PokerNews live coverage of this event will begin on Day 2 (June 29). Until then, we will keep readers informed with updates on chip counts and core event statistics, including entries and the prize pool. Scroll down to see more.
Event #73: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Day 1 Completed
It's been two-and-a-half years since Bernardo Neves secured a maiden bracelet in The Closer at WSOP Paradise, but he'll return for Day 2 in Event #73: $5,000 6-Handed NLHE as the best-placed former bracelet-winner.
A total of 1,020 players entered the event, with just 348 advancing to Day 2. Late registration remains open for two more levels, so until approximately 2:15 p.m. on Monday, June 29.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergei Kislinskii | United States | 936,500 | 375 |
| 2 | Louis Leboisselier | France | 730,000 | 292 |
| 3 | Ori Elul | Israel | 565,000 | 226 |
| 4 | Franz Holzner | Germany | 544,000 | 218 |
| 5 | Bernardo Neves | Portugal | 431,000 | 172 |
| 6 | Daniyal Gheba | United States | 429,000 | 172 |
| 7 | Nazar Buhaiov | Ukraine | 424,000 | 170 |
| 8 | Ihor Popyk | Ukraine | 404,500 | 162 |
| 9 | Chenxiang Miao | China | 398,500 | 159 |
| 10 | Jun Obara | Japan | 395,500 | 158 |
Leading the way is Sergei Kislinskii, with others advancing including 2020 WSOP Main Event winner Damian Salas (301,000), Danny Tang (260,000), Dietrich Fast (254,000), Niall Farrell (250,000), Denys Chufarin (248,500) and Jeremy Becker (194,000).
Play will resume at 12 p.m. on Monday, with PokerNews live updates accompanying the event until it crowns a winner on Tuesday.
Day 1 of Event #73: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em has now concluded. Of the 1,018 entrants, 348 found the bag to return for Day 2.
The WSOP Player of the Year race is being dominated by players you probably aren't too surprised to see at the top, while Shaun Deeb, the pre-series favorite, is still lurking.
Deeb came into the summer with a significant head start after booking two runner-up finishes and a ninth-place score at the WSOP Europe in April. But he's only recorded two cashes this summer.
The good news for the reigning and two-time Player of the Year is he's made the most of those cashes, finishing second and fifth. Deeb, however, has dropped down a bit in the standings since the WSOP began on May 26, while some other crushers have moved into the top few spots.
Brian 'Smitty' Smith would stand out in the $1,000 WSOP Mystery Millions anyway. A tall guy with a broad smile, fully decked out in purple, he jokes that he's a "walking billboard" for the pancreatic cancer charity Purple Pansies.
But he stood out even more on Sunday, as the grinder from Atlanta, Georgia, pulled a gold chest for $100,000 and immediately announced it was all going to the charity so close to his heart.
As per the WSOP LIVE app.
When Adrian Mateos won 2026's WSOP $250k Super High Roller, he became the youngest player in history to reach six WSOP bracelets at just 31 years old.
His $4.33 million score was the second-largest cash of the Spaniard's career. The first? It came less than a month ago at Triton Montenegro, where he banked $6.37 million in the $200k Invitational, meaning Mateos has won a scarcely believable $10.7 million in just 28 days.
With Mateos climbing from ninth to fifth on poker's all-time money list in the last six months alone, and after defeating one of the most stacked final tables in WSOP history (featuring Phil Ivey, Bryn Kenney, Jason Koon et al), it sparked a debate around the PokerNews water cooler: Are we watching the best player in tournament poker right now?
According to the WSOP live app.
Poker fans were treated to many exciting hands at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) the past week.
But there's always a player involved in one of these juicy hands who doesn't find it as interesting as the rest of us. Take Allen Kessler, for example, who took a cruel Razz bad beat to bust from the $3,000 Nine Game Mix event, a hand you'll read about in just a bit.
"The Chainsaw" isn't the only recipient of a bad beat or on the wrong end of a brutal cooler the past week at the WSOP.
According to the WSOP live app.
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