WSOP: Two Events Kick Off Opening Day of 57th Annual WSOP in Las Vegas

Two events kicked off the opening day of the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP), the $550 Mystery Millions event and the $5,000-entry NLHE event, which played out in 8-Max format. Both events were very busy indeed and featured big names and debutants alike, with the Brazilian Yuri Dzivielevski dominating the bigger event and finishing Day 1 as chip leader.

Shuffle Up and Deal!

The 2025 WSOP Main Event winner Michael Mizrachi was on hand to take center stage in the opening ceremony. ‘Grinder’ took the mic and announced the world-famous cue phrase ‘Shuffle Up and Deal!’ to officially ‘cut the tape’ on the 2026 World Series of Poker. With 100 bracelet events, as well as dozens of WSOP Online series chances, players will battle all summer to win gold.

For some, the dream of winning a bracelet is enough. For others, it is the chase of the Player of the Year title that inspires them. Shaun Deeb certainly fits into the latter camp and believes that he will finish in the top three spots 85% of time, which would be enough to win him one of three $100,000 prizes on offer this year from the WSOP. No-one would rule out the eight-time WSOP bracelet winner from getting his banner on the wall again after a very strong start to his WSOP campaign in Europe, where he came runner-up twice… both times losing the deciding hand to quads!

While some days will have seven or even eight events in play, players are eased in gently. This year saw the debut of an event to raise the curtain on the 57^th annual WSOP, with the $550 Mystery Millions guaranteeing a massive $1m top bounty. Someone will win those seven-figures from a $550 buy-in just for knocking someone out of the tournament… but who? Let’s find out how everyone began.

Mystery Millions Topped by Las Vegas Local

The first event of the WSOP saw a huge field of 1,635 total entries play down to just 60 survivors across 22 levels of play. The gruelling Day 1a battle ended with Jansen Satparam in the lead, as the Las Vegas local stacked up 1,800,000 chips, slightly more than Germany’s Peyman Luth (1,700,000) and Americans David Farber (1,600,000) and Steven Buckner Jr (1,500,000). Rounding out the top five is a three-time WSOP champion in David Prociak, who will look to fire for number four after all the other Day 1 flights are complete and players combine to meet on Day 2.

Some $25k Fantasy hopes and WSOP bracelet winners will have their say about that, of course, with Gabriel Andrade (805,000), Chad Eveslage (690,000), DJ Buckley (620,000), Benjamin Ector (600,000), Jeremy Becker (535,000), Kevin Theodore (260,000) and Daniel Sepiol (215,000) all surviving to Day 2.

Here are the current top ten in the opening event of the 2026 WSOP:

Dzivielevski in Charge of $5k NLHE Event #2

With 415 total entries, Brazilian superstar Yuri Dzivielevski (715,000) led the remaining 142 players after a busy Day 1 in the first $5,000-entry event of the series. Taking place in No Limit hold’em at 8-handed tables, 10 levels were played as the Brazilian Dzivielevski (below) built up a big lead over others such as Peter Cross (525,000) and Yuliyan Kolev (470,500), the Bulgarian player most well known for playing a WSOP final table in a KFC bucket ‘hat’.

Elsewhere in the upper limits of the leaderboard, well-known regular and major Martin Kabrhel (298,000), Matthew Salsberg (258,500), Chris Hunichen (249,500), Brian Yoon (226,000), Eugene Katchalov (189,000), Nate Silver (175,500), Christian Harder (133,000), Stephen Song (127,000), Max Neugebauer (98,000), Maria Konnikova (75,000), and Benny Glaser (37,500) all bagged up at the end of the night.

Late registration is available until the end of Level 12 on Day 2, so there won’t be a total field or prize pool payout until around 3.30pm local time tomorrow. Here are the current top 10 in full:

Photographs by Eloy Cabascas for the World Series of Poker.