The 2026 Goliath Is Shaping Up to be Another Record Breaker

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Jul 29, 2026 3 min read

Four of the 2026 Goliath's nine scheduled flights have concluded in Coventry, and the £200 buy-in tournament looks set to smash its attendance record for a 13th consecutive year. Not including the players who have registered for upcoming flights, the current attendance stands at an incredible 6,174.

To put that into context, if Grosvenor decided not to run any more Day 1s, the 2026 Goliath would still be bigger than every Goliath run between 2011 and 2016!

2026 Goliath: The Story So Far

Day 1a of the 2026 Goliath saw a 1,744-strong crowd reduced to a much more manageable 105 over the course of 20 levels. It was an impressive start, considering the inaugural Goliath in 2011 had a total field size of 1,765!

Neil Rowicki (1,330,000) bagged the largest stack of the Day 1a survivors, followed by Deniz Orhan (1,120,000) and John Bassett (1,035,000) in the chip-millionaire club.

On Day 1b, only 84 of the 1,473 field advanced to Day 2, with four players cramming seven figures worth of chips into their overnight bags. The anonymous player known as "N.S" claimed the second flight's chip lead with a 1,435,000 stack.

Lewis Aikman (1,340,000), Paul Maguire (1,175,000), and Stefan Frew (1,040,000) also enjoyed profitable days at the felt.

The third flight of this monster-sized event attracted 1,525 entrants, but only 95 of those hopefuls navigated their way to Day 2. Another anonymous player, this time "P.M." clinched the chip lead, courtesy of amassing 1,765,000 chips, the largest stack of the 2026 Goliath.

Matthew Nolan (1,375,000), Kieran Collins (1,295,000), and Marc Bryant (1,285,000) will also be delighted with their Day 1c performances.

Yesterday's Day 1d drew in a 1,432-strong crowd, with 95 making it to the end of the 20th level. Vasilica Balan (1,200,000) finished at the top of the chip counts by a mere 10,000 chip. Gabriel Parsons (1,190,000) and Sanjay Ranchhoddas (1,065,000) also bagged more than one million chips each.

Current 2026 Goliath Top 10 Chip Counts

Here are the current top 10 chip counts following the completion of Day 1d. Currently, anyone wanting to break into the top 10 needs to finish their flight with at least 1,180,000 chips.

Remaining 2026 Goliath Schedule

Five more flights remain, including today's Day 1e, which shuffles up and deals at 11:00 a.m. BST. The final non-turbo flight, Day 1H, on July 31, will be ridiculously busy. If you plan to enter that flight, it is highly recommended to buy in early and secure your seat because there's every chance the alternate list could be off the charts.

You can register for any future flight in person, via Grosvenor's Live Poker app, or via your GGPoker account. If you opt to use the latter, you'll receive a 20% cash boost on your winnings thanks to the epic partnership that Grosvenor and GGPoker forged earlier this year.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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• Tags Cash Boost Deniz Orhan GGPoker Gabriel Parsons Goliath John Bassett Kieran Collins Lewis Aikman Live Poker Marc Bryant Matthew Nolan Neil Rowicki Paul Maguire Sanjay Ranchhoddas Stefan Frew grosvenor poker app