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2026 WSOP Main Event Cruises Toward Money Bubble With 1,389 Remaining
- Sasha Liu leads 1389 players after Day 3 of 2026 WSOP Main Event.
- Only 7 eliminations left until the $85.6M money bubble bursts; min-cash is $15,000.
- Top champions and pros advance; action resumes Thursday in Las Vegas.
Sasha Liu leads the remaining 1,389 players after Day 3 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. With 1,382 places paid from the $85,634,400 prize pool, Day 4 begins Thursday, July 9, just seven eliminations away from the money.
The 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event has reached a critical juncture at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. As the fourth-largest Main Event in the history of the tournament, the event generated a gargantuan prize pool of $85,634,400 from an initial field of 9,208 entries.
Following the conclusion of Day 3, only 1,389 hopefuls remain in contention, putting the field a mere seven eliminations away from the money bubble.
A total of 1,382 players will secure a payday, with the minimum cash established at $15,000, a ninth-place finish rewarding $1 million, and the eventual world champion taking home a $10 million first-place prize.
A total of 3,294 players returned for Day 3 after navigating their opening flights and the two Day 2 sessions. Five levels of play significantly trimmed the field.
Sasha Liu Leading
Leading the remaining players into Day 4 is Sasha Liu, a Pot-Limit Omaha cash game specialist who entered Event #82: $10,000 WSOP Main Event No-Limit Hold'em World Championship at the start of Day 2.
Liu accumulated more than six starting stacks within her first level of play and crossed the seven-figure mark by the Day 3 dinner break. She ultimately bagged an astonishing 2,364,000 in chips to secure the top spot on the leaderboard ahead of Martin Zamani, who sits in second with 1,963,000.
Levon Khachatryan, who earned a career-best $1,440,680 earlier this summer by finishing runner-up to Eelis Pärssinen in Event #47: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha, concluded Day 3 with the third-largest stack of 1,745,000.
Other notable players finishing with significant chip stacks include Zdenek Zizka with 1,576,000 and Will Givens with 1,540,000.
High Profile Eliminations on Day 3
Several prominent poker personalities were eliminated before the field reached the money. Prior to the dinner break, Will Kassouf exited the tournament after losing a preflop flip with pocket sixes against the king-queen of Kevin Killeen, who rivered an ace-high flush. Phil Hellmuth was eliminated shortly after when his flopped flush draw failed to improve.
His son, Phil Hellmuth III, was also knocked out, leaving Nicholas Hellmuth as the only remaining family member in contention with 53,000 chips. British mixed-game specialist and nine-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser was eliminated in the penultimate level of the night after running into pocket aces.
In the final levels, Simon Wilson and Michael Kamran were both eliminated by Francisco Mateo, who held pocket kings.
Former Champions and Notables Advance
Conversely, former WSOP Main Event champions enjoyed productive sessions. 2019 champion Hossein Ensan recovered from a slow start, eventually knocking out three players in a three-minute span to push his stack into seven figures.
Defending champion Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was featured on the main live stream table, building his stack over 1.2 million with his trademark aggressive style. Despite a temporary setback where his ace-king lost to an opponent who flopped quad queens, Mizrachi bagged an above-average stack of 615,000.
Other former Main Event champions advancing include John Cynn with 927,000, Ryan Riess with 431,000, Joe Hachem with 353,000, Greg Raymer with 326,000, and Chris Moneymaker with 221,000. They are joined by GGPoker WSOP Main Event online winner Stoyan Madanzhiev, who advanced with 499,000.
Bubble Play on Day 4
On the secondary live stream tables, Alex Foxen bagged 839,000, followed closely by Pedro Neves with 811,000. Chino Rheem headlined the third featured table and bagged 588,000, playing alongside chip millionaires Mark Lacoste who holds 1,147,000 and Callum Roque who holds 1,025,000.
Shaun Deeb won a critical flip before the dinner break and finished the night with 938,000 chips, positioning himself well to defend his WSOP Player of the Year title.
History repeated itself as the money bubble loomed but did not officially burst by the end of Day 3, following an official announcement to the room that play would conclude for the night. Day 4 will resume on Thursday, July 9, at 11 a.m. local time at the Paris Hotel Las Vegas.
Hand-for-hand play is expected to begin immediately upon resumption. The tournament will restart with blinds at 4,000-8,000 and a big blind ante of 8,000, with the current tournament average sitting at nearly 50 big blinds.
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