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Winning his first WSOP bracelet online in 2023, Karapet Galstyan now has a live WSOP bracelet added to his collection, winning the $600 Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em for $259,829. Surviving a turbulent final table, Toby Price is taking his first WSOP bracelet and largest career score back to Arizona. Starting his poker career as a young online prodigy, Poland’s Dzmitry Urbanovich now has a WSOP bracelet to his name, finishing on top of the podium in the 8-Game Mixed Championship.
Players will be able to register 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is super straightforward to play in the 2024 World Series of Poker as long as you have the buy-in and are aged 21 or over. The property originally opened in 1973 and was fully renovated in time for the 2023 World Series of Poker.
Lucas Jumalon increased his chip lead in the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship on the first day of the final table. We are the number one source for poker news, gambling industry updates, reviews and free educational content for players of all levels. Phil Ivey has 11 bracelet wins, with Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Erik Seidel (10) the only players with double-digit WSOP bracelet wins. In 2015, the WSOP awarded their first online poker gold bracelet, with Anthony ‘casedismised’ Spinella winning the inaugural event. The first WSOP took place in 1970, and it continues to attract some of the best poker players in the world. It doesn’t appear that Caesars is forcing players to comply with measures of that magnitude.
But it was also one of the first times that I was not just ‘allowed’ to bring my personality to the table but encouraged. Out of all the work that I did in poker, getting asked to be part of Poker Road Radio was always the work I remember most fondly. I’ve done a couple of one-off gigs with Mori’s (Eslkandni) production team when I still lived in Vegas, and I can imagine a world where I offer my services as a spotter for production for the Main.
The three-night live Final Table will be broadcast from Aug. 3-5 on ESPN and ESPN2. There’s now just one battle left, and it will continue until an outright champion is crowned, which could take days. The $10,000 Main Event is the most prestigious, but there are other tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $250,000
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- Maxwell Franklin rebounded from less than one big blind to make the final table, while Nick Yunis surged from three big blinds to the chip lead by the time the unofficial final table was reached.
- Surviving a turbulent final table, Toby Price is taking his first WSOP bracelet and largest career score back to Arizona.
- In fact, from 2016 through 2025, he had the second-best record of any player on the planet when it comes to Card Player Player of the Year points accumulated.
- Nakai earned $144,101 for his runner-up finish, while Dzmitry Urbanovich, winner of the $10,000 8-Game Mixed Championship earlier this summer, rounded out the podium with a third-place finish worth $104,032.
Along the way, she helped turn live updates, podcasts, video, and streaming into something more than a scoreboard and and learned what gets lost when everybody is forced to consume poker the same way. The six-time bracelet winner got all in with a pair of tens facing eights and deuces on fifth street. The two-time bracelet winner has cashed twice, though, placing 13th and 14th in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The chip leader is eight-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser, who added three wins to his tally in 2025.
APT tournaments generally start and end earlier, and the buy-ins are lower and more affordable. He loves his ‘Lady Gagas’ and when he wins a big pot, it’s still “Touchdown Tom Brady” time. Tony ‘Ren’ Lin has expanded his high stakes prowess to his home continent of Asia as he looks to add APT accolades to his esteemed poker resume. But some people don’t have time for the stream.
As he looks to navigate his way through day 8 of poker’s world championship, those experiences could prove incredibly valuable. Two months ago, in his home country, Trayner won the return of the Aussie Millions main event, for just shy of another $1 million. Over the last two years, Trayner has navigated some massive fields and big spots in major live tournaments. Usually, I play poker with headphones, and I’m very locked in.
Even with those two knockouts, Negreanu remained ahead going into three-handed play. Martirosian’s surge up the leaderboard continued after he eliminated bracelet winner Philip Sternheimer in fourth place ($705,448). Yosuke Miki’s flush draw turned into a rivered straight to best the flopped set of tens of Sergio Martinez Gonzalez, ending the Spaniard’s run in seventh place ($312,233). Ausmus eventually settled for $259,047 as the eighth-place finisher.
