$30M in Prizes, $12M in Taxes: What 2026 WSOP Main Event Finalists Keep

What Happened on Day 7 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event?

The biggest highlight of the festival was Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel winning his tenth bracelet and $1.7 million in the $50,000 Super High Roller. WSOP Paradise was highlighted by a $5,000 Main Event with $15 million guaranteed prize pool that saw Stanislav Zegal winning his first bracelet and $2 million. The World Series of Poker Paradise is a poker stop that the WSOP first launched in 2023. The series returned in 2024 with a $25,000 buy-in Super Main Event with $50 million guarantee. World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise is a winter series held at the Atlantis Paradise Island in The Bahamas. Stay tuned throughout the series as we report on the biggest moments from the 57th annual WSOP.

The overall chip leader heading into day 8 is Australia’s Malcolm Trayner, with 63,200,000 (105 big blinds). The average stack of 3,176,206 represents 39 big blinds when play resumes. @TheGrinder44 puts his Main Event life on the line as he looks to keep his title defense alive on Day 5 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. I had my A-game on day 5, I controlled a lot of pots, and I’m still in.”

The world’s biggest poker festival returns to the Las Vegas Strip from May 26 through July 15, once again staged across Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Pacific Standard Time, the first of six day one flights for the Mini Mystery Millions will begin. Today, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, day one of the 57th annual World Series of Poker begins at the Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas, Nevada. Players should follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP.com for more news and updates on this year’s WSOP event. This agreement restores that historic collaboration, ensuring that the next generation of world champions is crowned in prime time. Bringing the WSOP back reflects our continued commitment to delivering premium competition and that connects with fans in new and exciting ways.”

Las Vegas, Nevada (May 26, 2026) – After a festive Memorial Day weekend here in Sin City, the biggest poker series of the year is ready to get underway! ESPN first broadcast the WSOP Main Event in 1978 and remained the dominant broadcaster of the event for decades, helping to fuel the global poker boom. Known for innovative hits like Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli (the “ManningCast”) and Netflix’s “Quarterback” and “Receiver”, Omaha Productions will apply its signature storytelling lens to the poker table.

How much you can win at the 2024 WSOP varies from event to event. However, some poker experience is recommended Yes, beginners can play at the 2024 WSOP. You do not need to be American to play in the 2024 WSOP. Players have a variety of ways to quality for the WSOP, including international and domestic online satellites on GGPoker and WSOP.com.

The 62-year-old German ended day 7 in seventh place overall, and maintained his chance to become the first repeat WSOP main event champion since Stu Ungar won his third main event in 1997. The 2026 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event has reached a crucial juncture. We offer daily poker and casino news, poker professionals’ blogs and tweets, exclusive gambling videos, thousands of free gambling articles, as well as coverage from all major poker tournaments in the world. All remaining players have locked up at least $57,500 from a prize pool of $85,634,400.

The 57th-annual running of this storied event attracted 9,208 entries by the time registration officially closed, making it the fourth-largest yet. Further adding to a historic summer, Japanese poker pro Shiina Okamoto made history by becoming the first woman to win the WSOP Ladies Event in back-to-back years. Winning the two toughest poker tournaments in a single year, an accomplishment many thought was impossible, the governing board of the Poker Hall of Fame held an emergency vote, and unanimously voted Mizrachi into the Hall of Fame. Moving to the Horseshoe and Paris in 2022, for the first time in the event’s history, the WSOP would be held on the Las Vegas Strip. Since Spinella’s lone WSOP bracelet victory in 2015, he has gone on to win five WSOP Circuit rings and accrue over $1.7 million in WSOP tournament winnings. From the momentum spurred by Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP Main Event in 2003 and the ensuing Poker Boom, the WSOP saw record attendance year after year, culminating in the largest tournaments in the event’s history.

From Aug. 3-5, the final table will play out live on ESPN platforms for the first time in six years, rekindling one of the oldest relationships in poker broadcasting. The fourth-largest WSOP main event of all time features top players from multiple eras of the game, some new standouts, and one previous main event champion looking for the unlikeliest of repeat performances. Only 174 players remain from a field of 9,208 in the 2026 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event. As expected, they include Specialty Landmark Mega Satellites taking place each day, allowing players to satellite into the following day’s $5,000 or $10,000 buy-in events.

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.

$30M in Prizes, $12M in Taxes: What 2026 WSOP Main Event Finalists Keep

Sign up for MyStack today and control your own narrative from the felt. PokerNews is proud to announce its return as the official live reporting partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The top nine finishers are all set to earn at least seven-figure paydays, with the runner-up taking home $6,000,000. Prior to her repeat victories, Shiina finished second in the Ladies Event in 2023, being just one spot shy of winning the event three years in a row.

