By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · July 7, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
Late registration for the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event officially expired midway through Tuesday afternoon at Horseshoe Las Vegas, ending a five-day intake window that stretched from Day 1A on Thursday, July 3 through the first two levels of Day 2D. When the last chair was pulled and the tournament clock ticked past Level 8, the cumulative field had already surged past 8,600 entries and the prize pool had crossed the psychologically significant US$80 million threshold. Officials will publish a final entry count and payout schedule once the day's re-entries and unregistered seats are reconciled, but the tournament is now, structurally, set.
By the end of Day 2ABC on Monday evening, PokerNews chip-count data had the field at 8,609 entries for a US$80,063,700 prize pool. Roughly 5,119 players remained. Add in the 3,638 survivors from Day 1D who took their seats at 2 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, along with an as-yet-uncounted stream of late registrants who signed up during Day 2D's first two levels, and the total is virtually certain to settle somewhere between 8,800 and 9,000 entries when the final tally is stamped later tonight.
That places the 2026 Main Event in the running for the fourth-largest field in the tournament's 57-year history, trailing 2024 (10,112), 2023 (10,043) and 2025 (9,735) but comfortably ahead of every renewal from 2022 backward. Brad Willis, writing for PokerOrg's Substack on Tuesday morning, put the ceiling in more measured terms: "The field seems unlikely to be as big as any in the last three years. But 9,000-plus entries feels possible."
The Numbers Behind the Number
The composition of the field tells its own story. Day 1A on Thursday drew a modest opening flight; Day 1B on Friday added the traditional Independence Day surge. Day 1C on Saturday was the largest single flight of the tournament, with 1,573 players taking their seats. Day 1D on Sunday, by contrast, was the smallest of the four opening days but still produced 3,638 survivors bound for a segregated Day 2D.
The two Day 2 flights, ABC and D, ran their own late-registration windows through their opening levels, a departure from earlier renewals of the event and one that has consistently added several hundred entries. Day 2ABC alone drew 312 late registrants, up 17.7 per cent over the equivalent number in 2025, which stood at 265. Day 2D is expected to add another 200 to 300 by the time Level 8 closes at approximately 6:15 p.m. Pacific.
The result: a US$10,000 buy-in tournament whose eventual champion is now guaranteed a first-place prize in the neighbourhood of US$11 million to US$12 million, with roughly 15 per cent of the field slated to cash for at least the minimum payout of approximately US$15,000 to US$16,000. Those figures will firm up once the WSOP releases its final structure sheet.
Fernandez Holds, Vieth Chases, Liu Emerges
Gaspar Fernandez, the 34-year-old Argentine who bagged 754,000 at the close of Day 2ABC, remains the overnight chip leader entering Wednesday's combined Day 3. American Mason Vieth follows at 730,000, with Lithuania's Arturas Astrauskas third at 646,500. Michael Banducci (630,000), Daan Mulders of the Netherlands (629,500), Miguel Riera of Spain (592,000), Chiori Gannon (589,500), Kevin Ordet (584,000), Japan's Haruna Fujita (551,500) and Brazil's Peter Patricio (543,500) round out the provisional top 10 heading into Day 3.
The most remarkable story of Day 2ABC belonged to Sasha Liu, a Pinehurst golf-course grass consultant who has been playing poker recreationally for less than a decade. Liu entered on the Day 2ABC late-reg window with the standard 60,000 starting stack. Two levels later, she had crossed 600,000, taking a set of kings into aces on one hand and cracking them for a full double. "I ran pretty hot," she told Poker.org's Brad Willis on the dinner break. "My bluffs got through, my value bets got paid, and they were bluffing into me when I had a good hand, so everything worked out." She closed the level as the tournament chip leader at 597,600 before ceding some ground; PokerNews later listed her among the top 10 stacks at roughly 430,000.
