Alexander Yen Leads as Final Five Set to Return; Martin Kabrhel Still in Contention
The eliminations were swift as the 859 remaining entrants played down to five in Event #75 $1,000 Mini Main at the 2025 World Series of Poker held at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The remaining five players are still in the hunt for the $843,140 first-place prize, with each contestant guaranteed a cash prize of at least $246,900 as they enter the final day of play.
Alexander Yen finished at the top of the chip standings with a stack of 189,500,000. Yen had a red-hot finish to the evening, but earlier hit a setback when John Ishak doubled through him during the final two hours of play, leaving him with just shy of 60 million in chips. This would not define the final stages of Day 2 for the future chip leader, as Yen passed the nine-figure mark when he knocked out Peter Placey in 12th place to vault up the leaderboard. Yen is one of four players still left in the field who are looking to snag their first WSOP gold bracelet in the $1,000 Mini Main.
Vadzim Lipauka finished the evening third in chips as he enters Day 3 with a shot at a title. The Belarusian has a total of $2,566,868 in live earnings, with the biggest cash of his career coming in the 2024 WSOP, where he finished in eighth place for $1,000,000. Like Yen, Lipauka is also searching for his first WSOP score and has the opportunity to cross the three-million mark in live earnings if he can score a top-two finish.
Seat Draw Final Day
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bartlomiej Swieboda | Poland | 50,500,000 | 10 |
| 2 | Martin Kabrhel | Czechia | 166,500,000 | 33 |
| 3 | Alexander Yen | United States | 189,500,000 | 38 |
| 4 | John Ishak | Hungary | 85,000,000 | 17 |
| 5 | Vadzim Lipauka | Belarus | 156,000,000 | 31 |
Three-time bracelet winner Martin Kabrhel is still in the hunt for his fourth bracelet, finishing second in chips with 166,500,000. Kabrhel chatted and chipped up as the day went on, as he consistently appeared in the top chip counts throughout Day 2 after he got off to a strong start by clashing with Nils Mallon early in the day to cross the twenty-million mark and never looked back.
Final Table Results / Remaining Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $843,140 | ||
| 2 | $566,170 | ||
| 3 | $426,550 | ||
| 4 | $323,460 | ||
| 5 | $246,900 | ||
| 6 | Lucas Lew | Poland | $189,710 |
| 7 | Allan Tirel | France | $146,740 |
| 8 | Katie Lindsay | United States | $114,260 |
| 9 | Christopher Davis | United States | $89,577 |
Several notable bracelet winners were able to make it to Day 2 but had their journey cut short, failing to reach Day 3. Popular YouTuber and streamer Ethan “Rampage” Yau entered the day with a healthy stack, but his run ended over the halfway point of the day when he finished in 339th place for a small cash of $4,730. Former Main Event champion and four-time bracelet winner Joe Cada fell in 301st place for $5,390. Canadian pro Shawn Buchanan had a deep run, making it as far as the top 100, but was eliminated in 86th place for $9,730.
Play will resume with the blinds at 2,500,000/5,000,000. The final five players are scheduled to begin play at 1 p.m. local time. Stay tuned here at PokerNews for updates on the final day of action.