The 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event will crown its newest world champion Wednesday night in Las Vegas. Catch all the action LIVE now on the APT livestream with Punnat Punsri at the feature table. $374K+ goes to the winner and they’ll be a day away from it in just hours. All operators listed by PokerListings are licensed and safe to play at. If you play for real money, make sure that you do not play for more than you can afford losing, and that you only play at safe and regulated operators.

Prior to the introduction of gold bracelets, WSOP event winners received grey trophies for their accomplishment. In 1972, the WSOP established the $10,000 buy-in for the Main Event and made it a freezeout tournament, two stipulations that stand to this day. While Binion’s prediction would prove accurate, the casino titan likely had no idea just how large the event would eventually grow. During the early days of the WSOP, Benny Binion famously told Doyle Brunson “You know, Doyle, someday we may have a hundred people in this tournament”. Jarod Minghini (Lake Tahoe, Nevada, United States) – 23,600,000 ChipsJarod Minghini, 37, is a poker tournament grinder based out of Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A member of the Pokercode collective, Bojovic’s largest career score of $134,617 came from his eighth place finish in the 2024 WSOP Europe Main Event, contributing to his live tournament career winnings total of over $700 thousand.

• Honestly, if Chops hadn’t outlined the vision for others, I don’t think I would have ended up doing as much multimedia as I did because the industry was so stuck in the paradigm of girl in poker video equals ‘hot girl.’
• Just 83 players secured a spot for Day 2, with Youness Barakat leading the way.
• This year also marks the launch of MyPlayers, a brand-new, free feature that lets poker fans track their favorite players across all PokerNews live-reported events.
• This time, the end for Aguero came in Level 5 when his king-nine suited couldn’t beat the pocket tens of Andrius Mazurkevicius.

It was simply that I knew which online screennames belonged to which real-life poker tournament participants. This time around, he was the player with the big pocket pair facing two overcards. Throughout this tournament, I played like very, very good poker. Jamie Shaevel is in sixth place, with 33,000,000, while three-time bracelet winner Greg Mueller rounds out the final seven with 29,500,000. The two players then doubled through each other before Wong made a good river call to seize a commanding lead.

Day 8 Plan

With over $2 million in live tournament winnings, Margets looks to not only add $10 million to her career total but also become the first woman to ever win the WSOP Main Event. Leonore Margets (Barcelona, Spain) – 53,400,000 ChipsLeonore “Leo” Margets, 41, is not only the last woman standing in the 2025 WSOP Main Event but is also the first woman to reach the WSOP Main Event final table since 1995. Dunaway’s $1.5 million in live tournament earnings could increase tenfold by winning the $10 million top prize in the 2025 WSOP Main Event.

His team is currently leading the 25K Fantasy with 871 points, largely thanks to Josh Arieh’s stellar summer and recent runner-up finish in the PPC. That happened in 2024, when he won the most prestigious title of his lengthy career in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $1.1 million, but still finished the summer in the red. And he can have a good summer even if he loses. “In my mind state, the idea of playing until 1 or 2 in the morning, its five o clock right now, the chances that I’m going to put in a good effort are very low,” he explained from his car. And while he is constantly firing and looking to “optimize” $25k Fantasy points, Negreanu isn’t afraid to take an evening off to rest or spend time at home. He failed to cash the biggest buy-in of the summer, the $250,000 Super High Roller, and it was the same story in the $100,000 High Roller.

Results-wise, Negreanu has still had a decent summer. But, given his proven results for decades, there’s plenty of time to turn it around. In his latest vlog, Negreanu shared his results for the summer so far, showing him to be down $571,729. Daniel Negreanu has cashed for $464,521 this summer, but that number only tells part of the story. There are a variety of ways to qualify online via the GGPoker international platform and WSOP platforms in the US and Ontario.

The PLO and NLH Venom tournaments kicked off today with a combined $15M in guarantees spread across several starting flights all month. No matter what happens with the season finale, it’s clear that WPT is intent on establishing a greater presence in Las Vegas, especially during the times of year when WSOP isn’t around. “The success of the spring championship reaffirmed what makes The Venetian Resort a premier destination for tournament poker,” said Tommy LaRosa, director of poker operations at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The rest of the festival promises several bounty events, the regular seniors’ event, and lots of satellites into the championship.

He sits inside the top 10, with the second flight drawing more than twice as many entries as Day 1a, with 224 entries recorded after ten levels of play, bringing the total field to 329 entries. Let’s take a look at some of the other action taking place at the WSOP today. Three bracelet winners were crowned, but plenty more action was going on elsewhere on Day 22 of the 2026 World Series of Poker.

Daniel Negreanu Has Spent $1M on 2026 WSOP Buy-ins; How Much Has He Profited?

