At this time every year, poker fans from all over the world focus their attention on this one table of nine players where history will be made.
In fact, one piece of unique history is waiting in the winds as Leo Margets threatens to become the first ever female winner of this prestigious event.
The Spaniard is the first woman to make the final tables since Barbara Enright in 1995. We expect there to be monumental support for Margets when play resumes today.
John Wasnock Leads the Pack
John Wasnock spends his day-to-day life working in the investment space with a modicum of his spare time focused on poker.
With a decade worth of live tournament results, at what looks to be an average buy-in of around $300, it’s fair to say that he wasn’t one of the picks to be leading this event when it arrived at this late stage.
It’s also probably fair to assume that he’s rather good at working out what’s what if given the time, so expect him to be a fierce competitor in the closing levels in a manner that belies his level of experience.
Last night, with 17 players remaining, Wasnock was plum last in the standings, before he knuckled down and put in a run that got everyone’s attention.
He knocked out Ruben Correia and Joseph Ozimok before ending the night coming out on top against Joey Padron where his pocket eights won a flip against ace-king to set the final table line-up.
“It sounds pretty amazing. Yeah, never would have expected it. I’ve had a pretty good run the last year. I live in Seattle. There’s not a lot of big action, you know, tournaments. So I play tournaments when I come down.
“I’ve been playing some of the smaller events in the World Series the last ten years or so. I played in the Main Event once, ten years ago. That was kind of a bucket list.
“I’ve definitely had a little bit more success, kind of crossing the finish line. I had three wins this year in smaller events and, you know, I feel like it’s given me some good experience playing shorthanded and playing it out. So, you know, I feel pretty confident.”
Michael Mizrachi Looking to Better 5th Place from 2010 Main Event
There have been a few standout players from the WSOP 2025: Nick Schulman winning his seventh bracelet and being voted into the Poker Hall of Fame, Benny Glaser winning three bracelets in one series to make it eight in total, and Michael Mizrachi taking a year off from professional tournament poker only to come back and win the Poker Players Championship.
“I don’t need preparation. It’s like riding a bike. I haven’t played a tournament in a year. I just came back on the scene.
“The last tournament I played was the last World Series event I won. I played a charity event one night, then I came back for this. And then I went crazy over here.”
Can Michael Mizrachi better his fifth place finish from 2010 over the next couple of days? He has to be the favourite at this stage, but of course anything can happen.
He currently sits in second place with 58 big blinds, only 10 behind leader John Wasnock, but it could have been oh so much different.
Only a few hands into the day, Mizrachi doubled up John Wasnock, but followed up by winning several all-in confrontations himself.
The Grinder said:
“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
“Last time, in 2010, I was seven out of nine. Now I’m second out of nine. So I’m in a good spot and I have position on the big stack, so I like my situation right now.”
Kenny Hallaert Still in Contention
Kenny Hallaert has spent much of the last two days at the top of the chip counts so won’t be too disheartened at being bumped down to fourth place.
The PokerStars Team Pro has seen it all before after finishing in sixth place in the 2016 WSOP Main Event, coincidently the same year that Will Kassouf came to notoriety before getting banned a couple of nights ago. Hallaert also dispatched the Brit from this tournament that evening.
“The first time that I played was in 2008. I love this tournament so much that I said to myself, if I can, I’m never going to miss this tournament anymore.
“Since then, I had the privilege of playing it. Now, of course, making the final table in 2016 was a dream that I thought would never come true.
“To now make it for a second time feels surreal in a way. You’re battling with 10,000 roughly other players. One in a 1,000 only will make it. It’s so amazing.”
Can Leo Margets Get One Over on the Boys?
There’s no doubt that a female winner of poker’s flagship event would be immeasurably positive for the game. Even in times such as these when the game is looking particularly healthy, it would be great to have an unexpected influx of hopefuls who want to emulate the best female players.
Leo Margets already has $2,086,276 in live tournament winnings from her record that stretches back to 2008. The $10,000,000 prize for winning the WSOP 2025 Main Event would propel her above Vanessa Selbst as the most successful female tournament player of all time.
Perhaps most importantly for the next 48 hours, she also has the experience of winning a WSOP bracelet after taking down the $1,500 Closer in 2021, defeating none other than Alex Kulev for a $376,850 career-best payday.
Tonight, she will return to the table guaranteed at least $1 million but there will be a massive part of the poker community hoping she can go all the way.
“It’s amazing. I mean, I’m living the dream every poker player wants to live. It’s tempting to, you know, celebrate, so… but since we made it so far, but I’m trying to stay focused.”
WSOP 2025 Main Event Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Leo Margets | Spain | 53,400,000 | 33 |
| 2 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | 80,500,000 | 50 |
| 3 | Braxton Dunaway | United States | 91,900,000 | 57 |
| 4 | John Wasnock | United States | 108,100,000 | 68 |
| 5 | Michael Mizrachi | United States | 93,000,000 | 58 |
| 6 | Daehyung Lee | South Korea | 34,900,000 | 22 |
| 7 | Luka Bojovic | Serbia | 51,000,000 | 32 |
| 8 | Adam Hendrix | United States | 48,000,000 | 30 |
| 9 | Jarod Minghini | United States | 23,600,000 | 15 |
