The 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event – the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship – is now underway. The halls of the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas are throbbing with people running around, trying either to set up their seat in poker’s most prestigious event or lamenting their departure from it. Day 1A is now in the books as Victor Vo takes an early, yet insignificant, lead due to the fortnight of poker that awaits.
Pomp and Ceremonies Lead Opening Action
For the first four Day Ones of the 2025 WSOP Main Event, there are usually pomp and ceremonies that greet the players, and Day 1A was no exception. Giving the call for “shuffle up and deal” was none other than one of the legends of the game, Billy Baxter. Baxter, a Poker Hall of Famer and seven-time WSOP bracelet winner, took the mike from Caesars exec Jack Effel, who noted that Baxter was at the WSOP fifty years ago for his first event.
Baxter was brief in his comments. “I know one thing – these guys aren’t waiting around on me to give a speech, and I think they’ve heard enough of him (nodding to Effel),” Baxter dryly commented. “So I will save us some trouble…let’s shuffle up and deal!”
With 60,000 in chips and two-hour levels, the play was actually quite jovial on the PokerGO livestream, as players settled in at their tables with people they would either presumably spend several hours with or eliminate in several seconds. Throughout the day (thanks, late registration), players would come to the tables, and it built a decent Day 1A field. By the time the end of the day had come (late registration goes on until Day 2B on Monday, July 8), 923 players – and that is actual players in this freezeout event – had stepped into the breech for battle.
Unfortunately, only 634 of those runners would be around for the final call early Thursday morning.
Moneymaker, Jaka Depart Early in the Day
As always, there are the stories of the “first knockout of the day” that must be followed, and Wednesday was no different with Day 1A of the 2025 WSOP Main Event. With the blinds only at 100/200 with a 200 ante, Jamar Adams raised to 600 and saw Lauren Hazelgreen (cutoff) and Kevin Gerhart (button) come along with him. In the big blind, Pedro Garagnani put the table to the test with a raise to 3200, but nobody backed down in making the call.
A 10-J-4 flop looked innocent enough, but Hazelgreen powered out a 6000-chip bet for consideration. Garagnani check-raised Hazelgreen’s action to 23K, and Gerhart and Adams decided that discretion was the correct action and folded. Hazelgreen then moved all-in and was met with a snap-call from Garagnani and, once the cards were up, it was obvious why:
Garagnani (big blind): pocket tens (flopped set)
Hazelgreen (cutoff): A♠ J♠ (flopped top pair, top kicker)
Things couldn’t have been worse for Hazelgreen…that is, until the six on the turn left her drawing dead in the hand. A cruel Ace would come on the river to give Hazelgreen a worthless two pair and garner the first knockout of the 2025 WSOP Main Event to Pedro Garagnani.
For a couple of the more notable professionals in the field, it was a quick day at the tables as they burned through their $10,000 buy-in rapidly.
In only the second level of action, 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker found himself looking at a board of J-J-6-10-Q and facing an all-in bet from David Brown. Moneymaker was on point with his observations, even saying at one point, “Do you have pocket Queens?” Moneymaker would eventually make the call, saying, “If you got Queens, you got Queens,” and it was exactly what Brown had. Rivering the CASE Queen for a full house, Queens over Jacks, Brown would usher Moneymaker to the exits as the former World Champion and Poker Hall of Famer’s Q-J – full house, Jacks over Queens – was crushed.
Faraz Jaka didn’t find the going much better, and he might be thinking today that it was his own doing. In the big blind, Jaka saw Benjamin Gold raise the action, and Jaka popped the betting up to 5500. Gold called to see a Q-3-2-K flop and turn and called two bets, one for 3500 and one for 14K, from Jaka. A river deuce made things even more interesting.
Jaka plopped a large stack of chips in the center of the baize, and Gold did not hesitate in piling up the 25,000 chips he had to raise the betting. After the dealer counted it out, it was enough to put Jaka all in and, after a bit of thought, he would make the call. Gold had it from the start; his pocket Queen had flopped a set, and the river deuce gave him a full house, while Jaka could only muster trip deuces with his SEVEN-DEUCE off-suit as he sheepishly left the tournament floor.
Vo Atop the Standings
Looking at the standings at this point is an exercise in futility, as you cannot win the tournament on Day 1…you can sure as hell lose the tournament, though. Gold would ride that knockout of Jaka to make it into the Top Ten by the end of the night, but it was Victor Vo who rumbled up the leaderboard to the top. He holds a slight lead over Justin Yaker to take the honors of Day 1A Chip Leader – for what that is worth:
1. Victor Vo (USA), 352,000
2. Justin Yaker (USA), 348,000
3. Miguel Coussement (Belgium), 320,200
4. Marc Spitaleri (USA), 309,500
5. Jeremy Dan (USA), 282,000
6. Stanislav Zegal (Germany), 256,400
7. Benjamin Gold (USA), 249,300
8. Wenzhi Fei (China), 246,300
9. Chad Power (USA), 243,900
10. Yamamoto Toshiyuki (Japan), 243,200
Wipe those numbers from your brain immediately, as they mean nothing towards Thursday’s play. Day 1B will be open for business at noon (Pacific Time), and a whole new cast of characters will step forward for their moment in the sun. There is a long time left to go in the 2025 WSOP Main Event, and dwelling on chip stacks at this moment is not a way to forge your way into the late tournament action.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO.com)
The WSOP page no longer does the hand for hand updates. So the coverage of those hands was pretty special. ; Garagnani hand was excellent ; Moneymaker had a good showing.; Jaka in a hand with 72…?