WSOP Main Event 2026 Final Table: Live Updates & Chip Counts (Aug 3-5)

Last Updated on August 7, 2026 by Bala Kumar

After eight grueling days of play and a field of 9,208 entries, the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table came down to nine players chasing poker’s biggest prize: a $10,000,000 first-place payout and the iconic Main Event gold bracelet.

Following a three-week broadcast delay, the final table returned live to Horseshoe Las Vegas from August 3-5, 2026. The first two sessions aired on ESPN2, while the final day aired on ESPN. 22-year-old Lucas Jumalon ultimately took down the title, defeating Lauri Saaskilahti heads-up to become one of the youngest champions in Main Event history.

This page recaps the full three days of action โ€” chip counts, eliminations, and the key hands that decided the championship.

WSOP Main Event 2026 Chip Counts (Heading Into Day 1 of the Final Table)

SeatPlayerCountryChip Count
1Lucas JumalonUnited States194,000,000
2Rami HammoudCanada79,000,000
3Jamie ShaevelUnited States56,000,000
4Greg MuellerCanada48,500,000
5Michael GaglianoUnited States46,500,000
6Mario BoosFrance44,000,000
7Lauri SaaskilahtiFinland37,500,000
8Han FengUnited States25,000,000
9Evagoras EvagorouCyprus22,500,000

Note: Malcolm Trayner, the overnight Day 8 chip leader, does not appear at the final table โ€” he was eliminated in 10th place ($750,000) on the bubble, busting at the hands of Lucas Jumalon in the final hand before the table was set.

Chip leader: Lucas Jumalon. The 22-year-old business and data analytics graduate entered the final table with more than a third of all chips in play, over 115,000,000 clear of the field.

Play resumed with 56 minutes and 40 seconds remaining in Level 39, blinds of 1,000,000/1,500,000 with a 1,500,000 big blind ante.

Day 1 (August 3) โ€” Full Recap

What Was at Stake

Jumalon’s lead was historic but not a guarantee. Recent Main Event history offered a useful reality check: of the previous five players to enter the final table as chip leader, only two โ€” Espen Jorstad (2022) and Koray Aldemir (2021) โ€” actually converted the lead into the title.

The short stack, Evagoras Evagorou, started Day 1 with roughly 15 big blinds, playing in his first-ever Main Event and trying to become the first player from Cyprus to win it.

A structural first for the Main Event. For the first time in tournament history, this final table used a 20-second preflop / 30-second postflop shot clock. The WSOP notably removed that shot clock again for the remainder of the final table three weeks later, after introducing it just once on Day 7.

Live Elimination Log โ€” Day 1

9th Place: Evagoras Evagorou โ€” $1,000,000. Evagorou went out after almost three hours of play, his pocket jacks losing a race to Jamie Shaevel’s ace-queen when an ace landed on the flop. His first all-in of the day came on a queen-ten-nine flop holding queen-jack against Jumalon’s ace-three, and he survived that one โ€” but twelve hands later he ran jacks into Shaevel’s ace-queen and couldn’t recover. He becomes the first player from Cyprus to reach a Main Event final table, and said afterward it was an amazing journey despite the disappointment.

8th Place: Mario Boos โ€” $1,250,000. The French grinder’s pocket eights were out-flopped by the king-nine of Lauri Saaskilahti, sending a wave of cheers through the Finn’s rail. Boos, who normally plays events below $1,000 buy-in, had never previously cashed the Main Event.

Major hand: Han Feng was the story of the day โ€” he started Day 1 with the second-shortest stack at 25,000,000 and finished it with 106,500,000, the biggest chip swing of the session, closing out the night winning a large pot with pocket queens after Saaskilahti folded to a three-bet on the flop.

End-of-Day 1 Chip Counts

Jumalon navigated 108 hands of play to finish exactly where he started โ€” on top, with 212,000,000 chips and seven players remaining. Feng’s climb put him in clear second place, trailing only Jumalon. Official counts for the remaining five stacks (Hammoud, Shaevel, Mueller, Gagliano, Saaskilahti) were not broken out individually in day-end reporting, though all seven were guaranteed at least $1,500,000 heading into Day 2.

RankPlayerChip Count
1Lucas Jumalon212,000,000
2Han Feng106,500,000
3-7Hammoud, Shaevel, Mueller, Gagliano, Saaskilahti(not individually published)

Day 2 (August 4) โ€” Full Recap

Five players busted across the second night of the final table, cutting the field from seven all the way down to a heads-up match for the bracelet โ€” the fastest single-day collapse of the entire final table.

Live Elimination Log โ€” Day 2

7th Place: Jamie Shaevel โ€” $1,500,000. The Los Angeles cash game pro got his king-six in against the king-ten of Jumalon and missed his flopped straight draw, busting inside the first hour of play.

6th Place: Rami Hammoud โ€” $1,750,000. Hammoud’s queen-jack couldn’t run down the ace-five of Jumalon. He’d crippled his own stack a few hands earlier doubling up Greg Mueller’s pocket nines with ace-king.

5th Place: Han Feng โ€” $2,250,000. In the cruelest hand of the night, Feng’s pocket aces got the chips in against the pocket nines of Saaskilahti, who turned an open-ended straight draw and rivered a queen to complete it. This was the hand that turned Saaskilahti’s tournament around after he’d fallen down the leaderboard early โ€” he’d already bounced back once earlier by getting pocket kings all-in against Han Feng’s ace-jack and holding through the runout.

