At the end of play, it was Poker Players championship winner Michael Mizrachi who led the field with a hefty stack of 371 big blinds, closely followed by fellow American Dakota Baggett and Dutchman Raoul Kanme who had 338 each.
This is quite some contrast with Victor Vo leading the Day 1a crowd with a monster stack of 587 big blinds and five players post the 500 mark.
4-time Poker Players Championship winner Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi (@TheGrinder44) is currently 2nd in chips in Flight 1B of the Main Event Championship! Watch the Day 1 flights on https://t.co/pGPDDvqFQG! #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/Y6sFITsaEC
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 4, 2025
The Day of Champions?
No less than five past Main Event champions signed up to begin their challenge on Day 1b. Max Neugebauer was the 2023 WSOP Europe Main Event winner and ended his day with 193,300 chips.
Qui Nguyen (94,500), and Greg Merson (47,300) were still in the mix at bagging up time while Johnny Chan was bereft of chips in his quest for a second Main Event title.
The other Main Event champion in action last night was Phil Hellmuth, making his annual Main Event entrance in front of the cameras. Now, this has long been a tradition but even his most ardent fans might be struggling to support what we witnessed yesterday.
After threatening to boycott the tournament due to the long hours of play every day, Hellmuth asked his followers on X to vote on if he should change his decision and enter.
Well, many of those who voted for him to play might be regretting it after he turned up five hours late dressed as a rock band with his son and Dan “Jungleman” Cates, singing AC/DC hit Highway to Hell.
Some of the Poker Brat’s Main Event entrances have been big hits with the fans but many today are calling this one cringeworthy. We also had poker fans on X saying “embarrassing as usual, and “incredibly stupid and narcissistic.”
The Hellmuth entrance finds a way to be worse every year. Holy shit that was awkward and awful
— David Baker (@audavidb) July 3, 2025
Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Michael Mizrachi | United States | 297,000 | 371 |
| 2 | Dakota Baggett | United States | 270,400 | 338 |
| 3 | Raoul Kanme | Netherlands | 270,000 | 338 |
| 4 | Juliet Hegedus | United States | 267,000 | 334 |
| 5 | Joseph Ozimok | United States | 265,000 | 331 |
| 6 | Eric Thompkins | United States | 264,000 | 330 |
| 7 | Adrien Guyader | France | 259,700 | 325 |
| 8 | Michael Hager | United States | 254,800 | 319 |
| 9 | Kestutis Jungevicius | Lithuania | 248,600 | 311 |
| 10 | Brian Tolley | United States | 247,400 | 309 |
