Leo Margets, Micaheal Mizrachi Headline WSOP Main Event Final Table
Margets is the first woman to reach the Main Event Final table in 30 years.
Day 8 of the 2025 $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event returned two dozen players Sunday afternoon with marching orders to play down the final table. The exhausted players put in another 12 hours in the seat before they combined to make a historic final table.
John Wasnock leads the field as the only player with a nine-figure chip stack. He has Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Braxton Dunaway on his heels, both with over 90 million, then the uber-experienced Kenny Hallaert holds a sizable gap over the next grouping of players.
Leo Margets, Luka Bojovic and Adam Hendrix are bunched between 53.4 million and 48 million. Then Daehyung Lee and Jarod Minghini trail as the short stacks.
Margets is the first woman in 30 years to make the Main Event Final Table, in addition to being a two-time last woman standing. Barbara Enright accomplished the feat in 1995 and finished in 5th place for $114,180.
This marks the second time in the modern era that two players with previous Main Event Final Table appearances returned to the Final Table (Mizrachi & Hallaert). In 2017, Ben Lamb and Antoine Saout returned to the show; Lamb had his first in 2011 and Saout in 2009.
In the madness after final table photos, Hendrix said, “I’m ok now, I felt sorry for my friend (Joey Padron) who was also from Alaska. I had to compose myself after the emotions hit.”
“I’m going to sleep in, get a massage and eat something nice tomorrow,” said Hendrix. “Then study and get to bed early. I have plenty of final table experience, and can adapt pretty well.”
Hallaert showed no signs of fatigue when Sunday wrapped up. “I made the Final Table in 2016 and it was a dream,” he said. “It feels surreal to battle through 10,000 players and make it. It’s an amazing event.”
“I got to play with (Greg) Merson and Tony Gregg – legends from the online streets back in the day,” Hallaert said. “On Day 3 and 4, I got to play with my heroes Mike Matusow and Feddie Deeb. I mean, 20 years ago I was drooling watching those guys play High Stakes Poker.”
“Everything that comes after this is a bonus,” said Hallaert. “I had three months to prepare last time and now it’s only 36 hours, but it’s the same for everybody.”
The Playdown
Mizrachi lost most of his stack early in play when he open-shoved As Jd, Wasnock called with Ad Qd and held. But Mizrachi managed to double back twice in short order; both times catching a flour-flush.
As expected, the elimination rate today was slow, with long spells without losing a player. On top of the measured play, it seemed the shorter stacks doubled up more often than not as the table progressed down to two tables.
Richard Freitas (24th) was the first player eliminated, followed by Sebastian Schulze (23rd) and Chris Dombroski (20th) and Daniel Iachan’s roller coaster day saw him bust in 17th place. Iachan ran kings into Daehyung Lee’s pocket aces.
The tension was high all day and players that had rails got louder and more participatory when 15 players remained. A full-service bar was brought into the convention center for the first time this Series, which helped grease the wheels for crowd chants.
Leo Margets hit a huge double up holding pocket jacks against Sergio Veloso’s Ad Kh. An ace hit the flop and Margets has her back turned to the table. She caught a four-flush and eliminated Veloso.
Right at the stroke of 11:00 pm, Maksim Pisarenko was eliminated in 13th place. An hour would pass before we lost the youngest remaining player (22 years old), Joseph Ozimok. He got his stack in holding ace ten Wasnock called with ace queen, Wasnock paired his queen and the Main Event had a table of five and six players.
The Final Table
Anthony Gregg got his last 12 big blinds in preflop holding Ad 4d and Mizrachi called holding As Js. The board ran three with spades, Gregg was eliminated and the players combined to a ten-handed final table at 12:15 am.
Dunaway headed to the redraw as the chip leader with 94 million (54 bb) and Padron was on the shortest stack with 21 million (12 bb). The final hand came at 1:30 am when Jon Wasnock opened, Luka Bojovic called and Joey Padron moved all in. Wasncok and Bojovic checked down the action.
Wasnock tabled pocket eights, Padron had Ac 6d that never connected and Bojovic’s Big Slick caught air. Wasnock earned the knockout, the chip lead and sent everyone home for the evening.
Coming Up
Each returning player has $1 million locked up when they return to play. Some may try to ladder up, but all eyes are on the $10 million first-place prize awarded Wednesday evening.
The finalists have a well-deserved day off on Monday. The final table resumes play on Tuesday at 1:30 pm PT and is scheduled to play down to four remaining players. Tuesday resumes at 1:30 pm and they’ll play until the winner is crowned.
WSOP Main Event Final Table Chip Counts
1. John Wasnock – 108,100,000
2. Michael Mizrachi – 93,000,000
3. Braxton Dunaway – 91,900,000
4. Kenny Hallaert – 80,500,000
5. Leo Margets – 53,400,000
6. Luka Bojovic – 51,000,000
7. Adam Hendrix – 48,000,000
8. Daehyung Lee – 34,900,000
9. Jared Minghini – 23,600,000
Photos courtesy of PokerOrg.