WSOP: Money Bubble Bursts in Opening Events, Negreanu Gets Aces Cracked

It was another day in poker paradise for those in Las Vegas at the 57^th annual WSOP on Day 2 of the seven-week poker festival. With four events in progress, here’s how they ended up as day turned to night in Sin City.

Avivi on Top in Day 1b of Mystery Millions

The Israeli player Tal Avivi was the top scorer on Day 1b of the $500-entry Mystery Millions event, with his stack of 2.8 million chips miles clear of both his closest rivals on the day and all of Day 1a’s players. Yesterday, we told you how Michael Mizrachi kicked off the 57^th annual WSOP with the traditional ‘Shuffle Up and Deal!’ announcement.

Thereafter, it was drama all the way, but Jansen Satparam top-scored on 1.8 million chips. Avivi’s stack of 2.8 million is much higher and that was reflected in the top 10 chipcounts, with Quang Vu (2,000,000) also ending Day 1b ahead of everyone except the Israeli chip leader.

Yesterday’s Day 1a survivors included plenty of former WSOP bracelet winners, but that wasn’t the case on Day 1b, though some poker luminaries bagged a stack. Ryan Laplante (520,000) will be a danger on Day 2, as will another bracelet winner in Brett Shaffer (505,000). The two-time WSOP champ $25k Fantasy Draft pick, Canadian Mike Leah, won’t be afraid of starting with just 215,500 chips given his vast experience at the felt, either, with 75 players making it through to Day 2 from this flight.

Nikitin Leads 8-Max with Half Million Up Top

The Russian player Anatoly Nikitin (3,290,000) leads from his countryman Ivan Ruban (2,300,000) in the $5,000-entry Event #2, which is No Limit Hold’em in an 8-Max format.  Famous WSOP favorites Scott Eskenazi (1,395,000) and Nick Seward (1,275,000) also made the top 10 with 24 payers remaining and $502,985 to the winner.

On a day of drama at the felt, Phil Hellmuth and Nick Palma were sat next to each other as the two generations of Poker Brats put out fun videos together. Hellmuth also took his chance to snap a selfie with the returning Vanessa Selbst, who retired from poker as a profession back in 2018 to become a hedge fund manager. While Palma cashed for $9,947 in 80^th place, neither Selbst or the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Hellmuth could make the money.

On the bubble of the event, Daniel Negreanu busted in dramatic circumstances. Getting all his chips into the middle on a board showing T-7-6-4 with pocket aces, ‘Kid Poker’ was crushed by the pocket tens held by his opponent Ryutu Nakai. The Japanese fade the two outs Negreanu required on the river to bust the seven-time WSOP bracelet winner, while Nakai later departed for $11,410 in 40^th place.

Other Events in Action

There were two other events taking place on Day 2 of the 2026 WSOP. They were the $500-entry Industry Employees Event and the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better events, and each had their dramatic moments. The former used to be the traditional curtain-raiser to the series, but now bumped a day later, it saw 906 total entries and was left with 136 still in seats at the end of Day 1.

With $64,083 up top in the event, no former WSOP bracelet winners exist inside the top 71 places, with Dana Castaneda (82,000) in 72^nd place on the leaderboard the highest-positioned former event winner. Top of the chipcounts is Jerome Neppl, whose stacked up 758,000 by the close of play. Yutaka Morishima (517,000) and Ronan Woolman (491,000) were Neppl’s closest rivals inside a top 10 that contained nine American players.

Finally, in the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Event #4, the first non-Hold’em event of the summer kicked off with 828 entries, who were whittled down to 179 survivors across 15 levels. Former WSOP bracelet winner Lawrence Berg (373,000) tapped out with the chip lead, with Dekel Balas (354,000) and William House (294,000) closest to him. Other big names such as Aaron Kupin (262,000), Ryan Bambrick (255,000), Owais Ahmed (240,000), Justin Liberto (234,000), Esther ‘ETay’ Taylor (208,000), Selbst (122,000), Caitlin Comeskey (106,000), Allyn Shulman (98,000), John Wasnock (80,000), the 1996 world champion Huck Seed (59,000), John Monnette (36,000), and Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler (25,000) all survived to Day 2 with varying degrees of hope to match their chips.

Images courtesy of Eloy Cabascas for the World Series of Poker.