Jing brought a large sum of cash from Hustler Casino and used it to buy into the $100-$200 no-limit hold’em game. There are also Day 2s in the $25,000 PLO with the survivors from its two starting flights combining for the first time at 12 p.m., and the $2,500 Freezeout, which gets underway an hour later at 1 p.m. Other notables through to Day 3 include Matt Glantz (625,000), Main Event final tablist John Wasnock (410,000), and Karina Jett (380,000). They will have a day’s rest before returning for Day 3 on Thursday. There were plenty of bracelet winners advancing from Day 1b in the Seniors Championship. Calvin Anderson who also ended Day 1 with the chip lead, bagged the overall chip lead on Day 2 as well, having already won this event in 2018.

Ensan bagged a healthy 3,450,000 at the end of day 5, and he feels that his 2019 run should prove incredibly valuable as he continues to run deeper. The German pro, who is also an European Poker Tour pokernewsdaily.com champion, would love to add a second career $10 million payday to his ledger. I’ve been willing to play big pots, and most people aren’t.”

After the incredible accomplishment of winning his fourth Poker Players Championship title, a tournament regarded by many as the hardest to win, Michael Mizrachi would go on to win the WSOP Main Event as well. Although she finished in 5th place, Enright solidified herself in WSOP history, and has added three WSOP bracelets to her list of accolades. The final hand from the 1986 WSOP Main Event, in which Chan defeated Erik Seidel to win the title, was included in the film. The most prized bracelet of them all, the WSOP Main Event bracelet stands above all others in size and value.

The final knockout of day 2 pitted the A♠A♥6♥5♣ of Sean Winter against K♦Q♠6♠6♦ for Chris Frank. Six-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus was left on fumes when his own pair of kings and flush draw ran into the pocket aces of Philip Sternheimer. Two-time bracelet winner Robert Cowen then bowed out in ninth place ($224,962) with his overpair of kings and flush draw losing out to the flopped set of queens of Negreanu. He was soon joined by four-time bracelet winner Joao Simao (13th), Jonathan Depa (12th), Lautauro Guerra (11th), and Gergo Nagy (10th), who all earned $204,938 for their efforts. The 51-year-old Canadian legend of the game defeated a stacked field of 83 entries in the $100,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller to earn his eighth bracelet and the first-place prize of $2,257,718.

The 83-entry turnout for this event made for a prize pool of $7,968,000, with only the top 13 finishers making the money. The two-time POY-award winner (2004, 2013) is rounding into form as he looks for a third win in this prestigious points race. This was the third POY-qualified score of 2026 for Negreanu, all coming from final-table finishes at the WSOP.

The very first WSOP online bracelet tournament was in 2015, with the $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold ‘Em won by Anthony Spinella over a field of 905 for $197,743. In 2024, the WSOP Main Event saw a record 10,112 players. However, from 2017 entries in the Main Event increased year-on-year, with the 8,569 players in the 2019 WSOP Main Event the second-highest ever, just short of the record of 8,773 set in 2006. In 2008, the WSOP introduced the November Nine where the Main Event plays down to a final table of nine in July, before resuming in November. Barbara Enright became the only woman to make the Main Event final table with her fifth-place finish in 1995, until Leo Margets achieved the same feat in 2025 where she finished seventh.

Most people know the summer series in Las Vegas, where the $10,000 Main Event turns ordinary players into legends. It’s a new development for poker players to deal with this. Everyone remaining has already secured a payout of at least $36,395 from the $1,441,500 prize pool, but players are sure to be gunning for the $357,026 and coveted gold bracelet awaiting the champion.

GGPoker sent more than 1,000 online qualifiers to the WSOP Main Event in 2025, and that impressive number is expected to increase this summer. Deeb also captured his seventh bracelet in the $100,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller. You’re going to need somewhere to rest and recuperate between 2026 WSOP events, and what better place to do that than at a Caesars Entertainment property?

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the start of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em WSOP Main Event, as airing returns to ESPN from Thursday, July 2 through Monday, July 13, with a special three-day final table finale taking place Monday, August 3 through Wednesday, August 5. Mystery bounties in the $550 Mini Mystery Millions come into play on day two of the event, scheduled for Sunday, May 31, with cards in the air at 1 P.M. While the buy-in may be lower for the Mini Mystery Millions compared to the Mystery Millions, there is still great riches for the poker player lucky enough to win the biggest bounty. Each poker player is permitted 2 re-entries per flight. The surviving finalists will reconvene 20 days later for a live, three-day televised finale airing August 3-5 from 9pm-12am EST. Under the new agreement, poker fans can expect wall-to-wall coverage, with each tournament day receiving a minimum of six hours of programming.

The third and final day began with five players remaining and Frank in the lead. Earlier this series, he became the first player to surpass $25 million in bracelet-event cashes. It has been a truly incredible week at the 2026 World Series of Poker, with four players near the very top of the all-time bracelet leaderboard adding to their legacies with massive wins in Sin City.