth place behind chip leader Kai Nicholls (1.301 million), Richard Green (1.126 million), and $50,000 High Roller runner-up (more on this in a minute) Thomas Boivin (1.098 million). Joining this foursome over the million-chip mark is Phillip Latimer, who starts Monday in fifth place with 1.011 million in chips.
Down the leaderboard is PokerStars Team Pro Jennifer Shahade with one of her better runs in 2025. Shahade came out on the right side (for her) of a race late in the evening on Sunday when her Big Slick found an Ace to top the pocket Jacks of Carl Shaw. That win powered Shahade just short of the million-chip mark in seventh place with 980,000.
There are some other notables outside of the Top Ten. Shannon Shorr continues to impress in 2025, coming back on Monday for Day Four with 706K in chips (good for fourteenth). Two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jesse Yaginuma and Katie Porrello are both over the average chip stack. However, Michael Rossitto, Matt Salsberg, Mike Vanier, former World Champion Ryan Riess, Toby Lewis, and Jeremy Ausmus will all have their work cut out for them as they battle from less-than-average stacks.
When they come to the felt at 3 PM (EST) this afternoon, here is the Top Ten in the NAPT Las Vegas Main Event:
1. Kai Nicholls, 1.301 million
2. Richard Green, 1.126 million
3. Thomas Boivin, 1.098 million
4. Jesse Lonis, 1.012 million
5. Phillip Latimer, 1.011 million
6. Ekrem Bozkurt, 979,000
7. Jennifer Shahade, 928,000
8. Michael Berk, 887,000
9. Jeremy Halaska, 836,000
10. Evan Sandberg, 817,000
Over the next couple of days, the players will work their way to the final table and, eventually, a champion. The top seven finishers will take home a six-figure payday, with the eventual champion picking up $653,050 for some holiday festivities.
Stephen Chidwick Takes Super High Roller
Before the start of the Main Event, the NAPT threw a party in Las Vegas for those with deep pockets, offering a $50,000 Super High Roller tournament. Twenty-three entries came out for the tournament, which was counted toward one POY competition but was not eligible for the other.
Boivin was the story of this tournament, sitting on top of the leaderboard for much of the tournament before it came down to the money bubble. With only three players earning cash from the event, the tension was heavy as Boivin, Cary Katz, Stephen Chidwick, and all-time leading money winner Bryn Kenney fought it out for the $1.115 million-plus prize pool. Boivin would do the honors in bringing the players to the money, eliminating Kenney after Kenney’s K-Q couldn’t connect against Boivin’s A-J to come up short.
The Belgian was ahead of the Brit (Chidwick) and the American (Katz) by a decent margin, but the next few hours would see who reigned supreme. Chidwick would slowly chip up before eliminating Katz in third place after about two hours, going to heads-up play against Boivin with only a 200K chip lead (three million to 2.8 million). Boivin would take a quick lead after the break, but Chidwick’s skills would come out over the hour-long battle, culminating in a win for Chidwick when his A-10 caught on the flop and turn against Boivin’s Q-9 on a 7-Q-A-A-6 board to conclude the tournament.
1. Stephen Chidwick, $557,930
2. Thomas Boivin, $334,700
3. Cary Katz, $223,100
The victory for Chidwick was good news/bad news. The prize money put him over $75 million in career earnings as he tries to chase down Kenney, but it was a split decision on the POY front. The CardPlayer POY granted him 306 points to allow him to move up to 13th place, but the GPI POY, because of its more stringent criteria, did not give any points to Chidwick for the POY because of the lack of entries; he remains in 13th position heading into the stretch run for that title.
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