WSOP Main Event Day 5: Dhiraj Sharma of Toronto Bags 9,840,000 for Second Overall as 174 Survivors Head to Day 6

By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · July 11, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen

Dhiraj Sharma of Toronto now holds the biggest Canadian tournament story of the summer. The 34-year-old business analyst turned mid-stakes tournament grinder, whose 623,500-chip Day 2D bag five days ago represented the seventh-largest stack in the room on that flight, sits second overall in chips heading into Day 6 of the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event. He closed Day 5 at Horseshoe Las Vegas on Friday evening with 9,840,000 chips, or 164 big blinds at the Day 6 opening level, trailing only Zhao Liu of the United States, who bagged 10,150,000 chips.

Mr. Sharma is one of 174 players remaining from a starting field of 9,208 entries. The 133 players eliminated on Day 5 collected between US$40,000 and US$57,500 apiece, depending on their finishing position. Every player who survived to Day 6 is now guaranteed at least US$57,500. Six-figure payouts begin at the 80th-place cut, and the top nine at the final table each collect at least US$1 million.

The Toronto Chip Lead

By Ontario terms, Mr. Sharma's Day 5 run is the deepest Main Event position by a Canadian passport holder since 2019, when Jonathan Duhamel-mentored pro Timothy Su made the final table nineteen. Mr. Sharma has not been widely profiled in the Canadian poker press because his career has followed a slow, low-variance mid-stakes trajectory rather than a high-roller path. His live-tournament earnings before the 2026 series stood at approximately US$400,000, spread across cashes in the World Poker Tour East Coast Poker Championship, several PokerStars Championship stops and a Playground Poker Club Millions win in 2022 for US$81,405. His largest previous WSOP cash was a 44th-place finish in the 2025 US$1,500 Millionaire Maker, worth US$18,760.

His current stack, extrapolated against the Main Event's projected payout ladder, positions him for an eight-figure USD cash if he holds a top-30 stack through Day 6 and Day 7. A win, which any second-in-chips stack has approximately a 12 to 15 per cent chance of delivering at this stage, would collect the fixed US$10 million first prize. Even a 27th-place finish would collect roughly US$180,000, or approximately C$246,000 at prevailing exchange rates. Ontario audiences have not had a Canadian to root for at this depth of the Main Event in more than half a decade.

Day 5 Overnight Top 10

Mizrachi's Back-to-Back Bid Ends at 241st

The Main Event's most sustained editorial narrative closed on Friday. Michael Mizrachi, the defending champion whose Cinderella climb from a 73,200-chip Day 1B closing stack through Days 2 and 3 had been the tournament's most-covered story arc, exited on Day 5 at 241st place for US$50,000. His run through his 2026 title defense will be logged as one of the most spirited attempts at a repeat since Johnny Chan's 1989 heads-up loss to Phil Hellmuth for a third consecutive title, and it removes any remaining candidacy for what would have been the game's fourth-ever back-to-back Main Event champion.

Only three players in Main Event history have won consecutive titles: Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977), Stu Ungar (1980 and 1981) and Johnny Chan (1987 and 1988). Chan's 1988 defence remains the last successful back-to-back campaign at 38 years and counting. Mizrachi's US$50,000 Main Event cash adds to a 2026 series ledger that already included his ninth career bracelet in the US$50,000 Poker Players Championship on June 30 (US$1,350,000). His lifetime WSOP earnings now sit above US$26 million.

This corrects an earlier report from OntarioPoker.com's Day 4 recap on July 10, which listed Mr. Mizrachi among the notable Day 4 eliminations. Mr. Mizrachi's Day 4 status was in fact still alive, and his elimination came during Day 5, at 241st. Our corrections log has been updated accordingly.

Alex Foxen's Player-of-the-Year Chase

Alex Foxen exited Day 5 at 263rd place for US$50,000. The American, married to Ottawa-born four-time bracelet winner Kristen (Bicknell) Foxen, entered the Main Event as the summer's Player-of-the-Year front-runner and closed Day 3 with 839,000 chips before his run stalled on Days 4 and 5. His US$50,000 Main Event cash adds to a 2026 series that already includes a US$10,000 No-Limit Super Turbo Bounty bracelet worth US$594,246 and multiple high-roller final tables.

The current WSOP Player-of-the-Year race, per the WSOP.com leaderboard, is now headed by Adrian Mateos of Spain at US$5,056,540 in bracelet-eligible earnings, one bracelet, eight cashes. Mr. Foxen's Main Event cash keeps him in the top five but likely takes him out of first-place contention. Shaun Deeb, the reigning POY who bagged 4,305,000 chips on Day 5 and returns to Day 6 above the field average, is the last remaining player who can meaningfully alter the summer-long standings with a deep Main Event finish. Mr. Deeb has nine career bracelets, sits third on the current 2026 POY board and is chasing what would be his second consecutive POY title. "I think my legacy is solidified," he told PokerNews at the end of Day 5. "I'm still conscious of POY. I know if I somehow final-table this, it gives my POY shots very high, but it's very hard."

