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One year you're the chip leader on Day 1b of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, the next you're barely making it past "shuffle up and deal."

That's George Dolofan's story after going from first to first out the door. The Floridian was a quick elimination from the 2025 edition of poker's World Championship event, 12 months after bagging the biggest stack in the same flight.

Tough One for 2024 Chip Leader

Event #81: $10,000 Main Event kicked off at noon on Thursday. More than 800 players had registered for the flight in the freezeout no-limit hold'em tournament at the time of publishing. For the second straight day, no one busted within the first half hour. But Dolofan, who finished 1,084th out of 10,112 players in 2024, lost two big pots to the same player and was out 45 minutes into the session.

Dolofan, whose hand wasn't exposed, first ran into the top two pair held by bracelet winner James Gorham. He'd lose the rest of his chips in a cooler to Gorham minutes later with pocket eights to QxJxon a 10x9x5x8x4xboard. Just like that, the 2024 Day 1b chip leader was the 2025 Day 1b first elimination.

Dolofan earned his second Main Event cash last summer, and his first since a 608th-place finish in 2007. He has just over $400,000 in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob.

PokerNewsis the place for live coverage of the 2025 WSOP Main Event from Day 1a to a champion being crowned on July 16.

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