When the Final Table resumes on August 3, play is scheduled over three days until an outright champion is crowned. To get to this moment, these nine individuals had to battle through marathon sessions, overcoming the mental and physical fatigue of elite tournament poker to outlast thousands of the world’s best professionals and passionate amateurs alike. Alex Foxen did almost as well, totalling 839,000 by the close of play, with Chino Rheem (588,000) also looking strong as he bids to end his long wait for a WSOP bracelet by winning the biggest one of all. Only 1,388 to go for Grinder, who climbed to 1.2 million chips but eventually ended the day on a still above-average 615,000. It was quite the opposite case for Michael Mizrachi as the reigning world champion once again made a strong argument for becoming the only player to retain the title of Main Event champion in the post-Moneymaker era.
He exited the main stage with a couple of hands remaining in the day, and WSOP’s Jeff Platt followed Givens out of the room to try to glean some insight about Givens’ process. He took down the 2024 WSOP Millionaire Maker for seven figures and his first bracelet. I think that’s really important for me to play my best game.”
The average stack of 26,317,142 represents just shy of 44 big blinds when play resumes. Zhang entered the day as one of the short stacks and was unable to spin it up, taking home $150,000 for her efforts! It increased her career tournament earnings to $482,761. Zhang took a race shortly after play began, with her Q♠7♠ unable to outrun the 5♥5♣ of Thomas Clack. The 36-year-old fashion brand consultant from Shanghai, China came into the day as one of the very shortest stacks, having lost the majority of her stack late on day 6 with A♣K♠ against J♥J♦ for Felix Kuemayr.
This summer I saw my former WPT colleagues, Mickey Doft and BJ Nemeth, both working with the streaming crew in Vegas. If they want only the fun and sanitized poker stories, that is what you write. So, if livestreams are paramount, they can demand you delay your updates and you have to say yes. You are also beholden to your client to deliver a product they want. However, since the media has largely moved in-house or to a model in which the outlet is a contractor of the casino or tour, you only get one version of the story. On the flip side, I think poker tours consolidating media in house or to official contractors has really killed the rest of poker content.
GET TO KNOW THE 2026 WSOP MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE PLAYERS
When people remember the boom-era WSOP, they tend to focus on famous players and televised hands. Black Friday didn’t help, as the affiliate model in the US just can’t survive promoting solely regulated online poker, and there isn’t money to have competing updates teams at the WSOP anymore. So, I liked in my interviews to try and bring players opportunities to express themselves without worrying if it was going to give away crucial information about how they thought about the game.
Hachem and Brunson remain in contention to make history as the younger half of a father-and-son WSOP main event championship combo, with Joe Hachem having won in 2005 and the late Doyle Brunson in 1976 and 1977. I also care less about the pay jumps than most, and I’m trying to win the tournament no matter what day it is. Trayner also took down the return of the Aussie Millions main event earlier this year. One of them will eventually hoist this year’s championship gold bracelet, and bank the $10,000,000 first-place prize from the fourth-largest world championship in history. Stream live NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, college sports, plus SportsCenter, First Take, and all your favorite ESPN shows—anytime, anywhere—only in the ESPN app. If you’re a poker fan, there’s no bigger tournament than this.
The WSOP’s official announcement includes a tantalizing line suggesting a format shift many thought had been left behind, with a delayed final table, a modern spin on the “November Nine,” seemingly on the cards. At the top end, there are 18 $10,000 buy-in events, six $25,000 high rollers, four $50,000 events, two $100,000 buy-ins, and the $250,000 Super High Roller standing alone at the summit. This 2026 WSOP guide covers everything you need to know including the full schedule, Main Event details, the hottest new events to watch for in 2026, and much more.
What did interviewing them face-to-face reveal that the public version of those players concealed? I can promise you, more often than not, the voice in the meetings speaking up for the players was Seth’s. No one ever said, \”well, you can’t interview players because you have to be hot to do that,\” but no one was really clamoring for me to interview players on camera. How did that affect the opportunities you received, the way players treated you, and how hard you had to work before people assumed you knew what you were talking about?
