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Jamie Shaevel is a seasoned cash game professional from California. In 2026, he made the WSOP Main Event final table.
While Shaevel admits that he rarely plays tournaments, preferring the consistent grind of cash games, he has carved out an incredibly remarkable track record when he does decide to buy into the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Prior to his current breakthrough, Shaevel had already reached the money in the Main Event an impressive eight times over his career, with his previous best finish occurring back in 2011, when he finished in 100th place.
Shaevel credits the unique, deep-stacked nature of the Main Event for allowing him to bridge the gap between his cash game expertise and tournament poker.
"This is really the only tournament I generally usually play. It’s similar to cash games in the early stages, and the slow structure is more similar to cash games. That plays to what I am more familiar with."
Jamie Shaevel 2026 WSOP Main Event
His journey to the final nine was not without its moments of intense vulnerability. Having bought in on Day 2abc, Shaevel enjoyed a stellar Day 6 going from 1.9 million to 15.5 million.
During the closing stages of Day 8, Shaevel found himself hovering near the bottom of the chip leaderboard as one of the tournament's shorter stacks. However, a crucial double-up through Evagoras Evagorou breathed new life into his tournament life.
Capitalizing on that momentum, he then picked up pocket jacks to eliminate Tolga Karakaya in 11th place, winning a flip against Karakaya's ace-ten to officially set the final table and secure a healthy stack of 56,000,000 chips for his upcoming title run.
| Day | Chip Count | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2abc | 144,000 | 644/1,260 |
| 3 | 311,000 | 705/1,389 |
| 4 | 955,000 | 247/533 |
| 5 | 1,900,000 | 119/174 |
| 6 | 15,525,000 | 12/62 |
| 7 | 17,100,000 | 15/21 |
| 8 | 56,000,000 | 3/9 |
2026 WSOP Main Event Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lucas Jumalon | United States | 194,000,000 | 129 |
| 2 | Rami Hammoud | Canada | 79,000,000 | 53 |
| 3 | Jamie Shaevel | United States | 56,000,000 | 37 |
| 4 | Greg Mueller | Canada | 48,500,000 | 32 |
| 5 | Michael Gagliano | United States | 46,500,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Mario Boos | France | 44,000,000 | 29 |
| 7 | Lauri Saaskilahti | Finland | 37,500,000 | 25 |
| 8 | Han Feng | United States | 25,000,000 | 17 |
| 9 | Evagoras Evagorou | Cyprus | 22,500,000 | 15 |
