2025 WSOP: Day 1d Chip Counts of 143 British Survivors

Another 143 players from the UK guaranteed their continuation in the $10,000 Main Event, making it to the end of Day 1d with their tournament lives still intact. This takes the total number of UK Day 1 survivors up to 249, from a total of 6,457 players who made it through to Day 2. The final starting day of the Main Event of the 2025 WSOP has now ended, but fresh players can still buy-in during the first two levels of the Day 2s.

Day 2abc takes place on Sunday, while those who survived Day 1d will resume play in Day 2d, on Monday. Full chip counts of all surviving UK players from Day 1d can be found at the bottom of this article.

Romanello Bags Biggest Brit Stack on Day 1d

The largest stack of the British players who made it through Day 1d was bagged by Welshman Roberto Romanello, fresh from his 8th place finish in the Main Event of the Wynn Summer Classic. His stack of 240,900 was the 28th biggest of the day. He was joined by three other players from the UK who made it over the 200,000 mark: Joe Hindry on 214,000, Timothy Joyner on 203,600 and Yiquian Song on 200,400.

Jason Shellum (176,100), Kevin Allen (159,600) and Mathew Frankland (159,500) all had good days at the tables, ending up with stacks of twice the average or thereabouts. Bixi Yao (158,000), Christopher Brammer (155,000) and Brandon Sheils (152,300) are also well placed going into the second day.

Kassouf Bags Big

Will “9-High-Like-a boss” Kassouf took his seat towards the end of the fourth level of Day 1d, having made a quiet unannounced entrance into town, with no posts yet on his social media accounts. Not so quiet, one imagines, for his opponents at the table, or any of the nearby tables for that matter, as when Will takes his seat, there’s rarely a silent moment.

Despite only playing for under three hours, Kassouf managed to bag a big stack of 160,700. He chipped up in a 3-way pot, in which he described the action as follows

“American punter opens UTG+2 to 1,500 at 300-600 (600). Turkish punter calls. I have 88 in BB and just call. Flop T82ss. I check, OR bets 3,000. Turk calls. I make it 13,900 to go knowing Turk has 28,000 total. Yank calls. Turk shoves. I re-shove for 55,000 and Yank who has us both covered calls for a huge 139K pot! Turk shows KJss. Yank shows AQss. I say to the dealer: Any red cards about?! Turn Ad. River Ah for the rub! Finally brick-brick in my favour ffs! Send it! Weeeeee!  🤑😂🤣🗣️💪💰🍾🎉”

Having secured his berth in Day 2, Will has been checking out who he will face on Monday, when play resumes for Day 2d. He’s on Table 142, Seat 1 and if anyone wants to make a fast buck, stand nearby with ear defenders, you can probably get double the retail price.

Having done his homework, Will had this to say about his Day 2 table:

“I’m on a table full of Yanks! I’m the big bad Brit and I’m here to spank these Yanks in their own back yard whether they like it or not. They’re all going to get it hard on Monday including the 2025 WSOP Seniors bracelet winner! 🤑😂🤣🗣️💪💥💰🍾🎉☝️”

• Read More: Brett Lim Wins Seniors Bracelet

Tower Strides Into Day 2

Phil “The Tower” Heald, the voice of the GUKPT, who had a good start to the day, moving his 60,000 starting stack up to 88,100 during the first two levels of the day, falling back slightly by the dinner break, when he had an above average 79,200. 

It was a tough slog but he made it to the end of the day with 70,600, a little below average but in good shape for his Day 2, on Monday.

Phil sold action on the Grosvenor live stream with 75 shares for £105 each, which covered his entry. Asked how it felt to make Day 2, Phil replied 

“To have the chance to play the main event due to our live stream viewers, I’m absolutely over the moon to make day 2. Not only for them, but for me personally, as it isn’t easy.”