Mizrachi's Bid to Repeat
The defending champion, Michael Mizrachi, survived Day 1B on July 4 with only 73,200 chips, the shortest stack in the room. The Grinder's Day 2ABC recovery has become one of the tournament's central storylines. He returned Monday, spun the short stack into 202,500 by the dinner break, and bagged that same figure at the end of the night. "I started the day with 72 or 73 and ended with 202, so it's looking like a repeat!" he told PokerNews reporters.
Whether that repeat materialises is another question. Only three players in Main Event history have won the trophy in consecutive years: Doyle Brunson in 1976 and 1977, Stu Ungar in 1980 and 1981, and Johnny Chan in 1987 and 1988. Chan's 1988 defence remains the last successful back-to-back campaign, and Chan was heads-up against Phil Hellmuth for a third consecutive title the following year before losing. Mizrachi's Day 3 average of roughly 100,000 chips against a nominal 500/1,000/1,000 blind level puts him at about 100 big blinds, well below the average but far from short.
Canadians in the Mix
The Canadian contingent thinned across the opening flights but retains a small cluster of viable stacks heading into Day 3. The largest confirmed Canadian bag belongs to Matt Salsberg, the Toronto-born pro who won a WPT title in 2012 and has more than US$4.5 million in live earnings. Salsberg closed Day 1C on Saturday with 205,999 chips, one of the top stacks in that flight, and returns from Day 2D having played through the day's action. His Day 3 stack was not confirmed at press time.
Also alive from Day 1C: Freddy Deeb (267,800), the two-time bracelet winner and long-time Ontario resident before his relocation to Nevada. Toronto's Vincenzo Abate, meanwhile, was not in the Main Event on Tuesday but was building a monster stack across the corridor in Event #86, the US$600 Ultra Stack No-Limit Hold'em. Abate bagged 1,800,000 in ninth place at the end of Day 1B of that event on Monday night. It will not deliver a Main Event bracelet, but a deep run through the Ultra Stack field would produce a five-figure USD score at minimum for the Ontario grinder.
The broader Canadian tournament ledger for the 2026 series remains the strongest in years. Kristen Foxen has three bracelets on the summer already; Marc-Andre Alcindor won the Big O for his first career gold; and Marc-Etienne Normand claimed PLO Hi-Lo. Combined, Canadian passport holders have collected US$2.4 million in bracelet money and roughly US$3.3 million in notable cashes, according to a tally maintained by WSOP.com and cross-checked against PokerNews reporting.
The Ontario Route
For players physically located in Ontario, the route to a Main Event seat runs primarily through the province's regulated online poker rooms. GGPoker Ontario ran a series of qualifiers into the 2026 WSOP through the spring and early summer, with buy-ins ranging from C$5 flip satellites to C$550 direct qualifiers. BetMGM Poker and PokerStars Ontario both offered smaller-scale packages tied to their Championship series. Those seats settle through the ring-fenced Ontario liquidity pool, and winners cross the border to Las Vegas on a package that includes hotel, travel and buy-in.
iGaming Ontario, the province's stand-alone Crown agency, does not publish operator-level satellite volume data, but its aggregate reports show poker gross gaming revenue of roughly C$81 million for fiscal 2024-25, with channelisation from the unregulated grey market to the licensed sites now sitting above 90 per cent. The regulator has consistently identified live-event qualifiers as a category of promotional offering that operators may market, provided the eligibility rules comply with the standards published under the province's Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming.
What Happens Wednesday
Play resumes on Wednesday, July 8, at 11 a.m. Pacific with the entire surviving field combining into a single Day 3. Registered chip counts will be locked overnight and published in the WSOP.com database. The plan, per WSOP tournament staff, is five 90-minute levels with a 15-minute break after each and a 75-minute dinner break at level completion. Blinds resume at 500/1,000 with a 1,000 big-blind ante and escalate to 3,000/6,000 by the end of the night.
