2026 Borgata Big, Big Series

The remaining 48 players are heading into a 75 minute dinner break, and they can enjoy it with the money bubble safely behind them. Every player has now locked up at least $17,025, with the next pay jump coming at 39th place, where the payout increases to $20,450.

After dinner, play will continue for another four levels before the remaining players bag up for the final day. They will return with the $538,640 first prize and the trophy still up for grabs.

The bubble in the $5,300 Big, Big Championship lasted just four hands before coming to an end. Two players managed to double during that short stretch, with John Pannucci making the biggest move as he doubled into the chip lead.

The bubble finally burst when Jason Ritchie ran aces into the big blind’s six-four. A four on the turn gave the big blind a set, sending Ritchie to the rail as the bubble boy and putting the remaining players into the money.

Tags: Jason RitchieJohn Pannucci

The Big, Big Series Main Event is now live on stream. You can watch all the action here:

Just nine players need to bust before the $5,300 Big, Big Championship reaches the money. The remaining 74 players are now on their second 15 minute break of the day, giving them a short chance to rest before returning to the tables and approaching the bubble.

Only one woman played this year's $50,000 Poker Players Championship at the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP), longtime American pro Esther Taylor. Taylor, who recently signed on as BetMGM Poker ambassador, is on a mission to change that by getting more women into mixed games.

Taylor has launched Her Edge Academy, a poker training program aimed specifically at helping women break through in poker. Taylor, who has $3.3 million in live tournament earnings and last year became the second woman ever to final table the PPC, told PokerNews she has always been passionate about coaching and mentoring women and girls, whether it's coaching her daughter's softball team or helping one of her old teams from high school.

The field has been cut by around one third heading into the first break of the day, with 112 players remaining from 179 at the start.

The remaining players now have 15 minutes to regroup before returning to the tables and continuing their push toward the money.

The numbers are now official for the $5,300 Big, Big Championship, with the final field settling at 519 entries.

That means 65 players will make the money and earn a share of the $3,000,000 prize pool. With 120 players still in the hunt, more than half of the field must navigate the remaining action before the money is reached.

In late July, PokerNews returned to the East Coast to once again offer live updates from the Borgata in Atlantic City. The 2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open was comprised of a full schedule of events, and PokerNews was on-hand to capture big and game-changing hands.

That included the $2,700 Summer Poker Open Championship, a tournament that attracted 565 runners and offered up a $1,356,000 prize pool, and the $600 Deep Stack Kick Off, which had a field of 2,390 entries and awarded a $1,242,800 prize pool.

Take a look back at some of the big and game-changing hands as reported by the PokerNews live reporting team.