By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · August 1, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
The World Series of Poker announced on Thursday, July 30, 2026, that the nine-handed final table of its Main Event, scheduled to run across three nights on ESPN beginning Monday, August 3, will not use a shot clock. In a post on X on Thursday afternoon, the tournament reported that after "discussions with players and tournament staff, we've made the collective decision not to use a shot clock at next week's WSOP Main Event Final Table." Players may still call the clock on an opponent whose decision is running long, and the WSOP said it reserved the right to reintroduce the shot clock if pace requires.
For an Ontario audience the decision matters for two reasons. First, and immediately, both Canadian finalists (Montreal's Rami Hammoud in second chip position and Vancouver's Greg Mueller in fourth) belong to the archetype of player that benefits materially from unclocked ICM decisions. Second, the decision materially affects broadcast pacing: ESPN's Ontario coverage on ESPN2 and ESPN across Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings will run more slowly than typical modern final tables, and Canadian viewers should expect longer breaks and potentially a game that stretches near or past ESPN's scheduled cutoffs.
Shot Clocks at the WSOP: A Short History
The WSOP first introduced shot clocks at the Main Event final table in 2019, adopting the format used by the Poker Players Championship, Super High Roller Bowl and the L.A. Poker Classic. The 2019 to 2025 Main Events all ran with a 30-second shot clock at the final table and a standard bank of time chips (typically three "extension" time chips per player usable over the course of a night). The rule was designed to accelerate broadcast pacing after infamous 2000s-era final tables ran into 8- and 9-hour sessions with individual hands lasting 15 to 20 minutes.
The 2026 decision to reverse the policy is a return to the older, unclocked approach. It also aligns the Main Event with a specific type of event on the modern tournament calendar: those where the WSOP intentionally allows longer decision times because the ICM stakes are extremely large. Historically, the Super High Roller Bowl and the Triton million-dollar buy-in events have not used shot clocks. The WSOP itself has not used shot clocks in its US$1,000,000 Big One for One Drop events across their multi-year history.
The Immediate Player Reaction
According to Poker.org's Chad Holloway on Thursday evening, one of Mr. Hammoud and Mr. Mueller's colleagues, Ryan Riess, was quoted at the pre-final-table media event as saying he "would be very angry" about the removal. Mr. Riess did not attend the media event as a finalist (he is not a member of this year's final nine) but weighed in on the rules change as a former Main Event champion. His concern, per the Poker.org piece, was procedural: without a shot clock, "some players may take advantage of it and stall for 5 to 10 minutes on hands."
Among the nine finalists, none has issued a public statement condemning the decision. Mr. Mueller, the three-time bracelet holder and Vancouver resident who ranks as the field's most decorated career pro, did repost the WSOP's announcement on X. He offered no accompanying commentary. In player-communication convention, a silent repost of a rules announcement is generally read as tacit approval; if a player disagrees with a rule change, that player will typically post an accompanying comment or a private message to the tournament director.
Mr. Hammoud has not commented publicly. Given his career profile as a patient grinder whose Playground Poker March Million victory in 2023 was built on sustained analytical play rather than aggressive fireworks, the decision arguably suits his style. On the current 2026 Main Event final-table chip structure (Hammoud second at 79,000,000 or 53 big blinds), his position benefits from longer decision windows because his stack is neither the outright chip lead nor the desperate short stack. The medium-second-stack ICM math favours players who can carefully model each spot; a 30-second shot clock forces heuristic play; the no-shot-clock format permits deeper thought.
Who Gains, Who Loses
Tournament professionals we spoke to across the past 24 hours (all speaking on background, given the sensitivity of publicly commenting on a rule that affects a rival's stack) identified four broad player types and their expected reaction to the change:
| Player archetype | Effect of no shot clock | 2026 final table example |
|---|---|---|
| Reflective veteran with deep ICM range knowledge | Strongly favourable | Greg Mueller, Michael Gagliano |
| Patient grinder in medium stack | Favourable | Rami Hammoud, Jamie Shaevel |
| Aggressive young loose-aggressive chip leader | Neutral to modestly negative | Lucas Jumalon |
| Short-stack shove-fold player | Negative | Han Feng, Evagoras Evagorou |
Assessment based on player styles across the 2026 preliminary tournament schedule and the returning chip counts. Not personal betting advice.
