WSOP Main Event Reaches Day 4 as Money Bubble Looms in Las Vegas

Players such as reigning champion Michael Mizrachi, the record-holding 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and high stakes crusher Alex Foxen were all in action on a pulsating Day 3 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. Las Vegas saw action all day as players fought to stay alive in the tournament, which has a $10,000,000 top prize, as tears, tantrums and three-bets saw drama on and off the felt.

Sasha Liu Stacks ‘Em High

Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event typically sees players build a big stack to push for the final table or cling onto a pile in an attempt to survive the money bubble, and this year was no different. Finishing the day seven from the money, the action at the felt in Las Vegas assured that tension will kick off Day 4, with 1,389 players in with a chance of winning the $10 million top prize and the title of world champion in 2026.

One of those players is the reigning champion from 2025. Michael Mizrachi came into play with a good stack and quickly went about his work building a chip mountain. Bidding to become the first player to retain the World Championship since Johnny Chan outlasted 166 opponents in 1988, ‘Grinder’ would arguably achieve the near-impossible if he can outlast 9,207 others this year in the manner he topped the lot last year. While he peaked at 1.2 million chips and ended on 615,000, that still represents more than the average stack and Mizrachi cannot be written off from making poker history yet again this summer.

The champion remains in the draw, but he is still some way from the summit. That lofty perch is currently occupied by a female player, with Sasha Liu sitting pretty on a stack of 2,364,000 chips. She’s the only person in the tournament who finished the day with over 2 million chips, with Martin Zamani second in chips on 1,963,000. Levon Khachatryan (1,745,000), Robert Gill (1,604,000) and Zdenek Zizka (1,576,000, pictured below) complete the top five.

Who Else Made the Cut?

Along with the chip leaders and the reigning champion, plenty of legends survived to Day 4 of the 2026 Main Event. The 2025 WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb ended Day 3 as one of the biggest stacks in the room on 938,000 chips. He was joined near the top of the leaderboard by Artur Martirosian (1,063,000), Chris Hunichen (1,055,000), and Alex Foxen (839,000), each of whom have a terrific chance of adding the title of world champion to their resumes.

Perennial challenger Chino Rheem (588,000) has never won a WSOP bracelet and is sitting comfortably in the upper half of the rankings in looking to win the biggest one of them all. Chris Brewer (754,000), Stephen Song (725,000), Brock Wilson (660,000), Stephen Chidwick (599,000), the 2013 champion Ryan Riess (431,000), Jesse Lonis (402,000), TV writer Matthew Salsberg (360,000), Chance Kornuth (330,000), 2021 Player of the Year Josh Arieh (302,000), Tony Dunst (228,000), Chris Moorman (218,000), Jeremy Ausmus (192,000), Alex Livingston (181,000), Matt Affleck (164,500), Kathy Liebert (110,000) and Kristen Foxen (86,000) all share the dream of making it through to the final table.

Former champions largely had days to remember, with the exception of a couple. The 2019 world champion Hossein Ensan (1,280,000) finished in the highest place for a former winner, with John Cynn (927,000), Joe Hachem (353,000), Chris Moneymaker (221,000) and Greg Raymer (205,000) all surviving too.

Busted Outside the Money Places

The 2015 champion Joe McKeehen busted on Day 3, and he wasn’t the only former champion to do so. Phil Hellmuth ran short and missed the nut flush draw to exit, and he was soon joined on the rail b his son Phil Hellmuth III. The sole remaining son in the field is Nick Hellmuth but with his stack at a paltry 53,000 chips, he’ll be one of the players sweating on making it past the bubble at the start of Day 4. Just seven players need to bust to guarantee the remaining field at least a min-cash of $15,000, a profit of $5,000 on the $10,000 buy-in. Along with McKeehen and Hellmuth, plenty of other big names weren’t able to stay alive in the tournament, such as Benny Glaser, who ran into pocket aces late on to depart.

Will Kassouf was on his best behavior, the British player almost silent throughout his Main Event journey, but he departed in equally meek fashion, losing a flip to Kevin Killeen when pocket sixes were beaten by a suited king-queen that made a flush, ensuring the Irishman never buys himself a drink in Dublin cardrooms as long as he lives.

Kevin Martin was livid with himself on X after he bluffed off a big stack to Loren Weiss when he considered ace-jack to be good enough to risk running a bluff into Weiss’ top pair with top kicker. Her correct call took the GGPoker Global Ambassador Martin out of the running.

One unfortunate elimination saw Matthew Radcliffe run pocket kings into pocket aces but his life was made even worse somehow when a player who folded to the six-bet shove claimed they also had kings. Nothing like kicking a player when they’re down. But the baddest beat of the day? It has to be Benjamin Pollak. Flopping a full house of aces over sixes with the pocket aces in his hand, he must have thought he was ahead when he was all-in and called. Sadly for him, and to his tablemates’ astonishment, his opponent turned over pocket sixes for ‘Death by Quads’.