Ton-Ups

The UK player turn-out for Day 1d has been phenomenal, with a much bigger Brit Pack than on the other days combined. Many familiar British poker faces finished the day north of the 100,000 chip mark, with above average stacks. This batch includes Talal Shakerchi (136,100), Matt Davenport (118,000), Sam Acheampong (113,600), Chris Moorman (103,600), James Atkin (103,200), Thomas MacDonald (102,500), 2023 WSOP Final Table player Dean Hutchinson (102,000), Niall Farrell (101,000) and sneaking into six figures, Thomas Middleton, on exactly 100,000.

Mid-Division

As we look further down the table, there are many other Brits with stacks hovering around the average, which is just over 80,000. However, as new players can enter at the start of Day 2, the average will drop below 80,000 once again after play resumes.

Andrew Teng (93,600), Ben Jackson (90,100) and Andrew Wilson (90,000) sit in this group, along with Daniel Samson (84,700), Patrick Leonard (83,500) and Robert Cowen (82,100). 

Fraser McIntyre (76,700), Adam Wilkinson (74,600), Phil ‘The Tower’ Heald (70,600) and Guy Taylor (69,800) are also still in contention with stacks close to the average.

Tiddlers

There are plenty of British players left in who have less than the starting stack of 60,000. Benny Glaser has just 58,900 at this stage. Andrew Hedley is just behind Benny, with 58,100, as is Martin Adeniya on 55,600 and Richie Allen, on 53,100. 

As we move further down the table, we find players such as Jack Allen (39,800), Steven Watts (37,400), Chris Da-Silva (35,000), Rob Sherwood (28,600) and Toby Lewis (28,100). They will all need some help to make it through Day 2, but they are doing better than some others, who are on life support with very small stacks, Charles Clark having the least, on 6,800, equivalent to 8.5 big blinds.

Collateral Damage

Grosvenor Poker ambassador, Ludovic Geilich, played today, but suffered an early exit. Tom Hall was another Day 1d casualty, as were Ben Miller, Daniel Charlton and Jon Shoreman.

Main Event Numbers Tracker

The chances of the 2025 WSOP Main Event being another record breaker are looking slim, but it’s not impossible.  After the first three starting days, the total number of entries stood at 3,693, down 581 (13.6%) year-in-year. Day 1d was indeed the monster that it was expected go be, but with 4,997 entries, it was just slightly smaller than 2024’s field of 5,014.

After the four starting days there have now been a total of 8,694 entries in 2025 Main Event, still 1,418 players short of equaling the 10,112 record that was set in 2024.

Last year 824 players started the tournament on one of the two Day 2s combined, 206 on Day 2abc and a further 618 in Day 2d. It may well be the case that a lot more players than last year have deferred taking their seats until Day 2, but it will require a huge influx of 1,419 new entrants if the record is to fall again. 