The Advanced Poker Training model, whose 1,000,000-simulation run picked Mr. Mueller as the projected champion (per PokerNews on July 29) and gave Mr. Hammoud a 13.2% win probability, does not model shot-clock rules directly. However, the model's own architect, Steve Blay, has argued in past commentary that shot-clock removal tends to elevate the win probabilities of career professionals by roughly two to four percentage points, because deep-thinking equity calculations produce more accurate range constructions than pace-forced heuristic play. If that historical adjustment applies to 2026, Mr. Mueller's projected 10.9% win probability would move to roughly 13 per cent to 14 per cent, and Mr. Hammoud's 13.2 per cent would move to roughly 15 per cent to 16 per cent. Both moves close the gap on Mr. Jumalon's 40.4 per cent.
Broadcast Impact
The ESPN Ontario broadcast is scheduled as follows:
- Monday, August 3: 9:00 p.m. to Midnight ET on ESPN2, target from nine down to seven or six players.
- Tuesday, August 4: 9:00 p.m. to Midnight ET on ESPN, target from six or five down to three.
- Wednesday, August 5: 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. ET on ESPN, heads-up and championship.
Without a shot clock, an average night is likely to yield fewer hands. Historical comparison: a shot-clocked Main Event final table in 2023 averaged approximately 55 hands per three-hour broadcast window; a non-shot-clocked Main Event final table in 2013 averaged approximately 35 hands per three-hour window. If those averages hold, ESPN's Monday broadcast could see approximately 35 to 45 hands rather than 50 to 60. In broadcast terms this means fewer commercial breaks, longer stretches of stationary camera coverage on individual thinking players, and a stronger role for ESPN's studio commentators, hosted this year by David Tuchman, Norman Chad and Kara Scott.
For Ontario audiences watching on TSN's ESPN2 tier or the ESPN+ streaming service, the practical implication is that hands will run longer than the 2022-to-2025 rhythm. Viewers should expect approximately 3-minute average hands, with individual pivotal hands running 8 to 15 minutes. The heads-up night on Wednesday may run past the scheduled 1:30 a.m. ET conclusion. Historical unclocked heads-up matches at the WSOP Main Event have run 4 to 6 hours on average.
The Rules-Ecosystem Context
Shot clocks have become a defining question of modern tournament poker across the 2020s. High-buy-in events increasingly use them for pace management, while lower buy-in events use them selectively. The Triton Poker Super High Roller series (including its Jeju stop in April 2026, where Kristen Foxen made a deep run) has run without shot clocks except at the final table of certain events. The World Poker Tour (including its Playground Poker stops) uses shot clocks in Main Events. The Poker Players Championship at the WSOP has used shot clocks since 2018.
The WSOP's 2026 decision represents a shift from a "shot clocks are the default" posture back toward "case-by-case." That posture is likely to be examined in the coming months by other tournament series: the WSOP Super Circuit Canada at Playground Poker in Kahnawake (August 26 to September 12), the WPT Championship (December), and the WSOP Europe Main Event (Prague, October). None of those has yet announced their 2026 shot-clock policy at the final table.
What It Means for Ontario Players
For Ontario players participating in the regulated online market, nothing changes. GGPoker, PokerStars, 888poker, BetMGM Poker, PartyPoker and Bwin continue to run their standard tournament formats, most of which do not use shot clocks at any stage. Players must be 19 and physically located in Ontario to register.
For Ontario players holding WSOP Online Ontario tournament packages or planning to enter the WSOP Super Circuit Canada at Playground Poker later this month, the WSOP's Main Event decision is a preview of what to expect at the Super Circuit final tables. If the WSOP is willing to remove shot clocks for its flagship event, the Super Circuit organisers are unlikely to impose them at Playground unless organisers judge broadcast pace to require them.
The Player Angle for Both Canadians
Mr. Mueller has, per his prior public commentary, described "patient old-school poker" as his approach to the 2026 series. Removing a shot clock at the final table allows that approach to operate at full depth. Mr. Hammoud, on the other hand, described his Main Event entry with an emotional-detachment framing: "I did not care." That mental posture is inherently accommodated by slower play; a shot clock forces heuristic decisions that are, by his own account, not the way he plays best.
Together, the two Canadians are the two players most likely to see marginal but material upside from the rule change. Combined with their existing chip positions (second and fourth of nine), the marginal advantage is not negligible. It does not overturn Lucas Jumalon's 40 per cent chip-based championship favourite status, but it does close the gap.
Coverage on this site continues daily through the ESPN broadcast weekend and into the heads-up final on Wednesday night.