Fourth-Largest WSOP Main Event Confirmed – How Many Played in 2026?

Late registration brought in over 1,500 extra players on both Day 2abc and Day 2d of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. Added to over 7,700 players on Days 1a, 1b, 1c and a bumper Day 1d, this year’s World Championship is the fourth-largest in poker history. With legends of the game such as Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth all in action, who survived and who can no longer win the $10 million top prize?

Day 2abc Sees Hellmuth Star and Raymer Build a Mountain

Day 2abc combined players from Day 1a, Day 1b and Day 1c as a total of 2,468 players from those flights were bumped up by another 312 late entrants who registered on the day. Already in the field after a solid but not spectacular Day 1 was the 1989 world champion Phil Hellmuth. The Poker Brat more than survived Day 1abc, ending with 173,000 chips after he flopped a middle set of fives against his opponent Sanjeev Sisodiya’s pocket deuces that also made a set on the same flop.

“I couldn’t fold second set there… but I can fold bottom set.” Hellmuth said after the hand.

The 2004 Main Event winner Greg Raymer also doubled up late in the day, and in similar fashion. All-in with pocket tens on a flop also containing a queen, ‘Fossilman’, as Raymer is nicknamed, had the stones to make the right call. His opponent held ace-queen for top pair with top kicker, and Fossilman bumped his stack north of a quarter of a million chips, eventually finishing on 290,000.

Topping the field on Day 2abc was the Argentinian player Gaspar Fernandez. His stack of 754,000 chips meant he got over the end-of-day line just ahead of Texas native Mason Vieth on 730,000. Vieth is a dairy farmer whose poker nickname of ‘The Milkman’ certainly entertained plenty of his tablemates throughout the day, even if he did often take their chips.

“I ran kind of good,” said the modest Vieth. “I did some big bluffs early on. I got moved to this table right here later in the day, and I really ran hot. I set-over-set a guy, and cracked aces with [another] set. I’ve been looking forward to this for three weeks. I was hanging out at the farm, just preparing for the Main Event. I didn’t really care about the other events.”

How Did the Reigning Champion Perform During Day 2abc?

Michael Mizrachi came into the action on Day 2 hoping to continue in his quest to become the first player to retain the WSOP Main Event title since Johnny Chan in 1988. Virtually impossible in the current era with over 9,000 entrants in each of the past four years, ‘Grinder’ will battle until the very end and his qualities were on display during Day 2abc. Having been inducted into the Poker Hall of Famer a year ago, the recent nine-time bracelet winner and defending Main Event champion began Day 2 on just 73,000 chips but built those consistently throughout the day to end on an imposing stack of 202,500.

Another big stack belonged to the passionate poker pro Sasha Liu. First, she cracked pocket kings with a suited jack-five. A short time later, a player bluffed off bundles of chips to her as she called with pocket aces. By the close of play, Liu had built a stack of 495,500, more than enough to suggest that she’ll be more worried about exploiting nervous player around the bubble than being one of them herself.

Plenty of other big names survived to Day 3 from Day 2abc, with Tony Dunst (479,000), Martin Zamani (460,000), Brian Hastings (409,000), Freddy Deeb (383,000) and Ryuta Nakai (235,500) joining former Main Event winners Huck Seed (83,000) and Greg Merson (79,000) in the draw. Others weren’t so lucky, as Joe Cada, Damian Salas, and Daniel Weinman all departed, along with fellow evictees Jason Koon, Antonio Esfandiari, Adam Hendrix, Nick ‘Dirty Diaper’ Rigby.

Latecomers Leave the Party Early

Several stars of the felt joined the action on Day 2d at the very last opportunity. Liv Boeree, who won $2.8m when she came fourth in the 2024 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event in The Bahamas came in late and immediately ran up a little profit on her starting stack. Sadly for her fans, however, she then dwindled and eventually busted late in the day.

Phil Ivey (above) was another victim of having a late stack and needing to run it up. The 11-time WSOP bracelet winner was a big draw when he arrived to play the Main Event but sadly for fans of the Poker Hall of Famer, he was unable to run up a stack. The Day 2d field of 3,638 was added to by an incredible 820 Day 2 registrations, which beat last year’s corresponding total of Day 2d. Along with Ivey, Jeremy Becker, Daniel Negreanu, Niall Farrell, Gus Hansen, Dylan Weisman, Justin Saliba, Jason Mercier, Bryn Kenney and Nick Schulman all said goodbye to their chances of winning the big one.

Several big names do survive, however, and two of them warrant a big mention. The reigning WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb bagged up 368,500, while the 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker (below) totalled 221,000 a full 23 years after changing the face of poker forever.

Joining that pair in the Day 3 chipcounts were a formidable line-up of legends, with Deeb’s Team Lucky colleague Josh Arieh (118,000), Alex Foxen (493,500), Chris Hunichen (302,500), Jesse Lonis (266,500), Kathy Liebert (255,000), Viktor Blom (238,500), Benny Glaser (193,000), Artur Martirosian (179,000), Stephen Song (430,500), David Peters (364,500), and Kristen Foxen (143,000) all making the cut.

Rossitto Top of the Pile

While all those players excelled, no-one bagged up more that Michael Rossitto on Day 2d, and he took the overall lead in the tournament on 770,500 chips. Entrepreneur Jeff Fenster (747,000) trailed him, while the Colombian player Farid Jattin saw off Czech motormouth Martin Kabrhel as he ended Day 2d with 630,000 chips.

“I had to take care of him.” Jattin told reporters while preparing for Day 3.

Several former world champions made big moves on Day 2d, with 2018 champ John Cynn (403,000), the 2013 winner Ryan Riess (395,000), 2019 world champion Hossein Ensan (235,000), and the 2015 winner Joe McKeehen (102,500) all successfully negotiating the day of drama in Las Vegas.

Finally, while the 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth made it through to Day 3 on Day 2abc with 173,000 chips, The Poker Brat still had cause to keep an eye on the following day’s play. That’s because Phil Hellmuth III, the original Brat’s son, was in action. Hellmuth ‘junior’ junior had a swingy time, dropping low then doubling up on a regular basis, but eventually managed to put 75,000 chips into his bag. Day 3 will see the returning 3,294 players battle to around half their number by the close of play, with the money bubble expected to burst early on Day 4 as it did in 2025.

How Does 2026 Compare to Last Year’s Main Event Attendance?

This year’s total in the WSOP Main Event sat at 9,208 entries when registration closed. That number represents a drop of 5.4% on last year’s total, so where di those numbers fall off? Well, Day 1a was certainly a bit different. In 2025, 923 entries made it into the books on opening day. This year, only 772 players took their seats, meaning less talk of whether the 2024 attendance record of 10,112 would be broken and more about whether this year’s drop-off would be too stark.

On Day 1b this year, 1,037 players sat down to play the world’s biggest poker tournament, only a handful fewer than the 1,096 12 months earlier. Day 1c was similar, with 1,573 this year less than a hundred short of the 1,648 who turned up o Day 1c last year. But Day 1d was notably different. This year’s total of 4,694 players was lower than the 4,997 entries in 2025 by a whopping 303, and that had the biggest effect on the overall number.

Day 2 registrations enjoyed an uptick in 2026, however, In 2025, 265 players late regged on Day 2abc, and along with Day 2d’s 776 entries, made a total of 1,041 Day 2 entries. This year, there were 312 on Day 2abc and 820 on today’s Day 1d, making a Day 2 total of a massive 1,132, almost a hundred more entries than a year ago.