World Series of Poker Main Event action heats up as Sasha Liu leads the field

The 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event action is getting serious as the players battle it out to take a piece out of the fourth largest prize pot the competition has ever seen, with it being worth $85,634,400.

Only 1,389 hopefuls remain from the 9,208 entrants, and at present Sasha Liu is leading the competition, despite entering on Day 2. However, she has demonstrated incredible skill to work her way through the field and has a staggering chip count of 2,364,000 at the end of Day 3.

This chip total took her above Martin Zamani, who had appeared comfortable at the top of the leaderboard before being surpassed, with his 1,963,000 chips.

The 2026 WSOP Main Event said farewell to some of its former champions as Joe McKeehen was eliminated, along with Phil Hellmuth.

It will be noted that all those aiming to take the crown from defending champion Michael ”The Grinder” Mizrachi will have a tough task on their hands, as he ran up his stack to over 1.2 million in the usual aggressive style; he would have a setback, but at the end of play he still finished with an above-average 615,000.

The other former WSOP Main Event champions that are still in the hunt include John Cynn (927,000), Ryan Riess (573,000), Joe Hachem (353,000), Greg Raymer (326,000), and Chris Moneymaker (221,000).

Elsewhere around the tables of Las Vegas, there was plenty of action as Day 1b of the $1,000 Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha saw 426 survive to make it to Day 2 from the 2,842 entrants.

Leading the pack at the end of play today is Hiroyuki Noda with a total of 830,000 chips, with Tony Sinishtaj following closely in second with 809,000 chips.

Then in the lowest buy-in at the WSOP 2026, the $300 Gladiators of Poker, only 66 players remain after 1,810 players entered.

Jose Cayetano is the current leader in the tournament with his 2,350,000 chips, which is a safe lead at present with second place, Yunkyu Song, currently holding 1,860,000 chips.

The action in the $600 Ultra Stack No-Limit Hold'em is completed for Day 2 with only 16 players remaining, and the leader at the end of play is Henry Benamram with his 53,800,000 chips, while 2x WSOP gold bracelet winner Michael Moncek sits in fourth.

Finally, after Day 1a of the $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship, there are only 140 players remaining from the 498 total entries.

Hoi Lee and Alex Difelicele are the only players above 500,000 chips, which will give the pair confidence they can secure the gold bracelet ahead of the return of action on Day 2 on Saturday, July 11.