Past Champions: Ensan Last Standing

Three past Main Event champions were eliminated on Day 5. Greg Raymer, the 2004 champion who spent much of Day 4 in the 300,000-chip range, exited at 279th for US$50,000. Ryan Riess, the 2013 champion, exited immediately after at 282nd for US$50,000. Michael Mizrachi's exit at 241st, discussed above, completed the day's past-champion attrition.

Only Hossein Ensan, the 2019 champion, remains alive from the pre-Mizrachi generation. Mr. Ensan bagged 3,450,000 chips at the end of Day 5, roughly 57 big blinds at the Day 6 opening level. His current stack is comfortably above the day-average threshold. His last Main Event victory in 2019 produced US$10 million; a repeat this year would produce the same figure. Mr. Ensan has not made a deep Main Event run since his win.

Deeb, Kihara and the Player-of-the-Year Board

Shaun Deeb's 4,305,000-chip stack now represents the only realistic path for the reigning POY to defend his title. Naoya Kihara, the Japanese pro whose two 2026 bracelets have kept him near the top of the POY ledger, has not been confirmed among the 174 Day 6 survivors as of press time. Both would need to convert deep Main Event runs into meaningful earnings to catch Mr. Mateos.

Mr. Deeb entered the summer with eight bracelets and won a ninth in the mid-June series. His 2026 total ledger includes nearly US$1.2 million in bracelet-eligible cashes. A final-table appearance would collect at least US$1 million and effectively lock the second consecutive POY. "If I somehow suck out, I have nine million," he told reporters after a Day 5 hand, "but I'm still happy to be over average. I feel bad for everyone who gets thrown on my table the rest of this tournament."

Other Familiar Names Alive on Day 6

Todd Brunson, the son of Doyle Brunson and a bracelet winner in his own right, returns to Day 6 at 3,690,000 chips. Daniel Hachem, the son of 2005 Main Event champion Joe Hachem, has 3,895,000. Wesley Fei, the Chinese cash-game specialist, is at 4,580,000. Terrance Reid, the recent fourth-place finisher at the December 2025 WSOP Paradise Main Event, has 2,685,000. Francisco Fragoso is at 3,910,000. Andy Tsai is at 3,685,000.

Day 6 Schedule

Day 6 fires Sunday, July 12 at 11 a.m. Pacific. Blinds resume at 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 big-blind ante. Five two-hour levels are scheduled, with a break after each and an extended 70-minute break after Level 2. Play is scheduled to conclude at approximately 10 p.m. Pacific or upon completion of five levels, whichever comes first. Tournament staff expect the field to shrink from 174 to somewhere between 25 and 40 players by end of day.

Today, Saturday July 11, is a scheduled rest day for the surviving field. No Main Event action is on the schedule until Sunday.

Ontario Coverage of Sharma's Sunday

For Ontario readers, the immediate focus is on Mr. Sharma's return to Day 6. His 9,840,000-chip bag represents 5.4 per cent of the tournament's total chip supply and gives him one of the deepest positional plays in the room. Under an active-Day-6 model, players in his chip range historically convert to a final-table finish approximately 30 per cent of the time. A final-table finish would produce a minimum of US$1 million and a maximum of the US$10 million top prize. Mr. Sharma's Day 6 seat draw will be posted overnight in the WSOP LIVE app.

His run through the 2026 series so far has been achieved without a documented package or satellite path. He entered the Main Event directly for the US$10,000 buy-in, according to the WSOP.com entry log. Ontario audiences will follow through the province's regulated online rooms, several of which run Main Event package satellites annually. GGPoker Ontario, PokerStars Ontario and BetMGM Poker all offer qualifier ladders through the ring-fenced provincial market for future series. Players must be 19 and physically located in Ontario to register.

The best poker sites in Ontario hub and our tournament schedule are the primary reference points for readers wanting to follow Ontario's provincial qualifier calendar. iGaming Ontario, the province's stand-alone Crown agency, permits live-event qualifier promotions under the Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming provided eligibility rules and package terms are clearly disclosed.

Full Day 6 coverage will follow Monday morning on this site. ESPN's over-the-air broadcast begins Sunday, July 12 at 6 p.m. Eastern with delayed feature-table coverage.

Correction: An earlier OntarioPoker.com article, published July 10 at 9 a.m. Eastern, stated that Michael Mizrachi and Alex Foxen were among the notable Day 4 eliminations. That was incorrect. Both players survived Day 4 and were eliminated during Day 5: Mr. Mizrachi at 241st place for US$50,000; Mr. Foxen at 263rd place for US$50,000. The earlier article and corrections log have both been updated.

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