By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · June 29, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
Ari Engel of Toronto, the 47-year-old Israeli-Canadian professional with four WSOP gold bracelets and US$13,272,648 in live tournament earnings, cashed 10th in Event #70, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, on Monday afternoon at the Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas. Engel's elimination came on the official final-table bubble in a double-knockout hand alongside American Joshua Barney, both engineered by Indian high stakes regular Zarvan Tumboli. Each player received the US$80,636 minimum 10th to 11th place payout from the US$7,774,800 prize pool, with Engel's run representing his deepest entry to a $10,000 PLO Championship in eight prior attempts.
The cash is the second Canadian top-15 finish of the 2026 series in a high-buy-in Omaha format, following Daniel Negreanu's seventh-place finish in Event #64, the $25,000 PLO/NLH Mixed High Roller, for US$152,954 earlier this month. It is also Engel's 18th WSOP cash of his career, with previous deeper Omaha runs limited to a 28th-place finish in the 2024 $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo Championship and a 16th-place finish in the 2023 $25,000 PLO 8-Handed High Roller. Engel's career WSOP gold has so far been concentrated in No-Limit Hold'em formats, with his four bracelets coming from the 2016 $565 Colossus, the 2017 $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship, the 2019 $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em (with Ryan Phan), and the 2024 $1,500 Five Card Pot-Limit Omaha.
The 10th-place double knockout
The final hand of the eleven-handed bubble level saw all-in action with Tumboli holding a stack of approximately 5,200,000 chips at the time, eliminating two short-stacked players in a single hand of pot-limit Omaha. Engel had been short for several levels following a one-pair-versus-flush-draw cooler with Mizrachi in level 18 that left him with under 25 big blinds. Engel's all-in came with a king-king-jack-five double-suited starting hand against Tumboli's ace-king-ten-seven double-suited and Barney's ten-nine-eight-three rainbow. The board ran ace-three-five turn-four river-jack, completing Tumboli's wheel straight with the ace-five-four-three-two combination, eliminating both Engel and Barney as the chip lead consolidated three-handed for Mizrachi.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Martin Zamani | United States | $445,080 |
| 5 | Michael Hahn (still in) | United States | min $627,832 |
| 6 | Zarvan Tumboli (still in) | India | min $627,832 |
| 7 | Jesse Lonis | United States | $321,876 |
| 8 | Chenxiang Miao | China | $233,571 |
| 9 | Player TBD | TBC | $171,158 |
| 10 | Ari Engel | Canada | $80,636 |
| 11 | Joshua Barney | United States | $80,636 |
Event #70 $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship eliminations 4 through 11. Source: PokerNews's "Martin Zamani Eliminated in 4th Place ($445,080)".
Mizrachi's three-handed dominance
Mizrachi's 40,225,000-chip stack at the end of Day 3 represents the largest chip lead carried into a three-handed restart in any WSOP Championship-tier event in 2026, larger by relative percentage than his 2025 Main Event lead going into Day 8. Tumboli sits second with 5,500,000 chips (22 big blinds), American mid-stakes professional Michael Hahn third at 4,450,000 (18 big blinds). Mizrachi's run on Day 3 included a heads-up double-up through Jesse Lonis in the biggest pot of the tournament, after which Lonis was eliminated in seventh place for US$321,876. Mizrachi was responsible for four of the last five eliminations of the night.
The three-handed restart is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. local time Monday at the WSOP+ live broadcast. PokerNews's pre-tournament analyses suggest Mizrachi's table edge in Pot-Limit Omaha three-handed is at its peak under these chip-stack distributions, with the implied break-even rate for Tumboli and Hahn to convert their stacks into a bracelet shot well below 10 per cent each. Mizrachi has won eight career WSOP bracelets, with the 2010 and 2012 $50,000 Poker Players Championships, his 2018 $50,000 PPC defence, his 2022 $50,000 PPC, and his 2025 $10,000 Main Event among the major titles. A ninth bracelet would equal him with the recently-elected 2026 PPC champion Benny Glaser, with five-time PPC champion Mizrachi already a Hall of Fame inductee. Should Mizrachi convert the chip lead, he becomes the third player in WSOP history to win two bracelets at the same series following a Hall of Fame induction, after Stu Ungar (1980 and 1981) and Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977).
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Mizrachi | United States | 40,225,000 | 161 |
| 2 | Zarvan Tumboli | India | 5,500,000 | 22 |
| 3 | Michael Hahn | United States | 4,450,000 | 18 |
Event #70 $10,000 PLO Championship chip counts heading to Monday afternoon's three-handed restart. Source: PokerNews's "Michael Mizrachi Will Win His Ninth WSOP Bracelet or We'll See a Memorable Comeback".
