Ron Fetsch Bags the Top Stack of Day 2 in $1,000 Senior's No-Limit Hold’em Championship
After ten 60-minute levels of poker action, the 1,445 players that returned to Day 2 have been whittled down to 202 players, all of whom will be returning Thursday here at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas for Day 3. Recorded as the biggest seniors event of the year, the tournament attracted a total field of 7,575 entries, amassing an eye-popping $6,666,000 total prize pool.
Topping the list is Ron Fetsch, who bagged 2,930,000 chips. Fetch passed the two million mark in the penultimate level when he eliminated Manelic Minaya with ace-king and continued building his stack from there. Following him closely is Mansour Alipourfard with 2,125,000 and completing the top three positions is David Hong with 2,090,000 chips.
All returning players are guaranteed to earn $4,738, but the target is to win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Bracelet and the top prize of $653,839.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ron Fetsch | United States | 2,930,000 | 117 |
| 2 | Mansour Alipourfard | United States | 2,125,000 | 85 |
| 3 | David Hong | United States | 2,090,000 | 84 |
| 4 | Korte Yeo | United States | 2,080,000 | 83 |
| 5 | Yucel Eminoglu | Turkey | 2,070,000 | 83 |
| 6 | Timothy Frasure | United States | 2,035,000 | 81 |
| 7 | Jonathan Tare | United States | 1,940,000 | 78 |
| 8 | Aviel Rubin | United States | 1,915,000 | 77 |
| 9 | Kelvin Crawford | United States | 1,800,000 | 72 |
| 10 | Brian Baron | United States | 1,775,000 | 71 |
Notables that made it into Day 3 are Mike Leah (890,000), Andrew Kelsall (665,000), Barbara Enright (290,000).
Some prominent players fell short in making in to the next day: Billy Baxter (309th), Huck Seed (736th), Xixiang Luo (844th), John Juanda (867th), Mark Seif (1205th) and David Bach (1207th), to name a few.
Of the players that returned for Day 2, 1,137 were in the money and players were expecting to play hand-for-hand immediately after their dinner break. However, two players busted just before, putting everyone in the money with a guaranteed min-cash of $2,000 when they returned.
Upon their return from dinner, the yearly tradition of finding the oldest player ensued. With players sitting down after their ages were called off, the last man standing was Vince Burgio who was holding strong to compete against “youngsters” at a golden age of 90 years young.
Burgio has over $2,000,000 in reported tournament winnings and is the proud owner of a WSOP bracelet for winning the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Event in 1994.
Play will resume in Horseshoe Red at 11 a.m. Cards will be in the air starting at Level 22, with 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 ante. Players will be playing through ten 60-minute levels with 15-minute breaks every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break yet to be announced.
Remain tuned in to PokerNews as we continue live coverage of the $1,000 SENIORS No-Limit Hold'em Championship and all the bracelet events at the 2025 WSOP!