4th Place: Michael Gagliano โ€” $2,750,000. The four-time bracelet winner shoved king-queen from the button into the king-jack of Jumalon, and a jack on the turn made the chip leader kings and jacks to end Gagliano’s run.

Hand of the tournament: Saaskilahti called off 61,000,000 on the turn with pocket tens against Jumalon’s four-three in a 188,500,000-chip pot โ€” the largest of the entire Main Event โ€” vaulting him from 17% of chips in play to 34%.

End-of-Day 2 Chip Counts

Jumalon still led with 328,000,000 to Saaskilahti’s 225,000,000, roughly 109 big blinds against 75, as the final table narrowed to three players heading into the last day.

RankPlayerChip Count
1Lucas Jumalon328,000,000*
2Lauri Saaskilahti225,000,000
3Greg Mueller(short stack, eliminated early Day 3)

*Jumalon’s stack reflects chips held entering heads-up play; his count with Mueller still in also included Mueller’s remaining chips in play.

Day 3 (August 5) โ€” The Champion Is Crowned

Live Elimination Log โ€” Day 3

3rd Place: Greg Mueller โ€” $3,750,000. Just two hands into three-handed play, Mueller called off his last chips holding a pair of fours. Saaskilahti’s pocket kings held to end Mueller’s run, sending his rail โ€” who’d been chanting “we’re not leaving” all day โ€” home with a $3.75 million score.

Heads-up begins: Play started at 6 p.m. local time, Jumalon holding 328,000,000 to Saaskilahti’s 225,000,000, with $10,000,000 and the final bracelet of the summer on the line.

The final hand: Saaskilahti moved all-in preflop with ace-seven, running slightly ahead of Jumalon’s king-six โ€” until a six hit the flop and a second six hit the turn, locking up both the hand and the title before the river was even dealt. Saaskilahti was drawing dead going to the last card. It marked only the fifth time in Main Event history the champion has been decided with the runner-up drawing dead pre-river, following Hal Fowler (1979), Johnny Chan (1988), Martin Jacobson (2014), and John Cynn (2018).

Champion crowned: Lucas Jumalon, 22, of Spokane, Washington, won the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event, becoming one of the youngest champions in the event’s history and the fourth consecutive American to win it.

2026 WSOP Main Event Winner

Lucas Jumalon has officially won the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event, defeating a final field of 9,208 entries at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas to claim the $10,000,000 first-place prize and the Main Event gold bracelet, defeating Finnish player Lauri Saaskilahti heads-up. Jumalon led every single day of the final table without ever relinquishing the top spot โ€” a wire-to-wire performance last matched in dominance by Joe McKeehen’s 2015 run.

Full Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryPayout
1stLucas JumalonUnited States$10,000,000
2ndLauri SaaskilahtiFinland$6,000,000
3rdGreg MuellerCanada$3,750,000
4thMichael GaglianoUnited States$2,750,000
5thHan FengUnited States$2,250,000
6thRami HammoudCanada$1,750,000
7thJamie ShaevelUnited States$1,500,000
8thMario BoosFrance$1,250,000
9thEvagoras EvagorouCyprus$1,000,000
10thMalcolm TraynerAustralia$750,000

๐Ÿ‘‰ Read the full recap: 2026 WSOP Main Event Winner: Full Results & Payout Breakdown

2026 WSOP Main Event: Quick Facts

  • Entries: 9,208 โ€” the fourth-largest Main Event field in WSOP history
  • Prize pool: $85.6 million
  • Champion: Lucas Jumalon (United States) โ€” $10,000,000
  • Runner-up: Lauri Saaskilahti (Finland) โ€” $6,000,000
  • Buy-in / format: $10,000, freezeout (no re-entries)
  • Final table dates: August 3-5, 2026
  • Venue: Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas
  • Broadcast: ESPN2 (Day 1-2), ESPN (Day 3)
  • International coverage: Eurosport and TNT Sports
  • Defending champion: Michael Mizrachi (2025 winner, $10,000,000)
  • Structural note: First โ€” and so far only โ€” Main Event final table to test a shot clock, used briefly on Day 7 and Day 1 of the final table before being removed
  • Historic footnote: Only the 5th Main Event final hand in history decided with the runner-up drawing dead before the river

FAQs

Who won the 2026 WSOP Main Event?

Lucas Jumalon, a 22-year-old poker player from Spokane, Washington, won the 2026 WSOP Main Event, defeating Lauri Saaskilahti heads-up to claim the $10,000,000 first prize and the Main Event gold bracelet.

How did Lucas Jumalon win the final hand?

Saaskilahti moved all-in preflop with ace-seven against Jumalon’s king-six. A six on the flop and another six on the turn gave Jumalon two pair, leaving Saaskilahti drawing dead before the river was dealt.

How much did the runner-up, Lauri Saaskilahti, win?

ย Saaskilahti earned $6,000,000 for second place โ€” the deepest run and biggest score by a Finnish player in Main Event history.

How much does the WSOP Main Event 2026 winner get paid?

The winner received $10,000,000 and the Main Event gold bracelet. Every finalist was guaranteed at least $1,000,000 just for reaching the final table.

Why was there a delay between the final nine being set and the final table airing?

The 2026 WSOP reintroduced a delayed-broadcast format similar to the old “November Nine” era. The final nine were determined on July 13, then given roughly three weeks off before returning to play down to a champion live on ESPN from August 3-5.

Was Jumalon ever caught in chips during the final table?

No. Jumalon held the chip lead from the moment the final table began on Day 1 through the moment he won on Day 3 โ€” a wire-to-wire run through all nine finalists.

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