WSOP Day 25 Recap: Pastore Overcomes Song for Debut Bracelet, Alex Foxen Bags Lead in $250,000 Super High Roller

A dramatic day of action on the 25^th day of the 2022 World Series of Poker saw Jonathan Pastore win his first bracelet at the expense of the overnight chip leader Stephen Song, while there was drama in the $250,000 Super High Roller as Daniel Negreanu busted in stunning circumstances. Let’s catch up on all the action from Bally’s and Paris in Las Vegas.

Pastore Stuns Song in Six-Max for $771k

A thrilling final day of action in the $5,000-entry Event #46 saw French player Jonathan Pastore win his first bracelet at the expense of the overnight massive chip leader and former bracelet winner Stephen Song. Play started with an almost immediate elimination, as Pastore took out Greek player Paraskevas Tsokaridis in fifth place $167,882 when Pastore’s pocket eights were too good for pocket fives.

Pastore won a few more pots to take the but Song was not about to lie down, and he re-established his lead when he took out Elio Fox in fourth place for $234,036. Fox had shoved from the small blind with king-three, but Song’s king-five call from the big blind made a full house on the turn after two fives on the flop and a king on the turn.

Tamer Alkamli was short-stacked in third place, shoving with ace-five but beaten by Pastore’s call with queen-seven when a seven landed on the turn, sending the Canadian home with $331,503. That saw Pastore start heads-up with a slim lead of 26 million chips to Song’s 20 million.

It was an outrageous bluff that ended the event in thrilling fashion, with Song trying an audacious move with just five-high on a board showing K-Q-T-6-4. Song’s shove on the river put Pastore to the test with just queen-jack, but he made the call and his rail erupted in celebration. It was a great bluff, but an even better call and Pastore had the gold and $771,765 top prize, Song content enough with $476,990 for finishing as runner-up.

Panagiotou Wins Eight-Game Mix Gold

The final table of the 8-Game Mix Event #48 saw Cypriot player Menikos Panagiotou win the top prize of $180,783 as he outlasted a final table containing players of the calibre of Joon Park and Nick Yunis. Overnight chip leader Jason Stockfish went into play with the most chips, but he could only finish in fifth place of the 16 players who returned to play, cashing for $37,188.

The biggest players by way of reputation coming into play were probably the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Robert Campbell, who busted in 9^th place for $14,831 and Adam Friedman. The latter busted one place sooner in 10^th for $11,387, missing out on his second WSOP bracelet of the series.

Alex Foxen Leads Final Eight in Super High Roller

After a tumultuous day at the felt, Alex Foxen leads the $250,000-entry Super High Roller Event #50, with just one day to go until a champion is crowned and the $4.5 million top prize is handed to the winner. After drama with the bad beat exit of Daniel Negreanu, his conqueror David Peters also missed the money along with bubble boy Nick Petrangelo.

With nine players left, Henrick Hecklen became the first player to cash when Martin Kabrhel took him out for $414,815. That meant the final eight was set and with Phil Ivey, Adrian Mateos and current WSOP Player of the Year leader Dan Zack all still involved, it promises to be an amazing day’s entertainment on the PokerGO stream.

Sarnoff is Top Dog at Seniors Event Bursts Bubble

Ben Sarnoff has the biggest stack in Event #47, the $1,000-entry Seniors Championship, with just 198 players remaining from the Day 2 starting field of 1,439. Overall, of course, there was a record-breaking total of 7,188 entrants, meaning one of the remaining 198 players will win the top prize of $694,909.

American Sarnoff’s stack of 3,155,000 is by far and away the biggest left, with Ukrainian player Valerie Lubenets second in chips on 2,810,000. Behind third-placed Australian Jan Pettersson (2,600,000), no player has more than 2 million chips, with some of the biggest names to survive including 2012 Seniors Championship winner Allyn Shulman (1,130,000), Ken Aldridge (965,000), Neil Blumenfield (650,000), Carol Fuchs (640,000), Kathy Liebert (635,000) and Jeff Lisandro (580,000) all among the players to make Day 2.

Day 2 of Event #49 Sees 38 Remain

Just 38 players remain in the $2,000-entry NLHE Event #49, with Lucas Tabarin of Brazil holding the chip lead with 4,240,000 chips. He is followed fairly closely by Jack Corrigan (3,910,000) and Ioannis Angelou Konstas (3,751,000) in the chipcounts, but there is a large gap to the next players, with former bracelet winners Heidi May (2,500,000) and Tyler Cornell (1,830,000) in the top ten too.

With other stars of the felt such as Kyle Montgomery (2,175,000), Mike Watson (1,505,000), Faraz Jaka (770,000) and Rosalie Petit (505,000) making the Day 3 cut with a variety of sizes to their chipstacks, it is sure to be a battle to behold for the bracelet.

Day 1a of the Colossus Welcomes Thousands

The first day’s play in the Colossus, otherwise known as Event #51 on the schedule, saw an incredible 5,869 entries with just 684 players surviving to Day 2, with Kao Caechao making the cut as chip leader with 1,514,000 chips. Behind him, Mary Dvorkin (1,388,000) and Samuel Laskowitz (1,297,000) have plenty of chips, with players such as Justin Pechie (603,000) and Mike Takayama (596,000) both piling up big stacks.

Kornuth and Williams Flying High in Nine-Game

There were 456 players in the field on Day 1 of the $2,500-entry nine-game mix sic-handed event, with Schuyler Thornton (220,400) top of the pops on the opening day of action. Elsewhere in the top 10, there are big stacks for David Williams (206,500) and Chance Kornuth (176,400) as other former bracelet winners like Tuan Le (165,000), Mike Gorodinsky (158,400) and last year’s winner Nicholas Julia (151,200) are all still in the mix.

Busting on the first day were players such as Robert Mizrachi, Dan Smith, Brandon Shack-Harris and Scott Clements among others.

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