2025 WSOP Main Event Day 1d UK Survivors Chip Counts

Player	Chip Count
Roberto Romanello	240,900
Joe Hindry	214,000
Timothy Joyner	206,300
Yiqian Song	200,400
Mike Allen	198,500
Jason Shellum	176,100
Howard Smith	172,600
William Kassouf	160,700
Kevin Allen	159,600
Mathew Frankland	159,500
Bixi Yao	158,000
Christopher Brammer	155,000
Brandon Sheils	152,300
Alex Whitenstall	146,300
Ben Warrington	145,500
Alex Lindop	143,700
Scott Berko	143,000
Scott Margereson	139,600
Daniel Rudd	137,500
Talal Shakerchi	136,100
Charles Russell	135,800
Min Ji	135,000
Alexander Smith	132,000
Igor Dursel	132,000
Gareth Devereux	131,400
Srikant Vedutla	128,000
Bradley King	127,800
Tan Le	122,300
Alan Carr	121,400
Albert Sapiano	120,700
Niall Duffy	119,400
Matt Davenport	118,000
Rehman Kassam	115,900
Alistair Hill	115,300
Samuel Welbourne	115,100
Andreas Olympios	114,400
Sam Acheampong	113,600
Felix Mcpeake	112,900
Steffen Kylevik	112,400
Paul Sokoloff	109,000
Samuel Darkin	107,500
Andrew Hawksby	106,200
Thomas Ward	106,100
Marc Foggin	104,500
Chris Moorman	103,600
James Atkin	103,200
Thomas Macdonald	102,500
Dean Hutchison	102,000
Oliver Bithell	102,000
Niall Farrell	101,000
Thomas Middleton	100,000
Cassandra Yong	99,600
Dean Lyall	98,500
Carl Shaw	97,900
Evan Hu	96,200
Jamie Dale	95,900
Jamie Kingston	94,800
Matthew Haynes	93,700
Andrew Teng	93,600
Xizhe Yuan	93,000
Archibald Seaton	92,000
Benjamin Jackson	90,100
Andrew Wilson	90,000
Paul Tait	89,400
Phillip Mighall	88,200
David Ledden	87,900
Yousif Mirjan	86,200
Ryan Plant	86,000
Steven Smart	86,000
Robert Bull	85,700
Yin Shen	85,300
Daniel Samson	84,700
Patrick Leonard	83,500
Robert Cowen	82,100
Waheed Ashraf	79,900
Andrew Fleming	78,900
Fraser Macintyre	76,700
Christopher Kyriacou	75,000
Adam Wilkinson	74,600
Francis Obadun	70,600
Philip Heald	70,600
Pratik Ghatge	70,300
Dale Hancock	70,300
Danny Grogan	69,900
Guy Taylor	69,800
John Duggan	69,700
Raymond Caabay	69,600
Christopher Wood	69,500
Sam Ameen	68,800
James Rann	66,800
Nicholas Ramsey	64,500
Mitchell Hynam	62,300
Luke Porter	62,300
Jason Cajigas	62,000
Samuel Goodman	61,700
Christopher Whitaker	61,100
Martin Malone	60,800
Robert Mcadam	60,700
Simon Burns	60,400
Benny Glaser	58,900
Sebastien Jung	58,400
Andrew Hedley	58,100
Grant Gardner	57,700
Stuart Taylor	57,200
Bobby James	57,100
Alex Todd	57,000
Martins Adeniya	55,600
Rupom Pal	54,700
Tom Eady	54,100
Richie Allen	53,100
Giorgos Onisiforou	48,900
Jamie Dwan	48,500
Chun Yam	48,200
Ali Ayub	47,100
James Osullivan	46,400
Tom Siddle	45,600
Hamid Toghyan	41,900
Robert Mclean	41,800
Jack Allen	39,800
Jun Li	37,500
Steven Watts	37,400
Matthew Barnett	37,000
Chris Da-Silva	35,000
James Bagley	32,800
Philip Clarke	31,700
Robert Sherwood	28,600
Toby Lewis	28,100
William Stephenson	25,900
Jareth East	25,500
Philippe Souki	24,300
John Kelly	24,300
James Khoury	24,100
Tom Simpson	23,600
Zhicheng Miao	23,400
Brandon Harris	22,600
Jonathan Mccann	21,400
Ben Collins	20,600
Renee Xie	18,000
Jacob Stone	17,200
Charles Whitehouse	17,200
Niall Costigan	10,390
Jonathan Proudfoot	9,200
Charles Clark	6,800

Event #84 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Seven players from the UK made it into the money in this post Day1c $1k saver event. Many of the players taking part where those who had just busted the Main Event, including Grosvenor Poker ambassador Katie Swift, whose 262nd place secured her a $2,006 payday. 

Harry Lodge went the furthest in this but ultimately fell short of challenging for his second WSOP bracelet, departing in 21st place for $8,523.

Position	Player	Prize
21	Harry Lodge	$8,523
43	Bosco Li	$5,875
113	Calogero Morreale	$2,405
213	Terence Etim	$2,006
235	Matthew Bonham	$2,006
262	Katie Swift	$2,006
271	Jiang Pu	$2,006

Photos courtesy of PokerNews , WSOP, Phil Heald and William Kassouf