Each sheet outlines the tournament format, including starting stacks, level lengths, blind structures, break times, and registration details. The Main Event begins on July 2, with four starting flights, and concludes with the final table on July 15–16. Download it now for free, print it off and study at your leisure ahead of what will be another memorable instalment of the world’s biggest poker pokernewsdaily.com series. The prestigious $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event is scheduled to begin on July 2, culminating with the final table on July 15-16. The official schedule for the 2025 World Series of Poker was released in February 2025 and anticipation is already building for another thrilling summer of poker action in Las Vegas.
Check out the best no deposit online casino bonuses for August 2026. The easiest guide on the planet to play Texas hold’em poker Watch live poker on the PokerNews Twitch channel. Watch the best poker action at the partypoker live stream. 888poker has one of the best poker live streams in the world.
Michelle Chin joins Kristen Foxen as the only women thus far to win bracelets at the 2026 WSOP. Las Vegas, Nevada (June 25, 2026) – The 2026 World Series of Poker continues to produce unforgettable moments as the summer grind rolls on in Las Vegas. A few hands later, Wong’s ace-deuce held against Nakai’s eight-nine, securing the victory and sending the bracelet to Wong. Nakai and Wong began heads-up play with almost identical stacks. He eventually moved all in with ace-queen but lost a coin flip to Wong’s pocket nines.
The brand-new poker series was highlighted by a $5,000 Main Event that offered a $15 million guarantee, as well as the introduction of GGPoker’s innovative OnLive concept. As always, PokerNews will be on the floor from first shuffle to last bag as the final table of the 2026 WSOP Main Event is set. Local time on Monday, July 13, with blinds of 300,000/600,000 and a 600,000 big blind ante.
As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action until a champion has been crowned, and the same also applies to all other remaining 2025 WSOP gold bracelets as well. With the start of Level 8 on Day 2d this upcoming Monday, July 6, 2025, the late registration will officially close, and the annual flagship tournament is set to conclude on July 16 in Las Vegas. The respective survivors of each of the four opening flights will return to their seats at noon local time and play another five levels of two hours each. The 2025 WSOP Main Event bracelet was also revealed to the public today and presented by American magician and illusionist Criss Angel on the stage of the Horseshoe Event Center. While many poker pros joined the action today, thousands of enthusiasts from all over the world also joined the fray along with numerous celebrities.
Starting May 26, the streams will bring live action from a revamped TV set featuring some of poker’s most familiar voices. WSOP Circuit tournaments usually enjoy large crowds, but the ones in Las Vegas this summer could break attendance records with so many grinders being in Sin City for the 2026 WSOP. How do you top perhaps the greatest summer in poker history? In any other year, Michael Mizrachi winning the PPC for an unprecedented fourth time might have been the story of the summer, but you might remember “The Grinder” went and added something else to his record as well. Last year, the Millionaire Maker was one of the most talked-about stories of the series, controversial but compelling, it remains a standout event that always draws a massive crowd. The format, which ran from 2008 to 2016, featured a four-month gap between the Main Event final table being set and the next world champion being crowned.
More than ten poker players have already won WSOP bracelets and life-changing scores at the 2026 WSOP, some being first-time champions and others further adding to their list of WSOP accolades. WSOP Europe and WSOP Paradise now bring bracelet competition to international destinations, and dozens of Circuit events run year-round for players who want serious competition closer to home. Fans and players are also encouraged to download the WSOP Live app, a one-stop shop for players to not only follow chip stacks and updates in real time, but also register for WSOP events held at the Las Vegas Paris and Horseshoe. It remains one of the largest and most popular poker events in the world, attracting recreational players and poker pros alike.
Fan favorites, including the Mystery Millions, Millionaire Maker, and the Senior’s Championship, are set to return to the schedule along with some new, exciting tournament formats. Defending champion Junjie He won’t be defending his crown after starting the day with 88,500 and hitting the rail before night’s end. Two of the biggest names in the field to start Wednesday saw their days end surprisingly quickly. 2023 APT Taipei Main Event champion Punnat Punsri will join the Day 3 field from the Natural8 ‘Onlive’ flight with 492,000. Other notables moving on include Bin Duan, whose career-best cash of $351,000 came here in South Korea in a 2025 Triton event. Haohui Ma had an eventful couple of levels, starting with a dramatic double-up when he got his pocket kings in against Tomoya Kojima’s aces and drilled a two-outer on the river.