The money bubble is projected to arrive somewhere between 1,050 and 1,100 survivors, well inside Day 3 given the current field. That places the min-cash for the 2026 Main Event in the US$15,000 to US$16,000 range, a modest bump on the equivalent figure from 2025. From the bubble down, the payout curve is heavily back-loaded: the eventual champion collects a purse projected between US$11 million and US$12 million, with second place in the US$7 million range.
The final table is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15 through Saturday, July 18, with a rest day between the final nine and the final six. ESPN's over-the-air broadcast begins with Day 5 coverage on July 12 and runs through the heads-up crown on July 18.
| Milestone | Day 2ABC End | Projection (Field Close) |
|---|---|---|
| Cumulative entries | 8,609 | ~8,800 to 9,000 |
| Prize pool (USD) | $80,063,700 | ~$82M to $84M |
| Players remaining | 5,119 after Day 2ABC | ~4,000 to 4,500 after Day 2D |
| Total chips in play | 516,540,000 | ~830M+ after Day 2D |
| Average stack (starting Day 3) | N/A | ~200,000 (200bb) |
| Projected first prize (USD) | N/A | ~$11M to $12M |
Overnight Top 10, Day 2ABC
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gaspar Fernandez | Argentina | 754,000 |
| 2 | Mason Vieth | USA | 730,000 |
| 3 | Arturas Astrauskas | Lithuania | 646,500 |
| 4 | Michael Banducci | USA | 630,000 |
| 5 | Daan Mulders | Netherlands | 629,500 |
| 6 | Miguel Riera | Spain | 592,000 |
| 7 | Chiori Gannon | USA | 589,500 |
| 8 | Kevin Ordet | USA | 584,000 |
| 9 | Haruna Fujita | Japan | 551,500 |
| 10 | Peter Patricio | Brazil | 543,500 |
The Sideshows Continue
Even with the Main Event dominating the schedule, the WSOP has three other bracelet events running concurrently at Horseshoe. Event #85, the US$1,500 Mystery Bounty, launched Tuesday afternoon with what tournament staff described as a healthy opening flight. Event #86, the US$600 Ultra Stack No-Limit Hold'em, ran Day 1C on Tuesday and combines to a Day 2 on Wednesday. Event #87, a US$1,500 Six-Max event, opens Wednesday afternoon.
Twitch coverage remained heavy across the day. Poker Twitch personalities including WSOP Video's official channel, GGPoker's stream and the PokerNews live-feed generated a combined audience peak north of 25,000 concurrent viewers during Level 5 on Day 2ABC, with a smaller but engaged crowd tuning in for Day 2D's late-registration close. There were no notable Ontario-based streamers among the featured Day 2 tables at press time, but Toronto's Kevin Martin, a fixture on Twitch during Main Events past, has been posting sporadic vlogs from the Rio parking lot despite not entering this year.
What Ontario Players Should Watch
Salsberg's Day 3 result is the most immediate storyline for Ontario audiences. A deep run to the money bubble is worth roughly US$15,000; a run to the final three tables would put him in a range that would justify the buy-in comfortably. Beyond Salsberg, watch for confirmations of any surviving qualifiers from GGPoker Ontario's spring satellite series. WSOP.com does not tag qualifier entries in its public database, but PokerNews field reporters occasionally identify satellite winners in their table-by-table coverage.
Longer-term, the Main Event's field size will inform the strategy calls of every Ontario operator through the second half of 2026. A field north of 8,800 entries validates the current investment in live-event qualifier packages; a shortfall would trigger a rethink at the marketing level. GGPoker's decision to lean heavily into the WSOP Super Circuit Canada in August, with a C$10 million guarantee, was made on the assumption that the Las Vegas event would sustain the growth arc it has traced since 2020.
Full satellite calendars, guarantee schedules and operator comparisons live at our best poker sites in Ontario hub and the tournament schedule. Coverage of Day 3 will continue tomorrow morning as chip counts are locked and Wednesday's opening levels play out.