Kenny Hallaert Leads Field of 57 After Day 6 of WSOP 2025 Main Event

Almost a decade after Hallaert worked his way through the field to become a part of the 2016 November Nine, he is now tantalisingly close to pulling off the same feat again.

Of course there will be no November Nine this year, because who wants to wait months to see a tournament end? But there could well be a final table set up by the end of today’s Day 7 play.

Onto day 7! And I have the chiplead. Still need to outlast 56 players. Things are start to get real. pic.twitter.com/Ga8NO666pq

— Kenny Hallaert (@SpaceyFCB) July 12, 2025

WPT Triple Winner Eric Afriat Puts in Magical Display on Day 6

Eric Afriat, an experienced Canadian player with almost two decades of live results and three World Poker Tour titles to his name, is right behind Kenny Hallaert.

The Belgian has a monster stack of 246 big blinds but Afriat’s 208 put him right there.

Behind the two leaders is Michael Mizrachi, wielding a 133 big blind stack, coming in at almost half of the leader’s. That said, you still wouldn’t want the winner of the Poker Players Championship hounding you down in a poker tournament like this.

For most of the day it was Afriat out in front, helped enormously by winning a 20 million chip pot from a three-way all-in confrontation.

On Level 28: Blinds 60,000/120,000, 120,000 ante, the Canadian opened to 250,000 from under the gun and got a call from Bruno Furth who was also in early position.

Benjamin Williams then jammed for 1,400,000 from middle position and both Afriat and Furth called.

The flop ran out Q♦ 3♦ 2♥ and Afriat led out for 1,000,000. Furth called.

The turn was the 9♥ and Afriat bet again; this time for 3,000,000. Furth pondered a short while before declaring himself all-in for his remaining 8,140,000 chips.

Afriat took his time before making his decision but it wasn’t long before he announced call, flipping over J♦ 10♦ for a flush and straight combo draw.

Williams turned over A♣ A♥ and Furth looked particularly happy with Q♣ Q♥ for the current nuts and top set.

The river was dealt quickly and came down as the K♠ to allow Eric Afriat to scoop a huge pot that saw him leading the way for most of Day 6.

At the end of play, Afriat found time to give a few words about what happened during the dya.

“One of the best days of my poker career! Today was just magical. Everything was nice and smooth, the table changes, the cards. I sat down and did my thing.

“100%. People might say I’m crazy, but I’d swap it all just to make the final table here. My first WPT title in 2014, that was magical. Maybe, this is the second magic that’s going to happen.”

It might not be all plain sailing when the action resumes, though, because Eric Afriat has recent form for losing his cool when things don’t go his way.

Check out the video below of Barny Boatman pulling off a great hero call 11 minutes from the end of a long day. Afriat complements the Hendon Mob member, possibly half sarcastically, but then fires out all of his remaining time bank chips  preflop on the very next hand in a sulk.

Ike Haxton Makes the Top 100

Day 6 of the WSOP 2025 Main Event saw the end of Ike Haxton’s run to leave him heading to the rail in 99th place with a prize of $70,000.

Not life-changing money for the American star but he will certainly be happy to have gone deep in the one that everyone wants to win.

Haxton’s exit from the event did get noticed as he attempted to tank his way into a pay jump of $15,000 if he could hang on and ladder up to 98th place.

Johan Schumacher had opened to 200,000 and Haxton three-bet in the cutoff, leaving a single chip of 1/20 of a big blind behind. Jose Bogarin called from the big blind and Schumacher  came back over the top.

At this point, Haxton then shut down, telling his tablemates several times, “feel free to call the clock on me when you think it’s been enough time.”

Now, somewhat strangely, Bogarin folded out of turn, unaware that Haxton had kept the one chip behind. He had been in the tank too!

Then a neighbouring table saw the stalling going on, and so they started with the tanking as well.

As if this wasn’t weird enough, a player from that table then asked if a clock had been called, and if somebody from a different table was allowed to call a clock. This sounds a bit cheeky to most of us but, in fact, this is actually the reality.

The rules read as follows:

“Calling for a Clock – Players should act in a timely manner to maintain a reasonable pace of the game. If in TD’s judgement reasonable time has passed, they may call the clock or approve a clock request by any player in the event.”

As it was, Yuchen Chen from Haxton’s table called the clock before anybody else could do so and Schumacher’s A♦ K♥ was off to the races against Haxton’s 3♣ 3♦.

The board ran out 9♥ A♠ Q♥ 5♥ K♠ and Haxton was out, missing out on the pay jump.

And it was only now that Bogarin realised he had acted out of turn, showing a look of absolute shock on his face.

WSOP 2025 Main Event End of Day 6 Top Ten Chip Counts