Last Updated on September 14, 2026 by Bala Kumar
Every WSOP Main Event story needs an ending, and this year, 888poker gave theirs one of the better ones. The sixth and final episode of the site’s 2026 WSOP Main Event docuseries just dropped, and it closes out the journey of Aaron Barone, the last man standing from 888poker’s five-player squad that started this thing back in Episode 1.
If you’ve been following along, you already know the shape of this story. Five 888poker ambassadors went into the $10,000 buy-in Main Event this summer. One by one, they fell away across the earlier episodes, until only Barone was left carrying the torch heading into the money. This final chapter picks up exactly where Part 5 left off, on the bubble, with Barone sitting on 785,000 chips and a modest goal: survive, ladder up a bit, and maybe sneak into Day 6.
Day 5: The Chip Lead Nobody Saw Coming
When Day 5 kicked off, 533 players were still alive in the Main Event, and Barone’s 785,000-chip stack had him sitting in 300th place, solid, but nothing special in a field that deep. What happened next is the kind of thing poker players dream about and rarely get.
Barone got aggressive early and it paid off. A call on a four-flush board with a seven-high flush turned out correct, a hand he specifically noted was payback for a similar spot that had busted him at the same stage of the 2025 WSOP. Then his ace-queen flopped two pair against an opponent’s pocket jacks in an all-in confrontation, ballooning his stack to 2.6 million chips. By the time the day ended, he’d settled at 1,880,000 chips, good for roughly 24 big blinds heading into Day 6.
For a player who’d gone into the day hoping just to survive, that’s not a small jump. It’s the kind of stack that lets you actually play poker instead of just hanging on.
Day 6: A Full House, a Feature Table, and the End of the Road
Barone’s momentum carried straight into Day 6. Early on, he got his stack in with ace-king against an opponent holding pocket jacks, and the board turned into a full-house shootout, his opponent flopped a full house, but running fives on the turn and river gave Barone the bigger boat and the pot. Combined with a few smaller wins along the way, that hand pushed him up to 3.6 million chips with 114 players left in the field.
That kind of stack gets you noticed, and after the dinner break, Barone was moved to the feature table, seated between two genuine WSOP legends: five-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb and 2019 Main Event champion Hossein Ensan. Neither is the company you want at your table when you’re trying to fly under the radar, especially with both of them covering his stack.
It’s also where his run came to an end. Barone shoved with king-queen and ran into the ace-ten of Frenchman Maxime Chilaud. The ace held, and Barone was eliminated in 65th place for $125,000, a career-best result and, fittingly, one day deeper than his 2025 run. His opponent Chilaud didn’t go a whole lot further either, busting in 27th place for $265,000 not long after.
Why This Story Actually Matters
It would be easy to read this as just another elimination story, dozens of players bust out of the WSOP Main Event every day, after all. But there’s something worth paying attention to here beyond the recap. Barone’s run is a genuinely useful case study in what a deep Main Event run actually looks like from the inside: the swings, the near-misses, the moment where a single flip decides whether you’re playing for a bracelet or heading to the rail.
He also handled the finish about as well as a player can. Rather than dwelling on the beat, Barone was refreshingly honest about the mix of pride and disappointment that comes with a result like this, acknowledging he’d already banked his best-ever WSOP score before the elimination even happened, and that he expected to shake off the sting within a few hours.
And he’s already looking ahead. Barone confirmed he’ll be back for the 2027 WSOP Main Event, with the same simple goal driving the whole series: go one day deeper.
The Bigger Picture for 888poker’s Docuseries
This wraps up a six-part series that did something a lot of poker content tries and fails to do: make a Main Event run feel personal. Rather than just tracking chip counts, the series followed five players from the pre-tournament nerves through elimination, and by narrowing down to Barone’s story alone by the final episode, it gave viewers an actual arc to follow instead of a stat sheet.
For 888poker, it’s smart content, too. A 65th-place finish worth $125,000 isn’t a bracelet, but it’s a genuinely strong result that makes for a satisfying finale, better, arguably, than an ambassador cashing small and fading out quietly.
FAQs
How did Aaron Barone finish in the 2026 WSOP Main Event?
Barone finished in 65th place for $125,000, his career-best WSOP result, after being eliminated on Day 6 with king-queen against Maxime Chilaud’s ace-ten.
How many chips did Barone have going into Day 6?
He bagged 1,880,000 chips at the end of Day 5, roughly 24 big blinds, after climbing from 785,000 chips at the start of the day.
Who eliminated Aaron Barone from the Main Event?
French player Maxime Chilaud, whose ace-ten held against Barone’s king-queen in an all-in confrontation. Chilaud himself later busted in 27th place for $265,000.
What is the 888poker WSOP documentary series?
A six-part docuseries following five 888poker ambassadors through the 2026 WSOP Main Event, from the buy-in to elimination, with the final episode focused on Barone’s run to Day 6.
Will Aaron Barone play the WSOP Main Event again?
Yes, he confirmed plans to return for the 2027 WSOP Main Event, aiming to go even further than his 2026 result.
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