Level: 13
Blinds: 5,000/10,000
Ante: 10,000
2026 FPN Vegas National Championship
Royal Court Nat'l Championship Main Event
Day: 1
Event Info
2026 FPN Vegas National Championship
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1
Buy-in
$50
Prize Pool
$50,700
Entries
333
Level
23
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
200,000
Entries
333
Players Left
1
Players Left 1 / 333
Filter
Level 12
: Blinds 4,000/8,000, 8,000 ante
Players have been sent on a 40-minute dinner break with the clocks showing 53 players remaining.
Action will resume at approximately 5:40 p.m. local time.
Level 12
: Blinds 4,000/8,000, 8,000 ante
A big heads-up pot brewed on a board of K♥A♣K♦8♣7♦ with around 115,000 in the middle.
Andy Lagarde bet 65,000 from the small blind and Brian Spencer went deep in the tank from the button before folding A♦4♦ face-up.
Lagarde kept his opponent guessing by showing only the 4♣ before heading to dinner break.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
140,000
140,000
|
140,000 |
|
|
70,000
45,000
|
45,000 |
Level 12
: Blinds 4,000/8,000, 8,000 ante
In a battle between the blinds, the small blind raised to 10,000 and two-time champion Joel Smith bumped it up to 50,000.
Smith, who most recently won the 2023 FPN National Championship for $11,500, showed the goods with J♦J♥ as he raked in the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
200,000 |
Level 12
: Blinds 4,000/8,000, 8,000 ante
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Level: 12
Blinds: 4,000/8,000
Ante: 8,000
Level 11
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
An early position player opened to 6,000 and the button called before the small blind moved all in. Melissa Bowers then re-jammed a smaller stack in the big blind and both players left to act folded.
Melissa Bowers: A♣K♣ 
Small Blind: A♦J♥
Bowers had her opponent dominated and the board of 4♦8♣5♠5♦Q♦ confirmed a double as the player in early position screamed "FUUUUUUUUU***********" before revealing she had folded ace-queen.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
65,000
65,000
|
65,000 |
Level 11
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Curt Timperley open-jammed a stack of 13,000 in early position and was called by a middle position player and the big blind.
The flop of 6♣9♣8♣ checked through and the middle position player bet 10,000 on the Q♥ turn to bring a fold from the big blind.
Curt Timperley: Q♦2♦
Middle Position: K♥Q♠
Timperley had been dominated but outflopped his opponent to double up with two pair as the 5♣ bricked off on the river.
"Dirty dog!" the opponent said when he saw his opponent's hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
45,000 |
Level: 11
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 6,000
Level 10
: Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
The Royal Court National Championship Main Event began with a request: raise your hand if you've played at an FPN Vegas National Championship before.
Dozens if not hundreds of hands raised up throughout the ballroom, but most of them dropped as the announcer asked if they had played five FPN championships. Ten? Fewer hands now.
The number of hands raised turned to single digits as players were asked if they had played 15 championships. Sixteen? Seventeen? Eighteen? By the time the announcer got to 20, there was only one player with his hand raised: seminal FPN grinder Glenn Schaefers, the single player in the room here since the tour's inception.
"I Can't Believe It"
At last year's festival, PokerNews reported on Schaefers hitting quads twice in the first five hands of the day. He's also had a hot start this year, which is fitting for his 20th anniversary playing the tour that he watched grow through the Poker Boom of the 2000s.
“In 2009, it was at Harrah’s. There was only 25 players at the National. It’s like three tables. And now look at it."
The South Dakotan teared up as he pointed around the ballroom to the hundreds of players in the Royal Court National Championship.
"I can't believe it," he said with a shaky voice.
Schaefers described himself as a "barfly" who has spent two decades playing bar poker all over Sioux Falls — from The Thirsty Duck to Woody's. It's a game he first learned from his grandparents.
"Who don’t grow up with cards in the family? We’d always play poker. We’ve always played cards, no matter what form," said Schaefers.
What keeps Schaefers coming back to Vegas year after year? “The thrill, the adrenaline," he said before pausing, "friends. You meet a lot of new people."
The self-described barfly's 20th winter in Las Vegas is shaping up to be a memorable one as he has grown his stack up to 200,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
200,000
175,000
|
175,000 |
