The 2025 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event is now down to just 24 players from a starting field of 9,735. While those left have all guaranteed themselves at least $360,000 by making it this far, nine of them are just one day away from locking up a seat at the final table. A few days on from that, one of these two dozen contenders will hoist this year’s championship bracelet and lay claim to the first-place prize of $10 million.
The chip leader following the conclusion of day 7 is Kenny Hallaert, with 61,000,000. He’s the top dog for the second consecutive day, and heading into day 8 he has the inside track to a second career WSOP main event final table.
2023 WSOP monster stack event winner Braxton Dunaway sits in second place with 51,100,000. He’s followed by Muhamet Perati (50,100,000), who rounds out the lead pack in third chip position.
Adam Hendrix. Credit: PokerGO / Enrique Malfavon
Adam Hendrix sits in fourth place overnight with 39,500,000. The longtime tournament veteran has $8,433,359 in lifetime results. He’s made 12 career WSOP final tables and two World Poker Tour final tables, and he’s now in prime position to make a serious run at his first victory on this big of a stage.
“Pretty smooth day,” Hendrix said. “No huge spots, besides that one all in where I won kings to king-jack and ace-king. Besides that, picking and choosing some spots. I did do a little feisty four-bet earlier, and it didn’t work. I remember going into break like, ‘Oh man, I gotta refocus and think about it.’ In some tournaments, you four bet there, you lose a huge chunk of your stack. Luckily, it’s the main, and it’s super deep.”
Hendrix had a tough spot after the redraw with 27 players left, sitting with Hallaert, bracelet winner Tony Gregg, four-time Poker Players Championship winner Michael Mizrachi, and pot-limit Omaha tournament star Lautaro Guerra. With a bustout on the last hand of the night, however, it appears Hendrix is likely to be the player moved away from the primary featured table.
Gregg Surges On Day 7
Gregg is just outside the top 10, with 22,500,000. The winner of the 2013 WSOP $111,111 One Drop high roller was one of the earliest success stories of poker’s high roller tournament scene. But Gregg largely stepped away from those events by 2017, because of the direction he thought they were headed in.
“I would say I just got a little bit disenchanted with the way that the high roller scene was going in,” said Gregg. “A lot of the incessant tanking, and that was when solvers started getting popular. I was not really into that form of studying.”
Gregg, a longtime presence in the Maryland poker scene, now calls Hawaii home. After stepping away from high roller tournaments, Gregg is happy to have the chance to tap into the kind of excitement that made him fall in love with poker in the first place.
“It’s just kind of crazy how many things need to go your way to play eight days of tournament poker without busting,” said Gregg. “So yeah, I’m just excited to have the opportunity to be deep and get the blood pumping on the biggest stage. I’m just looking forward to continuing the adventure.”
In one key hand, Gregg eliminated two opponents at once with A-K nesting A-Q and pocket sevens.
Insane 3-Way All-In! 💥 Tony Gregg scores a double knockout late on Day 7.
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/2RQh5ROjQG pic.twitter.com/8Ac0H1P133
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 13, 2025
More Big Stacks Heading Into Day 8
Maksim Pisarenko, the 2024 WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. champion, surged up the standings midway through the day when he won a big three-way clash with pocket kings, eliminating Mikhail Prokopchuk in the process and taking a healthy chunk out of Joey Padron. Prokopchuk was all-in preflop with pocket tens, while Padron went for a value bet into the side pot with pocket jacks after the board had brought three aces. Pisarenko called with his larger pair to win the pot and move toward the top of the chip counts. He ended the night in the middle of the pack, in 13th.
Guerra, who has a WSOP Paradise $100,000 PLO super high roller bracelet to his name, ended the night in 14th with 18,000,000.
Just behind Guerra is Leo Margets, already more than a day beyond locking up last woman standing honors for the second time in her career. Her 18 million stack is good for 14th place in the chip counts.
Leo Margets (@LeoMargets) has just doubled up through Lautaro Guerra (@LauG9191) in Day 7 of the Main Event. Watch the action on https://t.co/pGPDDvqFQG! #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/Bob7Qxch2G
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 13, 2025
Margets has officially outdone her previous best finish of 27th in 2009, and on day 8 Margets has a chance to become just the second woman ever to make the WSOP main event final table. The first was Barbara Enright, who finished 5th in 1995. Several women have fallen just shy of the official final table, with Barbara Samuelson (1994), Susie Isaacs (1998), Annie Duke (2000), and Gaelle Baumann (2012) all seeing their runs end in 10th place.
Mizrachi, a seven-time bracelet winner, made it through to day 8. He’ll start play on Sunday among the shorter stacks, sitting in 19th out of the 24 remaining players.
Chris Dombrowski is one of six bracelet winners among the final 24, and he’s in 22nd place overnight.