The Canadian Omaha summer continues
Engel's 10th-place finish brings the 2026 Canadian summer ledger to nine top-15 finishes across Omaha-format events, the deepest Canadian penetration of high-stakes Omaha across any single WSOP series since 2018. Frederic Normand of Quebec won Event #21, the $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo, on June 18 for US$235,377. Gianluca Cedolia of Toronto cashed fifth in Event #53, the $1,500 Five Card PLO, on June 21 for US$66,610. Daniel Negreanu finished seventh in Event #64, the $25,000 PLO/NLH Mixed, on June 23 for US$152,954, and 26th in Event #47, the $25,000 PLO High Roller, for US$69,531. Christopher Alcindor of Montreal won Event #22, the $1,500 Big O, on June 14 for US$387,110.
The Canadian Omaha mid-stakes feeder pipeline continues to produce results larger than the country's population share. The Toronto-based Royal Casino mixed-game room, the Royal York Hotel Sunday Mixed Game group, and the Niagara Falls Casino Niagara Omaha cash-game traffic continue to drive amateur entry to Las Vegas Omaha side-events. The 2026 WSOP Super Circuit Montreal at Playground Poker Club, announced Saturday for August 26 through September 12, includes a CA$1,500 Monster Stack PLO with CA$75,000 guaranteed (September 1-2), a CA$1,000 PLO Bounty with CA$100,000 guaranteed (September 6), and a CA$6,000 PLO High Roller with CA$200,000 guaranteed (September 10-11). The full schedule was covered on Saturday at the WSOP Super Circuit Montreal schedule release article.
Mystery Millions Day 2: 100bb-plus stacks emerge
Event #63, the $1,000 Mystery Millions, played its Day 2 session through Sunday afternoon and evening into Monday morning, with the field cut from 1,236 returning players to a Day 3 chip-leader list dominated by bracelet-holding professionals. American Joey Weissman, the two-time bracelet winner from Brooklyn, bagged at 47,500,000 chips, the largest in the field. American David 'ODB' Baker, the 2009 Main Event final-tablist and three-time bracelet winner, sits second at 75,800,000. Chinese professional Ren Lin bags at 28,600,000; Polish 2014 EPT Prague Main Event champion Dominik Panka at 21,700,000; Romanian bracelet winner Narcis Nedelcu at 18,800,000; and British professional Thomas Hall at 38,500,000. No Canadian-flag player appears in the published top 30 chip count list.
The Day 2 session played 17 levels of 12,000/12,000 starting blinds through to a level 27 stop. Day 3 begins at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday and is scheduled to play down to a final five who will return Wednesday for the bracelet day. First prize from the regular pool projects to approximately US$2,200,000, with the US$1,000,000 mystery bounty still in the pool and seven bounties of US$100,000-plus still to be drawn. The Mystery Millions remains the largest $1,000 buy-in event in WSOP history at 22,811 entries and the fourth-largest WSOP tournament ever held.
Event #74 8-Game Mixed: Sampson and Negreanu Day 2 update
Event #74, the $1,500 8-Game Mixed, played Day 2 Monday afternoon and evening with 147 returning players from Sunday's 766-entry field. Toronto's Devon Sampson, who had bagged second on Day 1 with 515,000 chips, continued his deep run; Daniel Negreanu, who had bagged fourth on Day 1 with 378,500 chips, also survived through the bagged Day 3 cut, the live blog noted. Chip counts will be published Tuesday morning. Hochgepokert reported six players above one million chips in the bag, with no Canadian-flag player among the very top of the leaderboard. American Pedro Barossi, who led Day 1, was no longer in the field at the time of the Day 2 stop.
The 8-Game Mixed plays a turbocharged Day 3 schedule Tuesday with 12 levels of 80-minute play scheduled to reach the official final eight, with the bracelet day Wednesday. The eventual winner takes approximately US$194,000 of the US$1,022,500 prize pool, with 109 players guaranteed to cash.
Looking ahead to Monday's three-handed PLO Championship final
Three bracelet days continue or open Monday in Las Vegas. The PLO Championship plays its three-handed bracelet day at 3:15 p.m. local. Event #71, the $2,500 Mixed Big Bet, plays its bracelet day with Naoya Kihara of Japan, the 2026 Five Card PLO bracelet winner, returning as chip leader. The $1,000 Mini Main Event's Day 1B fires at noon, expected to draw approximately 1,300 entries to complement Day 1A's 1,131. Event #73, the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed Day 2, plays from 348 returning players.
For Ontario players watching from home, the PLO Championship bracelet day stream is on PokerGO and WSOP+; the 2026 WSOP Super Circuit Montreal qualifier path on GGPoker Ontario remains active for satellites through August 19; the regulated Ontario market overview is on the best poker sites in Ontario page; and the WSOP Main Event opens Thursday July 2 at noon Pacific time with Day 1A. Engel, who lives in the Greater Toronto Area and was inducted into the 2024 Canadian Poker Hall of Fame, is expected to enter the WSOP Main Event direct.