No Repeat Champs In 2025
There will officially be a brand new world champion crowned in 2025. The lone remaining prior winner, 2012 champion Greg Merson, hit the rail in 52nd place ($200,000). He called off the last of his stack with 8♣6♥ on a Q♦8♥3♣ flop and was ahead of the A♠J♠ of pot-limit Omaha tournament superstar Lautaro Guerra. The J♥ turn catapulted the Spaniard ahead, though, leaving Merson in need of an eighth or six on the end. The 9♠ river kept Guerra ahead, ending Merson’s latest deep run. He now has more than $11.6 million in recorded scores to his name, with more than $8.5 million coming from his triumph in the big dance 13 years ago.
Other key bustouts include bracelet winner Leon Sturm (48th – $200,000), French high-stakes tournament player Thomas Eychenne (47th – $200,000), bracelet winner Nick Pupillo (42nd – $240,000), three-time WSOP main event top-100 finisher Chad Power (35th – $300,000), and 2016 WSOP main event 17th-place finisher William Kassouf (33rd – $300,000).
Kassouf Hits The Rail
Kassouf’s latest deep run was again steeped in controversy. He drew an unprecedented amount of clock calls along with numerous penalties throughout his time in the spotlight during this event. The drama reached a fever pitch on day 7. Early in the day, he was hit with another penalty, and had words with Jack Effel, Vice President of the WSOP, who at one point threatened disqualification if Kassouf did not relent.
Things only got more heated after the dinner break. At one point, Kassouf called the other players at his table ‘little bitches,’ which earned him another penalty. In Kassouf’s final hand, he three-bet shoved from the small blind for 2,700,000 with 7♠7♦ over the button raise of Hallaert, the chip leader. Hallaert called with K♥5♥. The board came down A♣J♠10♦K♣J♥ and Hallaert made jacks and kings to send Kassouf packing to jeers and applause from the crowd and remaining players. He has reportedly been banned from playing at the WSOP for the rest of the series, and was escorted out of the area by security.
GAME OVER! 😵 @WilliamKassouf eliminated in 33rd from the 2025 @WSOP Main Event.
Watch LIVE on https://t.co/2RQh5ROjQG pic.twitter.com/lT6B4dEG80
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 13, 2025
Eric Afriat Goes From Big Stack To Bust
Three-time World Poker Tour main event winner Eric Afriat started day 7 as the second largest stack, but slid down the leaderboard throughout the day. He lost a big pot early, folding a full house after a flush came in on the river due to an apparent misreading of his hand. He later had a big bluff picked off by Pupillo, who called all-in facing a river jam from Afriat with K♥9♥ on a board of 6♦6♣3♣9♦A♣. Afriat had missed his backdoor diamond draw with K♦8♦.
Afriat made his last stand with 10-9 for less than two big blinds, with his shove called in two spots. Nazar Buhaiov, who called with Q-5 suited from the big blind, rivered a straight to secure the pot. Afriat earned $300,000 as the 29th-place finisher.
The final 24 players will return at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, July 13, with blinds at 300,000/600,000 and a big blind ante of 600,000 for level 35. The average stack of 24,337,500 will represent 40 big blinds when play resumes, with the plan being to play to a final table of nine before the tournament takes a one-day hiatus ahead of the final table.
Here are the chip counts for the final 24 players:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Kenny Hallaert | 63,600,000 |
| 2 | Braxton Dunaway | 51,100,000 |
| 3 | Muhamet Perati | 50,100,000 |
| 4 | Adam Hendrix | 39,500,000 |
| 5 | Luka Bojovic | 33,900,000 |
| 6 | Richard Freitas | 32,500,000 |
| 7 | Joey Padron | 29,900,000 |
| 8 | Daniel Iachan | 28,100,000 |
| 9 | Ruben Correia | 26,700,000 |
| 10 | Daehyung Lee | 25,600,000 |
| 11 | Stefan Nemetz | 23,200,000 |
| 12 | Tony Gregg | 22,500,000 |
| 13 | Lautaro Guerra | 18,000,000 |
| 14 | Leo Margets | 17,800,000 |
| 15 | Joseph Ozimok | 15,100,000 |
| 16 | Diego Ponce | 14,900,000 |
| 17 | Jarod Minghini | 14,200,000 |
| 18 | Michael Mizrachi | 11,400,000 |
| 19 | Sergio Veloso | 11,200,000 |
| 20 | Chris Dombrowski | 11,000,000 |
| 21 | Sebastian Schulze | 11,000,000 |
| 22 | John Wasnock | 9,500,000 |
| 23 | Tomas Szwarcberg | 5,400,000 |
Check out the remaining payouts on offer in the 2025 WSOP main event:
| Place | Payout |
| 1 | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | $2,400,000 |
| 6 | $1,900,000 |
| 7 | $1,500,000 |
| 8 | $1,250,000 |
| 9 | $1,000,000 |
| 10-11 | $750,000 |
| 12-13 | $560,250 |
| 14-17 | $450,000 |
| 18-24 | $360,000 |
Photo credits: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes, Antonio Abrego.
